Tudhoe Colliery Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The 'Tudhoe Child' is at the heart of this successful school's ethos. This focus on community underpins the school's curriculum, behaviour system and personal development programme. The wider curriculum celebrates pupils' heritage in this ex-mining area.

Pupils are taught to be well-rounded young people. The 'Tudhoe Child wheel' helps them to do this. It makes clear the character traits that pupils should display and develop.

Pupils relish living up to these expectations. They show high levels of respect for others. Pupils are kind and empathetic.

They are also outspoken against any form of discrimination.

Pupils benefit from a carefully constructed ...curriculum. They show high levels of motivation.

Pupils achieve well as a result. Children in the early years quickly settle into the school. They learn the routines of phonics and continuous provision well.

Children are proud to earn 'independence points'. They enjoy the reward of taking home the early years stuffed dog, Arthur.

The personal development of pupils is skilfully woven throughout the curriculum.

From Reception to Year 6, pupils enjoy fulfilling the requirements of 'Tudhoe 30'. These are activities they must take part in before they leave. Older pupils are proud to talk about their 'Tudhoe 30' scrapbook.

They know they will enjoy looking back on these memories when they are adults.

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

The school has developed a largely bespoke curriculum. This meets the needs of pupils well.

The school makes clear the important knowledge that pupils should learn. Staff ensure pupils build this knowledge up over time. Staff break learning down effectively.

For example, in Year 6 art, pupils learn about observational sketching. The teacher demonstrates each stage of drawing. As a result, pupils produce high-quality sketches of whole and dissected fruit.

Recently, there has been some staffing turbulence at the school. Currently, subject leadership is mostly overseen by senior leaders. This adds to leaders' workload.

The school and trust recognise this. They have plans in place to spread leadership of subjects more widely across the school. This is an important priority moving forward.

The school ensures reading and mathematics are prioritised in the curriculum. Pupils achieve well in end of key stage 2 tests. In the early years, children enjoy practising their mathematics outside in the 'maths shed'.

They use building blocks to practise counting. However, the mathematics curriculum is not taught consistently well throughout the school. Some pupils do not move on to more complex mathematics as often as they should.

In addition, some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not reach the same ambitious outcomes as their peers. This is because the learning is not consistently adapted to meet their needs.

Staff and pupils in the school share a passion for reading.

Reading is at the heart of everything the school does. Phonics is expertly delivered by well-qualified staff. Pupils who fall behind are helped to catch up quickly.

Children in the early years rapidly develop routines to support learning. This sets positive foundations for their next steps. Children also enjoy sharing stories with their teacher.

Story time is used to help children understand new words such as 'flickering'. Every year group in school has a literature plan. This sets out the ambitious, diverse and engaging texts pupils will read.

Pupils love to read with staff. Well-chosen books contribute exceptionally well to their personal development. Pupils speak about the themes in these books with maturity and sensitivity.

They develop a passionate commitment to equality over time.

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They make a significant contribution to the impressive culture.

A respectful warmth spreads through the school. Pupils enjoy being peer mediators on the playground. Pupils in Year 6 also take their role as pen pals to Reception children very seriously.

This model of leadership and peer support is highly embedded. It impacts greatly on pupils' attitudes towards others. 'Talk assemblies' help create an atmosphere where pupils are happy to speak out.

In these assemblies, they debate and vote on interesting issues. For example, they talk about whether it is better to contribute to animal or human charities. These rich experiences ensure pupils' attitudes to learning and each other are exceptional.

Leaders, directors and governors commit to providing a high-quality, bespoke curriculum for pupils. They focus well on continuing professional development for staff. This helps improve the experience for pupils further.

Staff thoroughly enjoy working at the school. They are exceptionally proud of the pupils. Staff also appreciate the support they receive for their workload and well-being.

Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the school. One summed up the views of many by saying that the school is a 'warm, welcoming and nurturing' place.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There is inconsistency in the implementation of the mathematics curriculum. Some pupils, including pupils with SEND, develop gaps in their learning or do not progress on to problem-solving and reasoning as often as they should. The school should continue to review and improve the implementation of the mathematics curriculum from the early years upwards to support all pupils' progress in the subject.

• Due to recent staffing changes, senior leaders are currently responsible for multiple subject areas. This adds to the workload of senior staff. The school should develop and implement effective distributed leadership, supported by a focused programme of professional development.