Battling Brook Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 18 June 2024

Pupils are positive advocates for their school. They welcome visitors. They are keen to explain what they have been learning. As children in the early years return from their outdoor learning session, they talk excitedly about the bee they have found after days of looking for one! Battling Brook Primary School is considerably larger than many primary schools. However, the school knows pupils exceptionally well. The headteacher greets pupils by name and asks about their day. The school prioritises building positive relationships with pupils and their families. Most of the time, pupils get on well together. When arguments happen, pupils are confident that the adults in school will help them to sort their problems out. Pupils celebrate that everyone is different. One pupil said: 'We wouldn't want everyone to be the same. That would be boring!' The school knows that the pandemic has been tough for pupils. Since lockdown, many pupils have found it harder to face personal challenge with determination. The school has introduced a programme to help pupils develop the skills they need to cope in tricky times. This is illustrative of the high expectations the school has for its pupils. As a result, pupils are better prepared to manage their feelings and concentrate on their work. The school is a happy place.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school has not fully mapped out the precise knowledge that pupils should learn as they work towards the ambitious end points the school has identified. It is not always clear how pupils' learning builds up step by step so that their understanding of each subject deepens over time. The school should ensure that these small steps of learning are set out for all subjects.
• While the school completes monitoring activities across the curriculum, in some subjects, these activities do not provide precise information to accelerate continued school improvement. Monitoring activities are not always used sufficiently well to evaluate the implementation of the curriculum or the impact of the curriculum on what pupils know and remember. The school should ensure that all monitoring activities have a clear focus and that the information gathered is used to celebrate effective practice and to identify further action that needs to be taken.
• In the early years, there is no formal process to check the activities that children engage in as part of their continuous provision. It is not sufficiently clear which children have had opportunities to develop and practise their skills across each of the areas of learning. The school should ensure that there is a system in place so that staff can assure themselves that all children are benefiting from a range of meaningful learning opportunities across the curriculum.

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