Manor Farm Junior School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 21 January 2025

Relationships between pupils are typically kind and caring. Staff look after pupils well and keep them safe. Pupils appreciate and respect the adults that they work with. If pupils have any worries, they know to tell a member of staff. Pupils rightly trust staff to sort out any problems quickly. Pupils enjoy school and socialise happily at breaktimes and lunchtimes. The school sets high expectations for pupils' attendance and the majority of pupils come to school very regularly. The school is ambitious for pupils' learning across the curriculum. However, although pupils' results in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2024 were about average overall, pupils' achievement varies across the school. The approaches that staff use in lessons are not consistently effective enough. Additionally, the school's support for weaker readers and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is not as strong as it should be. The breadth and quality of opportunities for pupils' personal growth are good. Pupils experience a wide range of enriching activities. Underpinned by the school's values, pupils have a strong understanding of the world around them. They learn to respect and value people with different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.

What the school should improve

• The approaches teachers use in lessons are not consistently effective. Pupils do not achieve as well as they should because they are not fully engaged and teachers' expectations vary. The school should support teachers to use strategies that enable pupils to learn new knowledge securely.
• Lessons are not adapted well enough to meet the academic needs of pupils with SEND. They do not make strong progress through the curriculum. The school should provide staff with the necessary information so that they can support pupils with SEND effectively in lessons.
• The ways in which the school supports weaker readers are not effective enough. These pupils' fluency, accuracy and confidence in reading do not develop as strongly as they should. The school must make sure that books are matched closely to pupils' phonics knowledge and that they are supported to access texts in class more effectively.
• While those responsible for governance and executive leaders within the trust review the school's progress, there is no cohesive or specific process which aligns the work of different layers of governance and leadership. This means that the school is not held to account as effectively as it could be for the pace and impact of improvements. The trust should develop and implement a strategy that clearly sets out who is responsible for evaluating what, when and how.

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