Rumney Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

This is a caring, nurturing school where the pupils feel safe and secure. Most pupils are polite and courteous, and many work well with their peers.

They behave respectfully towards others, and the adults in the school. There is comprehensive provision for the pupils with additional learning needs (ALN), who make sound progress from their starting points as a result, for example in the Year 1 nurture provision. There are pockets of strong, inspiring teaching.

For example, in the youngest classes, pupils develop their sense of curiosity and exploration well, because the provision is engaging and interesting. Pupils contribute their views to what and how they learn. In Year 6, pupils think maturely about the history and cult...ure of South Africa, for example to discuss and understand apartheid.

However, in too many lessons across the school, teaching is not well paced, or matched closely enough to the pupils' needs. Where this happens, the pupils do not make the progress they could or should, because the teachers' expectations are not high enough. The headteacher has identified these shortcomings during her time at the school and is beginning to bring about improvements.

However, it is too early to see the impact of these improvements in consistently strong classroom practice. There is a whole-school culture of reading that supports most pupils to make good progress in learning to read and enjoy books. The new curriculum includes relevant, exciting topics that capture the pupils' interests.

However, currently the provision is not structured well enough to ensure that all pupils acquire their skills systematically. For example, as they move through the school, pupils do not make enough progress in learning the Welsh language or developing their digital skills. In addition, over time, senior leaders have not demonstrated the capacity to ensure that teaching supports all pupils to achieve their best.

Recommendations R1 Develop the senior leadership team's capacity to strengthen teaching and learning across the school R2 Use the good practice currently in the school to ensure that all teaching is well matched to pupils' needs and enables all groups of pupils to make the progress they should R3 Ensure that the school's provision enables pupils to develop their skills progressively and systematically What happens next In accordance with the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion that this school is in need of significant improvement. The school will draw up an action plan to show how it is going to address the recommendations. Estyn will monitor the school's progress about 12 months after the publication of this report.