Sedbergh Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils' smiles show how much they enjoy school. They arrive each morning eager to learn.

Children in the early years blossom in the stimulating environment leaders have created. They settle quickly into well-established routines. Pupils know that adults care about them.

They know how to report any worries that they may have and are confident that staff will listen to their concerns. This helps them to feel safe in school.

Pupils strive to live up to the high expectations that leaders have of them socially and academically.

Pupils learn about other cultures and beliefs. They know how important it is to treat each other with understanding and respect.<...br/>
Pupils play happily with their friends at breaktimes.

Any bullying, or hurtful comments, are dealt with appropriately by staff. Pupils behave well and work hard. This helps them to achieve well in a range of subjects.

Older pupils have the opportunity to debate important issues as members of the South Lakes Pupil Parliament. Pupils work together to improve aspects of the local environment. They become responsible active citizens by fundraising for local and national charities.

Pupils' confidence and resilience flourishes through the many opportunities leaders provide. Pupils enjoy the range of sports they can play and clubs that they can join. They proudly represent their school in local competitions.

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

The carefully designed curriculum reflects leaders' ambition for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to achieve well. Leaders have thought carefully about the knowledge that they want pupils to learn and the order in which the knowledge is to be taught in, from the early years to Year 6.

The training that teachers receive ensures that they have the appropriate knowledge to be able to deliver the agreed curriculum successfully.

In most subjects, learning activities meet pupils' needs well. Pupils begin to make links across subjects. This helps them to apply what they know when they are learning something new.

Leaders frequently check how well pupils are achieving across a range of subjects. In most subjects, teachers use assessment information to identify what pupils need to learn next. Any misconceptions are corrected quickly.

This helps the majority of pupils to achieve well. However, in one or two subjects, teachers do not use assessment information effectively enough. Pupils' learning does not build sufficiently well on what they already know and can do.

This hinders the progress for some pupils in these subjects.

Accurate identification of SEND enables leaders to provide the support needed for pupils to be successful. A range of resources and equipment helps pupils to learn the same curriculum as their friends.

Experienced staff provided any additional support required for pupils with an education, health and care plan. This enables all pupils with SEND to access everything that school has to offer.

A love of reading is fostered across the school from the time children start school in the early years.

Pupils enjoy choosing their favourite books from the well-resourced school library and classroom reading areas. Pupils read widely and often across a range of different types of books, including poetry and plays by Shakespeare. Older pupils enjoy researching information across a broad range of subjects and for their personal interest.

The youngest children enjoy learning traditional songs and rhymes. In the Reception class, children quickly begin to learn the sounds that letters represent. The books that pupils read contain words that match the sounds that they are learning.

This helps most pupils to become confident, fluent readers by the end of Year 2. Pupils who struggle with reading, including those at the early stages of reading in key stage two, benefit from the support that they receive from skilled staff. This helps them to catch up quickly.

Positive attitudes to learning are promoted consistently well by staff. Pupils are polite and well mannered. They conduct themselves well in school.

In lessons, pupils work hard. They are able to learn free from disruption in a calm and focused environment.

Pupils' personal development is nurtured well throughout school.

In the early years, children learn how to treat others with kindness. Older pupils benefit from the broad range of opportunities to develop their resilience and perseverance, for example through dance performances on stage, paddle boarding on Lake Windemere and early morning cross country runs. Pupils' understanding of different faiths and cultures is enhanced through visitors to school, visits to museums and links with different places of worship.

Pupils' care for the environment is fostered through a range of activities, including a successful gardening club. Pupils explain enthusiastically how they grow their own produce to sell to parents and carers and often cook food to share with each other.

Staff are proud to work at the school.

They value the way leaders support their well-being and are mindful of their workload. Governors use their knowledge effectively when carrying out their roles and responsibilities. They rigorously hold leaders to account for the quality of education that the school provides.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

High-quality training enables staff to quickly identify any changes in pupils' demeanour. Staff know the procedures to follow if they have any concerns about a pupils' welfare.

Leaders work with other professionals to ensure that vulnerable pupils and their families quickly receive the help and support that they need.

Pupils learn about how to use the internet safely. They are taught about how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations, for example when they are out in the community.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a very small number of subjects, teachers do not use assessment information effectively enough to make sure that pupils' learning builds on what they already know. This hinders progress for some pupils. Leaders should ensure that assessment information is used equally well in all subjects so that all pupils have the opportunity to achieve as well as they should.

Also at this postcode