Beeston Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Great Dunham benefit from the secure relationships with the adults who care for them. As a result, they enjoy school and are enthusiastic when talking about it.

Pupils make sure that everyone is welcome and there is a strong community spirit within the school.

Within the small school environment, pupils get along well with their older and younger peers. During social time, pupils enjoy playing games together.

They are kind to each other. Pupils value the positive start and end to their school day in the before- and after-school clubs, where they chat, draw, play with Lego, or are active outside.

In lessons, many pupils focus well and listen... to the adults.

They enjoy their work and concentrate on their learning. However, sometimes adults do not give pupils enough opportunity to develop these self-regulation skills. When this happens, pupils can talk over each other and not complete work to a sufficiently high standard.

Pupils are starting to benefit from an ambitious new curriculum, which was introduced this academic year. They are often positive about their learning. However, the school recognises that some pupils have gaps in their knowledge or understanding and are not at the level that they should be academically.

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

The school is recovering from a period of instability with effective help from the trust. Those responsible for governance have identified appropriate priorities for the school and have made notable progress towards securing a high-quality education for all pupils.The school now ensures that pupils receive the learning and, where appropriate, the help they need to be ready for their next stage of education.

The school supports adults well to enable them to deliver the curriculum successfully. In many cases, adults adapt the curriculum appropriately to meet the needs of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). In the more established subject areas, such as mathematics, adults explain the learning clearly and check pupils' understanding accurately.

Staff are confident to give targeted support to pupils who are struggling. This ensures that pupils meet the expectations of the curriculum.

When adults are clear about what pupils need to learn, they effectively deliver lessons that meet the needs of pupils.

They use a range of methods to check how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum. However, in some subjects, adults are not clear enough about what pupils need to know or do by key points in the curriculum. This means that, at times, the activities they plan, or their checks on pupils' learning, are not precise enough to move pupils forward.

As a result, in these subjects, the necessary adaptations are not made, and pupils do not learn as well as they should.

The school has started to put in place successful and appropriate support for pupils at the early stages of reading. It has quickly identified the gaps in pupils' phonics knowledge.

Pupils are put into appropriate teaching groups, where they learn the skills that they need to blend sounds and decode words. The school regularly monitors how well pupils learn these skills. This means that most pupils quickly catch up and develop the skills that they need to be fluent readers.

Appropriate training and support is provided to staff to help them deliver the phonics programme. However, further staff development is required to ensure that the teaching of phonics is consistent for all pupils.

Pupils regularly demonstrate that they can control impulsive behaviour and behave well.

As a result, most lessons are calm and purposeful. Where this is the case, pupils focus on their learning and achieve well. However, there are inconsistencies in staff expectations of how well pupils should behave.

Sometimes staff do not have high enough expectations for how pupils should conduct themselves. They allow too much learning time to be lost through low-level disruption.

The school's provision for pupils' personal development is well designed to build their knowledge and interests over time.

Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. They show respect for differences. Pupils feel it would be boring 'if we were all the same'.

They understand and respect that people have different views. They learn about fundamental British values, such as democracy. From Reception, pupils learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Pupils benefit from opportunities to go on trips, such as to Cromer. These enrich the curriculum and deepen pupils' learning.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the school has not ensured that staff are secure in how to adapt lessons well enough to support pupils. Sometimes pupils do not get the appropriate support to complete tasks to a high enough standard. Subsequently, some pupils are working below what is expected for their age and do not meet the expectations of the school's curriculum.

The school must ensure that staff have the expertise to deliver the curriculum as the school intends. ? In some areas of the curriculum, the school does not ensure that adults consistently check on what pupils know or struggle with. Therefore, some learning activities are not pitched precisely enough to build on pupils' prior learning or to address misconceptions.

Where this happens, pupils fall behind what they should be achieving. The school should ensure that adults are appropriately supported to use assessment well, so pupils meet the ambition of the curriculum. The school does not have consistently high enough expectations for pupil behaviour.

It does not fully support pupils to develop good routines for learning. Therefore, lesson time can be lost, and some pupils struggle to concentrate and maintain focus on their learning. The school must ensure that their high expectations of pupil conduct are consistently applied in all areas of the school.