Reydon Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment further by:
  • improving the standard of writing across the broader curriculum by correcting pupils’ repeated misunderstandings in grammar and punctuation more rigorously.
• Improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • continuing to develop middle leaders as subject leaders to improve standards across the broader curriculum by following the example of the leaders of English, mathematics and science.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the school became a member of the Active Learning Trust, leaders, governors and trustees have worked together to develop an ethos of high expectations and ambition. Staff demonstrate a commitment and determination to support pupils to succeed, and pupils have responded positively to these high expectations.
• The new headteacher, ably assisted by the new deputy headteacher, has been instrumental in creating an ethos of high expectations. Governors, parents, staff and representatives of the trust all spoke highly of the new culture of achievement that she has brought to the school.
• Almost all of the teachers have been new appointments since the school joined the trust. The headteacher has successfully used this opportunity to bring about improvements in the consistency of teaching across the school. Working closely with governors, she monitors teaching closely to ensure that expectations are consistently high, and that all teachers understand the importance of the school’s priorities of improving the quality of teaching to bring about better progress for pupils. This means that the performance of staff is managed effectively.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding effectively to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make good progress. The funding is used to ensure that the quality of teaching is high and that interventions, where necessary, are effective. As a consequence, there is no significant difference between the progress of these pupils and other pupils in the school. In addition, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in the school is now closer to the attainment of other pupils nationally.
• Pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities are well supported by the SEN coordinator (SENCo). She ensures that these pupils’ progress is closely monitored and that they are provided with personalised support to challenge them to make progress from their different starting points. As a consequence, additional funding is well spent and they make good progress.
• The primary physical education (PE) and sport premium is used well. It is used to widen pupils’ opportunities to play a variety of sports and to encourage healthy lifestyles. Some staff members have received specialist training, and have used this expertise to support other staff members to improve their practice. Sports coaches are employed to develop new experiences for pupils, such as a cricket coach who enabled a school cricket team to win a local tournament.
• Conversations with parents, and responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire Parent View, showed that the majority of parents are happy with the progress that their children make in school. In particular, parents said that they were pleased with the changes in the school since the appointment of the new headteacher. Parents particularly praised the caring environment that staff have created. As one parent commented: ‘Staff are always willing to provide time to discuss any worries or concerns with a parent and will always do their best to address any problems.’
• Leaders ensure that pupils benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum that supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Senior leaders ensure that the teaching of English, mathematics and science is well managed, and now they are beginning to support middle leaders to manage other subject areas with the same level of effectiveness. Middle leaders are, however, only beginning to develop these skills and will require further support to become fully effective as subject leaders.

Governance of the school

• The local governing body works closely with the school’s leaders to develop an in-depth understanding of the strengths of the school, and the areas where it needs to improve. Governors visit the school regularly and ensure that they are able to draw on a variety of evidence to enable them to have an accurate understanding of the progress that pupils are making.
• Because of the governing body’s rigorous scrutiny, governors ensure that the school’s pupil premium and its sport premium are effectively spent. They also ensure that safeguarding procedures are followed diligently and that pupils’ welfare is always a high priority.
• Where necessary, the trust has supported the school by providing training for teachers and other staff to improve the quality of teaching. Staff also spoke positively about the support that they get from other schools in the trust to help them to assess pupils’ work more accurately and provide effective intervention where necessary. Leaders said that they appreciate the regular challenge provided by representatives of the trust to ensure that pupils continue to make good progress.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that all necessary checks are carried out on staff and volunteers. They also ensure that all staff have regular safeguarding training updates. This means that staff and volunteers know exactly what to do to support the safety and welfare of all pupils.
• Leaders know how to seek support from external agencies where it is necessary to keep particular pupils safe. They are relentless in their pursuit of support for a pupil where they believe this to be necessary.
• Pupils were able to explain how they are kept safe at school, and how the school helps them to keep safe at other times, particularly when using the internet.
• The overwhelming majority of parents who completed the online questionnaire during the inspection agreed that their children are safe at Reydon Primary School.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics across the school. This is because the new leadership team has worked tirelessly to instil an ethos of high expectations in all staff, and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment has improved as a consequence.
• The behaviour of pupils in lessons creates a learning environment where teachers can challenge pupils with probing questions, and pupils can respond thoughtfully. Pupils are happy in their lessons, and respond positively to their teachers’ high expectations.
• Leaders have implemented a system of accurate assessment across the school. This means that teachers have a clear understanding of what individual pupils are capable of, and what challenges they need to be given to help them to make progress in their learning. Leaders use this assessment to challenge teachers so that pupils make good progress, and to support pupils where necessary with well-targeted interventions.
• Teaching assistants are used very effectively across the school. They work closely with teachers, and benefit from much of the training that teachers receive. Where necessary, teaching assistants are given training to support pupils with particular intervention strategies. Teachers plan lessons well to ensure that teaching assistants’ time is used to support particular pupils and groups of pupils to make progress in their learning.
• Leaders have been imaginative in their approach to supporting pupils to make better progress in reading – particularly in key stage 2, where the school’s reading results were below the national average in 2017. Pupils read more, and provide more sophisticated responses to the text that they have read. Evidence in pupils’ books, and the school’s assessment data, demonstrate that pupils in key stage 2, and particularly in Years 5 and 6, are making better progress in reading. They have also developed a love of the books that they have been reading, and spoke about them with great enthusiasm.
• Science is well taught across the school. A thoughtful and well-planned curriculum gives pupils opportunities to think and experiment scientifically, while pupils also record experiments and results clearly and systematically in their books.
• The teaching of mathematics consistently supports pupils to develop core skills, and also provides lots of opportunities to apply these skills to reasoning problems. While many pupils have made good progress in responding more accurately to these problems, and demonstrate this in the work in their books, sometimes pupils continue to repeat mistakes. In these cases, it is not always clear what action teachers have taken to address these pupils’ misconceptions.
• The imaginative English curriculum gives pupils a wide range of opportunities to write, which engage them enthusiastically. Pupils also write across the broader curriculum, but when a small number of pupils make repeated mistakes in grammar and punctuation, it is not always clear how and when teachers address these mistakes so that pupils stop making them.
• Pupils benefit from a wealth of opportunities to learn across a range of subjects. The assessment and scrutiny of this work is, however, not as well developed as it is in English, mathematics and science, but leaders are addressing this by supporting middle leaders to become more effective subject leaders.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school and demonstrate a pride in their school whatever they are doing. Attendance is high, and cases of persistent absence are low.
• Pupils are able to describe their school’s ‘Five Rs’ values of relationships, resilience, reflectiveness, risk-taking and resourcefulness. A group of pupils act as ‘learning ambassadors’. They conduct learning walks around the school and celebrate examples of their school’s values in action when they see them.
• Reydon Primary School is a caring community where adults are good role models for pupils, and where pupils care for each other. Pupils treat each other respectfully, and older pupils often care for younger pupils, for example by helping them to clear their plates in the dining hall. Pupils also act as ‘digital leaders’ to help other pupils to stay safe online.
• Through a well-planned programme of personal, social and health education, pupils are able to consider sophisticated concepts such as liberty, and the consequences of exercising the liberty to steal. This level of thoughtfulness prepares pupils well to take responsibility for being good citizens.
• Pupils enjoy a range of cultural and sporting activities. School sports teams have enjoyed taking part in a growing number of inter-school sports tournaments. Pupils learn musical instruments in their music lessons, and the school choir recently joined 800 other pupils at the ‘Big Sing’ at Snape Maltings.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The school has an effective and consistent behaviour policy which is well understood by the whole school community and leads to good behaviour in classrooms and around the school. Leaders are proud of the improvements that they have brought about in the behaviour of pupils in recent years. One parent commented, ‘Behaviour has vastly improved.’
• Pupils are considerate to each other. In class, pupils listen respectfully to their fellow pupils’ points of view, and are keen to support each other.
• Pupils play with each other well in the playground, generally treating each other considerately and generously.
• Pupils say that incidents of bullying are rare and are dealt with well by staff when they occur. Leaders keep accurate records of rare incidents of prejudice-related behaviour and act swiftly to deal with it when it occurs.
• Very occasionally, leaders will support staff members to deal with isolated examples of challenging behaviour. Staff said that they valued the effective support given by leaders when this happens.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Most children join the school at the beginning of the Reception Year with skills that are broadly typical for their ages. While the proportion of children achieving a good level of development at the end of the Reception Year in 2017 was similar to the national average, recent improvements to the quality of teaching and assessment in the early years have resulted in an acceleration in children’s progress since the beginning of the autumn term. This means that children are making good progress.
• The proportion of pupils in Year 1 who achieve the expected standard in the national phonics check is typically above the national average. The teaching of phonics skills in recent years has been more rigorous and systematic, and an increasingly large proportion of the school’s pupils are now able to use these skills effectively to support their learning across the wider curriculum.
• Pupils in key stage 1 make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2017 the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in these subjects was generally in line with national averages. Improvements in teaching and learning in recent years mean that pupils currently in key stage 1 are making accelerated progress compared with the last two years.
• In key stage 2, pupils are also making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This is because assessment is more accurate, and the actions taken by leaders to stop pupils falling behind are effective. As a consequence, the progress of pupils currently on roll is improving. This means that pupils are becoming increasingly better prepared for their transition to secondary school.
• The rate of improvement for disadvantaged pupils is similar to that of all other pupils in the school. The school applies pupil premium funding effectively, and recent improvements in the accuracy of assessment and quality of teaching have had a positive impact on the learning of disadvantaged pupils. The school’s accurate assessment of the progress of disadvantaged pupils shows that differences between their achievements and the achievements of other pupils are small and are not widening in any subject or year group.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress because their needs are accurately assessed by leaders, and the SENCo uses funding effectively to help them make good progress from their different starting points.
• The school’s accurate assessment systems show that a higher proportion of most able pupils are responding well to the more challenging work that their teachers now give them. As a consequence, a higher proportion of these pupils produce work that is more consistent with their abilities. However, if they find the work too hard, their misconceptions are not always dealt with quickly enough.

Early years provision Good

• The leadership and management of the early years are good. The new leader was appointed in September 2017 and she has ensured that all children are accurately assessed and well supported through their year in Reception to make good progress.
• Most children join the early years with skills typical for their age. They benefit from a well-planned curriculum that gives them the opportunity to make good progress. Consequently, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development is increasing.
• Thorough assessment records are kept of what children can achieve and what they need to do next to make good progress. Parents and carers are closely involved with supporting their children’s learning, and most of them take advantage of opportunities to visit their child’s classroom. For example, a very large proportion of parents attended a mathematics sharing event during the inspection. Parents of children in the early years spoke particularly highly of the education that their children receive in Reception.
• Staff know children well and help them to develop habits that support their learning. Children can listen to each other when asked to do so, but equally show high levels of independence when choosing their own learning activities.
• Because assessment is thorough and accurate, adults are able to support children in their learning in the classroom and the outdoor area. They question children, and engage them in discussion about their learning to help them to make progress. For example, assessment has shown that boys would benefit from practising early writing skills more, so adults support boys to choose activities that encourage them to write.
• Children who have SEN and/or disabilities are closely supported by well-trained support staff, who ensure that they are provided with the right activities to help them to make good progress from their starting points.
• Staff ensure that children are safe and well cared for at all times. Children have a good understanding of risk and are able to behave in a way that keeps everybody safe. Safeguarding is effective in the early years.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141702 Suffolk 10041752 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 Academy sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 186 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Celia Eldridge Jo Viner 01502 723084 www.reydonprimary.org office@reydonprimary.org Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Reydon Primary School became an academy in 2015 and is now part of the Active Learning Trust.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils who receive SEN support, or who have a statement of special education needs or an education, health and care plan, is in line with the national average.
• The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of key stage 2.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in 19 lessons covering every class. Some of these were conducted jointly with the headteacher.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of work in pupils’ books across the whole curriculum.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the SENCo, the early years leader, subject leaders, newly qualified teachers, governors (including the chair of the governing body) and representatives of the Active Learning Trust.
• Inspectors spoke to pupils in lessons and at break and lunchtimes.
• Inspectors met with members of the school council.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and talked to them about their reading habits.
• Inspectors scrutinised the school’s website and looked at a range of documents including assessment information, minutes from governing body meetings, records of governors’ monitoring visits to the school, the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, and records of behaviour, safeguarding and attendance.
• Inspectors considered 57 responses to the Ofsted online Parent View questionnaire, including seven free-text responses. They also considered 17 responses to the staff questionnaire and spoke to some parents at the beginning of the school day.

Inspection team

Richard Hopkins, lead inspector Joanna Rand Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector