Yealand Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve outcomes by ensuring that most-able pupils throughout the school have enough opportunities to develop their skills in writing to their fullest extent across the wider curriculum.
• Improve communications with parents, particularly with regard to the imminent changes in the leadership of the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors have secured a positive climate for learning, good teaching and effective teamwork throughout the school.
• Arrangements for managing the performance of staff are robust and teachers receive good advice on how to improve their practice further. Strong partnership working with other local schools gives staff opportunities for further training and development and they use these to continually improve their practice. Teachers also share samples of pupils’ work with staff from other schools so as to confirm the accuracy of their assessments of pupils’ work against national expectations.
• Leaders and governors rightly prioritised improving pupils’ progress in mathematics, particularly in key stage 2. Their actions are already showing success and progress in this subject is accelerating.
• The broad and rich curriculum is a strength of the school and supports pupils’ good progress as they move through the school. It is enhanced with a wide range of visits that also support pupils’ good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of British values. For example, pupils in key stage 2 visit the Slavery Museum in Liverpool to gain insights into human and civil rights along with an awareness of the history of their own area. A day trip to London by train gives pupils the opportunity to see the Houses of Parliament and learn about democracy and how this works in modern Britain.
• The collaborative leadership arrangement to share a headteacher between two local schools has been successful but is no longer affordable owing to the severe financial pressures on a very small school with a decreasing number of pupils on roll. Governors recognise this and have taken the decision to appoint the deputy headteacher to lead the school from September while maintaining a part-time teaching commitment in key stage 2. The local authority is providing effective support for this. A few parents would appreciate more detailed and frequent communication on these arrangements so that they can make informed choices about the future education of their children.
• Leaders make effective use of pupil premium funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils of all levels of ability make as much progress as other pupils in the school. Equally, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive a high quality of support. This secures their good progress from their individual starting points and their full inclusion in the life of the school community.
• The physical education (PE) and sport funding is used effectively to increase the range of sporting activities on offer, to increase pupils’ participation in competitive sport and to provide professional development that supports teachers in improving their practice in teaching PE.

Governance of the school

• Governance is a strength of the school. Governors are passionate in their roles and determined that the school will continue to thrive. They know the school’s strengths and areas that need to improve further. Governors face real challenges in managing the school’s finances to sustain strong leadership and maintain the fabric of the school’s buildings. They nevertheless ensure that resources are appropriately directed to where they will have the best possible impact in improving outcomes for pupils.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and governors ensure that safeguarding has a high priority in the school. Staff receive regularly updated training on child protection and know that spotting the early signs of neglect or abuse is vital to make sure that pupils are safe from harm. There is a real sense that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and not just that of school senior leaders. Policies are adhered to in practice, and appropriate risk assessments are made to keep pupils safe both inside and outside of school. Systematic checks are carried out on new members of staff, governors and regular visitors to the school. As a result, pupils are very safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers bring a broad range of experience to the school and work well as a team to plan and deliver interesting lessons that engage pupils’ enthusiasm for learning.
• Teachers rise to the challenge of providing tasks and activities to suit the needs of pupils with a wide range of age and ability. The challenge for the most able writers is variable in literacy and across the wider curriculum. For example, following a science investigation, pupils sometimes complete a short pre-populated worksheet on their findings when they are capable of writing at greater length and developing their skills to write reports.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge and use questions skilfully to help pupils think about their learning and to check on their understanding.
• Most pupils are highly articulate and confident in their learning. Good teaching from the earliest days in the Reception supports children in rapidly developing their language and communication skills.
• Skilled teaching of phonics helps pupils to develop as confident readers. Pupils enjoy choosing and reading from a wide range of books and materials and read with fluency, good expression and understanding. For those pupils needing extra help, teachers and support staff provide frequent opportunities to read aloud and develop their skills.
• Pupils’ progress in mathematics is improving because teachers provide more frequent opportunities for pupils to apply their calculation skills to a range of problem-solving activities.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• There is a school-wide climate of tolerance and respect and a sense that the pupils are part of one big family. There are warm relationships between pupils of all ages in the school. Some pupils would like more children to come to their school so that they could have more friends with whom to play and learn.
• Teachers encourage pupils to think for themselves and to make responsible decisions. For example, in a lesson designed to teach older pupils how to present a balanced argument, pupils spiritedly gave their views on why slavery should be abolished as they responded to the teacher’s argument that slavery could be justified by economic necessity.
• Pupils know the school’s Christian values and recognise that they have much in common with people of other faiths.
• Pupils say that bullying is extremely rare. They occasionally fall out with one another but staff are always there to support and will put a stop to any unkind behaviour. Equally they say that there is no homophobic or racist name-calling.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe from harm. They are aware of e-safety and understand the dangers of giving out personal information on the internet.
• Parents typically comment that pupils leave Yealand as ‘well-rounded and caring young people’. They appreciate the school’s nurturing environment and the way that staff recognise and embrace pupils’ individuality.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Leaders ensure that the school’s behaviour policy is consistently applied throughout the school. Pupils know that they are treated fairly and trust that adults in school will listen to any concerns and make sure they receive any necessary help and support.
• There are occasional dips in pupils’ behaviour. However, they know that a log is kept of any incidents of poor behaviour and that the school will involve parents if necessary. Pupils say that this makes them think twice before misbehaving.
• Most pupils are self-assured and confident learners. Disruptions to learning are rare because pupils know that this is unacceptable and they are keen to learn and participate in all the interesting events and activities.
• Attendance is average. The vast majority of pupils attend regularly and on time. Leaders follow up on any absences to make sure that pupils are safe at home. They make sure that pupils who are fit enough have work to do at home while they are absent so that they do not fall behind in their learning.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Most children enter the Reception Year with skills and knowledge typical for their age. They make good progress in the mixed-age Reception/key stage 1 class because they receive good teaching and benefit from working alongside the older pupils in their class.
• Cohorts are very small and therefore there are considerable variations in the standards pupils reach in reading, writing and mathematics from year to year. However, most pupils make good progress from their individual starting points and are well prepared for the next stage in their education.
• Outcomes from the Year 1 phonics check are equally variable from one year to the next. However, by the end of Year 2, over the last two years, all pupils reached the required standard. They swiftly develop as confident readers.
• The proportion of pupils reaching the required standard in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6 in 2016 was well below average. These outcomes were entirely cohort-related and are not typical of the school.
• Work sampled in detail from pupils’ books during the inspection shows that, due to good teaching, the pupils currently in Year 6 are all on track to reach the required standard or above in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Most-able pupils throughout the school do not always reach the highest possible standards in writing because they do not have enough opportunities to write at length across the full extent of the curriculum.
• Due to the very small numbers involved and the relatively high mobility of pupils in the school, it is difficult to analyse the school’s performance in relation to national averages for different groups of pupils in any meaningful way. There are no significant differences in the progress of boys and girls.
• Work sampling and lesson observations show that the pupil premium funding is used effectively to ensure that disadvantaged pupils of all abilities make the same good progress as other pupils in school.
• Similarly, those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points due to good teaching and well-focused support.
• Progress in foundation subjects such as history, geography and science is improving. This is because the curriculum leader has an effective system in place to check that pupils cover all the required areas of the national curriculum and that any gaps in learning are swiftly identified and appropriate action is taken.

Early years provision Good

• The school provides a pre-school group on one or two afternoons a week within the combined Reception/key stage 1 class to give children the opportunity to become familiar with the school environment. As a result, children are confident in joining the school and swiftly settle in to the routines.
• Good teaching means that children make good progress in all areas of their learning. Adults are skilled in intervening to extend learning and help children to think creatively. At the same time, they know when to let children continue with their own learning and make choices that help them to become more independent.
• Children are encouraged to behave responsibly and to tidy up after themselves. For example, following a session where the children developed their computing skills through working with battery-operated robots, they knew that they must switch them off when they finished or the batteries would run down and they would not work next time.
• The early years is well led and managed by the key stage 1 teacher. She makes effective use of observation and assessment information to personalise the curriculum for these very small groups of learners within the mixed-age class.
• Children’s behaviour is good. Older children are encouraged to help the younger ones so that they feel very safe in school from the earliest possible stages. Equally, the Reception children benefit from learning alongside Year 1 and Year 2 pupils because they look up to them and join in with activities that broaden their learning and prepare them well for the key stage 1 curriculum.
• Relationships with parents are strong. Parents typically comment on the way they are made welcome in the school and the good level of communication with staff.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 119546 Lancashire 10024421 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 aided 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 25 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jean Tunnicliffe-Wilson Joy Ingram 01524 781360 www.yealand.lancs.sch.uk admin@yealand.lancs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 2 July 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This is a much smaller than average-sized primary school; numbers have fallen considerably since the last inspection.
• Pupils are taught in two mixed-age classes.
• Children in the early years receive full-time education alongside pupils in Years 1 and 2.
• Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below average.
• Due to the very small numbers of pupils involved in the end of key stage 2 national tests, no statement is made as to whether the school meets the government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in English and mathematics.
• The headteacher of the school is also headteacher of another local primary school. She spends two days per week at Yealand. This collaborative arrangement will cease from the end of the summer term, 2017. The current deputy headteacher has been appointed as acting headteacher from 1 September 2017.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed a wide range of learning activities across all key stages and in a range of subjects. Two direct observations of learning were undertaken jointly with the headteacher. Samples of pupils’ books from different year groups and subjects were examined.
• Discussions were held with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and other school leaders. The inspector met with the chair of the governing body. A telephone call was held with a local authority representative. The inspector also met with the school council and spoke to pupils informally throughout the inspection.
• The inspector took account of 19 responses to the online survey (Parent View) and the freetext question responses from parents, and also considered parents’ opinions through informal discussions with a group of parents at the end of the school day. The inspector reviewed the six staff surveys and 21 pupil surveys completed online during the inspection.
• The inspector studied information about achievement and the assessment of learning. She examined records relating to behaviour and attendance, and looked at a range of other documents used by leaders to monitor and evaluate the school’s work.
• A review of safeguarding records and procedures was carried out.

Inspection team

Jan Corlett, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector