Ditton Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 October 2023

Pupils are happy and enjoy coming to school. They receive a warm welcome from staff each day. Pupils value the caring relationships that they have with staff. Pupils trust that staff will help them with any concerns. This makes pupils feel safe at school. The school has high expectations for what pupils should know and be able to do. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils want to do well. They take great pride in their learning. The corridors around school reflect the high standard of work produced by pupils. This is mirrored in their books. Pupils typically achieve well. Pupils behave well during lessons and around the school. They are kind to each other. This includes children in the early years who cooperate, support and care for their classmates well. Pupils appreciate the vast array of after-school clubs on offer to them. They benefit from leadership roles. For example, pupils are proud of the school library and the roles that they have as librarians. Pupils appreciate the opportunities that they have to explore their interests and talents, including learning to play musical instruments, such as the acoustic guitar.

What the school should improve

• In a small number of subjects, some teachers are not sufficiently clear about the most important knowledge that they should teach and when this content should be delivered. This hinders how well teachers focus on the most important learning and prevents some pupils from gaining the depth of knowledge that they should. The school should finalise its curriculum thinking in these few remaining subjects so that staff know what pupils must learn.
• In some subjects, teachers do not revisit the most important knowledge that pupils need for future learning regularly enough. This hinders how well they support pupils to remember what they have been taught so that they can build on what they already know. The school should ensure that teachers routinely focus on the most important concepts identified in the curriculum for each subject.
• Some pupils do not attend school often enough and some groups of pupils are persistently absent. This limits their achievement. The school should further support those pupils, and their families, whose persistent absence is high.

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