Rangefield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They are safe and well cared for by staff who know them and their families very well. Leaders and staff share high ambitions for all pupils' learning and behaviour.

Pupils are encouraged to talk about their feelings which helps them to apply themselves to their learning. This is a happy and welcoming school where everyone is valued and supported to achieve their best.

Right from the start of early years, pupils benefit from a broad and interesting curriculum.

Leaders and staff ensure that all pupils achieve well and enjoy learning the engaging curriculum.

Pupils know the school values and try hard to follow them. They b...ehave well in lessons and in the playground.

Staff care deeply about pupils' well-being. Staff are always on the lookout for signs that a pupil might need help, support, or simply cheering up. Bullying has vastly reduced over time and if on the rare occasion it happens, staff deal with it swiftly and effectively.

Exciting things happen at Rangefield to help enhance the ambitious curriculum. For example, pupils go to sing at national music venues and design costumes with well-known fashion colleges. Pupils show great kindness, including, for example, when they take care of the school rabbits.

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

Leaders and governors share an ambitious vision for pupils and their learning. Leaders have developed a carefully thought out and interesting curriculum. They are clear about what they want pupils to know in each subject.

Leaders have trained and supported staff very well to make sure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) enjoy the same curriculum as their classmates. Staff adapt their teaching activities, including by using specialist resources. They run additional sessions to provide pupils with the extra help they need.

This all helps pupils to experience success in their learning. Having put this strong provision in place, leaders recognise that they now need to keep a regular check on its impact on pupils' learning.

Pupils who spend time in 'the hive' nurture group room receive excellent support tailored to their needs.

This support focuses on pupils' personal and academic development and helps these pupils to manage their learning back in the classroom.

Throughout the school, including in 'the hive', staff focus well on developing pupils' language and communication skills. High-quality interactions between staff and pupils underpin learning right from the start.

Leaders have thought carefully about how learning in the early years helps children to gain the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful when they move to Year 1. For example, in the Nursery, children learn rhyming words and to hear sounds in words and the environment. They learn how to put sounds together to say words.

This helps when children move to the Reception Year where they start to develop their phonics knowledge to read and write.

Reading is given the highest priority. Teachers' strong subject knowledge ensures that pupils grasp phonics skills and knowledge quickly.

Pupils learn to read using books that match the sounds that they have been taught. As they move through the school, pupils develop increasing fluency with their reading. Their vocabulary expands and their ability to understand a wide range of texts increases.

Pupils talked with enthusiasm about the books they enjoy. Once they have learned to read, pupils read to learn across the broad range of subjects they are taught.

Pupils really enjoy studying mathematics.

Their mathematics skills are developed well from the early years. By the time they leave school, pupils have the knowledge they need to be confident at reasoning and carrying out mathematical investigations.

Leaders have developed helpful systems to check what pupils have learned in different subjects.

These checks, for example in science and religious education, help leaders and staff to make sure that pupils have learned and remembered important subject content.

Leaders and governors have ensured that all staff promote pupils' personal development extremely well. Pupils enjoy a wide range of activities across the curriculum to help them learn about themselves and others.

Pupils' emotional and physical health is given the highest priority. Pupils are well supported and given plentiful opportunities to share their experiences. Pupils are taught about themes related to equality and inclusion.

Pupils across the school show tolerance and respect for those who have different beliefs, religions or families to their own.

In lessons, pupils work with concentration and enthusiasm. Disruptions to learning are infrequent.

Governors are ambitious for pupils. They support leaders and hold them to account for all aspects of the school's work. They have a wide range of skills and expertise.

Nevertheless, the governing body does not have parent representation. This means that the parental viewpoint is not fully considered during decision making.

Staff feel well supported by leaders.

They said that leaders are mindful and supportive of their workload and well-being. Staff appreciate that there is always an 'open door' if they have any worries or concerns.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and governors have embedded clear systems and procedures for identifying vulnerable pupils and those at risk of harm. Leaders strive to ensure that pupils and families get the services and support they need. The 'team around the child' approach at Rangefield is rigorous.

Staff, learning mentors, attendance officers and nurture group specialists all play their part in doing their very best for the pupils in their care. Staff have up-to-date safeguarding training. They are highly vigilant in their approach.

The tiniest concern is noted and monitored by staff.

Staff ensure that pupils understand how to keep themselves safe online and in the local community. Pupils in Year 6 are very well prepared for some of the potential challenges of moving to secondary school, such as travelling safely and the dangers of gangs and knife crime.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• While staff have implemented a carefully considered curriculum to meet the needs of all pupils, leaders' systems to check the impact of the provision on pupils with SEND are not fully established. Leaders now need to ensure that rigorous systems are embedded to check how well pupils with SEND are learning. This will ensure that staff have a precise, regular overview of the impact of their work on pupils' learning, so that they can continue to evolve and adapt their practice to meet the needs of individual pupils.

• Highly skilled governors from a range of backgrounds and with a range of expertise have been recruited. However, the makeup of the governing body does not currently include parent representation. Leaders should realise their plans to recruit parent governors so that parents' viewpoints can be used as part of the school's strategic development.