Setting

CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 1231231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566863 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: pnuttie@cfbt.com

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Ms S Knowles Headteacher Amotherby Community Primary School Meadowfield Amotherby North Yorkshire YO17 6TG

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Primary School, North Yorkshire

Following my visit to your school on 26 June 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report on 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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Primary School, North Yorkshire

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in April 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, members of the governing body, including the Chair of Governors, and a representative of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school action plan was evaluated. A sample of pupils’ books was scrutinised and school monitoring records and new support plans for teachers were reviewed.

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Context

Since the section 5 inspection, which judged the school to require improvement, a Year 2 class teacher has returned from long term absence. A Year 3 class teacher is absent and a temporary teacher is in place.

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Main findings

A review of governance has been commissioned and you are working purposefully to improve the quality of teaching. Individual plans ensure that teachers have a programme of specific guidance and support to develop their teaching. Regular reviews show that teachers are acting on the guidance received from visits to good and outstanding schools. For example, they are already making fine adjustments to their daily practice to enable children to work more independently. Revisions to school policies now make clear what teachers must cover when teaching writing and how pupils are expected to present their work. These policies are well considered; for example they demonstrate how expectations progressively increase for each year group.

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Main findings

Your focused monitoring records demonstrate increasing consistency is developing throughout the school. Pupils’ books, examined during this visit, show that pupils are responding to clearer expectations particularly about misspelt words and are correcting their work. We discussed ways of developing this further to encourage pupils to take greater responsibility for their learning. School plans show an appropriate emphasis to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of mathematics. Reviews of teachers’ planning together with the forthcoming review of the curriculum are intended to provide more opportunities for pupils to develop mathematical problem solving and to apply their skills in different contexts. Additional training for teachers by local authority mathematics specialists has been arranged.

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Main findings

Leaders and governors are keen to move the school forward quickly and have developed a plan to tackle each of the areas requiring improvement. However, in parts the plan does not draw enough on best practice or provide sufficient clarity about what success looks like. More time has been provided for the mathematics and English subject leaders to check the quality of learning in different classes and undertake coaching and individual support. Expectations and opportunities for leaders of other subjects to check the quality of learning are not as firmly in place. Governors have started to review their practice with a view to increasing their checks on the achievement of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding.

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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

● make success explicit in the action plan and share this widely ● give subject leaders the necessary training to enable them to check the quality of learning and develop a whole school approach to undertaking this monitoring.

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Main findings

Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection. In discussion with HMI school leaders agreed to attend an Ofsted seminar later this term.

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External support

The local authority has agreed a planned programme of specialist training and support with the school. Useful advice provided to the school has assisted some teachers in making the most of available time through sharply focused visits to good and outstanding providers. Governors found the local authority’s initial training about their role in school improvement useful in helping them to commission an external review. This is due to complete in September 2013. Further arrangements to broker additional support to strengthen school monitoring, review and governance, through links to an outstanding school are planned.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children's Services for North Yorkshire.

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