Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr D Swales Headteacher Bourne Primary School Melbourne Road Eastbourne East Sussex BN22 8BD

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education in primary schools

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of the staff and pupils, during my visit on 26 May 2011 to look at work in enterprise education.

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education in primary schools

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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education in primary schools

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: discussions with staff, pupils and a representative of the local Education Business Partnership; scrutiny of relevant documentation; analysis of pupils’ work; brief visits to most classes and observation of parts of six lessons.

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education in primary schools

The overall effectiveness of enterprise education in promoting pupils’ economic and business understanding and enterprise and financial capability is satisfactory.

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Achievement in enterprise education

Achievement in enterprise education is satisfactory.

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Achievement in enterprise education

 Pupils respond very well to opportunities to work collaboratively in groups and they take their responsibilities seriously. The school council is proud of its achievements, including establishing the ‘Helping Hands’ team which helps in the running of the school and supports other pupils.  Pupils have a limited awareness of job roles and the world of work, and do not talk with confidence about aspirations for future careers.  Children in the Reception classes have a well-developed understanding of the use of money; some are very confident in recognising different types of coins and counting in monetary values. While pupils’ number skills generally develop well through the rest of the school, their work across subjects does not make consistently strong reference to money or notions of prices and costs. Nonetheless by Year 6, pupils have a sound understanding of the purchasing power of money and why prices differ.

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Quality of teaching in enterprise education

The quality of teaching in enterprise education is satisfactory.

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Quality of teaching in enterprise education

 Teachers promote collaborative problem-solving by groups of pupils very effectively, and pupils enjoy this way of working. Peer-assessment is used successfully to encourage pupils to reflect on their own performance and that of others.  While economic understanding is a strong theme of children’s learning in the Reception classes, elsewhere opportunities are missed to link pupils’ learning to business, enterprise or economic themes. For example, design and technology projects make few references to marketing, costs or budgets.  Teachers make effective use of information and communication technology to develop pupils’ ability to calculate in monetary units, and interactive web-based mathematics programmes are particularly popular with the pupils, who use them at school and at home.

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Quality of the curriculum in enterprise education

The quality of the curriculum in enterprise education is satisfactory.

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Quality of the curriculum in enterprise education

 The school’s curriculum is strongly focused on developing pupils’ basic skills of literacy and numeracy together with their creative and collaborative skills. Some activities take place to develop pupils’ enterprise skills and their economic and business understanding, but overall planning in this aspect lacks coherence.  Some effective projects have been undertaken through links established by the local Education Business Partnership, including opportunities for interested pupils to work as young engineers on projects with local companies. Year 2 pupils are able to clearly articulate the reasons underlying their design of a town community garden for the Air Ambulance Service.  Pupils are involved in many charitable fundraising activities, although links with other countries to develop their awareness of global, economic and social issues are underdeveloped at present. The Year 6 curriculum has a strong emphasis on recycling and sustainable use of resources.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in enterprise education

The effectiveness of leadership and management in enterprise education is satisfactory.  Enterprise education has not been a high priority for the school. There are no clear expectations for learning outcomes in enterprise education as pupils move through the school although the school’s self-evaluation has identified the need to strengthen provision in this area.  The school has developed a number of very successful links with businesses to bring about significant improvements to its resources, especially in developing the new library and outdoor garden areas for pupils to grow their own flowers and vegetables. However, business involvement in curricular projects has been limited so far.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 developing pupils’ understanding of the world of work, including job roles  ensuring that teachers take opportunities more consistently to link teaching to aspects of enterprise or economic and business understanding  forming a coherent plan to develop pupils’ enterprise skills and understanding, including identifying clear and widely understood learning outcomes for enterprise education as pupils move through the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop enterprise education in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As I explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection. Except in the case of academies, a copy of this letter is also being sent to your local authority.

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