Duchy of Lancaster Methwold CofE Primary School

Overview: Duchy of Lancaster Methwold CofE Primary School is a small, caring school where pupils are happy and behave well. They have warm and positive relationships with peers and adults, and staff have high expectations for pupils, resulting in good achievement.

Strengths:

• Pupils are happy in a small, caring school with warm and positive relationships with peers and adults.
• Pupils learn a varied curriculum and look forward to carefully selected activities prepared by staff.
• Staff have high expectations for pupils, and as a result, pupils achieve well.
• Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is well established, with staff highly skilled at understanding pupils' complex needs and providing bespoke support.
• Pupils enjoy a range of enrichment opportunities, including visits to London for theatre workshops, which helps them appreciate life outside the village and understand their place in modern Britain.

Areas to improve:

• In some subjects, teachers are less secure in their subject knowledge, which prevents them from delivering content correctly and checking pupils' knowledge.
• In some areas of learning in the early years, staff do not develop children's vocabulary in line with curriculum expectations, resulting in children not developing the range of vocabulary they should.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.