Suffah Primary School

Overview:

The school has significant weaknesses in safeguarding, attendance and behaviour, inclusion, personal development and wellbeing, achievement, curriculum and teaching, and leadership and governance. The proprietor has not ensured that the independent school standards are consistently and securely met across all aspects of the school's work.

Strengths:

• Pupils behave positively and respectfully around the school, interacting pleasantly with staff and each other.
• Pupils are polite and considerate and behave well in lessons and around the school.
• Pupils have respectful and pleasant relationships with each other and staff.
• Pupils feel safe in school and think that adults in school care for them and will help them if they have any worries.
• The school's personal, health, social and economic (PSHE) education programme contributes well to pupils' personal development.
• Pupils know about, and are considerate of, those with faiths and beliefs other than their own.
• The PSHE curriculum is largely delivered through assemblies, which works well to promote whole-school themed events, such as anti-bullying week and initiatives to promote a sense of community and respect.
• Pupils are well versed in online risks and e-safety, with regular reminders in lessons.
• Pupils take on responsibilities, such as being a member of the student council, sensibly and maturely.
• Pupils demonstrate clear and fair insight into ways in which they could benefit from wider opportunities beyond the taught curriculum.
• Pupils are articulate and respectful when expressing their views.

Areas to improve:

• The proprietor has not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding, putting pupils at significant risk of harm.
• Leaders have not ensured that staff are vigilant to the signs of a pupil being at risk or that they report such concerns in a timely and consistent manner.
• The school's systems for recording and following up safeguarding concerns and risks to pupils' welfare, health and safety, lack organisation and detail.
• Leaders have not ensured that staff have the training and expertise to meet pupils' individual needs.
• The school does not systematically check on pupils' learning, and leaders do not identify precisely where there are gaps in pupils' knowledge and understanding.
• The teaching of phonics is disjointed, and the proprietor has not ensured that staff are suitably trained or that there are appropriate resources to establish and maintain a coherent approach to teaching early reading.
• The school's curriculum provides insufficient opportunities for pupils to develop knowledge across a broad range of subjects.
• The subject content taught from one year to the next is not well thought through.
• Pupils have few opportunities to consolidate and build on their learning over time.
• The school does not provide an ambitious curriculum that enables pupils to achieve well across a broad range of subjects.
• The proprietor has not ensured that the school's curriculum is suitably ambitious, structured and taught to enable pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, to build on their learning over time.
• The proprietor has not ensured that the school's policies are up to date, meet statutory requirements and are then implemented effectively.
• Lines of communication and accountability within the proprietor body lack clarity.
• The proprietor's decisions are not consistently in the best interests of the children who attend the school.

Safeguarding:

The proprietor has not ensured that there is an open and positive culture around safeguarding, putting pupils at significant risk of harm.