Rectory Farm Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

There is a calm and purposeful atmosphere throughout this school.

Staff develop highly respectful and supportive relationships with pupils. They instil positive attitudes and values. Pupils are conscientious and work hard.

They are courteous in class and around school.

The school provides a highly nurturing environment. Pupils feel happy and safe.

Pupils know adults will listen to them and help if they have any worries or concerns. This help extends beyond school, towards family life too.

Children quickly settle in the Reception class and get off to a flying start with their education.

Pupils study an ambitious and well-constructed ...curriculum. They enjoy lessons. Leaders promote high standards, and pupils know and remember more over time.

Leaders have designed an enrichment programme that gives pupils a wider view of the world and encourages them to be aspirational for their futures. Woven through the curriculum are an array of cultural experiences. For example, pupils take a train journey, visit museums and places of worship, learn to play the ukulele, prepare work for an art gallery and perform a Shakespearean play.

Pupils have opportunities to enhance their sporting abilities through extra-curricular clubs.

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

Like the attractive and cosy library, reading is at the heart of the school's work and the curriculum. Learning to read and enjoy books is a priority right from the first days of school.

Children in the Reception Year are quickly immersed in exciting stories. They enjoy learning their first sounds. Story time and adults reading to pupils is a daily pleasure for all throughout school.

Staff have been trained to deliver the new phonics programme, and do so well. Staff listen to pupils read books that match the sounds they know. Through regular checks, staff quickly identify pupils who struggle with reading.

They make sure these pupils get the right support to become fluent readers.

Leaders have improved the breadth and ambition of the curriculum. There is a clear sequence of learning that runs from the early years to Year 6 in all subjects.

Increasing pupils' acquisition of new vocabulary is a key aim. In Latin lessons, pupils quickly spot the origins of words from their own language. Making these connections particularly excites and supports the many pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Confident and knowledgeable subject leaders support teachers to deliver the curriculum effectively. Teachers present information clearly. Lesson activities are appropriate and engaging.

Teachers revisit learning often. Pupils explain how 'retrieval practice' helps them remember what they are learning. A sharp focus on times tables practice has had a positive impact on how quickly pupils recall multiplication facts.

Teachers use a range of ways to check what pupils know and can do. They use this information to adjust their plans and teaching to address any gaps in pupils' knowledge.

Typically, staff adapt the curriculum well for most pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Most pupils with SEND study the same curriculum as their peers. Effective support and precise targets enable them to learn the curriculum well. There is extensive support for the many pupils with speech and language difficulties.

Occasionally, the school's ambitions for pupils with SEND are not as high as they need to be. Some pupils with SEND do not get the right help to enable them to access the curriculum.

Leaders recently increased their expectations of pupils' behaviour.

Pupils understand how the new approaches help them behave responsibly. They remain focused in lessons and behave sensibly during social times. Children in the early years learn the rules and routines quickly.

At the snack table, they serve themselves fruit and milk and chat politely with each other before clearing up after themselves.

Leaders develop pupils' character through the 'caterpillar values'. For example, pupils learn how to communicate respectfully.

They can build on or challenge other people's views appropriately. Older pupils contribute to the community as members of the school council or as play leaders.

Committed and well-informed governors promote the school's success.

They are a familiar face in school, providing a balance of support and challenge. Staff enjoy working at the school and feel well supported. The trust provides quality professional development at all levels.

This allows leaders and staff to continually drive forward school improvement.

Leaders regularly communicate with parents. However, some parents say that they do not understand why some changes have been made.

Some parents do not feel that they have been listened to.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Ambitions for pupils with SEND are not universally high.

Some pupils with SEND do not access the curriculum as well as they might. The school should make sure that everyone has high expectations of what pupils with SEND will be able to do. It should make sure that barriers to the curriculum are removed and that pupils with SEND can enjoy all aspects of school life.

• Some parents do not know enough about what their children are learning. This means that these parents feel that they cannot support their children as well as they would like. The school should ensure that it continues to engage with all parents so that they understand what the school is doing and why.

Also at this postcode