Saint Edmund's Roman Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of leadership and management, including governance, by ensuring that:
  • the trustees strengthen their monitoring and challenge of whole-school effectiveness
  • leaders’ checks on teaching and pupils’ progress are thorough and provide staff with clear feedback so that there is a culture of constant improvement
  • no learning time is wasted across the school day and expectations around timetabling across the school are fully understood and adhered to by all staff
  • the impact of middle leaders’ work is consistently strong so that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is improved, and teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are consistently high
  • the leadership of SEN is consistently strong so that this group of pupils make consistently good progress
  • teachers have the resources and training to ensure that their subject knowledge is strong, and they can fulfil their roles effectively
  • the transition from early years to Year 1 is effective so that teaching meets pupils’ need consistently well.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment including in the early years, by ensuring that:
  • teaching motivates pupils and challenges them so that the middle-attaining and the most able pupils make consistently good progress
  • teachers and teaching assistants have consistently high expectations of what pupils can achieve in reading, writing and mathematics
  • teaching enables pupils to have a strong understanding of what they read, including those who are disadvantaged and those who have SEN and/or disabilities
  • all teachers have the skills to adapt their teaching within lessons so that all groups of pupils learn well.
• Improve the quality of personal development and welfare by ensuring that:
  • pupils have strong determination to learn and maintain their concentration on tasks so that passivity is minimised
  • the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is consistently good. An external review of school governance and the school’s use of pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how these aspects of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

• The seconded headteacher has set her leadership direction with clarity and vision. She has quickly identified the school’s shortcomings and is already working with determination to sort out the school’s limitations. She has an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and a strong skill-set to tackle weaknesses effectively. In the short time she has been in post she has already boosted staff morale and changed whole-school procedures to improve pupils’ well-being and behaviour.

Requires improvement

• Leaders’ checks on the quality of teaching and learning are too limited. Leaders have a comprehensive document that records pupils’ current performance information across the school. This information is shared with trustees and is used in professional discussions with teachers. However, leaders do not use the information they have to evaluate precisely the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning. Leaders’ checks on teaching do not yet provide teachers with specific and practical advice about how to make immediate changes to their teaching so that all groups of pupils make consistently good progress.
• In the past, middle leaders have not been given training or responsibilities to carry out their roles effectively. The seconded headteacher has challenged this. A comprehensive package of training and development to develop middle leaders’ subject knowledge and monitoring skills is already under way. Middle leaders know that changes are required. They are on board. However, it is still too early to see any impact.
• Leaders’ actions over a sustained period have not maintained previously high outcomes for pupils. Leaders were slow to update the school’s curriculum offer when changes came into place in 2014. Although a full range of subjects are taught across the school, some aspects of the English and mathematics curriculum have not been good enough over time. As a result, teaching in some classes remains too inconsistent and pupils’ progress is hindered.
• Leaders have not ensured that there is a smooth transition from early years to Year 1. Pupils who were previously low-attaining do not have a curriculum offer that is helping them learn well. Those pupils with average or high attainment do not get the challenge and support they need to make good progress.
• Until recently, some leadership actions, have limited pupils’ exposure to challenging work. The school’s strategy for checking and monitoring pupils’ reading material has put a ceiling on the texts pupils read at school. The seconded headteacher spotted these deficiencies quickly and is already putting things right. However, this has limited the progress made by pupils of average ability and the most able over time.
• Leaders have not ensured that teachers’ expectations are consistently high in all classes. Levels of autonomy within the teaching team are strong. However, staff training and opportunities to work with other teachers or schools has been limited in the past. Staff welcome the clear direction that the seconded headteacher provides.
• Leaders have ensured that the funding for disadvantaged pupils is allocated and tracked carefully. However, some older pupils do not yet have the skills and knowledge expected for their age. More work is needed to enable disadvantaged pupils to make the progress they should in core subjects.
• The leader of SEN has a precise action plan to improve the provision for this group of pupils. Record-keeping, and the deployment of funding has improved over the last year. However, leaders’ monitoring is not yet as secure as it needs to be to check the quality of provision for pupils to meet their individual targets. Consequently, when pupils’ learning is not closely matched to their needs this is not picked up quickly enough and so some of these pupils are not yet catching up.
• The sports premium funding is used well. Pupils are very positive about the sporting and extra-curricular activities on offer at the school. Pupils see this as a key strength of the school.
• Leaders’ strategies to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural experiences are strong. As a result, pupils are reflective and self-aware. For example, when an inspector met with a group of pupils a typical response was ‘If I didn’t come to this school, I would be a different person because of my values and beliefs.’ Pupils who are designated Leaders of Faith take their responsibilities very seriously and keenly relish the opportunities that their role provides to support other pupils across the school.
• Leaders’ actions across the last year to improve the teaching of mathematics are beginning to pay off. However, leaders have not yet been successful in ensuring that pupils’ outcomes in mathematics are consistently good in all classes.
• Most parents are very positive about the school. The vast majority of respondents to Ofsted’s online survey ‘Parent View’ would recommend the school.

Governance of the school

• The trustees of the school do not challenge school’s leaders effectively. They have been too accepting of the information they receive. Trustees have not assured themselves that leaders’ monitoring and checking systems are thorough and making the difference required. As a result, pupils’ outcomes have dipped in some year groups. Trustees have not challenged leaders to ensure that pupils make consistently good progress over time.
• Trustees have not been stringent in the strategic monitoring of the school. They have recommissioned an external adviser to provide independent challenge and support in the last nine months. However, prior to this, time lapsed without trustees seeking external quality assurance of the school’s effectiveness.
• Very recently, trustees have employed a new clerk to the governors. This is proving effective in ensuring that there is an accurate and detailed record of meetings.
• Trustees have been effective in recruiting a seconded headteacher for the rest of the academic year. However, there is no substantive headteacher at this time.
• Trustees do not use the information they have, including published performance information, and external quality assurance reports, as precisely as they could to set targets for improvement and to check pupils’ progress.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The seconded headteacher has conducted a full review of safeguarding practices in the school. She has reorganised safeguarding records. Support for the most vulnerable pupils is strong. Staff apply their training of keeping pupils safe. Staff know how to escalate their concerns to prevent risk of harm to children. Records are now meticulous and leaders who are responsible for safeguarding make timely referrals and work in close partnership with external agencies when required. Pupils feel safe. Pupils told inspectors that the new arrangement for the end of the day has improved their safety and pupils’ behaviour at this time.
• Staff responsible for staff vetting and recruitment arrangements have responded quickly to a recent safeguarding audit. As a result, the single central record (SCR) meets requirements and previously identified weaknesses in safeguarding record keeping are resolved. However, in the past, the trustees have not had oversight of the SCR, or checked it when new staff arrive.
• Rapid action has been taken to change morning and collection arrangements. However, shortcomings to the school’s extended arrival arrangements in the main building were noted during the inspection. This weakness was resolved during the inspection so that safeguarding requirements were met. Morning arrangements in the breakfast club in a separate building are consistently thorough and in line with legislation.
• The extended start between 8.30 and 9.10 did not take into account up-to-date guidance on supervision at the beginning of the inspection. In the past, leaders and governors have not reviewed this system or assured themselves that the school was operating in line with regulations. Leaders and trustees took urgent action during the inspection so that risk assessments and arrival routines now meet requirements fully.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching is too inconsistent across the school. In some classes teachers’ expectations of what pupils know, can do and understand are not high enough. As a result, pupils’ progress is too variable across different classes across the school.
• Teaching is not challenging enough for the most able and middle-attaining pupils. Teachers do not use information from their assessments precisely to ensure that pupils receive the right work. Too often pupils in upper key stage 2 begin with easy work in mathematics before they move on to challenging work. As a result, pupils do not get sufficient time to deepen and consolidate their learning of more difficult concepts. This limits these pupils’ progress over time.
• Changes to the teaching of mathematics overall are proving increasingly successful. However, some pupils do not yet have the fluency and accuracy in number to apply their mathematical understanding quickly when reasoning and problem-solving. Previous gaps in pupils’ learning because of inconsistent teaching are yet to be resolved in full.
• The role of additional adults in classrooms is not developed well enough. The difference between the deployment of teaching assistants is stark between classrooms. Some teaching assistants make a significant contribution to pupils’ learning and development and others do not. Not all teachers provide sufficient direction to teaching assistants. As a result, the teaching assistant resource is not fully maximised.
• Teaching resources do not consistently meet pupils’ needs well enough. Teachers work hard to deepen pupils’ understanding of the texts they read. Teachers deploy specific questioning techniques to help pupils understand the underlying themes in the texts they read at key stage 2. However, school resources have not been updated. As a result, pupils are not best equipped with high-quality texts to support their learning and this does not motivate pupils in lessons. Too often pupils, and particularly boys, become compliant and lose interest in their work and their progress falters.
• Teaching ensures that pupils write for a range of audiences and purposes. However, for some pupils, their work is not challenging enough. For example, pupils are not expected to expand or extend their writing. This limits cohesion within and across paragraphs. Too few pupils use complex sentence structures accurately and for precise impact. As a result, the proportion of pupils who write with knowledge and complexity above their chronological age reduces as pupils move through the school. This is not reflective of good progress in writing over time.
• Teaching for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is not consistently good. In a few classes, pupils do not have access to finely tuned tasks that ensure that their learning needs are met. Teaching assistants provide timely and caring support. However, this is not yet enabling these pupils to make strong progress from their different starting points.
• The teaching of phonics is too variable. Teaching is not closely matched to pupils’ needs and so some pupils’ progress is fragile this year. Teaching does not give pupils sufficient opportunity to practise and consolidate their learning of phonics. As a result, pupils do not apply their understanding of phonics to their writing well enough in Year 1.
• A wide range of teaching beyond English and mathematics takes place every week. Pupils’ work shows a clear progression of learning across each key stage in design technology, computing and art. However, teachers’ expectations in science are too variable in key stage 2.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Personal development and welfare Requires improvement

