St Paul's CofE Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve pupils’ achievement by ensuring that:
  • Pupils are inspired to achieve well in the wider curriculum as much as they are in English and mathematics
  • more pupils in Year 1, particularly the less able, achieve the expected standard in phonics.
• Broaden pupils’ understanding of the diversity of life in modern Britain.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher has created a strong leadership team who work well together to drive school improvement. Leaders set high aspirations for all pupils’ achievement. The senior team has an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further improvement. Their determination to improve outcomes has ensured that pupils achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Senior and middle leaders support the headteacher well by ably managing their own areas of responsibility. They check teaching regularly and work together well to share good ideas and develop effective strategies to improve teaching further. This has led to typically good teaching across the school.
• All staff are provided with appropriate professional development. Leaders and the local authority promote the development of newly qualified teachers effectively. As a result, all staff are committed to continually improving their practice and are supported well to do so.
• Leaders hold staff members’ well-being in high regard. Members of staff say that they feel valued and that the school is a supportive place to work. As a result, morale is high and staff say that they enjoy working at St Paul’s.
• Leaders pay close attention to pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They ensure that these pupils benefit from suitable additional support. Consequently, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points.
• Leaders use the pupil premium effectively to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make good progress in English and mathematics. This includes additional teaching in these subjects.
• Leaders have developed the curriculum for reading, writing and mathematics effectively. Pupils enjoy learning in these subjects and respond well to the interesting and challenging work. Leaders are rightly focusing on enhancing the wider curriculum to inspire pupils to acquire equally rich knowledge, understanding and skills in a broader range of subjects. However, this work is in the early stages of development and not yet impacting on pupils’ experience.
• Leaders have made some important changes to the teaching of phonics to ensure that most pupils make good progress in this subject. Leaders have rightly identified that more needs to be done to boost the achievement of less able pupils in phonics, particularly in Year 1.
• Leaders ensure that there is a suitably wide variety of sporting activities available to all pupils. They use the sports premium well to provide expert staff to deliver additional clubs such as football, athletics, gymnastics and cheerleading. This ensures that pupils participate in sport regularly and are inspired to be fit and active.
• Leaders provide good opportunities for pupils to develop their spiritual, moral and social knowledge and understanding. However, there are fewer opportunities to promote pupils’ cultural awareness. In particular, pupils’ understanding of the diversity of life in modern Britain is limited.
• Parents are supportive of the school. Many commented that leaders and staff are approachable and helpful. Recent initiatives, such as ‘school in action’ tours and ‘open book’ evenings, are appreciated by parents and enable them to understand well the progress their children make.
• The Good Shepherd Trust has supported leaders well to improve pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. This challenge and support has not yet extended to promote pupils’ achievement in the wider curriculum.

Governance of the school

• Governors have a good understanding of the effectiveness of the school. They visit St Paul’s often to check leaders’ progress in implementing the school development plan. Governors use this knowledge effectively to hold leaders to account.
• Governors are adept at using progress information to check how well pupils achieve. They have high expectations for all and are mindful of their responsibility to ensure that disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities achieve well. They challenge senior leaders well to secure good achievement for all pupils.
• Governors oversee the financial management of the school appropriately. For example, they ensure that teachers’ pay reviews are linked to pupils’ progress, and guarantee that the pupil premium grant and additional sports funding are spent well. Consequently, governors fulfil their financial obligations effectively.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff demonstrate a strong collaborative approach to keeping children safe. Leaders monitor effectively any concerns and ensure that swift, appropriate action is taken if a child is considered to be at risk.
• Leaders ensure that staff are well trained and keep pupils’ welfare at the fore of everything they do. There is a clear culture of care at St Paul’s that keeps pupils safe.
• Leaders carry out the necessary employment checks. They make sure that systems to protect pupils comply with the latest government guidance.
• Leaders manage safety within school well and take appropriate steps to reduce risks. For example, supervisory staff are deployed appropriately at break and lunchtimes.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers have consistently high expectations for pupils’ achievement. This stimulates pupils to produce work that is typically of a good standard and to take an active role in lessons and activities. As a result, pupils across the school make good progress.
• Teachers check pupils’ learning well. They use this information efficiently to let pupils know how to improve their work and to plan pupils’ next steps. Teachers have good subject knowledge. They use this well to provide clear, concise explanations to develop pupils’ understanding. For example, in a Year 3 computing lesson, pupils were able to create animations because the teacher had taught them good computer programming skills in an earlier lesson.
• Teaching assistants support pupils’ learning well. Pupils are confident to ask for additional help and they are rewarded with extra guidance that embeds and sometimes extends their learning. Teaching assistants at St Paul’s demonstrate a caring and nurturing approach that helps build pupils’ confidence and self-esteem.
• Teachers use questions effectively to assess pupils’ understanding and tackle pupils’ misconceptions well. Where necessary, they take extra time to delve deeper when they suspect that pupils do not understand.
• Teachers develop pupils’ writing skills well. They provide pupils with opportunities to write across a range of subjects. For example, in a religious education lesson, pupils retold the story of Jesus and the loaves and fishes by creating an extended comic strip. Pupils were challenged to structure their writing well and use a good range of vocabulary.
• In mathematics, teachers often provide extra challenge that pupils relish. For example, in Year 6, when the most able pupils explored the properties of triangles and circles, they grappled with difficult questions to develop a stronger understanding of the concepts of shapes and angles.
• The teaching of reading is well focused on improving pupils’ phonics knowledge. Most pupils make good progress during Reception Year and Year 1, but teaching does not yet ensure that the pupils who begin from low starting points consistently meet the standards expected for their age.
• Arrangements for the wider curriculum do not provide teachers with consistently rich opportunities to challenge and inspire pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils enjoy learning at St Paul’s and most develop effective behaviours. The majority of pupils listen attentively in lessons, ask relevant questions and work well both independently and with classmates. As a result, most pupils learn well.
• Pupils develop caring attitudes towards each other that they value strongly. For example, one Year 6 pupil said that being a playground friend to a child in Reception had boosted his/her own self-esteem. As a result, pupils develop positive relationships and learn how to treat each other well.
• Pupils say that bullying is rare and that staff are always there to help if they have a concern. Leaders keep detailed records that demonstrate that they are quick to work with pupils and parents if problems do occur. As a result, pupils say that they feel safe at school and know who to go to for help to if they are worried or upset.
• Staff provide many opportunities for pupils to learn about safety. For example, pupils enjoy cycle training, and learn about online threats in e-safety lessons. Pupils and parents are confident that the school helps keep pupils safe.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Most pupils conduct themselves well around school, including at break and lunchtimes. They respect the school rules and know what is expected of them, rising to meet these high expectations. The reward system put in place to encourage good behaviour is effective, so that incidents of poor behaviour are infrequent.
• Staff provide effective support for any pupils with challenging behaviour. Through consistent discipline and close working with families, they support these pupils to improve their behaviour over time.
• Pupils’ attendance, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, is close to the national average for primary schools and improving. Leaders monitor attendance closely and act quickly if attendance for individuals, or groups of pupils, dips.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Across the school, from typically low starting points, pupils make good progress in a range of subjects. Last year, the proportions of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics in Year 2 and Year 6 exceeded the national averages.
• The majority of pupils who do not achieve the expected standard in phonics at the end of Year 1 catch up by the end of Year 2. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard at the end of Year 2 is similar to the national standard and has improved over time.
• The most able pupils make good progress in English and mathematics across the school because they are challenged well. In last year’s national assessments, the proportion of pupils in key stage 1 working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics exceeded the national average. In key stage 2, the proportion working at greater depth in writing was similar to the national average, and exceeded this figure in reading and mathematics.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress in a range of subjects because the pupil premium is used to provide effective support to help them achieve. Last year, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 who made better than expected progress in reading was greater than their classmates and other pupils nationally. In other subjects, and across the school, disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as their peers.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. These pupils receive effective additional support and learning activities that are carefully matched to their needs.
• In 2016, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in phonics at the end of Year 1 was below the national average. Currently, more pupils are making good progress, though less able pupils do not achieve as well as they could.
• Pupils’ books show that they make good progress in other subjects. However, they are not inspired to achieve as strongly as they do in English and mathematics.

Early years provision Good

• The early years leader is ambitious for all children to achieve well. She ensures that teaching is tailored to children’s needs across all areas of learning. Last year, the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was similar to the national average. Children in Reception Year make good progress from typically low starting points.
• Teachers record pupils’ achievements carefully and use this information well to plan the next steps for children’s learning. Consequently, most children make better than expected progress across all the areas of learning.
• There is a strong and important emphasis on developing children’s emerging writing skills. Staff use a variety of imaginative techniques that draw children in and embed learning. For example, inspectors saw children quickly able to write letters correctly because of the way teaching seized their interest and enthusiasm.
• Children learn how to behave well in the early years. Staff members provide a nurturing and safe environment that supports children well to follow the rules. This ensures that children’s behaviour is good in the early years, setting a good foundation for their future education.
• Staff care deeply about the children in early years. Straight away they form trusting relationships with children. As a result, children are comfortable and confident to seek help when they need it.
• Reception Year staff provide regular opportunities for parents to visit the setting. For example, at ‘stay and play’ sessions, parents and children enjoy learning together. Home visits and taster sessions help to build links between home and school right from the start.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140028 Surrey 10024483 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 393 Appropriate authority The Good Shepherd Trust Chair Headteacher Mrs Julie Patterson Mrs Louise Johnson Telephone number 01932 848528 Website Email address www.st-pauls-school.net/ info@st-pauls-addlestone.surrey.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• St Paul’s is larger than the average-sized primary academy.
• The majority of pupils are White British. Others come from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is also slightly above average.
• St Paul’s Church of England Primary School is part of The Good Shepherd Trust.
• 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 about the curriculum, pupil premium, special educational needs and the public sector equality duty.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning throughout the school, spoke to pupils and looked at work in their books. Some observations were conducted jointly with senior leaders.
• Meetings were held with senior leaders, middle leaders, a group of pupils, four members of the governing body, and two representatives from The Good Shepherd Trust.
• Inspectors spoke to parents at the start of the day and took into account 69 responses, including written comments, to the online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors also analysed 87 responses to the pupil questionnaire and 42 responses to the staff questionnaire.
• A range of documents were reviewed, including the school’s development plan and self-evaluation document; information about pupils’ achievement, attendance, behaviour and safety; governing body reports and trust reports.

Inspection team

Dom Cook, lead inspector Kevin Burrell Kevin Parfoot

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector