Unicorn Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Unicorn Primary School continues to be a good school.

The headteacher of this school is Victoria Elvines. This school is part of Compass Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school.

The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Stuart Ellis, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Ann Medhurst. There is also an executive headteacher, Sue Robertson, who is responsible for this school and three others.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe here and build positive working relationships with the staff team.

Children in the early years work and play well alongside one another. They ar...e proud of their achievements. Mostly, pupils focus on their work and are attentive in class.

This means that typically, learning is not disrupted and classrooms are mostly calm and orderly.

The school ensures there are many opportunities to encourage pupils to become global citizens, effective communicators, lifelong learners and champions of healthy lifestyles. Overnight stays, for example, at school camps and residential visits to Dorset and Shropshire boost pupils' confidence and encourage their independence.

Taking on roles of responsibility including as school librarians, team captains and play leaders encourage pupils' leadership skills.

The school encourages pupils to develop their talents and interests. Leaders organise a range of extracurricular activities, for example ballet, Ju Jitsu and korfball, theatrical performances and sporting competitions.

Pupils and staff are happy at this school. As a result, staff generally stay and work at the school a long time.

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

Since the previous inspection the school has taken effective action to strengthen the school's curriculum.

School leaders have in place a curriculum that is broad and builds pupils' knowledge and skills cumulatively over time. Curriculum thinking clearly defines what pupils should know and be able to do. This includes the important vocabulary and skills that children in the early years and older pupils, need to know to prepare them for their next stage of learning.

The school works together with other schools in the trust to strengthen the subject curriculums and to deliver training. In class, teachers present information clearly and in the order needed to build and re-enforce pupils' knowledge and skills over time. Pupils regularly practise and recall what they know and can do which helps them to remember it long term.

Typically, pupils recall confidently what they remember from their prior learning. Occasionally, pupils' retrieval of their prior learning is not as secure where checks on what pupils have retained in their long-term memory are not as thorough. Consequently, gaps and misconceptions are, on occasion, not identified or addressed quickly.

Children in Reception begin to learn phonics from the start. The approach to teaching phonics and early reading is consistently applied by adults. Pupils read books matched to the sounds they know, they have regular opportunities to practise their decoding skills.

Pupils reading skills are regularly checked. For any pupils who are identified as weaker readers, extra support is put in place to help them keep up. This helps pupils to read with fluency and confidence.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access the same curriculum as their peers. The school makes adaptations to teaching and resources, and to the wider curriculum which ensures that all pupils are included in all aspects of school life.

The school has recently updated the school's behaviour policy.

This has included training for staff on understanding and managing complex behaviour. This training has helped staff to apply a range of different strategies. Additional personalised support is provided for pupils who need extra help to manage their conduct.

The majority of pupils attend school regularly. For any pupils who do not, leaders make sure that they understand the reasons why and work with parents and pupils to provide tailored support. As a result of this work, attendance rates typically improve over time.

The school promotes fundamental British values through a range of activities, such as electing pupils to the school's parliament or helping to decide school rules and rewards. Pupils are taught to keep safe online and offline. This is delivered through a broad and diverse curriculum as well as visiting experts, such as the Police.

Those responsible for governance including trust leaders and trustees, have put a review structure in place that enables effective scrutiny and challenge of the school's work. This ensures that decisions made and actions taken have a positive impact on the school's development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Occasionally, where checks on pupils' learning are not routinely thorough, gaps in pupils' recall and understanding are not identified and addressed quickly. Leaders should ensure that in all subjects, through routinely checking what pupils know and remember, teachers strengthen and deepen pupils' knowledge and identify and address any gaps or misconceptions.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2019.

Also at this postcode