Longlevens Infant School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, by:
  • ensuring that pupils act upon feedback to improve the quality of their writing
  • developing teaching assistants’ skills in working with groups of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, to make the best possible progress.
• Further strengthen leadership and management, by:
  • developing middle leaders’ expertise to hold others to account and drive improvement
  • ensuring that governors improve their skills in monitoring the work of the school to ensure the school’s continued improvement.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher is ambitious for every pupil to reach the highest possible standards. Weaknesses in teaching are quickly identified. As a consequence, training and development are targeted well to improve teachers’ skills.
• Leaders identify priorities for pupils swiftly, through the close monitoring of pupils’ progress. This ensures that the right support is put in place to enable pupils to make good progress.
• Leaders and governors are aware of the priorities to improve the school, particularly the achievement of low-attaining and disadvantaged pupils. Leaders are now taking effective action to accelerate progress for these groups. They evaluate the impact of their strategies closely to ensure that pupils make good progress.
• The leadership team is effective at senior and middle leadership level. Although some middle leaders are new to their roles, they are growing in confidence and are monitoring the work of teachers to provide feedback. They are starting to develop their expertise to hold teachers to account and drive school improvement priorities further, but this is currently at a relatively early stage.
• The headteacher works closely with Gloucestershire Schools’ Partnership to ensure that the school is outward looking. This has assisted with accurate self-evaluation and has sharpened school improvement work.
• Senior leaders have been effective in nurturing and growing emerging leadership talent. Middle leaders and teachers are starting to take on new responsibilities to develop their skills in leading teaching and learning. This is now beginning to have an impact on further raising expectations of what pupils know, can do and achieve.
• Leaders are taking effective action to support pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding. Initiatives to help pupils catch up are now having a strong impact on improving outcomes and, as a result, this group of pupils is making better progress.
• Leaders have commissioned external support from an experienced adviser. This has sharpened the improvement work of the school and ensured swifter follow up when areas of weakness are identified.
• The curriculum has been reviewed and developed. More time is now provided to embed skills in reading, writing and mathematics across the curriculum. Writing activities link to a range of imaginative topics and this has increased boys’ motivation to write across the curriculum.
• The school’s values of, ‘creativity, community and child centred’ permeate through each area of the school. Staff are committed to ensuring the best for each pupil at this school. Pupils enjoy learning and parents feel involved in their children’s learning and development.
• The headteacher has effectively identified and tackled inconsistencies in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Monitoring, including that which governors undertake, successfully targets key areas for improvement. As a result, the quality of teaching has improved. Clear non-negotiables and raised expectations of what pupils can achieve have been the key to rapid improvement.
• The vast majority of parents feel any issues or concerns raised are listened to and dealt with quickly. Parents told inspectors, ‘The school is strongly led, which makes it a happy environment for learning.’
• Leaders use the physical education and sport premium funding effectively. A play leader has been employed and play zones have enhanced lunchtime play. Staff have benefited from training through a local sports network, resulting in high-quality physical education activities for pupils.

