Newthorpe school is meeting the standard after Ofsted inspection
A Newthorpe primary school has been given a predominantly clean bill of health by Government watchdog Ofsted.
Greasley Beauvale Primary School, on Greasley Avenue, was assessed over several criteria categories and met the ‘expected standard’ in attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, early years, inclusion, leadership and governance and personal development and wellbeing
However, in the category of achievement, inspectors rated the school as ‘needs attention’.
In their report, inspectors said: “Pupils feel valued, cared for, and are happy at this school.
"Each day, staff welcome pupils into a calm, nurturing and friendly environment, where they feel safe and ready to learn. Staff build strong, trusting relationships with pupils.
"This creates a culture of respect where pupils are confident that they can share any worries they may have with staff and that staff will listen and help them.
"Well-established routines and high expectations of pupils’ behaviour ensure that pupils can learn without distraction.
"Pupils are not worried about bullying but know what to do if they are.
"They enjoy their learning and attend well.
"The school provides bespoke support for pupils with SEND that reduces barriers to their learning.
"Pupils accessing the 'rainbow den' progress well through the curriculum from their starting points.
“Pupils develop their talents and interests through a wide range of activities beyond the classroom.
"Children develop their sense of belonging right from the start of the nursery year.
"Across the early years, children are happy, settled and curious learners.
"They progress well in their learning and achieve well.
"The school has more work to do to achieve the same success in transforming low key stage two published outcomes.
"Not all pupils achieve as well as they should in the national tests in English and mathematics at the end of year six.
"The school recognises this and is determined to make the improvements needed.
"Leaders' work to address pupils' low outcomes is beginning to impact positively, particularly in reading.”
On what the school needs to do to further improve, inspectors said leaders ‘should check that all staff implement the new teaching approaches for writing consistently, particularly in developing pupils' handwriting, to strengthen pupils' outcomes’ and ‘ensure that pupils' learning is consistently highly ambitious and they have access to more challenging activities, enabling them to achieve as well as they can’.