Nonsuch Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen teaching and learning across all phases of the school so that the most and least able pupils achieve the very best they can by ensuring that:
  • teachers consistently build on pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding
  • additional adults receive further training to help them meet the needs of pupils.
• Enhance the capacity of leadership and management to move the school to outstanding by developing the role of middle leaders in the early years and across the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors have maintained the school’s high standards through a period of unstable leadership and high teacher turnover. Governors have been judicious in securing a strong interim headteacher who has given them a very precise picture of the quality of the school’s work.
• The interim headteacher and deputy headteacher have quickly created a calm, safe and happy environment across the school. Parents, teachers and staff feel reassured by their leadership and confident that they will continue to improve the school.
• Leaders have high expectations of staff, and work hard to motivate them to improve their skills. The interim headteacher has an accurate picture of teaching, learning and assessment and does not shy away from difficult decisions or from delivering challenging feedback. This is beginning to have a positive impact on the quality of teaching.
• Teachers have been well supported by leaders to implement the school’s mathematics programme and to improve their skills in teaching reading and writing. The library successfully promotes a love of reading.
• Pupils benefit from learning a wide range of subjects. Art and music are particular strengths. The sports premium has been used exceptionally well by leaders, and has improved teachers’ skills in teaching a range of sports. Pupils who choose to compete are successful in winning swimming medals and borough-wide netball competitions.
• The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils take part in charity work and fundraising events. The curriculum enables and supports pupils to be successful in non-academic achievement. It also helps pupils to celebrate diversity, for example with the Bollywood dance troop.
• Pupil premium funding is used well to support the strong achievement of disadvantaged pupils.
• The school’s assessment system supports leaders’ understanding of the progress pupils make. External checks on teachers’ marking show that the school’s assessments are accurate.
• Leaders have ensured that individual support for pupils with SEND is well targeted and helps them to make good progress.
• Attendance is consistently above the national average, which reflects leaders’ high expectations.
• Middle leadership roles have not yet been sufficiently developed within the leadership structure. The headteacher has made this a priority for improvement in the early years and across the primary phase.
• Leaders have dealt effectively with issues and complaints raised by parents. Site security has been reviewed and appropriate adjustments have been made. Teaching is good and improving. The majority of parents who spoke to inspectors or completed the questionnaire were positive about the current leadership and the quality of education.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly committed and reflective. Collectively, they have a good range of skills to help them challenge and support the work of the school effectively. They are keen to develop and improve their skills further.
• Governors acted decisively and effectively following the departure of the substantive headteacher in July 2018. They secured the appointment of the interim headteacher and the deputy headteacher. They have since recruited a substantive headteacher who will be initially supported by the current interim headteacher.
• Governors have provided a good level of challenge and support to the school over time. This has been a strength of leadership and has helped to maintain a good standard of education.
• Governors are rigorous in ensuring that resources are allocated appropriately to meet the needs of pupils. They are committed to routinely evaluating the quality and impact of external support to the school.
• Governors are now routinely monitoring site security with the headteacher.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Governors have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and undertake appropriate training. Checks made on staff are thorough and in line with statutory guidance.
• Electronic systems for recording safeguarding concerns are robust and used consistently by all staff. Staff are highly vigilant and even the most minor concerns are reported to ensure that children are kept safe. There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school.
• Leaders use external services when appropriate. They deal well with the challenges of diminishing local authority services so as to safeguard pupils in their care.
• Staff receive regular training on all aspects of safeguarding, including the ‘Prevent’ duty and female genital mutilation.
• During the inspection, there were minor safety issues identified on the school site, which were immediately rectified.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching over time is good and has led to consistently good outcomes for pupils at the end of each phase of the school.
• Teachers have strong subject knowledge in mathematics and have been consistent in implementing the school’s mathematics programme.
• Teaching ensures that pupils become confident readers who develop a love of books and authors. Children use their early phonics skills to sound out words. They quickly develop comprehension skills because of strong teaching. Pupils across the school read widely and often. They are supported well at home.
• Teachers give pupils a good range of opportunities to write. They use texts well as a stimulus for writing, and they plan interesting ways to apply writing within a range of subjects across the curriculum. Pupils achieve well in a range of subjects. Pupils’ high-quality artwork is displayed throughout the school.
• Pupils with SEND receive high-quality individualised support from additional adults to help them make good progress.
• Teachers plan effectively to make sure that mathematics and English lessons are pitched at the right level for pupils’ ages. However, teachers do not routinely adjust their planning and teaching to challenge the most able learners sufficiently or to support the lower-attaining pupils. This means that, occasionally, the most able pupils do not achieve as well as they could. Sometimes, the lower-attaining pupils do not experience success with a given task because it is too difficult for them.
• Additional adults are deployed well to support pupils’ learning. However, they focus solely on resourcing or behaviour management or observing teachers’ input without any clearly defined role in pupils’ learning. When this is the case, they have limited impact on the progress that pupils make.
• Despite the consistently high attainment in phonics at the end of Year 1, the quality of teaching of phonics in key stage 1 is variable. Teaching sometimes fails to build on the knowledge and skills that pupils have. When this is the case, expectations are not high enough and pupils do not achieve the very best that they can.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils have a positive attitude to school and to their work. They do their best and work hard. There is a positive climate for learning in classrooms and a harmonious culture throughout the school.
• Pupils feel safe and are happy at school. They express pride in their school and confidence that, if they ‘are sad or lonely, someone will always come and play with you and make you smile’. They are confident that any worries or concerns they have are dealt with effectively.
• Pupils show a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe online.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils play and work well together. Pupils behave well at playtime. During the inspection, a large section of the play area was out of use. Pupils were respectful of the rules regarding where to play, and managed themselves very well in a relatively limited space.
• Pupils chat happily together at lunchtimes, which are sociable occasions at Nonsuch.
• Pupils’ attendance is above the national average, and this reflects their enjoyment of school.
• Pupils said that any rare incidents of bullying are sorted out quickly. They show a good awareness of the different forms of bullying.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils at the end of each key stage achieve highly at Nonsuch Primary School. Pupils leave Year 6 with standards in reading, writing and mathematics which are above the national averages. They make strong progress from key stage 1. Pupils are very well prepared to deal with the demands of secondary education.
• The proportion of children who achieve a good level of development at the end of the Reception Year is well above the national average, and has been for the past three years.
• Standards at the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics are above the national averages.
• The proportion of pupils who achieve the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check is above the national average, and has been for the past three years.
• Pupils with SEND make good progress from their individual starting points.
• Disadvantaged pupils make similar strong progress to their classmates.
• Books show that pupils make strong progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the most able pupils are not consistently challenged to build on their prior knowledge and skills. This means that their progress is not as strong as it could be. There are pockets of weaker progress evident for lower-attaining pupils. Books show that they make limited progress when tasks are not planned to enable them to reach the next stage in their learning.

Early years provision Good

• Children join the early years provision with knowledge and skills which are broadly typical for their age. From this starting point, children make good progress and leave the Reception Year well prepared to meet the demands of the Year 1 curriculum.
• The early years provision offers a stimulating and interesting environment for children. All areas of learning are well thought out, and are reflected in the indoor and outdoor learning spaces. Staff plan interesting themes to engage and excite children. During the inspection, children were busily preparing for a witches’ party. Staff use high-quality literature to inspire early readers. Children relish the opportunity to change their books in the beautiful school library.
• Children in the Nursery benefit from very skilled teaching. Staff use questioning to deepen children’s understanding and to help them think carefully about their learning. Staff ‘tune in’ to children’s interests and motivate them should they falter in their play or learning.
• Parents are appreciative of the positive start to school that their children enjoy. They are confident that their children are safe and happy.
• Teaching helps children to make strong progress in writing in the Reception Year. Books show that early mark-making develops quickly. Children soon begin to use their phonics to make plausible attempts at writing words, phrases and simple sentences.
• Staff across the early years track progress carefully. Children accomplish a great deal and produce a large volume of written work during their time in this phase.
• Occasionally, staff in the Reception Year do not challenge children to achieve their very best. This is because directed tasks do not always build on prior learning and questioning does not consistently stretch and challenge children’s thinking.
• Leadership of the early years is developing well under the direction and support of senior leaders.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 102985 Sutton 10048419 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 210 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Interim Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jonathan Nicholas Geoff Green 020 8393 9209 www.nonsuchprimary.sutton.sch.uk nonsuchprimary@suttonlea.org Date of previous inspection 14 February 2007

Information about this school

• Nonsuch is slightly smaller than the average-sized primary school. The early years provision consists of two part-time Nursery classes and one Reception class.
• The school became a member of the Sutton Education Trust cooperative of schools in February 2017. The previous headteacher left the school in July 2018. The interim headteacher and deputy headteacher took up their posts in September 2018. The interim headteacher works at the school for four days each week.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium funding is well below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is in line with the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is average.

Information about this inspection

• A section 8 no formal designation inspection took place on 31 October because of a qualifying complaint received by Ofsted. On the same day, the inspection was converted to a full section 5 inspection.
• Inspectors observed learning across all year groups. Observations were undertaken with the interim headteacher, the deputy headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator.
• Inspectors held two meetings with members of the governing body.
• Inspectors met with a representative of the Sutton Education Trust.
• Meetings were held with groups of pupils to discuss their learning and their views on the school.
• Inspectors met with leaders to discuss their roles and the impact of their work.
• Inspectors heard pupils read and talked to pupils in the lunch hall, as they moved around the building and on the playground.
• Inspectors examined a range of school documents, including information on pupils’ progress across the school, improvement plans, curriculum plans and checks on the quality of teaching. They examined school records relating to safeguarding and behaviour.
• Inspectors spoke with parents and took account of the 107 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.
• Inspectors scrutinised a large sample of books to see what progress pupils have made across a range of subjects.

Inspection team

Ruth Dollner, lead inspector Julie Davey

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector