Orchard Primary School and Nursery

Overview: Orchard Primary School and Nursery is a school that has made significant improvements in recent years, with a strong focus on pupil wellbeing and achievement. The school has a welcoming and nurturing environment, where pupils feel safe and supported. However, the school still needs to improve in some areas, particularly in mathematics and writing.

Strengths:

• Pupils' attendance is average overall, with leaders having raised their ambition and strengthened strategies for promoting attendance.
• Pupils' behaviour is generally positive, with pupils understanding the expectations and considering the school's values carefully.
• The curriculum is suitably ambitious and clearly sets out the knowledge pupils will learn in all subjects.
• The early years is a busy and ambitious, yet warm and nurturing environment, with thoughtful and firmly established routines.
• Leaders strive to provide an inclusive school culture where every pupil feels valued.
• The school's values underpin pupils' growth, and they learn skills like cooperation, teamwork and resilience.
• Pupils benefit from a range of experiences to learn about life in modern Britain and develop inclusive attitudes towards others.

Areas to improve:

• Pupils' attainment at the end of Year 6 is lower than national averages, and too many pupils are not well-prepared for secondary school.
• Teachers do not build on pupils' knowledge securely enough, particularly where pupils have gaps in their prior learning.
• Teachers sometimes lack rigor in their checks of pupils' understanding, and do not consistently use this information to inform future teaching or to address misconceptions.
• Some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not have precise targets, and staff sometimes do not consider pupils' targets fully enough.

Safeguarding: The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfilling their specific responsibilities and having established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed.