Brompton and Sawdon Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that pupils make consistently good progress across the curriculum and reach higher standards by the end of Year 6 by making sure that:
  • adults’ expectations about what pupils can achieve are consistently high in all subjects, including handwriting
  • the work pupils are given is sufficiently challenging, particularly for the most able pupils
  • learning builds effectively on what pupils already know and can do
  • teachers adhere to the school’s assessment and feedback policy, consistently, so that all pupils know how to improve and learn from their mistakes
  • any remaining gaps in pupils’ mathematical knowledge and skills are filled quickly
  • the strong start to learning phonics in the early years and Year 1 is built upon effectively.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, including governance, by:
  • eliminating the remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching
  • checking more regularly and thoroughly whether improvements in teaching are being sustained
  • making sure that school improvement plans include shorter, more appropriate timescales and sharper, more precise targets
  • developing arrangements to assess pupils’ knowledge, skills and progress in subjects other than English and mathematics, accurately
  • making sure that governors receive the information they need regarding the impact of teaching on pupils’ outcomes so that they can hold leaders effectively to account
  • checking carefully that pupil premium spending is making a positive difference to the progress of disadvantaged pupils. An external review of governance 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 most recent inspection in June 2018 identified weaknesses in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The school’s own monitoring records show that leaders were already aware of these issues at that time. Leaders’ actions to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment since then, however, have not been swift or effective enough. Although leaders make recommendations about how to improve the quality of teaching, these are not followed through rigorously. Leaders do not check whether early signs of improvement are being sustained. Leaders and governors have not ensured that teaching and pupils’ outcomes are consistently good. As a result, leadership and management require improvement.
• Leaders’ improvement plans include general aims about improving the quality of teaching by July 2019. This timescale lacks enough urgency and the sharp and precise targets necessary to bring about improvement. The information the headteacher provides lacks sufficient detail of the impact of the quality of teaching on current pupils’ attainment and progress, including for the most able pupils. This limits governors’ ability to hold leaders effectively to account.
• Leaders have supported staff in attending a wide range of professional development opportunities, such as working alongside local authority advisers. This has resulted in some improved teaching practice. In mathematics, for example, some teachers’ expectations of what pupils can and should achieve have been raised. The impact of this is evident in the work in current pupils’ mathematics books in upper key stage 2, which shows that they are now making good gains in their learning.
• The headteacher has established a positive ethos and developed a curriculum designed to build pupils’ confidence and resilience. The school is proud of its place in the community. Pupils take pride in their cultural heritage, studying, for example, local hero George Cayley, who invented the first glider. Leaders aim to prepare pupils to be ‘ready to fly’.
• Mixed-age classes are sometimes reorganised as pupil numbers can fluctuate considerably year on year. In some year groups, there are as few as three pupils. Teachers plan the curriculum in cycles lasting two or three years. Leaders are now revising the system to more accurately keep track of the topics each pupil has covered, and the progress pupils are making in subjects other than English and mathematics.
• Pupils are very well prepared for life in modern Britain. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is a strength of the school. Older pupils show a secure understanding of democracy through, for example, their very clear explanation of the referendum that led to Brexit.
• Leaders have used the primary school physical education and sport premium funding effectively, for example to increase the participation of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in inclusive competitive sports such as boccia. Pupils in all year groups now go swimming. This has led to an increase in the number of pupils who leave the school as confident swimmers.
• Pupils take part in a wide range of clubs, including playing nine holes at the local golf club. A local landowner has given the school free use of his land and a middle leader has effectively developed opportunities for learning outdoors. Pupils in all year groups enjoy den-building, fire-making, toasting marshmallows and making hot chocolate in Kelly Kettles.

Governance of the school

• Governors have supported the headteacher effectively in establishing a strong school ethos with the aim of developing resilient and confident pupils. Governors are aware that some teaching is not good enough and know about the actions leaders are taking to improve it. However, they are not clear enough about the impact leaders’ actions are having on pupils’ outcomes. Governors have not ensured that the information they receive from the headteacher allows them to evaluate pupils’ progress effectively. They have not successfully held leaders to account for eradicating any weaknesses in the quality of teaching.
• Governors consult with leaders to make decisions about how the pupil premium money is spent. However, they do not regularly check the difference these decisions make to the learning and progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• At the time of the last inspection, the website did not meet statutory requirements in some respects. While some aspects have now been remedied, others have not.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders maintain detailed records of staff training. Staff have recently undertaken additional training to make sure that pupils are kept safe when they learn outside.
• Leaders ensure that the premises are safe. Health and safety audits are conducted by the local authority. The headteacher has improved site security. Higher fences have been installed around playground areas and the systems used when parents and carers arrive at different times to collect pupils from the after-school club have been strengthened.
• Pupils say they feel safe in school and that there is no bullying. The school invites visitors in to assembly to give extra guidance to pupils on staying safe. Pupils were able to tell me, with confidence, how they stay safe online.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Over time, weaknesses in teaching have prevented pupils from making consistently good progress. While some teaching is good, such as in the early years, there is currently considerable variation in the quality of teaching through key stages 1 and 2. As a result, pupils in these key stages are not making consistently good progress.
• Adults’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are sometimes too low. Work at times lacks enough challenge. This is particularly the case for the most able pupils. When this happens, some pupils lose concentration, drift off task and pupils’ behaviour starts to wane.
• The school’s assessment and feedback policy clearly sets out the agreed approach to assessing pupils’ knowledge and skills and for providing pupils with guidance about improving their work. This approach is now proving effective in upper key stage 2. Pupils’ next steps in learning are identified effectively and this is reflected in the work planned. Furthermore, pupils know how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve. However, not all staff adhere to this policy. Sometimes, pupils’ work does not build effectively on what they already know and can do. Errors in pupils’ written work, such as spelling errors, go uncorrected. Pupils do not receive the guidance they need to improve. They continue to make the same mistakes. Standards of pupils’ handwriting and the presentation of their work is not consistently good enough.
• The teaching of mathematics is improving. Teachers have now changed the way that mathematics is planned and taught. Teachers’ expectations have been raised. Teaching of Year 6 pupils, for example, is very challenging and pupils enjoy rising to this challenge. Better opportunities are now provided for older pupils to develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills. Despite this positive example, gaps in pupils’ mathematical knowledge and skills, across other year groups, are not yet fully addressed.
• In Year 1, the high-quality phonics teaching children receive in their Reception year is built upon effectively. This enables pupils to make good progress and achieve well in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1.
• Leaders have recently redesigned the approach to teaching the wider curriculum. They can explain the thinking behind this clearly. Some teachers have enthusiastically taken these ideas on board. In some year groups, there is clear evidence that pupils are making good progress in subjects such as science and history. However, as identified in the key subjects of English and mathematics, the quality of teaching varies considerably in other subjects too. Pupils’ progress across the wider curriculum, therefore, is inconsistent.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils demonstrate a good understanding of the importance of showing genuine respect and tolerance for people of different faiths and cultures.
• Leaders work hard to raise pupils’ career aspirations. For example, Year 6 pupils visited Scarborough Spa during an ‘engineering week’ to meet employers and learn about career options linked to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
• Older pupils watch Newsround in class daily. This has helped them to develop an excellent understanding of the need to protect the environment. Members of the eco-club lead projects in school linked to reducing pollution, fly-tipping and littering.
• Pupils can speak with confidence about staying safe online. They also know who to speak to in school if they are worried. Pupils told me about a system where they can leave a message with their initials if they want to speak to an adult privately. They appreciate the option to provide the initials of the adult they would prefer to speak to.
• Pupils know how to stay healthy. There are lots of opportunities for them to take part in sports clubs after school, or competitive events against other schools. The high quality of the healthy school meals is reflected by the number of pupils who take this option. Most pupils had a school meal on the second day of the inspection.
• Governors have invested additional funding in a resilience project aiming to offer sensory, social and emotional support for pupils who may need this extra help.
• The school has increased its emphasis on developing pupils’ knowledge of local history. Parents say that the community has welcomed pupils’ higher profile in the life of the village. Pupils laid a wreath at the village war memorial and they have created a garden nearby. Pupils enjoy gardening; reluctant speakers are encouraged to talk when they are planting seeds and sharing gardening equipment.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils, staff and parents all say that there is no bullying in the school and that there is a ‘family feel’ because of the positive relationships between pupils and staff. This was evident throughout the inspection.
• Pupils value their education and attendance rates are high. When I asked pupils for their ideas about how the school could be improved, one pupil said, ‘make it bigger so more people could enjoy it’.
• The school has an inclusive ethos and pupils are kind to each other.
• Pupils’ conduct around the school is good. When teaching is good, pupils’ behaviour in lessons is good. When teaching is more variable, pupils’ behaviour in lessons deteriorates and there is some low-level disruption.
• Pupils behave well in the dining room at lunchtime and when they are playing together outside.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Children’s good start to learning in the early years is not sustained throughout key stage 1 and progress remains variable. Standards by the end of Year 2 in 2018 were broadly average. Very small numbers in some year groups means that caution is needed when comparing pupils’ attainment with the national picture. However, outcomes in 2018 did not represent good progress from pupils’ individual starting points. In particular, too few pupils reached the higher standard in reading and mathematics.
• Pupils’ achievement in key stage 2 is also variable. Published outcomes at the end of Year 6 in 2018 reported that less than half of the pupils reached the expected standards or higher in reading, writing and mathematics combined and, as such, pupils were not well prepared for secondary school.
• Pupils’ progress in recent years through key stage 2 has not been good. In 2018, this was particularly the case in reading where a below average proportion of pupils reached the expected standard or higher. In reading, past teaching has not helped pupils learn to ‘read between the lines’ well enough. Pupils’ current work shows some improvement in the rates of progress pupils are making through key stage 2, although it remains variable.
• In writing in key stage 2, pupils make much better progress than they do in reading. An above average proportion of pupils have achieved the higher standard by the end of Year 6 for the past three years. The quality of writing in Year 6 pupils’ books currently is of a high standard. Although pupils are making good progress in writing in upper key stage 2, progress in lower key stage 2 is not consistently good.
• As a result of some improvements in teaching, achievement in mathematics is improving, especially for pupils currently in Year 6. However, past weak teaching means that many older pupils have gaps in their knowledge. This prevents them from making good progress over time. Pupils’ books show that these gaps are now closing in upper key stage 2, although some pupils are still to catch up fully.
• In subjects beyond English and mathematics, work in pupils’ books currently shows similar inconsistencies in the quality of learning and the rates of pupils’ progress in different year groups across the school.
• There are too few disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND to make meaningful comparisons between their achievements and the achievements of these groups nationally through published performance information. However, inspection evidence shows that their progress is similarly variable across the school, reflecting the inconsistencies evident in the quality of teaching.
• The most able pupils do not achieve well. Expectations of what pupils can achieve are not consistently high enough to enable them to reach their full potential. In reading and mathematics, too few pupils achieve the higher standards by the end of Year 2 and Year 6. The work pupils are set is sometimes too easy. This slows their learning.
• In the early years, children make a good start in learning phonics. High-quality phonics teaching is sustained in Year 1. As a result, outcomes in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 are at least in line, and sometimes above, the national averages.

