John Keble Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are safe and happy at John Keble. They love demonstrating responsibility in roles such as junior road safety officers, house captains or 'learning leaders'. Wider opportunities, for example Greek workshops, visiting the Titanic museum or trips to the theatre, help to bring learning to life.

Pupils understand the values of the school well. They speak confidently about love, hope, forgiveness and trust. Pupils enjoy celebrating when they, or others, demonstrate these values in their learning and wider school life.

The school has high ambition for pupils. Aspirations for disadvantaged pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND...), are equally high. Most pupils achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of key stage 2.

The school is rightly continuing to make significant improvements to the wider curriculum so that pupils achieve consistently well across all subjects.

Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and kind. Pupils know that staff will help them whenever they need it.

Social times are exciting, with pupils sharing equipment and enjoying the opportunity to invent games together. The oldest pupils are helpful role models for younger children. Older year groups enjoy opportunities to support pupils in younger years, such as in assemblies.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Following a period of significant change in staffing, the school is settled and focused on continuing to improve. The curriculum is ambitious and aims to challenge all pupils to achieve as highly as possible. Staff design the activities carefully in the early years to develop children's communication and language so that they are ready for their next stage of learning.

Children learn to read as soon as they start Reception, where they also develop a love of books, stories and rhymes. Staff are trained to teach phonics with precision. This means that pupils develop reading skill and confidence quickly.

Across the curriculum, staff have been trained so that they know what to teach and when. Across subjects, the school has made important improvements to the structure and design of the curriculum. This helps pupils' learning build over time.

However, the activities that pupils complete in lessons do not always help pupils to practise and use knowledge as effectively as they could. The school knows that there is more work to do to ensure that the precise knowledge that pupils need to be taught is set out clearly in all subjects.

Pupils with SEND receive additional support, when needed, to access the curriculum.

Staff understand pupils' individual needs well. The school works well with families and external agencies so that pupils with high levels of need receive the most effective support. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds also receive additional support when they need it, such as extra reading or mathematics sessions.

The school is ambitious that all pupils, irrespective of their backgrounds, achieve highly.Staff have secure subject knowledge. Subject-specific training is a continued focus for the school as the curriculum is further refined.

In lessons, staff teach new knowledge with clear explanations and through the use of key vocabulary. However, at times, staff do not check what pupils know effectively or act quickly enough to address misconceptions. Therefore, teaching is not adapted consistently well to ensure that all pupils learn the intended knowledge in each lesson.

The school has already identified this and is acting to ensure that there is greater rigour in how staff check pupils' understanding.

Pupils enjoy coming to school to learn. Lessons are mostly calm.

In the small number of instances where behaviour is more challenging, the school is taking action to ensure that the learning of other pupils is not disrupted. Although high expectations of conduct are evident, pupils are not consistently focused for sustained periods. There are renewed expectations for how pupils behave in lessons so that they can learn most effectively.

Pupils are learning what these new expectations, such as resilience, mean for them in lessons.

The school, including the governors, has an accurate and realistic picture of its effectiveness. Both the school and governors know exactly what needs to happen to improve pupils' learning further.

New leaders have established a collaborative and supportive staff culture so that the whole school is working towards the same aim. All staff are committed to continual improvement for the benefit of every pupil at the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In foundation subjects, the precise knowledge that needs to be taught is not set out as clearly as it could be. This means that how staff teach new knowledge is not always consistently effective. The school should continue its work to develop the full curriculum so that all lessons and activities support pupils' understanding and use of new knowledge.

This will ensure that pupils achieve as well as they could in these subjects. ? Staff do not consistently check what pupils know in lessons, or over time, as effectively as they could. This means that misconceptions or gaps in pupils' learning are not always identified and addressed as quickly as they could be.

The school should ensure that all staff check pupils' understanding and then adapt teaching to address any gaps in knowledge effectively. ? While some pupils exhibit positive attitudes to learning, this is not consistent across the school. Pupils do not show sustained concentration as often as they could.

Therefore, pupils do not always benefit from the opportunities to build knowledge or practise what they have learned. The school should continue to embed its expectations so that pupils build positive learning habits from the very start of their time in school. This will help pupils to achieve more highly.

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