Setting

Mr David Pearson Sutton-on-Sea Community Primary School Station Road Sutton-on-Sea Mablethorpe Lincolnshire LN12 2HU

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Community Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 10 June 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the findings of my visit. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Community Primary School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in February 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders, the Chair of the Governing Body and six other members of the governing body and an education adviser from the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school action plan was evaluated. A tour of the school was undertaken with the headteacher and the deputy headteacher. The findings of school and governor monitoring activities and the performance management of staff were discussed.

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Context

There has been one significant contextual change within the school since the section 5 inspection. One of the Year 5/6 class teachers has left the school. This class is now being jointly taught by a long-term supply teacher and the headteacher until the end of the academic year. A new class teacher has been appointed to start in September 2013. Serco Inspections Colmore Plaza 20 Colmore Circus Queensway Birmingham B4 6AT T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01216 799154 Direct email :aidan.dunne@serco.com

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Main findings

The school is working hard to ensure that all teaching is good or better soon. Senior leaders and commissioned advisers from the local authority are supporting staff well to develop their teaching practice. There remains some teaching which requires improvement, although senior leaders now judge the majority of teaching to be good. The local authority is checking the accuracy of the school’s monitoring. They found that staff are following the school’s marking and feedback policy carefully and that this is being routinely checked by senior leaders and members of the governing body. Consequently the standard of marking and feedback is becoming more consistent across the school and this is having a positive impact on the quality of pupils’ writing and their understanding of mathematics.

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Main findings

New systems for collecting data ensure that the school is checking more frequently on individual rates of progress and on pupils who are not making the progress expected of them. The school is now checking more carefully whether any additional support given to pupils is making a difference and this informs their future planning for support. However, the school is still not relating the data closely enough to the quality of teaching and getting to the bottom of why pupils in some classes make slower progress. This is because staff do not have precise enough targets for them to be held to account for the performance of pupils who need to make accelerated progress to catch up. The governing body does not monitor the objectives for staff set by the school to ensure they will lead to the rapid improvement outlined in the school improvement plan. Monitoring activity by the governing body has increased since the Ofsted inspection. However, the focus of their visits is determined by the

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Main findings

senior leadership team and not by their own knowledge of what they need to keep a check on. They need further training, particularly on feeding back the findings from their monitoring and on how to help the school to effectively engage with key stakeholders, including parents and carers.

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Main findings

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. The school should take further action to:

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Main findings

 strengthen the use of data to further inform the analysis of pupil progress enabling staff to accurately compare the progress of different groups and classes  ensure that staff are set more precise targets for their work, including improving pupil performance and narrowing the achievement gap between groups of pupils  provide further training for the governing body which equips them to monitor the school effectively and make the information they gather really count and contribute to school improvement  ensure that staff and governors work closely together to successfully engage their stakeholders, including informing parents and carers about the role they should play in helping their children to succeed.

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External support

The school has drawn well on the external support it has been offered. The local authority has commissioned an adviser to work closely with the school and monitor its progress towards the actions on its improvement plan. It has also provided support where teaching required improvement and for the governing body. It is too early to judge the full impact of this work. The school has been quite isolated due to its location, but the local authority recognises the necessity to continue to support them in developing external partnerships for sharing good practice.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Head of Service for Lincolnshire.

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