Drayton Parslow Village School

Drayton Parslow Village School Main Street, Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JR

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 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.  Children get off to a good start in the Reception class and achieve well because of the wide range of activities on offer that are well matched to children’s individual needs.  Pupils’ attainment by the end of Year 2 is high. Any fluctuations, such as the dip in writing standards in 2012, are quickly identified and actions taken to address them.  Progress is good across the school for all groups of pupils because leaders and teachers check how well pupils are doing regularly to check that none is falling behind  Parents, carers, staff and pupils all agree that pupils’ behaviour is good. Pupils enjoy coming to school and are kept safe. Their attendance is good.  Teaching and learning are good and at times outstanding. Teachers plan interesting activities that ensure pupils are keen to learn. Additional adults and teachers support individuals or groups effectively.  The interim headteacher is supported well by a

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

team of senior and middle leaders who have a clear shared vision for the school.  Governors have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They use their knowledge about how well pupils are doing to hold leaders to account. Governors have taken measures to make sure that the school is effectively led while a new substantive headteacher is appointed.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils’ attainment in writing does not yet consistently match their attainment in reading and mathematics.  Not enough teaching is outstanding. In some lessons, pupils are not always moved on quickly enough to more challenging work.  Teachers sometimes step in too quickly so that pupils miss the chance to learn from others or to take responsibility for their own learning.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed 16 lessons or part-lessons, taught by four teachers, and was accompanied by either the headteacher or two assistant headteachers for all of these.  The inspector took account of the 25 responses to the online Parent View survey. She talked to parents and carers informally during the inspection and considered the correspondence she received.  The inspector held meetings with pupils, staff, school leaders and two members of the governing body. A telephone call was held with two representatives of the local authority. The views of staff were also taken into account from the nine responses to the staff questionnaire.  The inspector listened to pupils in Years 1 and 2 read individually as well as observing pupils reading during lessons in all classes.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at documentation, including policies relating to safeguarding, data on pupils’ progress, attendance figures, development planning and

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Information about this inspection

records of checks carried out by leaders on the quality of teaching. She scrutinised work in pupils’ books, looked at the school’s website and visited the breakfast club.

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Inspection team

Jacqueline Marshall, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller-than-average infant school. It serves the village and local area as well as families from further afield.  The vast majority of pupils come from a White British background.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children in the care of the local authority, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those from service families, is below average.  The proportion of disabled pupils or who have special educational needs and receive support through school action is below average. The proportion being supported through school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is also below average.  Pupils are taught in three classes each morning. Years 1 and 2 are taught together as one class each afternoon.  Since September, a number of new appointments have been made to the leadership of the school and the governing body.

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Information about this school

 The school became part of a hard federation with Mursley Church of England Infant School in March this year. The governors of the two federated schools formed a single governing body during the inspection. The federation continues to work in very close collaboration with Swanbourne Church of England Junior School, and the three schools are led by an executive headteacher.  The executive headteacher for the three schools left the week before the inspection and has been replaced by an interim headteacher until a substantive appointment is made.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the proportion of outstanding teaching in order to raise standards in writing by: – quickly moving pupils onto more challenging work in lessons once they have demonstrated their understanding of what is being taught – providing more opportunities for pupils to be actively and independently involved in their own learning and their wider personal development.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children join the Reception class with the expected levels of skills and understanding. Due to the engaging range of activities that are planned for them, children are enthusiastic learners and make good progress acquiring new skills. Consequently they join Year 1 with levels above those expected nationally.  By the end of Year 2, pupils’ attainment has tended to be significantly above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics because teaching is good and expectations are high. Attainment dipped somewhat in 2012, however, particularly in writing, where standards were only average. Leaders have acted quickly to address this dip, for example by appointing an additional teacher so that pupils in Years 1 and 2 are taught literacy and numeracy separately. As a result, pupils are now making better progress in writing and producing a higher standard of work in their books than pupils of the same age last year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils across the school make good progress. Their progress is most rapid in those lessons where teachers check regularly how well pupils are doing and promptly adapt activities to increase the challenge or provide support where needed.  Where their progress is best, pupils have lots of opportunities to try out their ideas and they make rapid gains in their understanding as they evaluate their own and their classmates’ work. For example, Year 1 pupils were able to create their own poster, using what they had learnt from discussing two examples the teacher had provided. Using measures of success they had agreed themselves, they then improved their own work before evaluating each other’s, discussing what had improved and suggesting how it could be made even better. This level of pupil involvement in their own learning is not yet the norm in all lessons, however.  Effective systems for checking pupils’ progress ensure that disabled pupils and those with special

