Redbourn Primary School

Inspection of Redbourn Primary School Long Cutt, Redbourn, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 7EX

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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 Requires improvement 25 and 26 March 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at this school are calm, polite and friendly. Pupils and staff are supportive and show respect to each other. This helps to build a positive culture. Pupils are encouraged to be tolerant. They understand and celebrate each other’s differences. Pupils are proud to attend this school. They feel safe and know, if needed, they will be helped by trusted adults quickly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand the school’s ‘golden rules’. This means that most pupils behave well. Clear routines are established when children join the school. This helps them to develop positive learning behaviours. Staff are quick to deal with any rare instances of low-level disruption.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from a broad and ambitious curriculum. The school has identified precise knowledge pupils should learn. Pupils enjoy lessons and learning new facts.

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What is it like to attend this school?

A wide range of opportunities enrich the curriculum to develop pupils’ talents and interests. For example, pupils in Year 6 run a school newspaper, The Red Kite, and have been visited by a local journalist. Pupils also attend sporting events, music lessons and enjoy leadership roles. Elections for the ‘THRIVE council’ help pupils learn about democracy. Council members meet regularly and help to make decisions on how to improve the school.

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

The reading curriculum has improved significantly since the previous inspection. Phonics teaching helps children in early years get off to a strong start. Well-trained teachers have the expertise they need to teach sounds precisely. The school checks what pupils know. This helps staff to provide pupils with the books well matched to the sounds they know. If pupils fall behind, they get the support they need to catch up. This means that pupils achieve well in reading. The school uses a wide range of high-quality texts to support the reading curriculum. Pupils enjoy reading these.

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

The school has designed a curriculum that is clearly sequenced and structured. It starts in early years, providing strong foundations for future learning. Important vocabulary is identified and used in lessons. This helps most pupils use subject-specific vocabulary well. There are opportunities for pupils to review prior learning. Most pupils remember what they have learned over time. Changes to the writing curriculum help pupils to practise writing more often than previously. However, mistakes and grammatical errors in pupils’ work are not picked up and addressed quickly enough by the school. This means these are repeated for too long.

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

The school identifies pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) quickly. Leaders put appropriate plans in place. These include strategies on how to adapt the curriculum effectively. As a result, most pupils with SEND have suitable adaptations to learning. This helps them learn more successfully. However, for a small number of pupils 25 and 26 March 2025

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with SEND, this is not the case. These pupils are not supported as well as others due to staff not using the information they are given as well as they could.

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The school has improved rates of attendance, including for pupils who were persistently absent. Leaders track absence carefully. This helps them to understand patterns and trends for individual pupils and groups. From early years onwards, the school works proactively with parents and carers to develop strong attendance habits. As a result, pupils attend school more regularly than previously.

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The school has high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Pupils behave well in class and around school. When a small minority of pupils find this difficult, the school has strategies in place to help them. Pupils have positive attitudes to learning. This helps them work hard and keep focused during lessons.

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The school has developed the personal, social, health and economic curriculum around the needs of pupils. Leaders have built units of learning around the THRIVE values. This helps better support children’s personal, social and emotional development than previously. Older pupils know how to keep healthy and stay safe. Lessons on ‘spenders versus savers’ help pupils understand the importance of financial education.

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Leaders have a clear vision for the school. Governors are committed and have high expectations for what pupils can achieve. They have developed systems to check on the school’s progress against agreed objectives and provide appropriate challenge. This helps strengthen their support and meet statutory duties.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The writing curriculum is relatively new and pupils still have gaps in their learning which staff do not always identify and address. This means that grammatical errors and poor handwriting persist in pupils’ work. Leaders should ensure that staff have the time, training and support to identify mistakes in pupils’ work and address these promptly.  At times, teaching does not take account of pupils’ needs fully. This means that some pupils with SEND do not receive the support they require. The school should ensure all staff have the knowledge and skills they need to use the information they are given to meet the needs of all pupils. 25 and 26 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). 25 and 26 March 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 and 13 October 2022, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school makes use of one registered alternative provision.  The school runs its own breakfast club.

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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.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 25 and 26 March 2025

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 Inspectors met with the headteacher, other members of the senior leadership team, a group of governors, a representative from the local authority and a group of support staff.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, art, geography and physical education. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke with pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to pupils read with a familiar member of staff.  Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects, including science, history and writing. Inspectors reviewed pupils’ work and held discussions with 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

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the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documents, including behaviour logs, suspension records, attendance records, minutes of governing body meetings, school development plans, records of monitoring from the local authority and school policies.  Inspectors considered responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire for parents, Ofsted Parent View. They also took into consideration the online staff survey and pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Emma Breckenridge, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Lawrence Ofsted Inspector 25 and 26 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 looked-after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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