Luddenden CofE School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • reviewing the leadership structure and responsibilities to ensure that all essential leadership functions can be effectively managed
  • continuing to train and coach leaders at all levels so that they contribute effectively to improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and in pupils’ outcomes
  • carrying out more regular and routine checks on the quality of teaching and its impact on learning.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that the progress of pupils is consistently good in a wide range of subjects by:
  • raising teachers’ expectations of what pupils of differing abilities ought to be able to accomplish in each subject
  • making sure that teachers, when planning learning, take better account of what pupils already know, understand and can do
  • making sure that the questions teachers ask help pupils to think more deeply
  • making sure that teachers check during lessons that pupils’ work is not too easy or too hard, and that teachers adapt tasks to better match pupils’ needs when necessary
  • matching reading books better to pupils’ developing phonic knowledge and making sure that the least able readers have reading books well matched to their needs
  • sharpening the effectiveness of the teaching of phonics in key stage 1
  • giving pupils more problems to solve in mathematics and more opportunities to apply mathematics in subjects such as science and geography.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by:
  • more effectively addressing the behaviour of the small minority of pupils who do not conduct themselves well
  • making sure that adults are more vigilant in detecting bullying and discriminatory and offensive language
  • increasing pupils’ confidence to report all incidents of bullying and discriminatory and offensive language they observe and/or hear
  • teaching pupils more effectively about gender and cultural diversity and the consequences to individuals of disrespectful attitudes and behaviours. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the use of the pupil premium 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 progress of pupils in reading and writing during their time in key stage 2 has declined considerably since the last inspection. The proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in early reading by the end of Year 1 has also declined. Staffing difficulties have contributed to this decline. However, leaders and governors have not managed to prevent the negative impact on pupils’ achievement.
• Most leaders are inexperienced and/or underdeveloped in their roles. They have made minimal contribution to improvement. The headteacher is carrying too much of the burden of responsibility. Because of this, vital quality assurance tasks have not been sufficiently rigorous. For example, the checks on the quality of teaching have not been regular enough to secure consistency in the quality of teaching.
• Leaders’ use of the pupil premium funding has been variable in its impact. There remains too much difference between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others. Leaders have not evaluated carefully enough the impact of spending on each chosen initiative.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced in most year groups. Leaders have reviewed the curriculum to secure fuller coverage of the statutory content. However, subject leaders have not evaluated how well teachers teach each subject and how well pupils achieve, for example in science and the humanities. This has resulted in limited pupils’ progress.
• Leaders have ensured that the curriculum includes content that supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. However, nobody has checked that this is having the desired effect. Pupils have a limited knowledge of a range of cultures represented in modern Britain. Older pupils have very little age-appropriate knowledge about gender diversity.
• Leaders have not managed to secure consistently good behaviour. While most pupils behave well and develop positive attitudes to school, the behaviour of a small, but significant, minority of older boys undermines the extent to which some pupils feel safe.
• The headteacher has addressed the weakest, inadequate teaching. She has identified the right improvement priorities and taken appropriate action to address weaknesses. This has resulted in some recent improvements. For example, the quality of the teaching of reading and writing in key stage 2 is improving, following staff training and the provision of new resources. However, the limited leadership capacity hampers the rate of progress, which is not rapid enough.
• The headteacher ensures that teachers regularly review the progress of pupils through testing and other assessments. As a result, leaders know which pupils are falling behind or who ought to be achieving better standards. However, teachers do not make effective use of what this assessment tells them.
• The local authority recognises the weaknesses in outcomes since the last inspection. It has given the school higher priority for support. The school effectiveness officer has recently provided appropriate challenge and continues to monitor progress.

Governance of the school

• The governing body underestimated the significance of the weak progress evident in the Year 6 test outcomes. Governors have not realised the limited capacity in the leadership team to bring about sustained improvement.
• Governors take their responsibilities seriously. They have the relevant experience to equip them for governance. They meet regularly and make visits to school to assess progress. Nevertheless, the governing body has an over-optimistic view of improvements.
• The governing body has investigated potential school improvement partnerships and consulted with parents and carers on the possibility of joining a multi-academy trust. It has erroneously emphasised more what the school can do for others than what others can do to support and challenge their own school to improve.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders ensure that adults are properly vetted before taking up employment. Minor omissions from the record of these checks were corrected during the inspection.
• Adults understand their safeguarding and child protection responsibilities. They report their concerns to leaders, who keep a proper record so that they can monitor pupils’ safety. The headteacher ensures that pupils who are identified as being at risk of harm, or who are being harmed, get the help they need. However, occasionally the bullying of a small number of pupils by their peers has not been addressed well enough.
• The energetic headteacher is driven by a strong sense of moral purpose. She has welcomed into the school a number of vulnerable pupils who have complex needs. Despite being overburdened, she ensures that these pupils receive the help, nurturing and care they need.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Inconsistencies in the quality of teaching, in a wide range of subjects, hamper the progress of groups of pupils. Pupils in both key stage 1 and key stage 2 could be reaching higher standards, given the opportunity.
• Teachers’ expectations of what pupils of different abilities ought to be able to achieve are too low. Too many of the tasks teachers ask pupils to complete do not make enough demands on pupils to deepen their learning.
• Variability in the quality of teaching is evident in the way some teachers ask questions. Some ask questions that cause pupils to think deeply, while others accept one-word answers or do not help pupils who are struggling to articulate an answer.
• Teachers do not consistently plan work that helps pupils to make the best progress. Work is often either too easy or too hard. Furthermore, teachers do not consistently check well enough in lessons that the work is just right for pupils, so do not adapt tasks to better match needs.
• Pockets of strength in teaching exist in some subjects and in some classes. For example, in some classes, teachers help the most able pupils to maintain above-average standards in their writing. However, on the other hand, teachers do not consistently give these pupils opportunities to practise and apply their skills well enough in other subjects. Most teachers help pupils to develop fluency in their number skills. However, they do not then give pupils enough opportunity to apply this understanding to solving mathematical problems, either in mathematics lessons or in other subjects.
• Teachers generally make ill-considered use of worksheets that do not challenge pupils enough, especially the most able pupils. This is especially so in science, geography and history.
• Teachers in key stage 1 would benefit from additional training in the teaching of phonics to sharpen their knowledge and skills. In addition, teachers do not properly match reading books to pupils’ developing phonics skills.
• Teachers have received training in how to teach reading in key stage 2. Because leaders have not checked whether teachers are using the agreed methods effectively, the quality of teaching is variable. One consequence is that the least able readers in key stage 2 are not catching up quickly enough. The books these pupils are asked to read are sometimes too difficult.
• Leaders have made sure that pupils have a wide variety of quality books from which to choose. Teachers read appealing books to pupils. They have successfully begun to get more pupils interested in reading. This has been less successful in Year 5 and in Year 6, where too many pupils have little interest in reading.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• The large majority of pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. Many pupils take pride in their work. They enjoy positive relationships with adults and with each other. Many pupils greeted inspectors politely and with a smile. Pupils say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, hold doors open for others and remember to tidy up after themselves.
• However, pupils reported the regular use of swearing and homophobic language by some that goes unnoticed by adults. Pupils are reluctant to report this unacceptable behaviour to their teachers.
• While some pupils are satisfied that adults deal with incidents of bullying, others are not. Some pupils reported bullying that went unchecked. A few say that they are reluctant to stand up for victims of bullying for fear of reprisal. A small but significant minority of parents expressed concerns about bullying.
• Pupils’ limited understanding about a range of cultures and about gender diversity has resulted in some pupils not understanding the importance of respect for diverse groups. However, pupils demonstrated some knowledge about major world faiths. This is a positive feature of the religious education curriculum. Many pupils show open-minded attitudes to different lifestyles.
• Pupils learn about how to stay safe in a variety of ways. For example, they know about road, rail and water safety. They learn about healthy eating and about how to keep fit. Older pupils learn about substance and alcohol misuse. However, leaders have not planned these aspects of the curriculum systematically to build pupils’ knowledge progressively over time. This means that some important knowledge is not well enough embedded. For example, not all pupils understand enough about how to stay safe online.
• Adults provide well for the emotional and mental health of the most vulnerable pupils.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Most pupils conduct themselves well in class and in other areas of the school and grounds. However, a small, but significant, proportion of older boys do not behave well.
• Pupils reported to inspectors that fighting is common. A small number of older boys dominate certain spaces in the playground that other pupils are inclined to avoid. Play is sometimes not constructive. For example, some boys play boisterously and misuse equipment.
• Teachers manage the behaviour of the vast majority of pupils well through a system of rewards and sanctions. However, teachers mostly have to resort to managing behaviour rather than successfully teaching in a way that enthuses pupils to learn and to be absorbed in their activities.
• Most pupils follow adults’ instructions, get on with their work and complete their learning tasks. However, because too much teaching is uninspiring, a small minority of pupils disrupt the learning of others. This sometimes goes unnoticed by teachers.
• Attendance over time has been above average. Persistent absence rates have been low. Absence has risen a little this year, although leaders have managed to sustain at least average attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Too few pupils in the last two years have reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined, by the time they left Year 6. Some pupils that met the expected standard in mathematics have not done so in reading and in writing. Teachers have not prepared pupils sufficiently well for secondary school.
• The Year 6 projections for 2018 are more positive, although some pupils have much to learn and only a short time to catch up. The testing period is imminent. There are signs of improvement in pupils’ progress in reading and writing in a number of year groups across the school. This is less evident in Years 5 and 6, where pupils have experienced earlier much weaker teaching.
• Variability in the quality of teaching continues to result in inconsistent progress for groups of pupils. The least able pupils, for example in writing in key stage 1, are not catching up quickly, neither are the least able readers in key stage 2.
• Over time, the most able pupils have achieved as well as pupils with high prior attainment nationally by the end of Year 6. The large majority of the most able pupils continue to demonstrate above-average attainment, but not in all subjects. This is because teachers do not consistently make strong enough demands on these pupils in science, geography and history, for example.
• Disadvantaged pupils, over time, have not made as much progress as other pupils nationally. School assessment information suggests that in most year groups disadvantaged pupils are making as much progress as their peers. However, there remains too much difference between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and others in the school.
• The special educational needs coordinator makes sure that pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities are identified. The majority make good progress, primarily because of effective one-to-one and small-group support from teaching assistants. However, teachers do not always adapt learning tasks in the classroom well enough to meet the needs of these pupils.
• A higher proportion of girls currently in the school are on track to reach age-appropriate standards than boys. A small minority of boys currently in the school show negative attitudes to learning, while many girls exhibit especially positive attitudes.

Early years provision Good

• The majority of children enter the school with skills, knowledge and understanding that are generally below those which are typical for their age. A minority are broadly typical on entry. By the time they leave Reception, most children have made good progress, reaching a good level of development, and are ready for learning in Year 1. Children who are eligible for free school meals generally develop as well as other children.
• A few children each year exceed the early learning goals in some areas of learning, including in reading and in mathematics. No children last year exceeded the writing goals. However, a few have made strong progress and are likely to do so this year.
• The teaching of basic numeracy and literacy skills in Reception is very effective. The Reception teacher, who is the early years leader, keeps a careful track of children’s developing knowledge and skills and gives them just the right level of challenge to help them make quick progress in reading, writing and counting. Children’s phonic knowledge develops quickly and they develop conceptual understanding in mathematics.
• In both the Reception and the Nursery classes, adults plan for all areas of the children’s development. In the Nursery class, particularly well-planned activities and resources engage and challenge children purposefully. When Reception and Nursery children access the same activities and resources independently, sometimes play does not challenge the Reception children well enough.
• Adults interact with children’s play and exploration effectively to help them solve problems and make choices. They regularly question children to help them think about what they are learning. They correctly model language to build children’s vocabulary. Occasionally, the questions one or two adults ask are less effective at promoting talk and thinking.
• Adults successfully teach children to behave well. Children learn good manners. They follow instructions quickly. They tidy up after themselves. The adults are caring and nurturing. They teach children how to look after themselves, for example handwashing. They check that the children are playing safely and that the inside and outside environments are free of hazards.
• The early years leader, who took up post at the beginning of the current school year, has identified the right improvement priorities. She has successfully increased parents’ involvement in children’s learning and assessment.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107541 Calderdale 10054070 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 193 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jeremy Warden Lisa Hoyle 01422 886353 www.luddenden-ce.calderdale.sch.uk admin@luddenden-ce.calderdale.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 16–17 July 2014

Information about this school

• Luddenden CofE School is a smaller than average-sized primary school.
• Very few pupils speak English as an additional language. The vast majority are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below the national average. This varies, as a larger than average proportion of pupils leave and enter the school each year and mid year.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged and receive support from the pupil premium is above the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed parts of lessons in all classes at least once. Some of these observations took place with school leaders. Inspectors looked at a sample of pupils’ workbooks and talked with pupils about their learning.
• Inspectors chatted with many pupils informally at breaktimes and at lunchtime. They held formal interviews with groups of pupils to find out what it is like to be a pupil at the school. They observed pupils as they played and socialised.
• The lead inspector met with a group of five governors. Inspectors held telephone discussions with a representative of the local authority and a representative of the diocese.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and most of the teachers and middle leaders. Inspectors questioned several adults about their safeguarding duties.
• Documents were scrutinised, including the school improvement plan, leaders’ monitoring notes, governing board minutes and notes of the local authority representative’s visits to the school. Inspectors examined safeguarding and child protection records.
• Inspectors considered 26 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and 11 written responses from parents. One of the inspectors talked with parents at the beginning of the school day.
• The responses of 16 members of staff to the online staff survey were considered. There were no responses to the online pupil survey.

Inspection team

Philip Riozzi, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Mary Lanovy-Taylor Ofsted Inspector