Stoke Climsland School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve the achievement of the most able pupils in lower key stage 2 by raising expectations of what they can achieve in all lessons.
• Further improve progress in writing by ensuring that the writing pupils do in lessons other than English is of the same depth and quality as that in their literacy books.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The acting executive headteacher has led by example in bringing about extensive improvement in the school since the previous inspection. There has been concerted action, resulting in improved teaching, achievement and leadership.
• Staff and parents recognise the significance of the changes made. Staff are very complimentary about the leadership’s efforts to support them. For example, there have been good opportunities for staff to improve their confidence and expertise when teaching subjects such as mathematics.
• There is now much more accountability in the school. Staff are expected to meet the needs of all groups of pupils and ensure good progress. Staff pay is linked to quality of performance. Staff welcome this rigour and the support which the leadership provides to go with it. High expectations are very evident throughout the school.
• Subject leaders have improved their ability and confidence to support other staff and check what is happening in their particular subject areas. This complements the senior leadership’s own rigorous checking of teaching and progress.
• The improvements are very evident in pupils’ attitudes towards learning, which are now consistently strong.
• Parents and staff are very complimentary about the improvements that have been made. A typical staff comment was, ‘Every child is recognised for their strengths and celebrated for their differences.’ Another wrote, ‘All staff have put a huge effort into raising the attainment and standards over the past few years … while maintaining a supporting and nurturing environment.’
• The leadership uses pupil premium funding well. For example, it pays for extra support for disadvantaged pupils inside and outside the classroom. As a result, the small numbers of disadvantaged pupils, including some most able disadvantaged pupils, consistently make at least as much progress as other pupils, and sometimes more.
• The school uses its special educational needs funding effectively to ensure that the pupils involved get the best provision to meet their needs. This often takes the form of extra support, including one-to-one help. As a result, these pupils make increasingly good progress.
• The school uses additional sports funding to good effect. A sports coach provides a range of activities and a good level of support to staff. Pupils greatly value the sporting opportunities. There is a high take-up of school clubs and the school has a strong record of success in area competitions in sports such as football, netball and cross-country running.
• Pupils enjoy other aspects of the curriculum. They enjoy the topics which all classes study. They also enjoy visits, including the residential one to London.
• The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development strongly. Music is a strength, and both pupils and staff enjoy the opportunities to sing. The school promotes British values well, observed, for example, in an assembly and in lessons considering the role of democracy in the approaching general election. The school also encourages a wider perspective, for example by setting up links with schools in China and California.
• Stoke Climsland is a very inclusive school. All pupils have the chance to do well. They are happy at school and they and their parents would strongly recommend the school to other prospective parents and pupils.
• School leaders have an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development. They recognise that the most able pupils do not always receive work of a level which will challenge them to achieve their full potential. They also recognise that there could be greater range and depth in some of the writing done in foundation subjects, such as history and geography.
• The leadership has maintained strong links with the sister school at Calstock and other schools. These links enable staff to learn from expertise in other schools, to reach a common understanding of standards and expectations and to plan joint activities with pupils from other schools. For example, pupils from the two federated schools combine for the Year 6 residential visit to London.
• The leadership has also benefited from support from another local headteacher. The local authority has provided some expert support and evaluation of the school’s performance since the previous inspection.
• The school development plan clearly celebrates the school’s strengths and explains how the school can move further forwards. There have been many improvements since the previous inspection and the leadership and staff are not complacent and are determined to strive for excellence. These facts together show that the school has a strong capacity to improve further.

Governance of the school

• Governance has improved considerably since the previous inspection. There are both new and experienced governors. Both groups are now much more knowledgeable and ready to challenge the leadership, for example about the impact of additional funding on pupil progress.
• Governors are now more active in school. For example, they visit lessons, talk to pupils and listen to reports from staff about pupils’ progress and action plans for further improvement.
• Governors have a good understanding of how the spending of the pupil premium and sports funding has benefited pupils. They have a realistic understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development. They are therefore able to support the school constructively.
• Governors are well versed in all aspects of safeguarding. They have had training in safeguarding and their awareness of other aspects of their responsibilities has been recently updated. Consequently, governors are in a good position to support the leadership in moving the school forwards.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Child protection policies are up to date and comply with the latest requirements. There are appropriate policies and procedures to ensure safety. All arrangements are fit for purpose, and records are detailed and of a high quality.
• Staff are very aware of their responsibilities to be vigilant in looking for potential issues, such as signs of abuse or radicalisation, and they know how to share concerns. The resulting culture of safeguarding is also evident in displays around the school and the work pupils do in the classroom.
• Staff have had recent training to update them, including in relation to the ‘Prevent’ duty.
• Staff teach children about safety awareness in assemblies and through the curriculum. The school gives extensive advice to pupils and parents about e-safety.
• There are appropriate checks on staff details to ensure safe recruitment.
• The impact of the safeguarding culture is such that pupils, staff and parents are unanimous in their praise for the school as a ‘safe’ place, as was evident from the responses to questionnaires and interviews during the inspection.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching has improved since the previous inspection. Teachers say that they have had frequent and valued opportunities to increase their knowledge and confidence. Sometimes this has happened jointly with staff from other schools.
• Teaching assistants have also benefited from good professional development. They are now more active in class, and are deployed more effectively to best support the needs of individual pupils. They provide one-to-one support where desirable. The result is that pupils with specific learning needs and vulnerable pupils feel more confident in school and make good progress.
• Teachers mostly show high expectations, to which pupils respond well.
• Teachers comply with the school’s assessment and feedback policy. As a result, pupils know exactly how well they have done and how they can improve their work further.
• Teachers have good working relationships with pupils, motivating them to learn. Inspectors saw this in lessons, in the pride pupils showed in their written work and in the comments pupils made to inspectors.
• Teachers teach reading effectively. There has been increasing emphasis on reading comprehension.
• The teaching of mathematics has improved, partly through professional training for staff. Pupils are now taught more effectively, for example about problem-solving and reasoning in mathematics.
• The teaching of writing and spelling has improved. Staff give attention daily to correctness in spelling. Teachers have high expectations of written work in literacy. However, the demands are less rigorous in other subjects, so that pupils sometimes do less challenging written work, for example in science and history, than they do in English lessons.
• Occasionally, especially in lower key stage 2, teachers do not have high enough expectations of what the most able pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils, could achieve with more challenging work. Some pupils confirmed to the inspectors that occasionally they found the work was ‘easy’.
• Staff teach the relatively few disadvantaged pupils well. As a result, they make progress in line with, or even at a greater rate than, other pupils.
• Staff are now more knowledgeable and confident about using assessment data constructively when planning work for pupils with varying abilities.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils show a very good attitude towards learning, being keen to do well and taking pride in the presentation of their work.
• The school has successfully built on strengths in personal development identified at the previous inspection. Pupils show confidence. Older pupils in particular enjoy the additional responsibilities now open to them. In addition to the school council, elected house captains have a significant role in the school. Older pupils enjoy helping younger children.
• The school strongly encourages pupils to develop as rounded and confident young citizens. Pupils learn to take responsibility for their actions.
• The school gives a high priority to awareness of safety. Pupils have guidance, as do their parents, on how to use the internet safely. Pupils are taught safety awareness in assemblies as well as in lessons.
• Parents greatly appreciate the high quality of care and guidance in the school. Pupils report that they are very confident about finding a member of staff they can trust and talk to if they have any concerns.
• The school has good relationships with external agencies when pupils or their families need additional support.
• Several pupils enjoy a healthy start to the school day in the breakfast club. School clubs are very popular, with a high participation rate.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Behaviour has long been good, but parents and staff believe it has improved further since the previous inspection.
• There are clear expectations of good behaviour. There are very few serious incidents inside or outside lessons. Pupils understand that bullying can take various forms, but do not see bullying as an issue. Pupils are very happy at school, which offers a supportive and friendly environment.
• There have been no recent racist incidents or types of bullying, such as homophobic bullying. The school maintains detailed records and when any untoward incidents do occur, staff deal with them appropriately and keep detailed records.
• Attendance is above average overall. A very small number of disadvantaged pupils have attended less well in the past, for various reasons. The school has worked hard to support the families involved, and although the attendance of a few disadvantaged or vulnerable pupils is still not as good as it should be, it has improved, as the school works hard to convey the message that regular attendance is important.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils currently in the school are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This is an improvement both on the previous inspection and the 2016 test results.
• In the past, there was too much variation in attainment and in the rate of progress. Although children did well in the early years, there was not enough progress higher up the school, particularly in Years 1 and 2.
• Improvements in attainment and progress have been quite rapid. Several factors have been responsible:
  • improvements in teaching resulting from better professional development and support for teachers and teaching assistants
  • more effective gathering of assessment data and using the results to plan better for the needs of different pupils
  • more systematic monitoring of progress by staff and leaders
  • earlier identification of those pupils who would benefit from additional support.
• Attainment in the early years has been above average for some time. Results in the Year 1 phonics check have continued to be above average.
• Spelling has been an issue for the school. Staff have worked hard to improve the accuracy of spelling, giving it daily attention. Spelling has improved, although the school recognises it as an area for continued focus.
• Reading standards have improved, and many pupils read with confidence, expression and accuracy.
• The school has successfully focused on improving achievement in mathematics. The inspection showed evidence of more emphasis on reasoning and appropriate problem solving in mathematics.
• Writing has improved, although good progress in writing is more evident in pupils’ literacy work than in some other subjects. In these subjects, teachers’ expectations of a quality of writing appropriate to pupils’ ability and age are not as consistent as in English.
• Variations in progress have narrowed, particularly where, in the past, there were differences in the rate of progress between boys and girls or between different classes. Differences in the progress of boys and girls have narrowed, although the pattern is not entirely consistent. Almost all pupils, in all year groups, are making good progress in the core subjects in terms of age-related expectations. Many are now on track to do considerably better than this. This is evident not just from school assessment data but from what is in pupils’ books. The standards have been confirmed by moderating work with teachers in other schools.
• In several classes, a significant number of pupils have joined the school from elsewhere, other than at the usual times. Although these pupils integrate quickly, several of them progress at a slower rate than pupils who have been at Stoke Climsland since Reception. Later in their school career, these pupils mostly catch up with their peers.
• The most able pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils, are making good progress in the core subjects. They do not show the same rates of progress in subjects other than English and mathematics, because the tasks which teachers set in those foundation subjects are not always as challenging.
• There are very few disadvantaged pupils in some classes, but these pupils make good progress, at least in line with, and sometimes at a faster rate than, other pupils.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making better progress, as a result of improved support, both inside and outside the classroom.
• Pupils achieve particularly well in music and physical education.

Early years provision Good

• At the time of the previous inspection, children in the early years were making good progress. The school has not just maintained this strength, but built on it further.
• Girls in Reception make faster progress than boys in several aspects of early years, including communication and writing. However, overall standards are above the national average, with children achieving well in most aspects of knowledge, understanding, basic skills and personal development.
• The good progress is due mainly to good teaching, which is characterised by the high expectations of staff. Children respond very well to these expectations, because they are keen to learn.
• The leadership of the early years is outstanding. The early years leader assesses the children’s progress regularly and accurately. Assessment is very effective. Inspectors saw impressive examples of children’s books showing their progress over the year in all areas, but particularly core aspects such as emergent writing. The school also encourages parents to assess their children’s progress.
• The leader’s high expectations were very evident in a lesson observed by an inspector. She was explaining to the children the principles of voting in a general election, due later that week, and why this was a significant example of British values in action. The children were very interested and several were asked to explain to the class why they wanted a particular topic added to their timetable. When this was done, the other children had to choose which topic was their favourite, and mark a ballot paper accordingly during the afternoon. This was a very effective way of introducing young children to the idea of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in a democracy, and the children were absorbed.
• Staff in the early years get good opportunities for their own professional development.
• The children’s behaviour is very good. They understand conventions such as taking their turn and helping each other. This was seen in action when children were doing their own chosen activities or when together in the class. Children clearly feel very safe.
• Children have developed well, often as confident and articulate individuals. They showed confidence in explaining their tasks to the inspector.
• The early years leader involves parents in their children’s education, inviting them into school, and encouraging them to make observations on children’s progress at home. She also maintains good links with local pre-schools, and helps Reception children make a smooth transition into Year 1.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 111967 Cornwall 10033123 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 Community 5 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 196 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Laurence Couldrick Acting executive headteacher Sian Vaughan Telephone number 01579 370457 Website Email address www.stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk head@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 6–7 May 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Stoke Climsland School federated with Calstock Community Primary School in January 2014. The two schools share the same acting executive headteacher and the same governing body.
• Stoke Climsland is smaller than the average primary school.
• Almost all the pupils are of White British heritage.
• Children in the Reception class are taught full time.
• There are six other classes in the school, for pupils in Years 1 to 6.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receiving school support is close to the national average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is well below average.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school operates a breakfast club.
• There is an after-school club which is privately run and did not form part of the inspection.
• The acting executive headteacher has been in post since September 2015. She is leaving at the end of the current term and a new executive headteacher has already been appointed.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited several lessons to observe learning. The acting executive headteacher accompanied inspectors in some of these observations.
• Inspectors carried out an extensive scrutiny of pupils’ work. This was done jointly with the acting executive headteacher.
• Inspectors talked to several pupils about their experience of school, and heard pupils reading.
• An inspector talked to several parents in the playground before the start of the school day.
• An inspector visited the breakfast club and a school assembly.
• Inspectors held several meetings with members of the senior leadership team and other teachers.
• The lead inspector had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local education authority.
• Inspectors met with several governors.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of documents, including the school’s improvement plan, school policies, the school’s evaluation of itself, governors’ minutes, assessment data on the progress of pupils currently in the school and various documents relating to safeguarding.
• Inspectors considered the views of 34 parents expressed in the online survey, Parent View. They also considered 43 responses to the online pupil questionnaire and 17 responses to the online staff questionnaire.
• At the time of the inspection, Year 6 pupils were absent on a school residential visit to London.

Inspection team

John Laver, lead inspector Justine Hocking Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector