Fitzwilliam Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 June 2025

This is a happy and caring school. Pupils are looked after and well-cared for. Decisions at the school are made in pupils' best interests. As a result, pupils love their school. This is demonstrated in their positive rates of attendance. Pupils know that they are expected to be 'respectful, responsible and ready.' They do their best to live up to this. They behave well. The three 'pocket principles' help them to understand what positive behaviour looks like. They respond quickly to reminders. Pupils are proud to earn reward points, become star of the day and/or week and to earn recognition rewards in Friday assemblies. Pupils hold the rewards that they receive for living out the school's expectations in high regard. Pupils who need help to regulate their behaviour get the understanding and support needed. They get on well. The school has high expectations of pupils' academic achievement. In lessons, pupils pay attention and work hard. However, in some subjects, there are some gaps in pupils' knowledge. This is partly due to some shortcomings in the school's previous curriculum. As such, pupils do not yet benefit from a consistently good quality of education. This is improving rapidly.

What the school should improve

• The school does not ensure that teaching enables pupils to learn some of the basic number facts and mental arithmetic strategies they need. This slows them down and hinders their progress through the mathematics curriculum. The school should ensure that pupils learn the strategies they need to help them to develop a secure understanding in mathematics.
• Occasionally, the curriculum does not make clear the important content that pupils are expected to learn. In addition, where such knowledge is identified, teaching does not consistently address this well enough. These weaknesses mean that pupils do not learn aspects of the curriculum as well as they should. The school should highlight the important knowledge that pupils need to learn across all subjects. In addition, the school should work with staff so that teaching, including the tasks that pupils are set, enables them to learn the intended curriculum well.
• The school does not identify strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum consistently well. This means that in some subjects the school does not have a clear insight into how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum. The school should better check the impact of the curriculum on pupils' learning and use this information to support further improvements.

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