Dursley Church of England Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 28 January 2025

Pupils are happy and grow in confidence at Dursley. They are encouraged to 'together shine brightly'. The school's new curriculum is helping pupils to exemplify this. Pupils benefit from a well-designed curriculum that is supporting them to know and remember more. They benefit from a high-quality education, although this is not reflected in historic outcomes in 2024. The school has high expectations for pupils, who are now rising to these. The many caring staff and spaces in the school means pupils feel safe at school. They know that staff will listen to any worries they may have. Pupils follow the 'ready, respectful, safe' behaviour values. As a result, they are attentive and engaged in their learning. If pupils need help to manage their behaviour, staff provide effective support. Pupils have opportunities to take on positions of responsibility. For example, they organise donations to the food hub and develop community spirit. Pupils were so moved about the human impact on the environment that they were inspired to raise money for the Wildlife Trust. They adopted three animals, including a turtle, who they can track. Pupils get to develop their interests through exciting clubs such as paper crafts, dance and calm club.

What the school should improve

• The school has not developed assessment well enough in some wider curriculum subjects. As a result, the checks the school makes are not being used as effectively as they could to help strengthen the curriculum and address historic gaps in pupils' knowledge. The trust should support the school to further develop its use of assessment so that it helps deepen pupils' knowledge in these subjects.
• In some cases, pupils do not have sufficient opportunities to secure the fundamentals of writing before moving onto more complex tasks. As a result, some pupils do not develop proficiency in letter formation and handwriting. The trust must ensure that the approach to teaching early writing is embedded so that teachers give pupils the support and guidance they need to develop fluent and legible handwriting.

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