William Hildyard Church of England Primary and Nursery School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that all teachers promptly address pupils’ misconceptions, so they can improve their work and make strong progress, particularly in writing.
• Further improve the progress pupils make in their learning, by ensuring that teachers maintain high expectations for what pupils, including the most able, can achieve, particularly in reading.
• Maximise learning for pupils during lessons, by ensuring that all teachers have efficient strategies in place to enable timely and effective transition between learning activities.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• School leaders have brought about significant improvements to the quality of teaching and learning since the previous inspection. New approaches to the teaching of English, mathematics and science are firmly embedded across the school. Leaders have provided good-quality training and support for all staff. For example, the strategies teachers use to develop pupils’ learning in mathematics have had a positive impact on pupils’ enjoyment of mathematics and on their outcomes.
• Senior leaders, including governors, are insightful and determined for the future of the school and its pupils. Leaders at all levels work as a cohesive team to drive improvements across different areas of the school. They work effectively with colleagues from the federated school, as well as with other local schools, to share expertise and good practice.
• Leaders have successfully utilised support from the local authority to introduce whole-school changes to improve the quality of teaching and learning. These changes have ensured that pupils experience a broad and balanced curriculum which enables them to develop knowledge and skills across a variety of subjects. Pupils now write for different purposes across the curriculum. They frequently have opportunities to discuss, investigate and solve problems in different areas of learning. For example, in a computing lesson, inspectors saw pupils using their knowledge gained from their learning about Christian symbols to design and create a cross for a stained-glass window. They worked in pairs to discuss and investigate which computer programme was the most appropriate for their design.
• The school’s curriculum successfully develops pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, cultural and personal development. Through the school’s Christian ethos, leaders ensure that pupils gain an insight and understanding of British values. Additional plans are in place to make these values even more explicit across the curriculum. However, leaders are not complacent and are determined to improve the curriculum further. They are currently reviewing it to focus more precisely on developing pupils’ independence and raising their aspirations.
• Subject leaders lead their areas of responsibility well. They evaluate the quality of teaching closely, through fortnightly meetings with teachers. They share their findings with senior leaders and support teachers to improve their practice, when necessary. Subject leaders have a comprehensive understanding of the actions needed to improve teaching and learning in their areas of responsibility. Leaders access good-quality training and support for staff from the local authority and from the Keystone Teaching School Alliance (KTSA). Some subject leaders have become specialists in their subject areas and work with the KTSA to support colleagues working in other schools.
• Provision for pupils with SEND is good. Leaders ensure that funding and support are carefully tailored to meet these pupils’ individual needs. Leaders work with external agencies to access appropriate support, resources and advice for pupils and their families. Staff receive relevant training so that provision for pupils is appropriate.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding effectively to support disadvantaged pupils. They ensure that these pupils receive appropriate additional support and experiences to ensure their good attendance and improve their outcomes.
• The additional physical education and sport funding is used appropriately to develop pupils’ physical fitness, health and well-being. Pupils enjoy access to a range of sports activities such as yoga, football, cross-country running and netball. Initiatives such as the use of balance bikes, the daily mile run and the legacy challenge are successfully raising pupils’ awareness of the importance of healthy eating and increasing their participation in exercise.
• Staff feel well supported and valued by leaders. They appreciate the training and professional development opportunities to improve their teaching skills, subject knowledge and leadership roles. Procedures for evaluating teachers’ performance are thorough and are carried out in a supportive manner.
• Leaders have successfully improved outcomes for pupils. Pupils in key stages 1 and 2 are developing strong mathematical skills. Pupils frequently read and write for a variety of different purposes through different topics planned by teachers. Leaders have introduced a new assessment system to precisely monitor the impact of improved teaching strategies and hold teachers to account. Progress is improving across different subjects, as a result. Nevertheless, leaders’ actions to improve the progress pupils make in reading still need further time to demonstrate consistently strong progress by the end of Year 6.

Governance of the school

• Governors are knowledgeable and have an accurate understanding of the strengths of the school and the areas in need of improvement. They have supported the executive headteacher through the process of providing significant training for staff, to bring about marked improvements.
• Governors use their range of relevant skills to good effect to support and challenge the work of leaders at all levels. They visit the school regularly to meet with leaders to hold them to account for the impact of their work to improve the school.
• Governors are eager to improve and are reflective. They have recently carried out a review of governance which identified areas where governors could be more effective in their support of the school. In addition to accessing ongoing training to ensure that they improve these areas, governors also plan to access bespoke training. For example, governors want to be more stringent in their evaluations of the impact of the additional funding the school receives to ensure that outcomes for pupils continue to improve.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a good culture of safeguarding throughout the school. Leaders ensure that all staff are aware of the potential risks to pupils. They provide staff with relevant up-to-date training to safeguard pupils. Staff understand the school’s procedures for raising child protection or welfare concerns.
• The leaders for safeguarding are knowledgeable and work in partnership with external agencies when necessary to ensure the well-being of pupils and their families. Records for safeguarding are carefully recorded and show that leaders are persistent in pursuing concerns.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The quality of teaching is typically good. Leaders have taken effective action to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across key stages 1 and 2. Where teaching is less strong, leaders provide skilled guidance and support to help teachers to improve their practice.
• Extensive staff training and support have successfully improved the teaching of mathematics. Pupils across the school have frequent opportunities to practise and apply their knowledge to solve problems, including in other subjects. Teachers encourage pupils to explain what they have done and why. For example, inspectors observed pupils thoroughly absorbed in their learning, using pie charts to solve problems. They enthusiastically explained how they can use their knowledge of percentages to find unknown quantities on the pie charts.
• Teachers have raised their expectations for what pupils can achieve in their writing. Teaching has been adapted to focus more on the quality of pupils’ writing. Pupils are given time to practise and apply their skills over longer pieces of writing, including across different subjects. For example, pupils in key stage 1 wrote at length about the different life cycles of various animals as part of their science work.
• Pupils are regularly encouraged to check and develop their writing to ensure that it is as good as it can be. For example, pupils in upper key stage 2 critique each other’s writing to suggest helpful ways to improve. Teachers provide pupils with a wealth of resources to support them to make the necessary changes independently to their work.
• The revised approaches to the teaching of handwriting and spelling across the school are having a positive impact on pupils’ writing. Teachers have consistently high expectations for the quality of pupils’ handwriting across different subjects. Daily practice focused on words with key spelling patterns is improving pupils’ spelling. Pupils are regularly asked by teachers to check their spelling, grammar and punctuation to improve the quality of their writing.
• Teachers place a sustained focus on the importance of reading. Topics of learning are linked to relevant texts to help pupils develop and extend their knowledge and vocabulary. Daily reading lessons develop pupils’ comprehension and focus on improving specific reading skills, including how to infer meaning from a text. Pupils say they enjoy reading and can eloquently discuss their favourite authors and genres.
• The teaching of phonics is good. Pupils who read to inspectors and were heard reading during lessons used their phonics knowledge well to read unfamiliar words. Pupils were also observed using their phonics knowledge to support their spelling in their writing.
• Improvements to the way science is taught are well established across the school. Pupils have frequent opportunities to work together to plan and carry out scientific investigations. Pupils discuss, predict and use scientific language to record their findings in different ways.
• Pupils enjoy their science lessons because, as one pupil explained to an inspector, ‘We find out fascinating things about the world around us.’ For example, inspectors observed pupils in a science lesson dissecting oranges that they had previously mummified. Pupils were engrossed in their investigations. They were able to use their prior knowledge from their previous science lessons and from their learning about the ancient Egyptians to explain scientifically what had happened to the oranges.
• Pupils with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language receive effective, well-planned support. Teachers work closely with leaders to plan specific additional support and activities to ensure that pupils’ needs are met, and work is carefully targeted to enable them to make good progress.
• Teachers use their ongoing assessments to plan work to meet the needs of all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged. Teachers meet regularly with subject and senior leaders to discuss the progress of different groups of pupils. Nevertheless, some teachers do not maintain sufficiently high expectations for what pupils can achieve, particularly in reading. When this happens, teachers do not ensure that the most able pupils in particular always have sufficiently challenging work and are promptly moved on in their learning to make strong progress.
