Buttercup Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 December 2024

The school provides effective support to the many pupils who join the school part way through the academic year. Pupil mental health ambassadors act as 'buddies' to welcome new pupils and help them settle into school life and feel included. Pupils enthusiastically take on responsibilities to help the school and each other. Pupils lead the school's 'calm club' at breaktimes so pupils have a quiet and safe space to think and reflect if they need it. Pupils behave respectfully. They are safe and feel safe. The school cares about pupils and their future. It places high importance on broadening pupils' horizons and promotes high aspirations for the future. The school uses wide ranging educational visits to provide experiences that it believes pupils may not encounter in their everyday lives. For example, visits to prominent universities, museums, and a residential stay for pupils in Years 5 and 6. The school ensures that all pupils have equal access to these experiences. The school is ambitious for pupils' achievement. In subjects such as English and mathematics pupils achieve well. However, pupils do not achieve equally well across the breadth of the curriculum.

What the school should improve

• The school has not ensured that staff are well prepared to teach the full breadth of the curriculum. As a result, the curriculum is not implemented equally well in all subjects. The school needs to ensure that staff have the knowledge and expertise they need to implement the full curriculum effectively and in the way that leaders intend.
• The school has not put in place a consistent approach to assessment. This means that in the wider curriculum, gaps in pupils' knowledge and misconceptions are not identified or addressed. The school needs to ensure that teaching checks pupils' recall of previous learning and that any gaps or misconceptions are addressed quickly.

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