Belton Lane Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy school where everyone is made to feel welcome. Pupils enjoy school and develop a strong sense of belonging. As one pupil explained, 'At this school everyone respects each other.

Everybody comes here to learn and to be kind to one another.' Relationships between staff and pupils are warm. As a result, pupils feel safe and cared for.

Pupils consistently treat each other and adults with courtesy and respect.

The school expects all pupils to work hard towards achieving their own potential. Pupils strive hard to meet these expectations, as some put it, `We challenge ourselves every day.'

They show mature attitudes towards their learning a...nd achieve well. Pupils are proud of their school, their own achievements and the achievements of others.

Pupils access a range of carefully planned wider opportunities.

Pupils are particularly positive about the school's 'well-being days' where they learn strategies to help them look after their mental and physical health. Pupils enjoy taking on leadership responsibilities such as being a reading ambassador, school councillor or playleader. Pupils access a wide range of after school clubs.

These include choir, gardening, dance and a variety of sports. These opportunities broaden pupils' experiences, nurture their interests and prepare them well for the future.

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

Children get off to a secure start in the early years.

Staff develop children's early language and communication skills well. Spoken interactions between adults and children have a consistently positive impact on learning. Staff model new words and encourage children to include them correctly in their own conversations.

Children explore and learn through play. The provision is well-resourced and organised. Children are well-prepared for key stage 1.

There is a strong reading culture at the school. Children start their phonics journey straight away in the Reception Year. They take home reading books which are matched to the sounds they have learnt in their phonics sessions.

This helps pupils develop their reading fluency. Some pupils access extra support. This helps them to keep up with the phonics programme.

Pupils enjoy reading and can talk confidently about their favourite books and authors. The school has recently developed its reading curriculum. It is ambitious and is carefully structured to ensure a consistent approach is delivered across the year groups.

Pupils access a range of high-quality texts and benefit from frequent opportunities to read aloud. As a result, pupils develop their understanding of vocabulary and different grammatical aspects of the texts they read. The mathematics curriculum is ambitious.

Teachers have secure subject knowledge. They model concepts clearly, enabling pupils to build and deepen their understanding. Pupils consolidate their knowledge by frequently revisiting what they have previously learned.

They described how they build on prior learning and apply it in different contexts. Teaching includes opportunities for reasoning and explanation. This encourages pupils to think at a deeper level.

Consequently, pupils achieve well and talk about their mathematics learning with confidence. They demonstrate accurate use of key mathematical vocabulary such as numerator, denominator, inverse, equivalent fractions and estimation. The wider curriculum is well-planned and sequenced so that pupils' knowledge and skills build well over time.

Pupils' recall of key facts from both their recent work and from work they have done in previous years, varies. For example, in physical education, pupils can confidently articulate key techniques and strategies. In some other subjects, pupils' knowledge is not as embedded.

Although leaders check how secure pupils' knowledge is across the subjects, the information leaders gather is not always used as effectively as it could be to address any existing gaps in pupils' knowledge.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access a broad and ambitious curriculum. The school identifies the needs of SEND pupils appropriately.

However, in some of the wider subjects, staff do not routinely adapt the learning well enough to meet the individual needs of pupils whose prior knowledge is not as secure as it should be. This includes some pupils with (SEND). Some pupils access additional support to help them to regulate their own emotions.

This support is highly effective. The wider development of pupils is a strength of the school. There is a carefully planned programme of visitors which broaden pupils' experiences.

Pupils recognise the importance of tolerance and respect. As one pupil explained, 'You should always treat others as you expect to be treated even if their beliefs are different to yours.' Pupils demonstrate an age-appropriate understanding of different types of family and relationships.

Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, including when online. Staff are proud to work at the school. Leaders are considerate of staff's workload and well-being.

Staff value the training opportunities available to them. As a result, staff are happy and feel well supported. Governors are passionate about the school.

They fulfil their statutory duties. Parents and carers have a positive opinion of the school. Many compliment the care and support that staff offer their pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Sometimes adaptations do not meet the needs of pupils whose prior subject knowledge is not secure, including some pupils with SEND. As a result, those pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

The school should ensure that staff have the expertise needed to adapt learning, so that these pupils achieve their best possible outcomes. The school's leadership of subjects is at various stages of development. Consequently, the precision of the school's oversight of the curriculum is inconsistent.

For example, some subject leaders do not routinely use information from staff's checks on pupils' learning to refine the curriculum. As a result, some pupils' gaps in knowledge are not addressed and they do not achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that it develops subject leadership so that teachers ensure that pupils know and re-member more of the curriculum.

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