Homefield VC CofE Primary School

Inspection of Homefield VC CofE Primary School Homefield Avenue, Bradwell, Homefield Ce Primary School, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR31 8NS

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Inspection dates: 22 and 23 October 2024

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 22 and 23 October 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are met by welcoming staff at the start of each day. Teachers quickly pick up on how pupils are feeling and provide support when needed. Where pupils have any worries, teachers help them sort these out. Pupils feel happy and safe because they know they are listened to.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Everyone learns about the school’s values and one of the most important of these is respect. Pupils behave well. They demonstrate respect in how they treat each other with kindness and tolerance.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils get lots of opportunities to develop leadership skills. Playleaders take great pride in supporting other pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to be included in games and activities at break and lunchtimes. This creates a pleasant and friendly atmosphere around the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are achieving increasingly well. This is because the school has high expectations and has improved significantly the quality of the curriculum and how well it is taught. Pupils find lessons interesting and engaging. For example, children in early years enjoy making their own obstacle course and creating recipes for ‘mud macchiatos’. There is something to capture all interests.

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

Since the previous inspection, the school and local authority have worked together to successfully address a decline in standards and low achievement. The local authority started this process by putting in place an interim improvement board. This board ensured that governance challenged and supported the school to improve effectively. Leaders have addressed a period of turbulence and raised standards. They have involved and included parents and carers through ‘Parent Cafes’, so that parents are confident their views are listened to.

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

The school has put in place a new broad and ambitious curriculum, which clearly defines the knowledge pupils should learn. This includes a complete redevelopment of the early years curriculum, which supports children to develop in each area of early learning.

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

The school provides extensive training for staff in how to teach the new curriculum well. This includes development of teachers’ subject knowledge and how to precisely adapt learning to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Staff value this, as it supports both their well-being and workload. Teachers help pupils to make connections with previous learning and consistently check how well they have understood new knowledge. This enables pupils, including pupils with SEND, to build and retain knowledge well. For example, in music, pupils develop their understanding of rhythm and musical notation so that they can apply these confidently to a performance using glockenspiels.

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

The school has an effective approach to teaching children to read and write. Phonics is taught well from early years. Children successfully use phonics as their basis for reading 22 and 23 October 2024

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unfamiliar words. Staff develop children’s communication and language skills right from Nursery Year. They do this through high-quality discussions about what children explore in learning activities. This provides an excellent foundation for learning to read. Pupils who are behind with reading get precisely targeted support to catch up. This includes additional support for pupils with SEND where they need it. The school promotes a love of reading. Pupils are enthusiastic about the diverse range of books that they read. As a result, standards of how well pupils can read and write have improved significantly. However, there is still a minority of pupils who do not read with fluency or produce writing of the standard they should. This is because the approaches that the school has put in place need more time to become established fully and realise their impact.

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The school has thought carefully about how the environment pupils learn in can be best suited to pupils’ individual needs. Effective individual support is put in place to address any barriers to either positive attendance or behaviour. This, in combination with the respectful and tolerant school ethos, means that pupils both attend and behave well.

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Personal development is promoted well. Pupils learn about relationships, staying safe and understanding difference. Pupils build character and social bonds on residential visits and school trips. They learn about community and charity work, for example through the harvest collection for the local food bank and performing Christmas songs at the local care home. Pupils develop their talents and interests through a range of clubs such as ukulele and various sports clubs.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s approach to teaching writing is not well enough established. As a result, a minority of pupils do not produce writing of the quality they should because they have not secured basic foundational writing knowledge. The school needs to ensure that it provides ongoing training for staff in the school’s new approach to teaching writing, so that all pupils consistently produce the quality of writing that they are capable of.  A small number of pupils need more support to confidently blend words using their established knowledge of phonics. Therefore, these pupils do not read with the fluency they should. The school needs to ensure that where there are gaps in how fluently pupils can read, these are identified and closed swiftly so that all pupils are helped to read confidently and fluently. 22 and 23 October 2024

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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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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). 22 and 23 October 2024

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School details

Date of previous inspection 22 November 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher took up post in September 2022. Since this time, there have been various changes in the school’s leadership team.  Since the previous inspection, the local authority put in place an interim improvement board to strengthen governance. This then led to the establishment of the current governing body once the local authority was satisfied that the school had made sufficient progress.  This is a Church of England School in the Diocese of Norwich. The most recent inspection of the school’s denominational education and collective worship, under section 48 of the Education Act 2005, was in November 2019. The next section 48 inspection is usually within seven years of this date.  The school does not use any 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. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and 22 and 23 October 2024

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management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.  Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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 a representative of the local authority, the headteacher, deputy headteacher, special education needs co-ordinator, middle leaders and class teachers across the inspection.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in: English, early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at

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samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects. Inspectors spent time in early years and met with early years staff.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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 met with a group of governors to discuss governance, including the chair of the governing body.  Inspectors met with pupils and visited breaktimes, lunchtimes and assemblies.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey and Ofsted’s staff survey. They considered responses to the parent survey, Ofsted Parent View, including free- text messages.

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Inspection team

James Chester, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sue Child Ofsted Inspector 22 and 23 October 2024

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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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