One of the last schools to be judged under the old Ofsted system, Smallwood CofE Primary School has continued to be a good school, an inspection found.
A report from Ofsted found that pupils appreciated the “warm and nurturing relationships” that they enjoyed with staff and with each other at the “small and happy school”.
Many pupils who shared their views with the inspector described their school as “a family” where everyone was welcome.
Pupils valued the close links that the school enjoyed with the local village and they looked forward to the opportunity to be crowned rose king or queen, and lead a procession from the school around the village.
The report said the school had high ambitions for pupils’ learning and expected them to work hard and to do their best. Most pupils rose to meet the school’s expectations.
Pupils also “proudly” followed the school rules to be kind and safe, said Ofsted. Older pupils enjoyed working as buddies, helping children in the reception class to settle in to school life well and quickly make new friends.
Pupils participated in a variety of educational experiences outside the classroom and had enjoyed trips to a museum and an art gallery, said the report.
Highlighting what the school did well, the report said that the key information that pupils should learn was introduced in small well-ordered steps from the beginning of the early years to the end of year six. This supported them to build on their prior learning and supported them to build on their prior learning.
The school also provided staff with “helpful” curriculum guidance.
However, weaknesses in some pupils’ written communication skills and lack of fluency with multiplication facts sometimes went unchecked. This meant that some pupils lacked the foundations on which to build when they moved to more complex content.
The report also said the improvements to the delivery of “a small number” of curriculums were relatively new, which meant that sometimes pupils found it difficult to link earlier learning with new content.
At the time of the inspection, there were 179 pupils at the school.
The chair of trust is Tom Pear, CEO, and the headteacher is Iestyn Lewis. Smallwood is a voluntary controlled Church of England school, which is part of the Diocese of Chester.
