Spotland Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Warm relationships lie at the heart of this school.

Pupils are valued highly. They cheerfully arrive at school each day, basking in the ready smiles that they receive from staff. Pupils feel happy and secure in the school's nurturing environment.

They know that they will be listened to if they have any concerns.

Many pupils are polite and respectful towards others. They are friendly and welcoming to visitors.

At breaktimes, most pupils play sensibly and kindly together. However, during lessons, there are occasions when the behaviour of some pupils disrupts the learning of others.

Pupils are proud of their school.

They are particular...ly enthused by the positive work that they carry out in the locality. For example, they enjoy raising money for charities, donating to a food bank and litter picking in the nearby area. There is a strong sense of kinship and community throughout the school.

Older pupils, through their role as playground pals, help younger pupils to play cooperatively during lunchtimes.

Pupils' personal development is fostered well. However, the same is not true for their academic success.

The school does not have high enough aspirations for pupils' achievement. This includes children in the early years. Pupils, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are not helped to achieve well.

As a result, many pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of their education. Pupils are not receiving the education to which they are entitled.

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

The quality of education that children in the early years, and pupils in key stages 1 and 2, receive has declined considerably since the previous inspection.

Inaccurate self-evaluation and a lack of much needed action has led to a considerable proportion of pupils leaving Year 6 without the knowledge and skills that they need to make a smooth start in their secondary school. In 2023, pupils' attainment was significantly below the national average. Governors have overseen this decline.

They have not provided sufficient support and challenge to hold the school to account for its work.

Recent changes in leadership have led to some positive action to tackle the weaknesses at the school. However, this work is at an early stage.

As such, it is too soon for it to make a demonstrable difference to pupils' academic experience. This means that, currently, the school lacks the capacity that is needed to eradicate its shortcomings.

The school has not put in place a curriculum which sets out the important knowledge that pupils should learn.

This prevents teachers from knowing what they should teach and when this should happen. Children in the early years experience a curriculum that lacks structure and cohesion. Consequently, children do not gain the necessary foundations for later learning.

They are not ready for the next stage of their education.

Teachers make every effort to follow the overarching themes for each topic. However, many teachers have not received appropriate training to develop their subject knowledge or expertise.

This is compounded by the absence of curriculum guidance and underdeveloped subject leadership. As a result, from the early years to Year 6, teachers are left to their own devices to decide what pupils should learn. The activities that they choose, and their approach to delivering subject information, do not enable pupils to build a secure body of knowledge across many subjects.

Many pupils experience disjointed learning. Therefore, they are not able to connect their learning or build on what they know and can do.

In many subjects, teachers do not use assessment information successfully to check how well pupils are learning.

Considerable weaknesses in pupils' fundamental knowledge, notably in reading and writing, often go unchecked. Pupils carry gaps in their knowledge for sustained periods of time. As a result, pupils do not develop secure foundations on which to build their future learning.

The school has made sure that pupils develop a love of reading. Pupils enjoy reading, in particular learning about different authors and texts. However, the school does not ensure that pupils learn to read successfully.

There is a delay in children starting to learn from the phonics programme in the Reception Year. This causes them to be on catch up from the start. From this point on, the phonics programme is not delivered consistently well to ensure that pupils gain a secure grounding in early reading.

Those children who struggle to keep up with the pace of the programme are not spotted quickly enough and the support that they do receive is often ineffective. Consequently, by the end of Year 2, a considerable proportion of pupils are not fluent, confident readers. They are ill-prepared to meet the demands of key stage 2.

Pupils' weak reading knowledge compounds their poor achievement further.

Pupils with SEND are cared for well in terms of their social and emotional needs. However, many pupils with SEND do not experience academic success.

While the school has practices in place to identify pupils with SEND, these are often unclear. This results in the additional needs of pupils not being identified in a timely manner. Teachers have not received sufficient information on how to adapt learning for pupils with SEND.

Consequently, when pupils are identified, they often do not receive the support that they need to help them learn all that they should.

Outside of lessons, pupils typically behave well. Pupils are caring towards each other.

However, on occasion, staff's inconsistent application of the behaviour policy means that the behaviour of some pupils disrupts their own learning and the learning of other pupils in the class. This is heightened by staff using inconsistent routines and applying varied expectations for pupils' behaviour.

Absence rates are high.

They have remained static at the school for a considerable period of time. The school has started to help families to overcome the barriers that prevent some pupils from attending school regularly. This is leading to better attendance for some pupils.

However, this work is in its infancy. It has not had the same impact on other pupils who miss time away from school.

The school has given greater thought to pupils' personal development.

It has ensured that pupils learn what they need to do in readiness for life in modern Britain. For example, pupils learn about people with different backgrounds to their own. They visit places of worship to better understand different religions.

Pupils learn about how to stay safe, including when they are working or playing online. The school develops pupils' talents and interests through a wealth of clubs, such as gardening, science and film, as well as a range of sporting clubs. Pupils are given the opportunity to learn through first-hand experiences on the many visits and trips that happen throughout the year.

The school is mindful of staff's well-being. It helps staff to manage their workload effectively, for example, by providing time for changes to be implemented. Staff are highly positive about being a part of the school.

They support the school's principles of ensuring that pupils feel included and special by fostering compassionate relationships.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Members of the governing board have not provided effective support and challenge to improve the quality of education on offer to pupils.

This has led to pupils making weak gains in their knowledge over time. Governors must ensure that they develop the necessary expertise to understand the school's effectiveness so that they are able to hold it to account for its work. ? The curriculum in many subjects, as well as in the early years, is not well designed.

It does not provide teachers with sufficient guidance for them to know about what pupils should learn and when subject content should be taught. This hinders pupils, including those with SEND, from building a secure body of knowledge over time. The school must ensure that the curriculum sets out the important information that pupils will learn, ordered from the beginning of the early years to the end of Year 6, so that pupils can build their learning securely.

• In the absence of curriculum guidance, teachers select activities that do not help pupils to develop their knowledge or to understand key concepts. Pupils' learning is disconnected from what has gone before and what will come later. As a result, pupils do not deepen their knowledge.

The school must ensure that teachers have the subject knowledge and expertise to enable pupils to build their understanding over time. ? The needs of pupils with SEND are not identified swiftly or accurately enough. Staff have not received sufficient training to enable them to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.

This means that the achievement of pupils with SEND is weak. The school must ensure that it identifies pupils' needs accurately and it equips staff with the information and skills to make sure that pupils with SEND are successful learners. ? The school's early reading curriculum is not effective in making sure that pupils learn to read as soon as they should.

Consequently, too many pupils do not learn the important knowledge in early reading and struggle to access the rest of the curriculum. The school must ensure staff are sufficiently trained to implement the phonics programme consistently well. Additionally, it must ensure that pupils who do not keep up with the pace of the programme receive swift and effective support to be able to access the curriculum.

• Teachers do not use assessment strategies well. Consequently, they do not know how well pupils are achieving. Misconceptions and gaps in pupils' learning remain unchecked.

The school should make sure that teachers have the support that they need to utilise assessment strategies successfully so that pupils can build on their knowledge. ? Subject leadership is underdeveloped. This means that teachers have not received the necessary training to develop their subject knowledge and their approach to teaching.

This further limits the school's capacity to improve. The school must ensure that it develops expertise in subject leadership so that teachers are supported to implement the curriculum effectively. ? The school's actions to improve attendance are in the early stages of implementation.

This means that some pupils continue to miss time away from school. The school should ensure that its analysis of absence levels, and its subsequent action, results in pupils attending school regularly. ? Staff do not consistently apply the school's behaviour policy.

During lessons, including in the early years, some pupils' behaviour disrupts their own learning and that of others. The school should ensure that staff consistently uphold high standards of conduct across the school.

The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

Also at this postcode