Brancaster CofE Primary Academy

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Brancaster CofE Primary Academy Market Lane, Brancaster, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE31 8AB

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Outcome

Brancaster Church of England Primary Academy School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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Outcome

The executive headteacher of the school is Rebekah Woodrow. This school is part of The Diocese of Norwich Education and 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), Oliver Burwood, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Beverley Tilman. The executive headteacher is responsible for this school and one other.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s ambition to develop values of courage, curiosity, confidence, collaboration and compassion underpins its work. Pupils benefit from a nurturing environment. They thoroughly enjoy their learning. Pupils rise to the high aspirations that staff set for all. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) learn successfully alongside their classmates.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils build positive relationships with one another, showing care and concern for each other’s well-being. On the playground, they have fun together, where older pupils often organise games such as ‘sharks and swimmers’, ensuring that younger pupils are encouraged to join in.

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What is it like to attend this school?

From the very start of their time here, pupils rise to meet the school’s high expectations of behaviour. Classrooms are calm and settled. Pupils are polite and well mannered, treating each other with kindness. They concentrate and work hard in class.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a wide variety of opportunities to develop their interests and talents. They enjoy lunchtime clubs, such as nurture, library and multi-sports. Pupils relish the opportunities to take on leadership roles such as classroom monitors and members of the school council. A wide range of educational visits, such as trips to Norwich and further afield, help pupils to develop their understanding of the wider world. 18 March 2025

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

The school has a broad and balanced curriculum, starting from early years, that has been designed thoughtfully to support the needs of pupils in mixed-age classes. It is taught in a logical sequence that builds pupils’ knowledge over time. In art, for example, pupils in Year 2 learn key skills, such as fine control of the brush and applying paint effectively, when painting animals. Pupils’ knowledge builds year-on-year to enable pupils to produce high-quality paintings of flowers in Year 6. There is a strong focus on practising and using important knowledge and developing pupils’ vocabulary. Pupils usually achieve well and develop into confident and articulate speakers.

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

The school mostly addresses pupils’ errors and misconceptions. However, there are occasions when teachers do not use their checks on what pupils know to identify when pupils are ready to move on to new learning. This means some pupils progress to more complex tasks before they are ready, while others do not move on soon enough. This limits how well some pupils learn and their progress through the curriculum.

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

Reading in school is given a high priority. Pupils begin to learn phonics right from the start. Staff teach phonics well. They ensure that any pupils who fall behind are given effective support to catch up. The school helps pupils to learn to read fluently and build their comprehension well. Teachers regularly read to pupils with skill, making listening to stories interesting and enjoyable. Pupils learn from this. They read their books aloud with confidence, expression and a variety of character voices. This shows pupils’ understanding of what they have read.

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

The school identifies pupils with SEND quickly and communicates effectively with parents to share information. Teachers adapt learning so that pupils with SEND are supported well and learn the full curriculum successfully alongside their peers.

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

Pupils behave well in class and around the school. They understand the school’s routines and rules and the reasons for them. Behaviour that disturbs learning or means that pupils are unkind to one another is very rare.

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

In the past, attendance has been low and persistent absence high. Recently, this has improved. The school has worked hard with families to share the importance of pupils attending school each day. However, some pupils still miss school too often. This means that these pupils miss out on important learning and do not achieve as well as they could.

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

The school has constructed a well-designed personal development programme. Pupils learn about healthy relationships and how to stay safe online. Confidence is a central theme to the curriculum. Older pupils act as positive role models for younger pupils. The school council meets regularly, and sports councillors meet in school and online with other local schools. This helps to develop pupils’ leadership skills and improve their awareness of others in the local community.

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

Trustees and members of the local governing body fulfil their roles effectively. The trust provides a wide range of professional development opportunities for staff, which are 18 March 2025

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greatly appreciated. Staff’s workload has increased recently, particularly regarding a restructure of teaching. However, staff recognise that the school is doing everything it can to provide support.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 At times, teachers do not use assessment information effectively to identify what pupils know and can do. As a result, some pupils move on to new learning activities too quickly and others do not move on quickly enough to deepen and secure their understanding. The school should ensure that staff use assessment information effectively to provide teaching activities that are well matched to pupils’ prior knowledge.  Some pupils are absent from school too frequently. This means that these pupils miss out on important learning time, which slows their progress through the curriculum. The school should develop further its approaches and strategies to support pupils to attend regularly.

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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 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 predecessor school, Brancaster Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, to be good for overall effectiveness in April 2018. 18 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). 18 March 2025

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School details

Headteacher Rebekah Woodrow (Executive headteacher)

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School details

Website www.stmaryfederation.co.uk/brancaster

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School details

Dates of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school is a Church of England school in the Diocese of Norwich. Its most recent inspection of its denominational education and collective worship, under section 48 of the Education Act 2005, took place on 27 February 2017. The school’s next section 48 inspection will be within five school years of the previous inspection.  The school became part of the Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust on 1 January 2022.  The school makes use of one registered 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 lead inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 18 March 2025

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 Inspectors met with senior leaders, staff and pupils. They also met with trustees and representatives from the board of governors.  The inspectors visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to pupils reading to an adult.  The inspectors considered the responses to the Ofsted Parent View questionnaire, including the free-text comments. They also gathered the views of both staff and pupils throughout the inspection.  The inspectors reviewed and scrutinised a range of the school’s documentation, including leaders’ plans for improving the school and records of attendance and behaviour incidents.  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

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safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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Inspection team

Duncan Ramsey, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Alison Hughes Ofsted Inspector 18 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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