Pyrcroft Grange Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to work to ensure that boys’ performance in the early years matches the exceptional attainment of girls.
• Continue to apply successful strategies for improving attendance to the few remaining pupils whose absence is caused by significant physical or medical needs.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Pyrcroft Grange is an extremely well-led school. The headteacher leads with passion, dedication and a clear vision of how she wants the school to be. Though she was appointed to the role only recently, her many years of service as deputy headteacher mean that she knows the community well. She knows every single pupil.
• The headteacher maintains detailed records of the performance of each pupil. She uses information skilfully to set targets, track progress, identify any emerging weaknesses and demonstrate the effectiveness of any activity. This is most impressive.
• Leadership capacity has been strengthened by the recent appointment of a deputy headteacher. Together with the assistant headteacher, who also leads the COIN specialist provision, there is now a formidable leadership team.
• Leaders are all skilled practitioners themselves, so that teachers have strong models to learn from. The whole staff is committed to self-improvement. Teachers and teaching assistants take up any available training. All staff share ideas and expertise so that there is a culture of continuous improvement.
• Senior leaders are highly ambitious for the pupils. Consequently, everything is aimed at raising standards. This is clearly evident in the remarkable results in 2016. Pupils achieved high standards, in some cases far above national averages, despite entering the school at levels typically below others of the same age. Leaders are not complacent and provided ample evidence of their plans to continue the rates of improvement seen in the last two years.
• Senior leaders ensure that all pupils achieve as well as they can by making the best use possible of any additional funding. For example, leaders ensure that the pupil premium is used to provide effective support for targeted pupils in lessons. Leaders also use some of the money to pay for extra-curricular activities so that no pupil is excluded from any beneficial learning opportunities. Money is also managed well to provide additional tuition in vacation periods if necessary. As a result, disadvantaged pupils excel in this school and attain standards regularly in excess of other pupils nationally.
• Similarly, leaders use the additional resources available to support the COIN specialist provision to good effect. This is also true for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities other than autistic spectrum disorders. Typically these pupils make progress at rates similar to their classmates, even if they start from further back. Many catch up through the effective use of targeted funding, and achieve as well as other pupils nationally.
• Leadership of the specialist provision and the mainstream support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is compassionate and skilful. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) is experienced and expert. She pays particular attention to detail when designing pupils’ individual provision. The SENCo also leads the team of teaching assistants well so that they carry out their tasks effectively.
• Leadership of the early years is equally effective.
• All leaders contribute to the robust leadership of the core curriculum. Reading, writing and mathematics are taught well, leading to strong outcomes for all groups of pupils. Leaders also ensure that there is a rich and enabling curriculum to support the core. Pupils benefit from rich opportunities to write and use number correctly through an effectively planned mathematics curriculum. Music features extensively in the school’s work and pupils benefit from structured work in physical education. This is made possible by good use of the primary sports and physical education funding.
• The school’s core curriculum is further enriched by a varied programme of extra-curricular activities such as visits to the theatre, The Oval cricket ground or Chertsey Museum, and residential experiences on the Isle of Wight or Marchant’s Hill. Pupils choose to participate in clubs such as football, art, construction, gardening and ukulele.
• The school runs a sensitively thought-through religious education week. Year 6 pupils were able to compare the two stories of Jesus’ birth convincingly during one session in this week of activities. This makes an important contribution to pupils’ spiritual development, alongside their participation in singing and moments for reflection in assemblies. It is also part of an appropriately diverse approach to understanding the nature of religious belief in the United Kingdom. As such, the school’s approach enables pupils to develop the necessary skills for living and thriving in modern, diverse Britain. Pupils’ participation in a pupil parliament day helps their development of appropriate attitudes to democracy and the rule of law.
• Leaders are determined that all pupils will leave well prepared for the next stage of their education. They provided much evidence that they are also committed to enabling pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Through their kindness to each other and their mutually respectful relationships, pupils demonstrate that they are indeed making excellent progress in this aspect of their school lives.

Governance of the school

• Governors have made a very strong contribution to raising standards in the school. Shortly after the predecessor school was inspected, it went into a steep decline. Standards were low and pupils’ successes were few.
• With the help of the Bourne Education Trust, over the last three years, governors have turned the school’s performance round. They have made suitable appointments to key leadership roles. Governors have rightly supported the headteacher as she has stepped up into the role from her long-standing deputy headship at the school.
• Governors have a very clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Their own records show that they hold leaders to account for the quality of provision and outcomes. Governors give freely of their time and use it purposefully.
• Governors ensure that all statutory aspects of their duties are fulfilled appropriately. For example, they:
  • ensure that the website is compliant with the Department for Education’s requirements
  • assist the headteacher with preparing and delivering a balanced budget annually
  • oversee the work of the COIN specialist resource provision so that pupils are safe and thrive
  • check meticulously that any additional funding received from the government is put to extremely good use; this includes funding to support pupils who have special educational needs, the pupil premium and also the primary sports and physical education funding.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders, ably supported by the governors, have built a culture of safeguarding across all aspects of the school’s work.
• The checks leaders make on anyone wishing to work at the school are rigorous and in keeping with contemporary guidance. The governor appointed to oversee this aspect of the school’s work does so assiduously on a monthly basis.
• Similar checks are made on governors themselves, the school’s sponsor, anyone wishing to volunteer at the school, and all contractors.
• Leaders ensure that the perimeter of the extensive site is secure and that all fencing is maintained to a good standard. Leaders also ensure that all play equipment is maintained to a high standard to contribute to pupils’ safety.
• Leaders, with help from the Bourne Education Trust, maintain a good range of behaviour, anti-bullying, child protection and safeguarding policies, all of which contribute to the feeling of safety and security in the school.
• Pupils told inspectors how they have been trained to keep themselves safe online. Teachers told inspectors how they have been trained to keep pupils safe and to detect the signs of any pupils at risk or showing signs of neglect.
• This aspect of the school’s work was judged to be good when its predecessor was inspected. It is even better now.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teaching is highly effective and leads to outstanding outcomes for pupils.
• Teachers plan all activity collaboratively. Teaching assistants share in the planning process so they know exactly what to do to support learning.
• Teachers have strong subject knowledge across the range of subjects. They use the correct technical language in each subject. They ask pupils appropriate questions to check learning or to challenge pupils to think more deeply.
• Teachers make effective use of a wide range of resources such as tools for counting, information and communication technology, carefully structured activity sheets, displays of key words or vocabulary, and good-quality textbooks, including dictionaries. For example, in a mathematics class, pupils used large physical education hoops to create their own Venn diagrams to help sort shapes by their mathematical properties.
• Teachers identify quickly any pupils who are falling behind or have not understood a specific skill, part of a lesson or aspect of content. Teachers provide instant catch-up for such pupils using a practice of ‘same-day intervention’. Leaders and teachers also provide extra tuition in vacation periods, especially for disadvantaged pupils. This means that all pupils make extremely good progress towards the attainment of age-appropriate expectations in each subject.
• Teachers are able to make these adjustments because they assess pupils’ learning regularly and effectively. They compare samples of pupils’ work with teachers from other schools. This means that they are growing in confidence in knowing about how well pupils are doing. They are also adept at informing pupils, through careful oral or written feedback, how well they are doing. Pupils appreciate this feedback and generally act on it quickly. All teachers follow the school’s assessment policy.
• Adults working in the COIN centre are particularly skilled and careful in meeting the needs of the pupils. Adults plan each day’s activity so that every pupil is supported in making learning gains. Sometimes these appear to be very small steps due to factors inhibiting an individual pupil’s ability to learn. Teachers’ relentless focus on learning means that any time lost is made up quickly.
• Leaders use a variety of innovative ways to nurture the progress and attainment of the most able pupils. For example, higher-attaining pupils in Year 5 are taken to a local secondary school each week to receive advanced teaching in English. This helps accelerate their learning. Leaders ensure that the most able pupils are identified by each class teacher and provided with extra challenges in lessons or even more probing questions.
• Leaders also work with parents regularly to enable them to support their children’s learning at home. Parents are invited into assemblies and meetings to hear about what the pupils have been learning.
• Teachers lead a family learning session at the start of each new section of the curriculum so that parents know exactly the content of the topic and can provide focused support with homework. Most parents appreciate the range and quality of homework as well as the help pupils are given to complete it fully. Teachers are increasingly extending interactive processes used in the early years to classes further up the school. This enables parents to contribute evidence or examples of pupils’ learning gains outside school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. Despite the barriers many pupils face, they thrive in school.
• Pupils have remarkable self-confidence, which admirably reflects the positive values on which the school is founded.
• Pupils are increasingly helping each other to be resilient when learning becomes tough. All pupils respect each other’s individual differences. Pupils in the mainstream are accommodating of their peers in the COIN specialist provision. Other pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan are warmly integrated into as many aspects of school life as possible. All pupils take part in whole -school activities such as the well-planned assemblies.
• Parents speak enthusiastically about how well their children flourish at the school. The vast majority say that there is very little, if any, bullying. All agree that it is dealt with effectively. Pupils confirmed this to be the case and the staff are clear that it is rare.
• Leaders also provided well-recorded evidence of any incidents of prejudiced-based bullying. They also showed the steps taken to handle any such incidents effectively.
