Slade Primary School and Attached Unit for Children with Hearing Impairment

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

This is an outstanding school. The most obvious feature is the excellent behaviour of the pupils which is a credit to the school, parents and carers and to the pupils themselves. This is matched by, and related to, the exceptionally high quality of care, guidance and support provided and exemplary arrangements for ensuring pupils' safety and well-being.

Parents and carers commented positively on various strengths of the school including the fostering of a sense of community which, along with opportunities for pupils to experience excitement and develop enthusiasm for learning, mean that pupils' spiritual, social, moral and cultural development is also exceptional. Pupils are very well prepared for the... future, not only by good achievement in literacy and numeracy and information communication technology (ICT), but also because they develop important life skills such as team working and confidence. Pupils love coming to school and attendance is high.

All pupils, including those with special needs and hearing impairment, make consistently good progress throughout the school. This is, in part, due to excellent assessment and tracking systems which ensure that individual needs are identified and well provided for. Children arrive with skills which are at about those levels expected for their age although this varies between cohorts.

They achieve well in the Early Years Foundation Stage and build on that achievement in Key Stages 1 and 2 so that by the time they leave in Year 6 they attain above the national averages in English and mathematics. Recent upward trends in attainment in writing and continued high achievement in mathematics are testament to the success of strategies the school has used to focus on and improve attainment in these subjects. There is more that could be done to raise the attainment of more-able pupils across all classes.

The overall quality of teaching is good. Teachers plan lessons well, using information from assessment to target particular skills and knowledge. Teaching assistants make a strong contribution during whole-class sessions as well as with small groups.

Pupils have a good understanding of their next steps in learning; this has improved since the previous inspection. In some lessons, the work is too easy for more-able pupils and, in a few, there is a lack of clarity about what successful learning might look like which slows down the pace of learning. The excellent curriculum is very well designed to spark interest and develop pupils' learning in depth across all subjects.

The school places great importance on developing pupils' personal and social skills and the success of the provision is reflected in the very high achievement in these important areas. The headteacher, ably supported by the leadership team, ensures that there is a strong shared ethos and high aspirations, that self-evaluation is accurate, and priorities for improvement are sharply focused on pupils' achievement. The support and challenge provided by the governing body are excellent and make a strong contribution to school improvement.

Continuing high quality education and important improvements since the previous inspection demonstrate that the school has excellent capacity to improve further.

Information about the school

Slade Primary is larger than most primary schools. The school has an attached unit for pupils, between the ages of 4–11, with hearing impairment.

Most pupils are White British and there are small, but increasing, numbers of pupils from a range of other ethnic groups. A smaller than average number of pupils are learning to speak English as an additional language and very few of these are at the early stages. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is less than half the national average.

The number of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is similar to the national average and covers a range of different needs. Slightly fewer than average have a statement of special educational needs and these are usually pupils with hearing impairment. The school provides before- and after-school care.