Vale View Community School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 26 April 2022

Vale View Community School is a welcoming and supportive place for pupils and their families. The school is a calm, caring community where pupils get on well together at work and at play. They value the friendships they make at school. Pupils have very positive relationships with school staff. They know that adults are there to help them with their work and to support them if they have any worries. Pupils are happy to come to school. They feel safe and enjoy their learning. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the site. Staff provide effective support for any pupils who need help to manage their behaviour and emotions. Bullying and unkind behaviour are never tolerated. Teachers are ambitious for pupils. Pupils know that teachers expect them to try their hardest. Pupils work hard to meet teachers' expectations and live up to the motto of 'Being the best I can be', so they typically learn well. Children get off to a good start in early years and leaders are sharpening assessment practices to ensure that these are continued through key stage 1 and beyond. Pupils understand and actively demonstrate the school's values represented by determined dog, collaborative cat, responsible rabbit, positive penguin and respectful rhino. They know why these qualities are important to help them now and in the future.

What the school should improve

• Leaders have not identified precisely enough the impact of their work on different groups of pupils. This means that it is not always clear how effectively initiatives and interventions are benefiting the different groups. Leaders need to use the information from their monitoring to evaluate whether the intended outcomes have been achieved for all groups of pupils.
• In some subjects, assessment to support learning is at an early stage of development. Senior leaders should continue to support subject leaders to develop their work in this area, so that teachers use assessment more effectively to check pupils' understanding, plan the next steps and provide suitably challenging work.
• Sometimes, as children move into key stage 1, the knowledge and skills they acquired in early years are not built on as effectively as they could be. This means that not all the pupils are sufficiently challenged in key stage 1. Leaders need to ensure that pupils' prior achievements are acknowledged in their curriculum planning.

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