Suffah Primary School
Independent School
Quality of education
The curriculum is satisfactory. It is broad and balanced, with a clear emphasis on literacy and numeracy to give pupils a secure foundation to access the rest of the curriculum. The planning is sound and takes into account pupils’ needs and ages, enabling them to make satisfactory progress. Pupils who have moderate learning difficulties have individual educational plans that help meet their needs and monitor their progress. In the Reception class, the curriculum follows the Foundation Stage guidance. Throughout the school, the curriculum promotes pupils’ personal development well and the programme of personal, social and health education (PSHE) reflects the ethos of the school. Although cross-curricular links are planned to make pupils’ learning more meaningful, there are missed opportunities to develop literacy in all subjects. Nevertheless, provision for basic skills is satisfactory and the teaching of reading skills is a strength. In Year 6, drama makes a strong contribution to the development of pupils’ speaking, thinking and creative skills, and boosts their confidence. Information and communication technology (ICT) is used effectively across the curriculum. Provision for physical education (PE) is satisfactory and in Key Stage 2, pupils have weekly swimming in addition to a PE lesson. The school has clearly identified the correct priorities to improve the curriculum further. It has recently taken appropriate action to improve the curriculum for Islamic subjects as a result of a consultation with parents. It rightly seeks to develop the creative curriculum and to give pupils more opportunities for independent work and for thinking at a higher level to help them reach their full potential. It is also aware of the need to continue to build up its resources that are generally adequate and used effectively.
The quality of teaching and assessment is satisfactory. The school provides basic training for newly qualified teachers and staff are eager for continuous professional development. There is a wide range of tests to assess pupils’ learning and there are satisfactory systems in place to record these assessments. In the Reception class, assessment follows the Foundation Stage guidance closely. However, in other years marking is not always encouraging or helpful and pupils do not always receive constructive verbal feedback. Consequently, they do not always understand why their work has been marked as incorrect and consequently they cannot learn from their mistakes. Staff establish good working relationships between themselves and pupils and between pupils. Thus, pupils respond very positively to the relaxed but purposeful atmosphere that is created in class and take an active part in lessons. Satisfactory teaching is characterised by insufficiently high expectations that do not drive the learning at a fast enough rate. Whilst planning is generally satisfactory, learning objectives are not always clear, with the result that the lesson loses focus in parts. Although teachers are aware of pupils’ prior attainment, they do not always use the information from assessment to plan work that matches closely the needs of individuals. In addition, the teaching methods used are not always sufficiently varied to match pupils’ varied learning styles. Consequently, the tasks planned do not match pupils’ needs and learning styles closely enough and they cannot make progress relative to their ability. In contrast, good teaching provides a good level of challenge through very effective and fast-paced questioning that makes pupils think more deeply about the topic at hand, and therefore moves their learning forward at a faster rate. Whilst in the most successful lessons, the teaching is underpinned by sufficient subject knowledge, in some satisfactory lessons, it is not supported by the thorough preparation required to help broaden and deepen pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
As a result of the effective focus on reading skills, the majority of pupils make good progress in reading. Their progress in other areas of the curriculum is satisfactory. Pupils with learning difficulties generally make as much progress as their peers.
Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils