Meadgate Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching so that pupils, including the most able, reach the highest standards expected for their different ages by making sure that:
  • in mathematics, pupils are quickly provided with the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to suitably demanding work as soon as they have demonstrated they have sufficient understanding to do so
  • reading books, work and activities provide all pupils with a sufficiently demanding range of vocabulary in order to improve their comprehension and knowledge of the most difficult texts.
• Senior leaders should improve the organisation of assessment information for some small groups of pupils who need help to catch up in key stage 2, so that it is as useful to subject leaders as the other information they hold, in order to help them to check more quickly on the impact of their work.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• This new school is well led. The executive headteacher leads with skill and determination and is ably assisted by his capable deputy and senior staff. Leaders, governors and trustees have quickly established very high expectations about the quality of education. Staff and governors are united in their work. As a result, teaching is good and pupils receive outstanding care and personal development.
• The school is changing quickly. Pupil numbers are increasing rapidly, including those who join at times other than at the start of the school year and those who speak English as an additional language. Leaders, governors and staff are managing these changes effectively and maintain a good quality of education.
• Parents are very pleased with the performance of the school and the care their children receive. They find the school very approachable and effective if they have a concern. They commend the executive headteacher and his staff for their work and they would enthusiastically recommend the school to other parents.
• Leaders have successfully recruited and developed an effective new team of highly committed teachers and support staff since the school opened. All staff receive effective professional development and training within the school and across the schools in the academy trust to which the school belongs.
• Leaders’ arrangements for checking on the quality of teaching are rigorous and accurate. They include the scrutiny of pupils’ work, discussions with staff, observations of teaching and analysis of assessment information. Consequently, leaders are able to address the improvement of teaching effectively. One good example is the effectiveness of teachers’ questioning skills.
• Leaders and teachers willingly accept responsibility for the quality of their work. Performance management arrangements are also effective. Targets are precisely matched to leaders’ expectations for pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching. Final decisions on pay awards are subject to rigorous checks by governors and trustees.
• Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and remaining areas for development, and improvement work is well organised to address them. Arrangements for checking on these activities are robust and involve governors and trustees. Leaders have carefully analysed past test results, particularly in reading, and adjusted teaching to address any previous weaknesses. Consequently, the progress of pupils currently in the school and the quality of teaching they receive are both good.
• Pupils of all abilities receive demanding academic targets, which reflect leaders’ high expectations. Leaders meet regularly with teachers to discuss pupils’ progress and then act together to prevent them from falling behind. These arrangements are especially helpful for older pupils who have needed to catch up on reading skills or require help in mathematics. However, in a few cases, assessment information for some small groups is not precise enough to help subject leaders know how well these pupils are doing.
• Subject leaders are effective. They have a clear understanding of their responsibilities. Their subject knowledge in English, mathematics and other subjects is secure and they are skilled in review work. As a result, they are able to advise teachers on how to improve their work. They also organise effective support for pupils who have needed help to catch up in reading and mathematics. They cooperate effectively with leaders in schools across the academy trust and have led training for the improvement of teaching.
• Leaders have established an effective written and verbal feedback policy for pupils’ work and all teachers follow it meticulously. As a result, pupils act well on the helpful advice they receive.
• The leadership of provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. Additional funding for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is used effectively. Senior leaders responsible for this work closely involve pupils, parents and teachers in arrangements for identifying when help is needed, the planning of good-quality support and the careful monitoring of pupils’ progress. As a result, pupils receive exceptional care and effective help to make good progress.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding to promote pupils’ participation in competitive sports and physical education. As a result, large numbers of pupils have joined competitive sporting activities which include gymnastics, football, athletics and table tennis. The school has carefully invested in sports equipment and coaching services. Leaders also share expertise across a local sports partnership of Chelmsford schools. The school has been recognised for its development of sports activity by receiving a number of awards.
• Leaders’ use of pupil premium funding is effective. As a result, the progress made by disadvantaged pupils currently attending the school is good and differences between their achievement and that of other pupils nationally are reducing. Leaders and staff have been meticulous in their efforts to improve their attendance, which affected achievement in the past, and there has been a significant reduction in absence. Pupils are assessed accurately and provided with effective additional support in reading, writing and mathematics which is based on challenging targets. Careful checks are made on their progress, which helps teachers to support them when they face difficulty.
• The curriculum is carefully organised to support pupils’ learning and their exceptional personal development. Effective subject planning helps pupils to make good progress in the development of their knowledge and skills across a wide range of subjects which include English, mathematics, history, geography, religious education, sciences and the arts.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted exceptionally well. They show a very secure understanding of their school’s values, which include respect, diversity, ambition, courage, confidence, curiosity and physical activity. Pupils in all year groups adopt these values in age-appropriate ways, owing to the consistent examples set by all staff. As a result, pupils are extremely respectful to each other and demonstrate a significant enthusiasm for learning. The school’s values, assembly programme and careful focus on relationships also support pupils to understand and respect the different cultures within their country.
• Pupils’ preparation for life in modern Britain and their adoption of British values are also highly effective. As they mature, they demonstrate an unshakeable attachment to parliamentary democracy, personal freedoms and the rule of law. When challenged they can explain why they hold these beliefs and the school has organised trips to the House of Commons to allow older pupils to see how laws are made.
• The school’s membership of the Eveleigh LINK Academy Trust has been an important factor in its successful development. Trustees provide valuable strategic advice to the school and hold very accurate views about its performance, strengths and areas for development. They also oversee the use of finances. Trustees hold leaders and governors to account and also provide the school with effective support for the improvement of leadership and teaching. Equally, the school shares its strengths with others within the trust and this mutual relationship has been of considerable benefit.
• Although the school is no longer maintained by the local authority, it benefits from a positive relationship with senior advisers who hold accurate views about its performance and who offer thoughtful advice to leaders on an annual basis.

Governance of the school

• Governors are effective, experienced and bring a wide range of experience, knowledge and skills to their role. They share the determined vision of leaders to secure a high-quality education for pupils. The academy trust provides them with a large degree of responsibility and they use this to help steer the strategy of the school. Since the school opened, governors have focused on leaders’ improvement of teaching, the curriculum, pupils’ progress, the quality of care and pupils’ personal development. They accept accountability for their roles within the trust arrangements and regularly visit the school to meet leaders and check on the progress of the school towards its improvement goals. As a result, they are well informed about the school’s strengths and areas which require development. This is demonstrated by the careful balance of support they offer to leaders and the challenging questions which they pursue.
• Governors make sure that leaders are accountable for their use of the additional funding to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors and trustees carefully review all pay awards for staff and require teachers to demonstrate convincing evidence for having met their targets before they are moved up the pay scale.
• Governors meet their statutory duties as a governing body within the academy trust, including their arrangements for overseeing the work of the school to keep pupils safe.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and governors have established a highly vigilant culture where all adults at the school work effectively to protect children from risk and respond quickly to any concerns about the safety and protection of children.
• Staff thoroughly record and pass on concerns to the leaders responsible, who then act decisively. Safeguarding referrals to local authorities and other appropriate agencies are effective. Thorough record-keeping enables leaders to review their care for children and act quickly if circumstances change.
• All staff and governors are trained effectively to fulfil their safeguarding roles and duties. As a result, they are confident about what to do and how to raise concerns in different situations. Training covers a wide range of areas including helping pupils stay safe from harm when using the internet or communication technology, and protecting them from the possible risk of radicalisation or extremism. Leaders and governors review staff awareness to check on their ability to act effectively.
• The recruitment of staff is safely managed and leaders and governors responsible for it are suitably trained. Thorough checks are made on the suitability of people to visit the school and access arrangements into the school are secure.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching is good for pupils of all age groups. There have been few changes in staffing since the school opened, following the successful recruitment of effective teachers.
• The relationships between teachers and pupils are very positive and make a significant contribution to learning. Teachers set high expectations for pupils and are very encouraging and supportive. As a result, pupils do not give up when work is difficult.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge is effective and they use it to plan interesting work and activities which are challenging for pupils of different abilities. As a result they are able to gain knowledge and use it skilfully. One good example was in a Year 4 science lesson about the properties of different materials. As a result of effective teaching approaches, pupils of different abilities were able to describe the physical properties of materials used in the chocolate confectionery industry and could explain how they change when heat or pressure is applied.
• Teachers are confident and experienced. They introduce and explain new knowledge effectively. They use helpful room displays and resources to remind pupils of important knowledge, rules and skills so that they can handle new, more challenging work.
• Teachers’ use of questioning is a strength. Questions are used to challenge and support pupils of different abilities to use their knowledge and to check on their understanding. One good example was in a Year 6 art lesson. Pupils’ views about a painting by Picasso were shared across the class. As a result of skilful questioning and discussion, pupils were able to explain their ideas about the message the artist was trying to communicate fluently, using artistic vocabulary.
• Teaching assistants are effective, particularly in the way they pay attention to pupils’ learning and question them to help them think about their work. Teaching assistants are also effective in supporting pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They receive high-quality training and work closely with teachers to plan the help they provide. As a result, a number of them offer effective sessions to support pupils’ reading skills, phonics and mathematics.
• Reading is taught well. In all year groups, pupils of different abilities are more skilled in reading and standards are rising quickly. Pupils of different ages and abilities can summarise the meaning of stories and explain the importance of characters and events in a plot. They also read aloud with greater control of expression and pace because teaching is helping them to use punctuation accurately. Older pupils who have struggled with phonics knowledge in the past are catching up owing to effective additional teaching. As a result, their pronunciation of the sounds made by letters and words is more accurate and they are more confident in their understanding of the texts they read.
• Although the teaching of reading is good and pupils’ achievement has quickly improved, some pupils of average and higher ability are not provided with sufficiently challenging reading books. As a result, they sometimes fail to use the most demanding texts and levels of vocabulary.
• Handwriting and written skills are taught well. In the early years, pupils make significant progress in the development of their letter formation and early sentence skills. Spelling and punctuation standards are well developed as a result of teachers’ consistent use of the school spelling policy and pupils’ dictionary skills. In other classes, written skills are carefully developed across a wide range of subjects including science, history, geography, religious education, art and English. As a result, pupils write well for different purposes and make effective use of their knowledge of clauses, paragraphs and connective words. A good example is in history, where pupils can evaluate significant events and assess the ways in which people lived in the past, including child evacuees in the second world war.
• Mathematics teaching is effective and pupils of different abilities and ages secure their understanding of numbers, multiplication and rules of arithmetic. Teachers also introduce new mathematical knowledge carefully and help pupils avoid common misunderstandings. As a result, pupils are successful in the development of their calculation skills and confident in handling mathematical problems.
• Although the teaching of mathematics is helping pupils to make good progress, some are not reaching the very highest standards of which they are capable. This is because some pupils, including the most able, are sometimes provided with activities that require them to spend too long on work which is easier for them to do and they have less time to handle the most demanding problems more suited to their ability.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• All staff give high priority to the care and attention they provide to the pupils. This is a significant strength of the school as it changes and quickly grows in size. Support staff look after children extremely well in classrooms, on the playground and in the lunch hall. Consequently, pupils feel totally safe at school.
• Parents are extremely positive about the quality of the school’s care and the personal development of their children.
• Pupils are very proud of their school and its values. They can explain what they mean and why excellent attitudes towards learning are of value. Pupils also show great kindness, respect and consideration to one another, and to adults.
• Many pupils offer exceptional service to their school as prefects, helping the youngest children to settle in confidently, and as sports leaders. They also lead charitable activities and help leaders decide on the causes the school will support. Their most recent fund-raising efforts have supported the local Farleigh Hospice organisation.
• Pupils believe that bullying is very rare and report their total confidence in the school’s ability to deal with it quickly and decisively, should it happen. There have been very few cases of bullying since the school opened.
• Arrangements for keeping pupils safe from harm when using information and communication technology are highly effective. As a result of regular teaching and discussions, pupils are highly articulate when explaining the potential dangers involved when using the internet, computer games, email, telephones and age-appropriate social media.
• Pupils are supported to try and live as healthily as possible. As a result, they are very active in physical sports and competitive games. They also demonstrate their awareness about how to enjoy happier and more fulfilling personal lives by the considerate ways in which they normally treat each other. At breaktimes and lunch, the school provides a very healthy menu of lunch and snacks and little food is wasted.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Staff and parents work together to promote the school’s very high expectations for behaviour. All adults support the school’s encouraging behaviour policy. As a result, pupils of all ages are helped to understand the value of kindness, good manners, respect for others and working hard. The very youngest in the early years are quickly helped to understand what is expected. Pupils who arrive at different points in the school year are also supported to quickly understand what is expected of them and how school will help them to be their best. Older pupils are particularly aware of how high standards of behaviour have risen since the school opened.
• Pupils’ attendance is now above average and persistent absence has been significantly reduced in the current academic year. The attendance and punctuality of those pupils who had the lowest attendance in the past have rapidly improved. As a result, their academic achievement is quickly improving. Teachers, leaders and governors work exceptionally well to communicate the importance of attendance to all families and they effectively challenge attendance which falls below the school’s high expectations.
• There have been no fixed-term exclusions this year and very few permanent exclusions in the period since the school opened. Recorded incidents of poor behaviour, bullying, racism or similar conduct are very low.
• Pupils’ attitudes towards learning are exceptional. In lessons, they are highly committed to trying and succeeding. They are eager to learn, sensible and show high levels of interest in all their work. Pupils’ books are kept in excellent condition and they present their work with pride. They enjoy completing their interesting homework assignments and they keep up with their reading schedules.
• Pupils’ conduct around school is also exceptional. They are courteous and sensible when moving around the school and they wear the new school uniform with pride. They are very patient when queuing for lunch and show good manners to all the adults who look after them at breaktimes and in the lunch hall.
• Pupils look after their school environment very well. They do not drop litter and they respect the buildings, equipment and facilities of their school.
• Parents are in full agreement that the school promotes very high standards of behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils enter the school with standards that are below average for their age. The progress of those currently attending the school is good and standards are rising, particularly in reading in key stage 2, which is the result of the swift action leaders took in response to test results in 2016. Pupils’ work, lesson visits and the school’s accurate assessment records show that pupils in all year groups are making good progress from their different starting points and varied points of entry into the school. Standards in Year 6 and Year 2 are close to or above average in reading, writing and mathematics and there has been a clear improvement in the proportion of pupils reaching higher standards.
• However, while pupils’ reading skills and mathematics knowledge are good, their work shows that small numbers of the most able and some with average starting points in key stage 2 are not achieving the very best progress of which they are capable. This is because they are sometimes provided with work or reading books which are not sufficiently demanding.
• Children in the early years make a very successful start at school. A very large majority reach a good level of development. This represents outstanding progress on the basis of their starting points which are below those typical for their age. They are very well prepared for entry into Year 1.
• The proportion of Year 1 pupils achieving the expected standard in the phonics reading check has risen quickly. A very large majority achieved the expected standard in 2016. Visits to phonics lessons, listening to children read and the school’s accurate assessments all show that standards remain high and there are no significant gaps between the progress of different groups of pupils.
• Pupils’ progress in key stage 1 has improved. In 2015, results were close to or slightly ahead of the national average in all subjects. In 2016, and under the new national standards, results were close to or ahead of the national average in different subjects, with the exception of reading. This represented good progress, taking account of the starting points of the pupils in the school and the numbers who had arrived later in key stage 1.
• Taking account of the small numbers of pupils in the school, in 2015 the standards reached by Year 6 pupils were similar to national results for reading and writing but below average in mathematics. In 2016, the progress made by pupils was average in reading and above average in writing and mathematics. Results in writing and mathematics represented good progress on the basis of pupils’ different starting points.
• Pupils whose previous attainment has been below average are making good progress to catch up in phonics, reading and mathematics, particularly in the current Year 3 and Year 4. They are provided with effective support and the differences between their progress and that of other pupils have firmly reduced.
• The work of the most able pupils and the school’s tracking information show that they are making good progress and achieving higher than age-expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Records and work for Year 6 show that previous differences between reading and other subjects have been reduced as a result of improvements to the teaching of skills.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress from their different starting points. They are carefully assessed and provided with sufficiently demanding targets as well as effective support and care. Consequently, they are able to access learning in lessons very well.
• The progress of pupils who have joined the school at different points in the school year or part-way through a key stage is good and this includes those pupils who are in the earlier stages of acquiring the English language. They are carefully assessed on entry and provided with effective support to help them settle. Pupils’ work and the school’s accurate tracking information show they are making good progress.
• Disadvantaged pupils who currently attend the school are making good progress as a result of effective teaching, challenging targets, caring support and significant improvement in their attendance, which is now average or better. Taking account of their different starting points and ages, they are making good progress compared to other pupils nationally, including those with average starting points and the most able. Consequently, the differences between their attainment and the standards reached by other pupils nationally are quickly reducing. Their current work and assessment records show that there are no significant differences between their progress and that of other pupils.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Exceptional leadership is ensuring that children make significant progress in all areas of learning from their different starting points. Highly accurate assessment information shows that children enter the Reception Year with skills and knowledge normally below those typical for their age, particularly in communication, reading and writing. As a result of highly effective teaching, all children in the early years are very well prepared for key stage 1.
• Parents are highly supportive of the quality of education provided to their children in the early years. They commend the care their children receive, the help they are given to settle in and the quality of teaching provided. They believe the school helps them to be thoroughly involved and that the staff are always approachable.
• Arrangements for helping children to make a successful start to school are highly effective. Parents are invited to meet with teachers and contribute to initial assessments by carefully discussing their children’s pre-school experiences, interests and development. Children visit several times to become familiar with their teachers and build their confidence. Teachers’ records, assessments and observations of the children correctly identify their starting points. As a result, leaders and teachers are able to provide the children with precisely matched work and play activities which help them to learn very well.
• Children receive exceptional standards of care. Relationships between staff and the children are highly positive and supportive. Teachers and assistants have a very thorough knowledge of every child and pay close attention to keeping them safe, building their confidence for learning and nurturing their social development.
• Behaviour and safety standards are outstanding. Children cooperate with adults and each other exceptionally well. They also act very considerately. Staff encourage these high standards at all times and are vigilant over all play and work activities.
• Children’s targets reflect the high expectations of staff to help them reach the highest possible development by the end of the Reception Year. Teachers maintain detailed and useful records about how well children are learning. Consequently, they are able to act quickly to help them to reduce any gaps in knowledge or offer them more demanding activities.
• Children’s workbooks are maintained to exceptionally high standards and demonstrate their outstanding progress in writing and mathematics since arriving in the school.
• Teachers organise the teaching of phonics and reading very well. As a result, children are able to identify specific parts of words and patterns in sounds earlier and use this knowledge very well. Consequently, they make a secure start with their reading work in Year 1.
• All work and activities are organised to help children of different abilities make significant progress. In one example, the most able children were provided with story-writing activities to help them secure their understanding of early sentences, adjectives and correct punctuation. In mathematics, children who were building their confidence with language were helped to describe and explain the work of forces, mass and weight in a balance scale using accurate vocabulary.
• The use of questioning and discussion between adults and children is exceptional. All adults are very skilled in assessing and observing children as they work or play and their questions encourage the children to extend their knowledge and develop their skills. One good example was in an art activity where children were asked to explain how they had organised their pieces of work and why they had arranged them in a particular way. As a result of the questioning approaches, the children were helped to use more advanced vocabulary and longer sentences.
• The learning environment in the early years is attractive, safe and very well organised. There are many practical resources and equipment, along with useful visual displays which help children remember how to use their knowledge and skills in different subjects. The outdoor environment is well developed and this helps the children to make the same exceptional progress, which is as good as the best seen in the classroom area.

School details

Unique reference number 140375 Local authority Essex Inspection number 10026733 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 4 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 201 Appropriate authority Academy trust Chair Mrs Sara Kightley Executive headteacher Mr Joseph Figg Telephone number 01245 259403 Website www.meadgateprimary.com/ Email address admin@meadgate.essex.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Meadgate Primary School opened as a new school on 1 April 2014. When its predecessor school, Meadgate Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted it was judged to be good overall.
• The school is part of the Eveleigh LINK Academy Trust, which consists of Meadgate Primary School, Larkrise Primary School, Purleigh Primary School, Maylandsea Primary School and Maltese Road Primary School.
• Meadgate Primary School is smaller than the average primary school. However, the numbers of pupils who attend are rising quickly and this includes those who arrive at non-standard points in the school year and who have completed part of their education elsewhere.
• The majority of pupils are White British, and the proportion from ethnic minorities is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average but is increasing.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average, and the proportion who are supported by a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is also above average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average.
• There have been very few changes in teaching staff since the school opened.
• 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.
• 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.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection gathered evidence from lessons covering all classes within the school; some classes were visited jointly with the executive headteacher and other senior staff.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of information and school documents, including its self-evaluation records, curriculum information, checks on the quality of teaching, attendance and exclusion records, information on the school’s values and the school improvement plan.
• Inspectors looked closely at the school’s procedures, policies and records for the safeguarding of children.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ work from each year group and listened to pupils read. They also looked at the school’s records for pupil assessment and progress.
• Inspectors held meetings with teachers, the executive headteacher, subject leaders, governors and trustees.
• Other meetings were held to discuss the development of the school since it was opened, the quality of teaching, early years education, pupils’ progress, their assessment records and the performance management of staff.
• Meetings were held with the school’s prefects and pupils from different year groups.
• Inspectors visited an assembly and the lunch hall, and observed pupils’ conduct around the school at different times.
• Inspectors met with parents during the inspection. They took account of 52 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and written comments. They also studied 20 responses of staff to the online questionnaire, Staff View. Inspectors met with teachers to discuss their experiences at the school and their professional development and statutory training.

Inspection team

David Turner, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Sharon Wilson Ofsted Inspector