Tushingham With Grindley CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a school where love and care shine through. The warm and nurturing relationships between staff and pupils are special. Staff know and understand pupils well.

As a result, pupils are helped to feel happy and safe.

Pupils live up to the school's high expectations for their behaviour. 'The Tushingham way' is lived out by everyone, including children in the early years.

Pupils have a deep respect for one another. They support each other when they meet a challenge and celebrate each other's successes.

Pupils develop high aspirations and show consistently positive attitudes to learning.

Pupils are eager to learn. They understand that staff... expect them to work hard and do their best. Pupils rise to these expectations and most achieve well in many areas of the curriculum.

Children in the early years are exceptionally well prepared for the demands of Year 1.

Pupils benefit from the many exciting and enriching experiences that the school provides to enhance their education. Pupils can take part in a wide range of activities.

These include sporting competitions and a vast array of after-school clubs. Pupils relish the opportunities that they have to take on leadership roles, such as acting as VIVAs and play leaders. Pupils also enjoy leading assemblies, organising charity events and playtime activities for other children.

They make a true difference to their school.

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

The school has designed a rich and engaging curriculum from the early years to Year 6. It has ensured that pupils' learning is relevant to them and to their local context.

Overall, the curriculum is delivered well. In most subjects, staff have strong subject knowledge. They introduce new learning clearly.

Pupils are excited by their learning and enjoy talking about what they have been learning about. Most pupils learn well. The school quickly identifies pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) by working closely with parents, carers and external professionals.

Staff provide extra support, such as intervention sessions, to help pupils to close any gaps in their knowledge. This helps pupils with SEND to learn successfully alongside their peers.

In a small number of subjects, some pupils do not remember essential knowledge over time.

This is because, on occasion, staff do not focus on the most important knowledge that the school wants pupils to secure in readiness for future learning.

In many subjects, the school reliably checks what pupils know and remember. Staff use questioning successfully in order to check pupils' understanding.

However, in a few wider curriculum subjects, the school is still developing its approaches to check that pupils embed knowledge into their long-term memory. In these subjects, the checks that staff make are sometimes not effective in helping staff to understand how well pupils remember key knowledge. This prevents pupils from achieving what they are fully capable of in a timely manner.

The school prioritises early reading and phonics. Children in the Nursery Year thoroughly enjoy joining in with stories, rhymes and songs. This prepares them extremely well to learn a wider range of sounds and letters when they enter the Reception Year.

Staff are highly ambitious for all children, irrespective of their background or ability, from the minute that they begin in the Nursery Year.

Staff are skilled at delivering the school's phonics programme. Pupils practise reading using books that align closely with the sounds that they learn in the classroom.

This reinforces their understanding, and most pupils quickly gain the knowledge and skills they need to read with confidence and fluency. Those pupils who need help to keep up with the pace of the phonics programme are supported by well-trained staff.

Clear routines are firmly embedded across the school, and this means that classrooms are purposeful environments.

Children in the early years engage deeply and focus fully on their tasks. They are highly motivated to learn. Children rapidly develop their confidence and independence, and they play happily with their friends.

Pupils in other year groups commit themselves to their learning.

The school's provision to enhance pupils' personal development is exceptional. It is woven through every aspect of school life.

Pupils have a strong sense of fairness. They are determined that no one is ever left out or discriminated against. They see themselves as citizens of the school, the wider community and the world.

Pupils lead projects that reach far beyond the school community, such as sending birthday cards to people who are alone, sponsoring a child to go to school in Uganda and learning about the impact of World War II.

Governors provide effective challenge and support to leaders. They ensure that the school uses its resources wisely to provide the best opportunities for pupils.

Staff are highly positive about the support that they receive from the school. They appreciate the training that they receive and the resources that the school has purchased to help reduce their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Occasionally, in a few subjects, pupils are not supported to learn the most important knowledge in the curriculum. Therefore, some pupils do not build a sufficient depth of knowledge in these subjects. The school should ensure that teachers have the expertise required to make appropriate pedagogical choices, so that pupils learn the knowledge necessary for future learning.

• In some wider curriculum subjects, the school is in the early stages of implementing strategies to check how well pupils learn the curriculum. Consequently, the school does not have a secure understanding of what pupils know and remember in all subjects. The school should develop effective assessment approaches to check the impact of its work in helping pupils to remember their learning in the long term.