Tavistock Primary & Nursery School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 9 July 2024

The school has navigated through a period of leadership changes. During this transition, the school has worked on developing an ambitious curriculum alongside the management of pupils' behaviour. These actions are starting to make a difference. However, these improvements are in the early stages. Consequently, the curriculum does not yet support all pupils to build their knowledge well enough. Bullying is well understood by pupils. Most pupils feel their worries are dealt with. However, for some pupils and parents, bullying remains a concern. The school's values of 'resilience, self-belief, responsibility, understanding self, co- operation and risk taking' are central to the vision at Tavistock Primary School and Nursery. Staff take time to build positive relationships with pupils to help them to be successful. The school knows pupils and their families well. The school provides opportunities to support pupils' wider development. Clubs are valued by pupils, such as cricket and choir. Experiences are considered to enhance the curriculum. For example, pupils attend a residential visit to London to support their historical study of the Tower of London. Pupils appreciate their leadership roles. For example, house captains value their responsibility of counting the house points earned throughout the week to announce to the school in assembly.

What the school should improve

• Some pupils are not supported well enough to grasp the basics of reading. As a result, these pupils do not become confident, fluent readers quickly. The school must ensure that pupils get the support they need to learn to read successfully.
• Staff do not consistently apply the school's behaviour policy. As a result, the poor behaviour of some pupils is not always managed effectively. This worries some pupils and impacts on their learning. The school must ensure its expectations of behaviour are understood by all staff so that the behaviour policy is applied consistently.
• The school, including governors, do not monitor some important aspects of the school's work in sufficient detail, such as behaviour and safeguarding. Therefore, they are unable to identify trends and patterns to inform adaptations to the curriculum and some aspects of the school that need to further improve. The school and governors need to ensure that monitoring and evaluation are effective to make informed decisions about priorities for improvement.
• Some parents are concerned about some aspects of the school's work. The school must strengthen communication with parents to ensure concerns are resolved and to build effective partnerships.

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