Puddletown Church of England First School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Puddletown First is a good school.

Having improved well since its last inspection, it continues to do so, with important aspects already being outstanding. A key to the school's success is the inspirational leadership of its headteacher and the outstanding work of the governing body. This has meant that school staff are exceptionally well supported in helping to drive forward improvement, despite the many responsibilities they inevitably have to take on.

Subject leadership is good and helps to secure improvement well through accurate self-evaluation and effective development planning so that pupils' achievement is good. Weaknesses in writing seen at the last inspection have been addressed ver...y successfully and there is no significant difference in the progress of boys and girls. Attainment in English is above the level expected by the time pupils leave and continues to rise.

Having achieved success in writing, staff have turned their attention to mathematics. Numeracy skills have improved well through good teaching, although pupils are not so skilled at using these to solve problems. This limits progress, especially for the more-able pupils, so that, although attainment is above the level expected, it is not as good as in English.

Addressing this is a current priority. This, together with evidence of past success, places the school in a good position to improve further. Underpinned by high-quality safeguarding procedures and outstanding partnerships forged with parents and carers, and a range of other schools and agencies, the excellent programme for pupils' personal, social and health education helps them do especially well in these areas and to feel very safe in school.

They are extremely mature and thoughtful young people, with an outstanding moral and social awareness and an impressive understanding of their rights and responsibilities. This, together with pupils' great enjoyment of school and enthusiasm for learning, helps ensure that they behave exceptionally well in lessons and attendance levels are high. These are key factors in pupils' good achievement.

The level of care and support, especially for those pupils at risk of underachieving, is exemplary. As a result, all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who speak English as an additional language, achieve as well as their classmates. Outstanding provision and high-quality leadership ensure Reception children achieve exceptionally well, with their attainment above average by Year 1.

Excellent allocation of resources has been a key factor in achieving these outstanding features, so the school provides exceptionally good value for money. In Years 1 to 4, progress is consistently good due to effective teaching and the good curriculum. Schemes of work to support reading and writing, and opportunities to use these in different subjects, are especially good.

However, until recently, longer- term planning lacked advice on how to build consistently on pupils' developing numeracy skills, nor did it promote opportunities to apply these, including in topic work. The outstanding relationships between staff and pupils help the latter to get the best out of lessons. Practical and interesting activities motivate pupils to work hard.

The use of targets in English which encourage pupils to improve their work and achieve highly are an important factor in their much-improved progress. While targets are set for mathematics, the procedures are not as good. Improving this is a current development priority.

Information about the school

Puddletown is a small first school. A very large majority of pupils are of White British heritage, with very few speaking English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly average.

These mainly relate to moderate learning, and speech, language and communication needs. The number of pupils on roll has increased recently, with an above average proportion of pupils joining other than in the Reception Year. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low.

Pupils transfer to middle school at the end of Year 4. The school holds the Rights Respecting School and Eco Schools Green Flag awards. It shares the site with Puddletown Pre-school which is run by a private provider and was not inspected.

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