Blofield Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that pupils in all classes make equally strong progress in mathematics by
  • embedding recent changes to the curriculum and teaching of mathematics
  • teaching reasoning about mathematics alongside number and calculation.
• Further refine the planning for the curriculum so that it better promotes progression of learning over time in subjects such as history, geography and science and ensure that teachers have equally high expectations of pupils’ work in all subjects.
• Ensure that teachers maximise learning time in lessons so that pupils remain focused on their tasks and pupils move on to more challenging tasks when they are ready to do so.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the previous inspection there have been changes to staffing, including leadership. The current headteacher quickly identified that the school needed to be revitalised and staff needed support to develop their practice. Leaders, staff and governors have worked successfully together to do this. Consequently, there is a very cohesive and committed team of staff who are ambitious for all pupils and keen to secure further improvements.
• Leaders know the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Plans for improvement are based on regular checks on the quality of teaching and learning and its impact on pupils’ progress. Work to improve pupils’ writing, for example, has been particularly effective in ensuring that boys make the same strong progress as do girls. Work is under way to develop the mathematics curriculum, but this is yet to be embedded and prove effective in all classes.
• Leaders provide effective support for the professional development of all staff, drawing on best practice locally and beyond and identifying courses that staff would benefit from. The school’s expert teachers work with others in school to develop their practice. Leaders are determined to ensure that all teaching reaches the same high standard as the best.
• The school has a small number of disadvantaged pupils. Staff identify their individual needs and barriers to learning carefully. They provide effective support to enable these pupils to make progress at least as strong as, and sometimes better than, their peers.
• The school is highly committed to ensuring that pupils are healthy and active. Leaders use the sport premium funding highly effectively to provide a wide range of sporting opportunities, including clubs and competitions. The level of participation in additional sporting activities is very high.
• Leaders promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development very well. Pupils learn about the wider world by learning languages and learning about different countries. They know right from wrong and demonstrate the school’s values of fairness, respect, challenge, perseverance and thoughtfulness in lessons and in their day-to-day interactions with each other and with staff.
• Leaders are committed to providing pupils with a broad and interesting curriculum. The school provides specialist teaching for physical education (PE), music and modern foreign languages (MFL). The curriculum has been revised to ensure that it is engaging and meaningful to pupils, with strong links between English and other subjects, and between subjects. However, the curriculum is not planned in a way that ensures that pupils build on their subject-specific skills, knowledge and understanding in a progressive way over time in some subjects such as history and art.
• Subject leaders, some of whom are new in post this year, are highly enthusiastic about providing the best opportunities for pupils in each subject. Leaders give them time to check the quality of teaching and learning through observing lessons and looking at pupils’ work. Some have yet to check the progress that pupils are making in their subject because the curriculum is still being developed. As a result, in some subjects, leaders are not able to identify clearly where pupils’ progress is best and where more needs to be done.
• Parents are highly supportive of the school. Parents spoken to during the inspection said that staff support their children very well. Parents spoke about the school using terms such as ‘fantastic’, while another said, ‘We feel very lucky to have this school.’ Several parents commented positively on the breadth of the curriculum. One parent’s comment that they were ‘over the moon with the number of school trips’ typified the views of others.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly committed to ensuring that pupils receive a high-quality well-rounded education at the school. They recognise that following the previous inspection they had not checked sufficiently that the school continued to develop and maintain the high quality of education identified in the inspection report. Following the current headteacher’s appointment, they reviewed their systems for governance and have ensured that they now provide a better balance of support and challenge for leaders.
• Governors visit the school regularly and meet with subject leaders and senior leaders. They ensure that external consultants are employed to check that leaders are accurate in their assessment of the school.
• Governors check that leaders use funding effectively. For example, they know that funding to support disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is used effectively because they check the impact that this has on pupils’ progress and receive reports from leaders regularly.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that safeguarding all pupils is central to the school’s work. All staff receive regular and thorough training in aspects of safeguarding. Leaders check that training is effective through, for example, quizzes completed after courses. Concerns forms completed by staff show that staff know what signs may indicate that a child is at risk. Leaders act on concerns swiftly and liaise with external agencies when needed to ensure that pupils are kept safe. They maintain pupils’ records meticulously and carry out checks on staff in line with statutory requirements.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, including when online, because leaders ensure that this is taught thoroughly and regularly. For example, pupils spoke to inspectors about potential risks when online and about cyber bullying and what to do if it happens. Leaders have produced a child-friendly version of the school’s safeguarding policy to ensure that pupils know what to do if they feel unsafe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching is good and, in some classes, even better because all staff know pupils well and plan work to meet their individual needs. Relationships between teachers and pupils are very strong and so pupils respond to teachers’ directions and are keen to please.
• Teachers plan work which is interesting for pupils, thinking carefully about how best to present tasks and information. Teachers explain tasks clearly and use assessment within lessons effectively to identify and address any misconceptions.
• Additional adults provide effective support for pupils. They do this sensitively and so do not interrupt the flow of lessons. Additional adults work closely with teachers and so know exactly what is expected of them in lessons.
• Teachers provide plentiful opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills, both in English lessons and when writing in other subjects. Teachers support pupils in developing their vocabulary. For example, in Year 6 pupils were identifying new vocabulary from texts they read, looking up the meaning and recording both in their jotters. Sometimes teachers do not ensure that pupils use their spelling knowledge in their writing. Consequently, some pupils misspell words they are capable of writing accurately, which detracts from the overall quality of the content.
• Reading is taught well. Pupils develop their early reading skills very well and these are built on as pupils move through the school. Pupils are encouraged to read frequently, and pupils spoken to during the inspection demonstrated a real enjoyment of reading.
• Leaders identified that in mathematics, pupils’ knowledge of number and some aspects of calculation was not as strong as it should be. As a result, teachers now provide daily opportunities for pupils to practise their number skills. Pupils have a choice of different challenges and most select the appropriate challenge to move their learning on. However, the emphasis now provided to number has meant that, in some classes, pupils have too few opportunities to develop their reasoning skills in mathematics.
• Where teaching is best, pupils are highly motivated and engaged and learning time is maximised so that pupils make strong progress. However, in some classes, learning time is sometimes not used as effectively as it should be. There may be several reasons for this: occasionally pupils wait with their hand up for the teacher to mark their work before they move on; pupils listen to explanations by adults when they understand the task already; or pupils work more slowly than they are capable of and this is not addressed by teachers. As a result, some pupils do not focus on their learning as well as they should.
• Specialist teaching makes a strong contribution to pupils’ learning in PE, music and MFL. Teachers provide interesting tasks in other subjects, such as science and history. Pupils have opportunities to carry out experiments in science, for example. However, in some classes, following their science experiments, pupils are not asked to reflect on the scientific concept being explored or to consider what they have learned from the experiment. Consequently, in these classes, pupils do not build on their prior knowledge progressively over time.
• In some classes, the standard of work teachers expect of pupils in other subjects is not as high as in English and mathematics.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils are highly confident and articulate because staff provide them with wide-ranging opportunities to learn in school and beyond. Staff promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well. Pupils take part in music performances and sports competitions, for example, mixing with pupils from other schools. They raise money for charities and take responsibility in school through the school council and eco council. Pupils go on many trips, enjoy visitors coming to the school and learn about current issues such as about the plight of refugees.
• Pupils who have particular needs, such as those with mental health needs and pupils with SEND, are very well catered for. Leaders and staff know all pupils very well and are meticulous in ensuring that they meet pupils’ specific needs well, seeking out additional support where needed.
• Pupils spoken to during the inspection were knowledgeable about what bullying is and is not. They said that bullying is exceptionally rare at the school. All pupils spoken to said that there was always an adult to talk to if they were worried about anything. On display are pupils’ ‘safeguarding hands’ where pupils drew their hands and wrote the name of someone they could turn to on each of the five fingers of their hand.
• Staff encourage pupils to be independent in their learning from the early years onwards where children take responsibility for choosing tasks and resources. As pupils move through the school, they choose their challenges in lessons with teachers reminding pupils to increase the level of challenge as tasks are completed.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are respectful and polite and conduct themselves extremely well around the school. For example, pupils step back to allow adults to walk through doors and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ appropriately.
• Playtimes are happy times where pupils of different ages mix together and play sensibly. Issues at playtimes are very rare, but when they do occur are dealt with effectively.
• Attendance at the school is high because pupils enjoy coming to school and taking part in the many and varied interesting activities on offer. Leaders check each pupil’s attendance carefully and are quick to speak to any parent where their child’s attendance starts to decline.
• Pupils listen carefully to each other and to teachers and most show positive attitudes to learning. Occasionally, however, when teaching is less challenging some pupils become distracted from their learning or do not work as hard as they should do.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In 2018 the proportion of pupils in Year 6 reaching the expected standard in reading and writing was higher than that found nationally and pupils made particularly strong progress in writing. This was also the case in 2017. However, in mathematics the proportion reaching the expected standard and pupils’ progress were lower than found nationally. Leaders identified that mathematics was lower because pupils did not have sufficient fluency in number. As a result, they altered the mathematics curriculum, but changes are new and yet to demonstrate impact.
• The proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in Year 2 in reading, writing and mathematics was higher than the national average in 2017 and 2018.
• Inspection evidence shows that current pupils are making strong progress in reading and writing. In mathematics, pupils are making better progress in number and calculations than in other areas of mathematics, including reasoning.
• In the Year 1 phonics screening check, almost all pupils reached the expected standard in 2018 and 2017. This is because early reading is taught very effectively.
• In subjects other than English and mathematics, pupils’ progress is variable across classes and subjects. While in some classes and subjects there is evidence of strong progress, for example in history in Year 5, this is not consistently the case.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Children in the early years get off to a flying start. They quickly learn the routines of school because adults make clear their expectations of children and remind them regularly.
• The learning environment is welcoming, well-organised and provides for learning across the full curriculum. The awkward outside area is used well, but leaders recognise that it is not ideal. Nevertheless, children enjoy wide-ranging opportunities outside, for example to ride bikes, climb on equipment and play in the mud kitchen.
• Children benefit from well-planned adult-led activities. Adults know children’s needs exceptionally well and so plan tasks which will challenge and extend their learning. For example, during the inspection some more-able Reception children were already learning how to add two-digit numbers by counting on from the largest number.
• Children have good opportunities to learn independently and do so readily because staff embed learning in contexts that motivate children. For example, children were keen to independently write letters to the ‘naughty dinosaurs’ because this had been introduced to them earlier and children were told that the dinosaurs would write back.
• Leaders are knowledgeable about what is working best in early years and very keen to continue to develop provision further. For example, they have identified that previously few pupils exceeded expectations in early learning goals such as for reading, despite their strong progress and skills. This is because adults have lacked confidence in judging children as exceeding expectations despite secure evidence that they are. Through staff training this has now been addressed.
• Staff use assessment effectively to identify key learning achievements across the full curriculum. Adults use this information well to plan future learning which is well matched to children’s needs. Consequently, all pupils receive exactly the right level of support to enable them to develop their skills exceptionally well.
• Children who have particular needs, including those with SEND or who are disadvantaged, are very well catered for. Staff provide specific and careful support for any child who needs it to enable them to make strong progress.
• Additional adults support learning skilfully. They ask questions which make children think and intervene in their play to extend learning.
• Children are kept safe in early years because the same culture of safeguarding that is evident elsewhere in the school is present in the early years.
• Staff work constructively in partnership with parents. Parents enjoy contributing to their child’s online learning journey. They attend meetings, for example about phonics and how they can help their child at home. Testament to the high regard with which the early years provision is typically held by parents was the fact that parents whose children are currently in early years praise the start their child had. Equally, those parents with children now in key stage 2 still talked in glowing terms about the start their children had in the Reception class.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 120788 Norfolk 10085472 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 222 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Ken D’Rosario Teresa Doggett 01603 713386 www.blofieldprimary.co.uk head@blofield.norfolk.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 19–20 May 2011

Information about this school

• The school is a smaller school than is found on average nationally.
• The majority of pupils are of White British background.
• The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals is below that found nationally.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND or who are supported by an education, health and care plan is below average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed lessons in all classes, some with senior leaders.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ books, school assessment information, leaders’ evaluation of teaching and learning and a range of school documents.
• Inspectors spoke with a small number of parents, took account of 35 responses to the Ofsted questionnaire, Parent View, and met with some pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6.
• Inspector listened to a small number of pupils read from Years 1 and 4 and from the Reception Year.
• Inspectors spoke with three members of the governing body and with senior leaders, subject leaders and staff.
• Policies and procedures for safeguarding pupils were examined, including mandatory checks made during staff recruitment.

Inspection team

Maria Curry, lead inspector Jo Nutbeam Joanna Pedlow

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector