Bildeston Primary School

Bildeston Primary School Newberry Road, Bildeston, Ipswich, IP7 7EU

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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 achieve well. They enjoy their learning and are making good progress, particularly in reading and writing.  Children make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage, developing good learning and social skills.  Most teaching is good. Teachers plan lessons carefully to capture pupils’ interests and enthusiasm.  The teaching of early reading skills is good and pupils develop into confident readers who enjoy an interesting range of books.  Behaviour is good. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They understand how to keep themselves safe and older pupils support younger ones.  The school’s leaders have ensured that the quality of teaching has improved and this has resulted in pupils’ improved achievement.  The governing body has questioned the work of the school, and has ensured that the school has developed well since its last inspection.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Not all teaching is good, and not enough is outstanding. At times, teachers miss opportunities to quickly move pupils on with their learning.  Subject leaders are not always involved enough in raising standards by checking the quality of teaching or comparing pupils’ performance against national benchmarks.  In mathematics, marking does not always help pupils to improve their work, and they do not always get the opportunity to correct it. Teachers sometimes spend too long working with the whole class, so pupils do not have enough time to develop their mathematical skills by themselves, or in different subjects.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed 12 lessons, of which two were joint observations with the headteacher and a senior leader. The inspector also made a number of brief visits to other lessons.  Meetings were held with pupils, senior leaders, subject leaders, governors, parents and carers, and a representative of the local authority.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s own data on pupils’ progress, planning and monitoring files, samples of pupils’ work, behaviour records and documents relating to safeguarding.  The views of the 27 parents and carers who responded to the online questionnaire (Parent View) were taken into account, along with the school’s own recent survey of parents’ views.

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Inspection team

Catherine Kiff, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller-than-average-sized primary school.  Most pupils are White British.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium, which provides funding for children in local authority care and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, is below average.  The proportion of pupils supported by school action, school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  An above-average proportion of pupils start or leave the school partway through their primary education.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  All pupils are educated on site. The school does not use alternative provision to support any of its pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that all teaching is good or better and an increasing amount is outstanding by:  providing more opportunities for subject leaders to monitor and evaluate pupils’ learning and take a more active role in improving teaching  spreading best practice within the school and giving teachers the opportunity to see what excellent teaching looks like by visiting schools where teaching is consistently good or outstanding  ensuring that all teachers move pupils’ learning forward as soon as pupils are ready for more challenge.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve progress in mathematics by:  give pupils more opportunities to learn actively and independently  giving pupils opportunities to use their mathematical skills in all subjects  ensuring that marking shows pupils what they need to do to improve their work, and giving them time to do so.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well from starting points that are below those typical for their age.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make good progress. They settle quickly into school life and do particularly well in their reading and writing because of the many opportunities provided to develop these skills in activities both indoors and outside.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In Key Stage 1, pupils make good progress and their attainment by the end of Year 2 is broadly average. Pupils become increasingly good at building sounds into words and this gives them confidence to read a range of books. This was reflected in the above-average results in the 2012 Year 1 national phonics test.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils gain confidence in their writing by having opportunities to use their skills in other subjects, for example by making a non-fiction book on Florence Nightingale based on the work they had done in history. In mathematics, pupils count accurately and have a good understanding of how to use data. For example, as part of a Year 1 minibeast project, pupils were able to sort insects into groups and record features of insects in bar graphs.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In Key Stage 2, pupils maintain this good progress and attainment is above average in English and mathematics. This is particularly the case for pupils who have been taught in the school from the Reception Year and those who had joined the school by Year 3. A small minority who join after Year 3 do not progress quite as well as those who have been in the school for longer.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 As a result of an effective focus on reading and writing since the last inspection, progress in lessons is better in English than in mathematics. Pupils enjoy using their reading skills as part of the whole-school reading challenges that encourage pupils to read a range of books. Opportunities for pupils to use their writing skills have been enhanced through ‘Big Write’ once a week, which gives them the opportunity to write for a longer period of time.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs achieve well. Those with reading difficulties make rapid progress because teachers and teaching assistants give them the skills and confidence to tackle unfamiliar words.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils who are known to be eligible for the pupil premium make good progress. The school uses the designated funds well to support these pupils, including providing individual and small-group teaching. As a result, the small number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals in Year 6 last year were well ahead of their classmates and the equivalent of more than two years ahead of similar pupils nationally.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Most teaching is good and some is outstanding. Teachers create a positive climate for good learning where pupils celebrate each other’s success. Teaching assistants are used well to support and challenge pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have strong subject knowledge and explain clearly what they want pupils to do. Work is well planned to meet the needs of pupils taught in mixed-age classes from Year 2 upwards. The needs of the youngest children in the Reception class and pupils in Year 1 are met effectively in single-age classes. This gives them a good start with basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics to build on as they move through the school, along with confidence to settle quickly into school routines.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Where learning is best, teachers make lessons interesting and fun for pupils. They use questions well to check pupils’ understanding. For example, in a high-quality English lesson on the use of words to describe an alien, the teacher fully engaged pupils as she answered questions as if she were the alien. As a result, the pupils produced high-quality descriptive writing. In another example, the youngest children were making fruit smoothies, which gave them a practical experience to write about.

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The quality of teaching is good

 In a minority of mathematic lessons observed, teaching was not good because teachers did not give pupils enough time to work at their own level and apply the skills they had been taught. As a result, some pupils, particularly the more able, missed opportunities to extend their learning, and the less able were unable to consolidate their learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ high expectations for writing in other subjects mean that the quality of writing in their topic work, for example about ‘people who inspire us’, is of the same high quality as in their English lessons.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers make good use of progress data in reading to identify which pupils need extra support. As a result of additional support, these pupils make faster progress in their reading.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking in writing is of a higher quality than in mathematics. As a result, the majority of pupils make better progress in writing than in mathematics. Marking in writing gives pupils clear direction on what they need to do to improve their work, and they are given opportunities to reflect on their work and make improvements. This is not the case in mathematics.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The pupils’ good behaviour contributes to the calm, purposeful atmosphere. Pupils are polite and confident in conversation with staff and visitors. They have good attitudes towards learning. Parents and carers are very positive about behaviour in the school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils enjoy coming to school. They arrive punctually, and attendance is above the national average. The school has good systems for following up the small minority of pupils with poor attendance and it celebrates good attendance. As a result, parents understand the importance of sending their children to school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Parent and carers say their children feel very safe at school. They appreciate the way that the headteacher responds to the rare instances of bullying, and that the school’s high expectations of behaviour prevent minor incidents from becoming more serious.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils of all ages enjoy the opportunity to work and play together. The older pupils take good care of the younger pupils at playtimes and lunchtimes.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils know how to keep safe and have a very good awareness of the potential dangers of talking to strangers and using the internet without adequate supervision.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher sets ambitious targets for the school to achieve and manages change at a sensible pace. He is supported well by teachers, teaching assistants and the governing body, who share his commitment to improve standards of pupils’ work and behaviour.

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The leadership and management are good

 Since the last inspection, the headteacher has introduced very clear systems for checking on the progress of all pupils. This information is used to identify any pupils who are not achieving as well as they should. As a result, well-focused teaching, help and guidance mean that the vast majority of pupils are making good progress. Subject leaders are not always involved enough in this process through checking teaching and comparing pupils’ performance against national data.

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The leadership and management are good

 Well-planned training for staff has meant that, in reading and writing, progress is now better for the vast majority of pupils. Teachers were trained in how to use ‘Big Write’, the teaching of letters and sounds (phonics) and guided reading.

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The leadership and management are good

 Annual reviews of teachers’ performance and individual discussions with teachers across the year provide challenging targets for their development and help leaders and the governing body to make informed decisions about their pay. They do not yet have enough opportunities to raise the quality of teaching even further by sharing best practice and seeing outstanding teachers at work in other settings.

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The leadership and management are good

 Safeguarding systems are robust and meet current national requirements. They are reviewed regularly by leaders and the governing body.

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The leadership and management are good

 Parents and carers appreciate the way adults care for their children and help them feel secure. They appreciate how well the staff listen to their concerns and provide information on how well their children are doing.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils find the activities provided for them interesting, and appreciate many clubs at lunchtime and after school that enhance their skills in music and sport. They enjoy the broad topics and good opportunities to conduct their own research using the internet. Pupils have many good opportunities to practise their reading and writing skills in the topics, but fewer opportunities to use what they learn in mathematics in other subjects.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils enjoy many opportunities to learn about diverse cultures through studying different religions and finding out about life in contrasting countries. The school has a strong partnership with a school in Ghana. Pupils’ understanding of life in Ghana was made more real by teachers from Ghana visiting the school, and the pupils enjoy writing letters to the pupils from Ghana.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has made good use of the expertise from the local authority to improve the teaching, particularly of writing and reading. This support is appropriately less evident now that the school had made such considerable improvements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has a good awareness of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, including its performance compared with other schools, gained through regular visits to the school and meetings with the headteacher. Governors have the knowledge to challenge leaders and they take a full part in school improvement. They are closely involved in the evaluation of teachers’ performance and the decisions about their promotion. Governors have benefited from useful training. They have a good awareness of the school’s budget and know how pupil premium funding is spent, why it is allocated in this way, and the positive impact it has on their academic and personal development.

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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 124531 Local authority Suffolk Inspection number 406250

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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 103 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rosalind Cohen Headteacher Andrew Lindsley Date of previous school inspection 10 November 2010 Telephone number 01449 740269 Fax number 01449 740269 Email address head@bildeston.suffolk.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, please

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School details

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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