Sherwood Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 29 October 2024

Sherwood Primary School is an extremely well-ordered and welcoming place. Pupils are happy and proud to be part of this exceptional school. They embrace new challenges with enthusiasm and confidence. The school sets the bar high for pupils' academic success. It ensures that each pupil's education is enriched with an impressive array of high-quality experiences. Pupils achieve extremely well from their differing starting points. Staff provide carefully crafted support to help pupils overcome any barriers that they may face. Pupils who need additional support, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), flourish as a result. Children settle remarkably quickly in the early years. They are keen to practise and apply their learning with the many new friends that they make at school. Pupils' behaviour and attitudes to school are exemplary. They find learning fun and collaborate incredibly well together. Lessons and social times are equally harmonious. Pupils value their own and others' uniqueness. They relish opportunities to help and support others within the school and wider community. Pupils carry out an impressive range of leadership roles. For example, they work closely with staff to make suggestions about how the school might evolve and improve even further in the future. What does the school do well? All involved in the school community share a remarkable sense of common purpose to ensure that all pupils achieve highly. Governors and staff are a powerful partnership. The governing body carries out its work with impressive diligence. It understands the needs of the community that it serves exceptionally well. Governors ensure that staff benefit from all the support that they need to carry out their respective roles. The school has an exceptionally well-designed and organised curriculum. As a result, teachers are clear about what they need to focus on with their classes. They are also clear about the order in which learning needs to occur. Teachers skilfully adapt how they deliver the curriculum for individual pupils when this is needed. This ensures that all pupils benefit from the right amount of challenge and support so that they achieve at a consistently high standard. Teachers are highly skilled at helping pupils to successfully build on what they already know. They seamlessly identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge or misconceptions that occur. This is particularly true in reading. Teachers also make sure that pupils develop a deep understanding of a wide range of vocabulary. This helps pupils to quickly absorb new information. Pupils develop an impressive recall of a wide range of knowledge as they progress through the school. This prepares pupils with a solid foundation for their next stages of education. Reading sits firmly at the heart of the curriculum. The school carefully selects high-quality literature to captivate pupils' interest and support their learning. This begins in the early years. Children are enraptured by the well-loved stories, songs and rhymes that their teachers share with them. Pupils, including those who are at the early stages of learning to speak English, become accomplished readers, making optimum use of the school's enticing library areas. Children begin to learn how to use phonics to read words as soon as they begin the Reception Year. Teachers deliver the school's phonics programme to a consistently high standard. Pupils quickly grow in confidence due to the unstinting support of highly skilled staff. Pupils regularly practise their reading with books that contain the sounds that they know. The few pupils who continue to find reading more difficult benefit from highly effective support until they can read accurately and fluently. All teachers are expertly trained in identifying and addressing additional needs, including SEND. Pupils with SEND achieve extremely well due to the high-calibre support that they receive from staff. These pupils embrace the encouragement that they receive. They access the many aspects of the wider life of the school and relish taking a full part in it. Pupils maintain consistently high standards of behaviour. There is little need for adults to remind pupils about the standards expected, as routines are well established and highly effective. Pupils strive to do their best at all times. The support that the school provides for pupils' personal development is exceptional and is strongly linked to the school's values. For example, pupils benefit from the plethora of trips and other activities on offer to them that broaden their understanding of the wider world. They celebrate the richness of the diversity in their own and wider community. Pupils express their own opinions confidently whilst respecting the views of others. These and other attributes prepare pupils extremely well for becoming an active citizen in later life.

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