Middleton Community Primary School

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Middleton Community Primary School Rectory Road, Middleton, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 3NW

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Outcome

Middleton Community 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 Katy Last. This school is part of Consortium 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), Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Steve Martin. The headteacher is responsible for this school and two others.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love their small, friendly school. They settle quickly and make new friends. Pupils are safe because of the school’s caring ethos. Pupils know there is always an adult to support them if they need help. Pupils understand how to keep safe online.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils are enthusiastic learners, and they attend regularly. They learn well because of the school’s high expectations. They are eager to answer their teachers’ questions. They discuss their knowledge with confidence. Most pupils behave consistently well, and a small minority do not.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils demonstrate respectful attitudes to those who are different from them. Older pupils debate matters of global significance with considerable maturity. They understand the impact of war and slavery. They explain how some people’s rights are limited by other people’s negative attitudes. Pupils are therefore intolerant of prejudice.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils contribute to the wider life of the school. Most pupils have specific roles and responsibilities. They hone leadership skills as reading ambassadors, school councillors and house captains. Pupil parliamentarians lead whole school assemblies. They consider other pupils’ views. Their suggestions help to improve the life of the school. They raise 7 May 2025

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money for charity. The school therefore prepares pupils well for life in a much bigger world.

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

The school’s curriculum is ambitious and inclusive. Staff have strong subject knowledge as a result of the training they receive, especially from the trust. Staff have a precise understanding of the knowledge pupils must learn. They understand how to adapt the curriculum for older pupils in mixed-age classes. This ensures pupils gain more complex knowledge as they progress through the school. The school has a significant minority of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They benefit from precise support to help them access the curriculum well. Parents of pupils with SEND strongly endorse the school’s provision for their children.

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

Pupils receive much practise of previously learned knowledge. As a result, pupils remember knowledge well. In mathematics, for example, pupils recall times tables and explain their working out with ease. Teachers present new knowledge with clarity. Most staff check pupils’ understanding with rigour.

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

The knowledge pupils gain builds on what they have learned before and links to other areas of the curriculum. In science, key stage 1 pupils learn about plant structure. They understand how plants adapt to different climates. Older pupils compare local habitats to diverse biomes across the world. They reflect on the impact of humans on the environment. Pupils have the skills to carry out scientific investigations independently and in groups. Pupils apply this knowledge to care for wildlife on the field.

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

The school ensures pupils learn to read well. Younger pupils, including those with SEND, read with fluency and some expression. Pupils who fall behind with their reading receive appropriate support and they catch up.

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

Pupils learn and demonstrate a range of writing styles. They produce autobiographies, newspaper articles and creative accounts. However, some pupils do not apply their phonics knowledge to spell accurately. Furthermore, staff do not check pupils’ spelling and punctuation with sufficient precision. Similarly, some younger pupils’ letter and number formation is not consistently accurate. As a result, pupils continue to write incorrectly, and their spelling does not improve. Leaders are aware and are eager to address this swiftly.

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

Pupils understand how to nurture healthy relationships and lifestyles. They value kindness and can empathise with those who are less fortunate than themselves. The school’s ‘friendship group’ helps pupils to respect other pupils’ points of view and to resolve disagreements. A minority of pupils can demonstrate some more challenging behaviours. When this happens, most staff consistently adhere to the school’s behaviour policy. Their actions ensure behaviour improves. At times, however, some staff do not, and less positive pupil behaviour persists.

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

Staff are happy. The support they receive from leaders helps them to manage their workload and be better teachers. Leaders and the trust acknowledge the school’s 7 May 2025

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strengths. They also know exactly how the school needs to improve further. They have the expertise to realise this.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Staff do not check the accuracy of pupils’ spelling, especially of subject specific vocabulary and some pupils’ letter formation, rigorously enough. As a result, pupils continue to repeat the same spelling errors. The school needs to ensure that teachers assess spelling more thoroughly and provide pupils with support to help them write more accurately.  Some staff do not consistently adhere closely to the school’s behaviour policy. As a result, they do not manage some pupil behaviour as well as they could. The school needs to ensure all staff adopt leaders’ high expectations for behaviour and that they address less-positive behaviours in line with school guidelines.

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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 17 and 18 December 2019. 7 May 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). 7 May 2025

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School details

CEO of the trust Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne

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School details

Website www.middletonprimaryschool.org.uk

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 17 and 18 December 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 At the time of the inspection there was one child in Reception.  The school makes no use of 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 inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with the CEO, trustees, headteacher, other leaders, subject leaders, teachers and support staff. The inspectors focused inspection activity on the following groups of subjects: reading, writing, mathematics, history and geography. Inspectors 7 May 2025

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spoke with subject leaders, visited lessons, met with pupils and staff and considered pupils’ work.  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.  Inspectors considered the views of pupils, staff and parents. There were 4 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. There were 6 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey. There were 4 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View. The inspectors considered three free-text responses from parents. Inspectors also spoke to parents.

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Inspection team

Adam Cooke, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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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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