Ashbury Meadow Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 4 February 2025

Friendly and happy pupils enter this school with big smiles on their faces. They interact well with one another. Staff build warm and caring relationships with pupils. This helps pupils to feel safe. Positive behaviour is modelled for pupils. They behave well. Children in the early years learn quickly how to take turns and share with their friends. At social times and around the building, pupils conduct themselves sensibly. The school makes effective use of the local area to develop pupils' wider experiences. For instance, pupils enjoy trips to the local library and football stadium. They talk excitedly about learning coding in robotics clubs. Some pupils enjoy planting bluebells in gardening club. They are keen to contribute to charitable causes such as foodbanks. This helps pupils to learn the importance of helping others. The school has begun to raise its expectations of what pupils can achieve. It is aware of some of the barriers that pupils face in relation to their learning. However, at times, it has not successfully removed some of those barriers. This means that some pupils, including those in the specially resourced provisions for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), do not achieve as highly as they should.

What the school should improve

• At times, the school does not use assessment strategies effectively. This means that teachers are unaware when pupils have not understood their learning and gaps in pupils' knowledge go unaddressed. The school should ensure that teachers systematically check what pupils know and then use this information to adapt future learning activities to rectify any misconceptions.
• The school does not identify pupils' additional needs accurately. In addition, some staff do not have the expertise to effectively meet pupils' needs. As a result, pupils with SEND do not achieve as highly as they should. The school should ensure that pupils' additional needs are appropriately identified and that staff are supported with the knowledge and skills that they need to adapt learning appropriately for pupils with SEND.
• The curriculum, including the school's phonics programme, is not delivered consistently well. This hinders how well pupils learn and achieve. Pupils who struggle to read do not benefit from effective support to become confident and fluent readers quickly enough. The school should ensure that staff have the expertise to be able to deliver the curriculum, including the phonics programme, as intended.
• Neither the school nor those responsible for governance have sufficient oversight of the weaker aspects of the school's provision. This hinders them from identifying the strategies that will make the biggest difference for pupils. The school should ensure that there are robust processes to evaluate the impact of its work so that it can implement effective improvement strategies.

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