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. Pupils are overly compliant. When teaching is not closely matched to their needs, pupils sit and wait for extended periods or work through tasks that are too easy conscientiously before tackling work that is challenging enough. Consequently, some pupils do not have the determination and resilience to learn well and make strong progress.
• Pupils sit and eat their lunch in mixed-aged groups. Older pupils support younger ones. Most pupils take this responsibility seriously and levels of engagement and conversation across the lunch table are high. However, leaders’ organisation of this system limits pupils’ learning time before lunchtime unnecessarily. Pupils are not able to access their tables in classrooms for a period before lunch starts. Despite the organisational aspects of this system starting well before lunchtime starts, pupils still wait for an extended period to receive their food. The current system does not support pupils’ independence well enough.
• Learning time is not maximised fully across the school day. Teaching time does not support pupils to develop their independence well enough.
• Pupils say that bullying is rare and that when incidents occur the staff deal with it promptly. Pupils are tolerant and respectful to one another in and around the school and at social times. Pupils enjoy breaktimes. There is a strong ‘family feel’ with pupils of all ages playing together.
• The school’s breakfast club is well organised and offers pupils a positive start to the day. Pupils enjoy attending and are well looked after.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Pupils’ attendance rates have decreased over time. Attendance is now broadly in line with the national average. The trustees have challenged school leaders about this decline. However, leaders have not been successful in improving pupils’ attendance. Disadvantaged pupils do not attend school regularly enough.
• Until very recently school systems to track pupils’ lateness have not been fit for purpose. The seconded headteacher and parent support adviser are making swift improvements to the whole-school systems to track pupils’ absence. However, it is too early to see any impact of this work.
• There is no persistent disruption in lessons. However, pupils’ passivity is common. Pupils told an inspector that the recent changes to procedures at the end of the school day procedures have improved pupils’ behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Current teaching of English and mathematics, in a few classes, does not include every aspect of the national curriculum well enough. This hinders the progress that pupils make in some, but not all, classes. As a result, pupils’ progress speeds up and slows down over time within each key stage. There is a growing difference between current boys’ and girls’ attainment.
• At the time of the previous inspection, pupils’ outcomes were consistently high. However, over a sustained period, pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 2 have declined steadily. As a result, many pupils who have previously average attainment do not make the progress they should in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The proportion of pupils achieving well in mathematics by the end of key stage 2 decreased steeply in 2016. Over the last two years there has been some improvement. However, the proportions of pupils meeting the standards that are expected for their age in mathematics remains below the national average. In addition, only just over half of pupils with previously average ability left the school this year with skills and knowledge in line with their age. This is not reflective of good progress over time.
• By the end of key stage 2, pupils’ outcomes in reading have been above or well above the national average for the last three years. However, current pupils do not make consistently good progress because the curriculum on offer hinders their progress. Until recently the leadership system in place for changing reading books and tracking pupils’ reading ability stifled pupils’ exposure to high-quality texts at school. As a result, pupils’ reading capability has been beyond the reading material they choose and lacked challenge.
• Over several years, outcomes in the early years foundation stage have declined from well above the national average to become in line with other schools nationally. Too few children exceed the early learning goals in reading, writing and number. This is not reflective of good progress from their starting points.
• The proportion of pupils meeting the standards that are required in the phonics screening checks has been in line with the national average for the last three years. Current pupils’ progress is too variable because teaching does not consistently meet their needs well enough. As a result, the swift progress made in Reception Year is not consistently sustained in Year 1.
• In 2018, pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 1 improved. Current work in books confirms that these pupils make good and often strong progress. Pupils who left key stage 1 this year have continued to progress well, particularly in mathematics.
• Pupils’ outcomes in science are too variable across the school. Where teachers’ subject knowledge is strong, pupils respond well, learn technical vocabulary and retain and use the knowledge they have learned in investigative work.
• Pupils benefit from a varied curriculum that covers a wide range of subjects. Progression across a key stage is evident. However, sometimes work on offer is not as challenging as it could be. Examples include humanities and science.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The strategic leadership of early years curriculum has not been good enough in the recent past. Inconsistent senior leadership has hindered the effectiveness of early years education overall.
• In the past, the school’s curriculum offer has restricted the progress that children make. While outcomes remain in line with other schools nationally, too few children exceed the early learning goals in reading, writing and number. This is not reflective of good progress from their individual starting points.
• The systems in place for transition from early years to Year 1 are not good enough. As a result, pupils’ knowledge and skills have not been sustained into Year 1.
• Leaders’ and teachers’ decisive action this term is ensuring that previous weaknesses in early years provision are being ironed out successfully. Over the last few weeks teachers and leaders have reprioritised the curriculum offer to ensure that all children are exposed to a rich and exciting curriculum that meets their needs well. This is already making a notable difference. Current teachers are exceptionally positive about the recent leadership changes.
• Children in Reception this year have settled quickly and made an excellent start at ‘big school’. Children were excited, curious and challenged well by the activities and teaching on offer, which is closely matched to their needs.
• Current teachers make precise assessments of what children can do, know and understand. The learning environment is stimulating, inside and out. The teaching of phonics and early reading is already helping children to decode, read and write simple words. Children can use and apply their basic phonic knowledge outside because the rich environment encourages them to practise learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 137426 Wiltshire 10002569 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 Academy converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 200 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Marie Sawyer Louise Brown 01249 813821 www.st-edmunds-pri.wilts.sch.uk admin@st-edmunds-pri.wilts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 9–10 May 2012

