Offham Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Positive relationships and an ambition to succeed are at the heart of this happy, village school.

Pupils feel safe and well cared for. The school's values of collaboration, resilience, responsibility, respect and compassion permeate the curriculum and behaviour expectations. As a result, pupils behave well.

They show respect for each other and staff, warmly welcoming visitors.

Pupils are keen to share what makes their school special. They relish their extensive leadership opportunities.

For example, the 'reading ambassadors' understand the importance of their role in promoting reading across the school. Most recently, they have developed a 'reading g...rotto' on the playground. During playtime, pupils across the school have an opportunity to borrow and read books.

The 'reading ambassadors' also make decisions around which books are purchased for the school library.

The school has high expectations for pupils to achieve. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have carefully considered adaptations in place, which are enabling them to succeed.

However, there are a small number of pupils who require more opportunities to deepen their learning and move on to more complex work. This is reflected in the work that they produce.

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

The school has designed a broad and ambitious curriculum that starts in the early years and meets the needs of the pupils on roll.

Learning is sequenced in a clear way, so that teachers understand what to teach and when. Carefully planned professional development is developing strong subject knowledge for staff. Teachers design activities that prepare pupils for their next stage of learning.

Pupils with SEND are well supported through expertly designed adaptations to their curriculum. The strong pastoral offer ensures all pupils are able to access learning successfully.

Teachers provide work that clearly builds on pupils' previous knowledge.

However, the way that staff check whether pupils understand their learning is not yet embedded. This means that some pupils have misconceptions that are not identified during lessons. The school recognises that there needs to be a consistent approach to checking what pupils know and understand to identify any gaps in pupils' learning.

Reading is a priority at this school. Children in the early years begin learning phonics as soon as they start. The school ensures that phonics is taught consistently.

The practice of rereading the text for meaning is supporting the weakest readers to develop fluency. The school provides pupils with additional opportunities to enjoy books and reading beyond phonics lessons. This starts in the early years, where staff develop children's language effectively.

Pupils build on this as they get older. They develop their vocabulary by reading a wide range of texts in their reading lessons.

The school has high expectations for all pupils.

Staff explicitly model these as part of the curriculum. As a result, pupils across the school actively engage in their lessons. Pupils have positive attitudes to their learning and concentrate well.

Learning is rarely disrupted by the behaviour of other pupils. There are warm relationships between adults and pupils. Children in the early years respond well to the routines that are in place.

Adults support children to develop their independence. Pupils are polite and celebrate their achievements enthusiastically. The 10 'wow experiences' offered each year form an important part of this.

The majority of pupils attend school regularly. However, some of the most disadvantaged pupils are not attending school as often as they should. The school has a robust approach to supporting these families.

The school considers the personal development offer for pupils carefully. The school's values are explicitly taught and understood by all pupils. Pupils are passionate about their school.

They take pride when showing visitors the extensive forest school provision and understand how it helps them with their learning behaviours. The school has a well-established leadership programme for pupils to develop resilience and take on additional responsibilities. For example, the sports council recently redesigned and improved the school playground.

As a result, pupils play a wider variety of sports and compete with local teams in competitions. Pupils have a clear understanding of fundamental British values. For example, democracy is reinforced through the process of electing pupil leaders.

The school has taken effective action to embed a recently refined curriculum and instil consistent expectations around behaviour. Staff speak highly of the support they receive. Workload and well-being are regularly reviewed.

Governors are robust in their approach to fulfilling their statutory duties, for example, when checking safeguarding procedures. They have effective processes in place to hold leaders to account.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Teachers do not consistently check pupils' understanding and address misconceptions. This means that pupils do not routinely secure their learning into their long-term memory. The school should continue to develop staff expertise, so that they can successfully identify and address any gaps or misconceptions.

• Some pupils are not provided with opportunities to extend their learning and move on to more complex work. This means that these pupils are not gaining the depth and breadth of knowledge across a range of subjects that they could. The school should support teachers to design activities that are expertly adapted to raise these pupils' achievement further.