Mappleborough Green CofE Primary School

Mappleborough Green CofE Primary School Henley Road, Mappleborough Green, Studley, B80 7DR

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Pupils of all abilities achieve well. Standards are above average at the end of Year 6 in English and mathematics.  Pupils with a wide range of disabilities and those who have special educational needs learn well because they receive just the right level of support.  Pupils behave well and feel safe and well cared for in school.  Teaching is at least good, and sometimes outstanding, particularly in Reception and Years 5 and 6.  Parents and carers think highly of the school, particularly the way it helps their children to gain confidence and self-esteem.  The youngest children learn at first-hand about many aspects of the world around them in the forest-school area.  The headteacher is a strong leader and is wholeheartedly supported by all staff.  The leadership team and governing body work successfully together to remedy weaknesses, improve teaching and raise standards.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers occasionally over-direct pupils to get planned tasks completed instead of making pupils think for themselves, and changing tasks when they are too hard or too easy for some of them.  Pupils' do not learn equally well in all subjects and not enough use is made of the school and local environment to make learning more relevant to pupils' lives.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed seven lessons and saw all the teachers teaching. He also observed behaviour at playtimes and lunchtimes, talked to pupils about their views and looked at samples of their work.  He examined various documents including: polices relating to keeping pupils safe; records of pupils’ progress; the headteacher’s observations of lessons, and governors’ visits to school.  Meetings were held with teaching staff, members of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority.  The inspector talked with parents before and after school and took into account the 26 responses to the online Parent View questionnaire and the written comments that were submitted.

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Inspection team

Peter Kerr, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Mappleborough Green is a smaller-than-average primary school. Nearly all the pupils are White British.  Very few pupils are eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for pupils from families eligible for free school meals, looked after children and those from families with parents in the armed services.  A broadly average proportion of pupils is supported through school action and a similar proportion is supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs. Many of these pupils have behavioural, emotional and social difficulties and some have learning difficulties.  The school has a forest-school area to help pupils learn about the natural world.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make more of the teaching outstanding by:  ensuring that all teachers get pupils to think for themselves about the subjects they study and adjust tasks in the light of pupils’ responses to questioning and discussion on the topics covered.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Broaden and enliven pupils' learning experiences even more by:  making better use of the school environment, particularly the forest-school area, to make lessons more practical and interesting and to help pupils to learn in all subjects  using the locality more effectively to spark pupils’ interest and help them to learn in all subjects.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children quickly become confident, independent learners in the exciting but well-ordered Reception classroom and outdoor learning areas. The large majority of them achieve all the main learning goals for children of this age from starting points that are broadly typical for their age group. They become particularly good at looking after themselves, for example getting changed for outdoor play, finding out about the world around them and communicating with others.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children make particularly good progress in their physical development in Reception, as was seen when they played on the large gymnastics equipment. They were completely absorbed in the activities and showed great confidence and skill for their age.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils continue to make good progress across Key Stages 1 and 2 and attain above-average standards in the national tests in Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils across the school are enthusiastic about learning and achieve well. They are eager to answer questions and to succeed in everything they do. There is often a buzz of purposeful activity in lessons as pupils talk about their work. Outstanding learning was seen when pupils explored the forest-schools area, finding fungi and small creatures and talking about them. They were highly independent and keen to learn more about what they found.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils read well. Most achieve the expected level by the age of six, and use their knowledge of letter sounds to read new words. Older pupils read widely and confidently for information and for pleasure and write interesting accounts of their favourite books.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils have good communication skills and confidently use new technologies. For example, Year 6 pupils prepared a ‘news bulletin’ using a projected digital-photograph montage as a backdrop for a recorded interview with an eye witness of the simulated ‘alien crash landing’ that was the focus for the week.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The quality of pupils' writing is good. It is improving further because of the detailed help they receive through teachers’ marking to correct mistakes and add interest to their work.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well in mathematics. Their confidence in the subject is steadily increasing as they enjoy more opportunities to investigate for themselves and use their skills to solve interesting problems.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 When teachers encourage pupils to be creative and use their own ideas, they respond very positively. For example, in a mathematics lesson, pupils in Years 5 and 6 were completely absorbed in making up coded messages using the most difficult sums they could think of. Some of the pupils learned new skills while doing this because the teacher gave just enough guidance as the need arose, making the pupils continually think for themselves as much as possible.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Very occasionally, although pupils complete the set tasks, they learn less well because the work does not fully engage their interest or make them think for themselves.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 All pupils learn equally well. Pupils with disabilities and those with special educational needs make good progress because the help they receive is at just the right level. The very few pupils who join the school with little English settle well and soon begin to communicate effectively and catch up with the class because of the effective support they receive to learn English.  Pupils eligible for government funding for those at risk of not doing well because of their circumstances achieve well. They receive extra individual support in areas where they need to catch up and staff closely watch their progress in class to ensure that they fully participate in lessons.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Parents and carers say they appreciate the way the school values all pupils equally. Some wrote in to say how such help had transformed their children from reluctant to confident learners after transferring to this school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is outstanding in the Reception class. It strikes just the right balance between teaching the children new things and helping them to learn for themselves through purposeful play. All the adult helpers are well informed about how best to help the children to learn without telling them what to do.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is good in the rest of the school. All teachers plan lessons meticulously. They make sure the pupils know exactly what it is they are going to learn in each lesson and check at the end that this has been done. There are examples of outstanding teaching, especially in the juniors, when pupils are encouraged and supported to learn for themselves.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Occasionally, adult support in lessons is directed too exclusively to helping pupils to complete the set tasks. This leads to opportunities being missed to talk with pupils at some depth about their work and adjust the task if necessary to make it more practical, interesting or demanding.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Reading is taught well throughout the school. Lessons for younger pupils ensure that they learn all the different sounds that letters can make. An increasing and varied selection of books is provided for older pupils to encourage them to read widely. Teachers also encourage them to write about the books they have liked in order to persuade other pupils to read them.

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The quality of teaching is good

 All staff support pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties well. Adults help them to manage their feelings and behaviour so that they can join in with all activities.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers plan topics that help pupils to learn and use a range of skills in different subjects. For example, older juniors explained how they had researched the lives of some famous scientists that had done work on microbes, the topic they were studying. They then wrote about the scientists’ lives and achievements and carried out some of their own experiments, for example seeing what conditions make bread go mouldy quickest.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The forest-school area is used exceptionally well to enrich learning for the youngest pupils but is underused further up the school. The examples pupils gave of their occasional use of it in the juniors showed how memorable and useful the experience had been.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The local area is also not used as well as it could be to make lessons more practical and relevant to the pupils' lives and learning. For example, significant local events and historical figures are overlooked in the planning of some history topics.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils behave well. Their obedience and keenness help them to get the most out of lessons because the teachers can concentrate on helping them to learn.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils get on well together. For example, at playtimes pupils play happily together and older pupils keep an eye on younger ones.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils are helped to gain moral and social understanding. Through their link with a school in South Africa, the pupils have developed an understanding that not all children are as fortunate as themselves and they have raised considerable funds for the link school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The very few pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have a wide range of friendships. The pupils talk very positively about difference, including disability, showing a good understanding of the importance of treating everyone equally and not being prejudiced.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 In discussion, pupils made a distinction between occasional teasing and constant bullying. They said that sometimes behaviour that is annoying but not intimidating is referred to as ‘bullying’ but that in fact real bullying is rare. They said that if it does happen, teachers deal with it so that it stops.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils attendance at school is above average. They feel safe and well cared for there. Many parents and carers commented that the school cares for all pupils as individuals and gives them confidence in themselves.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides strong, clear leadership. Working closely with the assistant headteacher, she has steadily improved the quality of teaching and raised pupils' achievements since the last inspection.

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The leadership and management are good

 She visits classes regularly to check on how good teaching is and how well the pupils are learning. Reports are written following these visits and pointers for improvements given where necessary. Further checks are then made to make sure that teachers act on the advice given.

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The leadership and management are good

 All teachers are given targets relating to the achievement of pupils' in their class. The leadership team then rigorously tracks pupils' achievements. If these checks indicate that progress is faltering in any class, steps are taken to make sure that progress speeds up and pupils make up any lost ground.

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The leadership and management are good

 Government money allocated for pupils at risk of not doing well because of their circumstances is used effectively to support the very few pupils in this category in the school. Extra staff are deployed, for example, to teach some of these pupils individually or in small groups. The individual guidance these pupils receive on how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve has a clear impact on their progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is good. It includes opportunities for reflection and prayer and for pupils to take on responsibilities that make them feel valued and grown up

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The leadership and management are good

 The school accurately identifies what it does well and what needs to be improved. For example, the school improvement plan includes measures to broaden the pupils' education by increasing the emphasis on defining and using key skills in all subjects following the recent strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy. Good examples from within the school of how this can be done are used to help all teachers to improve their practice.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority provides ‘light touch’ support as it rightly identifies it as a good school.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body knows the school well. It ensures all legal requirements are met, particularly those relating to the safeguarding of pupils. It keeps itself informed of national test results and other indicators of pupils' achievements. Governors keep a careful eye on how extra funds for pupils at risk of not achieving well because of their circumstances is spent, carefully checking that these pupils make similar progress to that of other pupils. The governing body sets targets for the headteacher to reach in order to merit salary increases and ensures that similar rigour is applied when the headteacher sets targets for teachers. Reports of governors’ visits to the school show that they note how effective teaching is and satisfy themselves that teachers merit pay increases through improving their practice. A particularly strong feature of the reports is the references they make to pupils' reactions to the

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The leadership and management are good

things that have been done to improve their learning. This helps the governing body to check value for money spent in terms of its impact on the pupils' learning.

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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 is

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Grade Judgement Description

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 125640 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 402343

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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 Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 123 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paula Adkins Headteacher Erica Hayton Date of previous school inspection 26 January 2010 Telephone number 01527 852240 Fax number 01527 852240 Email address admin3041@we-learn.com 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, please

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School details

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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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