Chirbury CofE VC Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
  • teachers use assessment accurately to plan work that meets pupils’ needs in writing and mathematics
  • teachers provide sufficient challenge to enable pupils, especially the most able, to achieve higher levels of attainment in writing
  • pupils develop better reading skills, including in their knowledge of phonics and comprehension
  • teaching builds securely and progressively on previous learning in all subjects, especially science.
• Improve the quality of leadership and management by ensuring that:
  • assessment systems, including those adopted in the early years, are enhanced to provide accurate information about all groups of pupils
  • leaders and governors check more carefully on the progress of different groups of pupils, especially the most able
  • governors provide effective challenge and hold leaders to account, including checking on how additional funding is being spent
  • leaders and governors develop further the arrangements to manage the performance of teachers leaders plan a curriculum to develop pupils’ skills and knowledge progressively from one year group to the next, especially in science
  • new leaders receive support and training in their roles
  • the professional development needs of all staff, including those working in the early years, are identified and met
  • pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are correctly identified and then receive the right support to meet their needs
  • the school’s website meets statutory requirements.
• Improve the provision in the early years by:
  • establishing clear leadership of the phase
  • developing the outdoor learning environment. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The school has been through an unsettled period. Until recently, the leadership of the school has rested on one person. This has restricted the effectiveness of leadership and management, so that, for example, there has been no additional cover for the safeguarding lead and no designated teacher for children looked after.
• Assessment of the school’s strengths and weaknesses has been inaccurate, and the right areas for improvement have not been identified. The school has not kept up to date with current educational expectations, and not improved as it should.
• In previous years, leaders have not used appraisal systems to hold teachers to account for pupils’ outcomes. Previous weak teaching was not tackled quickly enough. Poor monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning has resulted in teachers’ professional development needs not being met. No training or support was put in place to help teachers improve their practice.
• Over the last term new whole-school systems have been put in place to track pupils’ progress and attainment. Previously, inconsistent methods of assessment did not allow leaders to identify which pupils were underachieving. Some historical assessments at the end of key stages were not wholly reliable.
• There are very few disadvantaged pupils for which the school receives additional funding. At the time of the inspection, there was no information available about how the funding the school receives is spent.
• The identification of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has, until this time, not been wholly accurate. Some pupils have been placed on the register not due to an additional need, but due to gaps in learning as a result of previous weak teaching.
• All documents relating to special educational needs are now up to date and accurate. The monitoring of the provision is more robust and continues to develop. Training is planned for staff in how to support individual pupils’ needs. Some of the additional funding has been used effectively to engage the support of specialist services, such as educational psychology. However, at the time of the inspection, it was unclear how the rest of the funding has been used.
• While pupils have many opportunities to learn about subjects such as history geography, religious education (RE), music and art, there are no whole-school overviews of how pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding in these subjects should be developed from one year to the next. This means that pupils do not make the progress they should in these subjects. This is especially so in science.
• The curriculum is supported by a wide range of extra-curricular learning experiences. There are a range of clubs such as indoor rowing, art, sport and Lego. Pupils have the opportunity to learn to play the cornet, guitar or drums. Pupils are able to participate in residential trips from Year 2 onwards. Years 5 and 6 are currently looking forward to a trip to Borth.
• Pupils have a good understanding of other faiths and cultures. They are taught to respect and tolerate one another and people from the wider community, especially through assemblies. Pupils demonstrate a strong sense of morality. Generally, pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• Some of the PE and sport premium funding is used to employ specialist coaches to work with pupils. Teachers have benefited from working with the coaches to develop their own expertise. The acting executive headteacher is currently reviewing how the funding could be used to greater effect.
• The acting executive headteacher provides exceptional support to the school. He has taken swift action to stem the decline in the school’s performance. He has accurately identified the key priorities for leaders to tackle through an insightful and detailed evaluation of pupils’ outcomes and the quality of teaching and learning. Carefully targeted school improvement actions are in place to address the priorities which will have the greatest impact on improving pupils’ outcomes.
