Polegate School has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Deeply Inclusive and Nurturing
Polegate Primary School is a popular, highly inclusive, 3 form entry, primary school in Polegate, East Sussex. The school has approximately 696 pupils on roll, from nursery to year 6. Whilst the percentage of pupils with SEND is above the national average, the number of pupils eligible for pupil premium is broadly average and only a few pupils speak English as an additional language. Attendance and punctuality are good and is overseen by the school’s attendance officer. The school experiences low mobility amongst its pupils. Children make very good progress throughout their time at Polegate, within an ethos of care and positivity.
Polegate School is a Flagship School for the Inclusive School Award and this was the school’s sixth IQM Flagship review. At its last Ofsted inspection in January 2020, it was graded outstanding in all areas. The report praised the school for being – ‘deeply inclusive and nurturing’ and said, ‘The vision for what pupils can achieve at Polegate is limitless.’
The Headteacher explained how at Polegate they are ‘striving to be exceptional’. The school has achieved a number of awards, which externally validate the high-quality work which is going on at Polegate, including Artsmark Gold; International School Award; School Games Gold Award and Eco and Healthy Schools Awards. Polegate achieved Dyslexia friendly status in 2017. Whilst the Dyslexia Active Framework has subsequently replaced this in East Sussex, Polegate continues to develop excellent practice in this area. The school is also a gilt school for the Primary Science Quality Mark (PQSM) and is currently undertaking reassessment.
‘Learning without Limits’
The school vision is ‘Learning without Limits’, with what pupils can achieve being limitless. Our Assessor was told, ‘We see potential in everyone. We don’t put a ceiling on things’. The Chair of Governors said that ‘It all comes down to learning without limits for every child and every member of staff’. The vision is underpinned by the 3Rs which are the school’s Golden Rules of Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Ready to learn.
Polegate is a happy, welcoming and vibrant community, where staff and governors work as a team and share a commitment to continuous school improvement and meeting the needs of every child. The school has a very strong and dynamic senior leadership team (SLT), led by the Headteacher. A very experienced Assistant Headteacher/Senco leads the inclusion team at the school. The SLT is very approachable. They meet and greet each child every morning and know their families.
Relationships are key at Polegate: ‘knowing and understanding the individual needs of all our pupils and all of the adaptations. We look at all parts of the school day for all children’.
‘That We Can, Every Child Can’
Staff at the school work hard to know all the children and families. They look at individual children’s barriers to learning and work to overcome these challenges, so that the pupils can achieve success. Pupil progress meetings are held on a termly basis and the school successfully runs a wide range of impact driven, targeted interventions for pupils. Teaching Assistants run interventions each afternoon. There is a whole school ethos ‘that we can, every child can.’
The school has noted an increase in children entering the EYFS with poor speech and language skills, together with an increased need for mental health, wellbeing and emotional support for pupils and families. A level 3 ELKLAN trained TA took up the post of speech and language teaching assistant in September.
Currently she is working closely with the reception team on storytelling; role playing; early listening and communication skills. She is supported by an independent SALT who works in the school each Friday and reports ‘wonderful results’. She uses the language link programme and talking partners’ scheme and has trained some TAs in talking partners. She plans to start bucket time interventions in September.
The school has 3 recently qualified ELSAs who have commenced working with individual pupils. From September, teachers will be able to refer pupils for this support. Currently they are also supporting transition work for pupils. The school also has a Thrive practitioner/counsellor/family support adviser who works 2 days per week in an area of the school called The Sanctuary.
Reading Recovery
Polegate invests heavily in reading recovery and skilled reading recovery teachers work with children who have been highlighted through data or observations, providing daily 30-minute sessions for up to 20 weeks. Lessons are tailored to meet the needs of individual children and clear impact on progress was evidenced through books shared during the review.
Polegate has a large, stable and happy staff, who feel very well supported by the Headteacher, senior leaders and whole school team. Support staff told our Assessor that Polegate was ‘a lovely place to work’, with ‘everyone working together as a team’. Staff wellbeing is high on the agenda.
The school has recently adapted their reports to make them easier for teachers to complete and they ensure that teachers in the same year group can have their PPA time together. The school also arranges social events for the staff and encourages staff to take risks and develop themselves professionally through a range of CPD opportunities. CPD is a strength of the school, with a weekly CPD staff meeting.
Staff meeting notes are sent out on a Thursday and include ‘shout-outs’ to celebrate success in school. CPD beyond the school is actively encouraged, including nationally accredited qualifications. The school has a number of SLEs who offer support beyond the school.
The Everything Polegate handbook is a very comprehensive and useful document outlining all the systems and expectations of the school, ensuring consistency of practice at Polegate.
Our Assessor was told that the SLT door is always open if they need support for a child or themselves. Comments from staff included: ‘‘I love the atmosphere. It’s a really friendly school’ and ‘SLT make sure we’re looked after. You can go to anyone if you have a problem’.
A teacher said: ‘I love the creativity. Such an engaging learning environment; sharing as a whole school collaborative effort. It is a really inclusive environment’.
Works Very Effectively
The school works very effectively with a wide range of external agencies, including their Educational Psychologist, who the Senco reported is used very effectively by the school. With external professionals only being able to offer limited time to the school, the Senco reported that ‘very few children are actively supported and you have to be creative. We upskill our staff’.
The school site is beautifully cared for and outdoor space is maximised to encourage purposeful learning and play. Outside areas include a forest school area and quiet area for mindful activities, together with bigger multi-use games areas. The school has a swimming pool; library; ICT suite and learning lab which is used for interventions. The studio houses the school’s breakfast and after school club. In addition, the school provides a bagel breakfast for all pupils each day, prepared in The Hub; the school’s food and nutrition area.
EYFS indoor and outdoor learning environments have been creatively developed to reflect real life and the different areas of learning. Rising 5s access an additional play area adjacent to the reception classes as part of their transition. Polegate has recently opened The Lodge which houses the daily reading recovery and 1-1 focussed reading sessions; ELSA room; maths intervention room and large hall/teaching room. The entrance to the school building is welcoming and internal displays reflect the school’s vision of learning without limits. Pupils can place their concerns in a worry box, knowing that an adult will provide them with support.
There is a consistent approach to classroom organisation and classroom environments and teaching strategies help to both support and scaffold pupils’ learning and encourage independence. All classrooms have visual timetables; enable tables to support learning; reading areas and displays of children’s work. The school uses communicate in print for visuals. Clear consistency across year groups was evident. The school operates a no hands-up policy, ensuring that all children are given the opportunity to speak. Behaviour for learning observed throughout the review was outstanding and the school operates an empowerment approach to behaviour. Ofsted highlighted that ‘by being curious not furious, adults help pupils understand their behaviour and develop self-control’.
‘An Irresistible Curriculum’
Polegate offers a rich, inspiring, theme based, creative curriculum; ‘An Irresistible Curriculum’, with a focus on reading and diversity. Reading is at the heart of learning. The curriculum is very orally based, including opportunities for debate and philosophy for children. Half-termly topics commence with stunning starts and have marvellous middles. Currently subject leaders are together reviewing individual subjects to ensure clear progression of skills and coverage. Subject leaders are given time out of class to carry out blink tests, which provide a flavour of the teaching and standards in their individual subject areas.
The school provides a wealth of opportunities beyond the curriculum. All teachers run clubs and the children interviewed said that they enjoyed the clubs, activities and events offered at school, such as rock band, money week, swimming and forest school, sharing that they’d recently made nettle tea and a hedgehog house in the forest school. They said that everyone keeps to the 3Rs and achievements are celebrated even those out of school.
Opportunities to take responsibility within school are also offered, for example through the school council; head boy and girl positions; digital leaders and year 6 reception buddies. Pupils in year 5 have been invited to be science superstars, and have run science activities at lunchtimes and will be going into science lessons with the science lead to observe. The pupils interviewed were great ambassadors for the school, making comments like: ‘All the pupils are kind and caring’ and ‘the teachers help you in your learning’.
They explained that every lesson is fun. Home learning is encouraged through daily reading; times tables rockstars; doodle maths and writing journals. Our Assessor was told that the school provides: ‘Lots of opportunities to be successful at things’ for the children and that they want the children to leave Polegate as ‘well-rounded, positive confident happy individuals.’ As the AHT/Senco told said: ‘We really focus on the celebrations’.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is through a whole range of means, such as housepoints for good behaviour; wristbands; praise postcards; learning ladder bookmarks for good learning; star of the week to reward those children who are consistently good and well behaved and spotlight certificates which recognises a wow moment for an individual child. The school holds a celebratory assembly each Monday and a class assembly each Friday, to which parents are invited. At the end of the year star of the year and sports star of the year awards are given.
The school provides a wealth of information for parents to help them feel included in the life of the school and help them to support their child’s learning. As part of the hard-to-reach project, the school introduced positive phone calls home. The SEN/Inclusion department runs a termly coffee morning, most recently on anxiety and mHm. Polegate has a Parent Friends Association (PFA) which organises events and raises funds for the school. The parent governor interviewed explained how her children are absolutely thriving at school. The Polegate newsletters celebrate and share the excellent work of the school.
‘Strong and Supportive’
Polegate school has a ‘strong and supportive’ governing body who inform themselves about the workings of the school through full governing body and subcommittee meetings, together with being linked to year groups and individual subject areas in the school. They visit the school through these links and produce follow up reports for the governing body. The LA offers a comprehensive Governor training package which helps them to fulfil their roles effectively. The LA have also offered to carry out an in-depth external review of the governing body next year, which the governors welcome.
The Headteacher told our Assessor that Polegate is: ‘always moving forward and looking out’.
They place great emphasis on educational research and are keen to do a lot of outreach work, sharing good practice. Polegate belongs to a number of partnerships beyond the school, including being closely linked with Willingdon Primary School and the feeder secondary school, Willingdon Community School.
Polegate hosts EIP network groups for science 3 times a year and is part of the Eastbourne Hub for Early Excellence. The Senco actively participates in the IQM Cosmos Learning cluster group meetings.