Reed First School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 18 October 2022

This village school is friendly and welcoming. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. Pupils are happy to come to school. They are respectful and polite. Pupils enjoy praising each other for their achievements. Leaders ensure pupils have opportunities to develop their strength of character, so they become more confident learners. In the past, there were lower expectations of pupils. Staff now have higher expectations and pupils rise to the challenge to do their best. Pupils are motivated and develop positive attitudes to learning. They achieve well and enjoy learning. Pupils value how the staff are kind and help them with any worries. Bullying is rare and dealt with effectively, and pupils feel safe. Classrooms are calm and purposeful places to learn. Pupils learn a broad and balanced curriculum. They value the wider experiences they have that help to make their learning more fun and interesting. Pupils particularly enjoy being in the outside area, which allows them to play in a natural environment. Parents make very positive comments about the school. They say their children make progress and that they learn about important values. Parents are happy with the care and support their children receive.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum plans in some subjects are new. In a small number of subjects, pupils have gaps in their understanding due to weaknesses in previous curriculum planning. Leaders should continue their work to train staff to be more confident in adapting the curriculum where needed. Teachers need to fully account for the pupils' prior knowledge and understanding as precisely as possible in their planning, so that pupils achieve as well as they can in all subjects.
• Governors are becoming increasingly effective in fulfilling their roles. They work with leaders to agree and monitor progress towards priority areas for improvement. However, governors are less clear about some priorities to improve the quality of education and how these will be achieved. Governors must ensure that priorities for improvement focus precisely on what is needed to improve the quality of education further.

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