Information about this school

• This is an average-sized primary school.
• There is a seconded headteacher in post for the next 12 months. There is no substantive headteacher.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support from the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who receive SEN support is below the national average. The proportion of who have an education, health and care plan is above the national average.
• The school is a single academy, governed by its trustees.
• The school runs a breakfast club on the pre-school site.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed pupils’ learning in visits to lessons across the school, and reviewed pupils work in books and curriculum plans. The inspection team worked in close partnership with leaders to review pupils’ progress and provision over time.
• Inspectors talked with groups of pupils to seek their views about the school. Inspectors also listened to the views of many pupils during lessons, breaktimes and lunchtimes. Inspectors listened to pupils read from Year 2 and Year 6.
• Inspectors held meetings with the seconded headteacher, senior teachers and middle leaders in the school. Inspectors met with representatives of the trust (trustees) and the school’s external advisor. A telephone conversation and meeting were held with the director of education for the Catholic Diocese of Clifton.
• Inspectors scrutinised a number of school documents, including: the school’s action plans; the school’s view of its own performance; pupils’ performance information; governors’ minutes; records relating to behaviour; checks on teaching and learning; pupils’ attendance information and a range of safeguarding records.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, at lunchtimes and breaktimes and around the school.
• Inspectors considered 47 responses to the online survey, Parent View. Inspectors also talked to parents during the inspection to seek their views of the school and education their children receive. Inspectors met with a range of staff to gather their views.
• An inspector visited breakfast club.

Inspection team

Julie Carrington, lead inspector Nicola Berry Marcia Northeast

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector