St Mary's Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and raise pupils’ achievement further by:
  • ensuring that adults in Year 1 monitor how all groups of pupils are progressing in order to help them reach their full potential.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • making sure that teachers follow the school policy in consistently providing pupils with feedback in their books that gives them clear guidance on how they can improve their work
  • ensuring that leaders fulfil their responsibility to have all the required information available to parents on the school’s website.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the previous inspection, the headteacher has recognised the need to improve the quality of teaching and to raise outcomes. He has successfully achieved this by establishing a strong and determined team of school leaders and staff who share a common set of high expectations.
• The headteacher’s rigorous analysis of pupils’ progress and his accurate checks of the school’s work give all teachers and the governing body a clear understanding of the school’s performance, including in the early years. This means that improvement planning is sharply focused on identified weaknesses. This is seen, for example, in the successful actions taken to increase pupils’ progress and raise attainment in reading, writing and mathematics. These factors show the school’s capacity for continued improvement.
• Responses to the inspection questionnaire by staff are overwhelmingly positive: the vast majority feel well supported and valued by school leaders and morale is high. A culture exists where everyone is striving to do the best for the pupils to help them make the most of the opportunities the school has to offer. In turn, pupils show similarly high ambitions to make good progress.
• The school provides a broad and interesting curriculum that promotes good achievement for pupils and contributes well to their personal development. The range of subjects and topics covered in all years recognises local, regional and global differences, including different cultures and beliefs, and promotes an understanding of others’ point of view. Fundamental British values around democracy, liberty and respect for others are promoted well.
• Monitoring and evaluation are used effectively. A systematic approach to observing teaching across the school is in place, involving all school leaders. The outcomes from monitoring are used to plan for further improvement. The majority of staff have benefited from a well-planned range of professional development activities, including opportunities to observe effective teaching in school.
• Leaders manage staff performance well. Staff are rewarded when their work makes a positive difference to pupils. However, where a teacher’s work has significant weaknesses, even after support, leaders do not hesitate to take stronger action.
• The school promotes equal opportunities for all pupils. Leaders specifically check how well different groups of pupils are learning, such as the most able disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders check that all pupils have access to the resources the school has, and check that their achievement does not fall behind that of other pupils. Teachers identify early those children who need extra help to make strong progress from their starting points and provide well-planned support. Differences between how well groups of pupils learn are small in most year groups and increasingly diminishing.
• Funding to support the learning of the few disadvantaged pupils is used to provide a range of successful interventions. These approaches, as well as parental support, ensure that most pupils who are falling behind are helped to catch up. The pupil premium funding also helps subsidise the cost of trips and visits that make learning more lively and real. Differences between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others nationally are diminishing by the end of Year 2 and have disappeared by the end of Year 6.
• The additional primary schools sports funding is used well to improve the teaching of physical education and to support participation in sports clubs held at lunchtime and after school. This has resulted in a high number of pupils enjoying additional healthy exercise.
• The local authority is fully aware of the school’s strengths and areas for development and has worked well with senior leaders to improve the school since the previous inspection.
• The Parent View responses indicate that parents have a very positive view of the school, with a vast majority of those who responded saying they would recommend the school to another parent.
• The school’s website is not checked often enough to ensure that it contains all statutory information needed to be compliant, including explaining how the impact of pupil premium is evaluated and evaluating the sport funding, and describing the curriculum in detail.

