Brading Primary 'Highly Inclusive' Say Ofsted

An Isle of Wight primary school that was earmarked for closure just seven months ago has been inspected by Ofsted.

The report described Brading CE Primary School as ‘highly inclusive’ with a ‘strong focus’ on understanding pupils’ needs.

Following an ungraded inspection at the beginning of last month, Ofsted noted a “calm and purposeful environment” at the school, despite it experiencing a “turbulent year” with “many changes”.

Inspectors did conclude however that the school’s work ‘may not be as strong as at the time of the previous inspection’.

County Hall issued the school with a closure notice in January as part of controversial plans to close five primary schools, said to be necessary due to a ‘significant decline’ in birth rates in recent years.

At a March cabinet meeting however, Alliance group councillors voted to keep Brading primary open, along with those in Wroxall and Oakfield.

Strengths identified in Ofsted’s report include its values of trust, respect, unity, sincerity and tolerance, ‘love of reading’, pupils’ wider development and ‘high expectations for behaviour’.

But inspectors also flagged areas requiring improvement:

“Some subjects in the curriculum are still being refined to meet the needs of pupils in mixed-age classes. In these subjects, pupils do not always learn as well as they could.

“Attendance remains persistently low for some pupils. As a result, these pupils develop gaps in their learning.

“At times, staff do not use the most effective strategies to support pupils with SEND to learn the intended curriculum. This means that some pupils with SEND do not always get the help they need to learn well.”

Bev Gilbert, headteacher, said:

“I am so proud of our Ofsted report and every single member of our school community from governors, to parents/carers, to staff, to the residents of Brading, and especially the children for everything we have gone through this year and still achieved what we have.”