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SIAMS

On Friday 8th November 2019 Langafel had its Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools. SIAMS focusses on how effective the school’s distinctive Christian vision is established and promoted by leadership at all levels, in enabling pupils and adults to flourish.

We achieved GOOD overall and GOOD for the separate judgement of collective worship.

View the full report here

Key findings

  • The strong leadership of the school, along with the supportive and hardworking governing body, ensure that school policies, development plans and budget decisions are clearly driven by the school’s distinctive Christian vision and biblical narrative.

  • The SLIC resource, nurture class and therapeutic interventions make a transformational impact on the whole school community, enabling all to flourish academically and emotionally.

  • Every child’s unique personality and potential is recognised and celebrated through the curriculum, which is meticulously planned and tailored to suit the needs of each child. However, opportunities for spiritual development across the curriculum are not sufficiently well identified.

  • Pupils are prompted to reflect on and consider the impact of biblical teaching on their own lives through acts of collective worship that are truly inclusive of all. Regular opportunities for personal prayer are not embedded, therefore, pupils are not able to talk about the value of prayer in their own lives.

  • Religious Education (RE) is passionately led by the new RE leader. Pupils ask and answer big questions, whilst exploring their views about a range of religious traditions. For some pupils, opportunities to be challenged and think more deeply within RE lessons is limited.

It also reported that:

‘The parable of the lost sheep is the heartbeat of Langafel Church of England Primary School. Like the ninety-nine sheep in the story, every individual is known, truly valued, nurtured and celebrated for who they are. When one member of the flock becomes ‘lost’, individualised support is quickly put in place to ensure no one is left behind.’

 ‘Forgiveness is at the centre of the school’s behaviour policy. Clear boundaries and the understanding that there is always a fresh start, results in pupils who are respectful and behave well across the school.’

 ‘Langafel is a supportive and inclusive environment, where learning is tailored to the cohort of children within it, providing both challenge and scaffolding where needed. Therefore pupils from across the school, make good progress, from whatever their starting point, across the school both academically and emotionally.’

Areas for development:

  • Develop the strategic role of the new RE leader in order to enable all staff, from across the school, to teach RE to a high standard and with confidence.

  • Continue to develop a whole school shared understanding of spirituality which impacts on curriculum design and the personal development of all.

  • Extend pupils’ awareness and value of personal prayer in formal and informal contexts.

From September 2018, there has been a new SIAMS schedule in place which has ‘raised the bar’ in terms of the requirements for all Church of England schools. The most significant changes in the new schedule are:

  • moving from making a judgement about the school based around four key questions to one key question assessed under seven strands. These strands include the school’s Christian vision, collective worship and religious education. The key question is now, ‘How effective is the school’s distinctive Christian vision, established and promoted by leadership at all levels, in enabling pupils and adults to flourish’;

  • moving from four possible judgements (Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate) to three – Excellent, Good and Requires Improvement. (Please note that there are certain specified circumstances when a judgement of ‘Ineffective as a Church school’ can be awarded as an overall judgement);

  • understanding that there will be less ‘excellent’ schools under this schedule than there were ‘outstanding’ judgments previously, as the requirements for excellence are considerably heightened. However, there are ample opportunities within a report to reflect the strengths of our school and the many aspects which should be celebrated by the whole community.