The Elmley Dray School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 June 2025

This is a happy and friendly school. Pupils enjoy the nurturing environment it offers. They feel safe here. Their relationships with staff are based on trust and respect. Routines are well established and understood. Pupils relish their break and communal times together. They care about each other and about the staff, who they see as patient friends that support and guide when needed. Expectations of pupils' behaviour and engagement in learning are high. Pupils know this. They respond well to the demands placed on them, even when confidence may be low, or when anxieties are running high. Because of this, pupils achieve well across the curriculum despite the relatively short period of time they have attended. Pupils' attitudes to school are very positive. This is reflected in their impressive levels of attendance and the pride that they show in their own work. A big part of this is due to staff providing them with the strategies they need to become confident learners again. Importantly, pupils feel that they have a voice and that they are listened to. This is because staff know that the pupils themselves have an important role to play in establishing this successful new school.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school has not defined the knowledge or the skills pupils will be taught clearly enough. Because of this, teachers do not have a clear understanding of what pupils need to learn. This means that opportunities for pupils to consolidate and build on what they already know and remember are less effective. The school needs to ensure that all subjects have a clearly sequenced curriculum pathway with well-defined end points. This will ensure that all pupils make the progress they are capable of over time.
• In some lessons, staff do not design learning that meets the needs of pupils closely enough. Activity choices do not help all pupils engage in learning as well as they might. When this happens, their learning slows. The school needs to ensure that there is more consistency in the way teachers design learning opportunities, so that pupils across all phases of the school make the progress they are fully capable of.

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