Hainford VC Primary School

Hainford Primary Partnership School Newton Road, Hainford, Norwich, NR10 3BQ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Through the school, the rate of progress of all pupils, including the more able, declined after 2012 and is not consistently good because teaching varies too much in quality.  Phonics (how letters link to sounds) is not taught consistently well. There is no clear approach taken by the school, so pupils do well in some classes and not in others.  Reception children learn in an area that is not suitably equipped following a daily timetable that does not help them to learn and make good progress.  Many promising improvements have been made by the headteacher, for example, to improve teaching and achievement, but these changes are so new that the impact cannot yet be evaluated.  Only very recently have governors begun to hold school leaders to account. They have not had sufficient training to use all the information available to them – for example to check pupils’ progress.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils’ pride in their school is very strong and they do all they can to maintain its good reputation. Pupils have a genuine voice in their school and respond very positively.  Pupils and parents say that pupils feel safe at school. Hainford is a very happy and harmonious community.  Parents support the school and feel it helps them instil the right attitudes in their children.  School leaders, staff and governors share a very strong determination to improve the quality of education provided to pupils.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed seven lessons. All were shared with the headteacher.  The inspector made other visits to classes, looked at pupils’ workbooks and listened to pupils reading.  Discussions were held with pupils, the headteacher, other staff, governors, parents and two representatives of the local authority.  The inspector took account of the 12 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. He also considered the school’s own questionnaire sent out by governors in the autumn term 2013. The responses to 12 staff questionnaires were also considered.  The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including: the school’s own information on pupils’ progress; planning and monitoring documentation; the school’s view of its own performance; records of how the school uses its funding, especially how the money from the pupil premium is spent; records relating to behaviour and attendance; and

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Inspection team

Robert Greatrex, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller-than-average primary school.  The vast majority of pupils are White British.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium (the extra government funding for pupils looked after by the local authority, those known to be eligible for free school meals and some other groups) is low.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below the national average. The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  Pupils are taught in three classes, each with mixed-age groups. In the mornings, Year 6 are taught separately in a fourth class.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards which set the minimal expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment.  The school is in partnership with the similar-sized primary school in the nearby village of

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Information about this school

Frettenham, and both schools share the headteacher.  The current headteacher took up her appointment in September 2013.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to be consistently good or better by:  sharing existing good practice more widely in the school  regularly checking changes to teaching to ensure all staff understand and apply improvements that have been introduced, including to the marking of pupils’ work.  Raise standards in phonics by:  better teaching so what pupils learn one year is built on in the next  ensuring the organisation of the lesson is suitable for the number, age and ability levels of the children and pupils involved.  Improve the quality of Reception provision by:  providing the environment – indoors and outdoors – that offers the full range of activities to help children learn and make good progress  using the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum to plan the right balance and range of learning activities  assessing children’s levels of attainment more frequently to ensure they make good progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leaders and managers, particularly the governing body by:  making sure that changes introduced to improve teaching and achievement are fully implemented, monitored and evaluated  ensuring governors have the training and guidance necessary to support, question and hold the school to account for the progress of all pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The rate of pupils’ progress varies too much between classes. Some groups, particularly Reception children, are not all making good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Reception children start school with very varied skills and experiences, but which are usually broadly as expected at this age. Knowledge of number is a relative strength, but this is not built upon sufficiently. Their progress is not good because, while they try hard, some adult-led activities are unsuitable and they have limited opportunities to decide what they do for themselves, and too little access to the limited equipment available with which to do it.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ knowledge of phonics (how letters link to sounds) is low because the school has no common approach and the best teaching is not shared. For example, in the Year 1 national phonics screening check in 2013, fewer pupils reached the average level than in other schools. However, where they are methodically taught new skills and then encouraged to practise them in their everyday work, such as in Years 2 and 3, they make better progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In the last year academic year, about three-quarters of pupils made the nationally expected rate of progress or more as they moved through the school. Progress was relatively quicker or slower depending upon the quality of teaching.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In the last term, the rate of progress quickened for many pupils, including that of the more able, partly because teaching is improving and partly because of the closer focus on assessing more accurately how most pupils are doing. In Year 2, for example, most pupils have made about a year’s progress in a term. School data on pupils’ achievement indicate that all pupils should reach at least the level of progress expected nationally by the end of Year 6, and many should exceed this level because the more able are currently well catered for. Few pupils are involved in the year group, but most are assessed as on track to achieve these levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 There were no Year 6 pupils in 2013 known to be eligible for the pupil premium so no judgement can be made on their progress and attainment. Throughout the school, the few pupils supported by the pupil premium are not making better progress than other pupils to catch up quickly enough where their attainment is below that of other pupils in English and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 As there are few pupils in each year group, their attainment varies considerably year on year. Attainment at the end of both key stages was above average in 2012. However, these standards were not sustained in 2013. Over the past few years, writing standards at the end of Year 6 have been consistently above the national average. Pupils’ skills have been methodically developed and practised in a wide range of subjects and tasks.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 On a day-to-day basis, teachers and teaching assistants give disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs good support so they do well in the activities they are given. However, their progress is not always checked enough. Sometimes they repeat practice in a particular skill without being checked on whether or not they have mastered it. In general, they achievement is similar to that of other pupils.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching varies too much. Not enough is good to promote consistently good achievement when year groups’ abilities vary so much.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Some Reception children struggle because the tasks they are given and the timetable they follow are designed for older pupils. Children’s levels and progress are not checked closely enough. The layout of the room and outdoor area they learn in does not enable them to learn key skills and pursue their interests sufficiently.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The instructive marking policy is helpful to staff and pupils, but it is not yet being used consistently well by teachers. Some pupils are given insufficient guidance from their marked work to be sure what they should do to improve it.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The teaching of phonics is not consistently effective in advancing pupils’ skills in recognising and applying letters and words. What is learned is sometimes not consolidated enough for the varied ages and abilities of the children and pupils involved.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In some classes, such as Year 4 and 5, pupils are alert and focused during discussion because they do not know which one of them their teacher will ask to comment next. All pupils are challenged to think carefully. They are in mixed-age classes of wide ability but most teachers ask a question just hard enough for each particular pupil. Both the more able and those who are struggling benefit from teachers’ skills in involving all in the learning activity and all learn well in these situations.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils never waste time in lessons because they like and respect their teachers and other adults who help them. They listen to one another in discussions, and take account of each other’s views.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils gain from the extra help given them by teaching assistants because they behave in the same positive, receptive way that they do with teachers. Teaching assistants are skilled. For example, they will teach a skill before it is taught in a lesson for all pupils, so the individual pupil has a head start in the lesson. Sometimes, they will consolidate prior teaching or break a task down into smaller steps so the pupil learns a bit at a time.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils have a strong sense of legacy of a Hainford tradition of living and working together harmoniously. They say it is their responsibility to continue that tradition. Older pupils can remember how they were helped to settle in when they first arrived, and are determined to do the same – or better – for newcomers.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Behaviour is equally good whether in the classroom or outside, and whether with teachers, other staff or among themselves. There have been no recent exclusions.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils know that they must do their best because this will help them in their next school and later life and are impressively mature for their ages. They go into class each day ready to work hard and do so even when the teaching is not inspiring.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils are proud of their accomplishments. Recently introduced public praise, in front of parents in assembly and published in the newsletters, reinforces good behaviour.  Pupils show a positive attitude to learning out of school. Homework is invariably done well and on time. On a regular basis, they follow up work in school with personal research that they initiate for themselves to extend their learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school creates many opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. For example, an assembly ended with a Year 1 pupil volunteering to make up, and say aloud, a prayer to fit the story. All pupils were respectful and listened intently.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Every pupil has a voice in their school because of the weekly forums. Pupils are becoming increasingly confident to participate, but when younger ones are shy, older pupils are on hand to help. Year 6 pupils lead these groups and feedback notes of their meetings to the headteacher.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Leaders and managers are vigilant in ensuring pupils’ safety. They analyse every incident and accident so that any lessons can be learnt and, if necessary, changes made. Pupils know staff will always help them. Staff know them well and give each pupil the help they need. Pupils say that bullying is almost unknown in their close community, but know what the implications of different sorts of bullying can be and the consequences for individuals.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Staff give pupils guidance about dangers associated with the internet. The headteacher has additional guidance ready to extend the existing good practice in this area to involve outside agencies to the benefit of all pupils.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance has improved greatly over the last few months because the headteacher has introduced praise and acknowledgement for good attendance, and explained clearly to parents why it is necessary. Punctuality, too, is checked and followed up so bad habits are avoided.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Many recently introduced improvements are beneficial. However, several changes are recent and are not yet fully embedded in practice across the school. Changes made by the headteacher are welcomed by parents. One typical comment, was, ‘Miss Lea is a breath of fresh air.’ Improvements introduced are too recent to be fully evaluated at this time.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher has a good understanding of what a successful school looks like and she has put many important changes in place. These are making a real difference and she is managing the pace of change well. Even so, not everyone understands equally well what is expected and this leads to differences in how changes are applied across the school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership of Reception is not yet giving children the provision they need to make good progress. The changes introduced by the headteacher are well directed and give the opportunity for systematic improvement, including to the teaching of phonics.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Information about pupils’ progress has not been fully utilised in the past because only recently have staff begun to set clear targets for pupils to aim at to improve their standards. The progress and attainment of different groups of pupils, for example, are not yet sufficiently analysed so that action can be taken to improve pupils’ achievement where necessary. However, the situation is changing for the better and staff are becoming more informed so that they can put extra support in place for those who struggle and challenge the more able to achieve highly.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The management of teachers’ performance has become an integral part of improving the quality of teaching. Staff morale is high because they see recent changes beginning to make a positive difference. However, the best practice in teaching is not yet shared fully across the staff.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Subject leaders are much more involved in planning improvements in their subjects, which have become part of the school improvement plan draft discussed with governors. These leaders are receiving helpful support from the headteacher to make sure they have the impact necessary to improve subject performance.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The curriculum does not include all the required elements in Reception. In the rest of the school, learning opportunities are helpful to pupils’ experience. They respond very positively to the opportunities they receive in and out of school. Visits and visitors, and a wide range of clubs, strongly enrich pupils’ learning experience, particularly that of the more-able.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Clear plans have been made to spend the new national funding for sport to bring in experts and widen the activities offered to pupils and to give staff high-quality training to benefit pupils’ well- being and physical confidence. However, it is too soon to evaluate what the impact of the planning will be.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The partnership with parents is good. Parents welcome the opportunities to speak with the headteacher, and that she listens and responds.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school works closely with the partner school. They share policies and procedures much more than at the time of the previous inspection to their mutual advantage. The local cluster of schools is a source of practical support, for example with raising attendance and improving punctuality, which are proving effective.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Because of the previous inspection judgement, and the relatively good attainment in most years, the local authority has recently given the school little support.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governors are very keen to work with the new headteacher to improve the school. They are beginning to play a more effective part in the life of the school, but are short of the training needed so they can use information on pupils’ achievement better. They are currently going through a steep learning curve as they find out – particularly with the clerk’s help – what they should be doing. They have taken steps to link staff pay to performance reflected by the progress that pupils make. A major recent improvement is that they are checking figures about attendance much more closely, but information about pupils’ progress much less so because they are not familiar enough with the available data to analyse it for themselves. Safeguarding and other legal requirements are met. They make sure the budget balances but cannot be certain all additional funds, including for the pupil premium, are used to maximum

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The leadership and management requires improvement

effect. The governing body agrees that it would benefit from an external review to assist it in fulfilling its responsibilities.

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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 121041 Local authority Norfolk Inspection number 440448

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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 controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 73 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Toni Rhodes Headteacher Karen Lea Date of previous school inspection 11 November 2010 Telephone number 01603 898359 Fax number 01603 898359 Email address office@hainford.norfolk.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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