Broad Oak Community Primary School

Overview

Pupils are described as happy at this “warm and welcoming school,” where strong relationships with adults underpin learning. The school maintains “high expectations” that pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils, consistently meet. Inspectors found a “broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum” with effective safeguarding arrangements.

Strengths

• Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes, respect for one another, and are “polite and well-mannered,” resulting in rarely any disruptions to learning.
• Staff provide high-quality training and effectively check pupils’ learning to identify and address knowledge gaps in most subjects.
• Reading is central to the curriculum, with skilled staff providing effective support for those struggling and successfully promoting “reading for enjoyment.”
• The school identifies additional needs quickly, ensuring pupils with SEND receive the same broad curriculum offer and participate fully in school life.
• Governors are “fully committed to supporting the continued improvement of the school,” providing challenge and support in equal measure.

Areas to improve

• The newly introduced writing curriculum has not yet fully embedded; staff require further training to enable pupils to “compose and structure their writing successfully.”
• Expectations for presentation and handwriting are insufficient, as some pupils have not mastered “legible and accurate letter formation” by the end of Year 2, hindering later fluency.

Safeguarding

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