Newlaithes Junior School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Newlaithes Junior School Langrigg Road, Carlisle, Cumbria CA2 6DX

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Inspection dates: 14 and 15 January 2025

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Outcome

Newlaithes Junior School 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?

Pupils value being part of this happy and welcoming school. Staff forge strong relationships with pupils. Pupils say that their school is an amazing place, where everyone gets on well and where no one is left out. Pupils’ positive behaviour embodies the school’s values, which include kindness, respect and resilience.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff have high expectations of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils typically rise to these high expectations and achieve well. The school makes appropriate adaptations and provides extra support for pupils who have gaps in their learning. This helps pupils to learn the curriculum well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are polite and considerate to each other. They know that staff are there to help them if they have any worries or problems. Pupils learn to cooperate with, and to support, one another. They respond well to the school’s high aspirations for their conduct. Staff provide effective support for pupils who need help to manage their emotions.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a wide range of enrichment activities that make a strong contribution to the development of their talents and interests. They take on a range of responsibilities. For example, older pupils become ‘peacemakers’, who are skilled at helping to resolve minor disputes between their peers.

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

The school has developed and embedded its curriculum since the last inspection. This is now well established in all subjects. The school and the governing body strive to ensure that all pupils are benefiting from this curriculum. 14 and 15 January 2025

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Leaders, including governors, have managed these changes well. They regularly check that staff are not overwhelmed by the changes introduced. The positive impact of the new curriculum can be seen in the achievement of current pupils.

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Teachers have a secure understanding of what key knowledge pupils need to learn as they progress from Year 3 to Year 6. Typically, staff ensure that pupils have understood their previous learning before introducing new information. As a result, most pupils achieve well. However, on occasion, teachers do not address pupils’ misconceptions quickly enough. When this happens, pupils move on to new learning before they are ready.

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The school ensures that pupils are well supported to develop positive attitudes to their learning. Staff achieve this by using agreed strategies that engage pupils in their learning. This helps pupils to remember important knowledge.

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The school prioritises reading within the curriculum. Pupils benefit from the rich diet of diverse literature that their teachers introduce them to. Pupils enjoy reading. They appreciate that reading helps them to learn and to expand their knowledge and understanding of language and the wider world. Pupils develop regular habits of reading for pleasure, and they talk enthusiastically about their favourite books and authors. The school provides effective support for pupils with gaps in their phonics knowledge. This enables them to catch up quickly.

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The school celebrates pupils’ positive behaviour and high levels of attendance. Pupils enjoy coming to school and most attend regularly. The school works effectively to improve the attendance of pupils who do not attend school as regularly as they should. It quickly identifies and addresses any emerging patterns of absence or occasions when pupils have not followed the school’s high expectations for behaviour. Rates of attendance and standards of behaviour have improved significantly as a result of the robust action that the school has taken.

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The school accurately identifies and meets the additional needs of pupils, including those with SEND. It ensures that teachers receive the information that they need to enable these pupils to participate in the same learning and wider opportunities as their peers. Pupils with SEND achieve well.

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Pupils understand the importance of staying healthy, and they know how to keep themselves safe, including when online. Pupils have a secure understanding of fundamental British values. The school ensures that pupils value different faiths and cultures. This helps pupils to recognise, celebrate and accept the differences that exist between people. The school’s provision for pupils’ personal development supports them to grow into responsible, well-developed citizens who are ready for life in modern Britain.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 14 and 15 January 2025

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 On occasion, in a small number of subjects, teachers do not identify and correct pupils’ misconceptions quickly enough. When this happens, pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. The school should ensure that staff use the school’s assessment strategies more carefully so that they can help pupils to build their knowledge more securely over time.

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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 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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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in January 2020.

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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. 14 and 15 January 2025

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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). 14 and 15 January 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 28 and 29 January 2020, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 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 inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The inspector met with the headteacher and other senior leaders.  The inspector held a meeting with members of the governing body and with the local authority school adviser. 14 and 15 January 2025

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 The inspector met with leaders to discuss SEND, reading, pupils’ behaviour and attitudes and the provision for pupils’ personal development.  The inspector considered responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. She gathered the views of staff and pupils throughout the inspection. The inspector took account of the responses from staff and pupils to Ofsted’s online surveys.  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.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and at breaktimes and lunchtimes.  The inspector spoke to staff about their workload and well-being.

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Inspection team

Cleo Cunningham, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 14 and 15 January 2025

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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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