The Cranbourne Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: The Cranbourne Primary School Bridleway North, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire EN11 9PP

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Outcome

The Cranbourne Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Rachel Semark. This school is part of Danes Educational 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), Josephine Valentine, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Paul Snell.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are very positive about their academic and personal development experiences at this school. They rise to the high expectations that the school has for them and achieve well in national assessments for reading, writing and mathematics. From early years upwards, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have the adjustments they need to successfully access the learning environment.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are motivated to do their best. They enjoy the wide range of interesting lessons that help them to understand the past and present world. They respond well to praise and encouragement. Pupils are proud to receive a ‘5C’s’ certificate if they demonstrate an element of the school’s character development. Across all year groups, pupils follow the school rules of ‘ready, respectful and safe’ to a consistently high standard. This means they learn in calm classrooms, play happily and can fully focus on their learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school fulfils its motto of ‘broadening horizons’ for its pupils. Pupils enrich their curriculum knowledge through trips to museums, places of worship, arenas and the zoo. They develop self-confidence such as taking turns to be class learning ambassadors. They gain leadership skills as sports captains or school council representatives. Pupils learn resilience and teamwork, for example through clubs, mentoring or competitive events.

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

The school achieves strong outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics. It has ensured 4 and 5 March 2025

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that reading remains at the heart of its ambitious curriculum. From early years onwards, pupils are well supported to learn the sounds they need to read fluently. Pupils who find reading tricky, including pupils with SEND, catch up quickly with books matched to their reading ability. The school is effective in checking on how well pupils are learning in these core subjects. It is quick to act if any gaps are identified. This is apparent in pupils’ times table knowledge, for example.

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The school has successfully addressed the areas for improvement from the last inspection. The wider curriculum is structured to build knowledge over time. The ‘golden nuggets’ of information and vocabulary pupils need to know are clearly signposted. Staff know the curriculum content. Pupils are specifically taught key vocabulary and concepts. However, sometimes the work set in the wider curriculum subjects is not as effective as it could be in supporting pupils to secure and connect the detailed knowledge intended. Pupils are sometimes provided with too much detail at once or not enough. Some move on to new content without having secured the prerequisite knowledge they need. This means some pupils do not achieve as highly as they could in these subjects.

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The school has been proactive in ensuring that pupils with SEND in all year groups have their needs accurately identified. The trust and school have recently revised how they set targets for these pupils to ensure appropriate adaptations are in place. For most pupils with SEND, this is having the desired impact, enabling them to access learning and achieve well. The school uses external advice to ensure pupils with SEND can manage in a classroom environment and are ready for learning. However, the school’s work to design a more tailored curriculum for some pupils with more significant needs is not yet fully realised. This means that these pupils are not securing important foundational knowledge in communication, language and number well enough.

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In early years, children enjoy opportunities for early writing, reading and number. They apply these skills in their play, such as writing recipes or creating stories. Children benefit from a varied diet of books and nursery rhymes. They experience wider opportunities through sports workshops, visits to museums and learning about jobs in the local area. They are suitably prepared for Year 1.

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Pupils know how to stay safe, including online. They learn about all forms of bullying. However, pupils are not worried about bullying at school and are very sure their trusted adults would sort it out if it did occur. Pupils are secure in sharing their worries and concerns. They know that discrimination is wrong. Pupils use democratic processes to ensure that decisions about school life are made equally and fairly, such as choosing new play equipment. The school council ensures that pupils participate in competitions and can develop confidence in public speaking. All this prepares pupils well for life as active citizens. Many pupils, including pupils with SEND, benefit from taking part in the range of clubs on offer and in class performances.

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The trust provides effective and robust oversight of the school. It has strengthened the strategic role of the local governing board. Leaders are held to account and are accurate in their identification of school priorities. Staff enjoy working at the school as the trust and school promote teamwork, staff well-being and ongoing professional development. 4 and 5 March 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some foundation subjects, learning activities do not consistently support pupils to remember important knowledge long term. Sometimes gaps in knowledge are not addressed before pupils move on to new content. This means some pupils are not securing a depth of knowledge or making strong enough connections with their previous learning. The school needs to ensure learning activities are more precisely designed to support pupils to easily remember and connect the most important knowledge over time.  For a few pupils with more significant SEND the curriculum is not currently tailored precisely enough to meet their specific needs. This means these pupils are not securing important foundations in areas of learning such as communication, language and number. The school needs to ensure that the curriculum is adapted suitably and precisely to fully meet these pupils’ specific learning needs.

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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 February 2020. 4 and 5 March 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). 4 and 5 March 2025

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 5 and 6 February 2020, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This school joined the Danes Educational Trust in January 2024. The trust has two directors of primary education and a director of inclusion who oversee the school’s educational performance.  The board of trustees has delegated some responsibilities to a local governing board. This is set out in the trust’s scheme of delegation. The local governing board report to the board of trustees.  The school does not 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. 4 and 5 March 2025

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 The inspector met with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator, subject leaders, teachers and support staff.  The inspector met with the trust’s director of primary education and the trust’s director for inclusion.  The inspector met with the chair of trustees, the chair of the local governing board and three governors.  The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The inspector also reviewed school documents, including the school development plan, its self-evaluation document and governor and trustee minutes.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and children; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children’s interests first.

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 The inspector met with groups of staff and considered the opinions expressed through Ofsted’s staff survey.  The inspector took account of the views of parents expressed through the online survey, Ofsted Parent View, including parents’ free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Sara Boyce, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 4 and 5 March 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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