Pebsham Primary Academy

Inspection of Pebsham Primary Academy School Place, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN40 2PU

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 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

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The headteacher of this school is Mike Benton. This school is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Karen Roberts, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Gaenor Bagley. 28 and 29 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a close and welcoming community. Pupils are confident and happy. Their attitudes to each other and adults are highly positive. Pupils understand and apply the school’s values with vigour and enthusiasm. They recognise how the values of respect, diversity and independence help them to make good decisions. This helps pupils to feel safe, and they have trusted adults they know will listen if they have a concern.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations of pupils’ learning. Pupils successfully rise to meet these expectations. They take pride in developing their knowledge and are enthusiastic to demonstrate what they have learned. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well. This is reflected in their readiness for the next stage of education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from a well-chosen range of experiences and opportunities. Staff carefully reflect the school’s locality and community in their teaching. For example, pupils learn how to keep themselves safe at the beach and in water. They also enjoy opportunities to be good citizens and make a positive difference to the school community. Pupils are proud of their work in the school library, local residential homes and as well-being champions.

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

The school has created a broad and balanced curriculum that matches the national curriculum. It has carefully chosen what pupils should learn and in what order. The school has recently successfully strengthened its work to identify pupils with SEND. These pupils are supported appropriately in lessons to enable them to follow the same curriculum. This helps pupils with SEND to generally achieve well.

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

Staff typically have secure subject knowledge. This supports them to closely follow the curriculum. The school prioritises supporting pupils to acquire an ambitious vocabulary. Staff provide resources that help to promote pupils’ understanding. The school’s checks of pupils’ understanding are accurate. Staff usually make effective use of this information to inform their teaching. This helps pupils to generally achieve well across the curriculum. Lesson activities are interesting for pupils. However, activities in subjects other than mathematics and English do not routinely focus on the key knowledge. This means that pupils enjoy learning but do not consistently understand and recall important curriculum content over time.

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

The teaching of reading is a priority. Staff follow a clear curriculum to structure the teaching of sounds and letters. They have a detailed understanding of pupils’ reading ability. They use this information to support pupils who fall behind effectively and ensure they quickly catch up. Staff match books closely to the sounds pupils know. Adults, including those in the Reception class, use expert knowledge to support pupils to read. Pupils who need extra reading practise have additional support to make sure they keep up. Pupils adore their new library. They are keen to enjoy the range of books and stories with diverse themes and characters. Pupils develop into fluent and accurate readers. 28 and 29 January 2025

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Children make a happy start when they join Reception. The school’s recent work has strengthened the curriculum in the early years. Staff prioritise developing children’s language and communication skills. This gives children the vocabulary to express themselves independently. In other areas of the curriculum, some checks of children’s understanding lack rigour. This sometimes slows children’s learning.

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Overall, pupils behave well. They are polite and kind. From the early years onwards, pupils play collaboratively. Their attitudes to learning are positive, and they are keen to follow the school’s routines. The school uses a thorough approach to encouraging positive attendance. As a result, absence has significantly reduced and now mirrors the national average.

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The personal development of pupils is comprehensive. Pupils develop a strong understanding of their place in the wider community and a detailed understanding of diversity and equality. Pupils benefit from a wide variety of trips and rich experiences. The school makes use of the local environment such as the nearby beach. Pupils learn important lessons about water safety and beach ecology. They relish the varied clubs and experiences that support their talents and interests.

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Local governors and the trust carefully evaluate the work of the school and challenge it to be the best it can be for all pupils. Together with school staff, everyone is committed to creating an inclusive school. Staff appreciate the care from leaders at all levels. Staff, including those at the beginning of their career, benefit from effective training, which supports them to focus on pupils’ learning. The school collaborates effectively with its community. Parents are welcoming of the school’s work to prioritise pupils’ academic and personal development.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a few subjects, the design of tasks does not sharply focus on the most important learning. As a result, pupils’ retention of important knowledge is not as strong as it could be. The school should equip staff with the knowledge and skills to design tasks that support pupils to learn and remember the most important content over time.  In the early years, the checks of children’s understanding lacks rigour in a few areas of learning. This means that staff do not consistently identify misconceptions or gaps in learning. The school should equip all staff with the knowledge and skills to evaluate children’s recall of important content and use this information to adapt their teaching. 28 and 29 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). 28 and 29 January 2025

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 11 and 12 June 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not use any alternative provision.  The school has been part of The Kemnal Academies Trust since January 2014.

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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. 28 and 29 January 2025

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 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 leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspection team met with the headteacher, senior leaders, teachers and pupils. The lead inspector met with the members of the governing body, trustees and representatives from the trust, including the chair of governors.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, art and design and geography. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also reviewed pupils’ work from a range of other subjects.

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 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.  The inspection team observed behaviour in lessons and at breaktimes and lunchtimes. They spoke formally with groups of pupils, as well as informally during lessons and around the school.  Inspectors spoke with parents at the start of the school day. They considered the views expressed in the online survey, Ofsted Parent View.  Inspectors spoke with groups of staff and considered the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.

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Inspection team

Toby Martlew, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Kate Owbridge Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 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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