Yapton CE Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and learning by:
  • making sure that teachers adjust the level of challenge to develop pupils’ skills more quickly, especially for higher attaining pupils
  • ensuring that teachers give pupils effective guidance on how to improve their work, in line with the school’s marking and feedback policy
  • developing pupils’ writing skills through writing longer pieces of work.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development because of their frequent and rigorous monitoring. Leaders and governors work in partnership and have a clear vision for improvement, which they share with staff, parents and pupils.
• School improvement plans provide a clear, secure framework to support the school’s development. Leaders, governors and teachers frequently use the plan to measure progress against expected improvements. However, milestones to confirm that expected improvements are taking place are not always specific enough.
• Leaders systematically keep checks on the quality of teaching, including regular reviews of pupils’ work and discussions with teachers about pupils’ progress. This, combined with effective and well-chosen training for staff, ensure that improvements in teaching are sustained.
• Leaders of subjects are passionate about the areas they lead. They have a clear overview of the progress that pupils make because assessment and tracking procedures are robust. Any potential underperformance is tackled in a timely manner so that targets on the school improvement plan are achieved.
• School leaders manage the performance of teachers well, making effective use of the information provided by the monitoring processes they have put in place. They discuss areas for development with teachers and put actions in place to ensure continuous improvement, including training activities.
• Leaders give high regard to the promotion of equality of opportunity and fundamental British values. They have identified over the last year some difference in the rate of progress between boys and girls and have acted decisively to address this. Through lessons and assemblies, pupils learn about different issues such as relationships, diversity and equality, and human rights. They also learn about the wider community, raise funds for different charities, and learn about tolerance, democracy and the rule of law.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. Many have an opportunity to play a part in the life of the school. Pupils take on responsibilities as members of the school councils, as well as a range of different jobs in school such as play leaders at playtime or helpers with the younger Reception class children.
• Leaders ensure that the pupil premium funding is effectively spent to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make as a minimum good progress. The school has successful and well-thought-through interventions for removing any barriers to learning. The governing body monitors precisely how leaders use the funding and its impact on pupils’ outcomes.
• Leaders’ good use of the additional physical education and sport funding has resulted in pupils’ greater participation in sports and their adoption of healthier lifestyles. Additional sporting clubs, which run at lunchtime and after school, have boosted pupils’ punctuality and attendance at school.
• Parents value highly all aspects of the school’s work. They are overwhelmingly positive about the progress their children make and the culture of safety that the school has created.
• The local authority stepped up its support to the school after the previous inspection. Its involvement has been helpful to the school and the school has used it well.

Governance of the school

• Governors clearly know the school’s strengths and weaknesses and are committed to addressing their identified areas for improvement. They hold the school to account through their probing questioning. Governors take part in all relevant training. They understand about pupils’ progress and they make sure that the pupil premium and primary physical education and sport funding are spent effectively and make a difference to the pupils. Governors ensure that the school’s performance management policy is robustly applied. Their secure understanding of how the associated procedures relate to teachers’ pay allows them to evaluate carefully the evidence for any proposals for increases in staff salary.

Safeguarding

• The school meets all the statutory requirements for safeguarding. Staff are knowledgeable about the most recent safeguarding procedures. They are clear about how to report concerns, and they know how to recognise signs of abuse or neglect. Leaders have created a safe culture in the school and engage well with parents, carers and other stakeholders to make sure that all pupils are supported and safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers mostly plan lessons that pupils find stimulating and that allow pupils to gain skills and knowledge well. They often use skills learned in English and mathematics across the curriculum.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge. They are clear about the rate of progress each pupil should be making and the importance of helping them to reach the highest possible standards. Throughout the school, consistently good-quality opportunities help pupils to assess work for themselves and this also helps pupils, including those who need to catch up, make good progress.
• Well-targeted questioning ensures that teachers quickly gauge how effectively pupils are learning in lessons. Mindful of the pupils’ different abilities and backgrounds, they then adjust pupils’ work, depending on how quickly they understand new learning, or improving what they have done previously.
• Teaching assistants are a valuable asset to the school and are well deployed to support pupils in their learning. This support is particularly effective for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. For example, in a Year 3/4 lesson, the teaching assistant quickly and sensitively addressed pupils’ occasional errors in phonics when reading a text in a small group.
• Teachers check carefully the accuracy of pupils’ work and they address misconceptions quickly during lessons and small-group work. However, teachers do not always identify and present activities that make pupils think hard from the start of a lesson or when they need to provide additional challenge as lessons develop. As a result, progress sometimes slows, especially for higher attaining pupils.
• Reading is taught systematically across the school using consistent strategies that develop pupils’ skills and confidence. Consequently, pupils build upon their prior learning and make strong progress in these subjects. The most able pupils and those who need to catch up make good progress in reading because they tackle texts that match, and suitably challenge, their ability.
• Pupils make good progress in improving their technical skills in writing. Staff encourage pupils to use their writing skills at every opportunity. Sometimes, though, a small proportion of staff do not demand enough of pupils by challenging them to write long pieces of work to sustain the use of high-quality writing skills. This slows pupils’ progress and the development of their deeper writing skills.
• In mathematics, teachers routinely use practical equipment well to support and strengthen learning for all pupils, including the most able. For example, in a Year 4 lesson on fractions, pupils accurately found fractions of numbers by carefully using bricks.
• The quality of teaching in subjects other than the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics is effective and pupils make good progress. The development of pupils’ skills and knowledge in other subjects is deep. This is because teaching systematically develops and evaluates pupils’ subject-specific skills and knowledge.
• There is a clear marking and feedback policy aimed at improving the guidance offered to pupils. This has had considerable success in helping pupils improve, but there remains some variability in the implementation of the policy. This means that pupils are not always clear about how to improve their work.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The personal development and welfare of pupils are good. Pupils are confident and this helps them to say when they find something difficult and enables teachers to help them quickly.
• Pupils readily link British values to the school’s own values. They explain how they learn about these values in assembly and in personal, social and health education sessions, and are expected to demonstrate these in their daily lives and to help the school community.
• Pupils know how to stay safe in and out of school, including online, because of the effective guidance they receive. Focused work on online safety ensures that pupils are confident and able to explain what they would do if they were worried by something on screen.
• Pupils report that there is very little bullying of any sort in school, but that any disputes between children that arise are dealt with effectively by school staff. They say that such behaviour, which they know to be wrong, is not tolerated.
• Pupils know how to be successful learners. As a result, they are usually attentive to each other and listen respectfully to each other’s views. They help one another in class and look out for each other informally or through more structured initiatives. However, there are times when some pupils do not always listen well enough in lessons and this reduces the amount of progress they make.
• Most parents who completed the online questionnaire feel that pupils are safe, well looked after and happy in school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are eager and are usually quick to respond to instructions. They are polite, confident and well mannered to adults and each other. They welcome visitors and are eager to talk about their work and school life.
• Conduct around school during breaks and lunchtime is typically positive and sensible. Pupils also play well together, with older pupils generally looking after younger ones.
• Staff and almost all parents feel that pupils are well behaved. The management of behaviour is good. Staff consistently use ‘It’s good to be green’ to encourage positive behaviour, and most pupils respond well to this.
• Pupils are curious learners. Many show high levels of self-discipline as they go about their work and play. They are always ready and willing to help. However, there is a very small minority of pupils who find it difficult to manage their own behaviour without guidance from staff.
• Attendance and punctuality are good. The increasing activities on offer clearly make school an exciting place to be.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Current pupils are making good and improving progress, from their different starting points, across a range of subjects. Through effective teaching, they acquire a range of knowledge, skills and understanding that are appropriate to their age and so are well prepared for the next stage in their education.
• Staff training has improved the quality of teaching of early reading skills. As a result, pupils’ achievement in the Year 1 phonics screening check has risen and is, for the second successive year, above the national average.
• The attainment of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 has been consistently in line with that expected nationally. Current work of pupils indicates that greater proportions of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are reaching the expected standard, and the higher standard, in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Achievement is improving over time, so that by the end of key stage 2, more pupils are reaching the expected standard in reading and mathematics. Growing numbers of pupils are achieving higher than the expected standards under the new, more demanding national curriculum. Achievement in writing, however, has not been as strong.
• Current school achievement information shows that pupils are achieving better outcomes throughout the school and the results at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 are expected to be higher than last year.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are benefiting from having their needs identified at an early age. This enables staff to provide tailor-made learning experiences that support faster progress.
• Although a school improvement priority, the basic writing skills of pupils, including those who need to catch up, are not developed quickly enough. Teachers do not provide pupils with enough thought-provoking and demanding extended writing tasks to deepen their understanding.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their various starting points. Pupil premium funding is used effectively to support the pupils in all year groups. As a result, they make good progress compared with that of all pupils nationally in key stages 1 and 2. The most able disadvantaged pupils also achieve well and evidence shows that they are making at least good progress and reaching high standards.
• Pupils’ attainment and progress in subjects other than English and mathematics are good. This is particularly the case for science because leaders have recognised that pupils had gaps in their knowledge and have focused upon this area well.
• The most able pupils’ progress is improving from their starting points. Work that inspectors looked at shows that they are not consistently challenged well enough and do not always tackle complex tasks that help and develop their understanding, knowledge and skills quickly enough.

Early years provision Good

• Children enter school with a wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding and many have starting points below those typically expected for their age. From these starting points, children make good progress. By the end of their time in the Reception class, many of them have caught up and are demonstrating skills, knowledge and understanding typical for their age and are well prepared for their work in Year 1.
• Disadvantaged children in the Reception class make good progress because they receive early help if they find work too difficult. There is a good awareness of the different ways in which children learn and this helps staff to identify what strategy will work best for each child.
• The quality of teaching is good, particularly during more formal learning activities. Teachers and teaching assistants frequently use questioning to probe and develop children’s understanding, but there are occasions when the questions posed are not challenging enough to make tasks even more demanding.
• Staff are extremely vigilant in ensuring the health, welfare, safety and well-being of every child in their care. They liaise very closely with parents. They visit pre-school settings and the children’s own homes to gain as much information as possible so that children can get off to a good start at the beginning of the year.
• Effective training has increased teachers’ awareness and understanding of children’s individual needs, including those children who are disadvantaged and the most able within this group. Leaders make sure that children benefit from extra help which is more closely focused on children’s individual needs.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. Staff plan support effectively and they make good use of a wide range of programmes to help children catch up and build on teaching for the whole class.
• Phonics knowledge is improving rapidly. For example, some children write their names and use their phonics knowledge to sound out the letters correctly. Almost all the children can correctly identify the initial sounds of objects that the teacher shows them.
• Children are polite and courteous. They are keen to learn and play, and collaborate well together. Consequently, children swiftly develop their inquisitiveness and social skills.
• Safeguarding is effective. Staff are well trained and knowledgeable about how to keep children safe and there are no breaches of welfare regulations. Children are well supervised and the learning environment is well organised and secure.
• The leader of the early years provides very strong leadership. She robustly monitors and checks classroom areas and activities extremely carefully so that children learn well and can move between activities freely and safely. Leaders have secured significant improvements in the use of the outdoor area. Children enjoy a wide range of activities which support children’s learning and social development very well.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 126001 West Sussex 10019898 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 controlled 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 265 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Patricia Unicombe and Penny Dave Nick Sharp 01243 551246 www.yaptonschool.org head@yaptonschool.org Date of previous inspection 2–3 December 2014

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This is an average-sized primary school. The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.
• The results of national tests and assessments for pupils in Year 6 in 2015 met the government’s floor standards (the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6).
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly average. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in classes throughout the school, including joint observations with the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• Discussions were held with school staff, members of the governing body, including the chair of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors examined a wide range of documents, including the school’s information on the quality of teaching, the school’s self-evaluation and records relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils informally during the school day and observed them during playtime and lunchtime. They also met formally with a group of pupils to talk about their learning, behaviour and safety.
• Inspectors looked at a range of pupils’ books across a range of subjects.
• Inspectors took account of 11 responses to Ofsted’s online Parent View questionnaire. They also spoke to parents at the start of the school day.

Inspection team

Richard Blackmore, lead inspector Nicola Cale Becky Greenhalgh

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector