Calow CofE VC Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • refining school improvement planning so that it clearly identifies the skills, knowledge and understanding pupils need to improve, and includes precise, measurable success criteria
  • ensuring that leaders at all levels check more frequently that actions are having a positive impact on outcomes for all groups of pupils
  • ensuring that governors hold leaders, at all levels, stringently to account for the difference their actions make to pupil outcomes.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning further to bring about more rapid progress in reading, writing and mathematics by:
  • raising teachers’ expectations, so that they provide work that is sufficiently challenging for all groups of pupils
  • closely assessing the progress of pupils against targets set, ensuring that pupils are clear about what they need to do next to improve
  • providing more frequent opportunities for all pupils to read and to develop their reading skills. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• School leaders have not monitored and evaluated the quality of pupils’ learning often enough or with enough focus and rigour. The systems and timelines for reviewing pupils’ work and the impact of interventions are in their early stages and have not had the time to have sufficient impact.
• Leaders have not ensured that pupils, particularly in key stage 2, make good progress in several key subject areas.
• Leaders are aware of their roles and responsibilities and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of their areas. Monitoring activities have a focus but actions are not revisited in order to sustain improvement.
• Senior leaders have not communicated key priorities with sufficient clarity. They have a detailed understanding of the school, but have not been effective in refining this into sharp and precise actions which are understood by all staff. This means that while key areas for improvement are identified and actions are taken, they have not yet led to rapid improvements.

• Leaders are using pupil premium funding effectively on whole-school initiatives. They can talk about the impact that this is having and there is evidence of disadvantaged pupils making expected or better than expected progress.
• Performance management systems provide clarity to staff about how their individual work makes a difference to what pupils achieve. This process supports some of the improvements made in the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers speak confidently about the support that they receive.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced. It is effective in promoting fundamental British values and in contributing to pupils’ good behaviour and their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. The variety of opportunities for pupils is extensive and pupils seize the opportunities to engage.
• Visits out and visitors to school further develop learning and support pupils’ understanding of their community. This is particularly evident in the creation of the ‘Bishop’s Garden’, inviting the community to be actively involved in the life of the school. This in turn develops pupils’ tolerance of and respect for others.
• Physical education (PE) and sport premium funding is used effectively. The confidence of staff in teaching PE has grown and, as a result, a wide range of activities are taught across the key stages. Pupils engage enthusiastically in the activities led by external providers, for example fencing. A variety of after-school sports clubs support this area well.
• The additional funding for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used effectively. The extra resource and the additional adult support contribute to these pupils making good progress generally.
• School leaders have welcomed the support from three different external sources, each with its own focus. The introduction of ‘achievement meetings’ has led to the early identification of pupils who need to catch up.
• The support from the local authority has been effective in providing validation for leaders’ judgements, supporting them with competency procedures and in growing the capacity of the leadership team. The local leader of education began work with the school only recently and therefore the impact of this work is not yet evident.
• The headteacher and his staff team show an immense sense of care towards the pupils and community. Their shared values are explicit in the actions of staff and pupils. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated. This area of leadership is a strength of the school.

Governance of the school

• Governors are aware of the strengths and limitations of the governing body and use a skills audit to ensure that new governors fill any gaps. Governors undertake training which supports them in their roles. Governors are aware of their statutory responsibilities.
• Governors ask questions of senior staff. Strategic direction, however, lacks focus and there is little evidence that actions are followed through to completion and that the questions provide appropriate challenge.
• Governors are aware of inconsistencies in the quality of provision and the impact that this ultimately has on outcomes. There is, however, a lack of urgency in this being addressed.
• PE and sport funding is used appropriately and governors have a clear understanding of its impact on pupils’ participation.
• The expenditure of the pupil premium funding is monitored closely and governors can talk about which intervention is having the most effective impact.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Recruitment checks are carried out for new staff and all staff demonstrate a clear understanding of how to keep pupils safe. Pupils inspectors spoke with said they feel safe and this view is supported by parents. The procedures are in place to identify if a child is at risk of harm and all staff are clear about the reporting process. Detailed records are maintained, and while not undermining the effectiveness of safeguarding day to day, greater clarity could be given to what the involvement of parents has been and what the final outcome was of any issues raised.
• Pupils talk about how to stay safe online and they are suitably supported by the ‘e-cadets’ – pupils who work effectively with governors and staff to ensure that online safety remains a priority. Leaders, staff and pupils ensure that a safe culture is both created and maintained.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement. There is an inconsistency of provision across the school. A consequence of this is that pupils have not attained high enough standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The quality of teaching is improving, but it has not improved enough to be consistently good.
• The teaching of phonics has improved over time, but the proportion reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check varies from year to year. However, inspectors did observe pupils using their skills effectively to sound out words.
• Pupils do not read regularly or often enough. The expectation of how often pupils read and how reading is taught across the school lacks consistency. Teachers have varied expectations of the amount of time pupils should read at home. The inconsistencies in approach negatively affect the progress made by some pupils.
• In some classes, pupils do not understand precisely what they are learning or what is expected from them. In these classes, content is often not appropriately matched to the needs of the pupils and the pupils are not aware of how to improve their learning.
• Inconsistencies in expectations of the presentation and the quality of work affects the progress made by many pupils when these expectations are too low.
• Pupils do not learn well from feedback given to them by their teacher. Inspectors observed that pupils repeat the same mistakes. They also observed that where this dialogue between teachers and pupils is effective, progress accelerates.
• While behaviour during assembly, lunchtime and breaktime is exceptionally good, this is not consistently the case in lessons. Although not common, when low-level disruption occurs, it is not always addressed effectively by the teacher. On these occasions, the disruption affects the progress made by pupils.
• Where teaching is more effective, teachers demonstrate both sound subject knowledge and an enthusiasm which engages pupils. They ask skilful questions which enable pupils to develop their own thinking. This was particularly evident during the creation of a ‘disgusting sandwich’ in Year 1 and an evolution debate in a Year 6 religious education (RE) lesson.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well and additional adults are well deployed in most classes. Teachers know the needs of pupils and pupils take pride in their achievements. Effective support takes place both within the classroom and through targeted interventions outside the classroom.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are proud of their school. This is evident in the way that they talk about their school and about the opportunities that they have.
• Parents are mostly supportive of the school and its ‘community atmosphere’. They feel that decisions made are focused on the best interests of the children, and one parent said, ‘My child skips to school nearly every morning.’
• Pupils are polite to adults and sincere in expressing a warm welcome to visitors. They are particularly caring and respectful to each other. They show a genuine commitment to helping each other. This was particularly evident during lunchtime, when the older children, dressed as chefs, supported the younger children to cut up their food.
• Pupils demonstrate a sound understanding of different religions and the Christian characteristics of the school enable pupils to develop a secure understanding of Christianity. The acts of collective worship enable pupils to contribute, work together and overcome challenges. Behaviour during these times is exemplary.
• The school environment positively promotes tolerance and respect. Through the curriculum, pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain. They have an understanding of democracy through the work of the school council. They are able to debate in a sensible and mature way; this was particularly evident in a Year 6 RE lesson.
• The vast majority of parents and staff who responded to the Ofsted questionnaires expressed the view that the school keeps pupils safe.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are exceptionally polite and well-mannered.
• Pupils have positive role models in the headteacher and his staff in terms of conduct and how to speak to people. It is commonplace to hear a teacher thanking a child for holding the door and being respectful.
• Pupils are insistent that they are safe from bullying and that any issues will be sorted effectively.
• While behaviour during assembly, lunchtime and breaktimes is exceptionally good, this is not consistently the case in lessons. Although not common, when low-level disruption occurs, it is not always addressed effectively by the teacher. On these occasions, the disruption affects the progress made by pupils.
• Pupils have a very good understanding of all kinds of bullying. They know how to be safe and talk knowledgeably about cyber bullying.
• Overall attendance is in line with the national average and the school has worked effectively to address low attendance for particular groups. Pupils are punctual for all lessons.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Outcomes for pupils require improvement because not enough pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Actions implemented this year to improve this have not yet had the necessary impact.
• Historical results show that pupil progress has been low over time. While plans are now in place to address this, evidence of significant impact is not yet apparent.
• Pupils are now tracked from previous benchmarks, rather than September starting points. Achievement meetings ensure that those who need to catch up are identified.
• Inspection evidence shows that, currently, an increasing proportion of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are making at least expected progress from their staring points in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Work analysis shows that most pupils are making at least expected progress from their September starting points. Pupils in Year 6 are making up the ground lost due to historical weak provision.
• Across school, most pupils are not making progress towards achieving a greater level of understanding in reading, writing or mathematics. This is because teachers are not offering sufficient challenge to promote deeper thinking.
• Progress is inconsistent, as evidenced in the school’s performance information and pupils’ books. New systems are in their early stages and therefore impact is not yet evident.
• While pupils who are in receipt of pupil premium funding are making at least expected progress, there is limited evidence that the difference is being diminished quickly enough when compared to other pupils nationally.
• Pupils are not consistently prepared well enough for the next stage in their education.

Early years provision Good

• The leader in the early years provides good leadership. She has a good understanding of the strengths and relative weaknesses in this part of the school.The number of children who achieve a good level of development by the end of Reception is above the national figure and has been for some time. Progress during the early years exceeds that which is expected from low starting points. This judgement is supported by external moderation.
• All staff ensure that both indoor and outdoor facilities are used to the very best effect to stimulate children and promote their good progress.
• Teachers and teaching assistants warmly welcome children when they enter the early years and are swift to build positive relationships with parents. The majority of children are prepared well for the transition into Year 1.
• Most children respect their teachers and seek to please them. The majority of children behave well and learn happily with and from each other. During the inspection, for example, the Nursery children learned well when sharing ideas about how many buckets of water it would take to wash ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ down the spout.
• Staff give high regard to the welfare of the children and adhere fully to the school’s safeguarding procedures to keep children safe in school.
• Children share well and persist in their learning. One child, when dressed as a vet, was desperate to make the poorly rabbit better and had many questions which she needed the answers to. Children are keen to talk about their learning.
• Evidence of children’s good progress is collated in their books and learning journals. Progress in mathematics and English books shows that the intervention from staff is effective in moving learning forward.
• Most adults work effectively with individuals and with groups of children to promote their good learning. Occasionally, inaccurate modelling, for example in phonics, slows children’s progress.
• Children are keen to work on both child-led activities and those directed by an adult. Adults, particularly in the Nursery, were keen to take every opportunity to extend the children’s learning.
• A small minority of pupils are not fully engaged in learning when in the Reception class. They sometimes lose concentration at group times and disagree over resources when moving to independent activities. When this behaviour occurs, it is addressed promptly by the teacher.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112876 Derbyshire 10023094 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Number of pupils on the school roll Appropriate authority Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Church of England voluntary controlled school 3 to 11 Mixed 221 The governing body Mrs Catherine Winter Mr Martin Thacker 01246 274370 www.calowschool.createprimary.net/ info@calow.derbyshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 18–19 February 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website and the current government floor standards.
• Calow Church of England Primary School is smaller than the average-size primary school.
• The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium is below that found nationally and those who have special education needs and/or disabilities is in line with national figures.
• Pupils are taught in single-year classes from Year 1 to Year 6. In the early years, there is a Reception class and a Nursery class. The Nursery offers morning-only provision for 26 children. There is no provision for 2-year-olds.
• Formal support is offered to the school through a formalised collaboration of the cluster of schools in the locality, including the allocation of a local leader of education to the school. The local authority has been supporting the school for three years.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed a range of lessons, some jointly with the headteacher. The inspectors looked at pupils’ work, listened to pupils read and talked with pupils about their lessons and school life.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, teachers, senior and middle leaders, representatives of the governing body, a local authority representative and the local leader of education currently supporting the school.
• The inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised documentation relating to pupils’ progress, logs and records and the arrangements to ensure that pupils are kept safe.
• The inspectors scrutinised a selection of pupils’ books jointly with the headteacher.
• The inspectors spoke with parents and considered the responses to the free-text service and Parent View, which included 119 replies.
• The inspectors considered the 14 responses reflecting the views of staff. There were no responses to the pupil online questionnaire.

Inspection team

Donna Chambers, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Helen Atkins

Ofsted Inspector