Newlaithes Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Newlaithes Junior School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils value being part of this happy and welcoming school. Staff forge strong relationships with pupils. Pupils say that their school is an amazing place, where everyone gets on well and where no one is left out.

Pupils' positive behaviour embodies the school's values, which include kindness, respect and resilience.

Staff have high expectations of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils typically rise to these high expectations and achieve well.

The school make...s appropriate adaptations and provides extra support for pupils who have gaps in their learning. This helps pupils to learn the curriculum well.

Pupils are polite and considerate to each other.

They know that staff are there to help them if they have any worries or problems. Pupils learn to cooperate with, and to support, one another. They respond well to the school's high aspirations for their conduct.

Staff provide effective support for pupils who need help to manage their emotions.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of enrichment activities that make a strong contribution to the development of their talents and interests. They take on a range of responsibilities.

For example, older pupils become 'peacemakers', who are skilled at helping to resolve minor disputes between their peers.

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

The school has developed and embedded its curriculum since the last inspection.This is now well established in all subjects.

The school and the governing body strive to ensure that all pupils are benefiting from this curriculum.Leaders, including governors, have managed these changes well. They regularly check that staff are not overwhelmed by the changes introduced.

The positive impact of the new curriculum can be seen in the achievement of current pupils.

Teachers have a secure understanding of what key knowledge pupils need to learn as they progress from Year 3 to Year 6. Typically, staff ensure that pupils have understood their previous learning before introducing new information.

As a result, most pupils achieve well. However, on occasion, teachers do not address pupils' misconceptions quickly enough. When this happens, pupils move on to new learning before they are ready.

The school ensures that pupils are well supported to develop positive attitudes to their learning. Staff achieve this by using agreed strategies that engage pupils in their learning. This helps pupils to remember important knowledge.

The school prioritises reading within the curriculum. Pupils benefit from the rich diet of diverse literature that their teachers introduce them to. Pupils enjoy reading.

They appreciate that reading helps them to learn and to expand their knowledge and understanding of language and the wider world. Pupils develop regular habits of reading for pleasure, and they talk enthusiastically about their favourite books and authors. The school provides effective support for pupils with gaps in their phonics knowledge.

This enables them to catch up quickly.

The school celebrates pupils' positive behaviour and high levels of attendance. Pupils enjoy coming to school and most attend regularly.

The school works effectively to improve the attendance of pupils who do not attend school as regularly as they should. It quickly identifies and addresses any emerging patterns of absence or occasions when pupils have not followed the school's high expectations for behaviour. Rates of attendance and standards of behaviour have improved significantly as a result of the robust action that the school has taken.

The school accurately identifies and meets the additional needs of pupils, including those with SEND. It ensures that teachers receive the information that they need to enable these pupils to participate in the same learning and wider opportunities as their peers. Pupils with SEND achieve well.

Pupils understand the importance of staying healthy, and they know how to keep themselves safe, including when online. Pupils have a secure understanding of fundamental British values. The school ensures that pupils value different faiths and cultures.

This helps pupils to recognise, celebrate and accept the differences that exist between people. The school's provision for pupils' personal development supports them to grow into responsible, well-developed citizens who are ready for life in modern Britain.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, in a small number of subjects, teachers do not identify and correct pupils' misconceptions quickly enough. When this happens, pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. The school should ensure that staff use the school's assessment strategies more carefully so that they can help pupils to build their knowledge more securely over time.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in January 2020.

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