St Bega's CofE Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 June 2025

The school is a calm and happy place. Staff, parents and carers, and pupils alike describe the school as 'a family'. Pupils behave well. There is an inclusive, supportive atmosphere at the school where pupils relish the opportunity to help each other. Pupils value the positive relationships they have with staff. They appreciate having many opportunities to talk about how they are feeling. Pupils have every confidence that staff will resolve any worries they may have. The school has made recent, substantial changes to strengthen the design of its curriculum. The curriculum is broad and ambitious. It reflects the school's high expectations. However, the curriculum across most subjects is new and is not embedded. The school's vision for pupils' achievement, including in the early years, is not currently realised. Pupils develop their interests and talents through attending clubs, including gardening, art and computing. They learn to play musical instruments and are proud to have performed at music festivals. Pupils are supported well to become active members of the community. For example, they maintain the school's fruit and vegetable patch. Pupils also plant trees in the local area and raise money for charities. This helps pupils to understand the positive difference that their actions can have. Pupils develop their leadership skills as they contribute to the organisation of the school's annual art event, which showcases pupils' and local artists' work.

What the school should improve

• There is variability in how effectively the curriculum is delivered, including in the early years. The activities that pupils complete are not consistently well matched to pupils' next steps in learning. They do not focus sharply enough on the knowledge that the school intends pupils to learn. This hinders pupils from building on what they already know to develop a secure understanding. The school should support staff with curriculum implementation to ensure that learning is well matched to the curriculum intention and supports pupils to build their learning consistently and securely.
• The school does not address gaps in pupils' phonics knowledge with enough rigour. This hinders pupils from catching up when they fall behind and delays them in developing their reading fluency. The school should ensure that pupils who struggle with early reading receive swift, targeted support that enables them to quickly become confident readers.
• Assessment is not used effectively to check how well pupils have remembered knowledge in the longer term and to inform the delivery of the curriculum. This makes it difficult for staff to identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge. The school should ensure that assessment is used effectively to check that pupils have remembered earlier curriculum content and to inform subsequent planning so that pupils learn successfully.

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