Scamblesby Church of England Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 March 2024

Beginning in the early years, children and pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), benefit from working with staff who are highly ambitious for them and what they can achieve. Pupils have high expectations of themselves and achieve well. Pupils enjoy coming to school. They talk about the positive relationships they form with staff. Those parents and carers who shared a view were overwhelmingly supportive of the school. They commented on pupils knowing that their contributions are valued, feeling happy and bringing their understanding of the school values to their lives outside school. Pupils are familiar with, and demonstrate the school values of, wisdom, respect, kindness, endeavour, trust and fairness. Pupils behave well. Most pupils are consistently attentive in their lessons and keen to learn. Most pupils take pride in their work. They value the education they receive. The school provides a wide range of opportunities for pupils to develop their leadership skills. Many pupils are members of the school council, the nature council or the collective worship council. They learn about how to make improvements to the school by creating spaces for wildlife on the school field, for example. Some pupils take up roles as subject champions.

What the school should improve

• Teachers do not consistently ensure that pupils in mixed-age classes move their learning on at the most appropriate point. This means that, at times, older pupils in these classes do not always benefit from opportunities to deepen the sophistication of their understanding. The school should make sure that teachers consistently provide opportunities for older pupils in mixed-age classes to deepen their understanding and extend their thinking.
• In the foundation subjects, the school's systems for checking pupils' understanding are not as consistently focused as they could be on the important knowledge that the curriculum identifies pupils should learn. As a result, teachers do not always have the information they need to identify and address gaps and misconceptions in pupils' knowledge. The school should ensure that the systems for checking pupils' understanding enable teachers and subject leaders to identify precisely where the curriculum in the foundation subjects is having a more and less positive impact on pupils' knowledge and understanding.

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