Cold Aston Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school's vision of 'journeying together with love and trust' shines through in every aspect of school life. Staff know and care for pupils very well.

Pupils appreciate morning 'check-ins' where they learn to share their feelings effectively. This develops a strong sense of belonging and sets a positive tone for each day.

Pupils flourish academically and socially.

This is due to the school's high expectations of pupils to be well prepared for the future. Typically, pupils listen carefully in class, behave sensibly and experience success. They uphold the school's core values of respect, responsibility and resilience.

For example, pupils learn to 'n...ever give up, even when it is hard'.

Warm relationships are central to the school's success. Pupils trust staff to help them with any worries they may have.

The school empowers pupils to be proud advocates for themselves and others. For example, pupils organise the annual talent show and run a community café. A highlight for many is the weekly celebration assembly, where pupils like to nominate their peers for the 'values cup'.

Parents and carers express highly positive views of the school. They describe it as a 'gem' in the community and one that is 'building good humans'.

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

With strong support from the trust, leaders have steered the school positively through the reorganisation of the mixed-age classes.

Staff are exceptionally proud to work at the school. They embrace the value the school places on their workload and professional development. Many benefit from working alongside other schools in the trust to share good practice.

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum for its mixed-age classes. It sets out what pupils need to know and remember. Staff refer to the subject-specific vocabulary they expect pupils to understand and use.

For example, pupils in Year 3 explain the concept of 'invasion' when discussing the Romans. In Year 6, pupils understand how and why the artist Escher used 'tessellation'. Pupils remember their current learning well.

However, at times, the school does not make the links to pupils' prior learning explicit enough. This means that the depth of what pupils know and remember over time varies between subjects.

Reading is a priority for the school.

Younger pupils quickly learn the letters and the sounds they make. If pupils fall behind, they receive timely help and support to keep them on track. Staff place a sharp focus on developing pupils' communication skills.

They weave stories and songs throughout the day. Pupils in Year 1 eagerly retell the story of 'Farmer Duck'. They confidently use language such as 'overwhelmed' and 'bone idle' to describe the characters.

By Year 6, pupils enjoy reading and do so with increasing fluency, intonation and accuracy.

Teachers use many successful strategies to implement the curriculum. For example, through practical activities, pupils in Year 1 could confidently identify doubles and halves of numbers.

By modelling how to use high-quality vocabulary and punctuation, many pupils wrote complex sentences and used ambitious words in their written work. However, the school's checks on pupils' understanding occasionally lack precision in some subjects. Where this happens, pupils do not secure important knowledge in their long-term memory.

The school has effective systems to identify pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils' individual plans match their specific needs. The school reviews the support pupils with SEND receive to check it has the necessary impact.

Staff adapt learning effectively, which enables pupils with SEND to enjoy the same curriculum as their peers.

The school is a calm place to learn. It is rare for poor behaviour to disrupt learning.

Pupils of all ages play and collaborate harmoniously. For example, older pupils enjoy leading parachute games at lunchtime for younger pupils. The school manages attendance robustly.

Consequently, pupils' attendance is high.

The school meticulously plans many rich and purposeful experiences to broaden pupils' development. Immersive experiences add to pupils' cultural awareness.

These include trips, art workshops and visits to different places of worship. Pupils have a voice in school life. They help with important decisions such as fundraising for playground improvements.

Pupils actively participate in various clubs, from mock trials to gardening. They debate on current affairs. This helps them to understand the concepts of democracy and equality and to respect the views of others.

Trustees and members of the local academy council have secure oversight of the school's work. They use their growing expertise to support and hold the school to account for the quality of education pupils receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• At times, the school does not make the links to pupils' prior learning explicit enough. This prevents pupils from deepening their understanding of important concepts. The trust and school should ensure that pupils can connect their current and prior learning so that they develop a depth of knowledge across all subjects.

• In a few of the wider curriculum subjects, the systems to help pupils recall knowledge are not as well developed as they are in others. As a result, some pupils cannot retrieve important content easily. The trust and school should continue to strengthen how it ensures that teaching supports pupils to secure important knowledge in their long-term memory.