Skipsea Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thrive at this welcoming school.

From the early years to Year 6, staff get to know pupils well. This strong culture of care and respect helps pupils to feel safe. Many pupils join the school midway through the year.

Staff get to know pupils' personal and academic needs swiftly. Pupils settle quickly. Parents and carers rightly say that staff go 'above and beyond' to nurture pupils.

The school is aspirational for all pupils to achieve highly. Pupils achieve well. They achieve particularly well in some areas of the curriculum, such as reading.

Pupils love to read from the extensive range of books on offer.

The school provides a rich pro...gramme for pupils' personal development. Experiences include residential visits, performing in regional music concerts and sporting opportunities.

Pupils are extremely well supported to develop their interests.

Pupils understand the importance of 'doing the right thing'. They follow the school's three simple rules for behaviour: 'Be kind, Be safe, Be the best you can be'.

They are proud to attend the school. Pupils show positive attitudes to learning. At breaktimes, pupils play together happily.

This starts in the early years, where children are extremely well supported to settle into routines quickly.

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

Highly effective leadership has guided the school extremely well since the previous inspection. The revised, ambitious curriculum builds pupils' knowledge over time.

Pupils gain strong foundations in their learning. Approaches to teaching ensure that pupils understand subject content and the associated vocabulary well. Pupils enjoy lessons.

Teachers explain concepts clearly so that pupils understand new ideas. 'Rememberits' help pupils to recall prior knowledge and vocabulary. For example, pupils write about biomes and topography in geography.

However, in a small number of subjects, revised approaches to teaching are in their early stages. This, in part, contributes to some pupils lacking in confidence when communicating their learning using specific subject-related terminology.

The mathematics curriculum is well sequenced from the early years to Year 6.

Teachers check how much pupils have remembered before the start of lessons. This helps pupils to build on prior knowledge effectively in mixed-age classes. Pupils achieve well as they progress through the mathematics curriculum.

Pupils achieve highly in phonics. This is because staff provide extremely effective support. They constantly check for gaps in learning.

Pupils who need it receive individualised support. Pupils benefit from consistent phonics teaching as part of their daily routine. Regular reading practise supports pupils to read fluently.

In the early years, children get off to a flying start. They listen carefully to stories, rhymes and songs. Children use their phonics knowldge to decode and spell unfamiliar words.

As pupils progress through the school, they become confident at checking and self-correcting their reading and writing. Pupils become increasingly fluent readers and writers.

Staff quickly get to know pupils well.

Special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified and met well. For example, effective collaboration with external specialists, such as speech and language therapists, helps the school to fully understand each pupil's needs. Staff training has been highly effective in providing staff with the knowledge that they need to support pupils with SEND.

Over time, pupils with SEND achieve well.

Provision in the early years is exemplary, resulting in children being extremely well prepared for Year 1. Children learn subject-specific vocabulary through the topics that they study.

The redesigned outdoor provision provides children with lots of interesting things to investigate. Staff carefully introduce new vocabulary through exciting activities. Children remember these new words extremely well.

For example, they use them to write about conkers in autumn.

The school provides personalised support to ensure pupils' attendance improves. This work is having a positive impact.

However, levels of persistent absence for some pupils are too high. These pupils do not benefit as well as they could from the school's ambitious curriculum due to their absence.

The school's programme for personal development is exceptional.

Through the curriculum and activities on offer, pupils learn to make safe choices. Older pupils are proud to be members of the school council. They organise charity events such as 'Canopy Cause,' where they raise money to purchase a new canopy for the playground.

Pupils learn to respect and appreciate different cultures and beliefs through assemblies and by reading novels suitable for their age about these topics.

Governors understand the school's strengths and areas to develop. They use their expertise to support and challenge leaders.

Staff develop their subject knowledge through high-quality training. This helps to improve the curriculum. Staff are overwhelmingly proud to work at this school.

They welcome the steps taken to support their well-being. Parents value 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)

• The school's approach to teaching vocabulary is not fully embedded. This means that some pupils, in a small number of subjects, are not confident in using subject-specific vocabulary to explain their learning. The school should ensure that its approach to teaching vocabulary is securely embedded across the whole curriculum.

Some pupils do not attend school often enough. Therefore, they do not fully benefit from the school's ambitious curriculum. The school should continue to develop a range of strategies to tackle low attendance and ensure pupils attend regularly.