A CINDERFORD school has been rated outstanding for behaviour, personal development and its early years provision.
Inspectors from Ofsted said the overall quality of education at St White’s Primary School was “good”, the second highest rating.
They found “[p]upils have plentiful opportunities to thrive at this ambitious school” and described the youngsters’ behaviour as “exemplary”.
The curriculum is ambitious with vocabulary development “front and centre” of the school’s vision to develop pupils’ articulation of knowledge which has a positive impact on pupils’ achievement.
Children are passionate about reading and those who need extra help receive timely support. Consequently, pupils become fluent readers quickly.
Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities s a strength of the school.
Teachers are swift to identify additional needs and training helps teachers to adapt learning well. Because of this, pupils learn the curriculum successfully.
Children in early years flourish and staff “make every minute count”. Teaching activities are carefully designed so that teaching draws out and addresses any misconceptions. Making children “exceptionally well prepared” for their next stage.
The school’s “purposeful and harmonious learning atmosphere…has expertly given pupils the freedom to build independence.”
Inspectors gave the example of pupils deciding to reinstate the school disco so they could enjoy more social times together.
“Pupils have highly positive attitudes and know they can make a difference to their school community.
“Pupils attend well and make the most of all the school has to offer.”
The way the school builds pupils’ characters is “praiseworthy” with an array of exciting clubs helping to build talents and interests beyond the norm.
Pupils pride themselves on being inclusive, for example by learning British Sign Language.
The inspectors said: “Pupils here blossom into confident young people ready for secondary school.”
The one area where inspectors said the school needed to improve was in covering gaps in children’s knowledge.
While staff typically identify pupils’ misconceptions and gaps in knowledge – and this is done extremely well in early years – it is not consistent across the curriculum.
On occasion, teaching strategies are not used well enough to identify and address misconceptions or gaps in learning. As a result, these are allowed to persist, hindering some pupils from connecting new ideas to previous learning. Because of this, they find it difficult to remember their learning long term.
Year Six pupil Alex Hodgson said: “The learning at St White's is of a very high standard. I feel very privileged to go to this school as it gives us so many opportunities.”
Headteacher Clare Tilling said:, 'I am immensely proud of the school. The children, families and staff are all amazing. We all work together to make this a fabulous place to learn and it is lovely to have Ofsted recognise all our hard work.'
Bill Acland, Chair of Governors said: "The governors are very pleased with all the hard work that the school has done over the past year that reflects in an excellent Ofsted report."
Follow the link to read the full report