Ovingham Church of England First School

Overview

Pupils enjoy attending this school and feel safe, supported by embedded values of ‘faith, hope and love’. The school provides a high-quality education where pupils achieve highly, with a well-organised curriculum that ensures broad subject coverage and strong reading outcomes.

Strengths

• Pupils are ‘fluent and confident readers’ by Year 3, supported by a ‘well organised and successful’ phonics approach and engaging books.
• The curriculum is ‘carefully sequenced’, particularly in art and design, allowing pupils to build skills logically and use sketchbooks as an ‘aide-memoire’.
• Staff are ‘equally ambitious’ for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, deploying resources effectively to ensure they receive necessary support.
• Governors are ‘highly effective and knowledgeable’, providing a good balance of challenge and support while ensuring staff workload is manageable.
• Pupils value taking on responsibilities, such as being ‘school councillors’ and ‘playground buddies’, and understand how to report concerns.

Areas to improve

• Ensure teaching extends pupils’ understanding of ‘respect and tolerance for those with a different gender’ to better prepare them for life in modern Britain.
• Monitor how pupils are supported to maintain focus, ensuring staff intervene promptly when pupils are ‘off task’ or find new learning difficult.
• Achieve greater consistency in the new mathematics teaching approach, as ‘not all teachers are yet fully conversant’ with it.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.