Valley Primary School and Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The headteacher and other leaders are highly effective in improving the quality of teaching and speeding up pupils' progress.

Teaching is good and sometimes outstanding. This leads to consistently good learning for pupils and rising standards. Governors know the school well and have a good range of skills and experience.

Working closely with the headteacher, they challenge leaders to help bring about continuous improvement. The curriculum provides pupils with a lively and exciting range of activities to ensure their social skills as well as their health and emotional well-being are developed strongly. Pupils say they feel safe and are co...nfident staff will always listen to their concerns and take effective action to resolve any issues quickly.

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They are polite, courteous and considerate. Pupils are enthusiastic learners.

Classrooms are calm and pupils take a pride in their work. Attendance is average. The school continues to work closely with parents in order to ensure that pupils attend regularly.

Teachers use information and communication technology (ICT) very effectively to enliven learning and to enthuse pupils in different subjects of the curriculum. Teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. They are enthusiastic and ensure that pupils are inspired to learn.

From their starting points, all groups of pupils make good progress. Standards in English and mathematics are improving. Children in the Reception and Nursery classes thoroughly enjoy a wide range of exciting activities which capture their imagination and ensure they make good progress.

It is not yet an outstanding school because : Skills pupils learn in mathematics are not fully developed, including through rich and relevant problem-solving opportunities in other subjects. Teachers do not always ask questions that challenge pupils' thinking enough. Teachers' marking does not always help pupils know how to improve their work in mathematics, nor do pupils regularly have time to respond to the feedback they receive.

Teachers do not plan work to challenge the most able pupils regularly enough.

Information about this school

Valley Primary and Nursery School is an average-sized primary school. Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.

Very few pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is above the national average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils, those supported by the pupil premium, is well above the national average.

The pupil premium is additional government funding the school receives for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. The headteacher was appointed in February 2014.

The school offers a daily Nursery class each morning and each afternoon. Children in the Reception class attend full-time. There are before- and after-school clubs on the school site, which are managed by the governing body.