Sir Alexander Fleming Primary School

Overview

Sir Alexander Fleming Primary School is described as a “warm and welcoming” environment where pupils demonstrate “excellent attitudes” and “exemplary” behaviour. The school provides a “broad and ambitious curriculum” with strong support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, who are noted to “flourish.”

Strengths

• Behaviour and attitudes are rated “Outstanding,” with pupils being “respectful of staff and each other” and preferring to focus on learning.
• Early years provision is “Good,” with the youngest children making “rapid progress” in communication and social skills.
• Staff effectively identify and support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, ensuring they “achieve well from their individual starting points.”
• Reading is a clear priority, with staff trained to teach it effectively, resulting in pupils becoming “proficient readers.”
• The personal, social, health and economic education programme covers important topics such as “technology safety” and “forming strong, healthy relationships.”

Areas to improve

• The implementation of the writing curriculum is “inconsistent,” with pupils’ work often “presented poorly” and letter formation not of a “consistently high standard.”
• Teachers do not always identify common writing errors quickly enough, allowing them to “persist over time” and hindering fluency.
• Expectations for presentational skills in mathematics are lower than in reading, meaning some pupils cannot write calculations fluently, which slows their learning.

Safeguarding

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