Coleby Church of England (Controlled) Primary School

Age group 4-11 Inspection date(s) 20–21 March 2012 Inspection number 380048 Coleby Church of England (Controlled) Primary School Inspection report

p.1

Unique reference number 120517 Local authority Lincolnshire Inspection number 380048 Inspection dates 20–21 March 2012 Lead inspector Alan Lemon

p.1

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

p.1

Type of school Primary School category Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 68 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Kathryn Windslow Headteacher Karen Espin Date of previous school inspection 10 October 2006 School address Rectory Road Coleby Lincoln LN5 0AJ Telephone number 01522 810627 Fax number 01522 811785 Email address enquiries@coleby.lincs.sch.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

p.1

after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

p.2

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

p.2

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.2

Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days’ notice. The inspector observed seven lessons involving four teachers. Meetings were held with representatives of the governing body, staff and pupils. The inspector took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at important school documents including: data on pupils’ performance, external reviews of the school’s work, school self-evaluation and policies for safeguarding pupils. Forty questionnaires completed by parents and carers were scrutinised as well as questionnaires completed by pupils and staff.

p.3

Information about the school

Coleby is rural village school and is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. All pupils are of White British heritage and very few are known to be eligible for free school meals. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is broadly average. The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress

p.3

Information about the school

Pupils are arranged into three mixed-age classes comprising Reception year and Year 1, Years 2 and 3 and Years 4, 5 and 6.

p.3

Information about the school

The school has the Values Quality Mark, Eco-School silver award, the Sing Up silver award, Healthy School status and Activemark. The school has adopted the aims of Live and Learn like a Champion, promoting the 2012 London Olympic values. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

p.3

Key findings

 This is a good school. Its work is greatly appreciated by parents, carers and pupils. Its intimacy, warm and caring atmosphere and distinctive ethos provide exceptionally well for pupils’ outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their outstanding conduct. The school has few weaknesses, but is not outstanding because the support and guidance for pupils in mathematics, while satisfactory, does not compare well with practice in English. The difference between English and mathematics in the support and guidance for pupils exposes an insufficient amount of monitoring of pupils’ exercise books and inconsistencies in teachers’ implementation of the marking policy in particular.  Achievement is good because pupils thoroughly enjoy learning, work hard in lessons and make good progress. Children in Reception Year are prepared well for Year 1 and most start at the level expected for their age. By the end of Year

p.4

Key findings

2 and Year 6, most pupils are well ahead of where most pupils of their age are expected to be in English and mathematics.  Lessons are planned well in accordance with teachers’ good knowledge of pupils’ abilities, ensuring all are challenged by their work. Expectations are high, the pace of learning is good, and lively teaching enthuses pupils and helps them to enjoy learning and make good progress.  Pupils throughout the school are at ease with each other in the classroom and on the playground. Strong friendships are very evident. Pupils’ very well developed social skills lead them to being helpful and showing concern for each other.  Good leadership and management ensure the school promotes strongly its aims and values. Expectations are high and the staff team together drive improvement effectively. This determination and effective management of the school’s performance ensure teaching is constantly improved. Well-established

p.4

Key findings

performance management sets the direction and gives impetus to sustained improvement. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

p.4

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Implement the marking policy in mathematics to match the high-quality practice established in English, so that in mathematics teachers always share with pupils their assessments of work and progress and provide detailed advice on how pupils can improve their work.

p.5

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure systematic scrutiny of pupils’ exercise books takes its place alongside other arrangements already established for monitoring and evaluating the school’s work.

p.5

Achievement of pupils

Parents and carers are accurate in believing that their children make good progress in this school. Pupils enjoy learning; they approach lessons with enthusiasm. From an early age, pupils are forthright in expressing ideas and explaining their thoughts. They are confident in using their knowledge and understanding to answer questions and discuss matters with the teacher and each other. By Year 6 they have developed a good capacity for learning independently. For example, pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 were seen to spend most of one lesson working in pairs; they sustained good effort, solving challenging mathematical investigations which demanded skills above those expected for their age. More-able pupils in Year 2 are well ahead of their national counterparts in writing. In their English lesson, Year 1 pupils, having been greatly enthused by a lively introduction to the topic on pirates, work rapidly on setting out

p.5

Achievement of pupils

their stories about hidden treasure. Handwriting and sentences are well developed. The few pupils not at the stage of writing as independently as others, with the support of adults, talk animatedly about their stories. They show keenness in recording these in drawings and using some words, and make good progress towards becoming independent writers.

p.5

Achievement of pupils

In Reception Year, children quickly acquire the skill to link sounds and letters, and recognise and spell familiar words as a result of expert teaching. They are highly motivated by well-planned activities which provide good opportunities to improve on the full range of needs, including literacy, numeracy and social skills. In Key Stage 1, pupils are proud of their reading skills and value reading. By the end of Year 2, most are ahead of where pupils are expected to be by that stage nationally, and by the end of Year 6, standards of reading are considerably above average. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs require minimal help outside of lessons to improve their reading, writing and mathematical skills. Close track is kept on them to ensure they are keeping up with others and, from their starting points, they make good progress. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate

p.5

Achievement of pupils

Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

p.6

Achievement of pupils

Children start Reception Year usually at the level expected for their age, although small year groups and small variations in children’s capabilities from one year to the next affect the school’s overall profile of attainment. Consistently good progress, resulting from effective teaching throughout the school, usually leads to above- average attainment by the end of Year 6. The progress of different groups of pupils, such as boys and girls or those known to be eligible for free school meals is as good as for pupils as a whole. The standard of attainment in English is slightly higher than in mathematics. Scrutiny of pupils’ exercise books shows that in English, much more so than in mathematics, assessment is shared with pupils and, unlike in mathematics, they are given much valuable written advice on how to improve their work.

p.6

Quality of teaching

Teachers and other adults in classrooms have very good relationships with pupils. They know the pupils well and understand their different abilities. Teachers’ depth of understanding impacts strongly and contributes significantly to the school’s very effective promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. As a result, pupils’ attitude to learning is good and they are always keen to engage with their teacher on lesson tasks.

p.6

Quality of teaching

Pupils are very positive in their views on the quality of teaching. Their parents and carers are equally positive, which is well encapsulated in one representative and accurate comment that, ‘Teachers are good at knowing each individual child and doing work at the level each child can relate to.’ Teachers use assessment well to plan work and are skilled in adapting tasks to pupils’ different abilities. The marking of pupils’ work in English is of high quality in its evaluation of each piece of work and the advice accompanying this on how it can be improved further. By contrast, the marking of mathematics work is satisfactory as it lacks the level of evaluation and advice found in English.

p.6

Quality of teaching

Lessons are consistently well planned to give pupils a balance of skills reinforcement, development of knowledge and understanding and time to evaluate their learning. The class of Years 4, 5 and 6 pupils relished the fast-paced revision of multiplication tables and urged the teacher to let them attempt less familiar and more challenging tables.

p.6

Quality of teaching

The impact of professional development on improving teaching and learning is seen clearly in the good opportunities provided for pupils to work together, help each other and take responsibility to complete tasks independently. Year 2 and 3 pupils, given a challenging problem to test their knowledge of doubling numbers, worked on their own for a while on solutions, and later came together in small groups to share what they each had learnt. This strongly reinforced their motivation to succeed and confidence to tackle something really challenging. The curriculum for English and mathematics offers a variety of topics well planned to provide interesting, relevant challenges. Across the curriculum these topics are increasingly being extended to give pupils more opportunities to apply what they have learnt in new contexts. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate

p.6

Quality of teaching

Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

p.7

Behaviour and safety of pupils

As a mark of their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, pupils are very conscious of what constitutes good behaviour. Their understanding contributes greatly to their enjoyment of school and attendance is far above average. They take it upon themselves to behave well and, by their good example, encourage each other to behave well. Their very positive behaviour is typical over time. Pupils understand fully how to stay safe and keep each other safe by being considerate in how they behave and by applying what they have learnt in lessons about staying safe. Bullying is a rare occurrence. Pupils acknowledged awareness of some bullying behaviour, mainly verbal in nature. Their view is that bullying is not a problem for them. Parents and carers are of the view that behaviour is good and that bullying in all of its forms is dealt with effectively by the school. Pupils are confident in knowing what to do if

p.7

Behaviour and safety of pupils

bullied and confident also that staff will deal with incidents if and when they do arise. They respond willingly to the many opportunities for responsibilities in school, such as reading ‘buddies’ and helping to manage the school’s recycling project.

p.7

Leadership and management

Good leadership, together with the strong backing of the governing body, has a very positive impact on pupils’ good achievement and outstanding behaviour. These strengths in achievement and behaviour, effectively sustained over time, together with teaching that is at least good, illustrate the school’s considerable capacity to improve further. The members of the governing body possess a good level of insight and expertise; they use these effectively to evaluate the school and support its direction and continued improvement. Along with leaders, they make sure the arrangements for safeguarding pupils meet requirements and are rigorously applied.

p.7

Leadership and management

Leadership is shared by a sharply focused, cohesive and well-motivated team of teachers. They maintain high expectations and drive improvement. Subject leadership has improved since the last inspection and plays an effective role in monitoring and evaluating the work of the school. The evaluation of pupils’ progress data has intensified with further refinement in the continuous tracking of their performance. The outcomes of this are carefully considered by teachers and subject leaders on a regular basis and inform actions to maintain and raise achievement. The school’s close monitoring of progress and the rapid action taken should any underachievement be identified ensure all pupils have equality opportunity to achieve well. Discrimination is not tolerated in this school. However, systematic scrutiny of pupils’ exercise books is not established, so leaders are not able to check if the marking policy is having the intended impact.

p.7

Leadership and management

Systems are established to maintain continuing professional development for all staff and there is a positive culture among staff for improving their expertise and the school’s provision. In its breadth and enrichment, the curriculum meets pupils’ needs, Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

p.7

Leadership and management

challenges them and provides experiences that stimulate interest and enjoyment. The most recent curriculum developments improve provision for practical, experimental science and problem-solving activities in mathematics. Planning is being developed across the curriculum to give greater focus to ensuring that pupils learn all the skills they will need.

p.8

Leadership and management

The school’s acquisition of the Values Quality Mark and its participation in the Live and Learn like a Champion scheme promoting the 2012 London Olympic values fully reflect and build upon its well-established and distinctive ethos. This culture of a strong sense of personal responsibility and sense of purpose plays a significant part in successfully advancing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. School assemblies, instrumental music tuition – singing in particular – develop pupils’ spiritual understanding, enabling them to experience existence as creative, meaningful and rewarding.

p.8

Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

p.9

Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

p.9

Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ). The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools. Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

p.9

Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

p.9

Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

p.10

carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

Thank you for your very warm welcome when I visited your school and many thanks also to the pupils who agreed to me hearing them read and the group who talked to me about their work and their views of the school.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

Your school is a good one and these are some of its best features.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

 You enjoy school, work hard, make good progress and by the end of Year 6 most of you are ahead in English and mathematics of where pupils are expected to be nationally.  Your behaviour is outstanding because you have your own high expectations of how to behave. Your school is highly effective in helping you to extend your spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding of life as creative, meaningful and rewarding.  Teaching is good. Lessons are lively, enjoyable and fast paced. Teachers make sure your work is challenging and that it suits your abilities.  The headteacher and staff work together well and make sure your school continues to improve and your achievement continues to rise.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

For the school to improve further I have asked the headteacher to:

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

 make sure your mathematics work is marked to the same high quality as that of your English work  look regularly at your exercise books to confirm the school’s high expectations for raising your achievement are established.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

You make a good contribution to the success of your school, and you can continue doing so by working hard, keeping up your good attendance and being helpful to each other.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

I wish you all the very best for the future.

p.11

Lincoln, LN5 0AJ

Alan Lemon Lead inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

p.11