Rodmarton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Rodmarton School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Rodmarton Primary School is a warm, welcoming and exciting place for pupils to learn.

Leaders and staff communicate well with parents.

As a result, they know pupils and their families well. Parents value the support of adults and speak highly of the school. One parent said to inspectors, 'I cannot praise the school enough.'



Pupils are happy at Rodmarton Primary. They are proud to be members of the school. Pupils are well mannered and sociable.

They have positive attitudes and are keen to learn. Adults care for pupils well and form positive relationships with ...them. Pupils say they feel safe at school and parents agree.

Pupils confirm poor behaviour and bullying are rare. However, they are confident that adults will sort out any problems if they arise.

Staff are well aware of the impact of the pandemic on pupils' well-being.

As a result, they provide effective support, including nurture groups, art therapy and mindfulness. This helps pupils to understand and manage their emotions.

Adults have consistently high expectations of pupils.

Pupils behave well and work hard. The school provides pupils with memorable learning experiences, which enhance the curriculum. For example, pupils enjoy trips to Cotswold Wildlife Park and Cadbury World.

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

Senior leaders are ambitious and committed to improving the school. They have developed a high-quality curriculum that interests pupils and motivates them to learn. Children learn to read as soon as they start school.

Teachers provide pupils with regular opportunities to practise phonics and develop wider reading skills, such as comprehension. Pupils apply their knowledge of phonics to help them spell words accurately. Teachers support pupils to be confident and fluent readers.

Pupils enjoy reading a wide range of exciting books and hearing adults read to them.

In mathematics, pupils routinely use what they know to find things out. For example, pupils in Year 1 use their understanding of 'greater than' and 'less than' to order a list of numbers.

Pupils partition two-digit numbers to help them with addition. The modern foreign languages curriculum is well sequenced. This enables pupils to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in Spanish.

The geography curriculum helps pupils to develop their knowledge of different places. For example, pupils use maps to locate the equator and rainforests. They use words such as 'humidity' to describe the climate.

Leaders have plans to review and adapt sequences of learning in geography. This is to ensure that they identify, even more precisely, what they want pupils to learn, and by when.

Most pupils progress well through the curriculum.

However, in some subjects, sequences of learning do not identify the precise building blocks of knowledge that teachers need pupils to learn. This limits how well pupils can build their knowledge so that they are well prepared for what comes next.

Teachers routinely check how well pupils are learning the curriculum.

This allows them to identify when pupils need extra help. For example, some pupils have gaps in their learning due to the pandemic. Teachers regularly revisit learning and provide additional teaching to help pupils to catch up.

Leaders with responsibility for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have a good knowledge of these pupils' needs. Leaders work closely with staff and external agencies to ensure pupils are given timely and effective support. Pupils with SEND are fully included in all aspects of school life.

They are well supported to learn the same curriculum as their peers.

The school offers exciting opportunities to enrich pupils' wider development. For example, pupils can join the eco committee or school council.

Players from Forest Green Rovers work with pupils to develop their resilience and team-building skills. Pupils are encouraged to try different clubs, such as drama, rugby and jewellery-making.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Adults are quick to identify when a pupil might be at risk. Leaders work closely with families and specialist agencies so that pupils get the help they need. Leaders maintain thorough records and regularly check the impact of their actions.

Leaders make the necessary checks to ensure that adults are safe to work with children. Staff have regular updates to safeguarding training and can explain how to refer concerns.

The curriculum helps pupils to understand how to stay safe.

For example, police visit the school to teach pupils how to use the internet safely.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, the curriculum does not identify the key knowledge pupils need to learn, and by when. As a result, learning is not sequenced well enough.

Pupils do not build on prior knowledge so that they know and remember more. Leaders must ensure that the curriculum identifies the key knowledge and skills they want pupils to learn so that pupils progress well through the curriculum in all subjects.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2016.