Bishop Bronescombe CofE School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership and management to ensure that:
  • leaders use precise monitoring, including of pupils’ workbooks and pupil-progress information, to evaluate the school’s performance accurately
  • leaders act swiftly where underperformance is identified to improve the quality of teaching and standards that pupils reach
  • middle leaders are suitably trained, so they have the knowledge to fulfil their roles and responsibilities effectively
  • leaders’ use of additional funding results in stronger, sustained progress for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND
  • leaders, the trust and governors use in-depth analysis about the schools’ performance based on robust monitoring to evaluate the school’s progress and determine priorities for further improvement
  • expectations of what pupils can achieve are raised, so pupils build on the strong start they have in the early years and make good progress, and lower-attaining pupils catch up.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that teachers:
  • significantly raise their expectations of what pupils can achieve and challenge basic misconceptions, particularly across subjects in key stage 1
  • provide activities that consider the needs of pupils, and ensure suitable challenge for all, so pupils make stronger progress from their starting points
  • ensure that pupils apply their spelling knowledge in their writing, leading to increased accuracy
  • ensure that pupils apply their reasoning and problem-solving knowledge in mathematics, resulting in improved progress across the school. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium should be undertaken to assess how these aspects of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Leaders have set priorities for improvement for the year ahead. There is clarity in the school’s action plan about what the school needs to do to improve. However, leaders’ actions to implement their plans are too slow. As a result, there is a mismatch between leaders’ intentions to bring about change and teachers’ implementation of school improvement strategies. Consequently, the aspects previously identified for improvement are not being remedied quickly enough. For example, weaknesses in pupils’ application of spelling in their writing persist.
• Leaders’ monitoring and checks on teaching, learning and assessment are too limited. This has prevented them from identifying weaknesses in teaching and challenging underperformance. As a result, standards have slipped in key stage 1. Weaknesses in teaching have continued over time without leaders intervening to bring about improvements.
• Leaders’ strategies to ensure that teaching is consistently good are not yet fully effective. Leaders have ensured that intervention is in place to help pupils catch up when they are falling behind. However, teachers rely too heavily on this help to close gaps in pupils’ knowledge. Consequently, some pupils still underachieve in lessons. This is because teaching is not helping pupils to move on in their learning well enough.
• Middle leaders have not received the training they need to carry out their roles effectively. These leaders lack the knowledge to monitor areas for which they are responsible with sufficient precision. Leaders have not paid close enough attention to the impact that teaching, learning and assessment has on pupils’ progress. As a result, they have not noticed the inconsistency in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• Leaders have not ensured that the information teachers hold about what pupils know, understand and can do is accurate. As a result, teachers’ assessments of pupils’ writing, in some but not all classes, are overgenerous.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has led wide-ranging changes to the assessment of needs of pupils with SEND. Much of this work is in its infancy but it is beginning to pay off. Leaders have improved the precision of targets they set for pupils, so they better meet their individual needs. However, over time, leaders have not checked the impact of interventions on pupils’ progress and achievement closely enough.
• Leaders’ use of the pupil premium is not closing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. While it has brought about improvements by the end of key stage 2, these improvements are not sustained across the school. Leaders’ targets for disadvantaged pupils are not precise enough. The targets do not consider pupils’ prior attainment and lack aspiration. Pupils increasingly take part in extra-curricular clubs and their attendance at school has improved. However, pupils’ progress and attainment are still not good enough.
• Leaders use the sport premium funding effectively. Leaders have raised the profile of physical education across the school. They have targeted pupils who had previously low engagement in sporting activities to good effect. Pupils have benefited from external expertise, including the involvement of a street dance group and a local football club. Leaders have also used funding to increase teachers’ confidence when teaching physical education, through the involvement of a specialist coach.
• Leaders have developed an effective curriculum that considers a range of local, national and international factors. Pupils are ‘hooked into’ the learning. For example, learning how to make traditional Cornish pasties when considering the historical mining community in Cornwall and making catapults in design technology. Pupils enjoy their learning. However, leaders do not check the progress that pupils make in these activities sufficiently.
• Leaders have created a nurturing school with pupils’ well-being at the heart of all decision making. Pupils enjoy school and speak enthusiastically about how the school benefits them. Parents are equally positive about the education provided for their children.
• Leaders work closely with parents. This has resulted in a strong relationship between home and school. It has increased parents’ understanding about what their children learn in school and how they can support them at home.