Early years provision Good

• Children enter the school with skills, knowledge and experiences that vary widely. Similarly, due to the very small numbers in each year group, the proportion of children reaching a good level of development can vary considerably from year to year. Inspection evidence, however, including that seen in children’s learning journeys, shows that children are making good or better progress from their individual starting points. By the end of Reception, typically, most children are ready for learning in Year 1.
• Teaching is characterised by high expectations for each child, and giving children frequent opportunities to develop confidence, resilience and independence in their learning. This means that children are making good progress in developing their self-confidence and self-awareness.
• The teaching of early reading is effective. Children make good progress in learning phonics. This means that children are very well prepared for the demands of the Year 1 reading curriculum.
• The early years teacher has established excellent links with pre-school partners. As a result of these links, there is a consistent approach to teaching phonics across pre-school partners and the school. This consistency really helps children get off to a flying start with early reading.
• Additional funding has been used well to provide speech therapy. This helps reluctant speakers to develop their communication and language skills quickly.
• The relationship with parents is described as ‘a total partnership’. Parents make notes in shared diaries for the teacher. For example, one parent commented that their child had said: ‘I told mummy I have a digraph in my name and showed her which letters it was, which taught mummy something new because she didn’t know what a digraph was until I said that!’
• All children’s care and welfare needs are met. Adults are trained in paediatric first aid.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 121373 North Yorkshire 10067144 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 Community 5 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 60 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Hannah Wallace John Logue 01723 859359 www.bromptonsawdonschool.co.uk admin@bromptonsawdon.n-yorks.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 20 June 2018

Information about this school

• Brompton and Sawdon Community Primary is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is below the national average.
• The vast majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds.
• The school runs before- and after-school clubs.
• The school is currently arranged into three classes: one for Reception and Year 1, one for Years 2 and 3, and another for Years 4, 5 and 6. These arrangements can vary from year to year, depending on pupil numbers.

Information about this inspection

• This inspection took place as a result of findings from the previous short inspection in June 2018, which identified priorities for improvement that needed to be addressed.
• The inspector observed teaching and learning in all year groups from Reception to Year 6. These observations were all undertaken alongside the headteacher.
• The inspector reviewed children’s learning journeys and pupils’ written work across the curriculum alongside subject leaders.
• The inspector held discussions with pupils throughout the inspection, at breakfast club, in lessons and in more formal meetings. The 28 responses to the pupil survey were also considered.
• The inspector reviewed the 35 responses to Parent View and talked to parents on the playground before the start of the school day.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and subject leaders. The inspector also met with five governors and held a telephone interview with a representative from the local authority.
• The inspector reviewed a number of school documents, including the school’s monitoring records, the school’s own assessment information about the progress of current pupils, safeguarding training records, the school improvement plan, minutes of governors’ meetings and records of visits made by the local authority.

Inspection team

Tracey Ralph, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector