Plover Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This school has high ambitions for pupils' academic achievement and their personal development. A significant proportion of pupils join the school at non-standard points in the school year. The school gets to know pupils as soon as they join the school.

They are supported well to achieve their best. The school's established routines and well-structured curriculum enable pupils to settle quickly. Pupils who have been at the school the longest, and who attend regularly, achieve well.

Pupils become 'crew' as soon as they join the school. They value participating in daily crew sessions. These help them to reflect on their feelings and how they can support others.

...>The school provides frequent and purposeful opportunities for pupils to engage in activities within the community. Through this, pupils learn how to become responsible citizens.

Habits of work and learning (HOWLS) form the basis of the school's expectations.

Pupils know the importance of, and demonstrate, the school's values in their conduct. They recognise how HOWLS help them to achieve success in their studies and become responsible individuals. Pupils' behaviour in class and around school is calm and orderly.

Pupils enjoy playing games and using the equipment on the playground responsibly. Pupils benefit from what the school offers.

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

The school has made thoughtful and deliberate decisions to ensure that its curriculum meets the needs of all pupils.

The school has broken down the knowledge and skills that pupils must learn as they progress through the school. The curriculum, from early years through to the end of Year 6, has become increasingly embedded.

Teachers benefit from coaching and training to support their teaching.

The school routinely checks that staff have the necessary subject knowledge to teach the curriculum. Staff develop confidence to teach subjects through 'expeditions'. This approach helps pupils to achieve the aims of the school's curriculum.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported. Teachers anticipate and address potential misconceptions in advance of teaching specific concepts. This enables pupils to grasp the important knowledge they need from an early stage.

Consequently, they achieve the aims of the curriculum. Pupils from the on-site specialist provision play a full and active part in the life of the school. They receive appropriate support from specialist staff in class.

The school has implemented an increasingly effective curriculum to teach pupils how to read. Children in Nursery benefit from frequent interactions that support the development of their language and vocabulary. They enjoy singing songs and listening to stories read by adults.

Children learn phonics from the start of Reception. The school ensures that pupils gain a secure phonics knowledge as soon as possible. Staff teach phonics confidently.

They address pupils' misconceptions swiftly. Pupils receive effective and timely support to help them to keep up. Pupils read books that match their phonics knowledge.

They use strategies to break down and read words effectively. Over time, pupils read with increasing fluency and accuracy. Most pupils develop a love of reading as they progress through the school.

They enjoy reading books from different genres and by a range of authors.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including online. The school works in partnership with the police community support officer and other services in the locality.

This enriches the school's curriculum. It helps pupils to gain an age-appropriate understanding of risks in the local area. During the inspection, children in the early years enjoyed speaking to the fire brigade who visited the school.

They learned about the importance of being responsible with fireworks.

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of pupils suspended from school. The school uses suspensions appropriately.

It ensures that pupils reintegrate back into school when they return. The school does not routinely consider in detail the data it has about suspensions over time.

The school has established systems to follow up pupils' absence.

The proportion of pupils absent from school is significantly higher than other schools in a similar context. The school recognises this. Nonetheless, the school does not analyse its attendance data fully.

This prevents it from fully understanding how to reduce pupils' absence.

Staff feel well supported in their roles and benefit from professional networks within the trust. Regular updates through 'performance narrative reports' enable the trust to review the achievement of pupils.

Leaders, including those with responsibility for governance, gather a range of information to measure the school's performance. Despite this, the school does not use this information fully to analyse areas of strength and development to support further improvement.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some pupils do not attend school regularly. They miss out on important learning opportunities and do not achieve as well as their peers. The school should continue to work with families to improve rates of attendance for pupils.

• The school does not make effective use of the information it has available about attendance, suspensions and the achievement of pupils. Opportunities are missed to critically analyse the impact of the school's actions to further improve the school. The school, and those with responsibility for governance, should make the best use of the information it has available to strategically inform its next stages of development.

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