Longlands Primary School and Nursery Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve teaching and learning by:
  • continuing the work already begun in early years so that pupils write neatly and form their letters correctly
  • ensuring that the teaching of phonics is highly effective, enabling a greater proportion of pupils to achieve the expected standard in the phonics checks.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher and deputy headteacher lead the school extremely well. The success that has been achieved is evidence of the effective work by the whole staff team over an extended period. Leaders have created an exceptional ethos of inclusion and high aspirations for all groups of pupils.
• The curriculum provides a very strong sequence of learning, creating confident readers, writers and mathematicians. This curriculum is a key strength of the school. Pupils develop strong knowledge across a wide range of subjects and apply what they have learned in one subject to another. Visits and additional activities, such as attending the opera, provide opportunities that might not otherwise be accessed by all pupils. There is a wide range of extra-curricular clubs that pupils attend regularly.
• Leaders have a highly accurate view of the school’s strengths, but are not complacent, and continue to develop the curriculum and staffing to ensure ever-more-successful learning. Recently, the leadership of subjects other than English and mathematics has been a key focus. Leaders have provided staff with well-focused training and appropriate support. Middle leaders lead their subjects and areas well.
• Leaders monitor pupils’ progress closely. Pupils’ needs are considered, then support is planned to ensure that all pupils make at least good progress and achieve well. Staff work successfully as a team to guarantee that any extra help for pupils is effective and makes best use of time.
• Parents are highly supportive of, and complimentary about, the school. Leaders inform parents regularly about school life and their child’s progress. Parents value this regular contact, as well as the daily opportunity for face-to-face discussions, as staff welcome pupils at the classroom doors.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged is above the national average. Leaders use additional funding extremely well, providing additional teaching and support staff, which means that pupils rarely fall behind yet catch up quickly if they do. Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are exceptionally strong. Leaders also prioritise funding for visits and activities that enrich pupils’ life experiences.
• The pupil premium grant also provides funding to help pupils take part in a variety of activities that boost their self-esteem, improve their problem-solving skills and build their independence.
• The SEN coordinator ensures that the funding for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is well spent. She coordinates personalised learning plans for all pupils who need additional support. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points.
• The physical education (PE) and sport premium grant is used well. A sports coach has worked alongside teachers, which has raised the standard of PE lessons so that pupils’ skills are developed to a high level. Many pupils participate in the extra-curricular PE sessions.
• The ethos of caring for and respecting each other, polite behaviour and a love of learning is woven through the life and the curriculum of the school. British values are well understood, and pupils discuss rights and responsibilities regularly in their personal, social, health and education (PSHE) lessons.

Governance of the school

• The governing body is small but highly effective in its work. Governors ask searching questions and develop their understanding of the information leaders provide about the school’s work very well. They use this understanding to challenge school leaders appropriately. Governors have accessed support from the local authority (LA) as and when required.
• The governors know the strengths and areas for improvement of the school well. They ensure that financial resources are used efficiently and prioritised where most needed.
• The governing body ensures that appropriate pre-employment checks are made on all staff.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is an extremely strong culture of safeguarding in the school. All pupils who talked with inspectors said that they feel safe in school. The vast majority of parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, agreed that their children were safe in school.
• Staff receive regular safeguarding training. Consequently, they have an excellent understanding of the risks that pupils may face and the signs that might suggest an individual is vulnerable. Staff are vigilant and confident in reporting concerns to senior leaders.
• The school’s system for recording concerns about pupils’ welfare ensures that leaders quickly identify those who may be vulnerable. They consider all the information they have about individual pupils carefully and plan appropriate support. Leaders work effectively and tenaciously with external agencies to secure the support that pupils and their families need.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers have extremely high expectations of what pupils can achieve. They plan the pattern of lessons with great skill, enabling pupils to make good or better progress. Any pupils who are at risk of not making this progress are given timely support, enabling them to catch up.
• The curriculum, together with teachers’ deep subject knowledge, helps pupils develop their knowledge and skills very well. For example, in music pupils were learning the basics of notation by learning tunes, recording on paper then performing on recorders and glockenspiels. Teachers ensure that pupils have time to practise in all subjects so that their understanding and skills are secure.
• Pupils have a genuine love of learning. They want to find out more about the subjects they are studying. They take opportunities through homework projects to deepen their knowledge and understanding.
• Teachers skilfully use questions to extend pupils’ thinking and encourage debate and discussion. They place a great emphasis on the use of key vocabulary to ensure that pupils can apply key words in different contexts.
• Teachers ensure that pupils have a strong understanding of mathematics. Teaching emphasises the use of, fluency with and understanding of number. Pupils use mathematical apparatus confidently where needed to support their learning. Teachers ensure that there is appropriate challenge for the most able by the use of open-ended extension questions.
• Teachers embed reading and writing throughout the curriculum. The standard of pupils’ written work is extremely high, although some pupils’ letter formation is not as accurate or as neat as it could be.
• The teaching of phonics is effective. However, leaders are ambitious to develop this further to enable the proportion of pupils who reach the expected standard in the phonics checks to exceed the national average.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils have excellent attitudes to learning. They are highly motivated to try their best in all work. They are very supportive of each other and do not tolerate discrimination in any form.
• Teachers ensure that discussion in class challenges stereotypes and readies pupils for life in modern Britain. For example, pupils were considering whether the right to practise your chosen religion is more important than other rights. Understanding others’ cultures and religions is a priority in both the religious education (RE) and PSHE curriculums and, consequently, pupils show good understanding.
• Pupils are confident and knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe online and in different situations. All staff know the children in their care well and communicate daily with parents to share concerns and celebrate success.
• Pupils enjoy taking on responsibility, such as the care of the school’s chickens, which they raised from eggs. Pupils take pride in being responsible for their welfare.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils have impeccable conduct. They are polite and well mannered. At breaktimes, pupils play happily on the playground, well supervised by staff.
• Routines are established at an early stage in Nursery and Reception. Pupils throughout the school model excellent behaviour to new joiners and support each other in meeting the high expectations of behaviour.
• There are very few incidents of poor behaviour; all are dealt with in a positive, appropriate and effective way by staff. Pupils say that there ‘just isn’t any bullying here’. Pupils are successfully able to solve many of their own minor disputes, with the support of the Year 5 and 6 ‘peer mediators’.
• Leaders work closely with families to help them support their children’s education. Consequently, attendance has risen and is now broadly in line with the national average. The proportion of persistent absentees is now below the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• In every year group and across all subjects, pupils’ work is of an exceptionally high standard. Pupils make sustained progress and develop a deep understanding of what they study. Teachers ensure that there is an emphasis on pupils recording their own work and reasoning, which results in high-quality writing across the curriculum.
• Pupils speak fluently and clearly, and are able to hold sustained debate and discussion with each other, respecting different viewpoints.
• Pupils read confidently and with appropriate fluency and comprehension for their age. The proportion of pupils reaching the required standard in the phonics checks is now in line with the national average.
• Teachers’ assessments indicate that the vast majority of pupils currently in the school are making strong progress across all subjects and year groups. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities also make at least good progress from their own starting points.
• The progress made by pupils from key stage 1 to 2 was well above the national average in 2017. This strong and sustained progress is evident across the school for pupils currently in the school. Disadvantaged pupils make as strong progress as non-disadvantaged pupils.
• The outstanding teaching in the school has ensured there is no gap in attainment between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils who reach the expected standard at the end of key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The proportion of pupils who achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 is well above the national average. The proportions attaining the higher standard are exceptionally high in reading and mathematics.
• The proportion of children leaving the early years reaching a good level of development is broadly in line with the national average. The proportions of pupils achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 are now above the national averages.

Early years provision Outstanding

• The unwavering commitment that the headteacher and deputy headteacher have for all children to achieve is also shared with the adults who work in the early years. The early years leader is new to post but highly experienced in early years education. Her knowledge and the support of senior leaders are further enhancing the early years provision.
• The proportion of children achieving a good level of development at the end of Reception in 2018 was in line with the 2017 national average. School assessments show that virtually all children made substantial and sustained progress during Reception in 2017/18.
• The Reception class and smaller, part-time Nursery share an early years unit. This is very effective in providing a wide range of activities, adult support and opportunities. Nursery children are confident in the setting, joining in activities with their elder peers. This is because provision for them is appropriate and all welfare requirements are met.
• Links with parents are strong. Parents can access children’s learning diaries online, and daily contact with their children’s key workers keeps parents informed of their children’s progress.
• Adults are extremely skilled in making the most of learning opportunities that arise, for example in pausing an outdoor activity of sorting objects to talk about where a helicopter flying low overhead might be going.
• Questioning is highly effective and teachers encourage children to use more complex vocabulary. For example, wearing hard hats and high-visibility vests, children were building the Eiffel Tower from blocks. They repeatedly looked back at a photo to ensure the blocks were correct, and the teacher encouraged them to use appropriate words as they discussed different options. This finished with the fun and controlled ‘danger’ of the tower collapsing.
• Reading, as both a skill and for pleasure, is emphasised. Children rehearse their skills independently, for example choosing to play at being the teacher in a specific phonics play area.
• The outside area encourages children to take supervised risks and develop their own sense of how to keep themselves safe. Their behaviour is excellent. They care deeply for each other, including in their games and when working with their peers, for example carrying trays of pasta in pairs while tidying up.
• Children were excited by a science workshop activity which involved them blowing bubbles. They were able to make predictions about the best way to blow big bubbles, and then test those by trying the different methods. This and other activities help children to work and think scientifically.
• There is a recent emphasis on children developing fine motor skills to help them to write well from the start, although it is too early to tell what the impact will be on their handwriting skills.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 117326 Hertfordshire 10054378 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 218 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Ian Kenealy Lee-Ann Britten 01992 460072 www.longlands.herts.sch.uk head@longlands.herts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 27 March 2018

Information about this school

• This is a slightly smaller-than-average primary school.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium grant is higher than average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English is an additional language is much higher than average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is average.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed learning in every class and in several small group sessions. Most of these observations were undertaken alongside members of the senior leadership team.
• A wide range of pupils’ workbooks from the current academic year and a selection from the previous year were looked at by the inspection team.
• The inspection team met with representatives from the local governing body. Inspectors met with senior leaders and subject leaders. The lead inspector spoke to the LA school improvement partner by telephone.
• A group of the school’s peer mediators and playground buddies met with an inspector. Inspectors also spoke to pupils informally in lessons and at playtimes.
• The inspection team scrutinised the school’s website and a range of documents, including assessment information, the improvement plan and the school’s self-evaluation.
• Pupils read to inspectors and talked about their reading preferences.
• The 29 total responses and the seven free-text responses made by parents to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, were considered. The inspection team also spoke to some parents before the start of the school day.

Inspection team

Tessa Holledge, lead inspector Andrew Maher

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector