Darley Dale Primary School

Overview

Darley Dale Primary School is described as a “caring and inclusive school” where pupils “thrive in a supportive and aspirational environment.” The inspection confirms that the school has “taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection,” continuing to provide high-quality education and care.

Strengths

• Pupils are “enthusiastic about their learning and achieve well,” with staff maintaining “high expectations of pupils’ behaviour” resulting in “calm places where pupils can learn.”
• The curriculum is “ambitious” and carefully crafted, with a strong focus on early reading where staff teach phonics effectively and help pupils become “confident and fluent readers.”
• Teachers possess “secure subject knowledge,” explain ideas well, and adapt resources effectively so that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) “learn the same ambitious curriculum.”
• Pupils benefit from “extensive educational opportunities beyond the classroom,” including residential trips and leadership roles that support the development of “confidence, resilience and self-esteem.”
• Attendance is “improving” due to the school’s “very high expectations” and swift action when attendance dips.

Areas to improve

• The school’s approach to teaching writing is “not yet fully developed,” and the quality of pupils’ written work is “not as strong as it could be” in some subjects.
• Staff should provide more opportunities for pupils to use writing skills across the curriculum to ensure they “consistently achieve high standards.”

Safeguarding

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