The Spinney Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are keen to learn and do well. Many have positive attitudes to their learning. They are diligent and hardworking.

Pupils value making friends from different nationalities. Pupils like bringing in experiences from home and sharing them at school. They are respectful of the school rules and the school values.

Pupils know staff care about them. They are confident staff check the class 'worry box' and will help them. Pupils are comfortable and secure at school.

They get along well together.

Reading and mathematics are among pupils' favourite lessons. They know staff want them to succeed.

Most pupils achieve well in English and mathematics... by the time they leave the school. However, pupils in all year groups need clearer guidance from adults on how to deepen their knowledge across other areas of the curriculum. Pupils who find learning tricky and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not receive enough specific support to help them achieve well.

Pupils relish various leadership roles. Older pupils are proud to be buddies to younger children. Pupils are enthusiastic about the trips and residentials they go on.

Many attend clubs such as football, choir, multi-sports, Italian and tabletop games.

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

The school is emerging from a period of turbulence. Leaders have worked hard to bring stability to the school and maintain everyone's well-being.

This has been appreciated by parents and staff.

Leaders have ensured that pupils continue to achieve well in English and mathematics by the end of key stage 2. Mathematics teaching across the school is a strength.

The curriculum from Reception to Year 6 has been recently updated to ensure that pupils gain knowledge in a logical order through leaders' chosen approach. Staff have had training on these new curriculum approaches.

However, there are aspects of the curriculum, including in early years, which are not fully developed.

The wider curriculum does not lay out in enough detail the precise knowledge pupils must know. Therefore, staff are not clear enough on what exactly pupils must understand and in what depth. As a result, pupils are set work that is often too broad or not ambitious enough.

This limits their achievement across the curriculum.

Systems are in place to check what pupils have learned. However, these are not sufficiently robust.

Due to a current lack of precision within the wider curriculum design, staff are not certain what these checks on pupils' learning need to specifically contain. Therefore, gaps in learning are not precisely identified. Essential opportunities to then support pupils to catch up are missed or not maximised.

Pupils with SEND access the full curriculum. Pupils who need extra support are given help in lessons. However, staff are not fully confident in knowing how best to adapt provision to precisely address pupils' specific learning gaps or catch up on missed learning.

Additional support programmes do not happen systematically or with enough rigor. As a result, some pupils with SEND or pupils needing additional help do not achieve as well as they could.

The reading curriculum is well thought out.

Where staff have good subject knowledge, reading is taught well. However, not all reading activities meet the high expectations intended. A new phonics programme has recently been introduced.

Staff are getting to grips with how to deliver this consistently well. Younger readers do not get enough regular practice to rehearse new sounds in their reading. Phonics books are not accurately matched to their reading ability.

Checks on how well pupils are reading are not sufficiently frequent. As a result, weaker readers do not catch up quickly enough.

Pupils behave well.

In early years, children learn happily and cooperatively. They quickly settle into routines. Older pupils act as good role models.

Pupils who need extra support to manage how they feel are supported. On occasion, pupils' chatter distracts others. However, teachers do act to address this.

Pupils attend school regularly.

The personal, health, social and emotional education curriculum content ensures that pupils have a mature understanding of equality and diversity. They engage sensibly in topical conversations and are inquisitive about the world around them.

Pupils know how to stay safe online and how to have healthy lifestyles. Pupils learn about British values, such as democracy, through elections to leadership roles.

The recently appointed governing board have the required expertise to meet their statutory duties.

They are working at pace to support the school to continue its upward trajectory. However, currently they do not have enough of a strategic oversight of school improvement.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The wider curriculum, including in early years, is not sufficiently precise in outlining the detailed knowledge pupils need to learn. This means that pupils are not acquiring knowledge in sufficient depth. The school needs to ensure that precise knowledge is clearly signposted in the wider curriculum so that staff know exactly what to teach.

Staff then need to provide learning opportunities that are suitably ambitious for all pupils and allow pupils to demonstrate that they can recall the knowledge in the detail intended. ? Across the school, including in early years, checks on what pupils have learned are not robust or precise enough. This means that specific gaps in pupils' knowledge are not always accurately identified or addressed.

Leaders need to ensure that staff know how to identify and then respond swiftly to gaps in learning, especially for those pupils with SEND or for those who find learning tricky. Staff need to adapt provision accordingly and maximise learning opportunities to address these gaps as quickly as possible. ? Checks on pupils who need extra help with reading are not happening systematically.

As a result, these pupils have reading books that are not accurately matched to their reading ability and are not catching up as quickly as they could. The school needs to ensure that staff have the required expert training to support pupils to get better at reading. Teachers need to ensure that these pupils have access to an appropriate level of books, that they read often and expectations are raised for weaker readers.

• A new governing board has only just been appointed. This means the strategic vision for the school's continued improvement needs updating so governors can provide appropriate challenge and support. Governors and school leaders need to work with all stakeholders to ensure that the mechanisms are in place to support the school strategically to realise its vision and further strengthen its leadership capacity.