• Teachers use questioning well to encourage pupils to think more deeply. Teachers provide pupils with useful ‘sentence starter prompts’ to help them to articulate their responses, particularly in mathematics and science lessons. However, occasionally, teachers do not deal with pupils’ misunderstandings and errors in their writing quickly enough. For some pupils, this means that they repeat errors or make less progress because they are not supported to learn from their mistakes.
• In some lessons, teachers do not use effective strategies to ensure that transition between different learning activities is timely. On these occasions, learning is interrupted, and pupils take too long to settle back to their learning. This limits the progress they make in lessons.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Staff know pupils well and have a good understanding of the local community. There is a friendly and welcoming atmosphere in the school that is conducive to learning. The school’s Christian values are reflected in the positive relationships between staff and pupils. Pupils are confident and are proud of their school. As one pupil told an inspector, ‘School feels like home!’
• The large majority of parents and carers are supportive of the school. Typically, they told inspectors that: ‘The staff are amazing: so kind, calm and nurturing.’ and: ‘We are really pleased that we decided to send our children to this school. Our children are growing in terms of both their academic and personal skills and they love going to school.’
• Pupils say they feel safe in the school and that staff help them with any concerns or worries they may have. They explained to inspectors how the school teaches them to stay safe, both in the wider community and online. For example, some pupils told inspectors how they have education to teach them about the dangers linked to alcohol. Other pupils explained how they have learned how to put someone in the recovery position, as part of their learning about emergency first aid.
• Pupils have lessons and experiences that encourage them to think about wider world issues and to consider the needs of others. For example, pupils told inspectors how they have been learning about the process of ‘Brexit’. Pupils also hold various elected positions of responsibility, through their roles as mini police officers, and members of the school council, eco council and collective worship council. These positions enable pupils to take part in decision making for the school as well as in fund raising and community projects.
• Through the curriculum, pupils develop a good understanding of the choices they should make to live healthily. They develop their physical fitness through exercising regularly, including the ‘daily mile’. They appreciate the variety of clubs and sports activities offered by the school, including the good-quality provision offered by the ‘Inspire+’ sports charity.
• Staff teach pupils to be aware of the importance of good mental health through their weekly personal, social and health education lessons. Pupils are also taught to be reflective and considerate of others. Pupils typically told inspectors: ‘We make sure that pupils who are new to the school understand what to do and feel safe. It’s important to understand that we should treat everyone fairly and look after each other.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils’ conduct around the school is good. At breaktime and lunchtime, they play sensibly and socialise well. During some breaktimes, older pupils appreciate the opportunity to use the school library to read books together and play board games. Pupils say they like coming to school and enjoy their learning.
• Pupils understand the different forms that bullying can take. They say that incidents of bullying or poor behaviour do sometimes happen but, when they occur, staff deal with them fairly and effectively.
• Leaders monitor the attendance of pupils carefully. They work closely with families and consult with external agencies, when necessary, to ensure that pupils are safe and are supported to attend school regularly. Attendance is in line with the national average.
• In lessons, pupils listen attentively and work cooperatively. They are keen learners and are confident to express their opinions. In some lessons, learning is interrupted unnecessarily when teachers do not ensure that pupils move promptly from one activity to another. When this happens, pupils lose concentration and take time to settle back to their learning.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Outcomes for pupils in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stages 1 and 2 have improved since the previous inspection. This is as a result of leaders’ actions to improve the quality of teaching across key stages 1 and 2. Leaders’ intensive improvement work has secured attainment that is above national averages by the end of key stage 2 and in line with or above national averages by the end of key stage 1. By the end of Year 6, pupils are well prepared for their secondary schools.
• Over the last two years, the progress pupils make in writing and mathematics by the end of key stage 2 has improved to be in line with national averages. However, in 2018, although improved from the previous year, the progress pupils made in reading remained below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check is consistently above the national average. Pupils who read with inspectors read confidently and fluently. They used their knowledge of phonics to work out unfamiliar words and showed that they are developing their early reading skills well.
• Pupils with SEND and pupils who speak English as an additional language make good progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. Carefully planned additional support and provision combine with good teaching to enable pupils to make the progress of which they are capable.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged is below the national average. Small cohorts make year-on-year comparisons of their progress difficult to compare. The school has effective arrangements in place to ensure that these pupils make good progress. They benefit from good teaching and from explicitly focused additional adult support, resources and experiences, when they need them.
• Inspectors’ scrutiny of pupils’ books, observations during lessons and conversations with pupils confirmed that the majority of current pupils are making good progress in their learning in a range of subjects.

Early years provision Good

• Leadership of the early years is good. Provision across the Nursery and Reception Years is planned well to ensure a range of stimulating activities that inspire children in different areas of learning.
• Nursery children settle quickly and make a flying start to their school life, because staff build good relationships with parents to meet children’s learning and care needs well.
• Relationships between adults and children across the Nursery and Reception classes are nurturing and positive. Children follow well-learned routines and procedures which mean they enjoy their time in the school and are kept safe. They cooperate with each other, are respectful and behave well.
• Children with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff use their ongoing assessments of children to plan activities and additional adult support to ensure that children’s needs are met well. Children with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language, along with other children in the early years, enjoy their learning, make good progress and are well prepared for Year 1.
• Children in the early years develop their knowledge and understanding well in different areas of the curriculum. Children are encouraged to explore, investigate and be independent. For example, inspectors saw children independently investigating what happened when they mixed different coloured food colourings together with water to make ‘medicines’ to make the Easter bunny’s tummy better, as part of their learning about animals. In another activity, children worked together to build a house, based on their reading of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ story. They excitedly constructed the house out of plastic crates, wooden planks and reels and sheets of material. When the sides of the house started to collapse, an adult skilfully used questioning to encourage the children to consider how they could make the walls stronger.
• Children’s reading, writing and mathematics skills are developed well in the early years. Teachers plan to develop these skills through exciting learning activities. For example, in the Reception Year, inspectors observed children developing their writing skills by creating their own stories based on their reading of the book, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, which was linked to their learning about bears. The teacher skilfully encouraged children to use their phonics knowledge to write their own ‘We’re Going on an Egg Hunt’ stories, linked to their learning about Easter. Children were enthusiastic about their writing and eager to share what they had written. For example, one child independently wrote: ‘We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it.’
• Positive, caring relationships and good teaching enable children to make good progress. The majority of children start the Reception Year with skills which are typical for their age. Over recent years, the proportion of children who have attained a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year has been above the national average. Scrutiny of current school assessment information, examples of children’s work and observations during lessons show that the large majority of children are making good progress from their starting points in the different areas of learning.
• Teachers across the early years closely monitor the progress of children’s learning. They use the range of evidence they collect from their assessments to make sure that children are making good progress across the early years curriculum. Teachers regularly check the accuracy of this information with colleagues from other schools.
• Leaders are determined to provide the best possible start for children in the early years. They have a clear idea of further improvements they would like to make to the provision. For example, leaders are keen to ensure that teachers regularly plan challenging opportunities for all children to extend their thinking and develop a deeper understanding of their learning in different areas of the curriculum.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 120695 Lincolnshire 10087361 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary and Nursery School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Voluntary aided 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 231 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Executive Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Christine Bish Fiona Griffiths 01778 343119 www.williamhildyard.lincs.sch.uk enquiriesWH@aspire.school Date of previous inspection 8–9 December 2016

Information about this school

• William Hildyard Church of England Primary and Nursery School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.
• The proportions of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and of pupils who speak English as an additional language are below those seen nationally.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is just below the national average.
• In 2015, the school federated with St. George’s Church of England Primary School to form the Aspire Federation.
• The school accesses support and training for staff through the local authority and through the Keystone Teaching School Alliance.
• The school’s section 48 inspection took place on 12 January 2017.
• The school achieved the Primary Science Quality Mark in 2018.
• The executive headteacher is a local leader of education, and two teachers at the school are specialist leaders in education.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching in all year groups, including some joint observations with the headteacher. In addition to observing the teaching of reading, the inspectors listened to pupils read. They talked with pupils about their school and looked at examples of pupils’ work.
• Inspectors held meetings with the executive headteacher, the head of school and some subject leaders. The lead inspector met with four members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority. Inspectors spoke with parents informally at the start of the school day. They also took account of the 78 responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View, the 12 responses to Ofsted’s survey for staff and the 28 responses to the pupils’ survey.
• Inspectors looked at a range of documents, including: the school’s self-evaluation of current performance and plans for improvement; the school’s most recent information on the achievement and progress of pupils; information relating to safeguarding; information about behaviour management; information relating to the school’s use of the pupil premium funding and funding for pupils with SEND; the school’s most recent information relating to the attendance of pupils; and minutes from meetings of the governing body.

Inspection team

Stephanie Innes-Taylor, lead inspector Moira Dales

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector