Sutterton Fourfields Church of England School vows 'requires improvement' should be a 'tool for improvement'

A village school is determined to use its latest Ofsted report as a ‘tool for improvement’.

Sutterton Fourfields Church of England School was told it ‘requires improvement’ after being visited by inspectors for two days in July of this year.

The personal development of pupils was rated ‘good’ but all other categories were told that improvement was required.

These were the overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management and early years provision.

“The school takes on fully the recommendations within the report and views the report as a tool for school improvement,” said executive headteacher Claire Collett.

“We have acted immediately on the recommendations from the inspection and many changes have already been implemented.

“The school development plan addresses every area within the Ofsted report, and we are working closely with the local authority and the Teaching School Alliance to bring about rapid and sustained improvement.”

The previous inspection grade - awarded prior to the Covid 19 pandemic - was also labelled as ‘requires improvement’.

The report stated many positives about Fourfields.

It found that ‘pupils enjoy coming to school’ and ‘appreciate the variety of clubs and sports they can get involved with.’

Pupils were also described as ‘polite and well mannered’ as well as ‘showing respect to those who are different to themselves’.

The report listed areas where the school needs to improve, including: making sure staff take a consistent approach to teaching phonics, the implementation of a more consistent curriculum, checking attendance more rigorously, ensuring behaviour is consistently good and senior leaders checking aspects of the school’s work more closely - including the quality of curriculum and provisions in the early years.

The report highlighted a number of aspects where the school does well, and also how it needs to do better.

These included pupils with special education needs and/or disabilities being ‘fully integrated into the life of the school’ and leaders working closely with parents of these pupils.

However, it added there are ‘variations in how effectively teachers plan learning to meet these pupils’ needs’.

Another example saw leaders praised for identifying the important knowledge pupils need to know and remember in every subject.

But it was added the planned curriculum is ‘not always delivered consistently well’.