Outstanding Behaviour and Attitudes 
Outstanding Personal Development 
Outstanding Early Years Provision 

Ofsted Inspection December 2022

OFSTED now inspect primary schools in five key areas: The Quality of Education, Behaviour & Attitude, Personal Development, Leadership & Management and the Early Years Provision. 

Schools can receive one of four possible grades in each area: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate.  Under recent changes a school would have to be Outstanding in all 5 areas to receive an overall Outstanding grade. 

You may be aware from recent news reports that nationally schools have found the new framework far more challenging than the previous framework, with Ofsted referring to the current inspection cycle as setting a “new baseline”. For reference, no primary school in Lincolnshire has received an “Outstanding” grading since the launch of the new framework, including those schools which were  previously graded “Outstanding”. 

We are however delighted to share with you our exceptionally good report. Reepham has been graded “Outstanding” in 3 of the 5 areas. This includes being the first primary school in Lincolnshire to get “Outstanding” for our Early Year Provision and out of the 70+ inspections carried out in Lincolnshire under the new framework, we are one of only two schools to get “Outstanding” for both Behaviour and Personal Development!

Ofsted reports are brief and represent a snapshot in time, but we believe our report really reflects our School values and the way we teach. The inspectors wrote:

Reepham Church of England Primary School is a happy school"

"Leaders ensure the school’s core values are at the heart of everything that pupils do."

"Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary."

"Staff know pupils very well. They treat every pupil as an individual."

"Leaders have high expectations of all pupils. They make sure all pupils achieve well. Pupils work hard and want to learn."

"The early years provision provides an exceptional experience for children."

Pupils frequently celebrate the fact that 'everyone is awesome' in their school community".

 

For the specific areas Quality of Education and Leadership and Management the school received a “Good” grading. This means the overall grading for the school is “Good”. 

In additional feedback given to the school and the Local Authority, the Inspectors were keen to express there is “exceptional practice” here, but to achieve “Outstanding” in the Quality of Education area, a change in the framework means every subject must be judged as “Outstanding”. 

When reporting on different subjects, Ofsted identified the core areas of phonics and reading as exemplary: “Leaders prioritise reading. They are determined that all pupils will read well.”  The inspectors saw evidence of highly effective learning in the other core subjects of maths and writing, including our Year 2 and Year 6 SAT data which was higher than national comparisons for those achieving Age Expected and Greater Depth levels. 

During the inspection they looked in detail at a number of other subjects. In summarising their findings they report: “Leaders have considered carefully what they want pupils to learn and when.” This refers to the highest quality provision they saw in subjects such as History, Computing and PSHE. 

Whilst they told us the provision was of a high quality overall, they did find that in a couple of subjects “leaders have not ensured that the curriculum PRECISELY identifies all of the important knowledge pupils need to know.”  This related to Modern Foreign Language (French) and Geography. These subjects are already on the School Development Plan and Ofsted agreed they needed further consideration to be graded better than “Good”. With the overall provision being described as very good, we don’t intend to dramatically alter our approach this academic year. Instead, we will spend time researching the best way to further develop these subjects; we are not a school that wants to stand still, so we will strive to make all subject areas “Outstanding”. 

The School’s Leadership and Management was graded ‘Good”. This area considers leadership at all levels, from Subject Leaders, the Headteacher and to the Governance of the school.  The grading of this area usually goes hand-in-hand with the grading of the subjects. As such, Leadership within the school is reported as being “ambitious for all pupils”.  During the feedback session we were told that what is Outstanding is linked to the Headteachers vision.   A further area they would like the School to consider is that the School Governors “need to assure themselves that they have a rigorous structure and processes in place to assess the quality of all aspects of the schools’ provision.” We are already making strides by reviewing how the Governing Board monitors different areas of the School and triangulates the information they receive. 

During the feedback to the school, the inspectors told us that they had enjoyed their time working with all the teachers and pupils, and that this was some of the best feedback they have given, reiterating that much of the School is exemplary. 

You can read their report in full below. It will be published on the school website and on the official Ofsted website. 

Finally, we would like to thank all our parents, pupils and staff for their commitment to the School. We are delighted with the report. This is your school and we fully agree with the parent who told the inspectors: “Being a family is not just a motto to Reepham, they live and breathe it.” .

Link to the Ofsted website 

Ofsted Parent View

You can view and leave feedback about the school at Ofsted's Parent View website.

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