The Disraeli School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Everyone receives a warm welcome at this happy school. Pupils know that this is a place where diversity is not just valued, it is cherished. As one pupil commented: 'You can be who you want to be at Disraeli.'

They know that 'learning is a journey, not a race', and that hard work and determination help them to succeed. This is reflected in pupils' positive attitudes and achievement across a broad range of subjects.

Pupils behave well and live up to their teachers' high expectations.

They are courteous and respectful. Pupils readily hold doors open for others, offering friendly greetings and thanks to staff and their classmates. Pupils rightly value staff's k...indness and strong support and care.

This helps children in early years to settle in quickly and feel safe and secure. Throughout the school, this nurturing approach instils pupils with the confidence to share any worries and to seek help when needed.

Pupils benefit from the school's exceptional range of clubs, visits and enrichment.

These considerably enhance their education and enjoyment of school. Older pupils are excited about their forthcoming residential visit. They are eagerly anticipating the thrill of using the zip wire and taking part in other adventurous activities.

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

Ambition, integrity and a determined, moral purpose for every pupil to succeed are the underpinning principles of the school's leadership. Highly effective leadership has steered the school exceptionally well through some difficult challenges. During this time, the school has maintained its sharp focus on the quality of education.

This has led to improvements in outcomes. As a result, most pupils are achieving well.

Nevertheless, there are some inconsistencies in the quality of pupils' writing.

The school has recognised this and has recently implemented a new writing strategy. This is at an early stage and not yet fully embedded. Therefore, it is too soon to see the full impact of this work.

Rightly, the school is also focusing sharply on improving disadvantaged pupils' achievement. However, there is still more work to do to raise these pupils' achievement and realise leaders' high aspirations for them.

The curriculum is ambitious, well designed and taught well.

Staff plan logical sequences of lessons. They routinely recap previous content. This helps pupils to remember and build on what they already know.

Staff check what pupils have remembered and address any gaps or errors. They bring learning to life through interesting topics and appropriate activities. The early years environment provides a stimulating environment that fosters children's learning effectively.

Well-considered activities spark children's curiosity and 'hook' them into learning.

Staff waste no time in identifying if any pupils need extra help. They have a strong understanding of pupils' needs.

Staff adapt their approaches to make sure that learning is accessible to pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This includes pupils who attend the specially resourced provision. Here, the curriculum is bespoke and tailored precisely to pupils' very complex needs.

The school's nurturing environment strongly promotes pupils' emotional security, especially for the very youngest two- and three-year-olds. Right from the start, staff establish strong routines and high expectations for behaviour that help to create a calm and settled environment. Staff provide sensitive, caring support for pupils who need help to manage their emotions.

Throughout the school, there is a deliberate focus on teaching vocabulary. This starts in the early years. Staff here are highly skilled in their interactions with children.

They continually model language, build on children's responses and engage children in back-and-forth dialogue. Rhymes, stories and songs feature daily and contribute well to children's language acquisition and reading.

Reading is a strength.

There is impressive consistency and strong expertise in the teaching of early reading. This gets children in early years off to a good start in learning to read. Timely additional support is provided for any pupils who are not keeping up with the reading programme.

Pupils' regular engagement with high-quality texts contributes well to their wider reading knowledge and enjoyment.

The school's work to promote pupils' personal development is exemplary. Pupils benefit from additional opportunities through which they acquire valuable leadership skills.

Through charitable mini-enterprise projects, they gain an understanding of what it means to be part of a community and their role in supporting others. Every pupil is given a chance to share their talents and shine, such as by performing in the 'Voices in a Million'.

The school has a real community feel.

Everyone works together for the benefit of pupils, including governors, who maintain oversight of the school. Staff value leaders' strong support for their well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There are some inconsistencies in the quality of pupils' writing, particularly in pupils' handwriting, punctuation and sentence construction. This hampers the overall quality of pupils' writing and means that not all pupils are achieving well enough in this strand of the English curriculum. The school needs to fully implement and embed its new writing curriculum.

• The school's work to improve disadvantaged pupils' achievement through the pupil premium strategy has not yet had the full impact that leaders intend. Currently, some disadvantaged pupils are not achieving as well as they could in English and mathematics. The school needs to maintain its sharp focus on the achievement of these pupils so that they achieve the best possible outcomes.