Smeeth Community Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 July 2023

Smeeth Community Primary School has a strong community feel which is shared by leaders, staff, pupils, parents and carers alike. As a small school, pupils and their families are known especially well and they benefit from these positive relationships. Pupils take responsibility for making their school inclusive and welcoming to all. They talk confidently about the school values of compassion, tolerance, respect, positivity, honesty and perseverance. Pupils behave exceptionally well and with high levels of self-control. They are proud to earn rewards such as house points, be recognised as 'star of the week' or receive 'well done vouchers' for demonstrating good manners or embodying the school values. Pupils are motivated to hold positions of responsibility in the school, including being sports captains, members of the school council, librarians and buddies for younger children. They take their responsibilities seriously and talk about what they do to improve school for themselves and their peers. For example, the school council recently introduced 'picnic Fridays' so that the whole school can eat together outside when the weather is fine. Pupils of all ages are self-assured and articulate, speaking with confidence and humour to visitors. They feel safe and can talk about how to keep themselves safe both online and in the wider world.

What the school should improve

• Assessment in the foundation subjects is not as precise as it needs to be. This means that staff do not always have an accurate understanding of what pupils have understood or pick up on subject specific misconceptions quickly enough. Leaders need to ensure that staff develop their assessment practices so that, in the way that they do in reading and mathematics, they can identify what pupils know and where they need to develop.
• Leaders have identified the small steps of component knowledge and skills in each of their curriculum plans. However, there is not yet in place a systematic process for supporting pupils to retain their learning over time. Leaders need to develop systems to support pupils to connect their learning and retain this in the longer term.

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