Setting

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

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Nick King Headteacher Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School Dereham Road Scarning Dereham Norfolk NR19 2PW

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Ofsted visit to Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Following my visit with John Randall, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 10 December 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the deputy headteacher and other members of staff with leadership responsibilities.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 Approximately one third of pupils have had to study from home at some point this term.  Teachers are delivering the usual range of subjects. In physical education, adaptations have been made. For example, most lessons are outdoors, and indoors there is a focus on yoga. Some aspects have been delayed, such as swimming.  At the start of term, teachers assessed pupils’ knowledge. In English, they noted that pupils had less stamina for writing and that their sentence construction was not as good as it should be. Teachers have added activities focused on these aspects to their planning.  In reading, younger pupils have had an accelerated phonics programme to cover missed content. Teachers found that older pupils read fluently but did not fully understand what was read, and teachers are focusing on this in class.  In mathematics, teachers are currently focusing on the knowledge that pupils had forgotten, such as number bonds. There are some topics that were not

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

covered in summer term 2020, for example fractions. When these topics next occur in the curriculum, teachers will cover the knowledge that pupils need.  In both English and mathematics, additional intervention time has been created for pupils to work with teachers outside of normal lessons.  There are usually regular periods each term when pupils study stand-alone topics, known as ‘excellence’ events. This year, teachers are using this time to revisit content from the spring and summer terms 2020 in subjects such as history and geography. For each subject, key concepts in the long-term plan, such as ‘democracy’, will be revisited.  When individual pupils have to study remotely, teachers upload weekly activities for them online, aligned to what they would be doing in school. If a year-group ‘bubble’ has to isolate, teachers run ‘live’ daily lessons online at the start and end of the day. For pupils without digital access, paper packs of work

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

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

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