Summerswood Primary School

Overview

Summerswood Primary School is rated as ‘Requires improvement’ across all inspection categories. While pupils feel safe and enjoy school, the report states that “expectations of what pupils can achieve are not always high enough” and that leaders are only at an “early stage” of driving necessary improvements.

Strengths

• Pupils “like school and make friends” and know they are “safe and cared for” by trusted adults.
• The specially resourced provision, ‘Hive’, ensures pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are “well supported and succeed due to the expertise of the staff.”
• There is a “systematic approach to teaching phonics” starting in Nursery, and pupils read daily with additional support for weaker readers.
• Leaders have a “good grasp of the improvements needed” and are taking action to address learning and behaviour.
• Effective systems are in place to support all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Areas to improve

• Subject leaders must ensure the most important knowledge is “clearly signposted for teachers across all subjects” so staff understand high expectations, particularly in early years.
• Staff need continued training to deliver and adapt learning activities consistently, ensuring all pupils achieve what they are “fully capable of.”
• Teachers must identify barriers to learning with “sufficient precision” to swiftly fill knowledge gaps, including in reading.
• Staff must apply the new behaviour policy consistently to prevent unwelcome behaviours and ensure disengaged pupils participate in learning.

Safeguarding

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