New Delaval Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at school.

They feel cared for and safe. Pupils form strong relationships with staff. At playtimes, pupils enjoy being energetic.

They enjoy activities such as playing football and dancing. Pupils socialise well together. Pupils know that staff are on hand to help them if they have any worries.

Following the school's poor outcomes in the 2023 national assessments, the school has made significant and positive change to the way that lessons are taught. Pupils enjoy lessons. They appreciate how well teachers explain learning to them.

Teachers help pupils when they find things tricky. The new approach to teaching helps pupils to remember... important knowledge so that they are ready for the next step in the school's curriculum.

The school has high expectations for pupils to behave appropriately.

From early years onwards, children are taught to be kind to others. Pupils behave well in lessons and at breaktimes. Pupils learn to manage strong emotions.

They are well supported by staff. Pupils enjoy earning stickers and certificates for demonstrating positive behaviour.

Some pupils have leadership roles.

They train to become peer mentors and help other pupils with their worries. Through the school's pastoral support, there is a strong focus on supporting pupils' mental health and well-being. Pupils understand the importance of keeping mentally and physically healthy.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils returned from the pandemic with significant gaps in their knowledge. New leaders have acted to close these gaps. Despite this, the knowledge of many pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2023 was not secure by the time pupils left the school.

Leaders have worked with staff to improve the effectiveness of teaching. Pupils have received further support in order to close the gaps in knowledge in reading and mathematics. Pupils in Year 6 are now well prepared for Year 7.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The school has revised their curriculum. Staff are clear on the important knowledge that pupils must learn from early years to Year 6 in each subject.

Staff focus on developing pupils' vocabulary in each subject. Work in pupils' books shows that pupils learn the school's revised curriculum content well. Occasionally, opportunities to correct misconceptions and errors are not consistently picked up by staff.

This slows learning for some pupils.

The school's approach to teaching helps pupils to remember important knowledge. For example, in computing, pupils revisit prior learning about coding to create simulations.

Pupils confidently recall their learning, including vocabulary. The recent changes to the curriculum mean that, in some foundation subjects, a small number of pupils have previous gaps in their knowledge that make some new learning difficult.

Leaders have ensured staff have expert knowledge to teach phonics consistently well.

Pupils learn the strategies that they need to be able to read unfamiliar words. Pupils regularly practise reading from books well matched to their knowledge of phonics. The school quickly identifies pupils who need extra help.

These pupils receive effective support to help them catch up. All pupils enjoy daily story time. Teachers read from the wide range of books to help pupils to learn more about the topics they are studying.

Older pupils read books such as 'Skellig' by David Almond to help them understand the importance of friendship and trust.

The school works effectively with external professionals, such as speech and language therapists, to ensure accurate assessment of need for pupils with SEND. Pupils with SEND learn the school's ambitious curriculum alongside their peers most of the time.

Leaders make sure that learning is appropriately adapted to support all learners. Staff receive detailed information to ensure that they support individual pupils effectively. Pupils with SEND achieve well.

The school is taking effective action to improve attendance. Persistent absence is decreasing as a result. However, absence for some pupils remains too high.

This means that some pupils miss too much learning.

The school is ambitious to provide pupils with a range of experiences to support their personal development. Character development is a particular strength.

Pupils enjoy taking on roles of responsibility, such as elected members of the school council. Some pupils train to help others to manage worries or concerns. Pupils benefit from the range of experiences on offer, such as the cycling partnership, where pupils cycle to local places of interest.

Pupils learn how to stay safe in the community. This helps to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

Staff appreciate that leaders support them to manage their workload and well-being.

The whole staff team work together to improve the school. Senior leaders ensure that governors have information to check that actions are improving provision. Governors fulfil their statutory duties.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Misconceptions in learning are not consistently addressed across all subjects. This limits how well some pupils are able to move on to the next steps of learning.

The school should ensure that staff receive the necessary support and training to allow them to implement purposeful checks on pupils learning. ? While the school has recently improved the foundation curriculums, previous gaps in learning continue to limit progression for some pupils. The school should continue to implement the new curriculum while carefully addressing any previous gaps in pupils' knowledge in foundation subjects.

• Some pupils do not attend school often enough. This means that these pupils do not benefit as well as they could from the learning and wider opportunities that the school offers. The school should continue to implement strategies to further improve pupils' attendance.