All Saints' CofE School

Inspection of All Saints’ CofE School Slatefell Drive, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 9BH

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 January 2025

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The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Inadequate Early years provision Inadequate Previous inspection grade Good 28 and 29 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

The curriculum at All Saints’ CofE School does not help children in the early years through to pupils in Year 6 to build the knowledge that they need to achieve well. This is especially true for disadvantaged pupils, including most pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who are taught in the mainstream classes. The school’s expectations of pupils’ achievement are low. There are considerable weaknesses in the design and delivery of the curriculum. In contrast, most pupils in the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provision) achieve well. Typically, these pupils benefit from an ambitious curriculum that is well matched to their needs.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and well mannered. They enjoy coming to school. Children in early years, including those who attend the provision for two-year-olds, learn to share and to take turns. They benefit from the kind interactions that they have with staff.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Many pupils make the most of the wide range of clubs available to them. For example, they enjoy taking part in sports, French and music clubs. Pupils appreciate trips to museums, historical sites and residential visits to cities. They enjoy taking part in outdoor and adventurous activities. Pupils are proud of the contribution that they make to their community. For example, they sing in local care homes and raise money for charity.

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

Governors have overseen a decline in the quality of education that pupils receive. They do not have a clear oversight of the impact of the curriculum on pupils’ achievement. The school has been too slow to address the issues linked to the curriculum that were identified at the time of the last inspection. While pupils’ personal development is carefully nurtured, their academic achievement is weak. Published data shows that, by the end of Year 6, pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is significantly below the national average. Pupils are not prepared sufficiently well for the next stage of their education.

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

The school’s recent work to bring about some improvements to the quality of education on offer has failed to have a positive impact. The school has not designed a suitably ambitious and coherent curriculum. In some subjects, including in the early years, there is little information about what children and pupils should learn. In other subjects, where the school has given greater thought to the design of the curriculum, the ambition for what pupils should know and be able to do remains low.

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

The activities that staff design do not enable pupils to build sufficient depth of understanding of the subjects that they study. Many of the tasks that pupils are given do not enable them to grasp the essential knowledge that they need for future learning. Furthermore, these activities limit pupils’ ability to build more complex knowledge over time. This is replicated in the early years. Children do not learn all that they should across many areas of learning. As a result, they are ill-prepared for the Year 1 curriculum. 28 and 29 January 2025

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Staff do not make appropriate checks on what pupils know and remember. Gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ work are not addressed effectively. For example, the errors that some pupils make in their written work are praised by staff as being correct. This prevents pupils from building on what they know and can do. Consequently, pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. This means they do not have a secure foundation on which to layer new concepts.

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The school accurately identifies the additional needs of pupils with SEND. However, the learning of many of these pupils is hampered by the same weaknesses in the quality of education that adversely affect the achievement of others. This is also true for some of the pupils who attend the specially resourced provision but also access mainstream lessons as part of their timetable. In contrast, those pupils who attend the specially resourced provision on a full-time basis fare much better. They benefit from activities that help them to build their knowledge and skills securely.

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Children in the Nursery class, including those who access the provision for two-year-olds, develop their early language skills by taking part in stories, songs and rhymes. However, from the Reception Year onwards, the school has not made the teaching of reading a priority. Staff are not well trained to deliver the school’s phonics programme effectively. Pupils with gaps in their phonics knowledge do not receive the support that they need to catch up quickly. At times, the books that pupils read do not match the sounds that they already know. This means that pupils are not equipped with the phonics knowledge that they need to become confident and fluent readers. This hampers their learning across the curriculum. Older pupils are not prepared sufficiently well to access the curriculum in Year 7 and beyond.

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Most pupils are motivated to learn. The school provides well-considered support to the small number of pupils who need help to manage their own behaviour or to improve their attendance. Pupils respond well to this help. This means that lessons usually proceed with little disruption and pupils attend school regularly.

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The school’s provision to promote pupils’ personal development prepares them well for life in modern Britain. Pupils know how to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy. They recognise the signs of a healthy relationship. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, including online. They value the differences that may exist between people. Pupils enjoy taking on positions of responsibility at the school, such as activity leaders and reading buddies.

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Staff appreciate the consideration that the school has for their well-being. Typically, parents and carers have a positive view of the school. They value the level of care that the school provides and the sense of community that it fosters However, some parents would like the school to raise its expectations of what their children can achieve.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 28 and 29 January 2025

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The governing body has not held the school to account for the decline in the quality of education that pupils receive. As a result, children in the early years and pupils across the rest of the school, including disadvantaged pupils and most pupils with SEND, do not achieve well. The governing body must ensure that it gains an accurate insight into the school’s effectiveness so that it can provide the necessary support and challenge to aid its improvement.  The school has been too slow to secure much-needed improvements to pupils’ academic success. It has not ensured that pupils in Years 1 to 6 benefit from an ambitious, well-designed and coherent curriculum. This means that pupils are not well prepared for each year or stage of their education. The school must, as a matter of urgency, design and implement a curriculum that enables all pupils to achieve well.  The early years curriculum does not prepare children sufficiently well for Year 1. The

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

school does not help these children to build the foundations that they need for the rest of their schooling. The school must ensure that it designs and implements a suitably coherent and ambitious curriculum in early years so that these children make a strong start to their education.  The early reading programme does not enable pupils to gain the reading knowledge that they need for future success. Pupils with gaps in their reading knowledge are not helped to catch up. This hampers their success across the curriculum. The school should ensure that staff have the expertise to deliver the phonics programme so that pupils become confident and fluent readers.  The activities that staff design to teach the curriculum do not help pupils to develop sufficient depth of knowledge about the subjects that they study. This prevents pupils, including pupils with SEND who are taught in the mainstream classes, from achieving

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

well. The school must equip staff to deliver the curriculum successfully so that pupils can build on what they know and deepen their learning over time.  Staff do not routinely rectify gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge. They lack clarity about what important knowledge pupils should know or how to make checks on what pupils remember. This means that pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. Pupils are not prepared sufficiently well for each year or stage of their education. The school must help staff to address pupils’ errors and misunderstandings promptly so that pupils build their knowledge securely. The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out. 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

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 17 and 18 October 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has a religious character. It is part of the Diocese of Carlisle. The most recent section 48 inspection took place in October 2018. Its next inspection is due by the end of 2025.  The school hosts a local authority commissioned specially resourced provision for 12 pupils with autism. At the time of the inspection, there were 12 pupils in this provision.  The school has provision for two-year-old children.  The school runs a before- and after-school club.  The school makes use of 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 28 and 29 January 2025

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time inspection 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 carried out deep dives in the following subjects: early reading, mathematics and physical education. For each deep dive, they held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with staff, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The lead inspector observed some pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in some other subjects.  Inspectors visited the specially resourced provision. They spoke to staff and pupils and viewed samples of their work.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other senior leaders.

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 The lead inspector held meetings with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. He also spoke with a representative from the local authority and the diocese.  Inspectors met with leaders to discuss SEND, reading, pupils’ behaviour and attitudes, the provision for pupils’ personal development and the early years provision.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. They took account of the responses from staff to Ofsted’s online survey and gathered the views of staff and pupils throughout the inspection. There were no responses to Ofsted’s online pupil survey.  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.

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 Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and at breaktimes and lunchtimes.  Inspectors spoke to staff about their workload and well-being. 28 and 29 January 2025

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Inspection team

Andy Cunningham, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sarah Barraclough 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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