Cramlington Shanklea Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 30 April 2024

Shanklea Primary School is a caring and highly inclusive place to learn, grow and develop. Staff nurture pupils and care for them deeply. Pupils are given a range of opportunities to develop their interests and talents. For example, pupils take part in a range of sports, music and academic clubs. The school offers pupils a variety of experiences and visits to develop their knowledge and cultural understanding. At the time of the inspection, pupils were excited to be attending the theatre to watch a performance of 'The Boy at the Back of the Class', having enjoyed reading the novel with their teacher. Pupils visit many local places of interest to enrich their understanding of the curriculum. Pupils behave well in school. Incidents of bullying are rare. Pupils trust that the staff in school will respond to their concerns. Academic standards have declined over time, resulting in many pupils not achieving as well as they should in their national tests at the end of key stage 2. However, a new leadership team has recently been appointed at the school. Leaders have taken swift and effective action to begin to improve the quality of the curriculum.

What the school should improve

• The implementation of the school's revised curriculum is in its early stages. As a result, it has not had a sustained and significant impact on pupils. The school should ensure that the new curriculum is embedded and that effective, adaptive teaching of it consistently promotes higher levels of academic challenge, progress and support for all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged.
• Some disadvantaged pupils do not attend school often enough. This means that they have significant gaps in their learning. The school should strengthen its strategies further to improve the attendance of disadvantaged pupils.
• Assessment in some foundation subjects is not as rigorous as it needs to be. This means that teachers do not know the full extent of what gaps pupils have in their knowledge and skills in these subjects. The school should further develop its assessment in foundation subjects to ensure it is more rigorous and covers aspects of both substantive and disciplinary knowledge. This is so that teachers can identify precisely what pupils know, remember and can do in these subjects.

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