A SCHOOL in North Yorkshire has retained its overall rating of ‘Good’ following a recent visit by Ofsted - but inspectors found that improvements could be made.

Sand Hutton Church of England VC Primary School, near York, was visited by the watchdog on January 25.

The school cares for children aged four to 11 and was caring for 60 pupils when inspectors visited.

This was an ungraded inspection, but inspectors said there has been no change to the school’s overall judgement of ‘Good’, obtained at a full inspection in 2013.

In the report, however, inspectors said that evidence gathered “suggests that the inspection grade might not be as high if a graded inspection was carried out”.

Given this, they said the next inspection will be a graded inspection.

Pupil show 'utmost respect'

In the report, inspectors praised the school’s pupils who “show the utmost respect towards their friends and the adults who support them”.

They said leaders are “passionate about developing pupils’ independence and resilience” and pupils “live out these values every day”.

In core subjects, such as mathematics, inspectors said “learning is carefully planned”, but in other subjects within the wider curriculum, inspectors found that planning is “incomplete or yet to be embedded”.

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The report states: “In some foundation subjects, such as geography and history, units of learning are planned without the necessary consideration of how this will support pupils to be ready for the next stage in their education.

“Leaders are unable to demonstrate how new knowledge builds on what pupils already know or how this prepares pupils well for what they need to learn next.”

They explained that in these subjects, “pupils struggle to talk about what they know and remember” and “became confused” when trying to recall what they had learned during talks with inspectors.

How the school could improve

On what the school could do to improve, inspectors said measures could be taken to further support pupils with reading.

Inspectors found that pupils “are not familiar” with reading strategies that will help them, which prevents some pupils from “learning new sounds accurately and being able to use these to read with fluency”.

Given this, they said: “Leaders should ensure that all staff receive training in the school’s chosen phonics approach to support them in implementing the phonics curriculum with precision.”

Inspectors added: “Leaders should ensure that the curriculum planning, in every subject, clearly sets out exactly what pupils should know and in what order.”

School to address points raised

In a letter sent to parents, headteacher Beverley Pawson, said that the school had already started to address the points raised by Ofsted.

“We have acknowledged some development points and have already begun to work on actions relating to Early Reading and Curriculum Development as we are eager to improve the school’s offer further,” she wrote.

“While reading outcomes for pupils have been above National Averages consistently, and remain so post Covid, we accept that the current early reading programme could be delivered with greater fidelity, as per Ofsted’s recommendations.

“Focus on this will be supported by the English Hub, beginning with an audit.”

The report can be read in full on Ofsted’s website.