All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that pupils make even greater progress, and that greater proportions of pupils achieve the expected and higher standards, by:
  • further strengthening and embedding the improvements made to the quality of teaching and learning across the school
  • developing the skills of teaching assistants in challenging and supporting learning.
• Strengthen leadership and management by increasing the impact of middle leaders in improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The executive headteacher and interim head of school have taken robust action to address successfully the school’s decline in standards since the previous inspection. They have a very secure understanding of the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement and have accurately focused their school improvement work.
• Senior leaders have wasted no time in tackling underperformance in teaching. They have set high expectations for staff and pupils and have implemented a range of successful strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, current pupils in the school are making good progress from their starting points.
• The local authority has worked closely with the school, providing an effective balance of support and challenge for school leaders. They hold regular ‘progress group’ meetings to monitor the impact that leaders are having on improving outcomes for pupils in the school.
• Senior leaders have begun to develop the role of middle leaders, including subject leaders. Consequently, some middle leaders now provide strong leadership and contribute to improvements in the quality of teaching and learning across the school. Other middle leaders, however, do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to lead improvements in their subjects effectively.
• The coordinator for special educational needs rigorously monitors the attainment and progress of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). He uses this information to plan appropriate, additional support for these pupils, to enable them to make good progress from their starting points.
• Leaders carefully target their use of additional funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils receive the support and provision that they need to be successful. In addition, leaders have established robust procedures to check the impact that this funding is having on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. As a result, disadvantaged pupils currently in the school are making strong progress.
• Leaders make effective use of the physical education and sports premium funding to provide pupils with the opportunity to participate in a wide range of sporting and physical activities. Consequently, pupils’ enjoyment and participation in sport have increased.
• Leaders have carefully planned the school’s curriculum to meet the needs of their pupils. Topics, encompassing a wide range of subjects, are underpinned by high-quality texts. These texts are carefully selected to broaden pupils’ knowledge and understanding of different countries and cultures, as well as different periods in history. This makes learning interesting and relevant to pupils. Furthermore, it successfully promotes their understanding of fundamental British values and supports their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively.

Governance of the school

• Leaders instigated an external review of governance in March 2018, which provided governors with clear actions for improvement. The governing body responded swiftly to the advice given and has improved its effectiveness. With support from the executive headteacher, governors have undertaken additional training in order to develop their skills and knowledge.
• The governing body is committed to continually improving the effectiveness of the school’s work. Governors have high expectations for all pupils and are determined that local deprivation does not disadvantage their pupils. As one governor said, they are committed to ensuring that ‘no pupil is left behind’.
• Governors ensure that they receive detailed information about the school’s performance, including pupils’ assessment information. They interrogate this information thoroughly and provide school leaders with robust challenge to ensure that outcomes for pupils are good.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders have established a robust culture of safeguarding, underpinned by carefully planned policies and procedures, ensuring that pupils’ welfare is paramount.
• The designated safeguarding lead provides all staff with regular safeguarding training and termly newsletters. This ensures that all staff have a very good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and pupils are kept safe from harm.
• Leaders maintain thorough, detailed safeguarding records, including the records of pre-employment checks on adults working in the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Senior leaders have raised expectations, implementing a number of effective strategies to improve successfully the quality of teaching and learning across the curriculum. Consequently, the majority of teaching across the school is now good.
• Teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Pupils rise to this challenge with enthusiasm and a commitment to improve their learning.
• Pupils get off to a good start with their reading and writing, because the teaching of phonics is effective. Teachers have good subject knowledge and they know their pupils well. They provide pupils with regular opportunities to apply their knowledge of letters and the sounds they represent to read and write challenging words.
• The teaching of reading is strong. Teachers select texts that challenge pupils’ reading skills and introduce them to a wide range of language that broadens their vocabulary. Teachers are skilled at questioning pupils’ understanding. Teachers pose increasingly challenging questions that require pupils to extend and deepen their thinking. As a result, current pupils are making good progress in their reading.
• Teachers plan writing tasks that provide pupils with meaningful opportunities to practise and develop their writing skills, selecting topics that capture pupils’ interest. For example, in Year 6, pupils wrote about the battle of Sidley Green in their topic on local history, producing writing of a high standard. Teachers also give pupils opportunities to edit and improve their writing, which enables pupils to make strong progress from their starting points.
• Teachers have implemented the school’s new approach to the teaching of mathematics effectively. They carefully plan learning that allows pupils to ‘practise, apply, challenge and extend’ their understanding across a range of mathematical concepts. Consequently, pupils are making good progress in mathematics.
• In a small minority of classes, where teaching is less strong, teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve. Assessment information is not used effectively enough to ensure that tasks are correctly pitched or to provide pupils with the resources they need to support their learning. As a result, learning is sometimes too difficult, or too easy. Furthermore, during lessons teachers do not question pupils precisely enough to establish pupils’ understanding so as to know whether to support or challenge further.
• There is some variability in the quality of support provided by teaching assistants. While some teaching assistants explain learning and question pupils effectively, at other times the additional support they provide does not sufficiently reinforce or deepen pupils’ understanding.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils take great pride in the presentation of their work and have developed positive attitudes to their learning. For example, pupils talk readily about working with endurance when tackling challenges in their learning.
• The school’s Christian values are of high importance to pupils and staff and they underpin the daily life of the school. Parents, carers, staff and pupils value the school’s work with the local community, underpinned by the value of ‘koinonia’. As one pupil explained, this means that ‘we all work together and we all try as one’.
• Pupils feel safe from bullying. They are confident that, on the very rare occasion that bullying does occur, adults in the school take it very seriously and deal with it effectively.
• The school’s curriculum ensures that pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe. For instance, pupils have a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe online.
• Pupils are provided with a number of opportunities to take on roles of responsibility within the school. Pupils carry out these roles with pride and enjoyment. For example, older pupils particularly enjoy reading to their younger peers in the outdoor reading shed at lunchtime.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Leaders have set clear expectations regarding pupils’ behaviour and have established effective routines and procedures to promote good behaviour. As a result, pupils’ conduct around the school is of a high standard. Pupils move around the school in a calm, orderly manner. Pupils of all ages, boys and girls, play together happily at breaktimes and lunchtimes.
• Leaders have introduced a range of incentives to encourage regular attendance. They closely monitor the attendance of those pupils who are persistently absent. They provide families with a wide range of support to reduce rates of absence but also challenge parents when their child’s attendance does not improve. Consequently, the attendance of some pupils has improved. Overall attendance does, however, remain below the national average.
• In a minority of lessons, where learning is not pitched at the right level for pupils, pupils lose interest in their work and their concentration wanes. While this does not disrupt the learning of others, when this happens pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• As a result of raised expectations and the improvements in teaching and learning, the majority of pupils currently in the school are making strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Pupils develop positive attitudes to reading. Younger pupils use their phonic knowledge with confidence to read unfamiliar words and to read increasingly complex texts. Older pupils reflect on their reading to consider the deeper meaning of the texts they have read. Consequently, pupils make good progress in reading.
• The progress that pupils make in writing is strong. Pupils build their stamina to write at length and apply increasingly complex vocabulary and punctuation in their writing. By Year 6, pupils are beginning to develop a mature style of writing that is interesting and enjoyable to read, in particular the most able. Furthermore, the quality of pupils’ handwriting is of a high standard and this contributes well to the overall neatness of pupils’ work.
• As a result of effective teaching in mathematics, pupils develop a secure understanding of number and calculation. Pupils use this understanding with confidence to tackle increasingly demanding problem-solving and reasoning tasks.
• Disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND also make good progress from their starting points. This is because leaders make effective use of additional funding to plan carefully appropriate support and provision for these pupils.
• While most teaching is good and is securing strong progress across the curriculum, a small minority of pupils are not making the progress of which they are capable, because there remains some variability in the quality of teaching.
• The progress that current pupils make in the foundation subjects (subjects other than English and mathematics) is also strong. Pupils develop a thorough knowledge base and demonstrate their deep understanding in a wide range of subjects. They use subject-specific vocabulary with confidence and produce work of a high standard. For instance, pupils in Year 3 showed good knowledge and understanding of tectonic plates in their topic on volcanoes and earthquakes.
• Historically weak teaching meant that pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics declined. In 2018, the average progress made by pupils was well below that of other pupils nationally. The proportions of pupils who attained the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined at the end of Year 6 was also below that of other pupils nationally. Few pupils attained a high standard at the end of key stage 2. Leaders’ effective work to improve teaching and learning is successfully addressing these historical weaknesses.
• The proportion of pupils who attained the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 was broadly in line with the national averages in 2018. Furthermore, the proportion of pupils who attained greater depth has been steadily improving over the last three years.

Early years provision Good

• Leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the strengths and priorities for improvement in the early years provision. They make effective use of assessment information to plan provision across the setting to meet the needs of all children.
• Leaders have identified that children enter the Nursery and Reception classes with speaking and listening skills below those expected for their age. In response to this, leaders have enriched the provision, introducing a wide range of interventions to support children’s development of these skills. As a result, children make good progress in these areas.
• Relationships between adults and children throughout the setting are caring and nurturing. Adults provide effective support and warm encouragement while children play and learn. Consequently, children are very happy in the school and they are well looked after.
• Routines are very well established and contribute to a calm, purposeful learning atmosphere. Children behave well, playing and learning together harmoniously.
• Teaching in both Nursery and Reception classes is strong. Teachers carefully plan learning opportunities that enable children to develop their key skills well. Activities excite children’s interest and keep them actively engaged, so that they persevere with their learning. For instance, children in the Reception Year worked hard on their problem-solving activity, to design and make a trap to capture a mini-beast.
• Teachers know the children very well. They make effective use of assessment to plan the next steps in children’s learning. They skilfully question children to explore their understanding and to challenge their thinking. Children respond well to this and are keen to do well.
• As a result of good teaching, children make strong progress from their starting points across the early years curriculum. In recent years, the proportion of children who attained a good level of development by the end of Reception has been in line with the national average.
• Leaders ensure that parents are able to become involved regularly in their child’s learning in the school. Parents have the opportunity to share their child’s learning at home through ‘WOW’ cards sent into the school. They are also invited to attend ‘stay and play’ sessions, which are very well attended.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 114491 East Sussex 10046105 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 controlled 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 209 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Father Michael Bailey Executive Headteacher Mrs Linda Appleby Interim Head of School Telephone number Website Email address Mr Mike Taylor 01424 219083 https://www.allsaintsbexhill.org head@allsaints-bex.e-sussex.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 4–5 March 2015

Information about this school

• All Saints Church of England Primary School, Bexhill is located in the Diocese of Chichester. Its last section 48 inspection took place in March 2017. The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The school has undergone a change in leadership since the last inspection. The school has been supported by an executive headteacher from a local primary school since March 2018. The interim head of school has been in post since September 2018.
• The early years setting incorporates a Nursery for two- to four-year-old children and a Reception class for four- and five-year-old children.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEND is slightly above the national average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is significantly above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average.
• The school provides a breakfast club on its site.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed pupils’ learning in all year groups and classes, across a range of subjects. Most sessions were observed jointly with the interim head of school and deputy headteacher. Inspectors looked at the quality of pupils’ work during lessons and through a focused scrutiny of work in books.
• Inspectors held meetings with the executive headteacher, interim head of school and other school leaders and staff. They also met with members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. They met with the school’s designated safeguarding leads.
• A wide range of documentation was reviewed, including information on pupils’ attainment and progress, attendance and behaviour. Information about governance, including the minutes of the governing body’s meetings, was examined. The school’s self-evaluation summary, school development plan and supporting evidence were scrutinised, together with information on the school’s website.
• There were 63 responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View, including three free-text comments, which were considered. Inspectors also met with parents at the beginning of each school day.
• Inspectors considered the views of 19 staff who completed Ofsted’s confidential online survey.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and talked with pupils in lessons and around the school to gather their views. They also met formally with a group of pupils.
• Pupils’ behaviour was observed in lessons, around the school, and during collective worship, breaktime and lunchtime.
• Inspectors reviewed the school’s safeguarding records and the single central record of recruitment checks on adults working with pupils.

Inspection team

Leah Goulding, lead inspector Tracey Bowen

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector