Roskear Primary & Nursery School

Inspection of a good school: Roskear School Roskear, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 8DJ

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Outcome

Roskear School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Everyone is welcome at this school. Staff nurture pupils to do their best so pupils thrive. Pupils show determination, stick at their learning and try hard. They expect challenge in their learning. Pupils respond to their teachers well and go off task rarely. When this does happen, teachers usually re-engage pupils to their learning successfully.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Teachers have high expectations of pupils. Pupils apply the school’s ‘golden rules’ well. The school is a calm and happy place where pupils are usually respectful and polite. Pupils look out for one another. Pupils are proud of their school and enjoy attending. They particularly like the rewards they get for good attendance and working as a team.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that bullying happens rarely because staff are always on hand to help sort out any minor disagreements. Pupils feel safe. They know how to keep safe, including online.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupil prefects and school councillors make a valued contribution. They like supporting younger pupils with reading. They value seeking their classmates’ views about new ideas. Pupils are proud to contribute to a variety of charity work. They say that their charity work helps them to know and understand the challenges that people face locally and globally.

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

The headteacher and her leadership team are working on the right aspects of improvement. Their recent work to improve the quality of education that pupils receive, across a wider range of subjects, is beginning to take hold well.

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

Teachers, including those who are new to the profession, receive high-quality training and support, so teachers deliver the school’s policies in reading, writing, and mathematics well. Consequently, all staff are well equipped to carry out their roles and responsibilities successfully. 8–9 October 2019

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Adults in the pre-school and nursery ensure that children are very well supported. Adults prioritise children’s physical development and their speaking skills. Children are exceptionally well prepared for Reception. Leaders’ sterling work continues in ‘big school’. Teachers ensure that children get reading right from the start. Children do well in their early number work. As a result, children see success.

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Leaders ensure that the content and order of teaching in mathematics is highly effective. Teachers check what pupils know and can do precisely. They use this well to deepen pupils’ mathematical understanding so that they know and remember more.

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However, some recent work to ensure that pupils gain deep knowledge across a wider range of subjects is still at an early stage. Leaders know that the quality of education the school provides is too surface-level in some subjects, such as science. Leaders are working with teachers to ensure that science is being planned in logical steps. However, it is early days.

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The reading curriculum sits at the school’s core. The sharp focus on ensuring that pupils use and apply their phonics to read is successful. Pupils who initially struggle to read catch up because of strong support. Pupils gain a good understanding of what they read, and read widely across subjects in key stage 2. However, on occasions, pupils do not use and apply their phonic knowledge to spell accurately.

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Teachers ensure that there is a wide range of help in place so that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do well in reading, writing and mathematics. However, teaching in other subjects does not meet these pupils’ needs as well.

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Staff support pupils’ emotional and academic development well. Pupils become confident. The extensive range of clubs, school visits and visitors provide an all-inclusive range of opportunities for pupils to enjoy. Fun-fit is a highlight for many.

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Pupils’ learning is not routinely disturbed by others. This allows pupils to listen, think and learn. However, when the order of teaching or the depth of learning is not quite right, pupils do not do as well as they might.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

There is a strong culture of safeguarding at the school. Staff checks meet requirements and all staff training is up to date. Staff demonstrate a strong understanding of school policies and guidance. Staff apply their training stringently to keep pupils safe. Leaders responsible for safeguarding make timely referrals and work closely with external agencies to ensure that they are doing everything they can to reduce pupils’ risk of harm.

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 While pupils learn to read well, too few pupils use their phonic knowledge to spell words accurately. Leaders do not check the root causes of weaknesses in pupils’ spelling well enough. Too often pupils identify the right sound (phoneme) but choose the wrong group of letters (grapheme). Teachers need to ensure that they deal with pupils’ inaccuracies in spelling consistently well.  Leaders need to ensure that the school’s curriculum is ambitious in all subjects. Teachers need to ensure that the right depth of knowledge is planned for, and the order of teaching ensures that pupils, including those with SEND, learn well across a wide range of subjects.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately. This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Roskear School, to be good on 12–13 October 2011.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 8–9 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10111578 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school is part of Crofty Multi Academy Trust, a group of nine schools in Cornwall.  This is the school’s first inspection since it opened in 2016.  The school has a pre-school for two-year-olds.  There is a nursery for three-year-olds.  One member of the leadership team is on secondment at another trust school.  There is a new chair of the local governing body.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector met with the headteacher and other leaders across the two days. The inspector also met with class teachers and talked to staff during the inspection to gather their views.  The inspector held conversations with two representatives from the local governing body and two trustees. She also met with the chief executive officer and head of school improvement at the trust.  The inspector conducted lesson visits, looked at pupils’ work and spoke to them about 8–9 October 2019

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their learning. She also talked to and observed pupils at social times.  The inspection concentrated on reading, mathematics, science and physical education (physical development in early years). The inspector also talked to pupils and staff about other areas of the curriculum.  The inspector reviewed the school’s records of safeguarding checks and referrals to the local authority. She spoke to staff about how they keep pupils safe. We also asked pupils how they keep themselves safe and what to do if they have concerns.  The inspector talked to parents during the inspection. Eighteen responses from Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, were considered, along with the free-text responses.

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Inspection team

Julie Carrington, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 8–9 October 2019

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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