The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your leadership team are relentless in your ambition for high expectations and aspirations for all pupils. Your vision, ‘every child, every day, every possibility’, drives teaching and learning. Learning is challenging and relevant, and inspires a love of learning that pupils take with them to their next schools. You and your leadership team put children at the heart of your continued improvements. You are currently working to ensure that learning experiences across all subjects are interesting for pupils, as well as providing them with the knowledge they need to achieve well. In the Reception classes, staff show children how to sketch as they draw crabs and shrimps. High-quality art examples celebrate how pupils develop their techniques through the school. You create a strong team of staff who share responsibility for making learning count for every pupil. Staff are proud to work here. All who gave a view said that the school is calm, ordered and aspirational. Parents are also overwhelmingly positive. Typical comments included ‘all staff are attentive to children and treat them as individuals’ and ‘my children have developed into intelligent, bright, enthusiastic young people.’ An area for improvement recommended at the previous inspection was to ensure that work is more closely matched to pupils’ needs, particularly for the most able pupils. You and your leadership team have made this a focus for improvement. Through your encouragement, staff work cohesively to design lessons and organise learning across the day so that pupils’ learning needs are met. Staff work in small teams to plan lessons for the coming week. They support each other to make adaptations to learning so that pupils are challenged, as well as supported. Careful thought is put into how learning is organised to match individual needs. Teachers and teaching assistants work with the most able pupils at the start of the day to prepare them for learning later, so that they can use time well. Pupils’ books reflect the good-quality teaching and high expectations. Work is neat and well presented. Pupils have spelling, grammar and punctuation skills that match the expectations for their ages. The most able pupils are extended and challenged in their lessons. This helps most to reach higher standards. Some of the most able pupils who are disadvantaged still have gains to make to ensure they achieve as well as they can. You have not restricted improvements to the key subjects of reading, writing and mathematics. For example, you have worked to improve the quality of teaching in science. Teachers ensure that pupils learn in interesting ways and develop their vocabulary linked to different subjects. A group of pupils in Year 2 could talk confidently about how different animals adapt to their habitats. This is an aspect of science that they learned about earlier in the year. Pupils could explain why polar bears have thick, white coats and why animals use camouflage. Pupils are proud to talk about their work and to show the improvements they make throughout the year. Safeguarding is effective. Pupils say they feel safe, and they are safe. Safeguarding is seen as a high priority across the school. Leaders ensure that all safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose. They ensure that pupils and their families have access to the support they need. The designated safeguarding lead works closely with the deputy leads. Together, they are vigilant about getting help for pupils and, when needed, escalate their concerns appropriately. Leaders check that staff have safeguarding training so that they know how to report concerns and what to look out for. The trust and governors fulfil their responsibilities well to check that procedures are in place and that they are implemented well. They also check that recruitment arrangements are secure. Inspection findings We looked closely at how you use additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils. Disadvantaged pupils in the school have not, in the past, achieved as well as others nationally. Supported well by the governors and the trust, you introduced some changes this year, aiming to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Because of these improvements, disadvantaged pupils are now making better progress and many are catching up with others. You ensure that staff are welcoming and supportive to families, even before their children begin at the school. You work closely with the nearby children’s centre and other local partners to arrange pre-school facilities and workshops. Parents say that this helps them to know better how to support their child, as well as building their confidence in approaching the school. In the Nursery and Reception classes, learning is vibrant and tailored to the needs of each child. As a result, children, including disadvantaged children, develop strong, positive attitudes to learning and make good progress. This equips them well for their next steps in Years 1 and 2. Activities, right from the moment the day begins, are planned to help each child develop their learning further. Barriers are discussed in staff teams each week and activities are designed to help overcome individual difficulties. Individual plans for pupils outline the extra help and specific teaching that disadvantaged pupils have. Each morning before lessons start, pupils are provided with pre-lessons that help them to understand the new words that are going to be used in lessons that day. Teaching assistants work flexibly across the school, using their skills to provide extra guidance and support for disadvantaged pupils. You are not at all complacent and continue to strive to ensure all pupils achieve as well as they can. You continue to draw on the useful support provided by the trust. Governors visit school often and therefore have a sound understanding of the strengths and areas to improve. However, their visits are not aligned with the actions and monitoring activities outlined in the school improvement plan. We looked at the work you are doing to improve pupils’ attendance. This has been a priority on the school’s improvement plan, because attendance has been below attendance of other schools nationally. A rigorous approach to checking attendance and liaising closely with families to support them with attendance has led to improvements. A serious outbreak of illness which affected many pupils occurred earlier in the year. This means that the overall attendance figures have not improved as much as leaders expected. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: more of the disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, reach higher standards, particularly in writing attendance continues to improve governor visits link more closely to priorities in the school improvement plan. I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, the executive headteacher, the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Tonwen Empson Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I had several meetings with you, your deputy and the executive headteacher. I also met with two governors. In addition, I had a meeting with a representative from the Hamwic Education Trust. The 94 responses and free texts to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, were considered alongside views taken from parents at the start of the school day. The 35 responses to an online survey for staff were considered. We looked at the learning taking place across the school. I talked to pupils and staff at lunchtime. I observed the deputy headteacher talking to a group of pupils about their learning. Together with leaders, I looked at a sample of pupils’ books. I scrutinised a range of school documents, including the school’s own evaluation and development plan. I also looked at documents related to attendance and safeguarding.