Shirley Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Shirley Community Primary School is a diverse and inclusive school.

Pupils celebrate their differences saying that it 'is what makes us unique'. Pupils are happy and develop positive relationships between each other and with adults.

Pupils show positive attitudes to learning.

They develop their independence from an early age. They listen to staff and support each other in classrooms. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), concentrate well when learning and completing their work.

Adults set high expectations for pupils' learning and behaviour. Pupils demonstrate these through the schools' rules to 'be safe, ...be kind and be responsible'. Staff prioritise pupils' mental well-being and encourage pupils to talk about concerns that they have.

This helps the school put support in place when needed. Pupils understand how to stay safe when online and in their local context.

Members of the school council are proud of their leadership roles.

They are active in 'making the school better for everyone'. This has included identifying new clubs that pupils would like. Pupils are able to access a range of clubs across a range of interests, including dance, choir, cooking, Portuguese and various sports.

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

The school has put an ambitious curriculum in place. In most subjects, the school has identified and organised the content from Reception onwards. This means that teachers know what pupils need to know and when they need to know it.

This helps all pupils, including those with SEND, to build their knowledge over time. However, the planning for a small number of subjects is less advanced. Here, explicit links to the early years and key stage 3 curriculum are less clear.

As a result, on occasion pupils are not as secure in the knowledge they need when moving to the next stage of the school's planned curriculum.

Reading is at the centre of the school. Staff have expertise in teaching early reading through the training they have received.

Starting in early years, children build up a secure knowledge of phonics. Well-matched books help pupils to develop accuracy in reading. Regular checks identify pupils who need additional support.

This helps them develop their fluency in reading. High-quality texts reflect the school's diversity and develop pupils' love of reading.

The school has focused on how pupils effectively use their writing skills to show what they know and understand across the curriculum.

Pupils now produce writing that shows the impact of this work to improve outcomes from the 2023 published data.

Staff receive high-quality training to ensure that they have the subject knowledge they need to teach the curriculum well. In the main, teachers present information clearly.

They routinely check what pupils know and remember and adapt their teaching. This helps pupils to remember the important information that they need.

A clear system is in place for teachers to be able to check what pupils have learned.

However, this is more secure in some subjects than others. In less well-established curriculum areas, subject leaders are not routinely using the data to help them check and evaluate the impact of their new curriculum plans. As a result, information is not effectively being used to develop the curriculum content to improve what pupils know and remember.

Pupils with SEND are well supported. Children in early years with emerging additional needs are quickly identified and support put in place. In lessons, staff adapt teaching activities sensitively and with expertise to support disadvantaged pupils, including those pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Clear routines and expectations of children in early years help them settle into their learning. Staff provide this through a well-considered curriculum. Children engage with activities that engage and excite them.

The school makes clear to parents why pupils must attend school regularly. There are highly effective systems in place to support pupils coming to school.

Pupils learn about, and are highly respectful of, different cultures and beliefs, which prepares them well for life in modern Britain.

Pupils are able to talk about healthy diets and exercise, including the 'daily mile'. The school provides opportunities for Year 6 pupils to prepare for their transition to secondary school. However, many do not yet feel confident about the move.

Staff enjoy working at Shirley. They feel well supported by leaders. They engage and respond well to the range of training offered.

Governors know the school well. They hold leaders carefully to account through regular, focused visits and appropriate questions about the school's work.

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 curriculum areas, assessment information is not used consistently by subject leaders to monitor and evaluate the curriculum. Leaders need to ensure that there is a more consistent and effective use of data to inform the development of the curriculum to secure pupils' understanding and develop teachers' expertise, so that pupils improve their knowledge across all areas of the curriculum. ? Pupils are not always ready to transition between key stages.

In subjects where the curriculum is at the earlier stages of development, the knowledge pupils need to transition from one key stage to the next is not always clear. This means pupils' learning and readiness to move to the next stage of learning is not as secure as it needs to be. The school needs to ensure that the important learning needed by pupils is identified to help support them in their next steps of their learning, both within the school setting and for when pupils move to secondary school.

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