Potters Green Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at this school. They take pride in their school and its large attractive grounds. They care for each other and know staff care about them.

Pupils feel safe in school. Staff respond quickly and effectively to any issues that might arise, to ensure pupils are safe. The school serves a diverse community, with many pupils joining during the year.

New pupils feel welcomed and enjoy sharing their cultures.

Pupils adore forest school. Here, they learn to value and care for the environment, conservation and aspects of health and science.

Leaders have prioritised pupils wider personal development well. Pupils behave positively in lessons and ...at other times of the day. There is a calm atmosphere around the school.

Pupils listen well to adults and each other. They are friendly, polite and welcome visitors courteously.

The school has created a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

However, in some subjects this curriculum is at an early stage. As a result, the things pupils should learn are not always clear. This hinders pupils' learning.

Staff do not always use assessment strategies well enough to identify if pupils are learning well.

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

The school has gone through significant turbulence in the past and staffing changes recently. This has slowed the pace of some aspects of improvement.

Leaders have supported staff to teach well and subject leaders to monitor their subjects. Subject leaders have planned a curriculum that is progressive and well sequenced. However, they do not focus sharply enough on checking that staff deliver the curriculum effectively in order to ensure that pupils learn the intended curriculum.

In some subjects, such as science and geography, pupils learn well and know and remember more over time.

In subjects, such as reading, writing and mathematics, the impact of curriculum development is evident in the work pupils produce. However, the use of assessment is not always precise enough.

It does not consistently ensure that pupils receive work that is well matched to their needs and abilities. Questioning by staff within lessons to identify misconceptions, promote discussion and deepen learning also does not always help pupils learn and remember key knowledge well enough.

The school quickly identifies pupils with SEND and gives them the support they need to access the curriculum.

Pupils who sometimes find life in school overwhelming receive support which helps them to thrive. As a result, pupils with SEND make strong progress.

The school prioritises the teaching of reading.

Pupils enjoy daily story time, and read widely in their free time. Pupils talk eagerly about books they have read or listened to. The teaching of early reading and the whole-school approach to teaching phonics is having a positive impact.

Staff have received training and they teach phonics consistently well. Regular assessments ensure that pupils read books matched to the sounds they know. Pupils quickly learn to read with fluency, expression and understanding.

Children in Nursery and Reception classes are happy, lively and confident learners. The environment, indoor and outdoor, is colourful and vibrant. The curriculum is progressive and well-sequenced, with a strong focus on vocabulary development, communication and social skills.

Staff review learning daily. They adapt plans to use every opportunity to widen children's experience of the world in which they live. Children love listening to stories.

They vote on books they want to listen to by adding cubes to a tower and counting to see which is the winner.

Since the last inspection, the school has continued to ensure that pupils' behaviour and attitudes to learning improve. Levels of absence remain stubbornly high.

However, the school does all it reasonably can to engage with parents, to celebrate good attendance and help parents understand why attendance is important.

The personal development of pupils is a real strength of the school. Pupils develop a strong sense of character and have opportunities to develop their skills and interests.

Pupils understand the school values of 'Respect, Resilience, Responsibility', and how these relate to their current and future lives. Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs, visits and visitors. Pupils support charities such as Cancer Research UK, Children in Need and local groups at harvest time.

Pupils understand that this work is important. Leaders make sure that this broad range of opportunities is open to all pupils, including those with SEND.

Staff enjoy working at the school and feel leaders consider their workload and well-being.

The majority of governors are new. Despite this, they provide effective support and challenge to leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not ensured that assessment is used effectively enough to identify pupils' misconceptions and how well they are learning the intended curriculum. As a result, staff cannot be sure pupils have learned and understood key knowledge sufficiently well. Leaders should ensure that teachers check pupils' understanding systematically in order to identify and address gaps in learning, to enable pupils to achieve as well as they possibly can.

• The school has not ensured that the monitoring of the curriculum in all subjects has focused carefully enough on the implementation and how well learning is delivered. This means that the most immediate steps for improvement are not always identified or tackled quickly enough. The school should further support subject leaders to check on how well their subject curriculums are being implemented, to enable them to identify the developments needed to improve pupils' outcomes.