Calstock Community Primary School

Calstock Community Primary School

Address: Back Road, Calstock, Calstock, Cornwall, PL18 9QL Unique reference number (URN): 111951

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Expected standard

Leaders’ sustained focus on improving the curriculum has led to better outcomes for pupils. Pupils achieve well, particularly in English and mathematics. This is reflected in the key stage 2 national tests, where outcomes are above the national average, including for pupils working at the higher standard. As a result, the vast majority of pupils leave the school well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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Achievement Expected standard

Pupils learn well from the very start of their education. They secure phonics knowledge quickly, and most pupils achieve the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. This provides a secure foundation for reading as pupils move through the school. The school also ensures that older pupils secure fluency in reading, which helps them to comprehend more demanding texts. In the wider curriculum, pupils’ knowledge is generally secure. However, it is not as detailed or as well developed as it is in English and mathematics.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the quality of the curriculum and teaching. Since the previous inspection, leaders have made the curriculum more ambitious and ensured that teaching now reflects this ambition more consistently. Leaders check carefully that the curriculum is logically ordered to meet the needs of mixed-age classes, including when class structures change between academic years. Staff training has strengthened teachers’ understanding of what pupils should know and remember as they move through the curriculum.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers ensure that pupils receive the teaching they need to secure essential knowledge and skills in English and mathematics. Teachers now teach reading consistently well, including for older pupils, by following a shared approach. Leaders continue to refine this work and have recently taken steps to help teachers target pupils’ handwriting and spelling even more precisely.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The curriculum enables all pupils to take part fully. Teachers adapt teaching so that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who need extra support learn alongside their peers. However, in some of the wider curriculum, teachers do not check well enough what pupils remember and understand over time. This means teachers do not know how securely pupils build and retain their knowledge, in order to shape future learning.

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Early years Expected standard

Leaders prioritise children in the early years getting off to a successful start to their education. The expansion of the early years provision to include a nursery has been carefully considered to meet children’s needs effectively from the moment they join the school. The school has an ambitious curriculum that builds on children’s starting points and defines clearly what they should learn as they progress through the early years. This includes the provision for 2 ‑ and 3-year ‑ olds, where staff establish caring and trusting relationships that help children to settle quickly and feel confident in the environment.

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Early years Expected standard

The school establishes positive and purposeful partnerships with parents and carers. This work begins before children start in the provision, enabling information to be shared so that staff gain a deep understanding of each child’s needs. Communication and language development are typically prioritised throughout the setting. Staff model and promote the use of appropriate vocabulary, for example, by encouraging children to describe the weather using accurate and subject ‑ specific language. Occasionally, some staff’s interactions with children are not of high quality, and this limits children’s spoken responses. Reading is prioritised from the start of children’s time at the school. Children acquire phonics knowledge quickly and begin to apply this successfully in their early writing. As a result, children are well prepared for Year 1.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders identify, assess and meet pupils’ individual needs effectively, including the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Clear and well ‑ understood systems help staff recognise barriers to learning at an early stage. Leaders ensure that appropriate support is put in place promptly, including in the early years. This reduces barriers to learning quickly for most pupils and helps them to engage well with the curriculum.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders keep close oversight of the progress that pupils with SEND make and review the effectiveness of support regularly. Information about pupils’ learning is used to check whether support is having the intended impact. When it is not, leaders adapt provision in a timely way so that pupils receive the right help. As a result, pupils with SEND and other vulnerable pupils make secure progress from their starting points and achieve positive outcomes.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff receive appropriate training, which strengthens their practice in meeting pupils’ needs. Leaders work constructively with families and external professionals, where required, to ensure a coordinated approach to supporting pupils. Leaders’ use of funding for disadvantaged pupils has improved academic outcomes, but its impact on attendance is not yet consistently successful for some pupils.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders demonstrate a clear moral purpose and a determination to secure the best outcomes for pupils. For example, the school works effectively with families whose children have not engaged in mainstream education for some time. This supports pupils to integrate successfully into school life and achieve well academically and socially. Furthermore, leaders stepped in to provide nursery education for the local community when the local pre ‑ school was at risk of closure. This principled leadership has ensured the continuity of nursery provision in the area and reflects leaders’ commitment to meeting the needs of the community.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders are not complacent. Even in areas where improvements have been made, such as the curriculum, they continually seek ways to make the school better. The school uses expertise from across the federation to drive these improvements and provides high ‑ quality training and coaching for staff to improve their practice. The school draws effectively on local authority and external support as necessary to assist with this work.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Governors meet their statutory duties and hold leaders to account effectively. Where there are weaker areas of the school’s work, particularly around attendance, governors challenge leaders appropriately on their plans for improvement. Governors deepen their understanding of the school’s performance through regular checks of their own. This helps them to have an accurate and informed view of the school. Staff express deep confidence in the school’s leadership. They feel that leaders take their workload and wellbeing into account. Staff morale is high. Parents value the school’s caring and nurturing ethos and rightly describe staff as approachable and supportive.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders promote pupils’ character development effectively throughout school life. Pupils develop a secure sense of right and wrong. They understand the school values of ‘empathy, equity, gratitude, inspiration, perseverance and integrity’ and routinely live these out. Adults model these values consistently, and leaders embed them thoughtfully across wider school life. As a result, pupils demonstrate a mature understanding that people have differing needs. For example, pupils recognise that some of their peers require additional support, including with their learning or their behaviour, in order to take part successfully in lessons and activities.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils’ wider development benefits from a carefully planned range of experiences beyond the classroom. Well ‑ designed projects with local artists and environmental initiatives provide purposeful opportunities for pupils to engage with their community. Through contributing to a community mural at a local railway station, pupils develop creativity and learn how to make a positive contribution to the place where they live. These experiences help pupils to see themselves as active and responsible members of society.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils develop an age ‑ appropriate understanding of relationships, sex and health education. Occasionally, some of their recall of the personal, social and health education programme lacks the depth that leaders intend for pupils to know. Staff ensure that pupils learn how to keep themselves safe and healthy, including developing a secure understanding of online and offline risks to wellbeing and mental health. The school promotes pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values effectively through well ‑ established systems. For example, the pupil parliament provides meaningful opportunities to learn about democracy and fairness. Leaders also offer a range of leadership opportunities, including digital leaders and playground roles, which enable pupils to take responsibility and contribute positively to school life. Leaders prioritise disadvantaged pupils’ participation in the school’s personal

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

development offer and use funding effectively to widen access to opportunities, including music lessons.

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Attendance and behaviour Needs attention

Leaders acknowledge that overall attendance is too low and the number of pupils who are persistently absent remains too high. Through their analysis, leaders have identified the reasons for this, but they have not secured sustained improvement. The school’s systems do not always trigger early enough action, especially when a pupil’s attendance starts to decline. Leaders work closely with external agencies when needed to support families with attendance. Their targeted work with pupils and their families who have a history of prolonged absence or disengagement has improved attendance for a small number of pupils. However, the impact remains uneven. As a result, some pupils miss out on too much of their important learning.

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Attendance and behaviour Needs attention

The school environment is calm, purposeful and orderly throughout the day. Pupils conduct themselves well around the school and at social times, where older pupils enjoy playing with their younger peers. Clear routines help pupils settle quickly and approach school life positively. Interactions between pupils and staff are consistently polite and respectful. Leaders have created a culture in which staff know pupils well and take care to support their individual needs. Staff manage behaviour effectively, and pupils respond appropriately to staff instructions. Leaders deal promptly with bullying when it occurs and do not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Calstock is a friendly, vibrant and happy place to be. Pupils feel a deep sense of belonging to their school. This includes pupils who join part way through their education. The school’s warm, welcoming and inclusive ethos means that these pupils settle quickly and thrive. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities have their needs well met. They become increasingly confident and independent because of the quality of care and support they receive. However, while pupils enjoy their education, some still do not attend regularly enough.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils have benefited from a significantly improved curriculum and teaching since the last inspection. Staff have raised their expectations of what pupils should learn. This has led to pupils’ achievement in English and mathematics in national tests being above national averages at the end of key stage 2. Consequently, pupils are well prepared for secondary school.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Leaders promote respectful and supportive relationships across the school. This begins in the early years, where staff establish clear routines and expectations that children follow consistently. Across the school, pupils behave well and are polite and respectful to their peers, staff and visitors. In lessons, they show curiosity and enthusiasm and engage well with learning. Bullying is rare. When incidents of bullying do occur, staff address them promptly and effectively. Pupils benefit from a wide range of experiences beyond the classroom. Enrichment activities, including clubs, such as sports and film ‑ making, support pupils’ interests and talents. Pupils develop empathy and responsibility, for example, through visits to a local care home. The school ensures that pupils learn about life beyond their local community. Visits to contrasting localities help prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. Partnerships with schools

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

in Spain and Uganda develop pupils’ cultural awareness and help them understand and respect difference. Pupils develop a love of the arts, for example, through participating in performances at a local heritage site.

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Next steps

• Leaders should further improve attendance systems so that prompt action removes barriers to attendance and secures sustained improvements in overall attendance and persistent absence. • The school should develop its systems to check that pupils have secured their knowledge in the wider curriculum over the long term to enable teachers to shape future learning and enable pupils to develop detailed knowledge and skills across all subjects.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Adam Galey.

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About this inspection

The school is part of a federation called the Calstock Community Primary School and Stoke Climsland School Federation.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the executive headteacher, the head of school, members of staff from the school and the federation, pupils, two representatives from the local authority, three members of the governing body, including the chair, and parents and carers during the inspection.

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About this inspection

Inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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About this inspection

The school does not currently make use of any alternative provision.

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About this inspection

In 2025, the school took over the running of the local pre-school, which also relocated to the school site. This provision is for children aged 2 to 4 years old.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational support needs at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English Indices of Deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced Provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standards in a combined reading, writing and mathematics measure.

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average

2022/23 (final) 58% 60% Close to average

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading.

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average

2024/25 (revised) 73% 75% Close to average

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average

2022/23 (final) 67% 73% Close to average

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing.

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics.

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after.

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mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher- assessed writing.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics.

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average

‘S’ in the table above indicates the data has been suppressed, which is usually due to small cohorts. The suppression rules applied by the DfE when publishing the data have been mirrored and applied in the report card.

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance gap

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after. The school disadvantage gap is the difference between the performance of the school's disadvantaged pupils compared to the performance of all non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

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mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, including the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading and the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher- assessed writing and the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics and the disadvantaged gap.

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gap

‘S’ in the table above indicates the data has been suppressed, which is usually due to small cohorts. The suppression rules applied by the DfE when publishing the data have been mirrored and applied in the report card.

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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national average

2023/24 (3 term) 16.7% 14.6% Close to average

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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