• The development of pupils in the COIN resource centre is a strength of the school. Adults nurture the pupils skilfully and address their needs carefully and compassionately. Adults employ a range of appropriate handling techniques absolutely in keeping with best practice and the school’s own policy frameworks.
• Both in the COIN resource centre and in the mainstream section of the school, adults pay appropriate attention to healthy eating and lifestyles. A good range of healthy snacks are available for the pupils. All know that these will only be available once they have completed routine tasks, like tidying up, in the right order.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• All pupils move around the school in good order. They observe the school’s simple rules without fuss. Pupils take care of each other and respect adults. The quality of relationships in the school is exemplary. There is a very pleasant atmosphere. Most members of the community smile most of the time.
• Leaders have set high expectations for behaviour. As a result, all know exactly what is expected of them and all respond well. There have been no exclusions from the school in recent years because everybody understands the boundaries well.
• Leaders have also established an appropriate range of simple classroom management techniques. Pupils respond quickly to teachers’ instructions. They line up quietly when waiting to move to other activities or events.
• Inspectors observed pupils playing happily outside and making great use of a wide range of play equipment. Teachers and teaching assistants support pupils’ play by organising games or other pastimes. The provision of two separate, enclosed football pitches enables all pupils, and especially the boys, to play safely and at no risk to others.
• Inspectors observed no poor behaviour in lessons. Learning is rarely disrupted because everyone is encouraged to make the most of every minute.
• Pupils like the praise they receive when they have done well. They also like the rewards they are entitled to for positive contributions to classroom activities or extra-curricular events. Parents like the opportunities they experience to visit assemblies to see their children receiving awards.
• Leaders have worked highly effectively to raise levels of attendance over time. They have reduced the persistent absence of a handful of pupils who did not attend regularly enough. A few pupils still have extended periods of absence caused by medical or physical challenges. Leaders are aware of this and work with a range of other agencies to reduce the impact of such absence as far as possible.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• The progress and attainment of current pupils are outstanding. In every class the vast majority of pupils are at least on track to meet the expectations set nationally for their age. Many are exceeding these benchmarks and are working at greater depth.
• In the three years since the school converted to become an academy there has been a sharp increase in the quality of pupils’ outcomes. Leaders have done everything possible to ensure that no pupil’s performance is hampered by a barrier to learning. Some pupils have several potential barriers, all of which are overcome.
• A majority of pupils enter the school at levels below those typical for their age. This is reducing in key stage 1. Much improved outcomes recently in the early years mean that many more pupils than nationally enter Year 1 having attained a good level of development.
• Leaders ensure that they know exactly what each pupil knows, understands and can do across each of the subject areas. This means that teachers are able to focus their lessons to help pupils meet the relevant age-expectations.
• All pupils arriving other than at the start of the year are assessed so that they, too, can make progress quickly or catch up with anything they lack.
• Consequently, pupils in Year 1 achieve standards in the phonics screening check that are well above the national average. A small minority of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not achieve this standard, even at the end of Year 2.
• All pupils make strong progress from their starting points, including those in the specialist provision COIN. The progress of a large majority of these pupils compares favourably with all pupils nationally because leaders are insistent that they do as well as they can.
• The progress and attainment of the disadvantaged pupils are exceptional. For example, in 2016, all of this group of pupils attained the expected standard in the phonics screening check. Similarly, the proportion of such pupils in the early years attaining a good level of development was above the 2015 national average. In 2016, the proportions of disadvantaged pupils in key stage 1 who attained the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics were all above the relevant national averages. Of particular note, all disadvantaged pupils in Year 6, in 2016, achieved the expected standard in reading and mathematics and the vast majority achieved the standard in writing.
• The school’s commitment to supporting pupils’ reading means that pupils falling behind are given specific help to catch up. Pupils have access to the library and are able to select books of their choice. Pupils are supported well in class when given focused time for reading. Adults check that they are using this time purposefully.
• Pupils who speak English as an additional language are supported well in class so that they quickly catch up with their peers. Most go on to achieve at least as well as their classmates. They are particularly successful in, for example, writing in key stage 1 and writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6. Each year, this group of pupils generally goes on to work at greater depth or exceed expected standards.
• All pupils leave the school prepared effectively for the next stage of their education. Most transfer to secondary schools locally. Teachers ensure that accurate information about their past achievements is passed on to their new schools. If necessary, leaders ensure that the new schools receive important details about any support they may need for their future learning.

Early years provision Outstanding

• The early years is an extremely impressive part of the school. It has developed significantly since it was assessed by Ofsted as part of the predecessor school.