Governance of the school

• Governors are now a highly effective force in providing challenge and support to school leaders. They have reviewed the ways that they operate since the last inspection. They recognised their need to have a wider range of expertise and have appointed new governors. This has resulted in a governing body that has a clear understanding of what is happening in school and how it can be improved further.
• Governors carry out a wide range of regular monitoring and evaluation activities and contribute to on-going school improvement planning. They meet with school leaders to review progress. They have an extremely good understanding of the assessment information that is available to them and use this to track progress of all groups of pupils. They also have a clear understanding of the effectiveness of teaching and its impact on pupils’ progress.
• Governors ask challenging questions of school leaders and use their sub-committee structure well to monitor particular aspects of the school’s work. They have a clear understanding of how teachers’ performance is managed and the links between this and their pay progression. They manage the finance and resources that are available to the school, including the pupil premium, very well and measure the impact of spending on pupils’ achievement.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Robust systems are in place to ensure that the safeguarding needs of pupils are a high priority. Regular training for all staff helps to make sure that they are in a strong position to identify whether any pupils are at potential risk. Vulnerable pupils and their families are well supported, with good links in place to work with outside agencies when required.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers share their good subject knowledge with the pupils and have developed effective relationships with them, allowing lessons to start promptly and proceed smoothly. Pupils know the routines and little time is wasted moving from one activity to another. Teachers explain their ideas clearly and use questioning well to check understanding, and pupils are provided with the help they need.
• Teachers provide constructive verbal feedback to pupils but written feedback, in the form of marking, varies. In the best practice, in English for example, teachers’ written comments explain to pupils what they need to do to improve their work and contribute well to the progress that pupils make.
• Teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. They check up on the pupils’ learning and maintain clear assessment records that show what pupils know, can do and understand. This clear record-keeping allows staff to identify pupils who may be at risk of doing less well than they should. These pupils, including the few disadvantaged pupils, then become a key focus for the adults within lessons. For example, in mathematics in Year 6, both the teacher and teaching assistant work with small groups to reinforce the correct mathematical skills needed, such as to estimate angles and arrive at the correct answers. Occasionally, in Year 1, staff do not check sufficiently on how well all groups are progressing and some gaps in learning are not filled quickly enough.
• Pupils receive good encouragement to read, both in and out of school, and this is helping them to improve their reading in all years. The teaching of phonics is effective, and there are arrangements to give additional support to pupils who are identified as not having made sufficiently good progress from their starting points.
• Teaching assistants are well deployed. They play a key role in supporting pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those supported by the pupil premium. As a result of improvements in more accurate targeting, the pupils they help are making good and sometimes rapid progress from their starting points.
• The most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, are helped to move on to more difficult work and teachers routinely provide sufficiently difficult tasks matched to the most able pupils’ ability. The school is aware of its responsibility to continually challenge all of its pupils, particularly the most able, in order for all pupils to achieve their best.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The value of learning and its importance for their future lives are well understood by pupils. In the pupils’ survey completed for the inspection, all of the pupils said they want to learn more about working life, how to apply for jobs and prepare for university.
• Pupils understand how to stay safe and free from bullying. Older pupils are chosen to act as ‘Bistro buddies’, whose duties include helping others to understand the importance of keeping safe in and out of school and when using the internet. The school also teaches pupils about road safety and other everyday risks.
• There are good opportunities for pupils to maintain good physical fitness through many sporting activities provided in lessons and after-school clubs.
• Pupils are taught to understand the links between hard work, perseverance and success. They also learn how to get along with others and show respect for different viewpoints, ideas and beliefs. These attitudes help them to make the most of school and prepare them well for their future lives.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils behave well in lessons, on the playground and around the school. Members of staff, parents and pupils all agree that behaviour over time is good.
• Pupils are proud of their school and their achievements. They respect the views and beliefs of others and cooperate with each other when working and playing. For example, Year 5 pupils were keen to help each other carry out a science experiment measuring water resistance.
• Attendance is above the national average. The vast majority of pupils enjoy coming to school. No group of pupils has low attendance. Additional support is provided where necessary. The number of fixed-term exclusions last year fell dramatically to below the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Since the previous inspection, the progress made by all groups of pupils has improved in reading, writing and mathematics. Most pupils make good progress and attain well. Progress in other subjects, for example science, is also improving.
• Leaders have helped teachers improve their understanding of pupils’ needs and abilities since the last inspection. The differences between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that of other pupils nationally are closing by the end of Year 2 and are now not noticeable by the end of Year 6. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress due to the carefully adjusted support they receive.
• Pupils’ attainment in the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2016 was above the national average. Pupils’ understanding of phonics lays good foundations for the development of their reading skills. Consequently, pupils enjoy reading, read frequently and are confident and fluent.
• The most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, do especially well in reading, writing and mathematics. Across the school, the vast majority of these pupils have made at least the expected progress and many have exceeded this expectation. Occasionally, adults in Year 1 fail to monitor, along with other groups of pupils, how well the most able are getting on to help them reach their full potential.
• Pupils make good progress in mathematics over time. They experience opportunities to use number in other subjects and by the time they are in Year 6, most are confident with calculations, using what they know to solve problems, including estimating angles in various shapes.

Early years provision Good

• The small number of children who join the Nursery class have skills and levels of development that are broadly typical for their age in all areas. By the end of the Reception Year, they have made good progress and are ready for the demands of Years 1 and 2. Children settle quickly into the school’s ways of working. Inspectors saw that children were continually encouraged to use their indoor and outdoor learning areas well, to explore the world around them.
• The quality of the early years provision has continued to be a strength since the previous inspection. Children gain confidence to express and explore their ideas freely. They learn by themselves and with others. Children enjoy counting and understanding the numbers they see around them. They learn to join sounds together and read common words. In this way, most begin to produce early writing. For example, children were talking enthusiastically and beginning to write words to describe an ‘autumn hunt’ they had been on at the forest school.
• Teachers know the children well. They know what interests the children they teach and use this knowledge to help sustain good progress. They observe the children carefully and ask questions to check what the children understand. In this way, they encourage children to connect their ideas and ask their own questions to develop learning.
• Children make strong progress. Differences between the achievement of the very few disadvantaged children and that of others nationally are low or diminishing because teachers intervene early to support any child not making enough progress. The early years leader recognises the need to further strengthen children’s writing and number skills.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are identified quickly so that they are given the right level of support to help them to succeed. There are clear systems to ensure that these children continue to be supported when they move into Year 1.
• The early years leader reflects the ambition and expectations of the school well and is already implementing the school’s priorities for the children to succeed at even higher levels. Well-organised checks on how well children are learning and the sharing of planning and teaching ideas help children make good progress.
• The early years learning area is attractive. Children benefit from a high-quality outdoor play area that has much to investigate and explore. Children are able to follow and broaden their interests well. Most children move with confidence and excitement into Year 1.
• Children behave very well and also cooperate well with each other. They know how to take turns and listen to what each other is saying.
• Arrangements for keeping children safe are highly effective because teachers and teaching assistants are extremely conscientious in monitoring at all times to ensure that children are kept safe.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 123524 Shropshire 10020020 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 Voluntary controlled 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Lara Chaplin Mark Davies 01939 250323 www.shawburystmarys.org.uk admin@shawburystmarys.co.uk Date of previous inspection 14–15 October 2014

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about evaluating the impact of pupil premium and sport funding or explaining the curriculum on its website.
• The proportion of pupils who start or leave the school during the course of the year is higher than in most schools.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Children in the Nursery attend part time or all day including lunch.
• The school provides before- and after-school care through ‘Shawbury Stars’
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below average.
• The majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below that found in most schools.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average compared to similar schools nationally.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics for pupils by the end of Year 6.
• Since the previous inspection, there has been a change in the leadership of the governing body.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed pupils’ learning in 13 lessons or parts of lessons. A number of lessons were observed jointly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• The inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books and listened to pupils read. They met pupils to gain their views of the school. The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktime, lunchtime and at the end of the school day, as well as in lessons.
• The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including assessments and records of pupils’ progress, the school’s checks and records relating to safeguarding, child protection and attendance, records of how teaching is managed and the school improvement plans.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and middle leaders. The lead inspector met the chair of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.
• The inspectors took account of the 28 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and talked to parents at the beginning of the school day. They also looked at the 14 responses to the staff questionnaire and 14 responses to the pupil online questionnaire.

Inspection team

Steven Cartlidge, lead inspector Janet Tibbits

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector