Cranwell Primary School (Foundation)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

This is an outstanding school.

Parents and carers speak very highly of the exceptional care, guidance and support that make their children feel extremely safe and valued. Their excellent partnership with the school means that they are very well-informed about their children's progress and always feel welcome in school. An important strength is the way the school assesses the skills of pupils when they enter during the school year, often from overseas, and provides work that matches their abilities.

One comment, typical of many, 'Cranwell Primary should be applauded for managing the high turnover of forces children with such a high level of skill, care and sensitivity.' Pupils' outstanding aca...demic and personal achievements make them exceptionally well-prepared for the future. They build well on their good start in the Early Years Foundation Stage and attainment in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 is high.

This has been the case for some years and represents good progress from their starting points. This is the result of consistently good teaching. Throughout the school, the teaching of reading and number skills is of high quality and gives pupils the confidence to tackle any subject.

The teachers ensure that pupils' writing is lively and made interesting for the reader. Across the whole age range, while most pupils achieve well in writing, not all of the more-able ones attain the high levels of which they are capable. This is because teachers do not always provide enough opportunities for them to work independently on challenging tasks, and sometimes accept work that is untidy.

Pupils behave well, enjoy school and attendance rates are high. Pupils think deeply about those in the world suffering hardships. Their very thorough involvement in their school and local community is clearly evident in the way they take responsibility and participate in a wide range of events in the village and military base.

The teachers have developed an excellent curriculum that gives pupils many opportunities to hone their literacy and numeracy skills in all subjects. They also use the curriculum very skilfully to develop pupils' personal skills. For example, the impact of the extensive work on the need to eat nutritious food and take regular exercise shows clearly in pupils' excellent awareness of how to live healthy lives.

The headteacher and senior staff have made a good start in identifying the school's strengths and weaknesses and have quickly gelled into an effective team. They evaluate the quality of teaching and learning regularly but do not focus well enough on the progress made by different ability groups in a class. The leadership team is building well on the outstanding partnerships with parents and carers, and with the village community and military base, while setting challenging targets to improve areas such as achievement in writing.

The excellent focus on equal opportunities is at the heart of the school's ethos. These many strengths account for the good progress made by the school since the previous inspection, and show why it has a good capacity to sustain this improvement. The funds are managed impeccably and the school provides excellent value for money.

Information about the school

This is a larger than average primary school where the vast majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, including those with a statement of special educational needs, is below average. The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals is also below average.

Around two-thirds of pupils are from families working at the nearby airbase, and the proportion who leave or join the school during the school year is much higher than in most schools. The school has recently gained national Healthy Schools status and the Artsmark Gold award. The headteacher and the two senior staff were all promoted from within the school in September 2011.