Vigo Village School

Inspection of Vigo Village School Erskine Road, Vigo Village, Meopham, Gravesend, Kent DA13 0RL

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Inspection dates: 21 and 22 January 2025

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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 21 and 22 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

From their start in the early years, children are well known by staff at this school. Parents, pupils and staff comment on how much they value this and the ‘family feel’ of the school. Staff draw on their knowledge of pupils to provide them with support and extra help where they need it. Pupils are friendly, kind and courteous towards each other and adults.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for pupils to be ready for the next stage of their education and for life beyond school. Pupils achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides a range of experiences to broaden children’s horizons. Enrichment clubs such as dodgeball, British Sign Language club and choir motivate pupils to come to school and teach them new skills. Memorable experiences build pupils’ confidence through team building and outdoor adventurous experiences. A local residential stay in Year 4 prepares pupils for a longer stay in the Isle of Wight in Year 6. Pupils are very positive about these experiences, which one pupil, representing the views of many, said was the ‘best day of my life’. Pupils take up responsibility, including Year 6 play leaders, who take it in turns to lead games in the infants’ playground.

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

The school provides a broad and ambitious curriculum. Teachers design meaningful work to support pupils’ understanding and bring the curriculum to life. For instance, pupils in Year 1 use the school’s wildlife cameras to record the behaviour of foxes and badgers in their habitat. This develops their scientific knowledge of how to observe something over time. Carefully sequenced curriculum content helps to build pupils’ knowledge well. For example, pupils in Year 5 observe changes in humans over their lifetime. Building on this, Year 6 pupils record observations of evolution over time.

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

Teachers use their secure subject knowledge to present information clearly. In the early years, staff support children to make plans for their play. This gives children the confidence to try new things and to talk about what they know, understand and can do. Staff check that pupils have understood key information. Teachers ensure that pupils practise important prior knowledge in increasingly complex ways. For instance, Year 3 pupils use plastic needles and a simple stitch to practise joining pieces of fabric together in design technology. Year 4 pupils refine their technique using metal needles and more complex stitches.

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

On occasion, the approaches that staff use are less successful in supporting pupils to learn the key ideas in the curriculum. Sometimes, staff do not check pupils’ understanding thoroughly. In other instances, information is presented in unclear ways. This means that occasionally some pupils do not fully understand what teachers want them to know.

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

Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is highly effective. From the early years, staff take great care to understand children’s needs in detail. The school makes effective plans to meet pupils’ needs with resources, adaptations and teaching. Staff follow these plans and review them regularly. 21 and 22 January 2025

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The school ensures that pupils read widely and often. Pupils enjoy quality stories and poems. They can identify what makes poems and other texts interesting. This builds their confidence in reading and knowledge about different types of literature. Pupils at the early stages of reading quickly recognise letters and the sounds they make. Pupils regularly practise reading using books which contain the sounds they know. Support for pupils who fall behind focuses well on closing any gaps in their understanding. This helps them to catch up.

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The school has established high expectations through common routines. Pupils listen well to class discussions and respond well to teachers’ requests. However, at times pupils are unclear about the school’s expectations of them when completing work set by the teacher. As a result, a small minority of pupils occasionally lose focus when they are asked to work independently. Pupils typically attend well. The school supports and encourages improvements in attendance where needed.

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Pupils are taught how to stay healthy and safe, including within relationships and online. The school promotes a wide range of cultures, backgrounds and beliefs. For example, pupils visit places of worship, including a visit to learn how the people at a Gurdwara support their local community. Pupils develop a good understanding of modern British values, such as tolerance and respect.

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Leaders and governors are ambitious for pupils in this school to have a strong education and memorable experiences. Staff express that they feel valued, well supported and well trained. Leaders show great consideration for their workload and well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 There is some variability in the delivery of the curriculum. As a result, pupils sometimes learn content less securely than the school intends. The school should gather information about how effectively the curriculum is delivered and support staff to implement the curriculum so that pupils learn consistently well.  A few pupils occasionally lack concentration during lessons, and they do not focus on completing the work they are set by teachers. This means that pupils sometimes miss out on opportunities to deepen and apply their learning. The school should ensure that pupils are supported to study effectively and follow the behaviour expectations, including when working independently. 21 and 22 January 2025

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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). 21 and 22 January 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 5 and 6 November 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller-than-average primary school. Pupils in key stage 1 and lower key stage 2 are taught in mixed-age classes for some curriculum subjects.  The school uses one unregistered 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 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.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision. 21 and 22 January 2025

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 This was the first routine inspection the school has 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 held meetings with the headteacher and other senior leaders. Inspectors also met with leaders with responsibility for SEND, behaviour and attendance, pupils’ personal development and the early years.  Inspectors met with representatives from the local governing body and the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and art and design.  For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also looked at curriculum information in some other subjects.

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 Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted’s online survey for parents, Parent View and surveys for staff and pupils.  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.

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Inspection team

Rebecca Iles-Smith, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Giles Osborne Ofsted Inspector 21 and 22 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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