Danehill Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 12 June 2024

Pupils are happy, confident and enthusiastic learners at this friendly, welcoming school. Relationships across the school are relaxed, warm and supportive. Pupils strive to meet the expectations of staff, who are ambitious for every pupil to achieve their best. Pupils' successes and growing interests are shared, encouraged and celebrated by staff. Pupils are motivated to learn. However, their achievement in some subjects is varied. This is because the school has not ensured that pupils learn key curriculum knowledge in a logical order. This means pupils are not always learning as much as they could. Pupils enjoy school. They like how their curriculum includes meaningful experiences such as outdoor woodland learning and opportunities to plant and tend to trees and nature. The school is well connected to the local community and pupils benefit from regular activities at the recreation ground or listening to local visitors explain about life in the past. Playtimes are full of opportunities to explore and socialise together. Pupils get along well, whether playing games or working together to move branches during woodland play. They are kind to each other and mutual respect is evident throughout the school. They generally behave well.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum does not precisely identify what knowledge pupils need to learn and when in every subject. Consequently, pupils' learning does not always build towards clearly defined curriculum aims. The school needs to make further improvements to ensure subjects are coherently planned and sequenced so that pupils build their knowledge over time.
• Approaches to check what pupils know and remember are not effective in the foundation subjects. Teachers therefore do not always have the information they need to identify and address gaps in pupils' learning. The school should ensure teachers effectively check pupils' learning across the school's curriculum.
• The school's work on improving the attendance of pupils who do not regularly attend school is not yet having sufficient impact. These pupils therefore miss important learning. The school should continue to work with pupils and their families to further improve attendance.

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