Setting

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

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Mrs Susan Sweet Challock Primary School Church Lane Challock Ashford Kent TN25 4BU

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Subject inspection of Challock Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 22 January, 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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Subject inspection of Challock Primary 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

Staff have collectively considered how the geography curriculum will build pupils’ knowledge as they move through the school. Curriculum plans detail what pupils will learn during series of lessons and provide staff with an unambiguous guide to delivering these. Thought has been put into how lessons are sequenced so that pupils build their knowledge gradually and revisit this often. Pupils develop a significant body of knowledge that they can easily recall by the time they leave the school. In a few instances, the intended end points are not outlined in sufficient detail. This means that curricular decisions are made by individual staff rather than guided by agreed planning.

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Main findings

The geography curriculum meets, and often exceeds, the ambition of the national curriculum. Pupils study a broad range of human and physical geography during their time at the school. For example, Year 6 pupils can name and identify all of the countries that make up South America and know their relative population sizes and land masses. As pupils acquire more knowledge, they understand and link increasingly complex ideas such as trade, population movement and global warming. Pupils are proud of their knowledge and appreciate their geographical education. As one pupil noted, ‘If we don’t know about the world, how can we look after it?’

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Main findings

Meaningful fieldwork helps pupils to put their knowledge into practice. For example, having completed a series of lessons on rivers and seas, Year 5 visited a local river. This allowed them to identify the key features of river systems and to see, first hand, how the flow rate and volume of the water affects the surrounding landscape.

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Main findings

Pupils are taught to compare contrasting localities and to identify their similarities and differences. Staff are careful to provide realistic sources of information to ensure that pupils do not form stereotypical views. For example, pupils explained to me that relative poverty and homelessness affect all nations, not just those that are economically less developed.

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Main findings

Pupils learn positional language well and are able to create and navigate their own maps. In all year groups, pupils look at, and construct, maps and learn to identify the key features of these. For example, children in Reception understood that the poles are cold in comparison to the equator when discussing a globe.

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Main findings

Curriculum leaders possess a strong understanding of the geography curriculum and have trained and supported staff to deliver this. They have provided additional training in fieldwork that has enhanced the opportunities for pupils to engage in mapwork, orienteering and field trips. Leaders use assessment information well to gain an understanding of how groups of pupils are performing in geography. However, staff do not use this information systematically to identify and address gaps in pupils’ learning, meaning the impact of these assessments is limited.

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Main findings

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported to access and achieve well in geography. Staff work closely with the special educational needs coordinator to adapt and tailor tasks to ensure they are accessible to all. Pupils with SEND benefit from the use of additional support and regular repetition to help them remember the key facts. These pupils are able to readily recall their learning in geography.

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Evidence

During this inspection I met with you, senior leaders, the subject leaders for geography and a group of teachers. I scrutinised curriculum planning and I visited six lessons in the early years and key stages 1 and 2. I met with pupils to talk about their learning in geography and evaluated work in pupils’ books and in electronic journals.

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Context

Challock Primary School is a smaller-than-average-sized primary school. Most pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below the national average. The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged or with SEND is below the national average.

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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 Kent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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