The Lampard Community School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:

improving the quality of teaching for the youngest pupils developing the skills of support staff to enable pupils to make accelerated progress in phonics, writing and mathematics.

• Further improve the quality of teaching and learning by: ensuring that teachers check, adapt and respond more quickly to meet the different needs of the pupils, especially the most able developing a cohesive and consistent approach to the progression of skills in calculation and problem-solving in mathematics.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher is an inspiring and creative leader. Her unshakeable sense of purpose and care for pupils’ learning, behaviour and well-being has ensured that the school continues to improve. All parents and staff who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaires expressed confidence that the school is well led and managed.
• The curriculum is a strength of the school. Leaders have developed a curriculum that equips pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding to support them to learn effectively. It promotes pupils’ individuality and encourages them to flourish. This prepares pupils to become positive citizens in their community.
• School leaders ensure that the curriculum appropriately prepares pupils for life in modern Britain. Opportunities for pupils enhance their knowledge and understanding of British Values through experiences demonstrating democracy, valuing diversity, volunteering, global issues and environmental awareness. This impacts positively on their role as citizens in their community.
• Pupils receive effective careers guidance. Work-related experiences, matched to pupils’ aspirations and skills, establish the foundations for the next steps in their learning. Pupils successfully move into programmes that are in education, training or employment.
• The headteacher and governors have developed a strong middle leadership team in all phases of the school. Leaders understand their roles and responsibilities. They impact positively on school improvement, for example developing assessment methods that track pupils’ progress accurately.
• The headteacher ensures that a rigorous performance management system holds others to account. As a result, the standards of teaching and learning continue to rise across the school.
• Leaders have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, they have prioritised the areas for improvement to ensure that the school continues to make sustained progress. The capacity for further improvement is strong.
• The trust and external partners provide the school with a range of support to tackle key issues. For example, the school has collaborated in the moderation of pupils’ work to test the accuracy of its assessment measures.
• The outdoor learning environment in key stages 1 and 2 does not sufficiently support pupils to learn well. Therefore, the impact of tasks that teachers plan to deepen skills in mathematics, writing and phonics is hindered. As a result, pupils do not make the progress they are capable of.
• School leaders ensure that professional development is effective to share good practice. However, some teaching assistants need further training to refine their skills in phonics, spelling and mathematics to accelerate pupils’ progress.

Governance

• A highly skilled and proactive governing body provides effective challenge and support for school leaders. Governors know their responsibilities and passionately believe that pupils at the school deserve the very best. They work closely with the headteacher to make well-informed decisions about the future direction of the school. This ensures that the school continues to offer a high-quality provision for all pupils.
• Governors use the extra funding for pupil premium, physical education (PE) and sport premium, and Year 7 catch-up effectively. They track groups of learners closely, for example reading in Year 7 to diminish gaps in attainment. Consequently, pupils make good progress, with some exceeding their expected targets in this group of learners.
• Governors are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and have received up-to-date training. Governors seek other appropriate training for their roles, including using their own expertise to provide training for each other. As a result, they work collaboratively as a group to ensure that all aspects of the school function effectively.
• Governors are effective in managing necessary changes to staff and the governing body. They complete audits and match skills to ensure that recruitment to key posts is seamless and well considered for example, the appointment of the new headteacher for September 2017. This ensures that the school continues to employ high-quality staff to sustain its growing provision for the future.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders and the wider staff understand that all pupils are especially vulnerable and are fully aware of their responsibilities to keep pupils safe. Parents have no concerns about safeguarding arrangements. They say that the school ‘goes the extra mile’ to protect their child.
• Staff are fully trained in safeguarding practice, including the government’s ‘Prevent’ duty and children at risk of sexual exploitation. Records indicate that staff have read and understand the mandatory guidance, and are confident that they know how to deal with concerns that arise. This ensures that staff are tenacious in their approach to keep pupils safe, and demonstrate this in all aspects of their work.
• Pupils feel safe in school. They trust adults and can talk to them if they are worried. Pupils understand strategies that keep them safe on the internet. They know how this helps them to stay safe at home.
• The designated safeguarding team is unwavering in its work to ensure that pupils are safe. It acts quickly to follow up any issues of concern with external agencies, securing extra support for pupils. Where attendance is an issue, pupils are monitored effectively to ensure that they are not at greater risk.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

• Good relationships support a purposeful learning environment so that time in lessons is used productively. Staff manage any low-level disruption well so that the learning continues without interruption. This supports pupils in making good progress.
• High-quality planning ensures that pupils’ physical and critical thinking skills are challenged through a structured programme in PE and sports activities. Pupils across the school integrate effectively and learn how to work together in a team to achieve the best results.
• Most staff are highly skilful in communicating with pupils through a range of strategies that develop pupils’ fluency and confidence in speaking and listening. For example, younger pupils listen respectfully and patiently to each other in reading.
• Teachers ensure that pupils develop their skills through wider curriculum opportunities. For example, they can apply good subject knowledge in science and accurately record their observations. In music, pupils are using percussion instruments to read musical notation and work together to produce a harmonious sound.
• Teachers ensure that high-quality daily reading promotes pupils’ enjoyment and a love of reading. Good progress is made in early phonics development through skilful support in pupils’ segmenting and blending skills. However, this is less secure when using phonics in writing.
• Staff understand the differing range of support needed for the pupils. The programmes of study match pupils’ abilities well, and this supports them to make good progress. For example, key stage 3 workbooks show how pupils are developing the range of language used when writing sentences. This enables them to express their views with greater meaning.
• Teachers adapt their teaching and use assessment measures to plan and target the next steps in pupils’ learning. This supports most pupils to make good progress. However, when this is not evident, pupils are not able to deepen their knowledge and understanding for example, when using a calculator and in problem-solving tasks.
• Teachers do not consistently have high expectations of the most able pupils, including pupils in key stages 1 and 2. For example, pupils have limited opportunities to practise, edit and extend their own writing skills independently across all subjects. This slows their progress and prevents them from being able to reach the standards they are sometimes capable of, especially in creative writing and mathematics.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• The care and support of all pupils are outstanding. The positive rapport between pupils and staff underpins the culture and ethos of the school. Staff effectively intervene when pupils are distressed, and this develops their emotional and social skills well. For example, pupils managed to behave safely and follow guidance during an unexpected fire drill.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school and say it is a ‘happy place’ for them to learn. They show positive attitudes to learning, and enthusiasm for taking qualifications in key stage 4. They know how this will help them in the future. Pupils agree that they find learning challenging at times, and expressed how ‘it makes you greater’ when they have achieved new things.
• Pupils recognise how their views and ideas contribute to improving the school. They feel listened to and can confidently talk about the difference they make. For example, pupils can articulate how they raised an issue over the quality of school meals: they carried out a survey and then presented the findings to leaders. They recognise how this has improved the quality of meals for everyone.
• The school has a strong culture of safeguarding and pupils feel safe. They trust adults in the school and know whom to talk to if they have a concern.
• Parents speak confidently about the impact the school has on their child’s development and well-being. All parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, comment that their child is happy and safe in school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils behave impeccably around the school and respond positively to guidance from staff when they are distressed. Pupils are polite towards each other and listen carefully to the views of others. They navigate the school environment in an orderly and safe way, and respond appropriately, especially when unexpected events occur during the school day.
• Leaders have improved attendance and punctuality. The school routinely analyses patterns of attendance for different groups of pupils, including pupils who are disadvantaged. They implement strategies that improve rates of attendance over time. This has reduced persistent absence this year.
• Pupils benefit from effective and well-considered routines which support their emotional well-being. They take pride in their achievements and can articulate the next steps in their learning.
• Older pupils recognise that they have a responsibility to look after the younger pupils and act as role models to promote positive behaviour. This supports pupils in their social and emotional development, and to gain an understanding of the school’s expectations for positive behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils enter the school with attainment below that expected for their age. The overall progress in English and mathematics for all groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, is good. The school accurately tracks progress from pupils’ starting points and takes rapid action to tackle underachievement.
• Pupils make good progress in their learning across a breadth of subjects. The majority of work seen in workbooks shows that pupils make good progress in developing their skills across subjects.
• The development of pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural awareness is a strength of the school. A wide programme of activities, both in and out of school, provide experiences that encourage pupils to think deeply about their feelings and opinions.
• In key stage 4, pupils study a broad range of qualifications that provide them with the skills to prepare them well for the next step in their learning. Work-related learning experiences, matched to pupils’ skills and aspirations, provide a good platform for them to move on with greater confidence. Leaders are ambitious to develop this further to enable pupils to achieve more.
• Strong and trusting relationships between pupils and staff help ensure that different groups of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities succeed. The carefully planned programmes of support, matched to their needs, enable pupils to make the very best gains in their learning, and emotional and social development.
• School leaders continue to strive to improve the outcomes for all pupils. They recognise that more can be achieved to encourage all pupils to read more widely and often, and to develop further their knowledge and understanding of the world they live in.
• The most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, make progress that is at least in line with their peers across subjects. Leaders have recognised that the pupils require further challenge in reading, writing and mathematics to reach higher standards.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 113637 Devon 10033092 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Community special School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 5 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 122 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Kevin Harris Karen Rogers 01271 345 416 www.lampard.devon.sch.uk head@lampard.devon.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 27 28 February 2013

Information about this school

• The school is part of the SENtient Trust in Devon.
• The headteacher retires in August 2017 and her successor starts in September 2017.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• All pupils who attend the school have an education, health and care plan or a statement of special educational needs.
• There are significantly more boys who attend the school than girls.
• A significant proportion of pupils are in receipt of free school meals.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning and looked at pupils’ written work. Several lessons were visited jointly with senior leaders.
• Pupils in key stages 2, 3 and 4 were spoken to about their school life and, individually, about learning over the two days.
• A range of documentation was scrutinised, including records of monitoring, minutes of meetings of the governing body, safeguarding records, behaviour logs and the plan for school development.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and the governing body. Meetings were held with staff responsible for safeguarding arrangements.
• Further meetings were held with the middle leaders in the school and with individual staff with oversight of specific areas of the school’s work.
• There were 34 responses to Parent View and one telephone call from a parent. Inspectors met with individual parents to consider their views.

Inspection team

Diana Denman, lead inspector Stewart Gale Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector