St Stephens (Saltash) Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning further by:
  • ensuring that activities planned for lower-ability pupils in key stage 1 enable more to progress at a faster rate and reach the standards expected for their age
  • developing key stage 1 pupils’ skills of comprehension, understanding and fluency when reading
  • stretching the most able pupils fully to deepen and challenge their thinking.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The outstanding leadership of the headteacher is fundamental to the transformational journey of improvement the school is undertaking. Her relentless and tireless dedication to improving teaching and helping others is enabling all to thrive in a culture of high expectations, mutual trust and support.
• This was not always the case. Following the previous inspection in 2012 the school experienced a period of turbulence and decline in the quality of teaching and pupils’ behaviour. Pupils’ outcomes declined and in 2014 were significantly below the national average.
• The arrival of the current headteacher in January 2015 galvanised the whole school community. The quality of leadership, pupils’ personal development and behaviour have all improved markedly. The quality of teaching and pupils’ current progress are also much better than at that time.
• The excellence of the headteacher is replicated in other senior and middle leaders. Leaders for English, mathematics and the early years are experts in their areas and support the headteacher exceptionally well. They understand their role in the drive for improvement with great clarity. The school’s action plans are brought to life by the way leaders conduct their work with passion and enthusiasm.
• All staff and governors are involved in a very broad range of insightful monitoring and moderation activities. These provide a high degree of analysis and information from which improvements are made. The accuracy and impact of these systems shine through in the quality of teaching and pupils’ work seen on inspection and lie at the heart of recent improvements.
• The leadership of teaching is of very high quality. Performance management procedures are not seen as a ‘standalone’ activity but vital to all aspects of the school’s work. Exceptional modelling by the headteacher, subject and phase leaders is enabling all to grow and flourish. Weaker teaching has been robustly tackled. Helpful feedback by all leaders builds well on targets and ensures that all staff are developing a broad repertoire of teaching skills.
• The curriculum design and delivery is impressive and contributes strongly to pupils’ good and improving achievement. It provides a range of activities that promote a high level of pupils’ enjoyment when learning. Teachers use their good subject knowledge to make highly effective links between subjects and support pupils’ learning well. For example, pupils confidently use fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases to add detail to their writing when crafting information texts about the ‘Goliath Tarantula’ in Year 3 as part of the ‘Rainforest’ theme.
• Carefully planned activities provide a well-developed foundation for pupils’ appreciation of modern British values. Pupils’ understanding is enhanced when they study how laws are formed in other countries and contrast the process to law-making in England. Pupils’ leadership skills are developed exceptionally well through a wide range of activities and opportunities, including the school council, play and sports leaders and house captains.
• The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is integral to the school’s values and friendly atmosphere. Trips to places of worship and themes such as ‘Christianity in Cornwall’ develop pupils’ cultural heritage and sense of identity very well. Pupils’ personal successes and academic achievements are celebrated through the well-presented, colourful and informative displays that also showcase the exciting and rich curriculum on offer.
• As one parent commented, typical of many, the extra curriculum offer is ‘the icing on the cake’. The school balances a wide array of sporting or musical activities with academic experiences such as computing. Parents and staff are very impressed by pupils’ gains in confidence, aptitude and skills developed through the range of activities available.
• Leaders hold a deep understanding of the requirements to meet the government’s new strategy for using the pupil premium funding. Consequently, the pupil premium and service premium funding are used very well. The increasing number of pupils being supported through this funding are now making rapid progress. By the end of key stage 2, their attainment is in line with that of other pupils nationally and improving.
• Additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is also used well. A careful blend of academic, emotional, social and pastoral support is meeting their needs effectively. Where more pronounced concerns arise, additional funding is sought. When this support is not forthcoming, the school does what it can to provide additional support to ensure that pupils’ academic and personal needs are fully met.
• Funding to increase pupils’ participation in physical activity and improve their performance in physical education and sport is used well. The proportion of pupils who take part in competitive sports has increased to over 60%. The broad range of activities and clubs, including skateboarding, street dance and free running, is used effectively alongside a dedicated programme to develop pupils’ good understanding of healthy living and their well-being.
• External support from a range of sources, including the local authority, has been highly successful at improving the quality of leadership, teaching and pupils’ current progress. The moderation of judgements and benchmarking how successful actions have been with ‘challenge partners’ contributes well to the school’s continual improvement.
• Parents, senior and middle leaders, staff and pupils are overwhelming in their praise for the recent and ongoing developments at the school. Parental satisfaction with the school is high. The number of positive responses to all questions posed on Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, is much higher than those typically found for primary schools. Parents who made comments were just as complimentary.

Governance of the school

• Governors’ determined actions have secured outstanding leadership for the school. Strategic appointments, combined with a pragmatic approach, have proved highly successful.
• Governors use the detailed information provided for them to rigorously check on the pace of improvement to teaching, leadership and pupils’ achievement. They undertake a wide range of first-hand evidence-gathering activities alongside senior and middle leaders. This enables them to check the success of action plans, while gaining an insightful view of the quality of teaching.
• Governors are highly visible in school and seen very much as part of the whole team. They have a detailed understanding of how performance management is used to improve teaching, how this links to teachers’ pay progression and how the processes are bringing about improvements to all aspects of the school’s work.
• Governors understand the exact impact that the pupil premium funding is having and hold a clear understanding of how well the school is performing in relation to other schools nationally. Clear plans are in place that demonstrate the potential for the school to continue to improve on its journey to outstanding. Safeguarding is given a very high priority in all aspects of governors’ work. This ensures that all statutory requirements are met.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The headteacher’s ‘root and branch’ overhaul of the arrangements for safeguarding children have dramatically improved this aspect of the school’s work. Systems are robustly monitored and external evaluations ensure arrangements are up to date and are of a high quality.
• All involved in the school community are committed to keeping pupils safe. The necessary checks to confirm the suitability of those who wish to work with children are detailed and thorough. Training for safeguarding, child protection and first aid is up to date, regular and welcomed, enabling staff and governors to fully discharge their duties. Pupils and parents are confident that issues are followed up. Pupils are knowledgeable about matters of safety through activities planned in the curriculum. For example, routine activities such as walking to sport competitions or the local secondary school are used well to reinforce aspects of road safety. Pupils report that they feel safe in school; parents agree that they are safe.
• The strong emphasis on pupils’ personal development promotes their positive behaviour, with respect and courtesy as the norm. On the very rare occasions it is required, pupils are successfully helped to adopt de-escalation strategies through the school’s behaviour approaches. Effective links with outside agencies help to cater for vulnerable pupils. The strong commitment to pupils’ safety is demonstrated through the in-depth work to develop pupils’ understanding of ‘e-safety’. Pupils report that it is ‘drummed into them’.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Following the last inspection, the quality of teaching dropped. Meetings with pupils, staff and governors confirm the recent improvements. The school’s detailed and accurate monitoring of teaching and its impact on learning reinforces the inspection evidence. Teaching over time is typically good, with some outstanding features.
• Policies for curriculum delivery have been fully and consistently implemented. This is driving up the quality of teaching at the school. Increasingly personalised assessments of pupils’ gains in knowledge, skills and understanding are linked directly to activities that challenge, engage and motivate them to achieve well.
• Teachers use their high expectations and good subject knowledge of English to support pupils’ learning well. Activities are planned effectively and enable pupils to use their core skills of literacy when studying themes such as ‘Rainforests’ or ‘Aztecs’. This brings learning to life for pupils. Occasionally activities planned for low-ability pupils in key stage 1 are not broken down into the small steps required. Consequently their learning and progress are not as strong as their more able peers.
• Teachers and other adults use their well-developed understanding of pupils’ learning to adapt planned activities between lessons. Most adults use questioning effectively within reading lessons to re-shape activities and move pupils’ learning on. This results in pupils being challenged throughout lessons and ensures that pupils’ current learning progresses at a rapid pace. In a small minority of cases in key stage 1 pupils’ progress slows when adults’ questioning fails to check and probe pupils’ deeper comprehension skills and understanding.
• Scrutiny of pupils’ work lies at the heart of the school’s monitoring and moderation activities. Teachers are well versed in evaluating what pupils know, understand and can do. Information from these evaluations is used to inform future learning well. Teachers expect pupils, especially older pupils, to evaluate their own work in a similar way. Self- and peer review is therefore an embedded skill displayed by pupils.
• Teachers carefully follow the school’s marking policy. Pupils are clear about what they need to do to make improvements to their work, such as developing cohesive devices when writing paragraphs, and to sustain their good progress. During lessons, adults check pupils’ learning by observing, talking and listening to pupils. Pupils are clear about how to act on any points provided.
• The teaching of writing has several strengths. Interesting themes such as ‘The Voyage of Darwin’ help pupils to write in different forms accurately, using text structures that are organised well for their specific purpose. Work in books shows that pupils have a good understanding and knowledge of different genres of writing and text types. Pupils’ progress from their starting points in writing is therefore strong.
• Teachers have a very good understanding of the requirements for the national curriculum in mathematics. The subject leader for mathematics has led improvements to the curriculum and teaching of mathematics with expertise and confidence. The school’s chosen approach develops pupils’ conceptual understanding from ‘concrete’ to ‘pictorial’ then ‘abstract’, alongside their proficient fluency in formal calculation methods, well. Questions such as ‘How do you know?’; ‘Why do you think that?’; ‘What do we know about numbers work to solve this?’, challenge pupils to make good progress in developing their reasoning skills. A consistent approach is evident across the school.
• Staff achieve even better practice by constantly fine-tuning their delivery of lessons. This is demonstrated through the refined personal care and specifically targeted support that vulnerable pupils now receive. This is meeting these pupils’ pastoral needs well, especially for those who attend the nurture group.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils have a very well-developed understanding of how to be successful learners. In lessons, they discuss their learning in a considered manner. Pupils’ understanding of others’ views is reflected in the cordial way they work and learn together. Across all age ranges pupils enjoy each other’s company.
• Pupils take greater pride in their work and learning. They complete tasks set and many ask for additional help and support during break or lunchtimes. Pupils are very proud of the part they have played in the school’s improvement. Pupils recognise the additional effort all adults make to help them and, in turn, reciprocate these efforts in their own work.
• Planned activities prepare pupils very well for life beyond school. The school’s focus on resilience and perseverance when tackling challenges builds confidence and promotes pupils’ social development exceptionally well.
• Pupils have a well-developed understanding of how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations in and out of school. The school’s innovative use of technology and promotion of computing ensure that pupils have been taught how to keep safe when using new technologies. Pupils are confident about what to do and who to talk to if they feel unsure about something.
• Care for those pupils who need additional support is thorough and well documented. The addition of the nurture group for older pupils adds significantly to the school’s offer for vulnerable pupils. Strong working relationships with a range of outside agencies, such as social care, help to ensure the safety of these pupils.
• The overwhelming majority of parents who responded to Parent View reported that they feel their child is safe in school. Pupils also report they feel safe at all times. Pupils who spoke to the inspector showed a deep understanding of what it means to say they feel safe. Aspects of safety feature strongly in the school’s curriculum and this quality is replicated in the school’s procedures for safeguarding.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils display very positive attitudes to learning across a range of subjects. Those who spoke with the inspector were positive about all aspects of the school and the improvements that have been made.
• Pupils develop a mature approach to regulating their own behaviour. Pupils’ conduct around the school is polite, orderly, happy and friendly. Their well-developed reflection skills, teamwork and ability to cooperate with each other play a very strong part in their academic achievement and personal development.
• Incidents of bullying are rare. However, pupils are very confident that any issue, no matter how minor, will be dealt with. Behaviour logs show a dramatic reduction in recorded incidents during the last two years. A close working relationship with parents acts as a strong deterrent to any poor behaviour.
• Relationships between staff, pupils and parents are very good. Pupils are courteous and polite to each other, adults and visitors. Parents who responded to Parent View firmly believe that pupils are well behaved. Staff also state that pupils’ behaviour is of a very high standard.
• Effective work from the parent support adviser and family worker is proving very successful at improving pupils’ attendance, which is now above the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• A period of staff turbulence resulted in pupils’ low attainment and weak progress. School assessment information and analysis of pupils’ work indicates that the proportion of pupils making strong gains in knowledge, skills and understanding is now rising. Previous underachievement has been rigorously tackled and most pupils have caught up on lost ground. Standards in reading, writing and mathematics, by the age of 11, are on track to be above the national average in 2017.
• Thorough checks on teaching by senior and middle leaders are combined with specific guidance on how to improve practice. High-quality activities challenge pupils to extend their reasoning and thinking, for example when ‘Captain Conjecture’ pushes pupils to use algebra when solving ratio problems in mathematics. Pupils receive high-quality teaching and targeted support. All these factors have contributed to accelerated pupil progress.
• Achievement is also good because pupils have extremely positive attitudes to learning. Pupils enjoy coming to school, learning new skills, acquiring new knowledge and responding to teaching with enthusiasm and enjoyment. They share their ideas maturely during lessons and are expected to ‘up level’ and ‘do even better’, even if they have achieved a 10/10.
• The school was aware that a group of lower key stage 2 pupils working below the standards expected for their age required significant intervention to help them get back on track, in particular some girls who underachieved in key stage 1 mathematics. All pupils have caught up as a result of high-quality teaching and intervention work. Similar help and support is not yet in place to ensure that the lower-attaining pupils in key stage 1 can also catch up quickly.
• The good basis pupils receive during the early years is built on well as pupils move through the school. The foundations for higher achievement over time are being embedded. Programmes to overcome social and emotional barriers to learning are also proving successful. As a result, pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 2 is at least average and improving rapidly for disadvantaged pupils.
• Pupils in Year 1 do better in the phonics check than the national average. Pupils are expected to apply the knowledge gained from reading when writing; for example when Year 2 wrote recounts following a trip to Kents Cavern, as part of the ‘Dinosaur’ theme.
• Pupils in key stage 1 use the knowledge of phonics to decode what sounds letters make well. Pupils are competent and well versed in the ‘basic mechanics’ of reading. Pupils’ enjoyment of reading and their success when segmenting more complicated words, then blending the sounds to read them, are clearly evident. However, the teaching of reading at key stage 1 does not routinely develop pupils’ deeper comprehension, fluency and understanding with the same degree of success that it does in key stage 2.
• Pupils in receipt of the pupil premium and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities share in the good progress being made by other pupils. Any pupil in danger of underachieving is identified quickly and given immediate, high-quality, targeted support. Staff are increasingly expert at planning interventions to tackle misconceptions before they occur, during an activity or immediately after they have been spotted.
• Last year the most able pupils across the school did not perform as well as they could have. School leaders are aware of this and have identified this as a priority in the school action plan. Work in pupils’ books, observations in lessons and talking to pupils show that leaders’ actions are having a positive impact on standards. In most year groups, the most able, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, are on track to reach the standards they are capable of. School leaders are aware there is still room for further development, to stretch and challenge the most able pupils so that the highest expectations become routine practice.
• Parents are highly supportive of the school, acknowledging the rapid improvements that have been made in the last two years. In a typical comment one parent said, ‘Both my children are very happy at school. Since the arrival of the new headteacher, I couldn’t be more pleased with their progress – keep up the great work!’

Early years provision Good

• The outstanding leadership in the school contributes strongly to the improvements seen in the early years. The early years leader is highly effective, has an excellent understanding of early childhood development and uses this to improve provision that meets the needs of children from the moment they start at school. Children are well prepared for Year 1.
• Over time, children in the early years have achieved well. From 2013 to 2016 the proportion of children reaching the standard expected for their age was broadly average, when compared to other schools nationally. This represents good progress from their starting points. However, some differences in the performance of girls and boys were evident. Disadvantaged children did not achieve as well as other disadvantaged children nationally, or their non-disadvantaged peers. This year, current progress and children’s gains in knowledge is rapid.
• The improving quality of teaching in the two Reception classes is leading to better progress. Effective use of additional funding ensures that nearly all disadvantaged children are making accelerated progress and are on track to reach the expected standard by the end of the year. Work in children’s learning journals indicates that the proportion of children making rapid progress this year is higher than that typically found.
• Children make large gains in developing their self-confidence and readiness to learn. Children greatly enjoy their learning and behave well. This is because they are equally included in a stimulating range of indoor and outdoor learning experiences.
• The teaching of phonics and early reading is of high quality. Children use their knowledge of letters and sounds to write words and sentences. Writing in children’s books shows children confidently using their good phonic knowledge to write accurately, for example ‘my car needs oil’ when learning the grapheme ‘oi’.
• Children learn equally well when choosing their own practical work. This is because adults watch and listen carefully to each child during activities. The moment a child shows any sign of becoming disengaged, staff act swiftly to support. If necessary, staff adapt an activity, prompt a further challenge or move on to a different activity to restore or maintain their interest. Children’s progress throughout the early years this year is therefore rapid.
• Teachers and teaching assistants use the information they know about children to carefully adapt plans and promote the next steps in each child’s learning journey and develop their interests. Staff noticed that children’s fine motor control skills required improvement so they planned activities to promote this aspect of physical development. The sharp focus on ‘malleables’ through ‘dough disco’ and ‘funky fingers’, as well as the use of pencil grips early, is proving successful.
• Staff develop very supportive relationships with and between children. As a result, children relish the chances they get to learn with and from each other. This underpins their improving progress during the early years, especially in developing their communication, language and literacy skills, often from starting points below those typically found. For example, activities prompt children’s skills of prediction and deduction when examining pictures as a stimulus for guessing what might have happened.
• Close liaison with the large number of pre-school settings and nursery providers ensures that children get off to a smooth start in their learning. Home visits and carefully planned induction sessions for children and parents, combined with the passing on of vital information, help ensure the transition into school is seamless.
• Staff are careful and thorough in safeguarding children. They work carefully with parents to make sure that children’s personal and emotional needs are developed just as effectively as their academic learning. Children are knowledgeable about aspects of safety. Their attitudes and resilience to tackling new activities and learning are admirable.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 111966 Cornwall 10025052 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 Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 310 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Peter Nowlan Heather Landers 01752 843561 http://www.st-stephens-salt.cornwall.sch.uk head@ssscp.org.uk Date of previous inspection 13–14 September 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• St Stephen’s is larger than the average primary school.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups or who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities in receipt of additional support through an education, health and care plan is above average.
• A higher than average proportion of pupils join or leave the school other than at the normal times.
• The current headteacher was appointed in January 2015.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ standards and progress by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Pupils’ learning was observed across all classes, sometimes jointly with the headteacher. A series of short visits to classes was undertaken to observe the teaching of phonics, mathematics and writing across the school. Inspectors looked in depth at a range of work in pupils’ books. In addition, inspectors listened to several children reading and attended an assembly.
• Inspectors held discussions with the headteacher, other senior leaders and three members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. Inspectors met with two groups of pupils and spoke informally with many in lessons and around the school.
• The views of 72 parents and carers expressed through the online questionnaire, Parent View, and the findings of staff and pupil questionnaires were also analysed.
• Inspectors looked at a range of documentation including information on pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s improvement plans and minutes of the governing body. The school’s records of the monitoring of teaching and information on the management of teachers’ performance were analysed. Policies and procedures for the safeguarding of pupils, including records relating to the behaviour and exclusions of pupils, were examined.

Inspection team

Richard Light, lead inspector Craig Hayes Simon Mower Roy Souter

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector