Hunsley Primary Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to develop consistency in the quality of teaching, so that teaching in all classes and all subjects leads to pupils making excellent progress.
• Improve precision in teaching so that low prior attaining pupils, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities, make accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics by: - ensuring that all staff plan effectively to enable pupils to embed their learning of basic skills and to grasp new concepts in mathematics fully - encouraging pupils to use their prior knowledge of phonics to support their reading and writing - ensuring that all staff have the same high expectations of what pupils will learn.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The excellent leadership of the headteacher is resulting in a cohesive and supportive teaching team which is keen to provide the best experiences possible for Hunsley pupils. The headteacher has developed and promoted a vision for learning which puts pupils’ needs at the very heart of the school’s work. Her knowledge of individual pupils’ needs is outstanding.
• The trust provides the bedrock from which the school has been built. As the school has grown and new classes have joined, the trust has given guidance and additional leadership and teaching capacity to ensure that the school goes from strength to strength. The outgoing and incoming chief executive officers are highly visible around Hunsley primary school and have an accurate view of its performance.
• Middle leaders work cohesively with the headteacher to ensure high-quality learning for pupils. Together, they are quick to spot where staff may need additional support or coaching and have been successful in developing teachers, ensuring that all groups of pupils receive teaching that is at least good over time.
• Teachers place great importance on the challenge and support given to them by leaders. They spoke of the ‘criticism and points to develop’ from the headteacher, adding, ‘she is the most caring and nurturing head’. Teachers cherish working at the school. One teacher described walking into school as ‘a warm embrace’.
• Leaders have worked intently to ensure that pupils receive rich experiences and exciting learning in areas other than English and mathematics. Work in books shows a strong focus on hands-on, investigative science that is helping pupils to develop their practical skills and deepen their understanding of scientific processes. Pupils approach each theme for learning through ‘big questions’ that enable them to think hard and discuss their thoughts in ways ahead of their young ages.
• The school’s work to promote pupils’ understanding of British values and social, moral, spiritual and cultural issues is highly successful. For example, pupils spoke with great respect about the visit by two Muslim mums who talked to them about Eid and shared customs and south-east Asian food with pupils.
• Leaders have ensured that funding to support disadvantaged pupils is used very effectively to provide bespoke academic or pastoral support. Pupils have received additional teaching to boost spelling, handwriting and social skills. As a result of leaders’ attention to detail, disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as other pupils.
• The primary school sports funding has been used wisely to procure physical education teaching from within the trust to bolster the teaching of sport in school. Specialist coaches run a range of popular extra-curricular and sports activities to provide opportunities for greater participation in healthy activities. These include cricket, tennis and gymnastics clubs.
• The school’s work to involve parents in their child’s learning is very effective. Parents have been invited into several meetings on helping their child with learning at home. Expectations of what parents might expect of school and what they should offer in return have been made explicit in the home–school contract.
• Parents express great contentment with Hunsley primary school. Almost all parents responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire Parent View. Every one would recommend the school to other parents because they felt the school was well led and managed and that their child was well looked after and well taught.

Governance of the school

• The local governing body was set up at the inception of the school three years ago. Thus, governors feel a strong responsibility to the school. Governors are ardent in their challenge to school leaders, a job made easier because of the extensive information provided for them by the headteacher and the trust.
• Regular monitoring of the school’s activities by governors is enabling them to have an in-depth understanding of the quality of teaching and learning. Minutes of meetings show that they regularly question leaders to understand how well pupils are achieving.
• Governors take their duty of care for staff seriously. They are working very closely with the trust to ensure that the move to the new building is carefully managed and will not have a detrimental impact on pupils or staff.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff follow the trust’s policies to ensure robust recruitment procedures.
• Leaders keep detailed pupil records, enabling them to track any emerging patterns that might indicate a concern.
• The trust has ensured that all staff have been appropriately trained in basic safeguarding and in spotting the signs and symptoms of radicalisation. Several staff and governors have worked through additional online guidance, and designated safeguarding leaders have received more in-depth training.
• Leaders have ensured that the school site is safe, that levels of staff supervision are high and that staff are alert to potential risks pupils face during the school day.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers have warm and respectful relationships with their pupils. Pupils describe their teachers as kind and helping them to ‘learn stuff’. Following the example of the headteacher, some staff have a forensic knowledge about their pupils and a developed understanding of what they need to learn next.
• The teaching of phonics is very effective. Well-chosen activities and accurate groupings enable pupils to make excellent progress so that, by the end of Year 1, almost all pupils over the last two years have reached the standard expected in the phonics screening check. By the end of Year 2, all have reached the standard expected.
• Almost all staff have high expectations of presentation and the amount of work pupils will do within lessons, and, consequently, the vast majority of pupils present their work neatly and take pride in their books.
• Pupils value the homework they receive, one boy telling me it was ‘exciting!’ Pupils told me they love to earn stickers for their efforts in completing homework. Challenging mathematics and reading homework is helping pupils to secure basic skills, and additional topic-based homework is successfully firing pupils’ enthusiasm for learning and encouraging the development of research skills.
• The teaching of reading is helping pupils to develop an understanding of the texts they are reading. Pupils read regularly in school and at home, as they can access the reading scheme online. One Year 2 girl proudly told the inspector that she had read 120 books online this year. High-attaining pupils read challenging texts with considerable understanding. Following on from reading her book, one child was discussing the relative merits of different food types if you want to be an athlete. However, some lower-attaining pupils were not as confident, mainly because they do not routinely fall back on their phonics knowledge to enable them to read unknown words and so lose fluency.
• Teachers’ careful and deliberate modelling of writing is supporting pupils to make a strong start. Pupils rehearse their sentences and are encouraged to write freely, with a few gentle reminders about essential punctuation. High prior attaining pupils are successfully checking their writing against their teachers’ expectations. Pupils write confidently and at length. Consequently, the quality of pupils’ writing overall exceeds expected standards.
• The teaching of mathematics is effective. Much thought has been given to helping pupils to understand new concepts through exploration. Teachers have moved pupils from using apparatus in mathematics to working out problems in their head. Pupils are encouraged to think hard about the problems they have been given and to explore different methods.
• In the majority of classes, teachers plan carefully to meet the needs of different pupils in their class. However, for some low prior attaining pupils, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities, learning at times is not always secure, because not enough account has been taken of gaps in pupils’ knowledge. Some low prior attaining pupils do not have sufficient opportunity to repeat learning in different ways to enable them to understand new concepts thoroughly, particularly in mathematics.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils demonstrate excellent attitudes to learning. They associate working hard at school with potential future opportunities. A Year 1 girl told the inspector, ‘I think school is really good, as teachers help us learn so we can get a nice job.’
• Pupils really enjoy taking part in ‘team days’. One boy told the inspector that they took part in challenges and activities on these days that helped them ‘respect’ other people.
• Leaders successfully make good use of local expertise and support, helping pupils to understand their community and to feel rooted in it. For example, a governor entertained and educated pupils about the joys of keeping hens, through a ‘Chicken Show’, during which pupils gently handled a warm, freshly laid egg, passing it delicately between each other. Grandparents were invited to join the pupils during a ‘French Breakfast’, sitting alongside pupils as they practised the French they are learning in French club.
• Pupils learn how to eat well and to keep physically and mentally fit, through a strong programme of lessons and assemblies, including about keeping safe online. Pupils recalled the visit from the Humber Rescue team, for example, which helped them to develop a healthy respect for water.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils are keen to learn, and there is a quiet ‘buzz’ about school as they get involved in their lessons.
• Pupils fully understand how the school encourages good behaviour, through praise and ‘points’, but could also tell the inspector about sanctions for less desirable behaviour. They know that, on infrequent occasions, pupils are sent to the ‘cloud’ or, in rare cases, to the ‘rain cloud’ to reflect.
• Leaders have been swift in calling on the expertise of external agencies to support a very few pupils who are struggling to cope at school. Leaders and teachers give careful consideration to the underlying cause and put precise and effective individual support plans into place.
• Pupils have a very clear understanding about bullying. They were adamant that no bullying happens at Hunsley primary school, a point reinforced by parents’ views that their children felt safe in school.
• Pupils are punctual to school. Their attendance is above the national average, and persistent absence is low.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Children start at the school with skills and abilities above those typically seen for their age. Over the last three years, pupils have left Reception with a good level of development that is well above national average. Overall, girls have made stronger progress than boys, but this is mainly because a few boys are joining the school with lower skills than are typically seen.
• Because of good teaching, pupils have made good progress through key stage 1. The proportion of pupils achieving the standard expected in the Year 1 phonics screening check was well above the national average in 2017. Similar proportions of pupils have achieved the standard again this year.
• 2018 was the first year of key stage 1 assessments at the school. High prior attaining pupils have been very successful, and the proportion of pupils reaching higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics was twice that seen nationally last year. However, although pupils’ attainment overall was above the national average, some low prior attaining pupils, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities, did not make the same rate of progress as other pupils in reading, writing and mathematics.
• There are very few disadvantaged pupils at the school, but all have made good progress and have achieved expected standards at the end of Reception and at the end of key stage 1.
• Work in pupils’ books shows that pupils overall are making good progress across a range of subjects. There is little difference between the work of boys and girls, and high prior attaining pupils achieve exceptionally well. Pupils are productive, and their work is usually of high quality. However, there has been a little variation in the quality of learning across different subjects and year groups.

Early years provision Outstanding

• From the outset, the headteacher had a compelling vision that she used to steer the set-up of early years’ provision. Staff are fully on board and have developed an exciting and vibrant indoor and outdoor environment in which children thrive. The school philosophy of learning through the ‘big questions’ is successfully applied in the early years.
• Outdoors, great care has been taken to ensure that activities appeal to both boys and girls, and that every activity has a defined purpose in enhancing learning. At the time of the inspection, children were developing early scientific understanding, learning about floating and sinking using a range of very appealing materials. They constructed ‘boats’ from building blocks and other equipment and launched them into water, all the time skilfully questioned by a nursery nurse who checked on their understanding and prompted them to think more deeply.
• Children are successfully encouraged to develop their personal and social skills through exploration of natural materials and talking with adults about the properties or appearance of objects. This was noted as children worked together to devise a walkway out of the ‘pirate ship’, using planks of wood and crates.
• Staff place much emphasis on helping children to talk and to acquire and develop vocabulary. Staff use astute and challenging questions to encourage children to articulate their thoughts successfully. Adults have high expectations of children’s behaviour and learning: no adult simplifies or restricts the use of vocabulary; they immerse children in new vocabulary instead. Consequently, many children are confident in the presence of adults and happy to hold a conversation.
• Staff make the most of resources to help children develop counting and number skills. Almost all children leave Reception able to count accurately and to add and subtract numbers to at least 10.
• Very effective phonics teaching is helping children to get off to a rapid start, and high-quality input from additional adults is supporting children with the fast acquisition of basic skills. Most children are leaving early years able to read and write simple sentences successfully, putting them in a strong position to meet the challenges of Year 1.
• Teachers’ planning is extremely detailed and responsive to the needs of individual children. Staff make frequent notes about children’s comments or involvement in their learning and use these to adapt resources daily. Thus, children really enjoy coming to school, because every day is different.
• Additional funding provided to the school for disadvantaged children has been used effectively to provide additional teaching. Disadvantaged children achieved a good level of development last year. There are no qualifying children this year.
• The work of early years staff to involve parents in their child’s education is highly successful. Parents can view their child’s ‘wow moments’, which are regularly captured by staff in school and uploaded to an online portal.
• Staff are vigilant about the safety of children in the setting and hold appropriate first aid certificates. They are alert to safeguarding concerns and ensure that risks to children are well managed. Procedures for children’s intimate care are well understood. Thus, the statutory welfare requirements are well met.

School details

Unique reference number 142119 Local authority East Riding of Yorkshire Inspection number 10048384 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 Academy free school 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 90 Appropriate authority Local governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Heather McLaughlin Lucy Hudson 01482330883 www.hunsleyprimary.org.uk enquiries@hunsleyprimary.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Hunsley Primary Academy is a smaller-than-average primary school.
• The school is part of the Education Alliance Trust.
• The school currently has pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium is well below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is slightly above average.
• The vast majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds. 6% speak English as a second language.
• Children in the Reception class attend full time.

Information about this inspection

• Together with the headteacher, the inspector looked at pupil progress data, information about the performance of teachers, documents relating to behaviour and safety, and documents relating to safeguarding.
• The inspector, accompanied by the headteacher, observed pupils’ learning in all classes.
• The inspector listened to Year 1 and Year 2 pupils read, and observed pupils learning in small groups. The inspector spoke with pupils in a meeting, in lessons and at social times.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, key stage 1 leader, and three members of the local governing board. A meeting was also held with the school improvement partner and with the chief executive officers of the trust.
• Inspectors considered the opinion of 40 parents through Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents) and took account of 11 online responses returned by members of staff.

Inspection team

Lesley Butcher, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector