St Andrew’s Ceva Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

St Andrew's Ceva Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils like coming to this school because it is a happy place where everyone gets on and where they feel safe. They say that staff are kind and set a good example to them.

They feel listened to.

Everyone upholds the school values, such as integrity and empathy. Pupils are proud to describe how these are part of the school's 'I ASPIRE' values that are the heart of the school's culture.

Pupils find lessons interesting, and appreciate how teachers help everyone to learn. Staff help the many pupils who enter... the school needing to catch up with their education. They provide effective support to pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Pupils quickly learn to read fluently and become confident in mathematics and science. Lessons flow smoothly because pupils behave well. They pay attention and try hard.

Expectations are high, and pupils achieve well.

Breaktimes and lunchtimes are friendly and fun. Here, pupils love learning with the visiting basketballers, or joining school clubs such as hockey and gymnastics.

The Wombles visit the school to show pupils how to keep the school tidy. Pupils go on exciting trips to places, including a learning and activity centre in Wales.

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

Many pupils enter this school with lower skills in communication than would normally be found in children of the same age.

A good number speak English as an additional language. Others have SEND. Nevertheless, staff at St Andrew's are highly ambitious for success for every pupil.

They waste no time in welcoming any child and assessing their needs. They then make sure all pupils receive a broad, high-quality curriculum so that they learn and remember content across subjects.

Progress is brisk from the start in the Reception year.

Skilled and dedicated staff teach children phonics every day. Children learn to spell 'map' and 'sip' and are eager to show the letters they have learned to write. Staff give intense help to those needing to catch up.

Children read books which match the sounds they are learning. These build their confidence and fluency. Staff plan fun, engaging activities that make children keen to learn more.

The impact of the well-planned curriculum is not limited to reading. Pupils also make sustained progress in mathematics. By Year 4, for example, they can count up and down in tenths, double and halve numbers, and know many of their multiplication tables.

In writing, they can transcribe and compose creatively. They enter key stage 2 already writing sentences such as 'At last, Ellie arrived, slamming the door behind her to calm her beating heart.' However, pupils do not have enough opportunity to write at length across subjects.

Staff have good subject knowledge. They deliver lessons clearly. Staff include all pupils with SEND, adapting teaching where needed, while balancing their support with building these pupils' independence.

All groups learn well. Pupils are well prepared for secondary school.

The previous inspection found that teachers did not repeat content enough or check that pupils remembered it sufficiently.

School leaders have addressed this weakness so effectively that it is now a strength. Across different subjects, teachers revisit learning from previous terms and years frequently. A system of regular questioning means that teachers check pupils' knowledge with accuracy.

A revised curriculum for some subjects, such as science, is further improving the education pupils receive. Pupils learn about electrical conductors and insulators, and about condensation. In history, they study the Romans and the rebellion of Boudicca.

In geography, they learn about the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and compare how woodland in England differs from a rainforest.

From the moment they enter early years, children learn how they are expected to behave. As a result, they focus on their lessons from the start and do not get distracted.

They follow the school's behaviour policy in classrooms and around the school. They are consistently polite and respectful.

The school prepares pupils well for the wider world.

Valuable information about relationships, and how to stay healthy, enables them to take well-informed decisions. Pupils know how to report concerns and are supported, where needed, by a caring and dedicated well-being mentor. The school has received a gold award for its work on well-being.

Pupils are also taught about citizenship and practise it enthusiastically by, for instance, helping local charities and a school in Indonesia.Governors provide effective support and challenge. Leaders undertake their role with integrity.

Staff work in shared ways and morale is good. Staff say leaders are mindful of their workload and that they support staff well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Pupils currently have very few opportunities to write in an extended form across the curriculum. This limits their ability to explain and express themselves in detail in subjects such as science, history and geography. Leaders should ensure that staff provide regular occasions and guidance for them to draft, compose and refine longer pieces of writing in different subjects.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in November 2019.