All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill All Saints Lane, Sidley, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN39 5HA

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Inspection dates: 26 and 27 November 2024

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Outcome

All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a wonderfully joyful school, where pupils have a clear sense of belonging. Parents and carers report that the school enables their children to ‘bloom’ and ‘flourish’. Pupils keenly attend each day because staff make school an exciting and fun place to be. Clear routines help pupils feel safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils try hard to achieve the high expectations that staff have of their behaviour and learning. At breaktimes, pupils play kindly with each other. Older pupils help younger children to join in games. Values of friendship are evident in the patient ways that pupils treat each other with courtesy and respect. They are focused in lessons. Many pupils report that they ‘love’ their school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) praise the way that the school supports their children to develop. Staff are knowledgeable about the strategies that pupils with SEND need so they can learn. Pupils in the Rainbow Room receive a personalised approach. Staff shape learning to help pupils achieve the aims set out in their education, health and care (EHC) plans. Staff know pupils very well. This means that they are responsive to the ways that pupils communicate and learn. Consequently, pupils are calm and achieve well.

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

A significant proportion of pupils are disadvantaged. The school has designed a curriculum to remove barriers. The curriculum places improving pupils’ well-being at the very heart of it. This ambitious curriculum covers every aspect of pupils’ academic and personal 26 and 27 November 2024

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development. The specific skills and knowledge that pupils need have been carefully identified and ordered. Pupils learn through real life experiences, such as forest school. This helps pupils understand the relevance of what they are learning.

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Effective training ensures all staff teach phonics in a precise and clear way. Staff quickly identify and support pupils that need help to catch up. Pupils enjoy daily focused reading time, which increases their vocabulary and reading confidence. They read from a range of engaging books that extend their understanding of topics, for example World War I. Pupils across different age groups enjoy reading and listening to each other, fostering a love of storytelling.

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The school recognises that published outcomes, while improving, do not yet fully reflect the ambitions of the school. Teaching is typically effective in making learning memorable. However, in some lessons, teaching does not always support pupils to make connections between linked ideas or use new vocabulary with precision. This means some pupils cannot always elaborate on ideas using past learning and experiences. Consequently, this means some pupils struggle to explain concepts with fluency.

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Children make a flying start in Nursery and Reception. Staff prioritise getting to know the needs and interests of children when they join. They consistently model how children can play and interact positively with each other. Learning is intentionally designed. Children learn to pay attention, share toys and show patience. Joining in with rhymes and stories develops pupils’ communication and language skills well. Staff help children to negotiate their own rules for games and incorporate numeracy and reading skills into play. High standards of education and care ensure that children achieve well.

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Pupils in the Rainbow Room learn a curriculum that reflects their specific needs and interests. Staff use communication tools, such as Makaton and symbols, to help pupils interact and communicate their ideas. Expert staff adapt learning so that pupils achieve ambitious goals. The same inclusive approach in the rest of the school ensures that pupils with SEND learn well.

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The school has taken swift and successful action to increase pupil attendance, in particular disadvantaged pupils. The school fosters effective professional relationships with families. The school works alongside the local authority to provide regular well-being workshops and support for families living in the local community. Parents speak very highly of the holistic family support that enables them to put in consistent routines between home and school. Pupils behave very well because staff are fair in their high expectations. This means the school is a harmonious place where pupils can focus on learning well.

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The school ensures every pupil has an opportunity to shine. Pupils take leadership responsibilities seriously. They help make play times an inclusive space for everyone to enjoy. The eco-council help educate their peers about the role they all play to be environmentally friendly. Pupils buzz with excitement, talking about opportunities where they come together, to sing joyfully and celebrate each other’s achievements. All pupils 26 and 27 November 2024

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take part in ‘social action’, where they demonstrate citizenship through positive acts of kindness that benefit the Bexhill community.

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The school and governors are relentlessly ambitious for all pupils. The school is reviewing how it evaluates the effectiveness of the foundation curriculum. Current arrangements mean that the school is not fully assured that all pupils learn as well as they should in some of these subjects. Staff development is strategically designed to continue moving the school forward. Staff are proud to work to be members of this community. They see the wider impact of the work they do for pupils and their families.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teachers do not always present learning in a way that develops pupils’ confidence to discuss and extend their thinking. This means that some pupils struggle to use and apply learning in increasingly complex ways. The school must ensure that staff have the expertise needed to help pupils to develop automaticity and fluency when applying their knowledge and across the full curriculum.  Assessment approaches in some of the foundation subjects do not enable the school to check how effectively pupils are learning. This means that the school is not fully assured that all pupils are learning as well as they should. The school should continue to strengthen how it checks pupils’ understanding in the foundation subjects, so it has more clarity about the impact the curriculum is having.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 26 and 27 November 2024

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is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in March 2019.

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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). 26 and 27 November 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 and 13 March 2019 under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill is located in the Diocese of Chichester. Its last section 48 inspection took place in March 2017. Following the suspension of section 48 inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, the inspection cycle for these inspections was adjusted. The next inspection should take place within eight years of the previous inspection.  The school has on-site Nursery provision for two- to four-year-old children. The number of children in the Nursey has increased significantly since the last inspection.  Since the last inspection, the school has opened an on-site specialist resource provision for pupils with an EHC plan. The Rainbow Room provides education for 13 pupils with complex SEND, including speech, language and communication needs, autistic spectrum disorder and moderate learning difficulty.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 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. The lead inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The lead inspector met with senior leaders, staff and pupils. They also met with representatives from the board of governors, including the chair of governors. They also had a telephone call with a representative of the local authority and a separate telephone call to a representative from the Diocese of Chichester.  The lead inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to pupils reading to an adult.  The lead inspector considered the responses to the Ofsted Parent View questionnaire,

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Information about this inspection

including the free-text comments. They also took account of the responses to the confidential staff survey and gathered the views of both staff and pupils throughout the inspection.  The lead inspector reviewed and scrutinised a range of the school’s documentation, including leaders’ plans for improving the school, minutes of governing body meetings and records of attendance and behaviour incidents.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: 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.

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Inspection team

Michelle Payne, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 26 and 27 November 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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