Chorleywood Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Extend the successful provision in art, music, geography and history so that pupils can achieve even higher standards.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Leaders have created a school focused on achieving excellence in all aspects of its work. Leaders want their pupils to be, ‘happy and successful’ and their outstanding leadership ensures that this happens. Leaders’ high expectations are shared by staff and pupils.
• Leaders constantly evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s provision and pinpoint areas for improvement accurately. They pay attention to the smallest details to ensure that they can build on strengths and make less strong features better. Leaders’ improvement plans include demanding goals and well-considered steps that are clearly communicated to enable all staff to be successful in their work. All members of staff who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire agree that the school is well led and managed.
• Leaders understand pupils’ needs and capabilities, including disadvantaged pupils. Leaders expect adults to remove barriers to learning for all pupils and are rigorous in holding staff to account for the quality of their work. All pupils, including the disadvantaged, make strong progress regardless of the obstacles they may face.
• The actions of leaders to promote equality of opportunity has ensured that pupils with SEND thrive in the school. Pupils with SEND happily speak about their needs. They freely share how the way they live their lives might be different to others. For example, in assembly, a pupil who communicates using Makaton teaches the whole school two new signs each week. Another pupil showed an inspector how braille is used in phonics lessons to support those with visual impairments.
• The special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENCo) works closely with parents and external specialists to identify the needs of pupils with SEND quickly and create bespoke learning plans for them. The SENCo provides high-quality training for staff so that they can support these pupils effectively. Leaders’ actions have led to pupils with SEND making strong progress.
• Leaders provide staff with high-quality training which helps improve their practice even where it is already impressive. Trainee and newly qualified teachers are very well supported to teach with great effectiveness. Longer-serving staff have many opportunities to enhance the quality of their work and take on leadership roles. The training leaders provide contributes towards the high-quality teaching, learning and assessment at the school.
• The well-designed curriculum enables pupils to learn a wide range of subjects and prepares them well for their next steps in education. Leaders have carefully constructed the curriculum so that subjects complement each other and allow pupils to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in great depth. For example, pupils learn challenging scientific concepts while also developing their literacy skills.
• The curriculum for art, music, geography and history enables pupils to make strong progress. However, it does not yet provide opportunities for all pupils to reach the same very high standards as in other subjects.
• Leaders enhance learning of pupils in key stage 2 with a popular and effective careers education programme called ‘Dream Big’. Pupils enjoy and benefit from investigating how their learning helps them in a range of career paths such as engineering, micro-biology, operatic singing, acting and sports coaching.
• Leaders are very effective in promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Staff teach pupils to value the diversity within the school and the wider community. Pupils show considerable interest in different faiths and cultures and discuss them with sophistication and maturity.
• Leaders have also ensured that pupils have a strong understanding of fundamental British values such as democracy. Pupil-leaders represent the wishes of other pupils well and capably use their authority to make positive change at the school. For example, the school council has responsibility to spend thousands of pounds for new outdoor play equipment and the sports committee works alongside members of staff to plan their impressive sports days.
• Leaders use the physical education (PE) and sport premium very well. PE is a great strength of the school. The PE leader has instilled high expectations and passion for sport and PE in pupils. Along with teaching high-quality PE, the PE leader has also taught clear values summed up best in the motto chosen by the sport committee: ‘Respect all, fear none.’ Pupils enjoy and benefit from a large and diverse collection of sporting clubs. Leaders’ actions have secured the gold standard of the nationally recognised School Games Mark
• Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. Parents expressed to inspectors their pride in the school’s achievements and their appreciation for the excellent work of staff. All the parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, reported that they would recommend the school to another parent.

Governance of the school

• Governors have high expectations of leaders, staff and pupils. They constantly look for opportunities to further the many strengths of the school. They actively seek out a wide range of information to evaluate the effectiveness of leaders and staff. Governors challenge and support leaders knowledgeably during their regular visits and meetings. Careful evaluations by governors ensure that their statutory duties, including safeguarding pupils’ welfare, are fully met.
• The governing body challenges and supports its members in the same way it does school leaders and staff. Governors identify training needs carefully and ensure that all governors have the skills necessary to play their part in the exceptionally strong governing body. They take their role very seriously and carry out their responsibilities conscientiously.
• Governors make sure that leaders spend additional funding for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND efficiently and set high expectations for all pupils across the school. Governors also make sure that leaders use the PE and sport premium to provide excellent learning and enrichment opportunities.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• All staff place safeguarding as their highest priority. They are vigilant for signs of harm and act quickly and appropriately when concerns arise. Leaders ensure that all staff undertake regular training and understand how to apply this training to keeping pupils safe.
• Leaders work closely with social services and keep careful records so that actions agreed with external agencies are implemented effectively to support the needs of vulnerable pupils.
• Leaders ensure that all required checks are carried out to ensure that all adults working with pupils are suitable. Governors and local authority representatives check these records carefully to ensure that leaders and staff carry out their duties effectively.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers understand the needs of pupils and work with them to create learning opportunities that lead to outstanding progress. Teachers and pupils have very strong relationships. Lessons are characterised by very purposeful learning and high achievement.
• Teachers have excellent subject knowledge in all subjects. They structure learning sequences carefully so that pupils consolidate and deepen their understanding. Teachers’ questioning helps pupils connect new ideas to what they previously learned while deepening pupils’ thinking. Pupils very easily discuss links between subjects that enhance their understanding of the key concepts in each subject.
• Very accurate assessment ensures that teachers provide learning activities that meet the needs of each pupil. Teachers challenge pupils with work that is difficult. As a result, pupils of all abilities thrive and make strong progress. One pupil said that ‘lessons are hard but, I like challenge.’ Many others agreed.
• Teachers quickly identify when pupils misunderstand something and re-shape lessons effectively to support them. When pupils fall behind, teachers provide appropriate support so that pupils make rapid and sustained progress.
• Teachers require pupils to choose their words carefully and to use subject-specific vocabulary accurately. As a result, pupils routinely use sophisticated language in writing and speech. Pupils also have a deep understanding of the way language works. Many pupils capably spoke with inspectors about how they can use the common roots in words to determine their meaning.
• The teaching of phonics and reading is very effective. Pupils learn phonics extremely well and use their understanding of phonics to develop strong reading skills. Pupils also use phonics effectively to support their spelling as they develop their impressive writing skills.
• Teaching assistants effectively support pupils with SEND. They are well trained and deliver very strong one-to-one and group support sessions. Pupils with SEND are fully included within lessons and make excellent progress from their starting points.
• In line with leaders’ expectations, teachers give pupils clear and helpful guidance about how to improve their learning. Pupils understand and act on the feedback they receive. After being given feedback in writing, for example, pupils very capably redraft and create much-improved writing.
• In mathematics, teachers provide opportunities for pupils to explore mathematical concepts in depth. Pupils learn exceptionally well how to reason and solve complex problems. They also use the language of mathematics very well when discussing their reasoning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Teachers successfully develop self-assured pupils who can improve their own learning and work hard to achieve outstanding outcomes. From an early age, pupils reflect on their learning and correct their own work accurately with the guidance of teachers.
• Pupils are polite, well-mannered and respectful towards each other and the adults at the school. They live up to the very high expectation set by leaders in the way they approach learning.
• Pupils take great pride in their achievements and congratulate others for theirs. Pupils proudly point out their work and their classmates’ work on the many displays of pupils’ work around the school.
• The school’s strong promotion of emotional well-being effectively promotes pupils’ social, emotional and mental health. Pupils show empathy and care for others even when feeling sad or hurt because of challenges in their relationships. They are willing to explore deep emotional issues together and support each other very well.
• Staff provide for pupils many opportunities to take positions of responsibility across the school, and pupils carry these out conscientiously. Through regular votes about key issues and their effective student council, pupils regularly contribute their ideas about how to make the school even better.
• Pupils feel safe at school and know how to keep themselves safe at school and home. Pupils understand the risks associated with using computers and know how to stay safe online.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding
• Pupils’ conduct is exemplary in lessons, at playtime and while moving around the school. They regulate their own behaviour and support others around them to do the same.
• The school’s ethos is very evident on the playground where pupils enjoy playing together. One pupil said that when on the playground, ‘we just play together. No one is excluded.’
• Pupils told inspectors that bullying is very rare. When bullying does occur, staff help pupils restore positive relationships and the incidents do not recur.
