Chaddesley Corbett Endowed Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching in key stages 1 and 2 so that it promotes consistently good progress in reading, writing and mathematics by:
  • sharing the stronger teaching at the school more widely to strengthen the less effective practice
  • ensuring that teachers carefully check on pupils’ learning in lessons so that they move pupils on much more quickly to harder tasks
  • planning activities that challenge pupils and lead on from one another
  • improving teachers’ use of questioning so that they deepen pupils’ understanding, keep a closer check on pupils’ progress and deal more quickly with pupils’ misconceptions.
• Accelerate the progress made by pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities by leaders checking with more rigour on the progress these pupils make, to adapt teaching and the extra support provided when necessary.
• Improve leadership and management by:
  • sharpening the accuracy of the checks leaders make on the school’s performance to more effectively drive improvements to the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement
  • establishing clear expectations with staff of the good progress that pupils should make and refining the systems leaders use to track pupils’ progress to check if progress has improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• The headteacher’s and deputy headteacher’s determined leadership have brought about improvements to the quality of teaching. However, these improvements have not yet secured teaching which is good enough to ensure that pupils make consistently strong progress in key stages 1 and 2.
• The expectations that leaders set for the amount of progress pupils make in key stages 1 and 2 are not high enough. Leaders’ expectations are not ensuring that teachers demand enough from pupils in lessons to speed up the progress they make. As a result, pupils do not make good progress from their different starting points and leaders’ checks do not identify this quickly enough.
• Leaders’ evaluations on the school’s performance are sometimes too generous. Leaders have judged the standard of teaching and pupils’ achievement too highly. As a result, leaders have not fully tackled and improved the less effective teaching to ensure that more pupils make good progress.
• Additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has not been used effectively to ensure that these pupils make accelerated progress. Leaders’ monitoring of progress has not been rigorous enough to ensure that necessary adjustments are made to teaching and the additional support provided. However, leaders have put in place individual plans to support pupils, and work well with external agencies. Additionally, leaders’ work has led to an improvement in the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Leaders make good use of the teachers’ appraisal process to improve teaching. As a result, they have been able to strengthen some of the less effective teaching. Leaders provide guidance to staff to help them to improve, and then make checks to see if teaching is better. However, at times, evaluations can be too positive. When agreeing targets, leaders do not consistently set high enough expectations to ensure that pupils make good progress.
• Leaders have made important improvements to pupils’ behaviour since the last inspection. They have implemented clear systems, which staff use well to promote good behaviour from pupils. Leaders have created a calm and settled school. This has brought benefits to pupils’ personal development as well as their learning.
• The leaders’ work to improve the curriculum has been a success. The curriculum provides a wide range of learning experiences which promote pupils’ personal development well. Music is important and pupils enjoy learning to play instruments such as the violin, cornet and drums. Pupils’ understanding of other cultures and countries is developed through topics such as Japan and Africa. The science curriculum is a particular strength and extended well through a link with a local university. A recent visit by a beekeeper has also enhanced pupils’ understanding of insects.
• The sports premium grant is used well to provide an extra range of opportunities for pupils to play sport and keep fit. Parents are appreciative of the range of opportunities the school provides for pupils to learn outside in its grounds. They talk about the frequent use of the forest school, outside spaces attached to all classrooms and an amphitheatre. Opportunities to practise and improve pupils’ English and mathematics skills in other subjects are less well developed. In some year groups, following a visit, very good tasks are provided to improve writing skills. However, in some other cases, the tasks set hold back progress, as they are less challenging.
• Additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils is having a positive effect. Plans were revised at the start of the year and are now better focused. The support provided by the funding is ensuring that disadvantaged pupils are making progress in line with other pupils.
• Leaders have established positive working relationships with staff. These relationships are playing an important part in the improvements that the school is making. Staff value the opportunities leaders provide to improve the quality of their work.
• Leaders promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. The curriculum, assemblies, visits and visitors add to pupils’ development. They help pupils consider the needs of others, the importance of the school’s values in their lives and the need to form good relationships with one another.
• Leaders promote a respect for the beliefs and cultures of others. A link has been made with a culturally diverse school in an urban area to help develop pupils’ appreciation of the cultures in modern Britain. Older pupils are developing a grasp of fundamental British values and enjoyed a recent visit from a barrister to learn about the rule of law.
• The local authority has provided a range of support. Some of this support has been effective. It has provided advice to leaders and opportunities to work with other school leaders to help make improvements.

Governance of the school

• Governors keep an eye on the full range of the school’s work. However, in places, their judgements are too generous. This is particularly the case concerning the quality of teaching and progress that pupils make. They have, however, rightly judged that pupil behaviour has improved.
• Governors provide both support and challenge to senior leaders across all areas of the school’s work. However, in terms of pupils’ achievement and teaching, governors do not offer appropriate challenge because they do not have a clear enough grasp of current strengths and weaknesses. They keep a very close eye on safeguarding, which is a particular strength in their work. They have also ensured that leaders make good use of the sports premium grant and make effective checks on the use of the pupil premium grant.
• Governors are committed and work hard. They place improving the school at the heart of what they do. They have reviewed their skills and sought training, including in a broad range of areas in safeguarding. Governors rightly value and support the leaders’ work to develop the school’s stimulating curriculum. They seek to recruit new governors with the skills necessary to improve their work.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Governors and senior staff ensure that all the required polices are in place, are understood and followed by the staff. All of the necessary checks are made to confirm that the staff they appoint are safe to work with children. Governors help to ensure that safeguarding has a high profile in the school by reviewing the school’s work at each of their meetings. Leaders work well with external agencies, when necessary, to ensure that pupils for whom there are concerns are well supported.
• Staff act quickly to report any concerns they have and are fully trained. They have a clear understanding of their duties to safeguard pupils and ensure that pupils are taught to keep themselves safe through different curricular activities. As a result, pupils feel safe at the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Despite the presence of some strong practice, teaching is inconsistent and still not good. Expectations about the rates of progress pupils need to make are not high enough in some lessons.
• Too often, teachers do not keep a close enough check on pupils’ learning to see when to move them on to harder tasks. For example, at times, some pupils in mathematics lessons keep on completing calculations that they can accurately do, rather than work on more challenging tasks. In other cases, teachers do not check carefully enough on the skills that the pupils already have to help set more challenging work. As a result, pupils do not make enough progress.
• Some teachers do not ask probing enough questions to check and challenge pupils’ thinking. This means that they do not deepen pupils’ understanding or sort out any misconceptions. This slows pupils’ progress and their thinking skills are not extended well enough.
• Phonics is well taught in the early years. However, it is not taught as well in key stage 1, where expectations need to be higher. Lessons lack challenge and do not build on the strong start pupils make in the early years.
• Some of the homework set successfully helps reinforce pupils’ learning in lessons. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 talk about the well-chosen weekly tasks that challenge them. However, for some of the younger pupils, homework makes less of a contribution to their learning.
• Science is taught well. Pupils learn scientific skills and concepts through interesting investigations. They talk, for example, with understanding about investigations into the dissolvability of substances in water and alkalis and acids.
• In some key stage 2 classes in mathematics, pupils grapple with challenging problems which involve them using a range of skills to deepen their knowledge. Such teaching also successfully promotes pupils’ social skills through good opportunities for them to work in collaboration.
• Teachers provide helpful information to parents about their children’s achievement through a series of meetings and reports.
• Staff provide helpful feedback to pupils by following the school’s marking policy.

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 confident and most are willing to embrace challenges. They show pride in their work and in being a pupil at the school. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about their learning and have positive attitudes to school life.
• Pupils have many opportunities to develop their independence through activities in lessons and the responsibilities that the school offers. Pupils are keen to take on such responsibilities.
• Pupils are respectful of one another and of the different cultures in society. They have an interest in, and appreciation of, others.
• Pupils feel that there is very little bullying in school and have a clear understanding of what this is. Pupils feel that staff sort out any problems well.
• Pupils say that they feel safe at school and have a high level of confidence in staff to keep them safe in this caring school.
• Pupils have a good knowledge of how to keep safe when using the internet and other modern technologies. Pupils also are very aware of how to keep healthy, particularly in terms of what they should eat.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils’ behaviour in school has improved since the last inspection. Pupils behave well in lessons and at different times of the school day. Pupils understand clearly the school’s new systems to help them reflect on how well they are behaving. Pupils respond well to this.
• Pupils have a good appreciation of the value of rules. Pupils say that behaviour is ‘good most of the time’ and any poor behaviour is rare.
• Pupils are polite and courteous. They are very welcoming and friendly to visitors. Pupils are keen to talk positively about their time at school.
• Pupils’ attendance continues to rise and is now above the national average. Leaders have introduced a new system to reward good attendance, and this has been successful. The attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils has risen this year from being low. The school has tackled the low attendance of disadvantaged pupils through its use of the pupil premium grant by employing an attendance officer to work with families.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The progress made by current pupils, as seen in their work and the school’s assessment information, is variable in too many classes in key stages 1 and 2. This is because teaching is not consistently good and staff’s expectations are not as high as they need to be.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not make fast enough progress. This is because the teaching and extra support the school provides are not effective in helping them to make good progress or reach the standards expected of them.
• Pupils in key stage 1 do not make enough progress from the above-average starting points that they reach at the end of the Reception Year. This is evident in current pupils’ work and the school’s own assessment information. Although the proportions of pupils that reached the expected standard were a little above the national average at the end of key stage 1 in 2016, the proportions reaching the higher standard were below average. This was because too many pupils from middle starting points did not make enough progress to reach the higher standard. Projected results for 2017 show that more have reached the higher standard in writing and mathematics, but fewer have reached the expected standard in these subjects. Overall, pupils make average but not good progress.
• Progress in key stage 2, as seen in pupils’ work and the school’s assessment information, is variable but faster than in key stage 1. Progress in mathematics is accelerating and pupils made better progress in mathematics than in reading and writing at the end of Year 6 in 2016. The standards that pupils reached were either in line with or above the national average at the expected level but below average at the higher level in writing and mathematics.
• The proportion of pupils reaching the level expected in the Year 1 phonics check has risen and is now above average. By the end of Year 2, results have also risen and are in line with the national average. However, this does not represent enough progress from the above-average starting points that these pupils had at the start of key stage 1.
• The small number of disadvantaged pupils make progress that is similar to that of other pupils in the school. Improved plans are now in place to help support these pupils.

Early years provision Good

• Staff promote a caring environment for the children through the supportive relationships that they form. Staff sensitively encourage and guide children to participate in and learn through their play. They help children to form good relationships with one another. One parent commented that ‘My child has really grown in confidence since joining Reception.’
• Children behave well. This results from the guidance that staff provide, the clear routines established and the children being given activities that interest them.
• Teaching is good because staff have high expectations of what children can achieve and set tasks that challenge them. These tasks are well informed by the accurate assessments staff record when observing children during lessons. These are shared with all staff and used to plan future activities.
• Reading is taught well by providing children with opportunities to read interesting books, but also through accurate and challenging phonics lessons. Children practise the letters and sound correspondences and apply these skills in reading and writing. They also learn their ‘tricky words’ to help them tackle words that cannot be read or written easily through their use of phonics knowledge.
• As a result of good teaching, the children who join the school with starting points that are typical for their age make good progress. The proportion reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year is above the national average. Children achieve well in all areas of the curriculum but particularly in the development of their communication and language skills, their personal, social and emotional development and their mathematical development. Parents speak highly of the progress their children make.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities also achieve well from their starting points. The support they receive is well planned to ensure that they succeed. Some of this group often reach a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year.
• Disadvantaged children also make good progress and consistently match the progress and standards reached by other children across the areas of learning.
• The curriculum is well planned and stimulating. This also helps children make good progress in the early years. Children gain from the broad range of experiences provided. They are excited about playing in the ‘mud kitchen’, pretending to be on board a ship or developing an understanding of number through role play in a fruit and vegetable shop.
• Parents welcome, as one described it, the ‘open door policy’ that the early years staff provide. A number of parents like attending reading sessions with their children. Parents are involved in making initial and ongoing assessments and communicate regularly with staff about their child’s development.
• The leader of the early years has successfully maintained strong practice and provides good leadership. She has an accurate understanding of the strengths and areas that require development. The leader has formed an early years team who are committed to helping the children to succeed. She works closely with external agencies, when necessary, to support children’s development.
• At times, staff in the Nursery do not develop children’s understanding of language as well as they might. e. Occasionally, children do not have enough opportunities to practise their writing skills.
• The successful early years provision ensures that children are well prepared for the start of their time in Year 1.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 135046 Worcestershire 10032584 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 aided 5 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 189 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Julie Cooper Emma James 01562 777312 www.ccschool.co.uk head@chaddesleycorbett.worcs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 24–25 March 2015

Information about this school

• At the start of the inspection, the school did not meet the requirements on the publication of information about the equality objectives and up-to-date information about each governor’s business and financial interests, and governance roles held in other schools.
• The school meets the current government floors standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Most pupils are from White British backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is very low.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported by the pupil premium is below average.
• During the inspection, Year 4 pupils were away from the school on an educational visit.
• There is a breakfast club for pupils on the school site.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited lessons and parts of lessons during the inspection, many of which were joint observations with the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in their books and on display around the school to establish the current quality of their work and progress over time in a range of subjects. Inspectors specifically looked at the work of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, and the English and mathematics leaders. They also spoke to a range of staff during the inspection. In addition, an inspector met with the chair and vice-chair of the governing body, to discuss the work of governors, and a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s improvement plan, the management of staff performance, information on pupils’ progress and records relating to attendance and the school’s safeguarding work.
• Inspectors took account of 35 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors spoke with parents at the start of the day and by telephone. In addition, 20 responses to the parent free-text service were analysed.
• Questionnaires were returned and analysed from 17 members of staff.

Inspection team

Jonathan Moore, lead inspector Diana Pearce Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector