Mylor Bridge Community Primary School

Mylor Bridge Community Primary School Comfort Road, Mylor Bridge, Falmouth, TR11 5SE

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Pupils enjoy school, make good progress and achieve well in all subjects. Their attendance is above average.  The quality of teaching is good and continues to improve. This has resulted in pupils’ above average attainment in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  Lessons are expertly planned to meet the needs of all pupils, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Teachers are supported well by skilled and committed teaching assistants who ensure that all pupils achieve well.  Pupils talk enthusiastically about their school. Their excellent attitudes towards their work ensure that they do well. In lessons, and around the school, their behaviour is outstanding. They are very respectful towards each other, their teachers and other adults.  The headteacher, supported by his highly effective team of leaders, provides this school with strong leadership. There is a shared pride

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and passion for the school where everyone really does matter. Developing the pupils to aspire to do their best, in everything they do, is central to the school’s core values of providing opportunities and demanding high expectations.  Governors have supported the headteacher in his drive to secure good quality teaching by monitoring teachers’ performance effectively. This has been successful in sustaining pupils’ good achievement.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because:

 Teachers do not always move pupils on to activities in lessons that enable them to make better progress.  Pupils sometimes spend too long in lessons having to listen to teachers talking. This limits their pace of learning.  Teachers do not always provide enough opportunities for pupils to think and learn by themselves to take responsibility for their own learning.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection was carried out with half a day’s notice and took place over two days.  The inspector visited 12 lessons and observed six teachers, which included looking at the teaching of phonics (linking letters and sounds). The headteacher joined the inspector for a number of observations. In addition, the inspector visited sessions of additional support activities taught by teaching assistants.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, staff, pupils, governors and a representative from the local authority.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including the school improvement plans, priorities for development, achievement information and documents relating to safeguarding children.  The inspector took account of the 37 responses to the online Parent View survey, a letter received from a parent or carer, and the 15 responses to the staff questionnaire during the

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Information about this inspection

inspection. The inspector also spoke to some parents and carers at the end of the day.

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Inspection team

John Cavill, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-sized village primary school. Most pupils attend from the local community.  Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are taught in a Reception class with some younger Year 1 pupils. Pupils from Key Stage 1 are taught in mixed-age groups, but in Key Stage 2 they are taught in year groups.  Almost all pupils are White British, with very few pupils from different ethnic heritages. There are no pupils who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average, although the proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is average.  The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, those who are looked

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Information about this school

after and for children from armed service families, is slightly below average.  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?

 Raise pupils’ achievement through improving the quality of teaching to outstanding overall by:  ensuring teachers respond in lessons to their observations of how well individual pupils are doing, to reshape tasks and improve their learning further  teachers providing more opportunities for pupils to take responsibility for their own learning by providing tasks that encourage them to think and learn by themselves  making sure that pupils do not sit too long listening to teachers talking, limiting their ability to make better progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children start in the Reception class with skills and abilities that are generally below what would normally be expected for their age, particularly in literacy. For some children this is also the case for their emotional and social development.  All children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, who reach at least expected levels when they move into Key Stage 1, make good progress. Attainment in literacy, and especially writing, remains slightly lower in comparison to other areas but the proportion reaching expected levels is above the national average.  Pupils continue to make good progress throughout the school. This has resulted in above average attainment at the end of Year 6 in both English and mathematics. Attainment in writing still trails that of reading slightly but the recent whole-school focus on improving standards in writing, especially for boys, is having effect and the gap is closing successfully.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The proportion of pupils who make and exceed their expected progress compares favourably with national averages.  Good teaching is securing good progress for all pupils, especially those who are eligible for pupil premium funding and those who are disabled or have special educational needs from their individual starting points. They are supported well in this inclusive school with effective learning activities taught by both teachers and teaching assistants promoting equality of opportunity.  Exciting topics to write about is ensuring that pupils’ achievement in writing continues to improve. In a Year 6 lesson, pupils writing persuasive arguments for, or against, the benefits of watching television used draft work from the previous lesson well to support their learning. They used each other to test the quality of their arguments, which demonstrated above average ability in writing. Pupils’ attainment in reading is also above average.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In a Year 3 numeracy lesson, pupils used data they had collected about other pupils’ favourite sweets to produce bar charts using a spreadsheet program on computers. They then demonstrated their understanding of how to interpret these graphs with questions they asked each other.  The pupils who benefit from the pupil premium funding make similar progress and reach similar levels of attainment to all pupils nationally in both English and mathematics by the end of Key Stage 2. Additional support for these pupils, including regular planned time with teaching assistants in lessons, is securing better than expected progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is consistently good; with some that is outstanding, and enables all pupils to make good progress in all subjects.  All parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire, or spoke to the inspector, were very happy with the quality of teaching at the school. Pupils thought that the lessons were fun and their teachers were good.  Teachers plan lessons using their good subject knowledge well. This ensures that the tasks are well matched to the abilities of all pupils, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. There is a positive climate for learning, with good relationships, and classrooms are full of pupils eager to do well.  In an outstanding Year 5 literacy lesson, pupils were using the story of ‘Pandora’s Box’ to write their own story. They worked quickly and without interruption produced some exceptional tales, and took charge of their own learning using resources in the room. The teacher and teaching

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The quality of teaching is good

assistants only supported when asked by the pupils. However, some teachers do not provide enough opportunities for pupils to work independently and occasionally their explanations or discussions are overlong which reduces the pupils’ pace of learning.  Teachers use good questioning skills to monitor the progress of pupils in lessons along with regular checks on their work. In a Years 1/2 numeracy lesson, individual pupils were quickly moved on to a more challenging task by the teacher who used her knowledge of what they had achieved in the previous lesson. However, sometimes this information is not being used to move individual pupils quickly enough limiting their progress slightly.  Teaching in the Early Years Foundation Stage is good. Activities are creatively planned to reflect the local community, as in the flags the children were making with pride to celebrate St Piran’s Day in Cornwall. Phonics is taught well and supports pupils’ ability to read and write, as was

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The quality of teaching is good

seen in their ability to recognise the phonic sounds and then correctly say a word that contained the sound. The more able children were able to spell many of these words.  Teacher’s marking of pupils’ work is regularly undertaken and is of high quality. This provides pupils with ways to improve their work further. Pupils are encouraged to self-assess their work and regular use of talk partners in lessons allows for the views of others to be considered.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils come to school keen to start working and ready to learn. In lessons, they contribute fully and are highly respectful. Their behaviour in lessons is exemplary.  All pupils, including those in the Early Years Foundation Stage, feel safe and very secure. All parents and carers agreed with these findings and recognised that the pupils were kept very safe and that they were happy at the school. Pupils report that they are confident that adults at the school will deal with any problems that they may have quickly and effectively.  All parents and carers who spoke to the inspector unanimously agreed that the pupils are well behaved and the school effectively deals with bullying. Pupils are fully aware of what constitutes bullying but said that there is now no bullying of any kind, including physical, emotional and cyber bullying. The inspection supports this view and found that there are no records of any

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

bullying at the school.  Pupils are keen to come to school and attendance is above average. They are very punctual getting to school and into lessons. The school is working hard to ensure that the small proportion of pupils who are persistently absent continues to reduce. There have been no exclusions for the last three years  When pupils are playing outside, moving around the school or interacting with each other and adults, behaviour is excellent. This reflects the school's emphasis on developing pupils’ personal skills, especially their moral and social awareness.  Pupils are very keen to take a full part in all activities within the school. Year 6 pupils working on the ‘Goblin Car’ project show their commitment to represent the school, and the joy that pupils demonstrated in the ‘Open the Book’ assembly, led by representatives from the local church, demonstrates their maturity and willingness to make full use of their time at the school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The school council provides all pupils with the opportunity to take an active role in the decision- making at their school that they feel so passionately about and to support others less fortunate with charity work.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides the school with passionate and committed leadership. He has ensured that there is a determination, which is shared by all staff, to improve the life chances of all the pupils in this fully inclusive school. Supported by an effective team of governors, continuing improvements have been secured and good quality teaching and pupils’ achievement sustained.  Leaders understand that high quality teaching is necessary to secure high levels of achievement. Consequently, they ensure there is a good match between how well teachers are paid and how well pupils learn by managing the performance of teachers well. Individual teacher training needs are identified and monitored to ensure that they impact on improving the school even further. All members of staff share a common belief that they, and the school, can improve still further.  Pupils’ progress is regularly assessed and recorded. Leaders check this to ensure that overall

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The leadership and management are good

performance is monitored; the progress of all pupils, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, is monitored to ensure that any additional provision is effective.  The curriculum is creatively planned around topic work and responds quickly to pupils’ changing needs and interests. It makes good use of visits and trips to stimulate and inspire pupils’ imagination such as the Year 6 visit to The Eden Project to support the work being done on the environment.  The Year 4 music sessions allow all of the class to learn to play a brass instrument. Pupils’ participation in the recent St Piran’s Day Parade in Falmouth demonstrates the commitment of leaders to ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is fully embedded in everything that happens at the school.  The local authority provides light touch support to this good school.  The governance of the school:

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The leadership and management are good

 The governing body is fully supportive of the headteacher and knows how well the school is doing. Governors have supported the headteacher in his efforts to continue the improvements secured in the quality of teaching and have challenged teachers to maintain high standards. Governors review teachers’ performance regularly to ensure that salary progression reflects the quality of teaching and their leadership responsibilities. School planning for improvement is understood well and governors monitor how well pupils are doing at the school in relation to all pupils nationally. This ensures any changes impact directly on improving pupils’ achievement. They ensure that they are up to date with current developments. Governors monitor funding to the school well, especially that received through the pupil premium, and evaluate the benefits. Leaders are required to justify how spending impacts on the outcomes

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The leadership and management are good

for pupils, for example the improving achievement for groups of pupils in receipt of the pupil premium funding following additional activities provided specifically for these groups. Governors ensure statutory requirements relating to safeguarding are implemented rigorously. School report

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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. School report

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School details

Unique reference number 111818 Local authority Cornwall Inspection number 403161

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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 135 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paul Dale Headteacher Chris Lea Date of previous school inspection 23 October 2007 Telephone number 01326 373724 Fax number 01326 373724 Email address secretary@mylor-bridge@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, 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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