St Margaret's-at-Cliffe Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 21 January 2025

Pupils are happy and settled in this friendly village school. Warm relationships between pupils and adults are built on care and respect. Pupils talk confidently about feeling supported and safe. Staff are ambitious for every pupil to succeed. Barriers to learning are seen as an opportunity to strengthen the provision for all pupils. Adaptations to the environment work effectively to support all learners, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). As a result, most pupils achieve well. Staff have high expectations for behaviour. Pupils are keen to exceed these expectations, both inside and outside the classroom. The school's values of resilience, resourcefulness, respect and tolerance, responsibility and reflection are reinforced at every opportunity. Pupils understand how these values help them to succeed in their learning and personally. The opportunities for pupils to undertake leadership roles, such as 'red caps' and early years buddies, are highly regarded. The school is currently in the process of refining parts of the curriculum. This is because in some subjects there needs to be clearer links between what pupils learn and how teachers check they have learned it. Parents and carers are highly supportive of the changes made since the new leadership team has been in place.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum in some subjects does not effectively make links between pupils' prior and current learning. Pupils do not, therefore, build on their previous learning and effectively remember some of the knowledge and skills that they need. The school should ensure that the newly implemented curriculum makes clear links between pupils' prior and current learning, so that pupils learn and remember more.
• The assessment of readers at risk of falling behind is not precise enough. As a result, some of these pupils are not given the specific support they need to address gaps in their learning. This hampers their ability to read with fluency and comprehension. The school should strengthen its approach to assessing the weakest readers to enable these pupils to catch up and keep up with their peers.
• The school's approach to checking what pupils know and remember is not yet embedded. As a result, pupils' misconceptions are not always picked up effectively enough. The school should ensure that there is a systematic approach to checking what pupils know and remember, so that pupils build securely on prior learning.

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