Ambleside CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 28 February 2024

Pupils enjoy attending this small school with a big heart. The school's values of, for example, friendship and forgiveness underpin the positive relationships that pupils have with each other. Pupils are happy. They feel cared for and safe. The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils achieve well in most subjects. However, pupils have gaps in their knowledge in some subjects. This means that their achievement is uneven overall. Pupils behave well in lessons and at playtimes. They are thoughtful and well mannered. Pupils delight in the array of rewards that they receive for behaving well and working hard. Pupils excel in their various roles and responsibilities. These include acting as school councillors, litter pickers and library monitors. Pupils make a tangible contribution to school life through these roles. Pupils value the opportunities on offer beyond the academic curriculum. They take part in outdoor activities that help them to learn more about the natural world. For example, pupils enjoy learning in the school woodland area. This helps them to develop resilience and teamworking skills. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about making campfires and camping in the school grounds.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, some pupils have gaps in their knowledge due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum. This makes it difficult for them to make connections when they learn new content. The school should ensure that teachers are suitably equipped to use assessment strategies with confidence and accuracy, ensuring that gaps in pupils' learning are identified and tackled quickly.
• In some subjects, the school is not effective at evaluating the delivery and impact of the curriculum. This means that some weaknesses are not identified and acted on in a timely manner. In turn, this hinders pupils' achievement in these subjects. The school should ensure that it gathers and evaluates monitoring information effectively so that it can quickly address any shortcomings in the implementation of subject curriculums.
• A small number of staff do not deliver the school's phonics programme well enough. This hinders how well some pupils learn to read. The school should ensure that all staff are trained to deliver the programme effectively so that pupils learn to read confidently and fluently.
• Those responsible for governance do not have a sufficient depth of understanding of the quality of education that pupils receive. Over time, they have not challenged the school sufficiently well about pupils' learning. Trustees and governors should ensure that they gain a clear oversight of the effectiveness of the quality of education and hold the school to account for its actions to bring about improvement.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)