Waterside Primary School in Hythe rated “good” across the board by Ofsted

WATERSIDE Primary School in Hythe was rated “good” across the board in its latest Ofsted inspection.

The school in Ashford Crescent was judged for the quality of its education, pupils’ behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision.

As of September last year, Ofsted no longer makes an overall effectiveness judgement in inspections of state-funded schools, although it had previously rated the school as “good” overall.

Following a two-day visit to the school in November, inspectors wrote: “Pupils enjoy coming to school. They feel safe and well cared for by staff who take their time to get to know each pupil well.

“As a result, pupils are confident to talk to and interact with each other and with adults. Pupils consider bullying to be very rare. They know that if they had any concerns or worries, these would be dealt with quickly.”

They continued: “Leaders, including governors, have a strong vision for education at this school, and have high ambition for every pupil. Pupils recognise this and feel valued. The school has a detailed understanding of its pupils and families.”

Highlighting areas where the school can improve, inspectors found checks are made on pupils’ knowledge during lessons but the feedback is sometimes not used “well enough” to address pupils’ misconceptions.

Ofsted also found the feedback used to check the learning of pupils with special educational needs and disbailities is also “not used well enough”.

Safeguarding arrangements at the school, which has some 176 pupils aged four to 11, were described by inspectors as “effective”.