Shute Community Primary School

Overview

The report describes a school where “most pupils enjoy learning and achieve well,” benefiting from “high expectations of pupils’ achievement.” Leaders have successfully improved the quality of education in recent years, particularly in early years provision and mathematics, creating a strong foundation for learning. The inspection notes that the school has moved on from its previous “Requires improvement” rating, with governors now gaining the insights needed to hold leaders to account effectively.

Strengths

• Children get off to a “strong start in the early years,” building knowledge through “meaningful learning opportunities” such as visits to a local observatory.
• Teaching in mathematics ensures pupils “use mathematical vocabulary accurately,” while early reading programmes provide practice to improve “accuracy and fluency.”
• The school has “strengthened how it identifies and meets the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND),” helping most build skills well across the curriculum.
• Pupils benefit from a “range of extra-curricular activities,” including gardening club and dance workshops, which develop their talents and interests.
• Staff manage workload effectively and use professional development well, while pupils demonstrate good citizenship by contributing to the wider community.

Areas to improve

• In some subjects, teaching does not match work well enough to pupils’ starting points, preventing them from gaining the “depth of knowledge and understanding that they could.”
• Targets for some pupils with SEND are not “precise enough,” meaning the curriculum is not always adapted to help them secure the “precise steps in learning that they need to.”
• Older pupils sometimes do not live up to behaviour expectations, failing to listen well or concentrate, which “inhibits their learning.”

Safeguarding

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