Broom Cottages Primary & Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 6 July 2022

Broom Cottages Primary and Nursery School is a happy, caring place where pupils enjoy learning and playing together. Leaders have established positive partnerships with families. Pupils and their families feel listened to. Relationships between adults and pupils are respectful. Pupils look after each other and feel safe. Children in the early years are quick to settle and learn routines. They enjoy a wide range of activities and learn how to work with others. Parents and carers of children in the early years say that their children thrive. Pupils learn about equality, positive relationships and how to recognise bullying. They know that adults will help them with any concerns. Pupils have a strong sense of responsibility. They say that anyone new to the school is welcomed and quickly makes friends. Older pupils learn how to help younger children through a peer support programme. The active school council works to improve aspects of school life. Pupils behave well both in and out of lessons. They work hard and listen carefully to adults. There are very few incidents of bullying or poor behaviour. Everyone understands the traffic light behaviour code. Pupils say it is 'good to be green'. Getting to red is very rare. A small number of pupils do not attend school as often as they should. Leaders work with the local authority to support parents and improve this situation.

What the school should improve

• Leaders' priorities for improving the school do not always reflect the barriers to learning that many pupils face. For example, leaders have identified that the lockdowns have affected pupils' communication skills, but have not recognised the benefits that their work on vocabulary and activities in lessons could have on this. Leaders should review their priorities for the school, so that opportunities to address the needs of pupils are not missed.
• In some subjects, such as science and history, teachers are unsure whether pupils have learned all the intended subject content. This makes it difficult for leaders to identify which parts of the curriculum to improve. Leaders should carry out their plans to strengthen assessment, so that teachers use a range of strategies to regularly check pupils' learning.

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