Governance of the school

• The trust has been overgenerous in its evaluation of the school. They acknowledge that a lack of monitoring has led to inconsistency in teaching, learning and assessment over the academic year. Trust leaders have not ensured that middle leaders are adequately trained to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.
• The trust has recently assigned a new school improvement leader, to support and challenge leaders. However, this work is still in its infancy.
• The governing body, known as the monitoring council, have a clear understanding of the school’s priorities. They speak candidly about the rationale behind key decisions and keep themselves up to date with the school’s performance. However, information they receive about standards across the school is inaccurate. This has impeded them in challenging leaders about weaknesses in teaching, learning and assessment. Consequently, it has prevented them from challenging leaders about the variable quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders’ checks when recruiting staff are thorough, ensuring that they only employ those suitable to work with children. Leaders record this information diligently on the school’s single central record.
• Leaders keep staff up to date with safeguarding procedures through regular ‘bitesize’ updates. This not only keeps staff aware of current safeguarding issues but also ensures that safeguarding is given a high profile across the school.
• The work of the parent support advisor is a strength. Leaders know families well and have developed strong, collaborative relationships. As a result, parental involvement with the school has increased. Leaders direct parents to help and external support when needed, acting as a triage for emerging needs and offering early help. Pupils who had previously low attendance have attended school more regularly because of this work. As a result, pupils’ attendance has improved.
• There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. Leaders make sure that staff training is current, considering both local and national issues. Staff know the procedures in place for passing on concerns. Consequently, when concerns arise, leaders receive the information in a timely manner and act accordingly, consulting with external support where necessary.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teachers’ expectations are not high enough across the school, particularly at key stage 1. Teachers do not routinely challenge pupils’ poor presentation of their work or correct basic mistakes. For some pupils, they are still reversing letters and numbers as well as struggling to spell words that they commonly use. As a result, this hinders their progress.
• Teachers do not provide activities that build on pupils’ prior knowledge sufficiently. Teachers plan activities that lack challenge and prevent pupils producing the high-quality work that they are capable of. While there is more challenge evident in key stage 2, it is not yet consistent enough to ensure strong progress from pupils’ starting points.
• In mathematics, teachers do not ensure that pupils develop their reasoning and problem-solving knowledge. Teachers provide pupils with tasks to develop their fluency of number, particularly when solving number sentences. However, teaching does not enable pupils to learn to apply their knowledge and skills sufficiently, which slows their progress.
• Teachers’ questioning to clarify pupils’ understanding is underdeveloped. Consequently, on occasion, pupils misunderstand the work that teachers ask them to do, and misconceptions remain unchecked.
• Teachers do not enable pupils to apply their spelling knowledge. While teachers regularly teach and assess pupils’ knowledge of spelling, pupils do not apply this to their own work. Despite the school prioritising improving pupils’ spelling application, it is not high-profile in classrooms or pupils’ workbooks. Teachers are not routinely picking up pupils’ errors. As a result, they continue to repeat mistakes.
• Teachers regularly inform pupils about the progress they make in their learning. While this is a more successful aspect of the school’s work, it is not yet wholly effective as teachers do not routinely notice pupils’ basic errors and lapses in presentation. In some cases, information about what pupils can do, know and understand is not accurate, particularly writing.
• Teachers deploy support staff well. Support staff are wholly committed to supporting pupils and do so in a caring yet challenging way. While teachers deploy support staff to deliver interventions and ‘catch up’ sessions for pupils, these are not always necessary. Often, these sessions tackle gaps in pupils’ learning that could have easily been avoided, had the quality of teaching, learning and assessment been stronger.
• The teaching of phonics is effective. Sessions engage pupils effectively because staff have strong subject knowledge. Staff closely consider pupils’ emerging needs when providing activities and use assessment information effectively to gauge pupils’ understanding. Consequently, activities are suitably challenging and build on pupils’ existing knowledge.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The school’s core values of ‘Perseverance, compassion, forgiveness, respect, courage and trust’ form the spine of the school. For example, pupils are eager to share with adults when they have been a ‘Persevering Peter’ and not given up.
