Shipley CofE Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Maintain improvements in phonics outcomes by ensuring that the teaching of phonics across the school adheres more closely to the chosen phonics scheme.
• Build on improvements in teaching so that it better enables pupils who have fallen behind to make the very strong progress they need to catch up, by teachers checking that pupils have fully grasped the knowledge and skills they require to complete the more challenging tasks they are set.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors have collaborated effectively to improve the school following a period of turbulence during which outcomes declined. Pupils learn and behave well. They make strong progress and enjoy their time at school.
• The new headteacher has sensibly focused on making sure improvements are sustainable. To this end she has changed the composition of some mixed-year classes, made bids for additional funding from local charitable organisations and recruited new staff. Her determination to see the school thrive has enthused the entire school community, which is also committed to developing the school.
• The headteacher has successfully strengthened the capabilities and morale of the staff team. The professional development and training that staff access is carefully considered and supports improvement priorities well. The headteacher has thoughtfully deployed resources so that any expenditure on training makes a real difference to pupils’ learning. In particular, she has made good use of the training offered by the local authority, and by the local collaboration of schools, in which this school plays an important part. Close partnership with local schools has enabled the school to check that their assessments are accurate by standardising them with other schools.
• The headteacher leads by example, teaching classes and undertaking additional training for her role as special educational needs coordinator (SENCo). She ensures that teachers have high standards for how hard pupils work and how well they should achieve. Teachers consistently reinforce these high standards. Although they expect a lot from their pupils, teachers meet individual pupils’ needs effectively and provide a very nurturing environment.
• The school is highly inclusive. Leaders and governors have built effective partnerships with the local community, including positive relationships with parents who in the past did not engage well with the school. These relationships have enabled the school to support parents better in assisting their children’s learning, especially their reading.
• The headteacher has astutely developed a range of different approaches that have provided her with an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. These include scrutinising pupils’ work and talking with pupils about their learning. Of note is the way that she has broadened the repertoire of approaches used to track pupils’ progress by introducing systems that are specially designed for small schools. As a result, pupils who need to catch up are identified in a timely manner and given effective additional support.
• The curriculum has developed and is still evolving. The headteacher carefully ensures that pupils access the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to get a good grounding in academic and practical subjects, some of which are taught discretely and some through topic. Pupils acquire especially strong subject knowledge and skills in history, computing and science. In addition, special activities are planned that enable pupils to apply their knowledge and skills in real-life situations, especially in projects that involve the wider community.
• The leadership of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) has developed. Last academic year, the school worked closely with the local authority to support pupils with SEND. As a result of this focus, the majority made strong progress. This year expertise in supporting SEND has developed because the SENCo is accessing extra training, which has informed the way that additional funding is used. For example, new assessments have been introduced, which will support teachers and leaders in checking the small steps in progress that pupils are making.
• Leaders have rightly placed great emphasis on improving attendance, including working closely with the parents of pupils who are persistently absent. The school has combined support with challenge and, where necessary, instigated legal proceedings against parents. Attendance for the current term has improved compared with the same period last academic year.
• Social, moral, spiritual and cultural education is also effectively promoted and carefully tracked through the curriculum. Pupils have a strong sense of justice and fair play due to the highly inclusive ethos in the school, as well as their learning about fundamental British values. Pupils said there is no bullying at the school but were keenly aware of the different types of unfairness that exist in society and how they might be prevented.

Governance of the school

• The new chair of the governing body has strengthened governance. She has worked effectively with the headteacher to build stronger partnerships with parents, especially those who hitherto did not engage well with the school.
• Governors are dedicated to making the school as effective as it can be. To this end, they have changed the way they work. There are now fewer committees and the work of the governing body is more focused on improving learning and pupils’ outcomes. A number of governors have benefited from local authority training about how to interpret performance data. They put their training to effective use when challenging the school about how outcomes compare with other schools nationally.
• The governing body is determined that recent improvements will continue. They have a very good working knowledge of the school, which they sensibly use to ensure that planned improvements are sustainable.
• The inclusive and caring ethos of the school is successfully promoted by the governing body. Governors keep a close watch on pupils with barriers to learning, including disadvantaged pupils, to make sure they receive the support needed to surmount any obstacles to their success.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The headteacher as the designated leader has a detailed understanding of the safeguarding issues that are most relevant to the school. In particular, she has worked with the local authority to ensure that parents and pupils feel safe and free from external intrusion when they are in the playground at the start and end of the school day.
• The headteacher diligently oversees those pupils who are receiving additional support, including assistance from the local authority and, where she has deemed it appropriate, has questioned the authority’s decisions regarding this support. Processes and procedures are effective and enhanced by the headteacher’s in-depth knowledge of each pupil’s individual situation and by strong record-keeping. She has also ensured that all staff are kept up-to-date with safeguarding issues through regular staff briefings.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Practice in teaching, learning and assessment has improved and is now mostly good, with some highly effective practice. Through effective monitoring, the headteacher has already identified areas of relative weakness as a focus for future development. For example, there are plans to improve the way teachers set learning goals.
• Teachers use their strong subject knowledge to set tasks that are often stimulating and challenging. However, they do not always check to see if pupils have embedded the knowledge and skills required in order to succeed in these tasks. On occasion, complex tasks that require pupils to apply a combination of subject knowledge and skills are not done well enough.
• The focus placed on developing pupils’ mathematical reasoning skills has paid dividends. Pupils are developing these skills well because they are fluent in number and calculation work and can apply their knowledge. Pupils relish the challenge of working out how the language in a mathematical problem provides clues as to how to solve it.
• The school has developed reading well and promoted reading for pleasure effectively. As a consequence, pupils across the school have wide-ranging vocabularies. They are able to talk confidently on a range of different topics and answer questions about their learning and the books they read and how the two are linked.
• Pupils have developed their writing skills well. They are able to use the books they study to inspire their own writing, often employing the stylistic features they identify in these books in their own writing. The strong focus placed on grammar and vocabulary means that pupils are increasingly aware of how different grammatical structures and word choices can enhance the impact of their writing.
• Teaching in the wider curriculum is effective. Pupils’ interest and enthusiasm are enhanced because teachers help them to make connections between learning in different topics, for example the logic used in coding in computing and mathematical reasoning skills.
• Teachers and their assistants work well together. In particular, they assist each other in keeping close tabs on pupils who are struggling. Assistants often make adaptions to activities, provide additional resources and work closely with small groups so that pupils can access the work they are set. When working with pupils, assistants have a well-developed understanding of the learning aims of the lesson. They use this to ensure that the questions they pose are focused sharply on achieving these learning goals.
• The teaching of phonics across the school does not adhere to the chosen scheme well enough, and approaches from different schemes are sometimes combined. As a result, the pace of learning in some phonics sessions is not always as strong as the best seen in the school.

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 generally keen to succeed and invest energy and enthusiasm into their learning. They speak positively about their experiences of school and appreciate the exciting and imaginative work they are set.
• Although it is strong, this aspect of the school’s work is not outstanding. Sometimes, when pupils do not have the knowledge required to access the more complex tasks that they are set, some pupils lose interest in learning.
• Pupils benefit from the close links that the school has forged with the local community which provide real audiences for pupils’ writing, among other benefits. Community projects enable pupils to see how they can make a positive contribution to society through their efforts. Pupils are proud of this aspect of the school’s work.
• The headteacher has successfully brought different members of the community together in promoting reading. In so doing, she has ensured that activities have as wide an appeal as possible and contribute to well-being. A notable example was the starry nights reading activity when parents and children shared books around a campfire under the stars.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good, and some pupils’ behaviour is very impressive. However, pupils commented to the inspector that in some classes, pupils are occasionally silly. Pupils told the inspector that the sanctions employed by teachers to tackle any silly behaviour are effective. The inspector saw some evidence of off-task behaviour when pupils did not feel they had the knowledge and skills needed to complete tasks.
• The school has worked tremendously hard to improve attendance, but last year attendance dropped because of a small group of pupils whose attendance was very low due to individual special circumstances. The headteacher keeps very close tabs on the attendance of all the pupils in the school and works closely with parents, especially the parents of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller pupils to ensure that this group of pupils attend well.
• Behaviour around school is impressive. Pupils play very harmoniously and productively at lunchtime and breaktime. Playtimes provide new learning opportunities because leaders have ensured that there is a lot on offer of interest to pupils, not least the school’s brood of hens, a willow den and table tennis facilities.
• Teachers use praise and rewards well. Pupils are very well motivated by the rewards they receive, the majority of which are linked to reading and attendance. Rewards make a strong contribution to the positive learning atmosphere in school.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Current pupils make strong progress from their starting points because they are taught well and want to succeed. Most pupils make effective progress across a range of subjects. However, some do not reach expected standards in reading, writing and in mathematics. This is because historic weaker teaching means a number of pupils have gaps in their learning. Leaders are acutely aware of this. They carefully monitor those pupils that need to catch up and provide additional help. There is strong evidence from work in pupils’ books and observations of learning that the attainment of this group of pupils is improving.
• Across a range of subjects, pupils learn well and acquire a strong body of knowledge and skills. They are well supported in this by the enthusiasm and expertise of their teachers. For example, in computing pupils develop their competence in coding effectively. The sport premium funding has enabled the school to develop its sports teams, and they are enjoying increasing success in local competitions.
• Leaders have successfully improved outcomes for Gypsy, Roma, Traveller pupils. According to the school’s own assessment information, this group is making better progress than in the past. Improved outcomes are due to the highly bespoke support which each pupil is given and the positive relationships that the headteacher has forged with parents.
• According to published performance data for 2018, pupils’ outcomes improved following a decline in 2016 and 2017. However, it is worth noting that the very small numbers of pupils in each year group mean that one pupil’s results have a big impact. Attainment in reading and writing in key stage 2 rose, with attainment in reading being well above average.
• In key stage 2 tests in 2018, pupils’ progress improved in reading and writing more than in mathematics. The headteacher analysed each pupil’s test scores to identify any weaker areas, and this has informed the current focus on developing mathematical reasoning in key stage 2.
• Pupils’ achievement is more consistently strong in key stage 1, as indicated by results in 2018 assessments, because the teaching over time has been less variable for younger pupils. In 2018, key stage 1 attainment was broadly in line with average in writing and above average in mathematics following work done to strengthen pupils’ confidence in number work. However, pupils’ achievement was slightly below average in reading. This is due to a small minority of pupils not catching up after a lower-than-average proportion reached the expected standard in the phonics check when they were in Year 1.
• Last academic year, improving outcomes in phonics was a key priority for the school. As a result, there was an increase in the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check so that it was in line with national averages.
• Pupils with SEND are well supported. They make at least as strong progress as their peers, and some individuals make very strong progress because they are provided with carefully planned support.

Early years provision Good

• Leaders ensure that there are high expectations for learning in early years. Consequently, children are well supported and make good progress. As a general rule, they join Reception at a level of development which is expected for their age. They develop well, gaining new knowledge and skills.
• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development has been broadly in line with national averages for the past few years. Last academic year, the proportion reaching a good level of development dipped slightly and was below the national average. However, all children made good progress from their different starting points due to the effective support they received.
• Teaching in early years is effective because it enables children to broaden their vocabularies and extend their language skills. Of note is the way that teachers and assistants converse with the children in a deliberate way, introducing new vocabulary and key concepts. As a result, children can talk with confidence about their learning and some have impressive knowledge about the world around them.
• The teaching of reading across the school developed last academic year, including in early years. The early years teacher and other leaders successfully supported parents so that they could better assist their children in learning to read.
• Children are given well-planned opportunities to develop their writing skills, gain confidence in forming letters and embed their number knowledge. As a result, they leave Reception ready for the demands of Year 1.
• The early years is a very nurturing and safe environment, where children grow in confidence and ability. Children play very calmly and harmoniously, displaying good social skills. They spontaneously involve the adults around them through asking questions that show that they are intellectually curious. Children listen to adults carefully and follow their instructions well.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 125992 West Sussex 10058177 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 aided 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 67 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mrs Penny Middleton-Burn Mrs Jen Harvey 01403 741 298 www.shipleyceprimary.com office@shipley.w-sussex.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 15 16 October 2014

Information about this school

• The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. It has four classes: a Reception class, a mixed class of Years 1 and 2, a mixed class of Years 3 and 4 and a mixed class of Years 5 and 6. Year group numbers in key stage 2 are smaller than in key stage 1. In the current Year 6 there are three pupils.
• The school is a designated Church of England School and had its last section 48 inspection in February 2017.
• The majority of pupils are White British, the second largest ethnic group are Gypsy, Roma, Traveller. They make up approximately 10% of the school’s population.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium is less than half the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND supported by the school is broadly average. The proportion with education, health and care plans is currently below average. Last academic year it was in line with national averages.
• Since the previous inspection there have been four interim headteachers. The current substantive headteacher joined the school in 2016.
• A new chair of the governing body was appointed in September 2017.
• The school works closely with the local informal collaboration of schools known as The Weald Locality.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector made visits to observe learning in all classes. On most occasions, but not all, she was accompanied by the headteacher. Samples of pupils’ work were scrutinised by the inspector on two separate occasions. The inspector also reviewed a sample of learning journals from children in Reception. The inspector met a group of pupils to discuss their learning and to listen to them read.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and senior leaders, both together and separately, which focused on a range of issues, including attendance, assessment, progress tracking and early years. The inspector also held separate meetings with the SENCo, the designated safeguarding leader and the leader responsible for sports premium funding. The inspector also met informally with parents at the end of the school day.
• The inspector met with a group of staff and separately with governors, including the chair of the governing body, the vice-chair and three other governors. A meeting was also held with a representative from the local authority.
• Documentation and policies, which included the school’s own evaluation, development plans, pupils’ progress information and responses to the school’s own parent questionnaires were reviewed. Inspectors scrutinised the school’s safeguarding records, including safety checks made when teachers are appointed, pupils’ records and a selection of teachers’ files.
• The inspector considered the 24 responses on Parent View, 13 comments on free-text, the 18 responses on the pupils’ survey, one email from a parent and ten responses on the staff survey.

Inspection team

Sarah Hubbard, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector