Long Mead Community Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 1 April 2025

Pupils enjoy learning at this caring community school. They work hard in lessons and listen carefully to their teachers. Pupils have positive relationships with staff. This helps them to behave well. Staff ensure that those pupils who need support to regulate their emotions have the help they need. As a result, the school is calm and purposeful. Pupils are happy and safe. They know staff will address any concerns they have. The school has high expectations for pupils' achievement. However, the school's work to address previous weaknesses in the curriculum is not yet fully embedded. As a result, pupils still have gaps in their knowledge, and they do not recall their prior learning well enough. This means that they cannot apply the skills and knowledge they learn consistently well. All pupils have opportunities to develop their talents. They participate happily in the broad range of clubs which the school offers. These are as varied as coding and rugby. Staff empower pupils to request and plan additional clubs that interest them. The school ensures that every pupil has an opportunity to represent the school in sports such as football or boccia. Pupils also participate in various musical performances. They enjoy these opportunities.

What the school should improve

• The school's work to design an ambitious and well-implemented curriculum is still a work in progress. This means that pupils do not routinely achieve as well as they should across the subjects. The school should embed the new curriculum securely so that pupils gain strong knowledge across the subjects.
• The teaching of phonics is not yet consistently effective and the books that pupils read are not matched closely enough to the sounds and letters they know. As a result, some pupils do not become confident readers quickly enough. The school must ensure that the teaching of phonics is consistently effective and that pupils read books matched to their phonics knowledge.
• In a small number of subjects, the activities selected by teachers are not designed carefully enough. As a result, pupils do not always deepen their understanding of the curriculum as deeply as they could. The school must ensure that the activities that teachers design support pupils in consistently developing skills and subject-specific vocabulary effectively.

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