Blacklands Primary School

Overview

The inspection team found that children are “happy, confident and responsible” and benefit from “warm, nurturing relationships” with staff. The report highlights “very good” leadership and wellbeing provision, noting that the school has the capacity to continue improving without further visits.

Strengths

• Children are “calm, settled and feel safe” due to strong community pride and supportive relationships.
• The headteacher provides “clear leadership and strong direction,” fostering a “very strong sense of staff teamwork.”
• Staff deliver a “very effective range of interventions” to support emotional and social wellbeing, knowing children’s needs well.
• In the early years class, children “engage very well in their learning” and are making “very good progress.”
• Leadership of change and ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion are evaluated as “very good” for both primary and nursery stages.

Areas to improve

• Staff should work together to ensure a “consistently high quality of learning and teaching” and develop approaches to tracking progress.
• All staff should continue to develop planning approaches to ensure children experience “progression, support and challenge” across all curriculum areas.
• The headteacher and staff need to work closely with families to “improve children’s attendance at school.”

Safeguarding

The report states that children “feel safe” as a result of the “warm, nurturing relationships” they have with staff and each other.