Godinton Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 6 February 2024

Pupils are proud to be part of their happy school community. Relationships between adults and children are respectful and trusting. This is in keeping with the school's 'STAR' (Showing Tolerance and Respect) values. Throughout the school, there is a strong sense of togetherness among pupils and staff. The school's 'guiding stars' approach threads across all aspects of the curriculum. Pupils acquire the skills needed to really engage with their learning. Consequently, attitudes to learning and behaviour are excellent across the school. Pupils are taught how to manage their emotions and behaviour in positive and independent ways. Pupils, and children in the early years, enjoy making friendships with their peers. They work and play confidently together. The school develops pupils' character and sense of responsibility through various leadership opportunities. For example, house captains, prefects, playground buddies and 'mini managers' support the school leaders to bring about positive changes in the school. Pupils enjoy coming to school as staff make their learning fun and engaging. Pupils' talents are fostered through a range of activities as well as different visits and trips. Pupils keenly described how much they valued these opportunities and their enthusiasm for the clubs on offer such as chess, cross stitch club and netball.

What the school should improve

• In a small number of subjects, leaders have not carefully identified and sequenced the precise knowledge that pupils need to learn. This makes it difficult for teachers to identify and address any gaps in learning as swiftly as they could. This can mean pupils find it hard to recall what they have learned and to therefore understand new topics. Leaders should continue their ongoing work to improve these aspects of the curriculum.
• The school are continuing to refine the use of the newly adopted phonics programme. This means that currently, there are some inconsistences in the teaching of phonics. This includes examples where pupils do not always have a carefully selected reading book to help them practise reading letters and sounds. As a result, pupils are not yet consistently becoming as confident and fluent in their reading as quickly as leaders intend. Leaders must continue to check the full implementation of the new phonics programme.

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