• Leaders ensure that absence is uncommon. Absence is below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils that are persistently absent.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics has been, and remains, above national averages. This is because of the outstanding teaching, learning and assessment at the school and the excellent learning attitudes of pupils. Consequently, pupils are exceptionally well prepared for their next steps in education. The proportions of pupils who achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics in Year 6 tests in 2016, 2017 and 2018 were well above the national averages. In key stage 1, pupils’ attainment was also consistently above national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Pupils make excellent progress in almost all curriculum subjects. Pupils use their very strong basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics in various contexts across the curriculum. Work in books shows pupils learn the subject specific knowledge and skills in each different subject while also developing their reading, writing and mathematics skills exceptionally well. In comparison with other schools nationally, for example, pupils at the end of key stage 2 consistently make above-average or well-above-average progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Although impressive, pupils’ progress in art, music, geography and history is not quite as strong as in the other subjects across the curriculum.
• The proportions of pupils achieving the greater depth standard in reading, writing and mathematics are nearly twice national averages. This is because teachers provide challenging lessons that deepen the learning of all pupils, including the most able.
• In 2017 and 2018 the proportion of pupils in Year 1 that achieved the expected standard in phonics was substantially higher than was the case nationally. In both years, nearly all pupils achieved the expected standard in phonics. Pupils enjoy reading and regularly and talk passionately about their favourite books.
• Because leaders carefully check pupils’ progress and provide effective support, disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND make excellent progress.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Leaders of the early years provision have very high expectations of staff and children. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of Reception is consistently higher than national averages. Children make excellent progress.
• Adults know and support the children very well. They carefully assess what children can do and use this information to plan bespoke and engaging learning experiences. Adults devise and implement learning activities that are well suited to children’s interests and needs. For example, children who needed more experience with physical development enjoyed and benefited from digging root vegetables while counting the equipment and reading the instructions of the activity.
• Leaders have created a carefully planned curriculum that promotes independence and strong development in all areas of learning, including reading, writing and mathematics. The vibrant indoor and outdoor learning areas support the breadth of the curriculum very well and stimulate children to think about their learning.
• Children learn phonics exceptionally well in the early years. They have regular opportunities to use their phonics knowledge in their writing. For example, inspectors watched children correctly using phonics to match tricky rhyming words from poems and then use these words to write sentences.
• Leaders ensure that additional funding for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND focuses on removing any barriers to learning. As a result, these children make excellent progress in the early years.
• Children in the early years show that they have learned very quickly adults’ high expectations of behaviour. Children listen attentively when others are speaking and sustain concentration over long periods of time. Because teachers teach children strong social skills, children share resources and take turns very well. For example, inspectors saw children using egg-timers effectively to manage how they shared the computers.
• Leaders have ensured that safeguarding is very strong in the early years. Children can assess risks and know how to keep themselves safe.
• Staff and parents have very strong relationships that start before a child joins Nursery or Reception. Staff carefully consider the views of parents when planning the provision for the children. They also provide many workshops for parents to find out how they can support their children at home. The strong partnership between parents and staff contributes to the successful transitions that children make into their next steps in education.

School details

Unique reference number 117093 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 10053034 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Maintained Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 240 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mrs Simone Tyson Headteacher Mrs Rebecca Roberts Telephone number 01923 282095 Website www.chorleywood.herts.sch.uk Email address head@chorleywood.herts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 6 March 2018

Information about this school

• Chorleywood Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The senior leadership team is made up of the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and the assistant headteacher, who is also the SENCo.
• The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is slightly above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, SENCo and subject leaders. They also held meetings with members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors observed lessons across the school and a scrutiny of pupils’ books was carried out jointly by one inspector and the deputy headteacher.
• Inspectors spoke with parents at the beginning of the school day and analysed 90 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, 86 free-text responses, 69 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents and 17 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for staff.
• Inspectors spoke to teachers, support staff and pupils throughout the course of the inspection.
• Inspectors took account of a wide range of information, including the school’s website, development plan, assessment information about pupils’ learning and leaders’ monitoring of teaching, learning and assessment. Inspectors reviewed documentation relating to safeguarding, as well as minutes of governing body meetings.

Inspection team

Al Mistrano, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Katherine Douglas Ofsted Inspector