Stockton Wood Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at the school.

They enjoy attending, in part because staff speak to them kindly and greet them with a smile. Whenever pupils do not feel good about themselves, specialist staff use stories, drama and art to give them the support that they need in a dedicated, quiet classroom.

Pupils find their learning interesting and develop a keen interest in a range of subjects.

However, the school's high expectations of what pupils should achieve are not fully realised. Some of the curriculum, including in the early years, varies in quality and sometimes staff do not deliver or assess it well. This holds back pupils from knowing and remembering some essen...tial knowledge.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), told inspectors that they have several friends at the school. They benefit from mixing with pupils from different classes, such as through buddying roles. Pupils are sensible and polite.

They learn that self-respect and kindness towards others are important.

Pupils gain many new skills through the school's well-organised programme of wider activities. For instance, they complete residential trips to outdoor activity centres.

They take part in after-school clubs such as singing, dancing and sports regularly.

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

The school has set out an ambitious vision for what pupils' education should look like. It has identified clear ways of thinking about and delivering the curriculum.

The school has achieved much in establishing this work, particularly in the past year. However, the quality of the curriculum and its delivery in different subjects remains variable, including in the early years.

An early success is that the school has now thought out some subjects well.

In these subjects, staff choose activities carefully to ensure that pupils learn essential knowledge. Most of the time, teachers select assessment strategies that help them to check that pupils know and remember the intended curriculum. However, this is not the case in some other subjects.

The inconsistent quality of the curriculum and its delivery means that, at times, some pupils do not learn as well as they should.

Pupils, such as in the Reception classes and Year 1, now learn to read letter sounds and words far more successfully than in the recent past. Staff provide helpful, extra support for pupils who struggle to read.

Pupils benefit from the school's much-improved phonics curriculum and from staff's sharpened expertise. The school has organised an ongoing programme of phonics training and coaching for staff to strengthen their work further. This step is essential because, at present, some variability remains in how skilfully staff teach phonics.

In addition, sometimes, teachers do not consider how to use books effectively in the reading curriculum. In key stage 2, some pupils do not know enough about the work of a rich range of authors, playwrights and poets.

Some changes to subject curriculums and how staff teach have taken place in recent days and weeks.

Additionally, the school has recently invested in a wide range of high-quality books for its attractive library. It is too soon to see the impact of these actions on pupils developing a deep body of curriculum knowledge. Furthermore, the governing body does not have enough understanding of some of the curriculum to enable governors to challenge the school's work precisely.

The school identifies barriers to the learning of pupils with SEND and works well to resolve these. Nevertheless, because of the variability in the quality of the curriculum, sometimes pupils with SEND learn less well than they should.

The school provides pupils with a well-thought-out programme of personal development.

For instance, pupils learn much about the diversity of people and communities in modern Britain. Staff teach pupils to have positive views about their own bodies and to understand relationships and consent. The school teaches pupils to behave, and staff manage any behaviour issues well.

The school works closely with staff to make sure that they have a reasonable workload. It communicates well with parents and carers and guides them on how to support their child's learning at home. The school is making headway to remedy weaknesses in the quality of education.

However, the variable impact of the school's actions means that it has more work to do to achieve the necessary improvements.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, including in the early years, the school has not thought out the curriculum well enough.

Sometimes, the quality of teachers' delivery and assessment of the curriculum is variable. These weaknesses hold back some of pupils' learning. The school should ensure that the curriculum is well considered and assessed in different subjects.

The impact of these improvements should then be evident in pupils' achievement. ? Sometimes, staff do not follow a consistent approach in helping pupils to read. In addition, some staff lack clarity about the reading curriculum when choosing books for story times.

Some teachers do not teach older pupils about the works of a rich enough range of authors, playwrights and poets. These weaknesses undermine the school's work to ensure that pupils can read fluently and accurately and are knowledgeable about a wide range of texts. The school should improve staff expertise in teaching phonics and strengthen teachers' use of books in the reading curriculum.

• The governing body does not have a clear enough grasp of some of the school's curriculum and its weaknesses. This limits how well governors can challenge and support the school's work. Governors should ensure that they have the skills and knowledge that they need to fulfil their role in improving the quality of education that the school provides.