Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and well cared for at Knights Templar school.

Staff know the pupils well and make sure they have their needs met. Staff and pupils enjoy positive and respectful relationships, which means that pupils trust adults.

Pupils show positive attitudes to their learning.

However, the curriculum is not yet designed to ensure that they are able to make strong enough progress through all subjects. This hinders pupils' success and motivation towards their learning.

Pupils behave well.

They interact easily and enjoy a range of social opportunities. Behaviour in lessons is good and pupils say that any rare incidents of low-level disruptio...n are dealt with quickly by staff. Leaders' new approach to managing behaviour benefits all pupils, particularly those who need the most care.

This is helping to support pupils to settle back into routine learning following the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leaders have worked hard to help parents and carers support their child's reading. This is particularly the case in the early years.

Parents appreciate this help. Parents who have children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) say that the school is incredibly supportive. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders are ambitious for pupils. They have clear aims for the curriculum. Content is sequenced from the early years to Year 4.

However, leaders have not yet set out the detailed knowledge they want pupils to learn. This is particularly the case in key stages 1 and 2. This means that pupils do not always learn what leaders intend and teachers are not able to use assessment to check that pupils have secured the important knowledge.

Where this works well in the early years, knowledge is broken down into suitable small steps so that teachers ensure that children know more, remember more and can do more over time.

Staff receive effective training in reading and mathematics. This means they have good subject knowledge in these subjects.

However, they have not received enough training to ensure that they are well equipped to teach other subjects.

In mathematics, pupils, including those in the early years, develop fluency in number and specific mathematical vocabulary. Teachers give them lots of opportunities to apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem-solving.

As a result, pupils are achieving well in this subject.

Leaders prioritise and promote the teaching of reading. Pupils love to read.

They choose from the appealing range of books available in the classrooms and school library. Teachers read regularly to pupils, much to pupils' delight. Children start learning phonics early in the Reception year.

This builds on the good communication and language foundations that they experience in the nursery. The content of the phonics programme is appropriately structured and sequenced. This means that pupils make good progress with their phonics.

When they have mastered the early stages of reading, pupils develop a range of reading skills which they apply well to more demanding texts.

Leaders make sure that pupils have plenty of opportunities for personal development. There is strong focus on supporting pupils, including in the early years, to manage their feelings and friendships.

Leaders see this as valuable to mitigate one of the impacts of the pandemic. Pupils also learn about current events, such as the jubilee. They are familiar with the values that prepare them for life in modern Britain.

They show a respect for different beliefs and understand how people can all be different. Pupils say they are proud to take on a variety of responsibilities, such as digital ambassadors and eco warriors.

Pupils with SEND make good progress.

This is because teachers adapt the curriculum well for them. Leaders have a detailed understanding of the needs of individual pupils. They work well with external agencies to design bespoke support for those pupils who need it.

Governors are committed to the school and carry out their roles with diligence. They understand the context that children come from locally and aspire for pupils to achieve their very best. They have ensured that leaders develop a strong curriculum for reading and mathematics.

However, the development of the wider curriculum has not had the urgency it requires. Leaders engage well with staff. Staff say that they feel listened to and appreciate the training and support they receive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders across the nursery and main school demonstrate a strong ethos of keeping children safe from harm. They work with other professionals purposefully and secure the right help for pupils and families at the right time.

Leaders also ensure that all employment checks on staff are thorough.

Staff have regular training in knowing the signs of abuse. They are vigilant in reporting concerns and use agreed systems effectively to ensure that information is reported in a timely manner.

Pupils learn about how to keep themselves safe. For example, they can talk about risks when using the internet. They are clear about needing to tell someone if they are worried.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not yet designed a curriculum that sets out clearly the knowledge they want pupils to learn. This means that the implementation and sequencing of the intended curriculum is not as effective as it could be. Leaders need to ensure that the specific knowledge they want pupils to learn in each year group is clearly identified so that pupils learn more and remember more over time.

• Teachers do not always have the necessary subject knowledge and pedagogical approaches to deliver an ambitious curriculum. As a result, pupils' learning across the curriculum is too variable. Leaders must ensure that staff have the necessary subject and pedagogical knowledge to deliver an ambitious curriculum.

• As the small steps of knowledge pupils need to learn in each subject are not all yet identified, teachers are unable to use assessment effectively to ensure that pupils' learning builds on prior knowledge. This reduces the progress that pupils make. Leaders must ensure that teachers use effective assessment to secure good progress for pupils across the curriculum.

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