Launton Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a welcoming school. Pupils enjoy coming here where they are safe and well cared for and build secure relationships with staff. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in school life.

This is across all aspects of learning and wider development. The school is highly inclusive. Pupils often talk with passion about kindness and the importance of doing the right thing.

The school has high ambitions for pupils' achievements. However, pupils' learning does not yet meet these aspirations. Exactly what pupils need to know and how this is checked are not yet developed fully enough.

This means that pupils' achievement... over time is too variable, including in early years.

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They increasingly demonstrate the values of the school, such as resilience and compassion, as they progress into older years.

Pupils are encouraged to try hard and to act kindly with rewards and certificates in assemblies. Roles such as those of 'assembly monitor' and 'field monitor' provide some pupils with the opportunity to develop responsibility. Pupils also benefit from trips that bring learning to life, for example to the Ashmolean Museum.

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

There are ambitious, long-term aims for pupils in the broad range of subjects on offer. However, the design of the curriculum is not yet precise enough to ensure that all staff know the exact knowledge that needs to be taught. Owing to some changes in leadership and staff, there have been delays in the school's improvement.

Staff training has not yet ensured that the teaching of the school's curriculum consistently builds pupils' knowledge over time.

This is an inclusive school with high aspirations for pupils with SEND. Individual support is matched to pupils' needs, such as specific help for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Where staff understand what knowledge pupils need to know, helpful adaptations support pupils with SEND when they need it.

Early reading is, rightly, a priority for the school. Phonics is taught and modelled well.

Staff ensure that all pupils benefit from a wide range of carefully chosen books across the curriculum. Children learn to read from the start of early years. If any pupils fall behind, they receive support to help them to catch up.

However, aside from early reading, the early years curriculum is not developed so that staff know exactly what the children need to learn. This often means that activities are not as rich in language and other development opportunities as they should be. The limited curriculum also means that staff cannot check precisely how well children are developing.

This has an impact on how well staff target support for children who need this help and direction.

Pupils do not achieve as highly as they should. This is because staff do not routinely check what pupils know and remember precisely enough.

Therefore, they do not identify gaps in pupils' knowledge or adapt subsequent learning to meet the needs of pupils. This means that pupils do not develop secure knowledge over time. Where staff do check pupils' understanding and adapt teaching to address misconceptions consistently well, pupils can recall and use knowledge with greater success.

However, this is too inconsistent, meaning that too many pupils do not learn as securely as they should.

Pupils are proud of their school and attend regularly. The school has high expectations of attendance and works with parents and carers effectively where there are concerns.

While disruption to lessons is rare, some pupils struggle to sustain concentration for extended periods. At times, the high expectations the schools has of pupils' attitudes to learning are not reinforced successfully. This sometimes affects how well pupils learn.

However, where learning is clearly explained and followed by carefully chosen tasks, pupils demonstrate very positive attitudes to learning and pride in their work.

The school provides pupils with a strong moral compass. Pupils understand clearly the difference between right and wrong.

They are highly knowledgeable about online safety and physical health. The school provides pupils with meaningful experiences to help prepare them to be safe in later life. However, provision for pupils' personal and wider development is not yet designed and delivered with sufficient coherence.

This means that pupils do not build the breadth of wider knowledge that they should.

Staff and governors are passionate and committed to the school. They understand that there are improvements to make and are determined to develop the quality of education and wider opportunities for all pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum does not identify the knowledge that pupils need to learn precisely enough. This means that, too often, lessons do not systematically build pupils' knowledge over time or provide pupils with activities to practise what they have learned.

The school must ensure that the curriculum sets out clearly the knowledge that pupils need so that all staff know what to teach and when. ? Too often, pupils' understanding is not checked carefully enough. As a result, staff do not identify and address pupils' misconceptions as effectively as they should.

Staff need to be trained to know how to check for understanding as well as how to adapt teaching to address gaps in pupils' knowledge. Children in early years do not consistently benefit from good-quality provision. Their learning and development are not preparing them as well as they should do for when they move into Year 1.

This means that many are not getting the best possible start to their time in school. Staff need appropriate training and ongoing support and guidance to improve their practice so that activities and interactions consistently improve children's development, particularly their communication and language. ? The school does not have a sufficiently precise understanding of what it wants pupils to know and remember in personal, social and health education lessons.

This means that pupils do not have a secure understanding of some aspects of this curriculum. While there are some interesting and useful opportunities for pupils, such as visits and positions of responsibility, these are not coherently joined up so that it is clear that all pupils benefit from the wider curriculum on offer. The school should look carefully at the current provision to consider how its design and implementation can have more coherence and continuity.