Spofforth Church of England Primary School has been rated ‘good’ in its first full Ofsted inspection for a decade.
Inspectors visited the school on July 20, at the end of the summer term, and said pupils were “confident and articulate” and “proud to attend this happy and welcoming school”. They said:
“Pupils are proud to attend this happy and welcoming school, where everyone knows each other by name. Christian values are at the heart of school life and reflected in the stated ambition to ‘love, learn, thrive’.
“Pupils are confident and articulate. They enjoy leading collective worship and performing in school productions.”
Senior leaders, they added, had “high expectations of what pupils can achieve”.
Children flourish in early years and have strong personal development, read a range of interesting books and follow a clear mathematics curriculum.
But the inspectors said “the curriculum is not as well developed” in some subject areas other than reading and mathematics and also noted:
“Some pupils behave inappropriately and are sometimes disrespectful to other pupils and members of staff. However, pupils have a good understanding of what bullying is and are adamant this does not happen.”
The 101-pupil school, which is part of the Follifoot and Spofforth Church of England Federation of Primary Schools, received a ‘good’ rating at its last full inspection in 2012. A short inspection in 2017 came to the same conclusion.
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David Harrington, chair of governors, said:
“Everyone at Spofforth CE Primary and across our federation is very pleased with the outcome of our most recent inspection.
“We are delighted that the inspector recognised the strong sense of community where everyone knows each other by name.
“We are particularly proud of the strength in our federation EYFS class where children from both schools access such high quality education.
“I would like to thank the children, parents, governors and staff for their hard work and support which is reflected in this report.
“As a school and federation we are ready to focus on the agreed areas for development in the report in order to ensure that all our children have the best possible education and love, learn and thrive across the federation.”
