Cottam Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 12 November 2024

Pupils are happy and safe at Cottam Primary School. They build strong relationships with staff. These relationships inspire pupils to embrace roles where they can help others. For example, older pupils in key stage 2 read with children in the Reception Year. 'Safeguarding champions' support their classmates who may be feeling lonely or worried. The school has high expectations for all pupils. Pupils typically remember their learning well. They grow in confidence to accept new challenges and experiences. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are successful alongside their peers. This helps them to be ready for the next stage of their education. Pupils are well behaved and demonstrate good manners. The school's values of compassion and respect for others underpin these qualities. Children in the Reception Year settle into routines quickly. Across the school, unwanted behaviour rarely disrupts learning. This creates a calm and productive learning environment. Pupils enjoy a range of clubs that help to develop their talents. These include choir, ju- jitsu, football and dance. Older pupils spoke with exhilaration about their residential visit to Snowdonia and their experiences in the local area. For example, they visited Preston North End football ground to learn about the lives of significant local people.

What the school should improve

• Due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum in a few subjects, older pupils have gaps in their knowledge. This makes it difficult for them to build their knowledge when teachers introduce new concepts. This hinders pupils' progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that the new curriculum in these subjects, and the way teachers deliver it, routinely identifies and addresses gaps in pupils' prior learning.
• At times, the school does not ensure that some pupils who are at the earliest stages of learning to read get the help they need to build their phonics knowledge. This hinders these pupils from learning to blend words with increasing confidence and fluency and catching up with their peers. The school should ensure that staff have the necessary skills to address gaps in pupils' phonics knowledge quickly so that they become confident and fluent readers by the end of key stage 1.

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