Arrow Valley First School

Overview

Arrow Valley First School is described as a place where pupils and staff “enjoy being part of” the community, guided by core “Valley Values” such as being “safe, kind, hard-working, resilient, respectful, and honest”. The school has successfully raised standards in reading, writing, and mathematics, with attendance “improving strongly” and high behavioural expectations consistently met.

Strengths

• The curriculum is “ambitious in its scope and extent”, enabling pupils to build on previous knowledge and use technical vocabulary fluently.
• Phonics teaching is effective, with “almost all pupils reach[ing] the expected standard” by the end of Year 1, supported by targeted help for those who struggle.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are “highly effective[ly] included” in lessons, with work carefully structured to support their learning objectives.
• Staff workload is taken into account, and governors are “highly knowledgeable about the school and effective in their dual role of challenge and support”.

Areas to improve

• Leaders should ensure expectations of writing are “as consistently high in all subjects as they are in English”, as written work in some foundation subjects does not yet reflect pupils’ verbal recall.
• Leaders must establish a clear understanding of who has oversight for pupils learning English as an additional language (EAL) to raise staff knowledge of these pupils’ needs.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”