Bearnes Voluntary Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 18 December 2024

The school sits at the heart of the community it serves. Pupils demonstrate a strong sense of belonging. They appreciate their teachers and friends. Pupils are happy, feel safe and attend well. There have been changes to school leadership and staffing since the previous inspection. The school is ambitious for pupils; nonetheless, these aspirations are not yet realised. In the early years and in some subjects, pupils achieve well. However, the curriculum does not support pupils in building their knowledge securely across some other subjects, including English and mathematics. Academic achievement has been too low. This is reflected in the 2024 published results. Staff have high expectations for behaviour. Pupils live up to these. Many show positive attitudes towards each other and demonstrate the school's values. If bullying happens, the school is swift to act to ensure that all pupils receive the appropriate support to avoid future incidents. The school makes sure that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils, take part in trips and residential experiences. These opportunities broaden their horizons and help pupils to build resilience and confidence. Clubs like multi-sport events and cricket help develop pupils' interests.

What the school should improve

• The school is not addressing some deficiencies in how some subject curriculums are taught. This means that sometimes staff do not build pupils' knowledge well. The trust should oversee the implementation of the curriculum and develop staff expertise so that teaching supports pupils to know and remember more across all curriculum subjects.
• Some pupils' written work contains basic handwriting, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. These errors are not routinely picked up by staff. As a result, pupils repeat the same mistakes. The trust should ensure that the school's expectations for pupils' writing are clearly established and that teachers have the expertise to address errors.
• Some older pupils are not fluent readers and have gaps in their phonics knowledge. These pupils have extra reading support, but this does not target and improve their phonics knowledge effectively. This means that they struggle to read new and unfamiliar words independently. The school should ensure that all pupils at the early stages of learning to read get effective help to meet their specific needs.
• In some subjects, teachers' checks on pupils' understanding are not specific enough, and staff do not readily address misconceptions. As a result, pupils continue with these misconceptions and do not achieve as well as they could. The school should ensure that teachers' checks on pupils' knowledge inform their teaching so that misconceptions are addressed.

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