Ofsted visits Kingstone primary school to check good rating

The inspector left Kingstone and Thruxton Primary School after the monitoring visit and said it was still good, as judged in 2017, but there were two areas where the school needed to improve.

It said that pupils sometimes went a long time between subjects and topics within them, meaning they forgot what they had already learnt.

Persistent absence also remained high compared with pre-Covid pandemic levels, inspector Mark Simsal said in his report published on February 6.

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He said it was falling, but some pupils missed key learning and leaders needed to take further measures to reduce the number of pupils who were persistently absent. This was particularly affecting children from disadvantaged backgrounds, he said.

The school, south-west of Hereford with 194 pupils aged between three and 11, was praised in several areas, including how leaders had high ambitions for all pupils to do as well as possible.

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Pupils were said to behave well, and bullying was sorted quickly, if it happened. Safeguarding was also said to be effective.

Pupils, who love reading, were also said to be enthusiastic to take part in wider extra-curricular clubs and in helping others, and the curriculum for them was ambitious in its scope and range.

Teaching staff were said to check well what pupils have learned and what they still needed to know, with maths and physical education (PE) departments singled out for praise.