Peak Forest Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The acting headteacher provides good leadership. She has built upon the solid foundations laid by the substantive headteacher and, as a result, the school has improved since its last inspection.

Governors take an active part in improving the school. They know the school well because they visit regularly and hold the acting headteacher to account for the school's performance. Pupils benefit from a broad and interesting curriculum.

The school uses its locality to good effect in developing pupils' academic achievement and their social and emotional development. Pupils behave well. They are caring and considerate to each other.

Pare...nts and carers see this as a strength of the school. Pupils' learning benefits from opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-life situations. This helps to improve their understanding of basic skills.

All pupils, regardless of their ability, achieve well. This is particularly true in reading and mathematics. The school promotes good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development for its pupils.

Staff provide good opportunities for children to prepare for life in their community and further afield. Children make a good start to their education in the Reception year. They progress quickly in this safe and secure environment as a result of good teaching and positive relationships with the older children of the school.

It is not yet an outstanding school because : The headteacher and governors do not use data as well as they might do to monitor the effectiveness of their actions to improve the school. The headteacher has taken on too many responsibilities and the leadership skills of other staff are not being developed effectively. Pupils' progress in writing is not as fast as it is in reading and mathematics.

Information about this school

Peak Forest Primary School is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. Pupils attend from the local village and the surrounding area. Children in the early years are taught in the same class as older children in Years 1 and 2.

Children in the Reception year attend full time. Until very recently, all pupils were of white British heritage; this has now altered with a very small number from minority ethnic groups. The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is well below the national average.

This funding provides extra support for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals or who are in the care of the local authority. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special education needs is currently above the national average. The small size of particular year groups means that data for pupils' performance does not appear in published form.

This is because it may be possible to identify individual pupils from this information. An acting headteacher is in place because of the long-term ill health of the substantive headteacher. There has been considerable teacher turnover in the last three years, with one teacher in post since January 2015 and a new teacher recruited for September 2015.