Ancrum Primary School

Overview

The inspection team found that staff demonstrate strong leadership and teamwork, creating a supportive environment with a distinct "family feel." Children are described as "kind and respectful," engaging positively in learning while benefiting from creative contexts linked to their local community. The report concludes that the school has the capacity to continue improving without further visits.

Strengths

• "The strength of leadership and teamwork across the whole staff team" which improves outcomes through well-structured learning.
• Children who are "kind and respectful" and support each other, fostering a positive learning environment.
• "Creative, interesting contexts" provided by teachers, enhanced by community involvement, helping children relate learning to real life.
• "Highly effective approaches" used by staff to support children’s emotional wellbeing, enabling them to manage emotions and engage purposefully.

Areas to improve

• Senior leaders should strengthen "approaches to self-evaluation and quality assurance" to ensure accurate identification of improvement priorities.
• Teachers should provide increased opportunities for children to "lead their own learning" and experience a "greater degree of challenge" to raise aspirations.
• Staff should raise children’s attainment in numeracy and literacy, "particularly writing," and strengthen their shared understanding of national standards.

Safeguarding

The report states that staff use "highly effective approaches to support children’s emotional wellbeing," which helps children manage their emotions and behaviour very well.