Melbourne Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 January 2023

Pupils at Melbourne Community School are well cared for. Staff build positive relationships with pupils. Pupils describe adults as helpful and caring. Parents agree. Bullying is rare. Pupils know who they can go to if they have any concerns. This helps pupils to feel safe and happy in school. Most pupils live up to the school's values of care, imagine, believe, strive and achieve. Staff have high expectations of pupils and pupils work hard to do well. Pupils are respectful of people's differences. They recognise that it is fine to be different. They are highly respectful when talking about protected characteristics, such as disability. Leaders are ambitious for pupils. They have high expectations of pupils' achievement, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils take pride in their work. Leaders have reviewed the school's curriculum. They have considered what pupils must know in each subject. However, leaders recognise that there is still work to do to develop the curriculum in a small number of subjects. There is not a consistent approach to ensuring that new knowledge takes account of what pupils have learned before. Leaders are working hard to address this.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the curriculum does not consistently take account of what pupils have previously learned. This makes it difficult for some pupils to build on their prior knowledge and remember more of the curriculum. Leaders should review the curriculum, so that subject knowledge is consistently organised in a way which enables pupils to build on their prior learning.
• Leaders have not ensured that staff teach all aspects of the intended curriculum in each subject. This contributes to gaps in pupils' knowledge. Leaders should work with teachers to improve their implementation of the curriculum, so that pupils learn well across all subjects.

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