Stoke Climsland School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn with increasing success at this inclusive community school. They embody the school values of empathy, equity, inspiration, integrity, perseverance and gratitude.

Staff promote these values effectively and consistently. This helps to ensure that pupils learn to work and play together well, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or pupils who are disadvantaged. As a result, this is a safe and welcoming place for pupils to come and learn.

Pupils behave well. They play harmoniously together at breaktimes and lunchtimes. Bullying is rare.

When it happens, staff listen and act swiftly to address it. Pupils generally ...show strong attitudes to their learning, particularly when expectations are high. Occasionally, some pupils need reminding of what is expected.

However, this does not lessen the orderly and hardworking atmosphere in lessons.

Pupils speak very positively about their learning. Lessons have been carefully planned to help them know more across subjects.

Pupils are increasingly well prepared for the transition to secondary school. Many pupils with SEND say they are supported well by staff. Parents and pupils appreciate the wide range of extra-curricular experiences on offer.

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

Stoke Climsland is an effective and improving school. Leaders have secured the enthusiasm of all. Staff rightly say they feel valued.

They work collaboratively to realise the school's aims and values. Since the previous inspection, staff have worked together to systematically improve the curriculum and turn around a previous decline in standards.

Subject leadership is effective.

Following the previous inspection, the school sensibly reorganised the leadership of the curriculum. Subject leaders benefit from useful and ongoing training. They utilise this to ensure that planning across all national curriculum subjects is carefully sequenced.

This has helped raise expectations and ensure learning is logically sequenced. Teachers, including those in the early years, utilise this planning to promote pupils' learning across subjects in meaningful ways. As a result, pupils, including pupils with SEND, remember relevant knowledge and achieve well.

Nevertheless, there is more to do. For example, the implementation of the curriculum needs refinement. Staff teach sequences of lessons that build effectively on what pupils know and can do.

However, teachers' subject knowledge is stronger in some subjects than in others. Where it is better, teachers expect more and utilise considered ways to help pupils make rapid progress. Conversely, sometimes expectations could be higher.

Where this is the case, pupils' learning is less secure because their teacher's explanations are not as clear and less is expected of them.

The school has established useful approaches to assessment. Teachers utilise this effectively, particularly when checking how well pupils remember knowledge at the end of a sequence of lessons and through their learning in the early years.

However, teachers are less adept at checking pupils' understanding in lessons. This means teachers do not consistently adapt their teaching to help embed new learning or to check how well pupils can apply new knowledge. As a result, pupils' progress is sometimes hampered.

The reading curriculum has been revamped and improved. Teachers, including those in the early years, are reading experts. They diligently and consistently follow the school's approach to teaching reading.

Pupils take home books that match the sounds they have learned. They speak confidently about stories they have read, had read to them and learned to enjoy. Staff know it is their job to make reading enticing and enjoyable.

As a result, they share high-quality texts with pupils in lessons and at routine times of the day. Collectively, this helps pupils develop good attitudes towards reading and the ability to read effectively.

Historically, weaknesses in the school's curriculum have meant that pupils' achievements have been limited.

However, improvements to the curriculum and its implementation are already having an impact. For example, pupils' writing is now of a much higher standard. Pupils write for a range of audiences and purposes.

They are increasingly utilising narrative techniques to influence their reader. Pupils' work is much more often at age-related expectations. This means that pupils are ready for the next stage in their learning.

Pupils' personal development is promoted effectively. Trips and visits enrich and enhance pupils' learning. Pupils benefit from the extensive school site.

They learn strong attitudes to being healthy because they enjoy physical education, the games they can play and the well-being promoted through outdoor learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some elements of the implementation of the new curriculum need refinement.

For example, some staff have higher expectations of pupils and, where this is the case, pupils learn more. The school should look to ensure greater consistency in how the curriculum is implemented. This will help pupils learn and remember even more of the intended curriculum.

• Staff do not routinely check pupils' understanding or adapt learning during some lessons. This hampers some pupils from building their knowledge over time. The school should build on its improved assessment to ensure that staff regularly check pupils' understanding and ability to apply their knowledge independently so that lessons can be adapted and gaps in knowledge filled in a timely fashion.