Cadmore End CofE School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of the early years provision, by:
  • ensuring that the early years environment is bright and attractive and provides purposeful learning opportunities for all children
  • providing children with work and activities that extend their learning
  • recording work in children’s learning journeys and storing it systematically so that it demonstrates what children can do.
• Improve the quality of pupils’ writing by ensuring that:
  • pupils learn and use their basic writing skills
  • pupils are provided with clear guidance about how they may improve their writing.
• Raise teachers’ expectations for what pupils can do by providing work that builds on what pupils already know and understand.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since joining the school in April 2017, the headteacher has brought stability to the school, with a clear focus on raising standards for all pupils. She has recruited teachers of high calibre and created an ambitious leadership team. Parents recognise the work she has done, and this is reflected in the comment made by one parent who wrote: ‘Since Mrs Groom took over as headteacher, the school has really flourished. She goes above and beyond to make sure that Cadmore End is the best it possibly can be.’
• The leadership team, together with skilled governors, has high expectations for itself and for pupils. Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and are taking appropriate action to bring about the required improvements. They took decisive action to address previously weaker teaching so that it is now consistently good.
• Leaders regularly check the work of teachers. Where performance falls below the leaders’ high expectations, teachers are provided with appropriate guidance and support to help them to become even better teachers. Teachers welcome this support and respond positively to improve their skills.
• Leaders make careful use of additional funding to support the high number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), helping them to progress at rates similar to their classmates.
• The curriculum is well planned, making links between different subjects which help pupils to understand the wider context of what they are learning. For example in the Year 5/6 class, pupils reflected on aspects of the First World War by considering moral questions such as, ‘What did God think about the war?’ This provoked much debate among pupils, making a highly effective contribution to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• Pupils thoroughly enjoy the opportunities they have to learn outdoors. The school is situated in a delightful woodland setting, providing pupils with frequent opportunities to learn about the natural world around them. Forest-school activities support their personal and social development through team-building activities such as making dens using the natural materials around them.
• British values are promoted effectively through the school’s Christian values. Because the school is small, pupils learn about the importance of being part of a community and the need to take care of each other. Leaders have created an ethos that strongly encourages respect, kindness and compassion. This contributes well toward pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. School leaders positively promote equality of opportunity and ensure that all pupils have equal access to what the school provides.
• The physical education and sport premium funding is used effectively. Some is used to employ specialist sports coaches who work alongside teachers to develop their confidence in teaching sports, including basketball. During breaktimes, pupils enjoy physical activities such as football and running that help to keep them fit and healthy.
• The large majority of parents who responded to the online survey, Parent View, agreed that the school was well led and managed.
• The school has been receiving support from advisers from both the local authority and the diocese. Leaders have been responsive to this support, and this is reflected in the improvement in the quality of education. As a result, the amount of support they receive is now decreasing. The local authority and the diocese have full confidence that current leaders and governors have the capacity to improve the school further.

Governance of the school

• Governors have been instrumental in securing the success of the school, following a period of decline. They work in close cooperation with school leaders to set strategic priorities that are designed to raise standards for all pupils. Governors visit school frequently, both formally as well as informally, to check for themselves that their plans are being implemented effectively. They receive high-quality reports from the headteacher and so provide an appropriate balance of support and professional challenge to school leaders. Governors hold school leaders to account for the school’s performance.
• Governors are well organised and they manage spending decisions wisely. They check with school leaders to ensure that additional funding, including the pupil premium funding, is spent appropriately. Governors have a wide range of professional skills and they seek to appoint new governors who have relevant skills as and when vacancies arise.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. This aspect of the school’s work is given high priority across the school. All staff and governors have received appropriate training and so can respond quickly should they be concerned that a pupil may be at risk from harm.
• Adults monitor pupils’ welfare and report concerns promptly. School leaders use support from external agencies when necessary and ensure that these agencies act quickly to keep pupils safe. All adults who work with pupils are carefully checked to make sure that they are suitable to work with children. Governors check that the school’s procedures for keeping children safe are robust and fit for purpose.
• All parents who responded to the online survey agreed that their children are happy, safe and well looked after in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Classrooms are bright and attractive with stimulating displays that add to pupils’ enjoyment of school. Some of these displays provide helpful guidance, including number facts and spellings. Others show pupils’ skills in other subjects, including art and design.
• Teachers know their pupils well and plan work that builds on what they already know, understand and can do. During lessons, they regularly check on pupils and move them on with their learning as soon as they are ready to do so. This helps pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or those with SEND, to make good progress in all aspects of their learning.
• The teaching of mathematics is good. The new leader has introduced a new approach to teaching mathematics which is bringing about rapid progress in the subject. Teachers provide pupils with practical equipment to support their learning and so pupils understand what they are to do. Teachers question pupils to probe their thinking and develop their understanding. Often, pupils are required to explain their answers and give reasons for their responses and this contributes towards their good progress.
• Pupils show very positive attitudes towards learning because teachers have created a culture where pupils are not afraid to make mistakes. Frequently, teachers turn errors into learning points and so pupils understand where they went wrong and so they learn from their mistakes.
• Although writing is taught well in some classes, this is not consistent across the school. This is because not all teachers have high enough expectations of what pupils should do. Some teachers do not identify pupils’ specific weaknesses in writing and so pupils do not have enough clear guidance about how they may improve their work.
• Most teachers have good subject knowledge and they use this well to deepen pupils’ learning. However, in some classes work provided for pupils is too easy and does not provide enough challenge, particularly for the most able pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. All adults are very caring towards pupils. Pupils say they feel safe in school and that adults listen to them and take their concerns seriously. Pupils like school. They like the woodland setting and the opportunities they have to learn outside, particularly the forest-school experience.
• Pupils have a good knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe. They know about the importance of online safety and that they should not provide personal information when using modern devices. They know about different forms of bullying but say that such incidents are rare. School records show few reported incidents of poor behaviour.
• Most pupils have very positive attitudes and are keen to learn. They are developing good behaviours for learning, including resilience and perseverance, and this is helping them to progress more rapidly than in the past. Although pupils’ attendance remains below average, school leaders are working hard with parents to improve this.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils behave well in classrooms, the playground and when they move around the school. They get on well together regardless of background and they show respect towards staff and to each other.
• The school is an orderly environment and pupils respond quickly to instructions. They are polite, kind and helpful towards staff and visitors and they demonstrate good manners.
• Just occasionally, when activities provided for pupils are too easy, pupils lose concentration. They start to chat among themselves, and do not listen to the teacher.
• Parents who responded to the online survey agreed that the school manages pupils’ behaviour well and that leaders deal with bullying effectively.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Outcomes for pupils have improved since the headteacher joined the school. In 2018, there were increases in the proportion of pupils reaching the levels expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics across the school. Pupils’ attainment is improving rapidly.
• There are low numbers of pupils in most year groups and therefore it is not possible to make comparisons with pupils nationally. However, performance information recorded by the school indicates that most pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Pupils with SEND make progress at similar rates to their classmates. This is because they receive good support from skilled teaching assistants. Similarly, disadvantaged pupils also progress well because they are provided with work and experiences that help them to keep up with other pupils.
• Pupils who join the school midway through their primary education are made to feel welcome by staff and by other pupils. As a result, they settle quickly into school and make good progress, often from low starting points.
• Although the proportion of pupils that reached the expected standard in phonics improved to be just below average in 2018, not all pupils use and apply their phonics confidently when they read. Some still struggle to blend their letters together to read fluently and with enjoyment in Year 2.
• Most pupils, however, enjoy reading and have developed a range of skills that allow them to read fluently and confidently, for pleasure and to find information. By Year 6, pupils have a good understanding of the types of books they enjoy and they say they read widely in school and at home. Pupils in Year 6 spoke enthusiastically about ‘Journey to Jo’burg’ by Beverley Naidoo that they read as part of their recent topic on Africa. They discussed issues, such as apartheid, with maturity, demonstrating an understanding of inequality. This helped to reinforce British values, including tolerance and respect, while contributing to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• Pupils really enjoy their mathematics lessons and they make good progress. Teachers have benefited from training that has prepared them well for providing work that is challenging and which develops pupils’ fluency and reasoning skills. For example, in a Year 5/6 class, pupils demonstrated a good knowledge of multiplication facts that they used to calculate answers to long multiplication problems.
• Pupils’ progress in writing is slower than it is in reading and mathematics. This is because not all teachers consistently pick up on pupils’ basic errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar, and so pupils repeat the same mistakes.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• School leaders have taken action to bring about improvement to the early years but it is still too soon to see the impact of those actions. Although outcomes for children in the early years appear to be broadly in line with the national average, variability in the sizes of cohorts makes comparisons statistically unreliable. Children currently in the early years do not make as much progress as they should.
• Teaching in the early years is not yet consistently good. The work provided for the children is often too easy because expectations of what they can do are not always high enough. This limits the progress they make.
• Children’s achievements are recorded electronically as well as through written records in the form of a ‘learning journey’. This includes examples of children’s work. However, these samples are not always systematically recorded and stored and so do not give a clear picture of children’s learning and progress.
• Although school leaders have improved the physical environment, some areas are still looking tired and in need of refurbishment. Some equipment is old and no longer fit for purpose. Indoors, some areas are cluttered and do not provide a good range of purposeful learning activities. Some of the equipment in the outdoor area does not help children to learn as well as they should.
• Children in the early years are happy and they enjoy school. They behave exceptionally well and they get along well with each other. They feel safe in school because adults provide high-quality care for them. All adults have had suitable training to keep the children safe.
• Children have very positive attitudes towards learning and show curiosity in the world around them. There are times when they are provided with stimulating experiences that arouse their interest. For example, children were fascinated to see what happens when using a magnet to track a paperclip on the underside of a paper plate.
• Children in the early years are exposed to forest-school activities and so they gain an understanding of the natural world around them. This enables them to explore their environment in a controlled manner and so gain an awareness of how to manage risks.

School details

Unique reference number 110460 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 10046070 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 Voluntary aided 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 62 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Julie Wright Debbie Groom 01494 881460 www.cadmoreendschool.org office@cadmoreendschool.org Date of previous inspection 14 October 2014

Information about this school

• The school is much smaller than most primary schools and pupils are taught in mixed-age classes. Numbers of pupils vary considerably in each year group.
• The Nursery and Reception children are taught in one class. Reception-age children attend full-time and the Nursery-age children attend in the mornings only.
• A higher-than-usual number of pupils leave or join the school part way through the school year.
• There have been substantial changes to the staff team since the previous inspection. The headteacher joined the school in April 2017. All teachers and leaders have been appointed to the school since then. A number of new governors have also been appointed since the previous inspection.
• Most pupils are White British, with few who speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is broadly average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is much higher than average.

Information about this inspection

• I observed teaching, learning and assessment in all classes, most of which were jointly observed with the headteacher. I looked at work in pupils’ books and I listened to pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 reading.
• I met with six governors, including the chair of the governing body, and I met with school leaders. I also held a meeting with the local authority adviser and the diocesan adviser. I met with a group of pupils and spoke to them informally in the playground.
• I examined a variety of documentation, including the school’s plans for development, pupils’ assessment information, and documentation relating to pupils’ behaviour and attendance. I also looked at information showing how the school keeps pupils safe.
• I took into account the views of parents by analysing 19 responses to the online survey, Parent View, and the 18 written responses recorded on free-text.

Inspection team

Joy Considine, lead inspector

Ofsted Inspector