Primrose Lane Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Primrose Lane show respect to their friends, their teachers and to visitors to their school. Staff encourage pupils to 'be ready, be respectful and be safe'.

The school carefully supports pupils who need extra help to behave well.

Although pupils' learning is improving in reading, writing and mathematics, it is less secure in the wider curriculum. The pandemic has slowed down the pace of school improvement.

The school ensures that pupils have a secure understanding of equality and diversity. Pupils know that valuing difference is important. They talk confidently about justice and equality.

The school develops pupils' character and nurtures ...their independence and resilience. The youngest children persevere in their learning and in their self-care. Year 6 pupils demonstrate their self-confidence and determination on residential experiences, where they complete challenging outdoor activities.

The school teaches pupils about online safety. This helps pupils to stay safe online and how to respond to cyber bullying.

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

After the last inspection, the school rightly prioritised the teaching of mathematics, writing and reading.

Pupils benefit from a strong curriculum in mathematics and from a well-considered curriculum in reading. Staff receive effective training in core subjects such as mathematics. This training equips staff with the knowledge and skills to teach these subjects well.

However, weaknesses remain in the wider curriculum, where learning is not consistently organised in ways that help pupils to remember important knowledge over time. The work that pupils are set in the wider curriculum does not consistently enable them to demonstrate and deepen their understanding. Staff training in the wider curriculum has been less effective than in core subjects.

The school has mapped a curriculum over a two-year cycle. On occasions, this has not been adapted sufficiently to meet the needs of pupils in different year groups.

The school prioritises the teaching of phonics.

Teaching builds pupils' phonics knowledge. Pupils' reading books match the sounds that they know. They practise their reading books in school before taking them home to read.

Teachers check the sounds that pupils know and remember with regularity. Adults provide pupils who need additional support with extra phonics input to help them to keep up with their peers.

The mathematics curriculum is a strength of the school.

It is organised into a logical sequence of learning that begins in the early years. There is a consistent approach to teaching mathematics. The school has high expectations for pupils' mathematical achievement.

The school supports pupils well to access an increasing level of ambitious problem-solving and reasoning challenges.

The curriculum structure in early years takes account of children's interests. As a result, stimulating activities support children's learning and development.

The school establishes positive routines for the children in the early years. This helps the youngest children to quickly settle in an environment where they feel both safe and secure. Adults interact positively with children, modelling useful vocabulary and turn-taking.

This builds children's communication skills and their confidence with language.

The provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) has improved since the last inspection. The school has a clear approach to the early identification and subsequent support for these pupils.

The school ensures that pupils with SEND know how to progress through the curriculum. The school makes sure that adults understand how to support pupils with SEND. This effectively secures effective engagement in learning.

The school provides a range of personal, social and health education opportunities for pupils, including through lessons and assemblies. Some aspects of this curriculum are well embedded, such as pupils' knowledge of how to stay physically and mentally healthy. However, the curriculum does not develop pupils' understanding of some British values and world faiths in enough depth.

Governors understand their roles and responsibilities. They recognise the school's improvement in the development of early reading, the early years and SEND. Governors have developed effective ways 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)

• Some aspects of the wider curriculum are not fully developed. Learning is not consistently sequenced in a way that securely builds pupils' knowledge over time.

The curriculum does not consistently meet the needs of pupils in different year groups. The school should further develop the wider curriculum so that pupils build more secure knowledge over time. ? In some areas of the wider curriculum, the work that pupils are set does not consistently enable them to deepen their learning.

The school should ensure that the tasks that pupils are set in the wider curriculum enable them to apply and deepen their learning. ? Staff training has not enabled them to teach the wider curriculum as effectively as core subjects. The school should work with staff to develop their subject expertise so that pupils learn well across all subjects.

• Some aspects of pupils' personal development curriculum are not as well developed as others. This means that some pupils' knowledge is less secure, for instance around aspects such as British values and different faiths. Leaders should ensure that they offer further opportunities for pupils to develop their understanding in these areas.

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