Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Miles Ridley Headteacher St Peter’s Eaton Square Church of England Primary School Lower Belgrave Street London SW1W 0NL

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School

Following my visit to your school on 17 December 2019, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. The findings do not change the overall effectiveness judgement of outstanding from the last section 5 inspection.

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School

This inspection was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for a no formal designation inspection of schools. The inspection was carried out to enable Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to better understand the quality of education in specific subjects provided by outstanding primary schools.

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Main findings

Leaders introduced Latin in 2012 to all pupils in key stage 2. The curriculum is designed by a charity and aims to gives pupils a foundation in Latin learning, while developing their English literacy skills. A Latin specialist delivers the curriculum to all pupils in Years 3 to 6. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are sometimes taken out for interventions during Latin lessons. Leaders rotate these sessions on a termly basis, to avoid pupils falling behind. Pupils who start at different points in the school year are fully involved in Latin lessons, and often have support from a specialist teaching assistant to help them catch up. Pupils can also attend the two extra-curricular French clubs held each week.

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Main findings

The curriculum plans give an overview of what pupils are expected to learn each year. The subject leader has specific endpoints for each term and sequences lessons so that pupils will cover the required content in a logical order. The Latin curriculum is ambitious and exceeds the requirements of the national curriculum for languages at key stage 2. The subject leader has refined plans for some year groups, so that pupils are not overloaded with too much information each lesson.

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Main findings

Grammar is the main focus of the curriculum, and pupils learn sophisticated grammatical structures, applying these to English and Latin. To use the inflected language of Latin, pupils must understand concepts such as conjugation and declension. These are the starting points for their learning. Pupils use this foundation to apply grammatical rules for content such as increasingly complex nouns and verbs, the active and passive voice, and a range of tenses. Older pupils sometimes get confused between different tenses, but they like working out sentences together. ‘It’s like a puzzle’, one pupil said.

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Main findings

Pupils build up their knowledge in a systematic way. They cannot move on unless they have understood what they have learned previously. For example, Year 5 pupils are taught the imperfect tense in English and Latin, before learning how to use the imperfect passive. Plans are sequenced so that pupils consolidate what they learned previously and apply this to new knowledge. In Year 4, pupils use their knowledge of first conjugation verbs to identify differences with second conjugation verbs.

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Main findings

Vocabulary is carefully chosen so that pupils build up a bank of words which they can use to decode new words. They also learn high-frequency words and make frequent use of their ‘pictionary’ sheets which break down vocabulary into manageable chunks. Pupils like using previous knowledge to decode new words in Latin and English. For example, pupils in Year 6 easily worked out the meaning of words such as ‘pugnacious’ and ‘necromancy’ in a text and could explain their origin. Pupils’ knowledge of vocabulary and grammar enables them to read texts in Latin, write sentences and take part in short conversations.

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Main findings

The Latin curriculum gives pupils an insight into ancient civilisations and cultures. One lesson per term is spent specifically on a particular topic. Recently, all classes learned about the Roman settlement in London, and Year 5 visited sites of particular interest. They have termly storytelling sessions to hear about Greek and Roman myths, and opportunities to act out short plays. Pupils generally enjoy learning Latin very much and talked enthusiastically about the games, songs and activities they complete in lessons. They also told me how much it helps them with their work in other subjects, particularly English.

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Evidence

I held meetings with you, the assistant headteachers and the Latin teacher who is responsible for planning and delivering the Latin curriculum in the school. I visited lessons in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 and talked to pupils about their work. I met with two groups of pupils from Years 5 and 6 to discuss their learning in Latin. I also reviewed a range of pupils’ work from the lessons I visited. I evaluated the curriculum plans in Latin and looked at documents presented by the school which gave further information on the Latin programme.

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Context

The school is an average-sized primary school. There are currently 304 pupils on roll. A large proportion of pupils are from a White British background. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is lower than average. The proportion of pupils who have SEND is below average. Nearly half of pupils speak English as an additional language. The school has a higher-than-average proportion of pupils who arrive at different points in the school year.

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Context

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Westminster. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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