Carleton Endowed CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy, safe and enjoy attending this school. They are polite and courteous to visitors and each other.

Pupils from different year groups mix well. They like spending time together at break and lunchtimes. Older pupils are positive role models to those in younger classes.

This contributes towards the school's warm, caring and welcoming feel.

Some pupils hold leadership responsibilities. They speak with pride about being ambassadors for the school.

Pupils are proud to support their peers and the school in different ways, such as by being a monitor or prefect. As pupils progress through the school, they become increasingly aware of the needs ...of others. This includes through organising collections for charity and engaging in discussions about topical news events.

The school is determined to provide a high-quality education for its pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, it has not yet fully realised this ambition. Pupils' achievement in some subjects is below the standard achieved by pupils nationally.

The school has taken the right steps to improve its curriculum. However, there remains work to do to ensure that pupils receive a high-quality education and achieve consistently well.

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

The school has designed and implemented a broad curriculum.

It builds on pupils' previous learning and their experiences in the early years. The school has set out the knowledge and skills that pupils must learn as they progress through the school. In subjects where the curriculum is more established, there is a clear structure to the way that the curriculum is taught.

Teachers know what pupils are expected to learn and in what order. Most teachers are confident in their subject knowledge. They routinely check whether pupils remember important content.

This successfully helps pupils to build their learning over time. In subjects at an earlier stage of development, this strength of practice is less consistent. Pupils are less successful in remembering important content.

They do not benefit from opportunities to build on their prior learning successfully.

The school has ensured that pupils' learning and development needs are quickly identified. Some pupils study a bespoke curriculum.

The school provides purposeful learning opportunities that respond to these pupils' needs appropriately. Staff are aware of pupils' barriers to learning. They use this understanding of pupils to adapt learning, particularly in subjects such as English and mathematics.

In some other subjects, teachers do not adapt pupils' learning consistently well. This makes it harder for pupils with SEND to learn what is intended.

Children make a strong start to learning to read.

They begin to learn the sounds that letters make from the beginning of their time in Reception. Pupils read books that are well matched to their phonics knowledge. Over time, they read with increasing fluency.

Pupils who require additional help with their reading are supported well by staff. However, at times, teachers do not check effectively that pupils can use and apply their reading knowledge. Sometimes, pupils' errors go unnoticed or are not addressed quickly enough.

Older pupils read a range of texts by different authors independently. They appreciate the recently replenished selection of books available in the class and school libraries. The school has implemented a revised strategy for the teaching of reading in key stage 2.

This approach is applied inconsistently. It prevents pupils from building their vocabulary, language comprehension and a love of reading successfully.

Most pupils attend school regularly.

However, when this is not the case, the school does not analyse the reasons for pupils' absences as incisively as it could. This makes it difficult for the school to identify ways in which to support pupils to attend more regularly.

The school has carefully designed its personal, social and health education curriculum.

It has ensured that pupils learn about the risks that they may encounter in their lives. This contributes to pupils developing an age-appropriate understanding of topics such as consent and healthy relationships.

Staff feel supported by leaders.

They benefit from opportunities to observe practice in other schools. While the trust has supported the school's improvement, there is not a clear strategy to ensure that leaders, including trust leaders, check that the actions being taken to improve the school are having the desired impact on pupils knowing more and remembering more. The trust recognises that the school requires further development and is supporting it to improve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff know how to report concerns about individual pupils. They respond appropriately and ensure that pupils are safe.

Occasionally, the school does not ensure that concerns are recorded in a consistent manner. In a small number of cases, this makes it difficult to establish, in the long term, the outcome of any subsequent actions.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum in some subjects is at an early stage of development.

It does not provide opportunities for pupils to build on what they have previously learned. This makes it difficult for pupils to develop their knowledge securely by applying their learning in different contexts. The school should further develop the curriculum so that pupils successfully learn and remember the knowledge and skills that they need for future learning.

• In some cases, teachers do not adapt learning for pupils with SEND consistently well. Some pupils with SEND do not learn the curriculum as well as they should. The school should support staff to ensure that learning is appropriately adapted to help all pupils with SEND to achieve well.

The school has not ensured that leaders routinely and accurately check the impact of actions to support pupils' learning and development. This reduces its ability to make the improvements to pupils' education and experience of school as quickly as it needs. The school should, in partnership with the trust, ensure that staff are well supported to develop their skills in leadership so that they accurately check the impact of their actions on pupils' learning and positively contribute towards the school's strategic improvement.

• Occasionally, the school does not record concerns about pupils' safety, and its subsequent actions, as accurately as it should. It is sometimes difficult to identify how concerns are followed up. The school should refine its recording procedures to ensure a consistent approach.

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