Rampton Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Rampton Primary School Retford Road, Rampton, Retford, Nottinghamshire DN22 0JB

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Outcome

Rampton Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and staff agree that children are happy and safe at Rampton Primary School. One parent captured the mood of the majority when they wrote in Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey: ‘My child loves being at Rampton. They come home buzzing with all sorts of new and exciting things to tell me!’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Senior leaders are determined that pupils can visit places and do things that they would not typically do. Many of these activities have taken place despite the pandemic. Parents said they appreciated efforts made by staff recently to offer a range of events including holding a disco and a Christmas fair.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that bullying hardly ever happens. If it does happen, pupils say that adults help them to sort it out. Inspectors saw pupils behaving well in lessons and around school. At breaktimes, the inspector described an air of joy on the playground. They greeted her in French.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and governors are ambitious that this small school will prepare its pupils for success in later life. The new leadership team have quickly persuaded governors to invest in new learning resources for the children. Teachers and other adults have been energised and motivated to improve the provision for pupils.

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

Senior leaders and teachers take on many responsibilities in this small school. Over the last two years, they have carefully planned the curriculum drawing on a range of resources. Pupils learn all of the subjects in the national curriculum, including French.

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

The new phonics programme has been in place for a term. Already, the children in the Reception Year are thriving. They are remembering the sounds from previous lessons to work out words such as ‘mouth’, and ‘sound’. Teachers know the children who are on track and those who need more help. When the inspector spoke to pupils, almost all said that 1 February 2022

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they love reading. Although new reading books have been bought, some of the older books do not fully match the sounds that children know. Older pupils bring their own books into school because they are ‘free readers’. They are not always guided to choose challenging books to read that will help to broaden their vocabulary.

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A new approach to teaching mathematics began in September 2019. Teachers understand and know how to teach the curriculum programme well. There are detailed plans setting out content step by step. Some of the resources that pupils access are available online. This was useful when teachers delivered remote lessons because children at home could often carry on with their usual learning. When the pupils came back into school, teachers assessed them carefully to find out what, if anything, they had missed. Any gaps in pupils’ knowledge that emerged was identified and remedied by revisiting parts of the mathematics curriculum. Mathematics provision is strong.

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The curriculum in other subject, such as geography, is well planned with the knowledge teachers want pupils to learn set out in manageable steps. This is taught in a logical order. However, pupils’ work in geography does not yet fully demonstrate their geographical knowledge to a high standard. This is because they are not always given the opportunity to show what they know by being given the opportunity to write extended pieces of work.

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Children in the early years are given access to a wide range of vocabulary through talking to adults and undertaking learning activities. Children are given many opportunities to develop their understanding of the world. The children in Nursery and Reception Years have positive attitudes to learning, helped by adults in the well-staffed provision.

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Teachers’ assessment of what pupils know is used well in phonics and in mathematics to identify and address any gaps in pupils’ knowledge. In other subjects, such as geography, leaders have developed a secure curriculum but have not yet defined what they expect from the pupils at different ages.

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The school’s provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is strong and inclusive. Staff carefully adapt the curriculum to pupils’ needs. Positive relationships between pupils and staff enable pupils with SEND to flourish. Vulnerable pupils are helped to feel welcome and to thrive.

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Leaders and staff promote pupils’ personal development well. The three key drivers for the school, ‘Enrich’, ‘Empower’ and ‘Inspire’ are used to shape decisions about trips and activities. There is a student council and pupil ambassadors with wide-ranging roles.

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Staff are grateful for leaders’ consideration of their workload. Governors are knowledgeable about the strengths and needs of the school. Governors and the school community have been inspired by the vision of the senior leaders and are committed to following the direction, by the headteacher in particular, which has been set.

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In discussion with the headteacher, the inspectors agreed that development of additional reading resources linked to the phonics scheme and refinement of assessment outside of the core subjects may usefully serve as foci for the next inspection. Also, the 1 February 2022

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opportunities for pupils to demonstrate their understanding through writing extended pieces of work.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Pupils say that they feel safe at school. They are confident that staff will look after them. Pupils are especially well informed about online safety. Staff are well trained and know what to do if they have a concern. Leaders make sure that they record any safeguarding concerns promptly on the secure online system. Policies are kept up to date. New members of staff are recruited with care, making sure that they will fit in with the culture of this caring school.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have recently implemented a new approach to teaching phonics. While this is helping pupils to acquire systematic knowledge of sounds appropriate to their age, pupils are not always able to access a wide range of books to help them to apply their learning. Leaders have worked tirelessly to promote the importance of reading and developing a love of reading for pupils. They need to continue to extend the range of resources that pupils can access to support them to reach even higher levels of achievement in reading.  Leaders are at an early stage of putting in place an assessment system for subjects other than English and mathematics. This means that teachers are not crystal clear about the next learning steps for pupils in these subjects. Leaders should continue their work to implement their assessment system for the foundation subjects so that teachers can identify any emerging gaps in pupils’ knowledge and check that pupils are

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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 or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, 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 deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2016. 1 February 2022

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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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. 1 February 2022

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School details

Local authority Nottinghamshire County Council

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School details

Inspection number 10211591 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 9 and 10 November 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher started her role at Easter 2019.  The school does not use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders, and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with the headteacher, subject leaders and a range of staff. The lead inspector met with a group of governors and spoke to a representative of the local authority on the telephone.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and geography. For each deep dive, the inspector met with the subject leader, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. 1 February 2022

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 The inspectors evaluated the effectiveness of safeguarding by reviewing the school’s record of pre-employment checks and holding discussions with the headteacher, staff and pupils.

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Inspection team

Jo Ward, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Sarah Fielding Ofsted Inspector 1 February 2022

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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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