Burraton Community Primary School

School report Burraton Community Primary School Fairmead Road, Saltash PL12 4LT

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Inadequate 4 Achievement of pupils Inadequate 4 Quality of teaching Inadequate 4 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school with serious weaknesses

 Pupils do not gain the skills in reading and mathematics that they need for the next stage of their education because teaching is not good enough.  In most subjects, pupils do not make enough progress. More-able pupils are not pushed hard enough. Although standards have risen in mathematics, pupils’ progress is slow, especially for girls.  In many lessons, pupils spend too much time on work that is too easy because teachers do not expect enough of them. This slows their progress over time.  Support staff are not always given a clear idea of how best to help pupils.  School leaders and the governing body have not got far enough with the improvements recommended at the previous inspection.  The management of teaching and learning since the previous inspection has not been rigorous enough to get the best out of teachers or pupils.  When they have watched lessons or looked at pupils’ work, school leaders have not made

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This is a school with serious weaknesses

sure that pupils are improving their basic skills.  The school is starting to deal with its weaknesses, but some of the work is too recent to have had much impact.

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The school has the following strengths

 The acting headteacher understands the school’s weaknesses. She is determined to improve the school, and she is backed fully by the staff and the governing body.  Some improvements over the last year show that the school is beginning to get better and has the capacity to improve further.  Children in Reception are taught well and make good progress.  The Area Support Base provides a secure environment for several pupils with complex and severe learning difficulties.  Pupils feel safe and very well cared for. They enjoy all aspects of school, including classroom topics and other activities such as sport and clubs which enrich the curriculum.  Parents are very positive about the school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 22 lessons, of which five were joint observations with members of the senior leadership team. They also listened to pupils read.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, groups of pupils, staff, governors and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at documentation, including records of monitoring and safeguarding, the school’s self-evaluation, development plans and samples of pupils’ work.  Seventy three parents expressed their opinions about the school on the Parent View website and inspectors took these into account, together with the results of the school’s own surveys of the views of parents and pupils.

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Inspection team

John Laver, Lead inspector Additional inspector Fran Ashworth Additional inspector Marcia Headon Additional inspector

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005 Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school. The great majority of its pupils are of White British heritage.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well below the national average. The school receives the pupil premium for about one sixth of its pupils .  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported by school action is below the national average; the proportion supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is in line with the national average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress.  At the time of the inspection, the acting headteacher (the former deputy headteacher) had been in post for less than two weeks, having been appointed following the recent departure of the previous headteacher.

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Information about this school

 The school operates an Area Resource Base for pupils with severe and complex learning needs.  The school is accredited as an Advanced Thinking School, working in partnership with Exeter University.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching in order to raise the attainment and improve the achievement of all pupils by: – ensuring that all pupils are given work that appropriately extends their skills and knowledge, including work for the more-able that enables them to reach the higher levels – significantly improving the proportion of good teaching by helping teachers to inject more pace and challenge into their lessons and to devise more interesting activities – training teachers to make better use of support staff to help the learning of individual pupils – improving teachers’ skill and confidence in teaching pupils how to read by linking letters and sounds – developing teachers’ skill and confidence in teaching mathematics to a higher level, through introducing more modelling of good practice.  Improve the effectiveness of leaders at all levels to secure and sustain school improvement by: – monitoring teaching and learning more rigorously, focusing on improving basic skills and

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

holding teachers more to account for pupils’ progress – enhancing the role of subject leaders in analysing progress and monitoring teaching and learning – linking professional development more closely to teachers’ individual needs by observing each teacher to identify aspects of their work that require improvement and examples of good practice that they can share with others – ensuring that the governing body as a whole is fully engaged in monitoring progress, ensuring that plans for raising attainment and improving progress are rigorously implemented, and holding leaders and other staff to account.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils’ progress in all subjects has been inadequate for too long. Inadequate achievement is reflected both in national test results and pupils’ progress as observed in the classroom. More-able pupils make inadequate progress, due to a lack of appropriately demanding work in many lessons.  Children join Reception with levels of skill and knowledge below national expectations. As a result of good teaching and good progress in Reception, when they join Year 1 their attainment is line with age-related expectations, except in physical development and the skills of mathematical calculation, where attainment is lower.  As pupils move through both Key Stages 1 and 2, their progress is inadequate, due mainly to the variable quality of teaching. Standards in reading are not high enough. Underperformance in reading is accentuated by deficiencies in the teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make).  Standards are higher in writing so that overall attainment in English is close to average by

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

the time pupils leave the school. Attainment in mathematics is below average, despite improvements over the past year. Girls underperform significantly in this subject.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make variable progress, depending on the quality of support they receive from teaching assistants and other adults. Pupils in the Area Support Base receive skilled support and make good progress.  Those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and for whom the school receives the pupil premium make inadequate progress overall.  The variability in the quality of teaching and the inadequate achievement overall are evident in leaders’ own monitoring over time as well as the evidence of the inspectors’ observations. Tasks are sometimes repetitive and too easy fully to engage pupils or help them progress in their learning.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Although there have been some improvements in teaching over the past year, pupils are making inadequate progress over time because too much teaching still requires improvement or is inadequate.  Typically, the teaching does not enable pupils to learn well. Often this is due to low expectations of what pupils can achieve. The work set is often too easy: pupils spend too long on mundane tasks and not enough on work that extends their skills and knowledge to appropriate levels. This affects pupils of all levels of ability, but especially slows the progress of more-able pupils.  In some lessons observed, the teacher talked for too long, or did not make the learning objectives clear, so that pupils did not fully understand what they were trying to achieve. Some teachers lack the necessary skills and confidence to teach mathematics and phonics (the linking of letters and sounds) well. Although pupils enjoy the themes or topic work,

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

teachers sometimes pitch this work at too low a level and miss opportunities, for example, to improve writing in subjects other than English.  Teaching and other adult support sometimes help pupils with learning difficulties increase their levels of confidence and understanding so that they make good progress in lessons. However, the effectiveness of support is very variable, and teachers did not always deploy support staff constructively to help the learning of individual pupils, particularly when the teacher was focusing on the whole class for a long time.  While pupils sometimes get good guidance, much of the feedback they receive, including marking of written work does not make it clear how they can improve their work.  In a minority of lessons, good teaching effectively meets the needs of all pupils. For example, in a lesson on the different parts of speech, the teacher had assessed pupils’

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

previous work carefully and used this information to plan interesting new tasks to help pupils to deepen their understanding. However, the excitement this generated among pupils was rarely replicated in other lessons observed.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Behaviour has improved over the past year. This is clear from talking to pupils and staff, and from looking at the responses of parents garnered during the inspection. However, there are some incidents of challenging behaviour.  Good behaviour was observed around the school and in several lessons during the inspection. Pupils respond positively to good teaching. However, when the pace of lessons slows, or pupils spend too long on mundane tasks, attitudes to learning flag. Then pupils become less productive, their concentration wavers and progress slows.  Pupils understand different types of bullying. They say that they feel safe in school; bullying sometimes occurs, such as when individuals display prejudice towards others, but they are confident that it is dealt with effectively.  The school has successfully reduced persistent absenteeism, and has improved attendance so that it is now just above average.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 There is a low level of exclusions, and school’s records show that the few racist incidents or other incidents of unacceptable conduct are dealt with swiftly and competently.  Pupils enjoy taking on responsibilities, for example, as members of the school council.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The recently appointed acting headteacher has the full support of staff and the governing body in her commitment to take the school forward. She had already secured some improvements in school performance in her previous role as the deputy headteacher. Helpfully, one of her first actions as acting headteacher was to ask the local authority to provide professional development for staff, linked to their individual needs, in order to improve achievement.  The leadership team’s evaluation of the school’s performance is rigorous and accurate. This is reflected in the school’s improvement plan. Action is being taken to improve the rigour of monitoring and managing teachers’ performance as well as to develop staff expertise in areas such as mathematics and teaching pupils to read by linking letters and sounds.  The school’s capacity for improvement is evident from the recent rise in standards in mathematics and the better quality of teaching over the last year. However, these are still

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The leadership and management requires improvement

areas of relative weakness. It has been difficult to achieve consistency in learning, partly because of several staff changes and job-shares.  The leadership team has developed other initiatives during the past year to improve progress, including more use of pupil progress meetings and better assessment and tracking systems. These changes have had some impact but they are not fully embedded.  Subject leaders are enthusiastic about the increased responsibility they have been given for monitoring and improving teaching and learning, a role which is still developing. Staff welcome the acting headteacher’s high expectations and her ‘relentless’ approach to change.  The curriculum is being developed imaginatively in some ways such as in the linking of subjects. For example, pupils were observed developing their mathematical skills by doing calculations based on the costs of weapons and armour for the Greek warriors they were

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The leadership and management requires improvement

studying in a history topic. Links with a local secondary school enable the school to benefit from expertise in sport and modern foreign languages. However, weaknesses in core subjects like literacy and numeracy mean that the curriculum requires improvement.  Pupils appreciate the range of enrichment activities available, such as sport. The school has a record of sporting success going right up to national level.  There is good provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development. This was observed, for example, in pupils’ friendly and cooperative relationships, in assemblies and support for charities. The school recognises cultural awareness as an area for improvement, especially to further pupils’ understanding of cultures and diverse values beyond Great Britain.  The school meets all safeguarding requirements, and these are regularly reviewed.  The governance of the school:  is an area for improvement; there are some very knowledgeable and committed

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The leadership and management requires improvement

governors, but they recognise the need to ensure that all members of the governing body are equally informed and active  has not been rigorous enough since the previous inspection in monitoring the performance of the leadership team and other staff  now encompasses school self-evaluation fully, challenging leaders and supporting improvement, although this process is not fully embedded.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school

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Grade Judgement Description

is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 111972 Local authority Cornwall Inspection number 403166

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 428 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Jayne Gorton Acting Headteacher Lisa Tamblyn Date of previous school inspection 16 July 2008 Telephone number 01752 843019 Fax number 01752 840869 Email address secretary@burraton.cornwall.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', 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 .

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School details

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 and as part of the inspection.

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School details

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

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School details

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 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,

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School details

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’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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