Stakeford Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Stakeford Primary is a friendly and inclusive school.

Staff have created an environment that makes pupils feel happy, safe and welcome. Staff really get to know every pupil. It is a place where children come first.

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They are proud of their school and being part of the community. Pupils behave well.

They move around the school sensibly and sit and chat together calmly in the dining hall. Children learn these behaviours from the moment they join the school. Bullying is rare and, if it happened, pupils know that any adult in school would deal with it quickly.

Pupils are keen to learn and they have positive attitudes. They a...re now benefiting from an ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils. Teaching takes account of children's individual starting points in the early years.

This helps to make sure that children are ready to move on to Year 1. Pupils enjoy a curriculum that is broad and balanced. Overall, pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well by the end of key stage 2.

Pupils enjoy a range of visits and visitors that add to the curriculum. For example, pupils recently visited a national centre for children's books and enjoyed an author visit for World Book Day.

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

Since the last inspection, the school has made significant improvements to the curriculum.

Pupils benefit from learning that is well planned and adapted to their needs. Staff have good subject knowledge, which is supported by a range of professional development opportunities.

Subject leaders in school have some opportunities to check whether the recently developed curriculum is being taught to all pupils.

However, there is not a consistent system in place currently that helps leaders to see if the curriculum is having a positive impact on helping pupils to achieve. Leaders are aware of this and have plans in place to address the issue.

The school identifies the additional needs of pupils with SEND quickly and accurately.

Staff adapt the delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of these pupils successfully. The school works very effectively with a range of external specialists, parent and carers to help pupils with SEND achieve well.

Reading is a priority in school.

Staff make sure that children from two-year-old provision onwards are prepared for their phonics journey. The school has trained staff so that they are equipped to deliver the phonics programme well. Staff skilfully support pupils to keep up with the reading programme.

The school has invested heavily in providing high-quality books for pupils to develop their love of reading.The provision for all children in early years is a strength of the school. Children settle in quickly.

Children benefit from skilful modelling of language use by adults. This helps them to develop social skills. They enjoy talking to visitors and retelling stories that they have just learned, for example, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, complete with bear masks!

Children in early years receive a well-thought-out and ambitious curriculum that focuses on reading and language development.

As a result, they are now prepared for moving into key stage 1. When talking to pupils in Years 1 and 2, they are able to remember and talk about what they have learned across different subjects. This learning helps pupils to make good progress.

However, this has not been reflected in the latest national test results in 2003 for key stage 1.

Typically, in lessons, staff carefully and effectively assess pupils' knowledge and skills to check whether they have a secure understanding and are ready to move on to the next part of their learning. However, sometimes, these checks are not done quickly enough.

As a result, when pupils are ready to move on they are delayed. This impacts on the amount of progress they can make in lessons.

Children quickly learn to follow routines in the early years.

Their behaviour is good. Pupils across all year groups show positive behaviours in the classroom and around the school. Attendance is a high priority.

The school supports families very well to make sure that pupils attend on a regular basis.

Governors have a good understanding of the school and the challenges that it faces. They regularly visit school to question subject leaders about the curriculum and the impact it is having on pupils' progress.

As a group, they hold leaders in school to account.

Staff appreciate the consideration the school gives to their workload when changes are introduced. This helps staff to feel valued and supported in their roles.

Staff are proud to be part of 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 does not check consistently well in lessons as to when pupils are ready to move on in their learning.

This means that, sometimes, staff are not clear about how pupils are progressing and when pupils need to be challenged further. In addition, the pace of learning in lessons slows down. The school should implement a school-wide approach to ongoing assessment in lessons.

• The school's systems are not consistently used well in checking how the curriculum is helping pupils to achieve. It means that leaders cannot be fully assured the newly developed curriculum is having the intended impact on pupils' outcomes. The school should ensure a consistent system is in place to enable leaders to check the impact of the curriculum on pupils' progress.