Devoran School

Inspection of Devoran School Devoran Lane, Devoran, Truro, Cornwall TR3 6PA

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Inspection dates: 26 and 27 September 2023

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 26 and 27 September 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Learning at Devoran School is like being part of a big, happy family. The school promotes healthy minds, bodies and relationships in everything that it does. This means that pupils know that they are safe, well cared for and effectively prepared for the future.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff want the best for pupils. Pupils respond confidently. They have positive attitudes to their learning and behave well around the school. Occasionally, some pupils need reminding to try their hardest and how to move from one activity to another sensibly. Pupils and parents rightly agree that bullying is exceptionally rare. Pupils believe the anti-bullying ambassadors make a difference, even though they are hardly needed. They recognise that staff sort issues out quickly and effectively.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school ensures every pupil’s individual needs and circumstances are understood and catered for. Pupils settle and feel valued from the moment they arrive in Reception. They go on to achieve well. Staff use what they know to make learning relevant for each pupil’s interests and starting points, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). As a result, pupils are supported effectively to embody the school’s values of being ‘ready, respectful and safe’.

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better?

Devoran School has an established ethos where everyone wants to do their best. Alongside pupil well-being, the school also promotes staff well-being very effectively. This means that staff and governors work closely together to continually improve provision and meet the needs of the community.

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better?

The effective ethos has helped ensure the school has a very well designed and sensibly organised curriculum. Subject leadership has been prioritised. This has helped to ensure that every subject is seen as important. Curriculum planning has been developed sensibly. This helps to ensure learning is sequenced appropriately from the beginning of the early years and onwards. Adaptations for pupils with SEND are thought about carefully and are often effective. Teachers use this planning to promote pupils’ learning across subjects in meaningful ways. As a result, pupils, including those with SEND, generally remember important knowledge and achieve well.

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better?

Some parts of the curriculum are highly effective. Where this is the case, subject leadership has a very clear vision about what and how it wants subjects taught. Teachers receive robust support and training to enable them to realise this vision. As a result, teachers plan learning carefully to build on what pupils know and can do. This helps pupils, including those with SEND, to learn and remember key content exceptionally well. For example, in history, pupils remember important elements of local events and how these link to bigger concepts, such as the story of the Windrush Generation and World War 2. They are exceptionally knowledgeable about how to use different evidence to make considered judgements about the past. 26 and 27 September 2023

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Nevertheless, there is more to do. Sometimes the implementation of the curriculum does not match the expectations of the school. The school’s checks do not identify these inconsistencies quickly enough. This means that, in some subjects, pupils learning is slowed, and they do not achieve as well as they could.

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Reading has a high priority across all areas of school life. High-quality texts underpin planning in the early years, English and wider curriculum areas. An established and robust programme for teaching early reading starts from the moment children start in Reception. Pupils go on to learn to read rapidly as a result. When pupils are at risk of falling behind, staff use assessment and targeted support well to ensure they keep up. Pupils learn to love reading. They enjoy the books their teachers share with them. They are excited to meet local authors and to read the wide selection of books that are in the very well-presented library and their classrooms.

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Pupils’ personal development is promoted exceptionally well. The school has given a high priority to supporting pupils to know how to look after themselves, physically and emotionally. For example, pupils know about healthy and unhealthy relationships. The school ensures that all learning and extra-curricular opportunities are accessible to all pupils. For example, pupils appreciate the range of clubs and how they can learn about keeping healthy in physical education. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is stimulated very effectively through regular visits and school events. Pupils learn about different cultures, diversity and fundamental British values. They remember what they are taught, because ideas are reinforced regularly and applied across all subjects.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The implementation of the curriculum in some subjects is not as strong as it is in others. The school’s checks do not pick up where this is the case as quickly as is needed. This means that relative weaknesses are not addressed in a timely way and so pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school should strengthen the impact of the checks it makes to address this, so that pupils retain key knowledge in all subjects and achieve more, like they already do in history and personal, social, health and economics education. 26 and 27 September 2023

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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’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 26 and 27 September 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 12 December 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 At the time of the inspection, the headteacher had just started maternity leave. An interim headteacher and interim assistant headteacher had just taken up posts.  The school does not use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.  Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with leaders including the headteacher, interim headteacher, interim assistant headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator. They also spoke to a range of staff. 26 and 27 September 2023

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 Inspectors met with a representative of the local authority and representatives from the governing body, including the chair.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, history and physical education. For each deep dive, 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 a sample of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also heard a selection of pupils read.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first. Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire and free-text responses. They also reviewed responses to the pupils and staff surveys.

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 Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including the leaders’ evaluations, the school improvement plan, reports provided by external consultants, minutes of the governing body and information about the school’s curriculum.

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Inspection team

Matthew Barnes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Marcus West Ofsted Inspector 26 and 27 September 2023

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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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