• Pupils are proud of their school and its Christian distinctiveness. Pupils highlight the importance of the school’s faith and how this benefits them in school. For example, pupils wrote prayers and attached them to a tree in the outside space. Pupils often read these prayers and share how they bring comfort to each other.
• At times, there are lapses in pupils’ presentations in their workbooks. While pupils are proud of their school and their achievements, it is not always evident in their work.
• Pupils have a sound understanding of how to stay safe when using the internet, particularly those in key stage 2. In key stage 1, pupils are less knowledgeable, but they know they should tell an adult if they feel uncomfortable or at risk.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils conduct themselves well around the school. There are high expectations of behaviour which pupils respond to effectively.
• Pupils are adamant that behaviour is a strength of the school and bullying doesn’t occur. Pupils forge strong friendships and manage differences well. Through the school’s ‘footsteps’ approach, if pupils fall out with one another, they stand on the laminated footsteps and attempt to resolve differences of opinion through conversation. This approach works effectively. Pupils use the footsteps well as intended.
• Pupils attend well. Historically, pupils’ absence has been higher than national averages. However, this has reduced over time. Pupils’ absence rates are now in line with national averages. The proportion of pupils who regularly miss school has also fallen and is lower than national averages.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupil’s application of spelling is poor. Pupils’ writing is often peppered with errors that limit the effectiveness of their work. For younger pupils, spelling mistakes increase when they are writing without the support of an adult. Pupils are not yet using the strategies they have learned, nor the resources available to them, to spell words correctly.
• Too few pupils have the knowledge and skills to reason and problem solve in mathematics. While pupils develop a sound understanding of key mathematical concepts, they have too few high-quality opportunities to apply this knowledge across a range of contexts.
• Pupils’ progress from their starting points is variable. While some pupils make strong progress, others do not, particularly across key stage 1. Where pupils were previously working at expectations for their age, this has not been maintained. Furthermore, lower-attaining pupils do not catch up with their peers. Consequently, pupils require significant catch-up to get them back on track.
• Pupils make too many basic errors in their work. Number and letter reversal are common across key stage 1, which significantly impacts on pupils’ progress. In addition, handwriting is often underdeveloped and not representative of what pupils were previously capable of.
• Disadvantaged pupils’ progress is not consistently strong. While provisional results in 2018 demonstrate improved progress and attainment by the end of key stage 2, this is not evident across the school. In some year groups, the proportion of pupils working at expectations for their age has decreased. While disadvantaged pupils access a range of interventions and extra-curricular activities, this work does not ensure that pupils make better progress.
• Until recently, pupils with SEND made poor progress. However, progress during this academic year shows a marked improvement. Pupils are meeting targets and moving on. While this is positive, it does not yet make up for previously poor progress.
• Over time, the proportion of pupils working at expectations for their age by the end of key stage 2 has increased across reading, writing and mathematics. However, this remains below national averages for reading and mathematics. Over time, there has been a marked improvement in pupils’ progress in writing by the end of key stage 2. However, for current pupils, progress in books does not consistently reflect this shift in progress.
• Pupils attain well in the phonics screening check. The proportion of pupils who reach the standard expected in the phonics screening check by the end of Years 1 and 2 has been consistently above national averages for some time. Pupils read appropriate texts that allow them to apply the sounds they have been practising.
• Pupils read frequently across the school. In key stage 1, pupils move systematically through the school’s reading stages until they are ‘free readers’. Staff closely match books to pupils’ reading ability. When pupils move into key stage 2, they choose the books they read. However, pupils often opt for books they are familiar with, which reduces the amount they read across a range of genres.
• Pupils who attend an alternative provision make good progress. The provision is closely matched to their needs and leaders communicate regularly with these settings to track pupils’ progress.

Early years provision Good

• Children get off to a strong start in the Nursery class. Staff have high expectations of children and work closely with staff in the Reception class to ensure consistency across both settings. Staff provide high-quality opportunities for children to develop their early phonics understanding, providing a solid foundation for future learning. Relationships across the Nursery class are nurturing, and children are well prepared for when they start the Reception Year.
• In recent years, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development has been above national averages. While this fell in 2018, outcomes remain broadly in line with national averages.
• The proportion of children working at expectations for their age in reading, writing and mathematics has been historically higher than national averages. In 2018, this proportion declined in reading and writing and was maintained in mathematics. However, there was a marked increase in the proportion of children exceeding expectations for their age in reading and mathematics.
• In the Reception class, adults demonstrate high expectations. Adults assess children as soon as they begin the Reception Year to ensure that no time is wasted in providing a quality early years education. Adults use information about what children can do effectively, ensuring that children build on their starting points and make strong progress. Adults accurately pinpoint children’s next steps and provide appropriately challenging activities.
• The teaching of phonics is effective. Children develop their phonic knowledge well during engaging sessions. Adults teach phonics effectively, based on children’s emerging needs. In addition, adults actively promote children’s understanding of phonics when writing. This results in children demonstrating increasing accuracy when spelling words.
• Children love to write in the early years. Adults engage children in writing through rich and contextualised stimuli. For example, children wrote a set of instructions to inform others how to best care for their new pet fish. Adults promote writing well and use subtle cues to remind children to use capital letters, spacing between words and making sure letters are correctly formed. Children make good progress in their writing.
• Children are confident, self-assured and imaginative in their play. Across the provision, children are keen to share their achievements with adults and take pride when recognised for demonstrating the school’s values such as perseverance.
• Children are safe in the early years provision. Adults supervise children well during activities and reinforce routines and expectations. Children feel and are safe. They move well across the provision, including the new outside space, and eagerly participate in the activities on offer.
• Adults engage well with parents and external agencies. Adults value parental participation in gathering accurate information about what children can do before they begin the Reception Year. In addition, adults act swiftly where they feel children may need further support. Adults identify children with SEND quickly and provide effective support to maintain their progress.
• Several children who start the Reception year working lower than expectations for their age in reading, writing and mathematics do not catch up with their peers. In addition, there are fewer children who are working above expectations for their age in writing by the end of the Reception Year than seen in other areas, despite similar starting points.

School details

Unique reference number 140465 Local authority Cornwall Inspection number 10024941 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Primary School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 4 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 353 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Simon Hill Head of School Debbie Carmichael Telephone number 01726 64322 Website www.bishopbronescombe.co.uk Email address bishopbronescombe.secretary@celticcross.education Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The school joined St Piran’s Cross Multi Academy Trustin December 2013. This trust merged with another local trust to form Celtic Cross Education.
• The predecessor school was judged to be outstanding by Ofsted in March 2011.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is in line with the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is slightly lower than national averages. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is also lower than national averages.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with the school’s leadership team to consider their evaluation of the school and current improvement priorities.
• The lead inspector met with representatives from the school’s monitoring council, the chief executive officer of Celtic Cross Education and the school’s improvement leader.
• The lead inspector met with the head of school to scrutinise assessment information and progress of current pupils.
• Inspectors and school leaders jointly observed teaching and learning in each class. On some occasions, inspectors also visited classes unaccompanied. Inspectors scrutinised a range of pupils’ workbooks from Years 1 to 6. Inspectors visited Nursery and Reception classes and took account of children’s work.
• Inspectors met with pupils from key stages 1 and 2 to gain their views of the school’s work as well as listen to them read.
• Inspectors took account of the views of 49 parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. Inspectors also met with parents to gather their views.
• Inspectors met with the school’s designated safeguarding leader and the parent support advisor. Together, they reviewed safeguarding documentation and the school’s single central register. In addition, inspectors reviewed the school’s safeguarding policies, procedures and culture. Inspectors met with middle leaders, including those responsible for leading literacy and mathematics. Inspectors also met with the SENCo, the pupil premium and sports premium lead and the early years leader.

Inspection team

Nathan Kemp, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Stephen McShane Her Majesty’s Inspector Julie Jane Ofsted Inspector