Cranmere Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school's values, including respect and curiosity, run like a golden thread through every aspect of school life. This begins each morning with the kindness value, as the Year 6 'smile spreaders' welcome younger pupils at the school gates. They help others to start the day positively.

A thoughtful focus on mental health and well-being helps pupils learn to be kind to others and to themselves. Staff foster warm, respectful relationships with pupils, ensuring they feel supported and valued. As a result, pupils feel safe and cared for.

Pupils speak positively about all aspects of school life. They take part in a wide range of enrichment opportunities that help them exp...lore their talents and interests. Clubs are especially popular, including British Sign Language, football and coding.

Pupils are proud to represent the school in sporting competitions. They enjoy being part of 'Team Dragon'.

The school has high aspirations for all pupils, with a strong commitment to igniting a love of learning.

Pupils are enthusiastic about their lessons and behave well. Pupils who need extra help to manage their emotions receive carefully tailored support. Outcomes at the end of key stage 2 are strong.

Pupils achieve well across the curriculum.

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

From Nursery through to Year 6, the school has developed a broad and ambitious curriculum that helps pupils understand the world beyond Esher. The curriculum, overall, makes strong links across subjects.

This helps pupils build a connected body of knowledge. The school has identified clear learning goals. These goals outline what pupils should remember and apply over time.

This means that teachers know what to focus on in lessons, what to check on and what to revisit.

The school prioritises staff training. Recent improvements in the way the school identifies and supports pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have had a positive impact on learning.

Pupils with SEND benefit from well-designed 'passports to success'. These provide teachers with clear strategies and adaptations to use in their classrooms. This ensures that pupils with SEND learn well alongside their classmates.

Retrieval sessions at the start of lessons, in most subjects, support pupils to retain and deepen their understanding well. For example, in history, pupils successfully learn facts about a range of time periods. The curriculum also helps them develop and apply key historical skills in different contexts.

As a result, pupils have a secure understanding of chronology and can confidently explore key concepts such as empire and democracy. However, in a couple of other subjects, pupils do not make such secure connections. The school has clear plans in place for improving learning in these subjects, but there is still some work to do.

Learning to read is a priority. The phonics programme is well structured. It starts in Nursery, where children learn to listen carefully and tell sounds apart.

Teachers' checks on pupils' phonics knowledge have improved recently. They use these checks well to ensure that any pupil who needs more help gets the support they need to keep up. Staff choose books that match the sounds pupils know.

This builds their confidence and fluency. The school has a strong reading culture. Pupils enjoy earning raffle tickets for good reading habits at home and in class.

The chance to win a new book excites them.

The school's highly effective work to enhance mathematics teaching has enabled pupils to develop a deep and secure understanding of key concepts. Pupils enjoy the challenge of problem-solving activities.

They apply their skills well in different contexts.Children's mathematical understanding starts very well in early years. Staff skilfully integrate number work into meaningful play.

For instance, in the Nursery class, children can record and count courier deliveries in the veterinary role-play area.

The school is calm and orderly, with clear routines that pupils know and follow. These routines help pupils feel secure and enable smooth transitions between activities.

Staff establish this positive culture from the outset. Children in early years settle quickly and benefit from attentive care and encouragement.

Governors understand their roles.

They have a strong grasp of the school's priorities and developments, such as pupil attendance. The school works proactively with families. It offers appropriate support to encourage better attendance.

Many staff are appreciative of what the school has done to reduce their workload, especially during the launch of the new curriculum. The school took well-considered steps to manage this change effectively.

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 couple of foundation subjects, there are variations in how securely pupils learn the intended curriculum. Pupils do not make connections and recall their learning as well as they could. The school should ensure that its curriculum development work means that pupils remember and connect their learning so that they achieve exceptionally well in all subjects.

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