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The achievement of pupils is good

educational needs achieve as well as their peers. These pupils, along with those supported by the pupil premium funding, do well because the work that is planned for them, whether in small groups, individually or in lessons, is closely tailored to their needs.  Pupils read widely from a wide range of texts and are successfully encouraged to draw on a range of strategies to help if they are stuck. Good teaching of phonics (the sounds letters make) means that pupils use these strategies confidently to help with their reading and writing and has resulted in a larger proportion of pupils gaining above the national average scores in the Year 1 phonics check.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is consistently good, and at times outstanding. Senior leaders regularly check on teachers’ performance helping staff to know what they need to work on to improve pupils’ achievement.  Regular training and professional development ensure teachers are confident of teaching literacy and numeracy and they use this subject knowledge effectively to stretch pupils. For example, Year 1 pupils, demonstrating their phonic knowledge, explained confidently that the ‘split diagraph a-e’ made the same sound as ‘ai’ or ‘ay’. Similarly, using subject-specific vocabulary, Year 2 pupils explained how to solve addition problems using ‘partitioning’.  Parents and carers overwhelmingly commented positively on how much their children enjoy school and are keen to attend, a key factor in supporting good achievement.  Pupils build on what they already know and can do because teachers make good use of information from regular checks when planning lessons. Where pupils’ progress is most rapid,

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The quality of teaching is good

teachers use assessment very effectively to add additional challenge as pupils demonstrate their understanding. However, sometimes teachers miss opportunities for pupils to make even better progress by adapting an activity during the lesson.  Mostly, teachers use questioning effectively to explore the knowledge and understanding of pupils. Occasionally, however, they jump in too quickly when pupils would do better sharing their own ideas and opinions, or do not give pupils the chance to evaluate their own or their classmates’ work. This denies them opportunities to learn first hand from each other and their own mistakes.  Pupils receive good advice on how to improve, both through the marking in their books and the comments from teachers and teaching assistants during lessons.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Parents, carers, pupils and staff agree that pupils’ behaviour is good and at times exemplary. Staff manage pupils’ behaviour consistently well across the school. It is not yet outstanding because pupils do not always have the opportunity to seek their own solutions when issues arise or to take the lead in encouraging others to behave well.  The school’s positive promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development means that pupils work cooperatively and get on well together, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.  The school works hard to ensure pupils develop a thorough understanding of their own personal safety. For example, experiences pupils gain from walking to the playing field for physical education lessons help make sure they have a good understanding of road safety. However, while pupils know they must use the internet safely, they are less confident when explaining

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

how to do this.  The ‘forest school’ experience similarly provides good opportunities for the children to learn about risk and how to keep safe. They know the rules and why they are important, explaining you ‘might get lost’, ‘there may be dangers’ and that you shouldn’t ‘eat the mushrooms – they can make you ill.’  Incidences of bullying, such as name-calling or unkind behaviour, are uncommon. The overwhelming majority of parents and carers feel that any problems they and their children may have are dealt with positively. Pupils agree, and know whom they could turn to for help if required. They feel that the system of rewards and consequences works effectively.

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The leadership and management are good

 Regardless of the many recent changes to the leadership team, all leaders have an accurate understanding of Drayton Parslow’s strengths and weaknesses. Good leadership across the three schools ensures that every leader plays a full role in checking how well the school is doing and ensuring pupils achieve well.  Leaders are committed to improving the consistency and effectiveness of teaching. Staff know the targets that have been set for their performance and how these have helped to improve pupils’ achievement. Regular checks on lessons, pupils’ work and the progress pupils make combine to provide a termly picture and reveal areas to develop. This approach has been successful in ensuring teaching is consistently good and sometimes better. However, although the school’s focus on writing is showing signs of success, there are still some aspects of teaching which the leadership team must address in order to increase the proportion of outstanding

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The leadership and management are good

teaching.  The effective tracking of pupils’ progress helps to make sure all pupils do equally well. It enables teaching, including one-to-one targeted support, to be effectively tailored to the needs of individuals and groups. Consequently, pupils who are identified for additional help, including those eligible for the pupil premium, make at least the same progress as other pupils. It ensures that there is equality of opportunity for all groups of pupils and that there is no discrimination.  As part of their light touch support for the school, the local authority has provided good quality support to improve the school’s effectiveness since the last inspection. For example, as the two infant schools federated, the governing body was restructured and the changes in leadership were managed successfully. The local authority has also worked alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage leader to develop provision in the Reception class since the last inspection.

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The leadership and management are good

 The vast majority of parents and carers are happy with the school, the education it provides for their children and the work of its leaders. Several commented positively on the good levels of communication maintained during the recent changes in school leadership.  The governance of the school:  Through a period of considerable change for the school and its governing body, governors have regularly checked the progress the school is making towards its key development priorities. They are now keen to focus their full attention once more on maintaining and raising the school’s effectiveness. Governors challenge as well as support school leaders and hold them to account for pupils’ achievement. They have a good working knowledge of the data that show how well the school is doing compared with other schools nationally. They have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in teaching and how the

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The leadership and management are good

management of teachers’ performance is used to develop teaching further. They understand that this is closely linked to pupils’ progress and reflected in the salary structure. They regularly seek additional support or training to maintain their effectiveness. Governors can explain how the pupil premium budget has been planned to accelerate the progress of eligible pupils. Governors make sure safeguarding arrangements meet statutory requirements, for example by ensuring that recent appointments followed the safer recruitment guidelines.

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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 110222 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 412651

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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 Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 4–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 44 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Richard Rouse Interim Headteacher Krys Kuzminska Date of previous school inspection 23 June 2008 Telephone number 01296 720306 Fax number 01296 720306 Email address office@draytonparslow.bucks.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

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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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