Croyland Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that the school’s action plans have clear success criteria so that governors can check if actions have been successful or not
  • ensuring that governors check more closely on the school’s work to raise outcomes and hold school leaders to account for their work
  • ensuring that the pupil premium funding is used effectively to raise standards for disadvantaged pupils and ensuring that they are participating in extra-curricular sporting activity
  • monitoring more closely the progress of disadvantaged pupils and providing timely support to prevent pupils underachieving
  • checking that teachers are providing work which appropriately challenges pupils
  • providing clear feedback to teachers to help them improve
  • ensuring that subject leaders are checking the quality of pupils’ work throughout the school to make sure that pupils are achieving as well as they should be
  • ensuring that the written risk assessment for the playground has all the control measures used by staff, to help fully inform new members of staff.
• Improve teaching and learning by:
  • raising teachers’ expectations to ensure that more pupils are working at age-related expectations or at greater depth
  • developing teachers’ subject knowledge, particularly in mathematics, to ensure that the most able pupils are challenged
  • improving the teaching of phonics to ensure that all pupils are participating in the activities and that teachers develop pupils’ knowledge appropriately improving pupils’ reading comprehension skills so that they have a deep understanding of the texts that they are reading.
• Improve the attendance of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, by:
  • continuing to reduce the number of pupils who are persistently absent
  • taking prompt action when there is a concern of low attendance and by working with families to ensure that pupils regularly attend school. External reviews of governance and of the school’s use of pupil premium funding should be undertaken to assess how these aspects of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders have not ensured that pupils are making good progress throughout the school.
• Leaders regularly check the quality of teaching and have identified many of the weaknesses that inspectors found. However, they have not provided teachers with clear guidance about how to improve their teaching quickly. As a result, pupils have not made as much progress as other pupils nationally in mathematics and reading for the past two years in key stage 2.
• Leaders have not used the pupil premium funding effectively to accelerate the progress of disadvantaged pupils. The pupil premium action plan does not show in enough detail how the money is being spent, or how leaders will know if their actions have worked. The progress of disadvantaged pupils is inconsistent across the school.
• Leaders’ action plans do not contain measurable success criteria to enable them to judge if their actions have worked. They have not checked well enough that their work is helping pupils to make better progress. Their overall evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning has been over-generous. Consequently, leaders have not improved teaching quickly enough.
• Leaders do provide numerous opportunities for staff training. However, they do not rigorously follow up the impact of the training to check that it is improving pupils’ progress.
• Subject leaders are enthusiastic and have checked that the curriculum is providing enough opportunities for pupils to develop their knowledge and skills. In art, pupils have explored how to make different colours. In science, pupils built their own wind turbines, powered by hairdryers, to lift a plastic cup off the floor. The curriculum is broad and balanced and supported by a range of after-school clubs.
• However, subject leaders for science and other foundation subjects have not got assessment systems in place to check if pupils are working at age-appropriate standards. Consequently, leaders do not have a secure evaluation of the standard of pupils’ work for the subjects they lead.
• The headteacher and the senior leadership team have created a warm and inclusive school. Pupils’ achievements are celebrated through good-quality displays. The relationships between pupils, and between pupils and adults, are respectful and positive. There is a lot of laughter in the school. This nurturing environment helps pupils to feel safe. The vast majority of pupils say that their teachers help them to look after their emotional health. Pupils enjoy school and staff morale is very positive.
• There are a range of intervention programmes to support pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. The school works well with a wide range of external professionals to ensure that pupils receive the appropriate support. The school has been reaccredited with the Inclusion Quality Mark. Leaders track each pupil’s progress carefully. However, they do not evaluate the progress of groups of pupils to check that all intervention activities are effective.
• The pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. In assembly, pupils learn how inspirational people, such as Martin Luther King, have made a difference to people’s lives. Pupils learn about different religions and have the opportunities to visit places of worship. The school celebrates the 22 different languages spoken by the pupils by plotting all those countries on a world map. The school is a harmonious place.
• Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Year 6 pupils learn about democracy through visiting the Houses of Parliament. The school has recently received the Rights Respecting Schools silver award for helping pupils become responsible citizens.
• The school uses the sports premium funding to hire external coaches to run multi-skills sessions and football and cricket clubs. Staff at the school run a wide range of after-school clubs to promote sports such as hockey, netball and rounders. The school participates in many local tournaments and has had much success with its table tennis teams. The sports leader has not checked to see if disadvantaged pupils are participating in the sports clubs.
• Parents and carers are highly supportive of the school. They appreciate the caring environment and how senior leaders are very approachable and address any concerns efficiently.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has not held leaders to account for the progress pupils make. Scrutiny of minutes of governing body meetings reveal limited discussions about the progress of groups of pupils.
• The governors’ role has been made more difficult through the lack of measurable success criteria in the school’s development plan to enable them to make secure judgements about how well the school is improving.
• Governors have not checked closely enough on the impact of the pupil premium funding on the progress of disadvantaged pupils.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The pastoral lead has a very good knowledge of the local services available to support pupils and their families. The school works very closely with a range of external agencies, such as social care, health visitors, counselling services and the local authority’s disability team, to help keep pupils safe. Leaders are not afraid to challenge other services if they feel they are not providing the support required.
• The school has established systems for staff to report any concerns about pupils. Leaders respond promptly to those concerns and record their actions. Leaders regularly discuss vulnerable pupils to ensure that everyone is up to date on the circumstances of each child.
• Leaders take an active part in writing early-help assessments to support pupils and their families. If attendance has been low for a pupil, the school always makes sure this is an area for improvement on the assessment. However, leaders do not state a numerical target for the pupils’ attendance to ensure that everyone is very clear about the school’s expectations for good attendance.
• Leaders have completed all the appropriate checks for employing members of staff. References are checked before appointments are made. The school’s record-keeping for safeguarding matters is good.
• Leaders took prompt action when they discovered that pupils could be in danger of being recruited into local gangs. They invited police community support officers into school who informed pupils how they could be approached to be a member of a gang and what to do if they feel they are being groomed.
• The school’s perimeter fencing is not secure. The school staff are aware of the dangers and pupils are well supervised at breaktimes. However, the written risk assessment for the playground does not specify in enough detail the control measures that staff use to ensure that pupils are kept safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teachers do not consistently challenge the pupils to achieve highly, particularly in key stage 2.
• The teaching of mathematics requires improvement. Older pupils are completing easy written calculations which should be completed mentally to enable pupils to make faster progress in their work. Teachers’ subject knowledge is not secure and occasionally pupils’ incorrect answers are being marked as correct. Furthermore, pupils are not given enough opportunities through the school to develop their reasoning skills to gain a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.
• Pupils’ progress in reading is inconsistent. In some classes, pupils’ reading comprehension skills are being developed well. In other classes, pupils do not have enough opportunities to develop their inference skills (using clues from the text to come to a conclusion) and become strong readers. Some pupils have reading books which are too hard and reduce their enjoyment of reading.
• Phonics teaching requires improvement. Teachers do not consistently move pupils’ learning forward when pupils clearly know the letter sounds. Teachers do not check carefully that all pupils in their groups are following their instructions to ensure that pupils are learning at an appropriate pace. The effective use of teaching assistants is inconsistent. Some support pupils well with their reading while others stood behind the pupils in phonic lessons and therefore could not intervene to help correct pupils’ misconceptions.
• In science, pupils are not writing conclusions to investigations in enough detail to show they have a good understanding of the concepts being taught.
• The teaching of writing is much better than in other subjects. Teachers provide clear guidance about how to structure a sentence and make it more interesting. Teachers encourage pupils to use thesauri and dictionaries to use more interesting vocabulary. One Year 6 pupil wrote, ‘The hero of our story was alone and confused; his head was ringing with countless queries.’
• In mathematics lessons, where teaching is better, pupils develop good mathematical skills. In Year 3, the teacher questioned the pupils on how they got the correct answers. Pupils had to explain their methods clearly to demonstrate they had a good understanding of the mathematical concept.
• Pupils in the local authority resourced provision make good progress with their personal and social skills. Staff ensure that pupils follow routines in a caring manner. Scrutiny of their work shows they are making expected progress.
• The teacher responsible for pupils who speak English as an additional language quickly assesses new pupils and then implements an appropriate intervention programme to help them learn English quickly. This group of pupils generally makes good progress through the school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils walk around the school respectfully and hold doors open for others in school. They are active at playtimes but not boisterous. Pupils settle down to work in lessons quickly and most follow the teachers’ instructions readily.
• Pupils say that bullying is rare and when it does happen teachers sort it out very quickly. Pupils have designed posters about the importance of e-safety and the school has achieved the 360 degree safe online safety mark.
• The school has displayed former pupils’ academic achievements and job titles to inspire the current pupils. In the pupil questionnaire, some pupils asked for more advice about what GCSEs to study at secondary school.
• Pupils can go to the ‘Hub’ if they feel they need support to help them with their social and emotional needs. Most pupils who completed the pupil questionnaire said there is an adult they can go to in school if something is worrying them.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• The reason behaviour requires improvement is due to high rates of persistent absence for all pupils and the low attendance rate of disadvantaged pupils. The number of pupils who are persistently absent is greater than seen in most schools. This figure is slowly reducing. However, the attendance rate of disadvantaged pupils has remained low for the past two years. Although leaders take action to improve attendance, their efforts are not always coordinated and actions can be too slow. Poor attendance from some disadvantaged pupils has affected their progress.
• Occasionally, some pupils display challenging behaviour. Teaching assistants manage these situations very effectively to minimise any potential disruption to other pupils’ learning.
• The number of fixed term exclusions has been high in the last academic year. The number of pupils who had repeat exclusions was low in the same year. In the current academic year, the number of fixed term exclusions has been very low.

