Langenhoe Community Primary School and Pre-School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ outcomes by:
  • raising teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve and of how pupils should present their work
  • making sure that pupils develop a secure understanding of mathematical facts and methods that will enable them to work more fluently
  • developing pupils’ ability to solve mathematical problems and to reason mathematically
  • ensuring that pupils become more accurate in their use of spelling, punctuation and grammar
  • implementing new curriculum plans effectively so that pupils’ understanding develops well over time across a wide range of subjects.
• Improve pupils’ behaviour by:
  • making sure that lesson time is not wasted by disruptive or inattentive behaviour
  • ensuring that adults consistently expect and insist upon high standards of behaviour in class and at breaktimes.
• Improve provision in the early years by making sure that the curriculum and the quality of teaching in the pre-school nursery provision are tailored to children’s learning needs.
• Improve leadership and management by ensuring that governors have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and hold leaders to account for making timely and effective improvements. 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

• Since September, new leaders have introduced a range of focused and well-considered strategies to address many of the areas that require improvement in the school. However, most of these strategies are too new to have had enough impact on the quality of education pupils receive.
• Ensuring that the broader curriculum is sufficiently adapted to meet the needs of pupils was an area to improve identified in the inspection of the school in February 2018. While leaders’ plans to move to a new curriculum model are at an advanced stage, these plans are not due to be implemented until later this year.
• Pupils’ progress across key stage 2 in mathematics has diminished over the past two years, and current pupils’ progress is also too variable. In 2018, the proportion of pupils who attained the higher standard in mathematics in Year 6 was below average.
• Pupils’ writing across the school is not as good as it should be, particularly regarding spelling, punctuation and grammar. Leaders are implementing a new approach to teaching writing. However, it is too early for this to have had enough impact.
• Staff value the work of new leaders. All staff who responded to Ofsted’s staff survey agreed that the school has improved and that leaders support them well. Parents and carers are similarly positive. Almost all of those who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, agreed that the school is led and managed well and would recommend the school to another parent.
• Leaders use the additional funding for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well. Leaders identify the needs of pupils with SEND early and ensure that teachers complete and implement plans to support these pupils. Leaders meet with teachers routinely to review the progress that pupils with SEND are making. Leaders and teachers evaluate the impact of the support they provide and adjust it, where necessary, to ensure that the needs of pupils with SEND are met effectively.
• Pupil premium funding is used effectively to promote the needs of disadvantaged pupils. The barriers to learning that these pupils face are discussed with teachers and parents. These discussions contribute to pupils’ support plans. Leaders review the support they give to disadvantaged pupils routinely and, if necessary, change what they are doing to make sure that the support is effective.
• Leaders’ work to promote pupils’ physical well-being is effective. They make good use of the physical education and sport premium to increase pupils’ opportunities to participate in sports and to encourage pupils to try new sports. Leaders work well with an external organisation to encourage fair play. All pupils who responded to Ofsted’s survey of their views said that the school encourages them to look after their physical health.

Governance of the school

• Governors are keen for the school to do well but do not have an in-depth understanding of how well the school works. They have not been effective in holding leaders to account for the quality of education provided and have not secured significant change since the inspection of the school in February 2018. The areas identified for improvement at the time of that inspection remain less effective than they should be.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders have ensured that there is a culture of safety at the school. They maintain a clear and accurate single central record of recruitment checks on adults who work in the school, and they ensure that staff training is up to date. Adults who spoke with inspectors understand the procedures for keeping children safe, and they record and pass on concerns about pupils’ welfare. Pupils say they feel safe and that there is an adult in school they can talk to if something is worrying them. Leaders respond appropriately to the concerns that are passed to them, maintaining well-kept records and working with external agencies, when appropriate, to keep children safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teachers’ expectations of pupils, and the level of challenge teachers provide for pupils, are often too low. Too much work is poorly presented in pupils’ books. Consequently, pupils do not make as much progress from their starting points as they should.
• Some teachers do not do enough to ensure that pupils have a secure understanding of mathematical ideas and techniques before moving on to the next topic. This means that these pupils do not have a solid knowledge on which to build their future work. In most classes, there is little opportunity for pupils to develop their ability to solve problems or reason mathematically.
• Teachers allow basic misconceptions in pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar to persist. As a consequence, pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar across key stages 1 and 2 are not well developed.
• Some teachers use texts well to develop pupils’ reading. They choose texts which interest pupils and help them learn to infer meaning. Pupils develop good comprehension and reading skills and use what they have learned from reading to consider different ways of writing. However, this is inconsistent. How well pupils’ reading develops and the impact it has on their writing depend on the quality of teaching that they experience.
• Phonics is taught well. Leaders have developed a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics, which ensures that pupils develop secure phonics skills and knowledge over time.
• Some aspects of teaching are strong. Mathematics is taught well to some pupils in upper key stage 2. Questioning, enthusiasm and praise are often used well to encourage pupils’ involvement and to develop their understanding. Leaders’ and teachers’ new approach to teaching writing in the younger year groups is helping these pupils to develop some aspects of their writing and wider literacy well. For example, they are now developing the range of vocabulary they use and the complexity of their sentence structure.

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 told inspectors that they like school. They feel safe and have an adult they can talk to if they are worried about something.
• Pupils are taught to respect others. Pupils who spoke with inspectors were clear that being different is fine. This was reflected in Ofsted’s pupil survey. All of those who responded agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: ‘My school encourages me to respect people from other backgrounds and to treat everyone equally.’
• Pupils who spoke with inspectors said that bullying is rare. If it happens, they are confident that adults will deal with it well. This view was reflected by the clear majority of those who completed Ofsted’s survey of pupils’ views.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• In too many classes, progress is hindered because teachers have not established behaviour which is conducive to learning. For example, inspectors saw pupils in some classes ignoring teachers’ requests or interrupting learning. In these classes, pupils waste their own and other pupils’ time.
• Adults are inconsistent in reinforcing high standards of behaviour out of lesson time, such as by not addressing boisterous behaviour. This means that some pupils’ behaviour prevents the school from being as calm and orderly as it should be.
• Many pupils behave well. They contribute well to class discussions and settle quickly to their work. They play sensibly at breaktimes.
• Attendance is consistently above the national average. Leaders continue to pay close attention to attendance and monitor it carefully.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The overall progress of pupils in key stage 2 at the end of 2018 was low. In mathematics, it was below the national average. In reading and writing, it was well below national averages.
• Pupils currently in the school are not making as much progress as they should. In mathematics, many pupils’ mathematical fluency develops too slowly. Pupils’ reasoning and problem-solving skills are often not well developed.
• In English, pupils’ writing is not of a good enough standard, primarily because they have not learned the basic rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation properly.
• The development of pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding in subjects other than English and mathematics is not strong enough. Leaders have appropriate plans in place to improve this but it is too early to see the impact of their work.
• Pupils’ progress in reading is uneven. In some classes, pupils learn to draw information from written texts well. However, in others, reading skills are not developed as effectively.
• Pupils develop their phonics skills well. Pupils who have previously struggled in this area have been helped to catch up.
• Leaders’ new approach to teaching early writing means that some aspects of younger pupils’ literacy, such as sentence structure and the use of a broad range of vocabulary, are now developing well.
• Some pupils in upper key stage 2 make good progress in mathematics. Their mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills all develop well.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Leaders have a secure understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of teaching, learning and the curriculum in the early years. They have made some improvements in this area. However, the quality of teaching and the curriculum in pre-school are not good enough.
• While the proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of the early years was above the national average in 2018, children do not make as much progress from their starting points as they should. This is because they do not get off to a good enough start to their education in pre-school nursery provision.
• Teaching in pre-school does not typically meet the needs of children well. Activities do not help children to develop across the different areas of learning well or engage them effectively in productive activity and purposeful play. New ideas are not always explained in a way which children understand, and inappropriate play is not addressed effectively by adults.
• In Reception, adults respond to the learning needs of children more effectively. They have appropriate expectations for what children should achieve, know the progress different children are making and support them effectively to move on from their starting points. They share their assessment of children’s achievements with parents. This enables parents to support their children’s progress further at home.
• Behaviour in the early years is too variable between Reception and pre-school. When adults provide activities that allow children to learn meaningfully, typically in Reception, children behave well. They show enthusiasm for, and confidence in, what they have learned. When the activities are not as well designed or thoughtfully considered, some children do not focus on and sustain activities well enough. Children in pre-school have not learned how to use and look after equipment.
• Leaders take effective action to keep pupils safe in the early years. They assess and manage risks to children, monitor accidents and assign key workers to younger children.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 114729 Essex 10052995 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 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 174 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Mrs Clare Lauwerys Mrs Sarah Stevenson Telephone number 01206 735 267 Website Email address www.langenhoeprimaryschool.com admin@langenhoe.essex.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 22 February 2018

Information about this school

• Langenhoe Community Primary School and Pre-School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The school currently teaches children as young as three. In the near future, the school is due to take two-year-old children. The published general information about this school does not include children younger than four and leaders have not suitably updated this information.
• The school has a lower-than-average proportion of disadvantaged pupils.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is below the national average. The proportion with an education, health and care plan is above the national average.
• A new headteacher has been appointed since the previous inspection.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited all classes, sometimes accompanied by leaders, and reviewed the work in pupils’ books. They met with the headteacher, other leaders, a representative from the local authority and four members of the governing body.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including leaders’ evaluation of the school, improvement plans and safeguarding records. They looked at information about educational visits, considered the school’s information on pupils’ attendance and progress, and reviewed minutes of meetings of the governing body.
• Inspectors spoke with parents at the start of the first day of the inspection and considered the 29 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as the 16 responses to the free-text option. Inspectors also considered the responses of 14 staff who completed Ofsted’s survey of staff views, and the 38 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey. Inspectors spoke with pupils during their free time and listened to pupils read.

Inspection team

Andrew Hemmings, lead inspector Kay Tims Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector