Sandhurst Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Sandhurst Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to Sandhurst school.

The strong sense of community is shaped by the values underpinning the school's work. Pupils know and understand these values, and spoke about how they inspire them to try hard, both in and out of school. Staff know pupils well, building strong relationships in which everyone is valued.

Pupils are proud of their happy and inclusive school, where respect and kindness are part of their daily lives.

Leaders, including governors, are ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. The curriculum is engaging, aspirational and reflects the di...fferent backgrounds of pupils at this diverse school.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are proud of their high-quality work and enjoy talking about what they have learned.

Pupils behave well, both in and out of lessons. They are polite, courteous and are keen to talk to visitors.

They know what good behaviour is and strong school systems help them reflect on what they could do better if anything goes wrong. Pupils are kept safe. They said that they can talk to any member of staff if they have a problem.

Bullying is rare, but if it does happen, adults are quick to sort it out.

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum that is broad, balanced and as ambitious as the national curriculum. Staff are well supported by leaders in their work to make sure that pupils learn well.

This is because leaders have identified important knowledge and skills so that new learning builds effectively on prior knowledge. For example, in art, pupils first learn how to squeeze and stretch different materials. Older pupils use this knowledge to make shapes with materials such as clay and then extend this further by sculpting their clay to make objects.

They confidently apply what they have learned about joining materials and glazing before progressing to firing their objects.

If pupils have additional needs or experience barriers to learning the curriculum, the school identifies this promptly and accurately. Teachers' strong subject knowledge enables them to carefully adapt lessons to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.

Careful questioning, adjustments to lessons and guidance from additional adults all help these pupils to persevere and to achieve well.

High attendance and low levels of persistent absence mean that pupils are in school to benefit from this carefully planned curriculum.

Leaders are determined that every pupil should be a fluent reader as soon as possible.

Good learning habits and routines are established in the Nursery, preparing them well for future learning. As a result, children get off to a strong start in Reception, with daily phonics lessons beginning immediately. The systematic phonics programme supports children effectively in learning to read.

Well-trained staff expertly deliver the scheme, quickly identifying any pupils who fall behind. Extra support is given to those who need it and lessons are adjusted to help meet their needs. Regular practice with reading books that are carefully matched to the sounds that they have learned helps pupils' fluency to develop quickly.

Inviting reading areas encourage pupils to read for pleasure. Pupils enjoy being read to every day and regularly use the school library. As a result, pupils develop a love of reading.

Assessment is used effectively in most subjects so that teachers understand what pupils know. However, in some subjects, assessment is not as effective in supporting teachers to identify and fill gaps in knowledge. This means that some pupils do not progress through the planned curriculum as well as they could in these subjects.

Pupils are taught to stay safe and to be respectful, caring members of the school community through their spiritual, social, moral and cultural curriculum. They are encouraged to use this knowledge by applying to take on roles such as peer mediators. In this role, the school trains pupils on how to support others in settling any playground disputes amicably.

These responsibilities are taken seriously by pupils, contributing well to the culture of positive behaviour and attitudes to learning.

Pupils enjoy the rich offer of additional activities, including educational visits and external visitors, all of which enhance the learning experiences of the curriculum. For example, a recent international event, organised by the school and attended by the local community, celebrated the cultures and background of everyone in the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, assessments are not consistently giving the school clear and useful information about what pupils know and can do. In these subjects, teaching does not make use of assessment information to identify and fill gaps in pupils' knowledge as effectively as it could.

This can affect the quality of the school's work to ensure that pupils make progress through the curriculum. The school should refine how pupils' learning is checked so that pupils can be better supported to know more and remember more in these 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 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 March 2019.