Primary school ‘requires improvement’, say Ofsted inspectors

Reepham Primary School “requires improvement”, according to Ofsted inspectors. Their report on the school, which was published last week, said leaders had “not brought about improvements quickly enough”, but judged the behaviour and safety of pupils, and the early years provision, as “good”.
 

Reepham Primary School ‘requires improvement’, say Ofsted inspectors

 
The report, which followed an inspection in mid-December, said results at the end of the Year 6 were “broadly average” in reading, writing and mathematics over time, but said the achievement of the most-able pupils required improvement because their work was sometimes too easy.
 
The report noted: “Leaders are determined to bring about improvement and have recently developed the appropriate skills and knowledge to do this. The headteacher recognised the need to improve the level and impact of monitoring and requested support from the local authority for herself and her senior leaders.
 
"The headteacher has attended a good deal of training and, as a result of good data analysis and some monitoring of teaching, has correctly prioritised areas for improvements.”
 
The report did, however, praise the behaviour of pupils, and said they “listen to each other very well, respecting each other’s ideas, even though they may not agree”.
 
The inspectors highlighted maths teaching as an area that had not been good enough over time, but noted that the school had recently introduced a new commercial scheme, called Maths Makes Sense, to teach the subject, although it was too early to judge its effectiveness.
 
Reepham Primary School headteacher Miriam Jones said staff are determined to show rapid progress in all these areas following the latest Ofsted inspection. “Our priority remains to provide the best possible education for the children in our care and we are pleased that Ofsted recognises our determination to bring about this,” she said.
 
“Although we have been judged as ‘requires improvement’ overall, we are pleased that the inspectors noted that we have a ‘clear picture of what needs to improve, which is shared with governors’. The vast majority of the priority areas which have been identified by the inspection team are already contained within our school improvement and development plan.
 
“We are very proud of our school, and governors, staff, parents and children are united in their determination to continue striving for the best possible outcomes. Our results had been improving for three years up to 2013; we realised that they would dip slightly in 2014, instead of above average they were broadly average, and we had already put things in place to address this.
 
“We will continue to concentrate on ensuring that teaching across our school is consistently good through our established programme of monitoring and support, and that all of our children, including the most – and least – able make good progress in the future.”
 
While disappointed with the overall grading, the school’s board of governors gave full backing to the headteacher and senior leadership team, saying it is “absolutely confident that we will reach ‘good’ as an overall grade” when the school is next inspected, which will take place within the next two years.
 

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