St Lawrence Church of England Primary School, Rowhedge

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 19 November 2024

The school is a nurturing community where pupils flourish. The school's values of courage, community and compassion underpin staff approaches. Staff prioritise the well- being of pupils, providing timely and tenacious support for them. Staff ensure that pupils are happy, respectful and very well cared for. Pupils rise to leaders' high expectations about what they can achieve. Pupils are enthusiastic. They are keen to talk about their learning, show their work to visitors and proudly display it around the school. They develop a thorough understanding across a range of subjects. Most pupils achieve well across the curriculum. Pupils value the importance of kind behaviour. The youngest children settle quickly, learn to share, listen to others and take turns. Older pupils act as 'buddies' and excellent role models. Pupils behave very well, and any rare issues of unkindness are dealt with quickly and effectively. Pupils access a range of trips, visiting speakers and extra-curricular clubs. The school's own 'agents of change' programme provides pupils with lots of opportunities to think about the needs of others. Pupils undertake a vast array of challenges and wear their badges with pride. They are active advocates for those in the wider community and world.

What the school should improve

• Sometimes, staff focus on the completion of activities rather than how well pupils are understanding and applying writing and spelling techniques. A small number of pupils are not developing their independent writing skills as well as they are developing their reading and mathematics skills. The school should ensure that the writing provision for these pupils is delivered and monitored more adeptly so that all pupils learn and achieve as well in writing as they do in reading and mathematics.
• Leaders' and governors' quality assurance of some policies and documentation lacks precision. For example, some documentation available to parents at the time of the inspection was not reflective of the school's current approaches. The up-to-date policies that existed in the school had not been widely shared. Leaders and governors had not identified this. Leaders and governors should establish processes to ensure that their documentation reflects the up-to-date practice in the school.

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