Cheselbourne Village School

Overview

Cheselbourne Village School continues to be a good school, characterised by an inclusive and caring environment where pupils are at the heart of school life. Leaders maintain high expectations, ensuring all pupils succeed within a calm and purposeful setting supported by dedicated staff. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the education provided, noting the nurturing learning environment.

Strengths

• Pupils feel safe, behave well, and demonstrate polite and confident attitudes, with low-level disruption being rare.
• Reading is central to the curriculum, with a consistent phonics approach and careful assessment ensuring younger pupils learn to read well and catch up quickly if needed.
• The mathematics curriculum is carefully designed and sequenced, with staff effectively modelling mathematical language to build understanding.
• Staff adapt the curriculum to fully include pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who follow the same curriculum as their peers.
• Leaders prioritise personal development, fostering respect for difference and creating strong links with the local community.

Areas to improve

• In some wider curriculum subjects, leaders have not clearly identified the knowledge pupils should remember, leading to gaps in subject-specific knowledge; teachers must explicitly highlight key knowledge.
• Governors lack a detailed understanding of education quality in wider curriculum subjects, preventing them from challenging leaders rigorously enough in these areas.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with staff receiving regular training, confidently reporting concerns, and ensuring pupils learn how to stay safe both on roads and online.