Stroud Valley Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Stroud Community Primary School is a friendly, inclusive and happy school. Staff and pupils offer a warm welcome to visitors.

Staff form supportive and caring relationships with pupils. Therefore, pupils say that they feel safe and can always go to adults if they have any problems.

Pupils are polite and sociable.

They have positive attitudes to learning and say that learning is fun. For example, pupils are interested to learn about the history of cloth manufacture in Stroud. They enjoy rich learning experiences which enhance the curriculum, such as museum visits, samba dancing and residential trips.

Pupils are proud to take on positions of responsibi...lity, such as reading buddies and play leaders.

All staff have high expectations of pupils. The school's values, 'be responsible, be kind, be safe', are well understood by pupils.

They listen carefully to adults and behave well. Pupils confirm that bullying is not tolerated.

Leaders communicate well with parents and carers.

As a result, the majority of parents are very happy with the school. Typical comments include, 'The school goes the extra mile' and, 'There is a strong community spirit here'.

Leaders prioritise pupils' physical and mental health and are keen to develop their talents and interests.

Pupils attend extra-curricular activities, such as football, gymnastics, dance and cooking. They can also learn to play a musical instrument.

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

Leaders have designed an ambitious, broad and interesting curriculum in most subjects.

Pupils are interested and motivated to learn. They settle to work with enthusiasm, so low-level disruption is rare. For example, in computing, pupils were immersed in creating an 'avatar'.

Leaders inspire pupils to love reading. Children learn to read as soon as they start school. The teaching of phonics consistently supports pupils to develop secure knowledge and skills in reading, spelling and comprehension.

Leaders provide a wide range of carefully selected texts for pupils to read. Pupils are captivated when adults read to them. Staff provide effective support for pupils who struggle to read.

This is helping them to catch up.

Pupils build their knowledge and skills in most subjects effectively. For example, children in the early years learn to count and recognise number.

Older pupils learn about negative numbers. However, in a few subjects, sequences of learning do not identify precisely enough the building blocks of knowledge that pupils must learn. This limits how well pupils remember important knowledge in the longer term.

In most subjects, staff check how well pupils learn the curriculum. They adapt learning when necessary. For example, leaders have recently revised the curriculum in mathematics, so that pupils revisit prior learning more frequently to consolidate their understanding.

Pupils use the school's 'do it, secure it, deepen it' approach to reason and solve problems. Nonetheless, some leaders are new to their role so do not have a comprehensive enough understanding of how well pupils learn the curriculum in their subject.

Leaders and staff identify the specific needs of disadvantaged pupils, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and pupils who speak English as an additional language.

They provide sharply focused additional support for these pupils, which is having a positive impact on learning.

Pastoral provision is strong. Leaders and staff forge positive partnerships with parents and pupils to support pupils' emotional health.

For instance, when pupils are feeling anxious, they can hold a 'worry worm' or the school guinea pigs. Pupils say this helps them to feel calm. The small minority of pupils who find it hard to manage their emotions are encouraged to have 'reflection time'.

This enables them to think about the consequences of their actions.

The school's work to support pupils' personal development is effective. For instance, members of different faiths visit the school to teach pupils about different religious beliefs.

Pupils can select books from the 'diversity book bus' to find out about other cultures and lifestyles. They listen thoughtfully when considering the experiences of others, such as the people of Pakistan after the recent floods.

Leaders are considerate of staff workload and well-being.

Consequently, staff feel well supported and morale is high.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff prioritise pupils' welfare.

Leaders make the necessary checks to ensure that staff are safe to work with children. Staff and governors have received appropriate training and follow the school's procedures for referring concerns. Leaders act swiftly when they believe that a pupil might be at risk.

They make timely referrals and work closely with specialist agencies to ensure that pupils and their families get help.

Leaders have developed a curriculum that helps pupils learn how to stay safe. For example, pupils understand and can talk knowledgeably about healthy relationships, internet safety and drug awareness.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, leaders are still developing the curriculum. In these subjects, the important knowledge that pupils need to learn is not specifically identified or coherently sequenced. Leaders must identify precisely the essential knowledge they want pupils to learn, and by when, so that the curriculum enables pupils to know and remember more over time.

• Some leaders are new to their roles and have not evaluated their subject fully. As a result, they do not know how well pupils learn the curriculum. Leaders must ensure that new leaders are given the necessary support to thoroughly evaluate the impact of their subject curriculum on pupils' learning.