Carleton Rode Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

Inspection of Carleton Rode Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School Church Road, Carleton Rode, Norwich, Norfolk NR16 1RW

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good School 1 and 2 November 2022

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Carleton Rode Primary School feel safe and supported to do their best. They are proud of their school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their learning and concentrate in their lessons. They are keen to offer ideas and reply to questions about their learning. However, pupils are currently repeating some knowledge, which means pupils do not learn all of what they need to as they progress throughout the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Behaviour is positive. Pupils show kindness towards others. Older pupils are keen to help younger pupils. Pupils are respectful of differences. They say how their school motto of ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’ ensures they welcome everyone. Bullying rarely happens. If it does, adults are there to help. If pupils have a worry, they can tell an adult who will help them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel valued. They have a voice that they know contributes to the life of the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a range of trips linked to their curriculum as it helps them to learn more about their topics. They also enjoy opportunities to represent their school when competing in sporting tournaments.

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better?

Changes in leadership have resulted in unsettled times since the previous inspection. Consequently, the impact on school improvement work has been slower than anticipated. While this is the case, leaders are ambitious about the aims of their curriculum so that it meets the needs of the pupils.

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better?

A full review of the curriculum has been carried out by leaders to prioritise the important knowledge and skills that they want pupils to learn. This has included consideration about when some topics are taught so that there is a clear sequence of learning. However, this has meant that certain topics are currently being repeated. This is resulting in the same content being taught to some pupils which limits the opportunity for pupils to deepen their learning.

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better?

Teachers know their pupils well and use checks during lessons as well as end-of- topic assessments to adapt learning and address any gaps in pupils’ knowledge.

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better?

Reading has a high priority across the school. Pupils develop their love of reading through a well-considered reading curriculum. The programme for teaching sounds and early reading is confidently and consistently taught by staff. Pupils read books that are closely matched to their knowledge and understanding. However, pupils who are struggling to make progress with their reading are not effectively supported. This is because additional support to help them catch up has been School 1 and 2 November 2022

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infrequent. This means that their ability to read impacts how well they can access the rest of the curriculum.

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The leadership of the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) has also been through an unsettled period. While pupils with SEND are accurately identified, the provision plans in place to meet their needs do not contain the important information needed to ensure that they are effectively supported to achieve their best. For example, they lack precise targets to track their progress or consideration of how learning can be adapted to help them to achieve their targets.

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Teachers have high expectations for behaviour which makes sure the pupils are engaged with their learning.

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In early years, leaders have recently reviewed and adapted the curriculum so that it provides the children with a diverse range of learning opportunities. They have chosen themes and topics to motivate children with their learning. Leaders have begun to implement their changes. They are aware that further training, as well as changes to the children’s learning environment, are required to further continue their work to improve the early years provision.

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Leaders plan and promote pupils’ personal, social, and health education (PSHE) and personal development well. Pupils develop a secure understanding of healthy relationships. One pupil described a healthy relationship as ‘families can be different shapes and sizes, skin colour can be different, it doesn’t matter as long as they love each other and are kind’. There is a strong caring ethos across the school. This ethos, alongside a comprehensive PSHE curriculum, helps pupils to be respectful, tolerant and resilient citizens.

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Governors carry out their statutory duties appropriately. Governors and school leaders have a shared understanding of the priorities for improvement. They understand the journey the school has been on and what needs to happen next.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff understand their responsibility to safeguard pupils. This includes having robust checks in place to ensure that all adults are safe to work with children.

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Safeguarding

Regular training helps adults to understand and identify the risks pupils face. This helps staff to be vigilant about looking out for signs of harm and how to report a concern. Leaders take appropriate action in response to any concerns raised.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn how to stay safe, both online and in their community, in an age- appropriate way. Pupils can give very clear examples of what they should and should not do online. For example, not sharing personal information with someone that they do not know. School 1 and 2 November 2022

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have recently introduced a revised curriculum. Aspects of the new curriculum include a small number of topics currently being repeated with similar content being taught in consecutive years. Leaders need to ensure that where topics are repeated, knowledge builds and extends on previous learning so that pupils are given every opportunity to deepen their learning.  Pupils with SEND are accurately identified. However, currently, the plans in place do not include some of the important information needed to make sure that there is effective support in place to maximise the progress of pupils with SEND. Precise and measurable targets need to be incorporated into the provision plans, as well as information about how the support will be implemented. This will ensure that pupils with SEND are better supported to achieve their best outcomes.  The phonics programme is now more developed. Staff are confident and

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

consistent in their delivery of the programme. However, weaker readers are not effectively supported to help them quickly catch up. Leaders must ensure that weaker readers are given the effective support they need to catch up quickly so they can become confident and fluent readers.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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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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. School 1 and 2 November 2022

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Liz Service and Ben Stodel (Co-Chairs)

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School details

Website www.carletonrodeprimaryschool.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection 16 June 2021, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Carleton Rode Church of England Primary School is federated with another local school.  There have been a range of leadership changes. A new executive headteacher and executive deputy headteacher have recently been appointed.  There are three mixed-age classes across the school.  Leaders use a registered alternative provision.  As the school is designated as having a religious character, it is inspected under section 48 of the Education Act 2005. The last section 48 inspection of the school was in October 2017.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. School 1 and 2 November 2022

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 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.  During the inspection, the inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator.  The inspectors met with two members of the local governing body, who are the co-chairs, and the previous chair of governors.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, the inspectors met with subject leaders, 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.  Other inspection activities included observing pupils’ behaviour at lunchtime and listening to pupils read to a familiar adult.

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 Arrangements for safeguarding were scrutinised by the inspectors. This included looking at the single central record and meeting with the designated safeguarding lead to review other safeguarding documentation and evaluate safeguarding arrangements.  Inspectors reviewed the 20 parent responses submitted this academic year by parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View, and 20 free-text responses submitted during the inspection. Inspectors considered the 11 responses to the staff survey. There were no responses to the pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Sharon Waldron, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Rob James Ofsted Inspector School 1 and 2 November 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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