Governance of the school

• Governance is effective. Governors have ensured that the school has increased leadership capacity so that leaders can lead and improve the school effectively. As a result, middle leaders are rising to the additional challenge and standards continue to improve after a legacy of underachievement.
• Governors have recently carried out a skills audit and have redistributed their roles and responsibilities. This has increased rigour in their processes of monitoring the work of the school.
• The governing body has undergone changes in the last 12 months. Several governors are new to the school. Monitoring procedures have recently been implemented but some governors have not yet developed skills to monitor the work of school leaders and hold them to account.
• Leaders’ reports to governors are now more focused, with clear evaluation, using measurable success criteria. This enables governors to question and challenge to improve key aspects of the school’s work, for example improving teaching.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The headteacher has a relentless focus on ensuring that safeguarding is at the heart of all aspects of the school’s work. Weekly safeguarding updates and ‘safeguarding quizzes’ ensure that staff are well trained to recognise and act upon any concerns about risk of harm, including extremist views and radicalisation.
• The culture of safeguarding is strong. Parents and pupils agree that this is a strength of the school. Leaders are swift to respond to pupils’ emotional and behavioural needs and adjust or enhance provision to support the most vulnerable pupils. Staff are well trained and vigilant.
• The governor responsible for safeguarding visits the school to evaluate the culture of safeguarding. Records relating to health and safety and pupils’ welfare are up to date and meet government requirements for keeping children safe.
• The school implements robust systems when recruiting new members of staff. The school’s business manager is systematic in recording checks on all adults who work with pupils, including volunteers. Induction processes are thorough and, consequently, new staff appointed are well informed about the school’s safeguarding procedures.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers have raised their expectations of what pupils can achieve, particularly over the last 12 months. Leaders have been quick to identify weak teaching and to ensure the right support is put in place for those staff to improve. As a result, teachers are matching work closely to pupils’ needs to accelerate pupils’ progress. This is particularly strong for the most able pupils.
• Teachers are adept at quickly identifying errors and misconceptions in pupils’ work. This is often followed up by the pupil, independently or with adult support.
• Teachers’ planning in mathematics, using levelled ‘do it, twist it, deepen it’ activities, promotes challenge. Teachers and teaching assistants are effective in using continual assessment within a lesson to either move pupils’ learning on or consolidate a concept.
• Teachers plan imaginative and creative opportunities for pupils to engage in the writing process. For example, Year 1 pupils painted pebbles and wrote wishes about where they would like to travel on their magic carpet, linked to the shared reading text. In some classes, resources to support spelling and phonics are not readily available, which hinders progress.
• Teachers’ feedback usually helps pupils to know what they need to do next in their learning. Sometimes, however, pupils do not act upon their teachers’ feedback to improve their writing. Pupils are keen learners and are responding well to the raised expectations of their teachers.
• Pupils enjoy reading and read widely. The school provides a broad range of resources for home and school reading. Pupils apply their knowledge of sounds well when reading. Some pupils make errors when sounding out words and therefore they do not understand the sentences they have read. Comprehension is therefore hindered.
• Classroom displays provide pupils with high-quality learning prompts. In mathematics, pupils use resources and pictorial methods to solve mathematical problems well. Lower-ability pupils particularly benefit from this and, as a result, they make good progress.
• Homework is age appropriate and is clearly based on the school’s values of ‘creativity, community and child centred’. The school provides practical ‘maths jigsaws’ and ‘maths sharing sessions’ to make this approach interactive and fun.
• Where teaching is weaker, it is because some staff lack skills in the use of questioning and learning time is lost when activities are slow to start. Leaders are tackling this effectively.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils take pride in their work and enjoy school. Their attitude towards learning is positive and they respond to teachers’ questioning with enthusiasm. In lessons, pupils are respectful of each other’s ideas and they cooperate well.
• The school’s motto of ‘all of us together’ reflects the inclusive and harmonious atmosphere in classrooms and on the playground. Relationships between all staff and pupils are positive.
• Leaders have worked hard to engage parents and involve them fully in the life of the school. Leaders invite parents to meetings and workshops to provide information about the teaching of phonics. As a result, parents receive helpful information and the links between home and school are strong.
• Teachers provide assemblies and class activities that enable pupils to reflect on their personal development and safety. Pupils respect each other’s views and differences and, as a result, they are self-assured and confident.
• Therapeutic art provision supports pupils’ emotional and behavioural needs well. This provision offers some time out of class for a small number of pupils to develop the skills and behaviour needed to succeed in class. This has been successful and has enabled pupils with additional needs to reintegrate into the classroom environment.
• The breakfast and after-school club provide good-quality care for working families. Pupils start and end the school day in a safe, secure and welcoming environment. Pupils say there is very little bullying in the school. They say they feel safe and have trusted adults they can talk to if they are worried.
• Pupils who spoke to inspectors were knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. They sign an online safety agreement and confidently talked about how they use these rules when using technology in school and at home.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Playtimes and lunchtimes are happy and sociable occasions. Staff promote purposeful play and interact with pupils positively. Vulnerable pupils are well supported and the care, guidance and support are of high quality.
• When pupils move around the school, occasionally they can be overly excitable and need reminding to walk or move quietly in corridors. Staff expectations for positive learning behaviour are variable in lessons. Some teachers have higher expectations than others. On occasion, some low-level disruption occurs, particularly during transition between activities.
• Attendance is above the national average for all, including disadvantaged pupils. Pupils are eager to get to school because they value the broad range of learning opportunities that the school provides. Leaders work effectively with parents to ensure that attendance improves.
• The vast majority of parents feel that behaviour at the school is good. They feel that concerns are listened to and leaders respond swiftly to any concerns raised.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Leaders have taken swift action to improve the teaching of phonics. Over time, the percentage of pupils who reach the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check has improved and in 2017 outcomes were above national figures.
• Leaders have accurately identified the reasons why disadvantaged pupils in Year 2 have not made as much progress as their peers over the last two years. They now have targeted support in reading, writing and mathematics and, as a result, disadvantaged pupils are now catching up quickly. The majority are now making good progress.
• In 2017, results in key stage 1 assessments in reading, writing and mathematics were above the national averages. This is as a result of raised expectations and improved quality of teaching across the school.
• The work in pupils’ books and the school’s own information show that progress has improved significantly over the last 12 months in all year groups. Leaders track the progress of individual pupils carefully and provide high-quality feedback to staff. As a result, any pupil who is at risk of falling behind is identified quickly and a programme of support is put into place.
• Boys attain less well than girls in writing. The school has redesigned the curriculum to ensure that both girls and boys are inspired to write across a wide range of subjects. Work in books show that, from different starting points, their progress is now improving and the gap between genders has narrowed.
• The most able pupils across the school are provided with learning challenges that enable them to reach the highest standards.
• Pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities are well supported and make good progress. This is because the inclusion leader works with teachers to identify how each pupil learns best, in partnership with parents. Interventions are reviewed to ensure that they are working.

Early years provision Good

• Children get off to a good start in the early years. They settle quickly and parents are well informed about the progress their child is making. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception is in line with that nationally. The majority of children currently in the early years are making good progress.
• The school’s approach to teaching phonics keeps pupils engaged and motivated to learn. Leaders hold meetings for parents to show them how the school teaches phonics. Consequently, pupils make good progress and parents are well informed about how to help their child read at home.
• Transition into the school from a wide range of nursery providers is strong. Leaders take a proactive approach to identifying need early. Teachers visit children in their homes before they start school. This helps to build a picture of the child and their interests. As a result, parents told inspectors, ‘Our children can’t wait to get to school. The school provides a safe and nurturing environment for them to learn in.’
• Leaders have a secure understanding of areas that need developing. On occasion, the lack of questioning to extend thinking for some children in the early years hinders progress.
• Children’s independence and resilience are promoted through access to high-quality resources during learning activities. Team building and collaboration are central to purposeful play. There is a lack of opportunities for children to apply their writing and mark-making skills in some classes during play-based learning.
• Teachers and teaching assistants work closely together to assess children’s needs and plan activities that help children to make good progress. Children are encouraged to improve their work with feedback from the teacher or teaching assistant, for example, when practising number formation or sounding out words in writing.
• Parents are regularly involved in their children’s learning and partnerships between home and school are strong. Regular ‘family fun’ sessions take place and the vast majority of parents take part. During the inspection ‘mad modelling’ sessions were held. Children had planned their ideas at home and family members enjoyed coming into school to work alongside their children.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115498 Gloucestershire 10042683 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Age range of pupils 4 to 7 Type of school School category Infant Community Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Suzanne Jervis Kerry Cunningham Telephone number 01452 520061 Website Email address www.longlevensinfantschool.co.uk admin@longlevens-inf.gloucs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 27–28 March 2014

Information about this school

• The school is a larger than average-sized infant school.
• The majority of the children are White British.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported by the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is just above average. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below average.
• The school runs and manages its own breakfast and after-school clubs.
• The school works with a group of local schools known as the Gloucestershire Schools’ Partnership.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited lessons or parts of lessons, some of which were jointly observed with the headteacher.
• The inspectors spoke to pupils throughout the inspection, including at break and lunchtimes. In addition, an inspector spoke with a group of pupils to determine their views of the school.
• The inspectors looked at pupils’ work in their books in a range of subjects, together with middle leaders, to establish the current quality of their work and progress over time.
• Inspectors heard a sample of pupils read from Year 2.
• Inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, the subject leaders for English and mathematics, teachers and the inclusion leader. In addition, the lead inspector met with a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body, and a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s improvement plans, documents relating to the management of staff performance, information on pupils’ progress, and records relating to behaviour, attendance and safety. They also looked at minutes from recent governing body meetings and the school’s records of the monitoring of teaching and learning.
• The lead inspector took account of 81 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors spoke with parents at the start of the school day and during an early years family session. In addition, responses to the Parent View free-text service were analysed.
• Questionnaires were returned and analysed from 25 members of staff.

Inspection team

Faye Bertham, lead inspector Nicola Berry Inge Fey

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector