Barlestone Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Increase the impact of leaders in improving pupils’ attainment and progress by ensuring that:
  • senior leaders analyse more sharply the progress made by different groups of pupils and put in place focused and challenging targets
  • middle leaders use this information to plan how to accelerate pupils’ progress
  • leaders link the management of teachers’ performance closely to the school’s priorities and the gains that pupils need to make.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning so that it is consistently good or better and accelerates pupils’ progress by all teachers:
  • improving the accuracy of their assessment of pupils’ work and using information about pupils’ attainment and progress to match work closely to pupils’ abilities
  • setting consistently challenging work, particularly for the most able pupils
  • dealing with pupils’ misconceptions, particularly in mathematics
  • teaching the skills and understanding that pupils need in mathematics to use their reasoning skills and become effective problem solvers.
• Develop governance by ensuring that the governing body more effectively challenges leaders about the performance of groups of pupils in different subjects, including the use of the pupil premium to improve standards for disadvantaged pupils. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium 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

• Leaders’ planning for improvement does not focus sharply enough on the key priorities for the school, or include clear criteria for success. As a result, improvements to pupils’ progress and attainment are not as rapid as they should be. While now improving, standards in mathematics have been low for too long.
• Leaders do not have a clear enough grasp of the progress of different groups of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, the most able and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Analysis is not strategic enough, particularly in relation to the impact of initiatives designed to improve pupils’ achievement.
• Leaders do not focus sharply enough on improving pupils’ progress when managing the performance of teachers and middle leaders. Targets do not always relate explicitly to the school’s priorities for improvement or to specific outcomes for pupils.
• Leaders are establishing increasingly accurate and effective systems for assessing pupils’ attainment and checking on their progress. Staff training and professional development are improving the quality of teaching. The many new, recent initiatives are building momentum and beginning to have impact. Work to promote pupils’ problem-solving and reasoning skills in mathematics, for example, was clearly evident in lessons and pupils’ books. These improvements are not yet secure or sustained.
• Leaders use the additional funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities well to support a range of specific interventions. The progress of these pupils is approaching that made by pupils nationally with the same starting points. Leaders are not checking the progress of these pupils carefully enough to ensure that the funding is having the maximum impact so that the pupils make rapid gains.
• Senior leaders’ ambition and commitment to the school are embraced by staff, pupils and parents. The headteacher, other leaders, staff, the trust and the governing body are ensuring that the school is improving rapidly in many areas, particularly behaviour and pupils’ personal development.
• Leaders have ensured that there is an all-pervasive, caring ethos of mutual respect in which pupils and staff value each other. Nearly all pupils, parents and staff who spoke with inspectors were emphatic that the school had improved since the appointment of the current headteacher. As one pupil in Year 6 explained, ‘the school now has a spark.’
• Senior, middle and subject leaders are increasingly effective in checking quality and evaluating standards in their areas of responsibility. They identify aspects that can be improved and lead actions to enable this to happen.
• The school’s broad and balanced curriculum, enrichment activities and extra-curricular clubs ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is effective. Displays around the school reflect the many opportunities pupils have to develop their understanding of British heritage and culture to prepare them well for their life in modern Britain.
• Senior leaders are increasingly effective in assessing the impact of the pupil premium on the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. Leaders say that they have placed increased focus on this aspect of their work this year. Work in books and school assessment information show that the attainment of disadvantaged pupils is improving. However, this is neither consistent nor sustained.
• Leaders have used the additional funding for physical education and sport well to support improvement in teaching and to improve rates of participation in sporting activity.
• The trust has provided effective support for the school in developing leadership and management roles, the training of staff and approaches to improving the accuracy of teachers’ assessment of pupils’ learning. The school works effectively with other schools, for example by moderating pupils’ work to improve teachers’ expertise in assessment and understanding of standards.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has not sufficiently challenged leaders over time about the attainment and progress of specific groups of pupils to ensure that achievement is high enough, particularly in mathematics.
• The governing body has recently given higher priority to the use and impact of the pupil premium. However, governors have not ensured that over time, the funding has had the maximum impact on the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors are knowledgeable and ambitious for the school. They have a good range of experience and their overall understanding of their role enables them to support and challenge the school to continue moving forward.
• Governors undertake regular visits to the school to monitor the curriculum, meet with subject leaders and audit, for example, safeguarding arrangements. Their understanding of safeguarding is strong.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders and governors ensure that all statutory requirements are met, with governors and staff undertaking regular training to ensure their practice is current.
• The school’s single central record of employment checks meets statutory requirements. Staff recruitment and vetting procedures are rigorous.
• The designated lead staff for safeguarding record and analyse incidents, and the actions taken in relation to specific concerns, and bullying or use of racist or homophobic language. Pupils say that bullying is rare. They trust adults in the school to deal with any concerns they have quickly and effectively.
• An ethos of safeguarding is evident. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations through the school’s curriculum, assemblies and events. Pupils are very aware of how to keep themselves safe online.
• Parents are very positive about school communications to keep pupils safe. Many commented on the positive presence of the headteacher on the school playground. Parents told inspectors that staff are approachable and quickly deal with any concerns raised.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching and learning are not yet consistently good throughout the school. Too often, the work that staff ask pupils to complete, or the pace of learning in lessons, is not well matched to pupils’ abilities, particularly for the most able pupils. Work in books, and lessons, show that teaching is not consistently challenging.
• Teachers are sometimes not adept at accurately assessing pupils’ understanding and using this information to plan the next steps in learning. Pupils’ work shows that, in some classes, the most able pupils sometimes do not move on to more challenging work quickly enough. In some lessons, pupils complete the same work with little adaptation to meet the needs of different pupils. Sometimes, staff do not correct pupils’ misconceptions, particularly in mathematics and in grammar, punctuation and spelling. As a result, the pace of their learning is not as fast as it should be.
• Teachers provide regular opportunities for pupils to use and apply their developing mathematical skills in problem-solving activities and tasks in which pupils are required to demonstrate their reasoning skills. Their mathematical understanding is improving as a result. Some pupils, however, are not yet equipped with the skills and strategies they need to be effective problem solvers or to communicate their reasoning clearly.
• The quality of teaching is improving. There have been significant changes in teaching staff over the last two years. Under the leadership of the headteacher, teachers are motivated and committed to improving the quality of teaching and raising the achievement of all pupils. Teachers and other staff have benefited from a wide range of training and development offered by the school. Extensive work has been carried out recently to develop assessment practices. As a result, teachers have a much clearer understanding of the expectations for their year groups.
• Some teaching is stronger. Staff use questioning skilfully to check children’s understanding and take their learning forward. Pupils have very positive attitudes to learning. They are conscientious and eager to get on with each task. Teachers value what pupils have to say and classrooms are positive places to learn.
• Adults are often deployed well throughout the school. Teaching assistants are clear about their roles in lessons, and inspectors saw many instances where they provided effective support for individuals or groups of pupils, or supported teaching with the whole class.
• The work in pupils’ books is almost always well presented. Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to apply their skills in different subjects. Pupils produce sustained pieces of high-quality writing in different subjects. Inspectors also saw some examples of mathematics being linked to other subjects, for example a pyramid sequence problem in an Egyptian history topic.
• Pupils and parents are emphatic about recent improvements in the quality of teaching. One pupil in key stage 2 said, ‘I used to only write two sentences. Now I can do multi-paragraph pieces of work’.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The school promotes pupils’ personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. For example, inspectors observed an assembly on the theme of peace in which pupils reflected on the meanings of ‘identity’ and ‘community’. Pupils speak eloquently about ‘respect’ in terms of respecting the views of others, the school and their teachers. The sense of the school as a community is very strong.
• Pupils relish the extra roles the school offers them. These include older pupils looking after children in the early years at lunchtimes, membership of the influential school council or the responsibilities of caring for the school chickens.
• Pupils say that they feel safe in school. This view is supported by almost all parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Parents whom inspectors spoke with commented on the caring, nurturing aspects of the school’s provision.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are polite and courteous in classrooms, corridors, on the playground and at lunchtimes. Pupils spoke with inspectors about the positive changes in behaviour since the appointment of the new headteacher. Parents also told inspectors that they felt that behaviour had improved and was improving still further.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are positive and respectful in all classes. These relationships shine through and are reflected in the views of parents. Pupils are proud of their school. The presentation of their work overall is good and improving.
• There is a positive climate for learning in classrooms. In a small number of lessons, some pupils became a little unsettled or lost focus only when work was not well matched to their needs.
• The school has established effective systems to promote attendance. As a result, overall attendance is currently in line with the national average and is improving for all pupils. The school’s figures show that the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is currently below the national average, but leaders’ analysis of the information shows that some patterns of attendance of a small group of pupils have had a significant impact on attendance overall. Leaders are monitoring this closely, and are working well with the small number of families of those children who do not attend as often as they should, so that these pupils’ attendance improves.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Some pupils, particularly the most able and those who are disadvantaged, do not consistently make enough progress. There are inconsistencies in pupils’ attainment and rates of progress in different subjects and classes. Although the school’s performance met the government’s floor standards for achievement at the end of key stage 2 in 2016, pupils made much slower progress in mathematics than that seen nationally. Pupils who left key stage 1 with the expected levels of attainment did not make strong enough progress.
• In 2016, the proportions of pupils achieving at greater depth at the end of key stage 2 were below those seen nationally in reading, writing, mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling. Disadvantaged pupils often did less well than other pupils did in 2016 at the end of Reception Year, Year 2 and Year 6.
• Leaders are aware that attainment is not high enough and progress is not yet consistently good and they are tackling a legacy of underachievement in many areas. The school’s information shows an improving picture in the early years and in both key stages, including in the proportion of pupils working at greater depth. Work in pupils’ books also shows that the proportion of pupils working at, or exceeding, the expectations for their age is increasing. Most pupils make expected and sometimes better progress in most subjects. However, this is not yet consistent throughout the school.
• Leaders now check on the progress of disadvantaged pupils more carefully and teachers provide increasingly focused support for pupils who are falling behind, through the use of the pupil premium funding. The school’s information and work in pupils’ books show that disadvantaged pupils are making faster progress, so that the differences between their attainment and that of others nationally are starting to diminish.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive good support in class and overall make similar progress to that of other pupils. However, the assessment of their attainment is not yet rigorous enough to effectively evaluate the impact of interventions and ensure consistently strong progress from pupils’ starting points.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Leaders do not have a sufficiently clear grasp of the progress of different groups of children. As a result, they cannot evaluate the impact of teaching sufficiently well to ensure that all groups of children, including those who are disadvantaged and the most able, make consistently good progress.
• Teaching does not consistently challenge the most able children to use and apply their understanding. Records of children’s learning show that some children, including the most able, do not make as much progress as they should.
• Leaders have accurately identified areas for improvement, for example, to improve the proportions of children exceeding expectations in mathematics and a wider range of areas of learning. Planning for improvement, however, is not linked closely enough to children’s achievement so that it can drive more rapid progress.
• Overall achievement in the early years is improving. The proportion of children who achieved a good level of development at the end of Reception Year was above that seen nationally in 2016, and the school’s internal information predicts a further rise this year.
• Relationships between teachers and children are very positive. Parents are very happy about the education their children receive. Transition arrangements prepare children well for Year 1.
• Teachers plan learning activities that engage the children and link to their interests. Inspectors observed, for example, children working together to explore how to transport water from a tray using a piece of guttering. Children asked each other, ‘What will happen when it comes here?’, and said excitedly, ‘Look, it’s going down!’. Children enjoy learning in the early years and collaborate well.
• The safety and well-being of children are well managed. As a result, children quickly settle in when they arrive, and feel safe when they are learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140850 Leicestershire 10031130 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 Academy sponsor-led 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The academy trust Chair Headteacher Clare Moore Jo Westaby Telephone number 01455 290511 Website Email address www.barlestoneprimaryschool.co.uk office@barlestone.leics.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Barlestone Church of England Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school. Pupils are taught in single-age classes.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school converted to become an academy school on 1 June 2014. When its predecessor school, also called Barlestone Church of England Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be inadequate overall. The school is part of the Diocese of Leicester Academies Trust (DLAT).
• The very large majority of pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average, but the proportion of pupils who are of Traveller heritage is higher than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below the national average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching in all year groups. One lesson was observed jointly with the headteacher. Inspectors observed the teaching of early reading skills and listened to pupils read. Inspectors talked with pupils about their school and looked at examples of their work with subject leaders.
• Inspectors spoke with parents informally at the start of the school day. They took account of the 82 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the coordinator of the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, subject leaders, members of the governing body and trustees from the multi-academy trust. Discussions explored a wide range of subjects, including safeguarding arrangements.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of school documents, including: the school’s self-evaluation of its current performance and plans for improvement; information relating to the safeguarding of pupils; the school’s most recent information on the attainment and progress of pupils; minutes of meetings of the governing body; external review documents; performance management records; and the school’s most recent information relating to the attendance of pupils.

Inspection team

John Lawson, lead inspector Shaheen Hussain

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector