The Shade Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The Shade is a happy and safe school. Pupils know and embody the school's values.

They are respectful to peers and adults. Pupils trust and value staff. This helps them to be reflective and ready to learn.

Pupils benefit from effective support for their well-being. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils settle and behave well.

They concentrate and try hard in lessons. At breaktimes, pupils have fun but stay calm. Children in the early years quickly learn to sit still and focus when needed.

Pupils conduct themselves well. They tidy away chairs and smilingly hold doors open for visitors.

There are... high expectations for learning.

As a result, pupils do well. They enjoy and take pride in their work. For example, on the playground, pupils spoke enthusiastically about their knowledge of science.

Pupils benefit from frequent opportunities to develop positive character traits. They regularly take part in local community and charity work. Pupils volunteer for the many meaningful leadership roles available to them.

They are proud to make a difference through these roles. Pupils who act as eco ambassadors recycle school materials, while play leaders support younger pupils with breaktime activities. Junior travel ambassadors lead assemblies on road safety.

These experiences build pupils' resilience and responsibility.

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

There is an ambitious and well-designed curriculum. It breaks down learning into well-ordered steps.

Subject leaders build new content carefully on pupils' prior knowledge. As a result, pupils confidently develop what they know. For example, children in Reception are taught to write well-formed letters.

Year 3 pupils use suitable adverbials in creative writing. By Year 6, pupils analyse the grammatical parts of complex sentences with assurance. While this is the case, the school's provisional results in key stage 2 national tests fell in 2024.

This was especially so in writing. In response, the school has revised its writing curriculum. It has implemented a more robust programme.

Pupils are now learning what they need to be successful.

The curriculum is well delivered in most cases. The school uses consistent teaching approaches.

This helps pupils remember previous content, such as scientific vocabulary. Teachers use questioning skilfully to help pupils make connections between different things they learn. In the early years, including in the two-year-old provision, adults carefully help children learn through play.

Teachers check learning thoroughly and rectify any misconceptions. This means pupils build secure foundations. They can apply their knowledge well, such as in mathematical reasoning and calculation.

That said, sometimes the choice of learning activities is less successful. Where this happens, pupils understand the intended knowledge less quickly and confidently. Some pupils struggle to stay engaged.

This hinders their progress.

There is a strong culture of reading. Starting in the early years, children develop a love for books.

Staff teach phonics engagingly and effectively. Pupils who need help to keep up receive prompt and successful support. They speedily become fluent readers.

Pupils with SEND are enthusiastic about reading. The school helps older pupils discover texts they enjoy and find interesting.

Pupils with SEND do well.

The school listens to families. It identifies needs accurately. The school is resourceful and proactive in adapting the delivery of the curriculum to pupils' needs.

Some pupils with SEND receive high-quality learning outside of the classroom. Mostly, this provides these pupils with excellent support. This enables them to fill gaps in their learning and build their skills, such as in literacy and mathematics.

Occasionally, however, this learning is not as well integrated with the main curriculum as it could be. This bespoke provision is new. The school is not as clear as it could be on the long-term plan for these pupils.

This means the support is not as effective as it might be at helping pupils with SEND learn and develop.

The school deals with the underlying causes of inappropriate behaviour and absence. For instance, it ensures that any consequences make sense to pupils.

Incidents of misbehaviour have fallen. Attendance is at appropriate levels. If pupils struggle to attend, the school does all it can to help.

For example, it liaises promptly with agencies where needed. This leads to many of these pupils attending more regularly.

The personal development programme is coherent.

Pupils learn about important issues, for example different types of families. Pupils remember and articulate much of this learning well. An example is regarding democracy.

Pupils are taught about this in the classroom, then vote on issues in school. Sometimes, however, pupils learn content but have insufficient opportunities for rich discussions about it. In these cases, their understanding lacks depth.

Leaders and trustees know the strengths and weaknesses of provision. The trust supports the school well. Trustees challenge where needed.

The trust has helped the school improve the curriculum, such as help with staff training. Staff work well as a team to improve provision.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasion, teachers use tasks that do not support pupils to learn the intended knowledge effectively. This means that some pupils lose engagement and build up what they know less securely. The school should make sure that teachers have the guidance and support they need to deliver the curriculum with consistent effectiveness.

When some pupils with SEND are given bespoke teaching outside of the classroom, the school does not always ensure that their learning is integrated successfully with the main curriculum. This means the support is not as effective as it might be at helping a few pupils with SEND learn and develop in the longer term. The school must ensure it has clear plans to integrate these pupils with the main curriculum quickly and fully wherever possible.

• The school sometimes does not provide pupils with opportunities for rich discussion of their learning in aspects of the personal development programme. This means that pupils do not always develop the depth of understanding they could of important issues. The school should ensure that it uses opportunities to help pupils discuss and debate learning from personal development, so they have confidence in articulating what they know.