Tushingham-with-Grindley CofE Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Refine the tracking system for history and geography so that leaders have an even clearer overview of progress across the school in these subjects.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The executive headteacher and the head of school are committed, passionate and highly effective in providing an excellent standard of education for their pupils. They bring this about by accurately evaluating the strengths and next steps for the school and planning detailed actions for further development. Current pupils make outstanding progress, typically leaving Year 6 with attainment that is above the national average for reading, writing and mathematics.
• Leaders provide an exciting curriculum that is key to ensuring pupils’ continued rapid progress, deepening their knowledge across the whole range of subjects. It has excellent breadth and balance. Leaders ensure that they capture pupils’ imagination at the start of every new topic or theme by planning and delivering ‘wow’ activities, such as marching with a ‘real’ Roman soldier to introduce a history topic. They also use high-quality reading books to stimulate pupils’ interest in writing.
• Since the last inspection, there has been strong improvement in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment from the school’s previously good standard. This is because leaders make regular and rigorous checks on the quality of teaching. They use methods such as lesson observations, after which they feed back strengths and areas for development. They also manage the performance of teachers very effectively, setting them targets that link with pupils’ achievement and with their own individual development.
• Leaders promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well and prepare them very effectively for life in modern Britain. Pupils learn about other cultures through religious education lessons and have opportunities to take positions of responsibility as school councillors or road safety officers. They enjoy clubs, such as football and homework clubs. They benefit from a planned programme of educational visits throughout the year. These include trips to the theatre, which support their spiritual and cultural development, and visits to, for instance, different places of worship. These educational visits contribute to developing a strong understanding of, and respect for, other faiths. All these activities and experiences illustrate the school’s core beliefs, summed up as ‘The Tushingham Way’.
• Leaders make very good use of the pupil premium funding, providing individual support matched to each pupil’s needs. Current pupils eligible for the funding, who are very few in number, make excellent progress.
• The school makes highly effective use of the primary school physical education and sport premium. Leaders buy services to provide opportunities for competitive sport for pupils, such as football matches with other schools. Part of the funding is used to provide training for staff to improve their skills and subject knowledge. Leaders also train pupils in Year 6 to be sports ‘buddies’ so they can organise sports activities during breaktimes.
• The leader for the provision for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities (SENCo) is very efficient and has a deep knowledge of the needs of these pupils. She organises the interventions very well and, with other leaders, makes regular checks on pupils’ achievement to evaluate how effective the school’s support is. As a result, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make excellent progress.
• Training and development for staff are broad and varied and they feel they support them very effectively. Activities include external training courses and opportunities to share excellent practice with other schools. These contribute very well to the outstanding quality of teaching in the school.
• Leaders of all subjects, including English and mathematics, have a very clear overview of standards in their subjects and ensure high-quality provision. Assessment systems are thorough and accurate, especially in English and mathematics. Leaders regularly check on pupils’ achievement through pupils’ progress meetings, where they identify any gaps in learning and address them highly effectively. Although the tracking of pupils’ progress is mainly clear and precise, in history and geography it is slightly less consistent in format and clarity. This makes it marginally less easy to acquire an overall picture of progress in these subjects.
• Parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, were, in the vast majority of cases, very positive about the school. They typically described it as ‘wonderful’ and felt their children made ‘excellent progress’.
• The local authority has an understandably ‘light touch’ involvement with the school. The adviser has a clear picture of standards and challenges leaders suitably to verify their evaluation of the school’s performance.

Governance of the school

• Governors are clearly highly ambitious for the school. They have very strong relationships with leaders, other staff and pupils, and make frequent visits to ensure that they maintain an excellent view of standards. Governors create a culture where only excellence will do.
• Governors are well trained in safeguarding and other aspects of their role. They actively seek extra training when they identify an area they judge to need strengthening, such as analysis of assessment information.
• Governors challenge and support leaders highly effectively. They hold the headteacher to account rigorously, asking a wide range of searching questions about many aspects of the quality of education that the school provides.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a very strong culture of safeguarding in the school. This springs partly from adults’ thorough knowledge of both the signs of abuse and the school’s safeguarding processes. It also has its roots in the deep knowledge of the pupils that all members of staff have, by virtue of the small numbers of pupils in the school.
• The reporting of concerns about safeguarding is thorough and highly efficient. The designated safeguarding leader keeps detailed records, making referrals and pursuing issues with outside agencies, when required.
• The school’s record of the necessary checks on members of staff is compliant and suitably detailed.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers use their excellent subject knowledge to devise lessons that make pupils eager to learn. They make sure that they use the maximum learning time available, keeping pupils interested and working hard. Consequently, current pupils make outstanding progress.
• Teachers ask questions that are highly effective in encouraging pupils to think deeply about their learning. They challenge pupils from all groups, including the most able, to explain their thinking, and provide activities that extend and deepen their learning. For example, during a mathematics lesson in key stage 2, pupils immediately began an unprompted discussion with their ‘elbow partner’ when they realised that a change the teacher had made in the positions of two numbers on a multiplication grid produced an error elsewhere on the grid.
• Teachers follow the school’s policy on marking and feedback closely, and give pupils time to act on the guidance they give. They are also highly adept at intervening early to address any misconceptions and to check pupils’ understanding. As a result, pupils know how to make improvements to their work and increase their knowledge, skills and understanding.
• Leaders have developed and enhanced teachers’ assessment skills since the previous inspection by, for example, taking part in a national pilot scheme involving training in moderation of writing. This has contributed very effectively to their ability to match work very precisely to pupils’ needs and capabilities.
• Teachers expect their pupils to work hard and to have excellent attitudes to their work. Their enthusiasm and determination are infectious. Pupils, almost irresistibly, respond very positively, which results in exceptional standards of work. They talk knowledgeably and confidently about the skills they acquire across the whole range of subjects. Relationships between adults and pupils are exemplary.
• Teachers ensure that pupils apply key skills, such as reading, writing and mathematics, to other subjects. For example, in history in Year 4, pupils produce sustained written pieces of high quality to deduce reasons for the actions of historical characters. In science in Year 2, they use mathematical skills to represent data they have collected.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• The school provides excellent opportunities for pupils to become aware of how to be safe in various situations. Pupils are very clear about how to stay safe online and they fully understand cyber bullying. They also know about such matters as first aid and road safety. Some pupils in Year 6 are road safety officers. Their role is to communicate messages about road safety at regular intervals to other pupils.
• Pupils feel very safe in school because of ‘teachers that care for us’. They appreciate the chances they receive to take responsibility, such as on the school council, where they make decisions about, for instance, which charity they will support through fundraising.
• Pupils enjoy a range of educational visits that enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. These include trips to museums and the zoo. The school also has a link with a school in Hong Kong. The contact that pupils have with pen pals there helps them to appreciate other cultures.
• Pupils have a highly developed sense of respect for others, which teachers regularly reinforce by reminders of ‘The Tushingham Way’, the school’s summary of its essential beliefs. They have learned to respect people who are different from themselves, and show excellent tolerance and understanding.
• Pupils benefit greatly from the school’s work on fitness and health. Pupils run ‘the daily mile’, for example, and the school makes sure that pupils in all year groups receive free fruit every day. They find out about where food comes from, which food is healthy, and how it reaches shops and supermarkets.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils are confident and highly articulate. Even the youngest pupils experience no reluctance to approach trusted adults and speak with them. One even politely asked the lead inspector to move out of the way so that he could throw rubbish in the bin.
• Pupils’ conduct around the school is impeccable. They play well together in the playground and say that there is hardly any poor behaviour. Pupils, typically, described behaviour in the school as ‘exceptional’.
• Attendance is above the national average. Leaders monitor attendance very effectively and do not routinely authorise term-time holidays.
• Pupils report that there is virtually no bullying. They are aware of the different types that exist, including racist and homophobic. They say that pupils do not misuse words such as ‘gay’. Leaders’ records of bullying and behaviour incidents substantiate these views. For example, there has been only one incident of racist language, which was some 18 months ago. Leaders recorded and responded to the incident appropriately.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Current pupils, including the most able, make sustained and substantial progress across all year groups and subjects, including English and mathematics. Pupils’ work and the school’s own assessment information show rapid progress from pupils’ starting points. This is the result of high-quality teaching and a well-focused and exciting curriculum.
• Published assessment information shows that the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard or above by the end of Year 2 and Year 6 is typically above the national average for English and mathematics. In 2017, unvalidated information showed that progress in writing was in the top 10% nationally, while progress in reading and writing was above the national average for pupils who did not have an education, health and care plan.
• There are very few current pupils who are disadvantaged, but those who are make excellent progress in their learning. This is because leaders focus on providing high-quality teaching with carefully designed support work to match pupils’ requirements.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities receive excellent support. The SENCo organises the school’s provision very effectively. She ensures that extra activities, such as individual teaching sessions in English and mathematics, complement strong class teaching. As a result, these pupils make very good progress.
• Pupils make excellent progress in other subjects, as well as in English and mathematics, acquiring deep knowledge, understanding and skills. For example, in geography, pupils in key stage 2 know and can explain technical terms such as ‘erosion’ and ‘confluence’. In science in key stage 1, they show a secure understanding of sound by devising their own questions to ask about its properties.
• Pupils read very fluently and with a high degree of comprehension that matches their age and ability. They enjoy reading and take in a wide range of genres. When they need to, pupils make excellent use of their knowledge of phonics to help them to read less familiar words. The large majority of pupils in Year 1 achieve well in the national phonics screening check because the teaching of phonics is highly effective.

Early years provision Outstanding

• The early years leader is highly capable and has a very clear understanding of the provision’s strengths. She is constantly seeking ways to develop it further. Her current actions include developing ways to challenge the most able children even more. As a result of this focus, adults stretch the most able children to think hard. For example, they are able to identify a pentagon, say the word and comment on its properties.
• Children enter the early years with skills and knowledge that are broadly typical for their age and stage of development. Because of effective teaching and a thoroughly well-planned programme of activities, almost all children achieve a good level of development and many exceed this. This represents excellent progress and children are very well prepared for Year 1.
• Teaching is of a very high standard. Teachers have excellent knowledge of how to plan activities that have purpose and interest for the children, developing the whole range of skills very effectively. For example, they use ‘The Bog Baby’ by Jeanne Willis to stimulate a range of work. Children play in the mud in the outside area, recreating the story, which gives them superb opportunities to learn about story structure and develop their communication skills. They develop their dexterity well indoors by making a ‘Bog Baby’ using soft modelling materials.
• Staff use very effective questioning to encourage children to think and communicate very well. For example, they ask them to describe models they are making to develop their communication skills, or to think again if they give an incorrect response to a question.
• Children behave exceptionally well and show they feel safe through their excellent attitudes and willingness to speak with trusted adults. They are proud of their work. During the inspection, some children were beside themselves with eagerness to show the inspector what they had done.
• The strong culture of safeguarding that permeates the rest of the school is equally evident in the early years provision. There are no breaches of the welfare requirements.
• The learning environment is bright and inviting with a very broad array of resources which are of high quality. These support all aspects of children’s learning very effectively.
• Leaders make sure that they involve parents fully in their child’s development. They hold formal meetings to report on progress and operate an ‘open door’ policy. This enables parents and teachers to keep in touch continuously throughout the year. Parents also use their child’s reading diary as a communication book.

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School details

Unique reference number 111285 Local authority Cheshire West and Chester Inspection number 10042568 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 Voluntary controlled 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 110 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mrs Jannine Davies Executive Headteacher Mrs Kathleen Shephard Head of School Mrs Wendy Forshaw Telephone number 01948 820 360 Website Email address www.tushingham.cheshire.dbprimary.com head@tushingham.cheshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 29–30 April 2014

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support for their SEN and/or disabilities is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is above average.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is much lower than average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups or who speak English as an additional language is well below average.
• The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.
• The small numbers of pupils mean there are mixed-age classes throughout the school, with Nursery and Reception, Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6 organised into four classes.
• The school has gained several awards, including the ‘Artsmark Silver’ award and the ‘RE Quality Mark Gold’ award.
• The headteacher is also temporarily executive headteacher of another local primary school, where she is leading work to improve the quality of education. The deputy headteacher is head of school.

Information about this inspection

• The lead inspector carried out observations of learning in all year groups. Some of these were joint observations with the executive headteacher. The executive headteacher and the head of the school were also present at inspection team meetings.
• A range of documentation was scrutinised, including the school’s self-evaluation summary, action plans for school improvement, records of the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning, minutes of meetings of the governing body and records connected with the safeguarding of children.
• The lead inspector had discussions with various stakeholders, including the executive headteacher, the head of school, senior leaders, subject leaders, other members of staff, the chair and other members of the governing body, a representative of the local authority and pupils.
• The lead inspector listened to pupils read and analysed pupils’ work in a range of subjects. He also looked at the work of children in the early years.
• The lead inspector evaluated 19 responses received through Parent View during the inspection. He also analysed six responses to the staff survey. There were no other survey responses.

Inspection team

Mark Quinn, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector