Slip End Village School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love coming to Slip End Village School. It is a school where pupils are happy and feel safe.

Pupils live by the school's values of belong, believe and achieve. Key stage 2 pupils are proud to be community champions. All key stage 2 pupils have a role of responsibility, and this encourages them to develop as active citizens.

The school has high expectations of pupils' behaviour, including children in the early years. Pupils respond well to this. They take pride in their learning and listen carefully to their teachers.

Low-level disruption is rare. However, when it does happen, adults deal with it effectively.

The school has recently become more... ambitious for pupils' achievement.

Pupils now achieve well. This is reflected in the key stage 2 provisional outcomes in 2024.

A broad range of extra-curricular opportunities is available to pupils.

Sport is a big part of this school and pupils' participation in sports clubs is very high, including for those pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils talk fondly about these opportunities.

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

The school has strengthened the curriculum and ensured that is broad and balanced.

The curriculum is progressive and builds on pupils' skills and knowledge over time. Teachers are skilled at checking what pupils have learned. They use this knowledge to adapt future learning.

The school has systems in place to identify pupils with SEND promptly and to ensure support is put in place to meet pupils' needs. Teachers adapt activities to enable pupils with SEND to be fully included in lessons. In a minority of subjects, the teachers do not design learning activities that emphasise the important knowledge that pupils should learn.

Consequently, in these subjects, some pupils do not achieve as highly as they could and struggle to recall details of prior learning.

Children in the early years experience an interesting and exciting curriculum. Children are provided with activities to engage and support their learning.

The curriculum prepares children for Year 1 well. Routines are well established. Adults support the children effectively and relationships are strong.

Adults are trained well and have a good understanding of how to get the best out of young children.

Reading is the school's top priority. Children begin to learn corresponding letters as soon as they start school.

Teachers follow the school's chosen phonics programme closely. This provides a consistent approach to teaching reading across the school and helps pupils to become successful readers. Books match pupils' phonics knowledge.

This helps to develop their reading fluency. Pupils who fall behind receive additional support that helps them to learn to read well. Pupils enjoy reading and like being read to.

Pupils' behaviour is positive. They engage in learning well and remain focused during lessons. Classrooms are calm and purposeful.

Around the school, pupils are polite and courteous. They socialise well at breaktimes.

Attendance is a high priority for the school.

However, some pupils do not attend school as often as they should. This means they are missing out on learning and do not achieve as highly as they could.

The school's approach to promoting pupils' personal development has been well thought through.

Pupils learn about life in modern Britain. They learn to respect and celebrate differences. The school arranges many trips and visitors regularly come into the school.

This helps to make learning memorable across the curriculum.

Many parents are positive about the school, stating their children are happy and feel safe at school. A few parents are dissatisfied with how their concerns are dealt with and some other aspects of the school's work.

There have been changes in the leadership of the school over recent years. Leaders have an accurate picture of the areas of strengths and areas to improve across the school.Staff enjoy working in this school.

They feel valued and appreciate how leaders consider their well-being and workload. Leaders invest in staff. They offer many opportunities for continued professional development to enable staff to fulfil their roles effectively.

Teachers talk highly of the opportunities to work alongside others within the federation. Governors know the school well. They provide appropriate challenge and support to help it to improve.

They ensure their statutory duties are carried out effectively, including safeguarding.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Occasionally, some of the subjects in the curriculum are not implemented as the school intends.

As a result, some pupils do not secure an understanding of these subjects. The school should ensure that teachers design activities that allow pupils to deepen the important skills and knowledge they need. ? Some pupils are persistently absent and this hinders their learning.

The school should review and amend how they work with parents and outside agencies to improve attendance. ? A small number of parents do not agree that the school deals with their concerns effectively or in a timely way for them. The school should review and make suitable amendments to how they deal with concerns from parents and to the school's processes for responding to parental enquiries.