Pytchley Endowed Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Leaders must ensure that they can accurately evaluate the impact of actions taken and interventions made to improve pupils’ learning by:
  • clearly identifying the barriers to learning that they plan to overcome and what they expect to achieve
  • identifying how they will know if the actions have been successful and how and when they will monitor and evaluate the impact of the actions taken.
• Teachers must set targets that are more challenging to support more pupils to achieve at the higher standards.
• Teachers must provide opportunities for pupils to build their resilience so that they are able to attempt increasingly challenging problems without substantial teacher support.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders’ and governors’ vision and values are consistently applied in the day-to-day work of the school. Parents and pupils experience them in their interactions with staff. For example, one parent said that leaders, ‘ensure that all children in Pytchley School are valued, rewarded and encouraged to learn and become good citizens. My children have thrived since joining Pytchley School’.
• Leaders’ evaluations of the school’s strengths and areas for development are accurate. Leaders challenge and support teachers to improve the effectiveness of their teaching. Leaders have taken steps to raise standards since the beginning of the school year. They have acted to increase the percentage of pupils who attain the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined at the end of key stage 2. Their actions have had an increasingly positive impact on pupils’ progress.
• The headteacher supports the professional development of staff effectively. Teachers, at all stages of their careers, are helped to increase their knowledge and skills and improve their practice. Teachers are encouraged to link their development to the needs of the school.
• Leaders place a strong emphasis on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development throughout the school. Pupils learn about other cultures around the world and are encouraged to take an active role in the spiritual life of the school and local church. Teachers and other adults support them in making moral choices through their personal, social and health education lessons and assemblies. Pupils show a great deal of mutual respect.
• The school’s equality and inclusion policies are comprehensive and supported by a thorough accessibility audit. Leaders have created a very positive culture where diversity is welcomed. Staff, pupils and parents described how they feel valued within the school community.
• Leaders communicate well with parents. A weekly newsletter provides parents with plenty of information about teaching themes and activities that children will participate in during the week. Newsletters also cover pupils’ academic and other achievements, attendance percentages for each class and forthcoming events.
• Leaders evaluate the impact of the extra funding for sport effectively. It has supported increased participation in sport, particularly those sports that are not easily accessible outside of school and that are not commonly associated with just boys or just girls. Leaders are confident that all pupils will have represented the school by the end of the academic year and are on track to achieve this.
• Leaders’ plan to use the pupil premium grant to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils is not sharply focused. As a result, it does not provide clarity regarding accountability or the expected outcomes. Leaders cannot confidently identify the most successful and least successful interventions they employ and make robust improvements.
• The school improvement plan is based on leaders’ accurate assessment of the school’s performance. However, the plan does not have the milestones or desired outcomes necessary for leaders to assess the impact of their actions

Governance of the school

• The Peterborough Diocese Education Trust is skilled in providing challenge and support for the school’s leaders and the local governing body. It has conducted a review of the local governing body and is supporting governors in improving the challenge and support that it provides for the school’s leaders.
• The trust provides professional development and networking opportunities across its schools. For example, teachers have developed secure judgements of pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics through participation in regular external moderation.
• Local governors support the school in building effective communication with parents, meeting them at school and parish events.
• Local governors are increasingly adept at asking challenging questions of school leaders but are not yet consistent in their follow-up questions.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safeguarding training provided for staff is relevant and up to date. Staff have a secure understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities, including the prevention of radicalisation. Staff know what their statutory duties are and how to carry them out.
• The safeguarding culture of the school is particularly evident in its pastoral care. The ethos of the school was praised by many parents. One said, ‘This is a really lovely school for raising children’s confidence and creating a safe and secure environment for them to feel happy to learn.’
• The designated safeguarding lead knows and discharges the duties of the school in relation to pupils with a child protection plan. Relevant training means that staff are confident in reporting any concerns they may have about a pupil’s welfare.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers’ subject knowledge in English is strong. They ensure that pupils of different ages in the same class are interested in the reading and writing tasks they are given. Pupils’ extended writing builds on what they have learned and increases in complexity and in the skill required.
• Teachers are developing pupils’ phonic skills effectively. They provide a range of activities and support to challenge and engage pupils, regularly checking on the progress they are making. Teachers move pupils on to more challenging phonics activities as they become ready.
• The majority of pupils enjoy reading. They read with confidence and understanding, using phonics skills to read more complex and unfamiliar words. They read from a wide variety of sources, in school and at home, including children’s and young adults’ fiction and poetry. Class teachers ensure that pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities read to them every day. All pupils are given the opportunity to read out loud to others, including reading passages of scripture at church services.
• Teachers promote reasoning across the curriculum. In science lessons, for example, teachers place a strong emphasis on pupils explaining the conclusions that they reach based on the evidence they have gathered. As a result, pupils are helped to improve their understanding and are beginning to apply new skills effectively across the curriculum.
• Teachers increasingly vary the challenges they present to pupils in mathematics. They ask increasingly probing questions to promote pupils’ reasoning skills. Some pupils are now able to attempt problems with little additional support and respond with enthusiasm to the additional challenge.
• Teachers check pupils’ understanding frequently and often provide pupils with opportunities to discuss their work. In one example, pupils rehearsing a dance identified who the most effective dancers were, what they were doing that was making the difference, and then attempted to replicate it. Pupils enjoy learning and are supportive of their peers.
• Teachers provide effective feedback to parents on their child’s progress and attainment. One parent reported that, ‘I love seeing their work and learning through displays, regular reports and parent sharing days as well as on the website and twitter.’ All 30 parents who responded to Ofsted’s Parent View survey reported that the school communicated well with them.
• Teachers consistently support equality of opportunity. The school has comprehensive inclusion and equalities policies and a strong culture of inclusion; in particular, parents of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities feel that communication between them and the school is particularly strong.
• Teachers do not consistently set highly challenging targets for the most able and middle-ability pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. Teachers are increasingly probing pupils’ understanding in a variety of curriculum areas. However, opportunities to demand even more of pupils are frequently not taken. The vast majority of these pupils secure progress in line with their targets but not often beyond them.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils have opportunities to learn how to keep themselves safe and how to develop their well-being. For example, the school provides opportunities for pupils to keep fit and stay safe through courses on cycling proficiency, keeping safe online and raising their awareness of illegal and misuse of drugs.
• Pupils play and learn with others cooperatively. Leaders have successfully fostered a very caring family ethos in the school. This is recognised by a very large proportion of the parents. One said about their experience, ‘From the moment we walked through the doors on our initial visit it was the only school I would want for my children. It is like a big family and every child is included’.
• Pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values is strong. For example, pupils are confident in the role of elected representatives on the school council. Pupils have confidence in the school council’s ability to bring matters to school leaders when necessary and are confident that these will be listened to and considered when decisions are being made.
• On occasion, when the pupils find tasks too challenging or not challenging enough, some pupils exhibit off-task behaviour. This slows their progress.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils’ conduct throughout the day is generally of a high standard. Pupils play well together during their breaktimes and lunchtimes, with older pupils helping to set up resources for younger pupils to play with. All pupils help to tidy up after finishing their lunch. Staff supervise break and lunchtimes and pupils have confidence that any problems will be dealt with.
• Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour in lessons effectively. They act swiftly to keep pupils focused on their learning and pupils respond well to this guidance.
• Pupils and staff deal effectively with the rare instances of bullying. Pupils have a very clear understanding of what bullying is. They are confident that teachers will investigate thoroughly and deal fairly with issues brought to them.
• Leaders provide appropriate support and challenge for parents to increase their child’s attendance. Their actions are having an impact, although pupils’ attendance has been lower than the national average. Pupils have positive attitudes to school and say they feel safe and happy.
• Pupils are occasionally unkind to each other during break and lunchtimes. A small number of parents expressed concerns that there were some instances of poor behaviour during unstructured times that were not dealt with rapidly enough. Leaders’ thorough approach to investigating incidents does sometimes take a small number of days, but pupils were confident that the process was fair.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 2 in 2017 was in line with the national expectations for reading, writing and mathematics. In writing, progress has improved substantially from being in the lowest 20% to the highest 20% nationally since 2015. In reading and mathematics, progress has also increased in key stage 2 since 2015. Their overall progress in reading, writing and mathematics was at least in line with the national average at the end of key stage 2.
• A high proportion of pupils reach the expected standards in the phonics screening check in Year 1. Improved teaching of phonics has supported this improvement. Pupils’ progress in key stages 1 and 2 in reading and writing is increasingly secure as a result.
• Work in pupils’ books shows that the overall attainment and progress of pupils currently in the school are at least in line with the national expectations for their age.
• A high proportion of disadvantaged pupils currently in the school are making progress in line with that of their peers. This is because leaders and teachers know the barriers to learning for each pupil and are providing sufficient support to overcome them.
• Most pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make consistently strong progress. Barriers to learning have been identified and overcome through the provision of appropriate resources or professional development for staff.
• The most able and middle-ability pupils make good progress in line with their targets overall. However, some inconsistencies remain in the level of challenge these targets present them and, as a result, too few attain the higher standard.
• Pupils’ attainment at the end of key stage 2 in 2017 for reading, writing and mathematics combined was low compared to the national figure. Leaders had not monitored the progress of pupils against the combined measure and had not identified the small number of pupils at risk of not attaining the national standard in one of the measures.
• The small number of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and who are also disadvantaged make slow progress. Leaders have not clearly identified the key barriers to their progress and, as a result, have not identified how best to overcome them.

Early years provision Good

• The headteacher works closely with early years teachers to evaluate the quality of the provision. The early years leader closely monitors children’s progress and targets. Communication with parents about their child’s progress is effective. For example, one parent said, ‘My daughter loves going to school and has made wonderful progress since joining Reception. The staff are all very helpful, encouraging and have time for everyone.’
• The setting is safe and secure. The behaviour and learning of all the children are monitored well by staff and appropriate risk assessments have been carried out and acted on, for example, to ensure that the outdoor space is used safely. Staff have paediatric first aid training and know the medical needs of all the children well.
• Teachers plan a wide range of activities that are well matched to the children’s needs, both indoors and outside, and matched to the full breadth of the curriculum. Children make effective use of resources, playing and learning well together. The activities and resources have been carefully chosen to help children develop a wide variety of skills and understanding. Outdoor learning is used well to encourage children’s personal, social, emotional and physical development.
• Phonics is taught effectively. Children develop their ability to recognise and make sounds in class. Children make good progress from their starting points and the proportion achieving a good level of development and the expected standard in their early learning goals is consistently in line with the national figure.
• Children are motivated and eager to learn. They contribute to discussions and listen carefully and respectfully to their peers. Children respond well to the praise and encouragement they get from all the staff in the early years.
• The SENCo works closely with the early years lead to ensure that children who have SEN and/or disabilities are identified early. Leaders work closely with parents to investigate concerns and ensure that barriers to learning are identified and children’s progress is supported. As a result, children who have SEN and/or disabilities make progress in line with that of their peers.
• Transition from Reception to Year 1 is good because progress through the early years curriculum content into Year 1 has been carefully planned. The early years teacher ensures that children are well prepared for the next stages in learning in Year 1.
• Activities are not planned to move learning on at a sustained rapid pace and personalised for individual children. Children are not directed quickly enough to the next step. As a result, the pace of learning is not as fast as possible, especially for the most able children.

School details

Unique reference number 142270 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 10048114 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 converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 106 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair of trustees Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address John Herrick Julia Havlickova 01536 790506 https://pytchleyceprimary.org.uk head@pytchley.northants-ecl.gov.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Pytchley Endowed Church of England Primary School converted to become an academy on 1 September 2015. When its predecessor school, Pytchley Endowed Church of England Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted it was judged to require improvement.
• The school is part of the Peterborough Diocese Education Trust and has its own local governing body, which assumes responsibilities in line with the trust’s scheme of delegation.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school, with a number of pupils educated in mixed-age classes.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils in receipt of the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is slightly above the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed learning in seven lessons. All of these were visited jointly with the headteacher or assistant headteacher. During visits to lessons, the inspector sampled pupils’ books and talked with pupils to evaluate the quality of their learning. The inspector also made short, informal visits to lessons throughout the school.
• The inspector observed the behaviour of pupils at breaktime and lunchtime, and as pupils moved around the school.
• The inspector held a number of meetings with the headteacher, other senior leaders, middle leaders and teachers. The inspector met members of the governing body, including the chair. The lead inspector met with officers of the Peterborough Diocese Education Trust.
• The inspector spoke with pupils from all year groups in meetings, in lessons, around the school and at lunchtime.
• The inspector looked at a wide range of the school’s documentation. This included the school’s evaluation of its own performance, its development plan, safeguarding procedures and records, and minutes of meetings of the governing body. The inspector also considered data on pupils’ attainment and progress, attendance, bullying and behaviour.
• The inspector took account of 30 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, and responses from parents to Ofsted’s free-text service. The seven responses to the online questionnaire for staff were also considered. There were no responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for pupils.

Inspection team

Clive Worrall, lead inspector

Ofsted Inspector