Vange Primary School and Nursery

Overview: Vange Primary School and Nursery is a good school where pupils are enthusiastic about their learning, and they appreciate how their teachers help them. Pupils behave kindly and politely, and strong friendships form. The school has clear behaviour routines and a calm and orderly atmosphere.

Strengths:

• Pupils are enthusiastic about their learning and appreciate how their teachers help them.
• Pupils behave kindly and politely, and strong friendships form.
• The school has clear behaviour routines and a calm and orderly atmosphere.
• Pupils have high-quality support, including well-trained teaching assistants to support pupils with specific needs.
• The school has a well-ordered curriculum throughout, including in early years, and leaders make sure that the curriculum content is well understood by pupils during lessons.
• Pupils learn to swim and understand water safety, and they visit places of worship to understand and respect how some people practise a faith.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders should ensure that all curriculum plans are specifically detailed to support pupils to have the wide range of knowledge they need, as some pupils have gaps in what they know.
• In some subjects, such as mathematics and physical education, leaders have thought carefully about what they want pupils to know, but the curriculum is less developed in subjects where the leaders have made very recent changes.
• Teacher assessment in some subjects does not help teachers to identify what pupils know and whether pupils are ready to move on in their learning.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff are trained well to identify pupils who might be at risk, and the annual refresher training helps staff do this confidently.