• Quite rightly, improving the quality of teaching and learning is the highest priority. Teachers and teaching assistants are now receiving training and support to improve their practice. Inadequate teaching has been eradicated. Consequently, there have been rapid and significant improvements in teaching and learning in a very short period of time.
• The acting executive headteacher is providing training to develop leadership skills across the school and teachers are keen to ‘step up’ and take on additional responsibilities. However, there is more work to be done in this area.
• The acting executive headteacher has reinvigorated staff, given them a sense of purpose and has enabled them to see the potential in themselves to drive improvements in the school. The confidence of staff is growing and there is a ‘we can do this’ attitude. A team has been built.
• The local authority has provided some effective support to the school. As soon as the local authority identified concerns about the school’s performance, it acted swiftly to provide support. The local authority brokered the services of the acting executive headteacher.

Governance of the school

• Over time, governance has not been effective.
• Governors have not been rigorous enough in holding the headteacher to account for the school’s performance. They recognise their previous shortcomings and are taking action to address them. Governors have undertaken training and it is very clear that they have a ‘mission to improve’.
• Governors have, in the past, taken the information presented to them at face value. As a result, they have previously had an inaccurate understanding of the school’s performance, including pupils’ outcomes and the quality of teaching and learning. They have not made an effective judgement about the headteacher’s performance. However, the acting executive headteacher and the local authority have now provided governors with a detailed picture of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.
• At the time of the inspection, governors were unclear about how the additional funding the school receives to support disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities or the sport premium funding, has been used.
• Governors have received updated safeguarding training and understand their responsibilities to ensure that pupils are safe at school. The acting executive headteacher has worked closely with the governors to ensure that resources are managed efficiently so that the school remains financially viable.
• The governors have not maintained the website properly. As a result, it does not currently meet statutory requirements.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• All staff are vigilant about pupils’ safety. They have undertaken regular safeguarding training and understand their responsibility to report any concerns they may have about pupils. Records are now detailed and kept securely.
• Risk assessments are in place to ensure that all actions are taken to minimise risks to pupils’ safety. Supervision at breaktimes is particularly attentive as a public footpath runs across the playground.
• Appropriate checks are made on staff who work in the school, and volunteers when necessary. Leaders follow safer recruitment procedures when staff are appointed to the school.
• Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in a variety of ways. They are taught how to ride their bicycles safely and how to cross the road. Pupils are very clear about how to keep themselves safe online and how the school’s internet filtering system works. Pupils were taught a rhyme to help them remember the Childline telephone number.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Some teaching does not build on pupils’ prior learning in writing and mathematics. Information about what pupils can do is not used well enough to plan for their next steps in learning. As a result, some pupils, especially the most able, do not make the progress of which they are capable.
• Teachers do not challenge pupils sufficiently to enable them to achieve a higher level of learning in writing. While pupils have opportunities to apply their writing skills across a range of subjects and in a variety of ways, the demands made of them in their writing do not enable them to make rapid progress.
• Until very recently, phonics teaching did not help pupils to develop their reading skills well enough. There are a number of older pupils who lack basic phonic knowledge, and this has hampered their progress in reading. In addition, comprehension skills have not previously been taught effectively. While both the teaching of phonics and comprehension has improved considerably over the last term, some pupils have not made the progress they should in reading as a result of weaker teaching in the past.
• Pupils have the opportunity to learn about a variety of different subjects. However, pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding in these subjects is underdeveloped, especially in science. Some science topics are repeated without deepening pupils’ understanding. There is no overview of how skills in science and the wider curriculum should be built up across the school. Teachers plan the learning without referring to what pupils have learned before. Consequently, pupils do not make the progress they should.
• Whole-school assessment systems have only been introduced recently. Teachers have historically assessed pupils in different ways, which has led to inconsistencies in assessment information. The lack of tracking of pupils’ progress also meant that leaders did not identify pupils who were underachieving. Therefore, teachers did not provide the right support to help them catch up to achieve the standards they should.
• Pupils have regular opportunities to apply their writing and mathematical skills in subjects other than English and mathematics. For example, Year 5 and 6 pupils learnt how to draw nets of three dimensional shapes. They then used this skill in design and technology (DT) to design a Roman villa. The learning linked together seamlessly.
• Across the whole school, pupils demonstrate very positive learning behaviours. No lessons were disrupted by inappropriate behaviour. Pupils are attentive and show an eagerness to learn.
• Where teaching is stronger, both teacher and teaching assistant use very effective questioning to deepen and challenge pupils’ thinking, and learning moves forward at pace.
• High-quality training and support is now being provided to help teachers improve. Teachers have embraced this professional development and significant improvements to their practice have been made in a very short period of time.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are very well cared for at Chirbury Primary School. All adults have pupils’ welfare as the highest priority. As the school is small, all staff know the needs of individual pupils well. All parents who responded to the Ofsted online questionnaire said their children are safe, well cared for and happy.
• Pupils have a wide range of opportunities to take on different responsibilities. For example, pupils organise and run a termly community café. They design leaflets which invite the local community to attend the café, organise the refreshments and then serve the customers during the day.
• The whole school is involved with gathering pupils’ views. Pupils mix in different groups and discuss with teachers what fundraising activities they would like to hold. For example, pupils decided to hold a ‘Santa run’ to raise money for new playground equipment. They organised the event, collected the money and then set about researching the cost and ordering the equipment.
• Pupils have the opportunity to experience a range of extra-curricular opportunities. Residential trips encourage pupils to become independent and confident when away from home.
• Leaders promote healthy eating across the school. Older pupils are responsible for the healthy tuck shop at breaktimes.
• Pupils understand what bullying is, including cyber bullying, and know that there would always be someone in school they could talk to if it happened to them. However, pupils say bullying does not happen in their school because ‘we all get along’.
• The school works effectively with a range of different agencies to support pupils’ needs, such as educational psychology.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• All pupils are polite and courteous. Without exception, the inspector was welcomed with smiles and warm greetings by confident and self-assured pupils.
• Pupils play with friends of all ages from across the school at breaktimes, and nobody is left out. Pupils wrote a poem for the buddy bench on the playground which encourages those who may feel a little lonely to sit on it and wait for a friend to come along and talk to them.
• Pupils enter their classes in a calm and orderly way at the end of breaktimes, and are ready to learn very quickly. The whole school and the on-site nursery join together to eat lunch, which is a positive social experience for all.
• No lessons are interrupted by inappropriate behaviour. All pupils show respect to adults and to one another. Pupils demonstrate a high degree of maturity in their attitudes to learning. They are also resilient leaners who are not afraid to ‘have a go’ before asking for help. Books show that the vast majority of pupils take great pride in their work.
• Attendance has improved and is in line with national averages for all groups of pupils. Where there are attendance issues, leaders work with families effectively to improve their child’s attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 2 in reading has been below national averages for the last two years. This has been due to previous weak teaching, especially of phonics and comprehension. No pupils attained at a greater depth in mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2016, although pupils’ progress was broadly in line with national averages.
• No pupils were working at a greater depth in writing by the end of key stages 1 and 2 in 2016. This is because pupils, especially the most able, do not have work which is matched well enough to their needs to enable them to make rapid progress in their writing.
• At the end of key stage 1 in 2016, pupils’ attainment was broadly in line with national averages, including at greater depth, in reading and mathematics.
• The proportions of pupils achieving the required standard in the phonics screening check in Year 1 has been inconsistent. Previous weak teaching of phonics has not enabled pupils to gain the knowledge of letter sounds well enough. The acting executive headteacher has provided intensive training, support and resources to address this issue with urgency. As a result, outcomes this year are much more positive.
• Pupils are not making the progress they should in science. This is because teachers do not plan work which builds on pupils’ prior learning.
• There are very few disadvantaged pupils in the school, and comment on their outcomes is withheld in the interests of confidentiality.
• Work in pupils’ books currently shows a variable picture of progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics. The majority of pupils are making the progress of which they are capable. However, due to a lack of challenge and appropriate matching of work to pupils’ abilities, the most able are not reaching their full potential.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making progress in line with expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders are supporting teachers to develop their understanding of the specific needs of these pupils and how to plan for them more effectively to enable them to make more rapid progress.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Until very recently, early years has lacked effective leadership. The school has no current self-evaluation or improvement planning for the early years in place.
• Children enter the Reception Year with skills and abilities slightly below those expected for their age. While children make progress which is broadly in line with expectations from their starting points, few go on to make more rapid progress. The curriculum is not planned well enough to enable children to make greater rates of progress in their learning across all areas of the early years foundation stage curriculum. This is because no training or professional development has been provided for staff until very recently.
• The assessment systems in the early years are underdeveloped. Information about what children can do is not gathered quickly enough when they start school to enable staff to plan for their learning needs. Tracking of children’s progress is not robust. Therefore, teachers do not identify quickly enough children who are not making the progress of which they are capable,
• The outdoor learning environment does not support children’s learning well enough. It has very few resources. Children have limited opportunities to explore their learning across all areas of the curriculum outdoors. This limits children’s progress in some areas. However, the teaching of mathematical skills and communication, language and literacy is more effective and children make better progress in these areas.
• Very positive relationships exist between all children and staff. Children are confident and independent learners, who are keen to share their work. They are inquisitive and were very keen to talk about what they were doing with the inspector, and wanted to know what the inspector was doing. The focus on developing independence helps prepare children for Year 1.
• The school works very closely with the separate nursery adjacent to the school. Children share lunchtime with the nursery children, story time and forest school sessions. This helps the children who are starting school from the nursery to settle quickly and confidently. Staff have a detailed understanding of children’s needs prior to them starting school.
• There are strong relationships with parents. Parents are well informed about their children’s learning in a variety of ways. Staff are always available to speak directly with parents before and after school.
• The current early years staff have the capability, passion and determination to drive improvements in the early years. This has already begun with the support of another local primary school and under the direction of the acting executive headteacher. The quality of teaching is improving rapidly. However, it is too early to see the full impact of this support and training.
• All safeguarding and welfare requirements of the early years are met. Children are safe and well cared for.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 123467 Shropshire 10032660 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 Voluntary controlled 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 43 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Gary Holloway Acting executive headteacher Leslie Ball Telephone number 01938 561 647 Website Email address www.chirbury.shropshire.sch.uk admin@csfederation.shropshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 2012

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about special educational needs, pupil outcomes at the end of key stage 2, the governors’ committee structure, the previous Ofsted report and the school’s approach to teaching phonics, on its website.
• Chirbury CofE Primary School is a smaller than average-sized school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is slightly above the national average. The proportion of pupils who have statements of special educational needs or education, health and care plans, is in line with the national average.
• The acting executive headteacher took up his post in January 2017.
• There is a private nursery which is sited on the school’s grounds.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics for pupils by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes. A number of the observations were carried out jointly with the acting executive headteacher.
• The inspector met with pupils, heard a selection of pupils read and observed pupils at breaktimes and lunchtimes.
• The inspector met with the acting executive headteacher, the teacher in charge, the acting leader of special educational needs provision and the early years teacher. The inspector met with members of the governing body and spoke to representatives from the local authority.
• A range of pupils’ work in a range of subjects completed by pupils from all year groups was scrutinised.
• A number of documents were considered including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans. The inspectors also considered information about pupils’ attainment and progress, behaviour, attendance and safety.
• Inspectors took account of 13 responses on the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors spoke to parents before school. There were no responses to the online pupil or staff questionnaires.

Inspection team

Ann Pritchard, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector