Rood End Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Rood End Primary School welcomes everyone. Pupils enjoy their learning and attend regularly. Adults forge warm working relationships with pupils.

They provide good pastoral care. Pupils know that there is always an adult to turn to if there is an issue. This helps them to feel happy and safe.

The school is a calm and purposeful place. Pupils meet the school's high expectations for their behaviour. They understand the rules well.

Pupils are courteous and helpful. Children settle well into the early years.

The school expects pupils to achieve well too.

However, pupils do not make as much progress through the curriculum that they should. Someti...mes opportunities for pupils to think deeply are not effective. Pupils do not remember some knowledge securely.

The quality of some of the curriculum in the early years is variable. Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is effective, however.

Pupils know that everyone is different.

They learn to respect cultures and traditions other than their own. The school provides opportunities for pupils to stay away from home, but trips and visitors seldom enrich the curriculum. Some pupils enjoy the school's after-school clubs.

, which are limited to sports.

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

The school prioritises reading. Pupils follow a structured phonics programme from the very start of the Reception Year.

They learn sounds and letters in a logical order. The school carefully matches books for younger pupils to their phonics knowledge. Staff use the school's chosen programme's resources, but the effectiveness of their practice varies.

Many pupils who find reading more difficult are supported to keep up with the pace of the phonics programme, but some remain behind.

In lower key stage 2, the school has taken effective steps to help pupils read fluently. Across the school, pupils increasingly enjoy reading.

However, the curriculum does not give older pupils the opportunity to read and discuss a sufficiently wide range of texts. This hinders pupils' broader cultural understanding and their appreciation of poetry and plays.

The curriculum is broad and sequenced effectively so that, in general, work builds on what pupils already know.

Teachers are knowledgeable and lessons follow the pattern that the school intends. Teachers pay due attention to the different aspects of each subject. For example, pupils in art develop their practical skills whilst learning about the work of different artists.

However, there is considerable inconsistency in how well the curriculum is put into practice. Pupils sometimes do not learn subject knowledge in sufficient depth. The school provides support for pupils to remember what they have learnt in the longer term, but they often struggle to do so.

The effectiveness with which staff check on pupils' learning varies too. Sometimes pupils' misconceptions are not identified promptly, and so persist. As a result, pupils' outcomes are too low.

In the early years, staff generally introduce children to new language well. However, they sometimes do not follow up on children's responses and extend their language as effectively as they should. The design of individual activities sometimes does not allow children to add incrementally to their knowledge.

Starting in the early years, the school identifies the additional needs of pupils with SEND promptly and effectively. Staff draw on guidance to ensure that they meet pupils' needs well. As a result, pupils with SEND make secure progress through the full curriculum.

The establishment of 'The Hub' provision for pupils with particularly complex needs has been effective. The school has drawn on expert advice on best practice.

Everyone understands the school's new approach to managing pupils' behaviour.

Staff apply the rewards and sanctions consistently from Nursery onwards. Pupils' conduct in class is good and disruption is rare. The school helps pupils who display challenging behaviour to respond in a more appropriate way.

The school has worked well with parents and carers to improve attendance, but there is more to do to involve them in their children's learning.

Pupils follow a well-designed programme of social and personal education. They learn about healthy relationships and how to keep themselves safe, including online.

Through religious education, for example, pupils come to understand and value a range of faiths and cultures. Currently, however, opportunities for pupils to develop their interests, talents and leaderships skills outside the classroom are few.

Leaders, including governors, have an accurate view of the school, and know how they want to improve it.

They have provided extensive, relevant training for staff. However, leaders have not yet secured a consistent approach to putting the curriculum into practice. Staff, including teachers new to the profession, believe that leaders are considerate of their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There are inconsistencies in how effectively staff put the curriculum into practice. Staff do not routinely pick up on pupils' misconceptions or gaps in their knowledge.

As a result, pupils sometimes do not learn securely, and their outcomes remain low. The school should ensure that teachers know how to implement the curriculum in line with the school's expectations to ensure that pupils learn in sufficient depth. ? In the early years, the intentions for children's learning are sometimes not clear.

Teaching does not build sufficiently on what children already know and can do. As a result, the impact of teaching on their learning can be limited. The school should ensure there is a suitably ambitious, well-sequenced early years curriculum and that staff are able to implement it effectively.

• The school has not yet ensured that adults in the early years are sufficiently adept in fostering children's speaking and listening. As a result, children do not develop their language as fully as they might. The school should ensure that adults are skilled in listening to children and extending their spoken language so that they make strong gains in their communication skills.

• The reading curriculum is not sufficiently broad and challenging. Consequently, pupils do not read, discuss and learn to appreciate a suitable range of fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. The school should make sure that older pupils read and appreciate a rich variety of texts of different kinds.