St Andrew’s CofE VA Primary School, Lopham

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils live up to the school's high expectations and the shared school vision to 'shine as lights in the world'. Pupils are polite and friendly. They speak confidently to adults and each other.

Pupils demonstrate positive relationships. In lessons, pupils focus quickly and are keen to learn. Outside, pupils play well together, sharing equipment and making up their own games.

Pupils enjoy a growing number of trips and experiences. They benefit from several opportunities to sample life outside of their local community. Pupils visit local museums and learn about careers, such as in aviation.

This raises their aspirations and gives them things to aim for in the f...uture.

Making a meaningful difference in the community means a lot to the pupils. They eagerly raise money for carefully chosen charities.

For instance, pupils organise a fundraising sporting event for a local bereavement charity. This enables pupils to understand the importance of helping others, both in school and beyond.

Pupils learn together happily in mixed-aged classes across the school.

They want to learn. However, the quality of education across the curriculum is inconsistent. This means pupils learn more successfully in some subjects than others.

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

Significant changes have taken place in the school over recent years. A stable leadership team is now in place. This has brought about a greater consistency across the school.

Curriculum plans identify the knowledge pupils should learn year-on-year within mixed-aged classes. All pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access the full curriculum.The precision of the delivery of the curriculum is inconsistent.

In some areas, staff have strong subject knowledge and teach the planned curriculum successfully. They make adaptations to support pupils, including pupils with SEND, to achieve well. For example, in a whole-school physical education lesson, pupils learned the basic skills of tag rugby.

The learning was skilfully adapted to meet the needs of pupils from early years to Year 6.In other areas of the curriculum, the knowledge pupils need to learn is not clear. Staff do not routinely adjust learning to meet all pupils' needs.

As a result, some pupils become confused. When this happens, pupils do not build up the knowledge they should and consequently, do not achieve as well as they should.

Early reading is a priority.

Phonics starts straight away in Reception. All staff are well trained to teach early reading. The school's chosen programme is taught consistently well.

Adults check how well pupils are learning. If any pupil falls behind, they receive regular support to catch up. As a result, pupils learn to read fluently.

Pupils' attitudes to reading vary. Some pupils choose to read for pleasure. Others do not read regularly.

As a result, some pupils do not gain the broader knowledge and joy from their reading that they should. School leaders are starting to take action to develop a positive reading culture across the school. However, this is not fully achieved.

Attendance has improved. Leaders make every effort to support pupils to attend school regularly. Behaviour is well managed.

Leaders ensure that staff apply the agreed behaviour systems consistently across the school. Pupils know and understand the expectations. This ensures that there is very little disruption to learning.

Subject leaders work across the three schools in the federation. Their effectiveness at this school is variable. Some leaders have a clear vision.

They check on the curriculum regularly and make positive changes to the provision in their subjects. In other subjects, the checks on how well pupils are achieving are less effective. Leaders are not clear about what improvements are needed in their subject.

This means some curriculum subjects are improving more quickly than others.

The school recognises the need for pupils to develop into well-rounded citizens. Leaders teach the school values clearly.

Pupils use this knowledge to help them to make good choices. For example, pupils talk about using their courage to complete the zip wire on a recent school trip. Pupils feel safe in school.

They have a good understanding of how to stay safe online. Pupils talk confidently about different cultures and beliefs. They are very clear that all pupils are welcome at this school.

The interim executive board works very closely with the school. Its members monitor the school regularly, holding leaders to account. They understand what the school does well and what they need to do next.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There are inconsistencies in the way the curriculum is adapted to meet the needs of different learners. This means the curriculum is taught more effectively to some pupils than others.

Leaders, including the interim executive board, should implement focused professional development for staff to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge to teach and adapt the curriculum effectively. This will mean pupils will learn the required knowledge in the school's curriculum more successfully. ? The school does not quality assure the curriculum with enough rigour in some subject areas.

This means there are inconsistencies in the effectiveness of the curriculum across different classes and subjects. The school must ensure that it monitors the curriculum regularly and takes immediate action to improve areas of weakness. This will mean improvement takes place and pupils will learn the curriculum more successfully.

• The school does not ignite a love of reading among pupils. They need to adopt a range of strategies to encourage pupils to read a range of books by choice. As a result, pupils will gain both pleasure and knowledge from reading a wide range of different texts.