Downton CofE VA Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Downton CofE VA Primary School Gravel Close, Downton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 3LZ

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Outcome

Downton CofE VA Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff warmly welcome pupils. Their caring relationships with the pupils are nurturing. The school has high expectations for all pupils’ achievement. Pupils respond by working hard to develop their understanding of the subjects they study. As a result, they achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

During breaktimes, pupils play well together. They enjoy a wide range of activities. The school council organises many of these. For example, children enjoy dressing up and role playing. The ‘reading sheds’ provide quiet areas for pupils to read. Pupils have many ways they can share their worries. They are confident that the school helps them to solve problems or manage friendship issues when they need it.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is ambitious for pupils to grow their independence and confidence. It provides an extensive range of opportunities for pupils’ wider development, such as several sports, pottery, performances and music. These complement the curriculum, and pupils enjoy numerous ways to explore their talents and interests.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of the different ways they take on positions of responsibility. They know the roles they play contribute to shaping the school. For example, the ‘eco council’ is proactive in working towards the school being sustainable. It regularly weighs the rubbish in the classroom bins to reduce the amount of rubbish the school produces.

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

The school has designed a broad and ambitious curriculum. In most subjects the essential knowledge and vocabulary pupils learn is clear. For example, in art, pupils make strong connections between the artists they study and use that to influence their own work. However, in a few subjects in the wider curriculum the school has recently introduced new 1 and 2 April 2025

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content. In these parts of the curriculum, the precise knowledge and skills pupils will learn are not fully identified.

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In lessons, teachers demonstrate the intended learning clearly to pupils. This supports pupils to practise and apply these skills to their work. For example, in mathematics, pupils practise how to apply the skills they learn to solve problems. In the Reception class, children use their knowledge of number well to understand values.

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In most subjects, teachers use strategies effectively to check what pupils know and can recall. They identify what pupils need to do next to improve. In a few subjects in the curriculum there is new content. The school has not put in place the mechanisms to assess how well pupils are progressing in those areas. This means teachers are less informed about any knowledge gaps pupils may have.

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The school identifies the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities with care. It works with pupils, parents and carers to put in place strategies that support pupils’ learning. Teachers use these strategies to adapt the learning, such as pre-teaching information. This helps pupils to have a better understanding and recall of their learning.

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The school has recently changed the reading programme to teach children and pupils to read. It has done this to ensure that all pupils have the precise teaching they need at the right time. Most pupils become fluent and confident readers. The school has enhanced its approach to ensure that more pupils are stretched to achieve highly in reading. For example, the ‘Downton 100’ books encourage pupils to read widely about different communities and cultures.

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In lessons, pupils focus on their learning and engage enthusiastically in sharing their understanding. Children in Reception move well between their formal learning on the carpet and other learning activities and play. Pupils move respectfully around school. They conduct themselves well. Pupils especially enjoy the rewards of house points tokens and the celebrations of their efforts.

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The school reflects on and evaluates the impact of its work deeply. It seeks external views and advice to gain a well-rounded understanding when making decisions that put pupils at the centre, for example the rationale for changing parts of the curriculum. Parents comment on the ‘extra details’ the school thinks about and acts on. Staff identify the ways in which the school acts to reduce workload and support them in the roles they do.

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The school has comprehensively threaded personal development throughout the curriculum. It has mapped the experiences and learning pupils will encounter in their seven years at the school. Pupils develop a sense of pride when their artwork is displayed in an annual art exhibition. The personal, social and health education curriculum teaches pupils how to keep themselves safe, both in the community and online. The school is proud to have a strong relationship with the local community. It engages in many local events, such as the ‘cuckoo fair.’ Pupils work with the local parish council to plan the park and plant the memorial garden. 1 and 2 April 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

◼ In a small number of subject areas, the school is implementing a newly designed curriculum to better meet the learning needs of the pupils. This means the precise knowledge and vocabulary that pupils will learn are not fully embedded in practice. The school should make sure these parts of the curriculum are well established. ◼ In some parts of the wider curriculum, the school has not put into action its plans to assess pupils’ knowledge. Where that is the case, the school does not systematically identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge. The school should make sure that assessment activity identifies pupils’ potential knowledge gaps and informs teachers of the next steps.

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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 January 2020.

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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 1 and 2 April 2025

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when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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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). 1 and 2 April 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 8 and 9 January 2020, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

◼ The school provides before- and after-school care. ◼ The school is a Church of England school in the Diocese of Salisbury. It was last inspected under section 48 of the Education Act 2005 in October 2022. Typically, schools have a section 48 inspection within a five-year cycle. However, until all schools have received their first inspection in the ‘post-COVID’ suspension years, legislation requires that inspection will be carried out within eight years of the date of the previous inspection. ◼ The school uses one unregistered alternative provider.

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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. 1 and 2 April 2025

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◼ The inspector visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to curriculum leaders, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. ◼ The inspector spoke with pupils about their learning and their experience of school. ◼ The inspector met with school leaders, teachers, the special educational needs coordinator and representatives from the governing body. ◼ The inspector spoke with representatives from the local authority and the diocese. ◼ The inspector reviewed a range of school documents and policies. These included the school development plan and minutes of governing body meetings. ◼ The inspector considered parents’ responses to Ofsted Parent View, including free-text comments. ◼ To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: reviewed the single central register; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school created an open and positive culture around

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safeguarding that put pupils’ interests first.

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Inspection team

Rachel Hesketh, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 1 and 2 April 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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