Outcomes for pupils

Requires improvement

• Pupils have made weak progress in mathematics in key stage 2 for a few years. Current progress of pupils is inconsistent because the work is not well matched to their ability.
• Disadvantaged pupils have made poor progress in reading and mathematics for the past two years through key stage 2. Their attainment in Year 6 in these subjects is well below that of other pupils nationally.
• Fewer pupils than nationally achieve the high standard at the end of key stage 2 in reading and mathematics. The proportion of current pupils who are on track to achieve at greater depth in most year groups is lower than seen nationally in those subjects.
• Pupils’ attainment in the Year 1 phonics check fell last year and is below the national average.
• Pupils have made broadly average progress in writing through key stage 2. The proportion of pupils who achieve highly has been in line or above the national average for the past two years.
• Pupils’ attainment at the end of key stage 1 has been broadly in line with or above the national average in all subjects for the past four years. The proportion of pupils who achieved highly in writing and mathematics in 2017 was above the national average.
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve better in key stage 1. In 2017, their attainment was just below that of other pupils nationally. Current information shows that disadvantaged pupils are on track to be in line with the national average at the end of Year 2 in all subjects.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities have made good progress in all subjects through key stage 2 in 2017.
• Pupils who speak English as an additional language have made good progress in all subjects through key stage 2 in 2016 and in reading and writing in 2017. They did not do as well in mathematics in 2017.

Early years provision Good

• The quality of teaching is better in the early years because the teachers have an accurate picture of the children’s abilities and they pitch the level of work appropriately to ensure that the pupils make good progress.
• Children enter school with skills below those typical of their age. In 2016, the children’s skills were well below this level on entry. Children make strong progress. The outcomes at the end of the early years in 2017 show the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was just below the national average. Pupils are well prepared to start Year 1.
• Disadvantaged pupils made very good progress in 2017. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who achieved a good level of development was similar to that of other pupils nationally.
• Teachers have used well-known stories to inspire the children to read. Children were proud of their pictures of the animals from ‘The Gruffalo’ and used shadow puppets to act out the story.
• Teachers also use stories to encourage children to write. Children are encouraged to say the sounds before they write them. High expectations enable the children to write good sentences, for example, ‘He is on the branch under a leaf.’
• The staff work well with the teacher responsible for children who speak English as an additional language. Parents are invited to a meeting where a resource pack of ideas is given to parents to help the children be ready for school. This group of children have also benefited from an intervention group to develop their speaking and listening skills and have made good progress.
• The children behave well and follow school routines.
• Following the initial assessments of the children’s abilities, the early years leader works closely with the SEN coordinator to plan support for those children at risk of underachievement. The school liaises well with speech and language therapists to support the children’s development.
• The teachers visit the local nursery and make home visits to get to know the children before they start. Parents have the opportunity to put on display any achievements that children have had at home. These are celebrated with the children.
• Outdoors, children have the opportunity to develop their physical skills through bowling and throwing bean bags into buckets and counting their scores. The vast majority of the children are engaged in their learning. However, a very few children do not engage well enough in learning activities and it can take too long before adults notice.

School details

Unique reference number 133600 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 10037603 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 Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 417 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Mark Turner Lucy Deakin Telephone number 01933 224 169 Website Email address www.croylandprimary.co.uk head@croyland-pri.northants-ecl.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 2–3 October 2012

Information about this school

• The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is just below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and who receive SEN support is below the national average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is double the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.
• The school meets the Department for Education’s definition of a coasting school based on key stage 2 academic results in 2014–16.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed lessons in all classrooms, some jointly with the headteacher.
• The inspectors looked at pupils’ current work covering a range of subjects.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and the deputy headteacher; the leaders of English, mathematics, physical education, the early years, and a range of other subject leaders; the assistant headteacher responsible for teaching and learning and key stage 1; the assistant headteacher for the provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities; the leaders responsible for pastoral care, behaviour and for pupils who speak English as an additional language, and the chair of the governing body. Telephone calls were held with an adviser from the local authority and the vice-chair of the governing body.
• The inspectors spoke informally with parents at the start of the school day on both days of the inspection. Inspectors considered the 108 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and the 106 responses to the free text service for parents.
• The inspectors considered the surveys completed by 58 members of the school staff and by 249 pupils.
• The inspectors spoke with groups of pupils, listened to pupils read and observed pupils at breaktimes, lunchtimes and in assembly.
• The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plans, minutes of meetings of the governing body, the school’s most recent information on pupils’ achievement, and information related to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

Inspection team

Martin Finch, lead inspector Elizabeth Mace Nicola Walsh

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector