Mereside Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 2 July 2024

This school is central to the local community that it serves. Pupils are happy and enjoy coming to school. They said that they enjoy playing outdoors and socialising with their friends. Pupils trust their teachers to care for them, including when they need comfort or reassurance. The school is ambitious for pupils to achieve well. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, on occasion, some teachers do not deliver the curriculum as well as intended. This means that some pupils do not progress through the curriculum as effectively as they could. In the main, pupils behave well during lessons and around school. Staff encourage them to behave sensibly and to treat others with respect. Teachers step in quickly when pupils need help to follow the school's rules or to regulate their own emotions. This ensures that pupils' behaviour is addressed sensitively and effectively. Beyond the school curriculum, pupils access a range of activities that benefit their wider development. For example, pupils take part in a range of trips, and they learn to play musical instruments. Pupils also learn how to care for living things, including Fudge, the school's therapy dog. This helps pupils to develop empathy and to broaden their interests.

What the school should improve

• The delivery of the curriculum is variable. Some staff do not design suitable learning activities to help pupils learn subject content. This hinders pupils' progress in building a secure body of knowledge. The school should ensure that staff are suitably equipped to deliver the curriculum consistently well.
• Some teachers do not use assessment strategies well enough to identify what pupils have learned and understood before they move on to new learning. This causes gaps in some pupils' knowledge. The school should ensure that teachers use assessment techniques effectively so that pupils can successfully build on their prior learning.
• The phonics programme is not taught consistently well. Some pupils do not read books that match the sounds that they know. The support for pupils who struggle to read is not effective enough. This means that pupils do not learn to read fluently as soon as they could. The school should ensure that all aspects of the early reading programme are delivered consistently well so that pupils develop secure phonics knowledge.

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