Curdridge Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Develop leaders at all levels to build a culture of high aspirations across the school.
• Improve teaching in phonics in Year 1 and the early years so that:
  • all pupils make good progress in learning their letters and sounds in Year 1, so that they are fully prepared to achieve their potential by the end of key stage 1
  • practice and provision in the early years ensures that children are not left behind in their reading development, but achieve well.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher has made a significant impact on improving the quality of education for all pupils. She is determined to make the school the best it can be.
• She has challenged any underperformance of staff rigorously and has managed the resulting changes to staff well. Along with her governors, she is determined to appoint the best people to work in her school. Consequently, she is developing a strong senior leadership team with leaders who are good teachers and model high expectations for all staff.
• The headteacher recognises the need to develop the leadership skills of all her staff so that they can play a more active part in driving improvement and developing a culture of high aspirations right across the school.
• Senior leaders have thoroughly analysed any gaps in performance and outcomes. Their detailed actions and evaluations give a very clear view of what has been achieved and what the next steps are. Progress made by the senior team indicates very strongly that the school’s leaders are able to improve the school further. They have identified the weaker aspects of teaching and learning in Reception and Year 1 and have the motivation and ambition to improve things quickly.
• The recently appointed special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) ensures that pupils’ needs are well met and that lessons are planned carefully for them, insisting on the very best provision for all vulnerable pupils. She works well in partnership with other agencies, staff and families and is a strong advocate for the pupils in her care.
• In light of past underachievement of pupils and many staff changes, senior staff have led a review of the curriculum with a particular focus on mathematics, reading and writing. These changes are resulting in consistently better teaching and outcomes for pupils, particularly in mathematics and writing.
• Pupils benefit from a wide choice of extra-curricular activities from football to gardening. They enjoy these opportunities to learn different skills and to stay fit.
• Any additional government funds, such as the pupil premium grant and sports funding, are directed carefully to support pupils’ engagement in learning and the progress they make. The impact of this money is carefully monitored by governors and annual reports are available on the school’s website.
• The school promotes equality of opportunity well through its core values, celebrating different languages and faiths and teaching British values to all pupils. In lessons and around the school pupils show great respect and care for one another, enjoying learning about each other’s cultures and experiences. During the inspection, the assembly was led by the French club, which is attended by pupils from key stage 1. Songs, rhymes and basic phrases were shared with great confidence and accuracy to celebrate some different aspects of another culture.
• The performance of staff is managed well by leaders. Staff have been given opportunities to develop their skills by working with other professionals and by visiting other schools to share good practice. These opportunities have led staff to make key changes to their practice to improve opportunities and outcomes for pupils.

Governance of the school

• Following the previous inspection and the review of governance, governors took advice and support, which has been invaluable in developing their understanding of their roles and in developing their knowledge and expertise. 

• Governance is now effective because governors are working as a team to support and challenge school leaders. They regularly check performance data information. This helps to sharpen the focus of school improvement and provides the school with continuous challenge and support regarding pupils’ outcomes.
• Governors have played an active role in evaluating the school’s effectiveness. Some governors have a direct link to the key improvement areas. They regularly meet with key leaders, and their reports show evidence of good understanding and a high level of challenge through incisive questioning.
• Finances are well managed, and funds, including those for pupils supported by the pupil premium and sports funding, are directed appropriately, making a positive difference to pupils’ progress and outcomes.
• Governors ensure that staff performance targets are suitably challenging. They monitor the progress of the headteacher and all teachers towards meeting their targets, and ensure that pay is directly linked to effectiveness.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safety, welfare and the protection of pupils are priorities for the school, and due to good practice, pupils are safe and well cared for.
• Staff benefit from regular and appropriate training. At every staff briefing the headteacher sets a safeguarding question for all staff to consider and report back on. For example, ‘If you see a visitor in school without an identity badge what do you do?’ These simple and regular questions ensure that safeguarding is high on everyone’s agenda and that the structures to support early identification and rapid response to concerns are a strength of the school.
• There are well-developed child protection procedures that are rigorously followed and understood by all staff. Staff work with families and partners in health and social care to ensure that pupils are safe and well cared for.
• All staff, governors and visitors are subject to the appropriate checks so that there is no doubt that the school is a secure and safe place to be. All the full required details are diligently included on a well-maintained central register.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Under the strong leadership of the headteacher the quality of teaching, learning and assessment has improved significantly since the last inspection.
• Teaching is consistently good across the school. This ensures that all pupils, including the disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make at least good progress over time.
• A significant amount of work has been undertaken this year to improve the teaching of mathematics and writing across the school. Pupils now have a better understanding of these subjects and how they are useful to them. Currently, the majority of pupils are working at least in line with the levels expected for their age and are making at least good progress.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge and plan learning that matches pupils’ needs. Their lessons are both engaging and challenging, and pupils enjoy their learning and focus well. For example, in a key stage 2 lesson, pupils were seen editing their learning journeys. They were creating their own unusually named planets and talking eloquently about how they have reached this point in their writing, describing the different steps they take before writing the finished piece. The teacher moves around and checks their understanding challenging their thinking with good questions. This supports their editing process well.
• Staff have benefited from the quality support of leaders to develop their classroom practice to ensure that lessons are planned well to meet all pupils’ needs. For example, in a mathematics lesson, the teacher set a problem for the pupils to tackle independently. No time was wasted. Pupils who did well moved quickly on to a more challenging activity, while pupils who needed further help, received it quickly.
• The teaching of phonics is not consistently good in Reception and Year 1. Pupils do not get sufficient opportunities to develop their use of letters and sounds and do not typically use the skills they have been taught when reading and writing. This means that the progress they make is not as fast as it should be.
• Homework is set in line with the school’s policy. Examples of home learning from classes 2 and 3 are celebrated in the entrance hall with the lighthouses and chariots that pupils have made as part of their learning. These celebrate learners’ resilience and creativity and demonstrate how pupils can make links in learning across the curriculum.
• Learning support assistants are adaptable, working in a variety of ways, and often supporting vulnerable learners well. There is some inconsistency in ensuring that their work helps pupils to make the fastest progress 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 are proud of their school and enjoy learning. They are confident and self-assured learners.
• Pupils are encouraged to be independent and resilient thinkers and are not afraid to ask if they do not understand something.
• Pupils feel safe in school and their parents agree that the school is attentive to pupils’ welfare.
• Most pupils have a good understanding of how to stay safe in a wide range of situations. Some of the younger pupils are less clear about the steps they should take to stay safe online.
• Pupils talk articulately about how they stay fit and healthy, and the school supports them well in doing this by promoting healthy eating and placing an emphasis on the importance of physical education. For example, every morning, pupils use the opportunity to run ‘the golden mile’ around the field, enthusiastically charting their progress and challenging one another. This helps them to stay fit and healthy. They tell me it ‘gets them ready to learn’.
• Pupils are fully aware of all types of bullying and discrimination. A member of the school council clearly explains the difference between bullying and falling out with a friend. Pupils say that any form of bullying or discrimination are rare and the school deals with any occasional issues efficiently and effectively.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are extremely polite and respectful to visitors and to each other.
• Most staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and support them well in achieving good standards. For a small minority of pupils who find this more of a challenge, teachers employ good strategies to make sure that any poor behaviour does not get in the way of learning. At lunchtimes, supervision is not as rigorous as it could be and opportunities to develop pupils’ social skills are sometimes missed.
• Attendance is monitored closely as the school wants every pupil to be safe and in school learning. Any persistent absence is challenged and appropriate action taken. The use of attendance rewards for pupils and direct contact with parents are both ensuring that the need for good attendance is understood. 


Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils enjoy learning at this school and are well prepared for the next steps in their education. One parent wrote, ‘The grounding that all children receive at Curdridge Primary School is the best start to the next stage of their lives that anyone could wish for.’
• Historically, pupils have not achieved as well as they could. However, current pupils, including the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils, are making strong and sometimes rapid progress from their starting points. Work in books is often of a very high standard. Effective and improved teaching means that pupils’ outcomes in all subjects, including English and mathematics, are now good and improving.
• The difference between the standards reached by disadvantaged pupils and others nationally is diminishing quickly. Assessments of current outcomes at the end of key stage 2 show that the standards met by disadvantaged pupils in mathematics, reading and writing are at least in line with, and sometimes above, those achieved by other pupils from the same starting points.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress from their different starting points.
• Leaders meet regularly with teachers to check on pupils’ progress and identify new strategies as needed. Staff respond quickly to changing circumstances and ensure that pupils are receiving the right type of support.
• The current phonics outcomes and the teaching of phonics over time in Year 1 have not met the high expectations of school leaders. The teaching of phonics has been inconsistent and too many pupils have not made enough progress in Year 1. By the end of Year 2, the vast majority of pupils catch up and meet the expected standard.

Early years provision Good

• The early years leader has made many improvements to the provision to allow pupils to make better progress in the early years.
• Working alongside other professionals, the early years leader and her support assistant have developed attractive and stimulating learning environments, both inside and outdoors. Good visual and written prompts help children to develop their learning. For example, a selection of shells and a tray of different materials helped two boys to describe the properties of the shells and then make their own ‘spikey’ shell using a mould of sand and cutting up straws. They went on to describe this to an adult showing how they had developed a wider vocabulary and a strong sense of curiosity, as the boys wanted to find out more.
• Assessment is accurate so that the needs of the children are met in a timely manner. This ensures that children make good progress from their different starting points. Outcomes for this year indicate that the large majority of children have achieved their early learning goals with most making good progress.
• Children have developed good relationships with staff and each other, and work together with a good deal of cooperation.
• Parents are very positive about the way in which the teachers communicate with them and enjoy looking at, and contributing to, the online learning journals.
• Children do not achieve as well as they could in phonics, consequently some are left behind in their reading development.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115879 Hampshire 10032833 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school All-through Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 97 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Martin Horn Mrs Sally Wood 01489 782613

www.curdridge.hants.sch.uk sally.wood@curdridge.hants.sch.uk

Date of previous inspection 2–3 June 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is a smaller than average-sized primary school. It is in an area of low social deprivation.
• A lower than average number of pupils are supported by the pupil premium.
• The school has a lower than average number of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The number of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national figure.
• The number of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average.
• There are four mixed-age classes in the school.
• The school meets the government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector and senior leaders observed lessons across the school and in a range of subjects.
• The inspector looked at the school’s website.
• The inspector worked in partnership with the school’s senior leaders when analysing information about the school. The inspector looked at pupils’ outcomes, the school’s evaluation of its own performance, its development plan and monitoring and evaluation records. Behaviour and attendance records and information relating to safeguarding were also checked.
• The inspector walked around the school to find out more about pupils’ work from displays and extra-curricular activities.
• The inspector spent time on the playground at lunchtime, listened to pupils read and looked at work in pupils’ books alongside senior leaders. 

• Meetings were held with senior leaders in their roles as subject coordinators. This also included meeting the special educational needs coordinator.
• The inspector met with three members of the governing body, including the chair, and also met with the local authority representative.
• A group of pupils discussed their opinions about the school and their learning with the inspector, who also spoke informally with pupils around the school.
• The inspector took account of 17 staff questionnaires, and considered 37 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, along with parents’ written comments. The inspector also had discussions with 11 parents before and after school.

Inspection team

Sarah Varnom, lead inspector

Ofsted Inspector