• Leaders have taken highly effective action to improve the learning environment. The setting benefits from a large amount of space. Leaders have made great use of all the outside area, which in part now resembles an adventure playground. Children benefit from many different, stimulating places to learn through play.
• Leaders ensure that all activity contributes well to children’s learning and development. Equipment rightly supports the development of both gross and fine motor skills. Activities, similar to those found in ‘forest schools’, also enable children to learn from engagement with the real world.
• Adults plan activities which make the very best of the learning environment. There is a well-considered balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities. This means that children are constantly engaged in learning, with little time wasted.
• Adults are attentive to pupils and catch them regularly making learning gains. Many of these are recorded in an electronic system or in learning journals. Adults also skilfully allow children to go off and explore, including placing some resources in hard-to-reach locations so that there is a need for children to take well-controlled risks.
• Children are safe in this setting.
• There are no breaches of the statutory welfare requirements.
• Children are also happy. They rush to get involved in learning but also sit quietly while adults are teaching them directly. Over time, children learn to respond to adults’ simple instructions. Adults have highly effective behaviour management strategies. They use gestures and rhymes to catch attention or bring the children to order.
• The teaching of phonics is systematic and effective and leads to very strong outcomes. All adults take part in this important work. The whole learning environment is arranged to support the development of children’s early reading.
• The teaching of early writing is also supported well so that many children in Reception are able to make clear marks early on in the year. A few pupils are able to write their name within a few months of joining the setting.
• The provision of particular materials and resources enables children to practise forming numbers. The techniques used to support children’s development of counting and use of number are exemplary.
• Leaders involve parents in the whole of their children’s learning. This includes ensuring that parents contribute to the initial assessment of the children as they enter Reception. Leaders also gather helpful information from any pre-schools attended by the class. All this helps the adults form a broad understanding of each child.
• As a result of systematic, careful and thoughtful leadership, individual children perform extremely well in the early years. This gives them a flying start to their education. The proportion of children overall who attained a good level of development in 2016 was above the national average. However, the boys did not achieve the same exceptional standards as the girls.
• Leaders are aware of this difference between the performance of girls and boys. They are redoubling their efforts to find even more imaginative and creative ways of helping the boys to accelerate their learning so that they, too, have exceptional outcomes at the end of Reception.
• The proportions of disadvantaged pupils who achieve well in the early years are above average. This is highly commendable and is the outcome of focused effort to ensure that all strive ‘to be the best they can be’.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 139951 Surrey 10019841 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 204 Appropriate authority Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Academy trust Alex Russell Susan Nardoni 01932 564094 www.pyrcroftgrange.surrey.sch.uk info@pyrcroftgrange.surrey.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish on their websites.
• The school is part of the Bourne Education Trust, a small multi-academy trust based at Epsom and Ewell High School. The chief executive officer of the Bourne Education Trust, Alex Russell, was present during the inspection.
• Pyrcroft Grange is a smaller than average-sized primary school, serving families in Chertsey, Surrey.
• There are more boys than girls at the school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is smaller than average but some pupils are at an early stage of learning English and need additional support.
• The proportion of pupils from black or minority ethnic communities is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support for their special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with a statement relating to their special educational needs and/or disabilities or with an education, health and care plan is above the national average. This is partly due to the location on site of the COIN (Communication and Interaction Needs) centre, a specialist resource for children with autistic spectrum disorders.
• Pupils leave or join the school more frequently than average during a school year.
• The school serves a community with average levels of deprivation.
• The school does not work with any alternative providers of education. It provides alternative provision for pupils with autistic spectrum disorders.
• This school has not been inspected previously. When its predecessor school was inspected it was found to be satisfactory.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in 29 parts of lessons. Senior leaders observed learning jointly four times. Inspectors also undertook an extensive learning walk of the school accompanied by the headteacher. Inspectors observed learning in the COIN centre.
• Inspectors met with leaders regularly throughout the inspection. The lead inspector met the governors and the chief executive officer of the Bourne Education Trust.
• Inspectors also met with leaders responsible for the school’s work in the early years and for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The lead inspector met a group of teachers at different stages in their careers. Inspectors took account of 18 responses to Ofsted’s confidential online staff survey.
• Inspectors spoke informally with many pupils in lessons, at play and breaktimes. Inspectors heard six pupils read and met the school council. Only one pupil completed Ofsted’s confidential online pupil survey.
• Inspectors met a group of parents and took account of 36 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s confidential online survey.
• Inspectors viewed a wide range of the school’s documents, including information about pupils’ progress and attainment, the school’s own evaluation of its work, external reviews of its effectiveness and information about the work of the governing body.
• Inspectors also reviewed samples of pupils’ work.

Inspection team

Dr Simon Hughes, lead inspector Jo Yates Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector