Tenacres First School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Tenacres is a good school. The children get off to an exceptional start in the Reception classes.

In Years 1 to 4, good teaching overall and a well-focused curriculum ensure that pupils make the most of this accelerated start to their learning, so that attainment throughout the school is above average. All groups of pupils, such as girls and boys, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress and achieve well. Improvements in provision and initiatives employed by the school have successfully accelerated children's progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in writing across the school.

Parents and carers are pleased with the education provided for thei...r children and comment that, 'The school is friendly and welcoming and our children are happy and settled.' The school has outstanding links with them and promotes good community cohesion locally and internationally through many neighbourhood events and links overseas. Trusting relationships between pupils and adults reflect the good care, guidance and support provided.

As a consequence, pupils feel safe and develop personal skills well, including good spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness. Behaviour throughout the school is good and well managed. The school has improved attendance so that it is above average and continuing to rise.

Pupils have an extremely well-developed understanding of how to stay healthy and are happy to take on responsibilities within their school community. Pupils particularly enjoy the wide range of after-school activities and clubs, including the choir, instrument tuition and 'forest school'. Arrangements for the safeguarding of pupils are robust.

The large majority of teaching seen during the inspection was good. In some lessons that were satisfactory, activities were not being consistently tailored to individuals' learning needs and limited use was made of assessment. In the outstanding lessons seen, activities were sharply focused on the pupils' next steps in learning and proceeded with pace.

Pupils typically learn well and make good progress, focusing on the given tasks and enjoying their activities. The vast majority of pupils know their targets but marking does not always identify what they need to do next to improve their work. In the satisfactory lessons these skills are not so apparent or shared widely enough.

The well-planned and developing curriculum provides rich learning experiences for pupils which are greatly enhanced by a range of visits, visitors and strong partnerships with local schools. Staff make sure that all pupils are equally valued and they work hard to promote the learning of boys to help them do as well as the girls. The most able pupils do particularly well and attain high standards by the time they leave.

The headteacher provides a very clear sense of purpose and direction, clearly linked to school improvement. She has, rightly, focused on developing a senior leadership team although not all its members are, as yet, as fully involved in the good monitoring and analysis as she is. The Early Years Foundation Stage is an outstanding aspect of the school, particularly in the use of the well-resourced outside area and the child-focused curriculum.

The governing body and leaders have a clear understanding of the school's strengths and the priorities to be addressed to maintain recent improvements. Based on these good aspects and its good track record of improvement, rising standards and strong leadership, the school has good capacity for sustained further improvement.

Information about the school

Tenacres First School is an average-sized first school that admits children from a wide range of pre-school settings.

Most pupils come from a White British background. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is also above average.

There is a before-school club managed by the governing body. A privately run Children's Centre is attached to the school. The school has achieved the Artsmark Gold award, Silver Eco school status and Healthy Schools status.

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