North Frodingham Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to refine and embed the school’s assessment system by:
  • ensuring that the wording used to indicate progress measures is meaningful and precise
  • targeting a higher percentage of the most able pupils to make accelerated progress, enabling more of them to exceed expectations at the end of key stages 1 and 2.
• Improve the early years by:
  • quality assuring the assessment on entry to both Nursery and Reception to ensure that they accurately reflect the skills and abilities of children
  • ensuring that the high staffing ratio is used effectively to raise the proportion of children reaching more than expected attainment, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics
  • continuing to improve the learning journals so that they show a more detailed picture of progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Ensure that high adult ratios are not inhibiting the learning of pupils within lessons across the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher has purposefully developed a staff team who share her vision and ambition for the pupils. Since her appointment, she has implemented key improvements from her development plan and as a result, standards are rising.
• The headteacher leads on most key areas of the curriculum and has a thorough overview of the school’s main strengths and weaknesses. Close links with the federated school and wider partnerships are helping teachers to compare pupils’ work, which is leading to higher expectations and standards.
• The monitoring of teaching, learning and assessment highlights where there are key strengths and gives teachers helpful areas for improvement. Performance management holds teachers to account and ensures that all staff focus on the key areas for improvement.
• The pupil premium effectively meets the needs of individual pupils. Pupils are making at least good progress because support targets their needs. The number of disadvantaged pupils is particularly low.
• The curriculum plans show a range of interesting topics. A wide variety of visits and visitors enhance pupils’ experiences, through which teachers deepen understanding. As a result, pupils enjoy school and are engaged in their learning. In one lesson, at the start of a topic, pupils were encouraged to devise questions they wanted to find the answers to. Pupils came up with sensible suggestions, which demonstrated their interest and eagerness.
• Pupils have links to a school in Nepal, which is helping them develop their understanding of life in other countries. However, their knowledge of other cultures and religions is limited.
• Sports premium funding has successfully increased participation in sports events. Pupils enjoy many opportunities to participate in a wide variety of sports activities, including cross-country, tag rugby and dodgeball. The use of a minibus has greatly aided the school’s ability to transport pupils to different events. Sports coaches support the development of teachers’ skills.
• The detailed assessment tracking and recording system is giving leaders an overview of the number of pupils on line to make good progress. However, the wording does not provide enough clarity and does not focus on ensuring that the most able pupils reach the highest standards. Some of the information provided to governors is confusing. Although they understand that pupils are making good progress, they are not receiving specific information about how many pupils need to make accelerated progress to exceed expectations.

Governance of the school

• The recently federated governing body is still in its infancy. However, governors have taken time to work together informally to prepare themselves for the move to a hard federation. Governors are experienced and knowledgeable; they have a tight strategic plan, which sets out clear expectations about what they will achieve by the end of each year.
• Governors receive a wealth of information from the headteacher regarding standards and progress. They have a clear understanding of the big picture and know that the majority of pupils are making good progress.
• Governors carry out observations and check work in books to ensure that the information they given to them by the headteacher is happening in practice. As a result, they have reported on the positive impact of the marking policy.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Governors and the local authority carry out regular safeguarding checks. Leaders ensure that the single central record is updated regularly. Policies reflect local authority guidance and are reviewed in a timely manner. Regular training on new guidance is keeping staff up to date.
• Strong links with the local children’s centre are enabling leaders to ensure that pupils are safe and minutes from multi-agency meetings show that relevant information is shared by the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The school’s focus on improving marking and assessment is evident. Teachers focus sharply on ensuring that pupils are learning the relevant skills from the national curriculum. Regular checks and continuous assessment inform teachers about how well pupils are progressing. Leaders check that the information is accurate and, as a result, pupils are making good progress.
• Positive relationships between all adults and pupils ensure a harmonious work ethos. Teachers understand individual needs and plan support where needed. Because pupils display excellent attitudes towards each other, group working is highly effective. When pupils work together, they listen to each other, share ideas and acknowledge each other’s contributions. As a result, pupils are learning from each other through well- planned opportunities which deepen their thinking.
• The teaching of phonics is systematic, which allows pupils to understand how to put sounds together to help them read unknown words. This skill is evident across key stage 1, where pupils who are fluent readers break down unknown words to help them make sense of what they are reading.
• The regular teaching of reading skills is helping pupils to deepen their understanding and ignite their enjoyment. Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to reading. They read daily and exhibit a good knowledge of a range of authors. As a result, reading outcomes are strong. Most able readers are well supported through a range of strategies. Least able readers have strong phonic knowledge, which is helping them to read unknown words.
• Regular homework supports the learning in class. Parents like the range of tasks offered, particularly the use of web-based packages. Meetings and booklets to explain how reading and mathematics are taught help parents to support their children at home.
• Teaching assistants support individuals and groups well in most classes. Pupils say that if they are finding the work particularly challenging or they do not understand, they can move places to sit with an adult to get extra support. Where teaching assistants are less effective, especially when there is a high ratio of adults in classrooms, pupils are too reliant on them to help with spellings and spend too long waiting for help or encouragement about what to do next. This is inhibiting self-reliance and slowing down the pace of learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils understand how to keep safe and could explain the rules about safety online. They show a mature attitude to personal safety and say they feel safe and secure in school.
• Personal development is strong across the school. Pupils are extremely well looked after and teachers know their pupils well. They understand the particular difficulties individual pupils may be facing that prevent them from learning effectively, and work hard to address them.
• Pupils display positive attitudes to learning; they share, take turns and cooperate well with each other. They are keen to improve their work and take pride in their presentation.
• Pupils said that bullying never happens and if they do have any disagreements, they sort it out quickly because they are a family.
• Members of the school council take their responsibility very seriously and talk enthusiastically about the work they have done to organise charitable events. They understand the process of decision-making and feel that how they vote on different issues is helpful and fair.
• Older pupils demonstrated a deeper understanding of democracy and were able to reflect that holding debates prior to voting would enable pupils to make a more informed decision.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good
• Pupils behave extremely well at all times. They are considerate of each other and older pupils have mature attitudes to discussions, taking turns to speak and not interrupting each other.
• Pupils are happy and love their school. Behaviour logs show very few entries, because pupils understand how to behave well and demonstrate care and kindness to each other.
• Attendance is above the national average and persistent absence has reduced. Leaders work with local agencies to support attendance for a few families and encourage parents not to take holidays in term time by taking appropriate action when they do.
• Parents know their children are safe and well looked after. They said how much their children enjoy school and complain when it is a holiday or the weekend.
• Although pupils behave well in lessons, sometimes, younger pupils are over-reliant on adults to help them in class. This is slowing the pace of learning because they are waiting for adults to tell them what to do next.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Current progress information shows that the vast majority of pupils are on track to reach age-related expectations at the end of each key stage. Work in books is of a high quality and shows that most teachers have high expectations. Work for the most able pupils shows challenge, both through daily activities and through extension work. Pupils in lower key stage 2 show excellent knowledge of times tables.
• In reading, progress is particularly strong. From their starting points, pupils make good progress across key stage 2. A higher proportion of pupils are working at greater depth than is seen nationally.
• Most pupils are reaching the expected standard in reading at the end of key stage 1, with a high proportion exceeding. This is because expectations are high and teachers give high priority to the teaching of reading.
• Overall, pupils’ attainment varies, because of the tiny cohorts. Where cohorts have larger numbers of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities attainment has not been as high. However, the progress made by all groups of pupils is good.
• Outcomes in phonics have risen over the last three years and the vast majority of pupils are reaching the expected level by the end of Year 1.
• The progress for the small minority of disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, is good across all subjects.
• The number of pupils who are working at greater depth in writing and mathematics is not as high as in reading.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Over time, there have been some inconsistencies in the way in which children are assessed on entry into both Nursery and Reception. These are giving an over-positive picture of the progress that children are making, and too few pupils exceed national expectations.
• Learning journals show a lack of challenge and progress over time for the most able children. Work to improve the content of these records is already underway and the recently appointed early years teacher has begun to make positive changes.
• The early years leader from the federated school is working with the early years teacher and has a very clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the provision. She has already identified actions to support development.
• Recent improvements to the outdoor provision give children a range of relevant resources with which to play and learn in all weathers. Children use the available resources well and well thought-out activities are helping them to consolidate their learning. One group of children were finding numbers up to 100 on a hundred square and jumping to the number that was one less. Other children were selecting pebbles and ordering numbers to 20, which enabled the teacher to check their understanding and number recognition.
• Nursery-aged children are given well-matched activities to support their understanding of comparative language. Matching teddies to different-sized beds and chairs provided an interesting task, which they enjoyed, while consolidating their knowledge and developing their language acquisition.
• Children are highly engaged, show sustained concentration and enjoy opportunities to pursue their own learning. Teachers skilfully intervene, asking questions and supporting the learning. Children are confident learners, cooperate well with each other and show positive attitudes to learning.
• Welfare requirements are being met and children feel safe in a warm and nurturing environment. Relationships are positive and children enjoy an active and varied curriculum.

School details

Unique reference number 117861 Local authority East Riding of Yorkshire Inspection number 10019327 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 Maintained 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 63 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Hilary Winterbottom Executive headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Michelle Bell 01262 488227 www.northfrodinghamprimary.co.uk northfrod@eastriding.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 26–27 September 2011

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This is a very small, rural school, where almost all pupils are from a White British background.
• The proportion of pupils in receipt of the pupil premium is well below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below the national average.
• The executive headteacher has been in post since 2013. She shares the headship with Beeford CE (VC) Primary School. From September 2016, the schools formally federated and share a governing body.

Information about this inspection

• Every teacher was observed at least once; the majority of these observations were conducted jointly with the executive headteacher.
• Meetings were held with the governing body and the school council. A telephone call was made to the local authority to seek their views.
• The inspector heard pupils read in key stage 1 and 2.
• A range of evidence was examined, including the self-evaluation, school development plan, assessment information, policies and records.
• The views of parents were taken into account through talking to parents and reading the online responses to Parent View.
• The inspector took into account the 11 pupil responses to the questionnaire, and six staff responses. All questionnaire responses were extremely positive.

Inspection team

Janet Lunn, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector