Littlebourne Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 8 October 2024

Pupils are eager to come to school and keen to learn. They embrace and enjoy the opportunities the school offers from the early morning breakfast club through to their enthusiastic singing in assembly. The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour, to which they willingly rise. Pupils feel safe and secure as they happily go about their daily business. They are confident and courteous. Pupils are encouraged to respect and accept difference. They are warm, friendly and engaging with their friends and visitors alike. Pupils aspire to the school's positions of responsibility, such as 'well-being warriors', and learn to conduct themselves responsibly in any situation. Pupils try hard with whatever they are asked to do. They rightly take pride in their well- presented workbooks. However, the school knows that pupils should achieve more than they do presently. The new headteacher is already leading helpful steps towards realising these higher academic aspirations for pupils. Pupils develop a strong understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and safe, particularly the risks associated with being online. They report that bullying is not an issue. Records show that any concerns are thoroughly investigated and dealt with.

What the school should improve

• The school has not precisely identified what pupils need to learn and remember. This means it is not clear what teachers need to emphasise and assess to ensure that all pupils make enough progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that the curriculum clearly identifies what pupils should know and be able to do at each stage in each subject.
• Teachers are not routinely adept at checking carefully what pupils do and do not already know and adapting teaching accordingly. The tasks they choose for pupils do not support the intended learning consistently well enough. This hinders pupils' ability to get better through careful and precise practice. The school should ensure teachers use effective strategies for checking pupils' understanding and use this information to select appropriate tasks to promote pupils' learning.
• In another turbulent period for the school, leadership at different levels is either undeveloped or very new. This means that the capacity for securing improvements to the quality of education is not as strong as it could be. The school should prioritise developing and strengthening leadership at different levels to increase capacity and support the sustainability of any improvements.

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