Saltaire Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Saltaire Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Saltaire Primary School serves its community proudly.

Pupils value the kind and nurturing environment. They are central to bringing this to life in the school. Pupils warmly welcome newcomers and visitors to their school.

This caring ethos provides the foundations on which the school is built.

The school has very high expectations for pupils. Pupils achieve well in national assessments.

They also rise to the high expectations for their behaviour. They focus well in lessons and are quick to settle to learning activities. Pupils enjoy their learning opportunities.<...br/>
Pupils feel safe in the school. They have trusted adults they can turn to. Pupils know that bullying sometimes happens.

They are clear that the school takes this seriously and deals with it effectively. Older pupils support Reception children when they join the school. They take their role as a buddy very seriously.

Pupils and parents value the wide range of exciting extra-curricular clubs on offer. These include skateboarding, gymnastics and art club. Many pupils attend these.

The Saltaire Primary School University ensures that all pupils access enrichment activities every week. Pupils value this time. They enjoy the range of new experiences, such as learning British Sign Language and first aid.

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

The well-designed curriculum ensures that pupils achieve high standards from the earliest stage. Skilled teachers provide frequent opportunities to revisit prior learning. Pupils remember previous topics very well.

For example, Year 3 pupils confidently recall learning about fractions. They explain terms such as numerators, denominators and relevant fractions.

Pupils enjoy learning.

Their positive attitudes support a purposeful learning environment. The school ensures that all pupils experience the same ambitious curriculum. Appropriate adaptations mean that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve well.

For example, adapted resources in history help pupils to evaluate different sources when studying the Great Fire of London. On some occasions, activities are not precisely matched to the intended learning. This means that pupils do not learn as much as they could, despite their high levels of engagement.

Pupils who are in the early stages of reading receive expert adult help. The school swiftly identifies pupils who need extra support. As a result, these pupils keep up with their peers.

Pupils enjoy reading and they keenly share their favourite books and authors. They enjoy choosing books from the school library. The school's promotion of reading supports pupils to develop a love of reading for pleasure.

Children in the early years benefit from a highly stimulating environment. The new location places children at the heart of the school and in a safe environment. Children enjoy meaningful learning opportunities.

For example, they cut herbs with scissors. They also make faces out of dough. Staff skilfully ensure that there are lots of opportunities to learn.

Children's physical and communication skills develop alongside their understanding of the world.

The school provides rich and thoughtful opportunities to support pupils' personal development. Pupils meet in small groups, as a crew, with an adult crew leader.

This dedicated time allows pupils to explore wider topics. Year 6 pupils confidently debate whether sharing a secret is right or wrong. They skilfully link this to their knowledge of safeguarding and how to keep themselves safe online.

The wider opportunities that pupils receive are exceptional. The school provides a wide range of trips, visits and activities. Pupils learn to swim in the pop-up swimming pool on the school site.

Reception children learn about their local history when visiting Saltaire. Year 4 pupils extend their knowledge of history in their residential trip to York. The whole school enjoys its visit to Filey beach.

The school and the governing body are relentless in their focus on providing pupils in the school with the very best experiences. They ensure pupils have a very positive start to their school life. One parent represented the views of many, saying, 'I am confident that the school always has the children's well-being at the heart of everything they do.'

The school takes every opportunity to explore the rich history of Saltaire so that pupils develop a pride in their local area. Teachers are proud to work at the school. They know that their workload and well-being are at the forefront of leaders' minds.

As a result, staff feel highly valued.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On some occasions, the activities in lessons are not well matched to intended learning outcomes.

This means that some learning time is not utilised as well as it could be. The school should continue to refine the curriculum to ensure that all learning opportunities are meaningful.

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

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

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2018.