Bessacarr Primary

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 29 March 2023

Leaders and staff provide a warm, welcoming ethos for all pupils at Bessacarr Primary. Pupils demonstrate a living understanding of the school's core values of collaboration, effort, resilience, independence, respect and pride. These are evident through all aspects of school life. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the academic offer and pastoral care that their children receive here. One parent summed up the thoughts of many parents, saying, 'This is a caring school community that has pastoral care and academic progress at the heart of its ethos.' Pupils access a broad and balanced curriculum. Leaders have high expectations that all pupils will access the ambitious curriculum. The curriculum in most subjects is clearly planned out and builds on pupils' previous learning. Learning in lessons is focused on what pupils should know and remember at each stage. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive and respectful. Pupils know the behaviour expectations in their school. They understand how these help them to stay safe and to learn to get along with each other. Pupils say that bullying hardly ever happens in their school. If it does, they are confident that teachers help to sort things out quickly. Pupils work hard and show positive attitudes to learning. Their behaviour in lessons and around school is calm and orderly.

What the school should improve

• Some subject leaders have not considered the early years curriculum as a starting point for learning in their subject. This prevents learning from building systematically over time in all subjects. Leaders should ensure that the knowledge that pupils need to acquire is progressively planned, from children's starting points in early years through to Year 6.
• The curriculum design across some areas of the early years needs further refinement. Sometimes, the precise knowledge that adults want children to learn is not clearly identified. As a result, the learning environment and curriculum activities do not always meet children's learning step by step. Leaders should ensure that the early years curriculum, across all areas, identifies the crucial knowledge that they want children to learn step by step, and then set up the learning environment to support children to meet these goals.

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