Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School

Carnforth Christ Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School North Road, Carnforth, Lancashire, LA5 9LJ

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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 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 because they are well taught and are keen learners.  The school is improving because the leadership and management of teaching and learning are effective.  Pupils make good progress. Many join the school slightly below age-related expectations but nearly all leave having attained at least average, and often above average, standards.  Children in Reception get off to a good start. They are well taught in a bright, stimulating classroom with a well-equipped outdoor learning area.  Pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural development is a strength of the school.  Pupils behave very well; they are well taught about how to keep themselves safe. Pupils are polite and like to know what visitors are doing in school  Teaching is good. Lessons are stimulating and pupils enjoy them. Work is varied well so that pupils of different abilities all get the opportunity to work with a good degree of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

independence.  Governors understand the school well. They hold leadership to account, play an important role in ensuring the school is a safe place, and ensure that all funding is wisely allocated and used.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teaching is not outstanding. When teachers make comments in pupils’ books they are not linked consistently enough to pupils’ targets for improvement or to the learning objective of the lesson.  Sometimes, teachers allow pupils to present careless and scrappy work.  Leadership and management are not outstanding because roles and responsibilities are not sufficiently distributed. Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 2 of 9

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed eight lessons. The inspector listened to some pupils read and looked at samples of their work.  Many informal discussions with pupils took place at lunch and playtimes. In these discussions, pupils talked about the school, their work and their feelings about behaviour and safety.  Discussions were held with four members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. The inspector also talked with nearly all members of staff and scrutinised their responses to a voluntary questionnaire circulated during the inspection.  The inspector took into account the views of 10 parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View) and also the views of others who wrote to him.  Many school documents were analysed, including plans for improvement and records of the quality of teaching. Information about pupils’ progress and about how leaders and managers

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Information about this inspection

make sure that pupils are kept safe was also carefully scrutinised.  On the first day of the inspection all Key Stage 2 pupils (about two thirds of the school) were out of school all day on a farm visit.  During the inspection, pupils in Year 1 were taking part in the national screening check for understanding the links between letters and sounds.

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Inspection team

Alastair Younger, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 3 of 9

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-sized school.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is lower than average but rapidly growing. The pupil premium is additional funding provided for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and children who are looked after, although in this school there are no pupils in the last two groups mentioned.  Nearly all pupils are White British.  Boys considerably outnumber girls.  A higher than usual proportion of pupils is supported through school action. A smaller than average proportion is supported through school action plus or has a statement of special educational needs.  The proportion of pupils joining or leaving the school other than at the normal time is much higher than 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?

 Improve teaching to make more of it outstanding by:  making sure that when teachers mark pupils’ work they make better reference to the individual learning targets they set for each pupil and the learning objective of the lesson  making sure that expectations for the presentation of work are consistently high and that pupils check their work for careless mistakes before they hand it in for marking.  Improve leadership and management by:  revising the roles of subject leaders to involve them more in the monitoring and evaluation of teaching, learning and standards in their areas of responsibility. Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 4 of 9

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well. They are well taught, well behaved and are enthusiastic learners.  Children often start school with skills and abilities that are only slightly below average overall. There is very wide variation. Some are well above average, some well below. All are treated equally and helped to fulfil their potential before they leave.  This year, teachers’ assessments show that all Year 6 pupils are going to leave school having attained national expectations at least. Nearly a half will exceed national expectations in reading and mathematics and about a third in writing. Virtually all have met or exceed the target they were set at the end of Year 2.  Children in Reception make good progress from their starting points. A few exceed most of their early learning goals and most meet expectations before entering Year 1. Progress in Years 1 and 2 is good and attainment at the end of Year 2 is higher this year than it was in 2012. Moreover,

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The achievement of pupils is good

pupils in Year 1 have a good understanding of letters and the sounds they make, and are already performing beyond last year’s national average.  The Year 6 class in 2012 was not typical for the school. Some pupils had joined after the usual time of enrolment and some had personal or family issues. Data suggest that their progress was lower than expected. This year, the picture is very different. Pupils make good progress in lessons and good progress is clear in the quality of work in their books. For the first time ever, a few pupils are likely to be reaching Level 6 in reading and mathematics before they leave. Attainment tends to be higher in mathematics and reading than it is in writing, but not significantly so.  One reason why achievement in writing is lower than in reading and mathematics is because teachers sometimes allow pupils to present careless and scrappy work. There are examples of work in pupils’ books where, for instance, they ‘forget’ to use capital letters and elementary

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The achievement of pupils is good

punctuation, even when they have either proven that they can do so or when it is a target for improvement.  Pupils with special educational needs are supported well. They achieve equally with other pupils because they are set work well matched to their ability and given extra support in small groups when it is considered beneficial.  Girls and boys make similar progress. Other ‘groups’ of pupils often amount to a single child so it is futile to make comparisons.  Pupils supported through the pupil premium make very similar progress to all other pupils. Much of the extra funding they attract contributes to subsidising the broadening of their horizons to give them more experiences about which they can talk and write. This helps to promote equal opportunities and to promote social and cultural understanding.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is typically good. None is inadequate and consistently outstanding teaching is rare.  In Reception, children learn well because the teacher enables them to learn through their own experiences and through play and exploration. Children’s learning has been improved recently by better use of the well-resourced outdoor area.  All teachers make sure that their classrooms are bright and stimulating. Displays are particularly good, achieving a good balance between examples of pupils’ work that celebrate and encourage achievement and relevant information about how pupils can improve their work.  Teachers vary work well to make sure that all pupils have an equal opportunity of achieving success. They show a good understanding of varying the complexity and difficulty of tasks rather than just varying how much help pupils need or how much work each pupil does.  It was good, in a Year 2 mathematics lesson, to see the more-able pupils being given the

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The quality of teaching is good

Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 2013 5 of 9

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The quality of teaching is good

opportunity to get on with their work after a short introduction, thus allowing other pupils to get more attention to help them to understand about how to compare fractions.  Pupils’ work is marked conscientiously. Nearly always, teachers add comments to help pupils to improve their work. Sometimes these comments fall short of informing pupils about what they need to do to improve it and thus move up a step. This is often because comments frequently make no reference to individual targets for improvement or to the learning objective of the piece of work. Occasionally teachers write too much in pupils’ books. This sometimes results in important messages being missed or ignored by pupils.  Relationships between pupils and adults contribute well to pupils’ progress. As a result behaviour in lessons is good. In most cases, a quiet reminder suffices to ensure that this good behaviour is the norm.  Teachers make lessons interesting. They use good quality resources and arrange frequent visits

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The quality of teaching is good

and visitors to enhance and enrich the curriculum. These experiences make an important contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Teachers are good at making links between all the subjects they teach so that learning in any one subject contributes to their understanding of another. They call this ‘the creative curriculum’.  Teaching assistants contribute well. Some have responsibility for making sure that displays around the school are well presented; others occasionally lead the teaching and learning of small groups. In one such instance a group of Year 2 pupils were observed being very well taught in an art lesson and producing beautiful, high quality pictures portraying their understanding of the ‘Ascension’.  Sometimes, teachers do not do enough to discourage pupils from being lazy in the way they present work. In pupils’ books there is wide variation in the quality of presentation. Handwriting

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The quality of teaching is good

in some instances is beautiful but then followed by sloppier and more careless work. There are examples of work where pupils appear to forget simple rules, such as the use of capital letters.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils behave well in lessons and around school. There are also examples of pupils’ good behaviour being celebrated by the places pupils have visited and by people who have visited the school.  Attitudes to learning are nearly always positive. Pupils put a lot of thought into their learning and contribute well in discussions but then let themselves down by rushing the recording of what they are learning.  Pupils are taught well about the essentials of how to keep safe and to listen to them explaining what they consider to be unsafe situations. A good example is in Year 5/6 where pupils have explored the benefits and pitfalls of technology. They clearly understand the elementary rules about how to use social networking sensibly.  Parents express very few concerns about behaviour and their children’s safety. Staff feel behaviour is usually good and well managed. There is very little record of any bullying or

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

discrimination. Pupils like coming to school, like each other and feel secure. In recent years no pupil has been excluded.  Independence and responsibility are strongly promoted throughout the school. Even in Reception children are encouraged to perform simple communal duties and to clean up after themselves. As they grow up they are expected to do as much for themselves as they can, helped by teachers who set them work they can do with as little support as necessary.  Moral and social responsibilities are promoted well. Nearly every lesson is characterised by pupils being encouraged to work in pairs or small groups; pupils of different abilities and backgrounds are encouraged to work together and help each other.  Attendance is broadly in line with national figures. Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 2013 6 of 9

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The leadership and management are good

 Leadership, management and governance are good and successful in driving improvement. Staff agree that the school is serving pupils and the community particularly well and is increasingly effective.  However, not enough is being done to share leadership and management duties. All monitoring and evaluation of teaching is conducted by the headteacher and subject leaders are relatively underused in this respect.  There is good involvement of outside parties in the checking of assessment. This involvement shows that teachers are assessing pupils’ attainment and progress accurately and reliably.  There is an extensive, well-balanced programme of training opportunities for staff.  Good procedures are in place to check the performance of teachers and encourage improvement. Targets for improvement are specific and measurable. They are very closely linked to priorities in the school-improvement plan, but sometimes lack goals for teachers to reach in

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The leadership and management are good

their professional development.  There is a good, well-enriched curriculum. There is a good focus on numeracy and literacy and a ‘creative’ curriculum is well developed. This strongly promotes links between all subjects. Music, art and drama are well promoted and many pupils enjoy involvement in out of school clubs including cookery, music and sports. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strongly promoted.  There is a very firm affirmation that every child is equal. Work is varied according to need. The use of extra funding through the pupil premium is well considered by leaders, managers and governors.  The local authority provides appropriate support. Good support has been given to the external moderation of teacher assessments to make sure that these are reliable and accurate.  The governance of the school:  Governors show a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their school.

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The leadership and management are good

Governors are kept well informed by the headteacher about pupils’ progress and the standards being achieved. There are vacancies on the governing body that need to be filled so as to prevent an overburdening of duties on those present. Governors show a good understanding of the qualities and weaknesses in teaching and how progression for teachers is linked to pay. Governors play their role in ensuring the school is a safe environment and that all safeguarding requirements are met. They ensure that pupil-premium funding benefits most those pupils who attract it and that all statutory duties are fulfilled. Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 7 of 9

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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. Inspection report: Carnforth Christ Church, Church of England, Voluntary Aided Primary School, 18–19 June 8 of 9

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School details

Unique reference number 119522 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 412163

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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 aided Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 83 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Liene Leadbetter Headteacher Mary Frankland Date of previous school inspection 13 October 2009 Telephone number 01524 732536 Fax number 01524 733530 Email address head@christchurch-carnforth.lancs.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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