Colnbrook Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding are effectively developed across a wide range of subjects, particularly science.
• Further strengthen the effectiveness of middle leaders in monitoring teaching and learning to maintain the highest expectations for pupils’ learning in a range of subjects.
• Raise expectations for pupils’ handwriting and the presentation of their work.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher provides effective leadership for the school. As a result of her clear vision for a successful and inclusive school, the school is improving. Pupils, staff and parents are highly appreciative of her leadership. A parent explained: ‘The school is warm and caring. It is well led by the headteacher who is very in touch with the pupils and their progress. A great primary school, with strong values.’
• The trust and governors provide effective support and challenge. They share a common vision and work well together with school leaders. Staff, leaders and governors benefit from the trust’s good practice and its well-considered support and services.
• Staff morale is high. Staff share the vision of senior leaders and work effectively as a team. Leaders are mindful of adults’ well-being and actively seek ways to improve this. Many staff agreed that: ‘The well-being of staff here is never undervalued.’
• Leaders actively encourage and support staff to improve their practice: any underperformance in teaching is challenged. A teacher commented: ‘The professional development needs and wishes of staff are discussed and proactively met by senior leaders.’
• Leaders ensure that pupils are taught a range of subjects, including French, music, and design and technology. However, work in the books of current pupils confirms that teaching is not routinely developing pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding well in a range of subjects. Leaders recognise there is more work to do in order to develop the curriculum further.
• Leaders ensure that the provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is carefully planned and meets their specific needs. Pupils who attend the learning support unit receive the right help and support. Leaders work successfully in partnership with external providers to develop appropriate activities for this group of pupils. As a result, these pupils are making good progress and enjoy their time at the school.
• Leaders use additional funding for disadvantaged pupils effectively. The school’s pupil premium strategy demonstrates strong attention to detail and is responsive to the sometimes complex barriers to learning of this group of pupils. Leaders review the interventions in place and adapt them accordingly. As a result, these pupils make strong progress.
• Additional government funding for sport is used well to improve the quality of physical education. Leaders pay great attention to pupils’ physical well-being. Pupils take part in an increasing range of local sporting tournaments and clubs, such as basketball and skipping. Pupils speak highly of the healthy lunches they receive and recognise the benefits they gain from walking a mile each day around the school grounds.
• Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development threads its way through the curriculum and is reinforced by the school’s values. Pupils’ achievement and attendance are regularly celebrated in assemblies and newsletters. Weekly collective worship further supports pupils’ understanding of Christian and British values. Pupils show tolerance and respect for each other and warmly welcome the many pupils who join the school mid-year, sometimes speaking little English. In lessons and on the playground, inspectors could not distinguish the pupils who had very recently joined the school.
• Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school and very happy with the care and education their children are receiving. Typical comments from parents included: ‘I feel everyone has gone above and beyond to support us as a family’ and ‘My child has made amazing progress. All the staff are friendly, informative and encouraging.’

Governance of the school

• Governors are ambitious for the school. They visit the school regularly to monitor and check its effectiveness. As a result, they have a strong understanding of the school’s strengths and the areas for further development.
• Governing body meetings are well planned, and discussions are highly considered. Governors provide effective challenge and support to school leaders, for example when reviewing provision for the complex needs of individual pupils and how to support leaders with improving attendance.
• Governors receive regular and up-to-date training, including gaining a better understanding of performance information and recent government changes around safeguarding. They have the required skills and experience to carry out their statutory duties well.
• Good practice is shared across the trust and the local governing body. Lines of accountability are clear, and local governors are empowered to make well-informed, strategic decisions for the benefit of the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Pupils’ welfare lies at the heart of the school. The overwhelming majority of parents feel their children are safe. A parent commented: ‘Our headteacher goes above and beyond to keep the school safe.’
• Staff are well trained to identify and report any concerns they may have about pupils’ welfare. There is strong communication between staff and effective systems are in place for reporting concerns. Leaders take swift and robust action to help children and families when concerns arise, seeking out and securing the help of external agencies when appropriate.
• Staff understand the needs of pupils well. A strength of the school is the successful relationships staff and leaders have with parents. These contribute to ensuring that pupils are kept safe.
• Leaders ensure that staff are well trained on how to keep pupils safe from radicalisation and extremism. Staff have received up-to-date training and guidance on all aspects of safeguarding. Leaders ensure that pupils’ physical safety is paramount. Last year, for example, leaders managed the safe evacuation of the school in response to a fire on an adjacent field. Risk assessments and health and safety checks are carried out rigorously.
• Pupils say they feel safe in school. They demonstrate a deep-seated understanding of how to keep safe online. Leaders make sure that parents are well informed about e-safety with a wide range of information on the school’s website.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Excellent relationships between staff and pupils mean that pupils work hard and want to do well. They demonstrate an impressive thirst for learning. However, teachers’ expectations for what pupils can achieve are not consistently high across subjects other than English and mathematics.
• Teaching is successfully developing pupils’ love of reading. Skilful teaching ensures that the youngest pupils quickly learn good phonics skills. Pupils make good use of these skills to identify letters and blend sounds when they read. Across the school, pupils read widely and often, motivated by teachers’ and leaders’ recommendations for books and magazines as well as the well-stocked library.
• Teachers provide pupils with a wide variety of interesting experiences to motivate them to write. For example, inspectors observed pupils in key stage 2 writing about events leading up to Armistice Day. Pupils are encouraged to develop their vocabulary and consider words carefully to ensure that they use just the right word in their writing, for example replacing ‘glorious’ with ‘opulent’ when describing a mythical palace.
• The teaching of handwriting is variable and overall lacks close attention to detail. Leaders in early years ensure that good foundations for handwriting are firmly established. However, as pupils move up through the school, teachers do not routinely have the highest expectations for handwriting. As a result, pupils’ handwriting is sometimes messy and lacks precision. This affects presentation in their books overall.
• Teaching assistants provide a good balance of support and challenge for pupils who need extra help. They offer skilful questioning to help pupils who require additional support to work things out for themselves. They help pupils focus on learning, reinforcing expectations for behaviour. This support is highly effective in meeting the needs of pupils, in particular those who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils, who make strong progress.
• Leaders have introduced greater challenge, specifically, but not exclusively, for the most able pupils in lessons. This is particularly evident in mathematics, resulting in learning that often extends and deepens pupils’ thinking. Teaching encourages the most able pupils to apply their mathematical knowledge to solve complex problems. For example, pupils in Year 6 were successfully able to work out complex algebraic problems.
• Pupils enjoy some enrichment opportunities across the wider curriculum, including interesting visits based on topics they are learning. However, leaders recognise that, in some areas of the curriculum including science, history and geography, planning for pupils’ progression of knowledge, skills and understanding is not well developed. For example, the teaching of science does not develop pupils’ scientific enquiry skills effectively, as they have limited opportunities to plan, predict and test scientific ideas.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well. The many different cultures within the school are celebrated, for example by a ‘Diwali’ lunch. Pupils happily share their own cultural experiences and different religions with each other. Inspectors spoke to pupils from France, Pakistan, India, Poland and Lithuania, who were united in their acceptance of each other’s differences, saying: ‘Everyone is equal. Everyone is different inside. We respect that.’
• Older pupils enjoy the many responsibilities they are given. Leaders provide opportunities for pupils to develop their leadership skills and gain an understanding of democracy through school council elections and being prefects and play leaders. Pupils delighted in explaining the rigorous process needed to become head boy and head girl. The members of the school council are proud of the money they have raised for different charities and understand the contribution their actions make.
• Pupils have a profound understanding of the school’s Christian values of respect, resilience, compassion, community, aspiration and responsibility. These values are reinforced successfully through weekly assemblies, lessons and on displays around the school.
• Leaders provide pupils with rich experiences, such as interesting visits and residential trips. Pupils spoke animatedly of a recent trip to a local power station to support their learning about how energy is harnessed.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils demonstrate good behaviour during lessons. They move about the school in an orderly manner and integrate well together on the playground. They report that bullying is rare and, when they do occasionally fall out, staff are good at tackling this.
• Leaders work effectively to manage the behaviour of a few pupils who have complex behavioural needs. Leaders are relentless in ensuring that this group of pupils receive the help they need. They provide extensive nurture and support to enable pupils to access their learning successfully.
• Pupils enjoy coming to the school. Attendance overall improved last year, including that of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and pupils who speak English as an additional language, although it remains below the national average. Leaders track absence closely, and their effective work with parents has resulted in increased expectations for attendance. Persistent absence remains higher than the national average. However, leaders are not complacent and work intensively with families with some individual successes.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The teaching of early reading is effective. Provisional information for 2018 shows that the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the phonics reading check in Year 1 rose from the previous year to be securely above the national average.
• Pupils achieve well as they move through key stage 1, following their strong start in the early years. In 2018, provisional information shows that the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard for their age in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2 rose from the previous year and is broadly in line with provisional national averages set this year.
• Pupils’ work in books and the school’s own assessment information indicate that current pupils are making good progress in English and mathematics. This is because teaching is well planned, and the assessment of pupils’ progress is accurate.
• Provisional information for the end of key stage 2 in 2018 shows that the progress that pupils made in reading and writing was above national figures. Although pupils’ progress in mathematics is just above the national average, this has dipped slightly from 2017.
• An increasing number of pupils attain well in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of key stage 2. Provisional information for 2018 shows that attainment has risen from the previous year, although this remains below national averages.
• Pupils who are disadvantaged make good progress from their starting points. Carefully planned support activities, skilfully delivered by teachers and teaching assistants, help this group of pupils to achieve well. In 2017, the progress of disadvantaged pupils was in the top 25% of schools nationally. Although provisional information shows this dipped a little last year, particularly in mathematics, leaders are not complacent and have taken swift action to address this.
• Work in pupils’ books shows that the quality of pupils’ learning in subjects other than English and mathematics is mixed. Pupils do not make consistently strong progress in a range of subjects, including science. Leaders recognise this is an area for improvement, and the further development of the curriculum is a top priority on the school development plan.

Early years provision Good

• Children get off to a strong start in early years. Typically, children begin Nursery with below-average levels of development and many speak English as an additional language. By the end of Reception, although the proportion of children achieving a good level of development has not reached the national average, it has risen steadily over the last three years.
• The leadership of early years is strong. The early years leader demonstrates a clear vision for the provision. She has established a dedicated team whose members work effectively together and are highly reflective, continually seeking to improve their practice.
• Children make strong progress, because of good teaching based on accurate assessment of children’s needs. Teachers plan activities that challenge and interest the children. For example, inspectors observed children building a house for ‘The Gruffalo’ and drawing maps showing where he might be in the ‘forest’.
• Leaders thoughtfully manage transition into the school, and routines are quickly established. Adults actively encourage children to be independent. Children quickly understand the school rules and play happily together.
• Leaders forge highly positive relationships with parents, through setting out clear expectations. Leaders offer many opportunities for parents to be involved in their children’s learning. For example, during the inspection, parents attended an open morning to see what their children had been learning and were offered support with helping their children read at home. At the end of each day, parents are informed about what children have been learning to encourage discussion with their children about their day. This is greatly appreciated by parents, with typical comments such as: ‘The Nursery and Reception staff are brilliant. They form a strong bond with parents and make the children feel special.’
• Adults place great emphasis on developing children’s fine motor skills. Children are taught to hold pencils or pens correctly and form letters accurately. As a result, children confidently develop good writing skills. Inspectors observed children successfully applying these skills to writing menus and shopping lists while engaging in role play.
• The teaching of early reading is effective and includes structured daily phonics lessons. Adults model how to use the sounds that letters represent to read and write words. They develop children’s vocabulary and their speaking skills effectively through reading stories and exploring the meaning of words.
• Indoors and outdoors, adults provide a good range of activities for children which enable rich learning opportunities, such as a mud kitchen, construction activities and opportunities to be physically active.
• Safeguarding is effective. Adults ensure that the environment is safe and secure. They encourage children to keep safe and manage risks, such as wearing goggles when engaging in construction activities.
• By the end of Reception, children are well prepared for the challenges of Year 1.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 139567 Slough 10053362 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 Academy sponsor-led 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 206 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Becky Ivers Susan Marsh 01753 683661 www.colnbrookprimary.com/ mail@colnbrookprimary.com Date of previous inspection 18–19 June 2015

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Less than a quarter of pupils are from White British backgrounds. The remainder are from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above that found nationally.
• The school has a learning resource unit which has 10 places for pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 with complex learning needs.
• The school converted to become an academy on 1 June 2013. It is a member of The Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Academy Multi Academy Trust.
• The school has a nursery, which children attend part time.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• The school runs a breakfast club.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed 16 lessons. In most, but not all, they were accompanied by the headteacher or assistant headteacher.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher and assistant headteacher to discuss the school’s self-evaluation and development priorities.
• The lead inspector met with four members of the local governing body, including the chair of governors.
• The lead inspector met with the Chair of Directors of The Slough and East Berkshire Church of England Academy Multi Academy Trust.
• A telephone call took place with the headteacher of alternative provision attended by a pupil in the school.
• Parents’ views were considered through face-to-face informal discussions and the 35 responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View, including 33 free-text comments.
• Inspectors took account of the 26 survey responses submitted by staff and one letter from a member of staff.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read, looked at work in pupils’ books, and discussed pupils’ progress and attainment with leaders. Inspectors spoke to pupils informally and met with a group of pupils from Year 2 to Year 6. They considered the views of 14 pupils from Ofsted’s online survey.
• Inspectors checked records and documentation relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance. The checks made on staff about their suitability to work with children were reviewed.

Inspection team

Frances Nation, lead inspector Kevin Burrell

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector