Bayford Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Bayford Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Ashendene Road, Bayford, Hertford, SG13 8PX

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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

 Teaching is not yet of a good enough quality overall, so pupils do not consistently make good progress.  Teachers are not fully accurate in their judgements of how well pupils are doing.  Teachers do not mark work in a way that tells pupils clearly how to improve.  More-able pupils are not given enough work that challenges and motivates them.  Leaders in charge of subjects and age groups are not yet helping teachers to improve.  Attendance is below national averages. Some pupils have unnecessary absences.  The youngest children do not learn effectively when they are not being taught in a formal way; for example, when they learn through their play.  Progress in Key Stage 1 requires improvement. This is because some activities are not well organised.  Pupils sometimes lose concentration in lessons.  Leaders have not been using what they know about how well pupils are doing to judge whether the school is effective.

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

 Governors do not fully understand how well the school is doing.

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The school has the following strengths

 The new headteacher has the support of pupils, parents, staff and the governing body. He has established the right systems to help the school to improve. Some improvements have already been made.  Pupils feel safe.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress, and are fully included in the life of the school.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed teaching and learning in each class with the headteacher. Seven lesson observations were made jointly. The inspector made one additional observation, and also attended assembly. The inspector and the headteacher also made short visits to activities led by teachers and teaching assistants.  The inspector looked at behaviour at lunchtime, and spoke informally then with groups of pupils.  The inspector met with a group of pupils, members of the governing body, and staff. She also held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  The inspector and the headteacher scrutinised pupils’ work and looked at pupils’ current progress. The inspector also listened to a number of pupils read.  The inspector looked at a number of school documents. The documents included the school’s evaluation of its own work, school improvement plans, policies, details of governing body

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Information about this inspection

meetings, and records relating to the monitoring and management of teaching. The school website, records of meetings with the local authority, records of behaviour, and safeguarding documentation were also checked.  The inspector spoke to some parents informally and took account of the 28 responses to the Ofsted online survey (Parent View). The inspector also considered the 12 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Teresa Kiely, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Bayford is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.  Pupils are taught in four mixed-age classes, from Nursery to Year 6.  The vast majority of pupils are from a White British background.  Only a very small number of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium. This is additional funding to provide support for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, children who are in the care of the local authority, and those who have a parent in the armed forces.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported by school action is below the national average. The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is in line with the national average.  In 2013, the school met the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection, there have been several staff changes, particularly within the senior leadership team. A new headteacher was appointed in September 2013. The school is in the process of appointing a senior teacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that:  teachers’ judgements about how well pupils are doing are accurate  pupils’ work is carefully marked to help them to further improve their work  teachers challenge the most-able pupils with work that moves them on faster in their learning.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the achievement of younger pupils by:  checking that children in the Nursery and Reception Years can use their new skills when they are playing alone or with others, as well as when they are taught more formally, and using these opportunities to extend what children can do  providing well-organised activities in Key Stage 1 that enable pupils to start appropriate work quickly and remain interested and motivated.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve attendance by encouraging parents to see the importance of regular attendance and avoid giving children unnecessary days off.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by ensuring that:  leaders in charge of subjects and age groups check on and improve teaching  leaders use information on how well pupils are doing within each year group and across the school to measure achievement and the success of actions to improve teaching  governors develop a better understanding of how well the school is doing and challenge it to improve.

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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 management should be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ achievement requires improvement because pupils are not making consistently good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children start in the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills that are typical of their age. Adults focus on teaching children skills, and judge their progress when they leave the Reception class to be exceptional. Children can demonstrate the skills they have learnt when helped by an adult. However, they are not successfully learning to apply these skills when they are exploring on their own or with other children, so their progress requires improvement.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils in Key Stage 1 make slower progress than they do in Key Stage 2. This is because activities, particularly when children join Year 1, are not always matched to what children can actually do. The 2013 reading and writing results at the end of Key Stage 1 did not compare favourably with other schools, and the school’s own data shows that pupils continue to make slower progress in writing.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils make better progress in Key Stage 2. Results since the last inspection show that improvements have generally been sustained. When pupils leave the school, Year 6 results show that many pupils have standards that are higher than those in other schools.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Some more-able pupils are not making enough progress. Teachers do not identify clearly enough what these pupils should be learning next, and they are not challenged by some of the activities they are given.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The school has developed the way it teaches phonics (the sounds that letters make). Teachers and teaching assistants now know how to teach this aspect of reading. In Key Stage 2, pupils make better progress in their reading because activities are linked to written texts, computer- based work where the pictures on the screen are interesting and attract the eye, and listening and comprehension activities which pupils all enjoy.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is good overall. These pupils make at least similar progress to their classmates. Almost all are in Key Stage 2, where progress of all pupils is more rapid. The pupil premium funding is used well to support individual pupils. Because the number of eligible pupils in each year group is small, it is not possible to comment on how their attainment in Year 6 compares with that of their classmates without risk of identifying individual pupils.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are making better progress than others because work is tailored to their particular capabilities. Their needs are carefully managed, and they are effectively supported in class or with planned additional help from adults.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching is variable across the school. Although some improvements in teaching, identified since the last inspection, have been made, too much teaching requires improvement.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Although teachers know how to mark pupils’ work effectively, they are not yet consistently using marking to help pupils to make further gains in their learning. Writing and mathematics books show very little evidence of pupils making corrections to their work. Marking does not yet help pupils to know what they need to do next to improve.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers are not fully accurate in their assessments of achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. As a result, sometimes pupils have work that is too hard for them, and sometimes it is too easy. When work is too hard, adults often find their time taken up by supporting individual pupils with it, and this limits progress of the group as a whole.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 More-able pupils are not consistently given hard enough work. There has been an improvement in their progress, particularly in mathematics for those in upper Key Stage 2, where teachers are looking closely at what these pupils should be learning next and giving them tasks that are appropriate. However, this well-targeted teaching is not happening across the rest of the school.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In the Nursery and Reception Years, adults work effectively when they are teaching children things in formal sessions. However, they do not check well enough whether children know and can apply what they have recently been taught; for example, they provide few useful activities where children can engage in playful learning that challenges and extends them and in which adults can join in play to check and extend what children can do.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In Key Stage 1, teachers do not always organise the work that they give to pupils effectively. For example, they often rely too heavily on worksheets that do not challenge or enthuse all the pupils. As a result, pupils do not settle keenly and quickly to work.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The role of teaching assistants has developed since the last inspection. They are now actively engaged in teaching when they are supporting the teacher in the classroom, and are effective in encouraging learning when they are working with a small group of pupils who need more targeted support.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The inspector saw some very effective learning while in the school. In a Years 5 and 6 writing session, pupils thought carefully about the task before they started writing about characters in a quest story. They made use of reference materials to deepen their writing, and showed they could use these on their own. The teacher’s enthusiasm for the subject matter helped pupils to remain engaged and interested in the task. The teacher asked searching questions of individual pupils, and these were answered in depth. Pupils were able to cooperate with one another, listening and responding appropriately. The teaching assistant gave appropriate support where this was needed, and this also contributed to the good teaching and learning seen during this session.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of the pupils requires improvement. Though many concentrate well, when the pace of teaching slows or the organisation of activities is weak, pupils’ attitudes to learning deteriorate and they do not settle down to learning. When teaching is weaker, pupils sometimes stop concentrating and talk about other things, so noise levels rise.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The attendance of pupils is below average. Attendance improved considerably in 2012, but dropped in 2013. It is improving again, but is still a concern. The school has developed a number of strategies to encourage pupils to come to school regularly. However, some families take their children out of school for holidays during term times.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils are polite, courteous and friendly to one another. They are respectful to adults. During the inspection, pupils were ambassadors for the school, commenting positively on the aspects of school life that they enjoyed. At lunchtime, pupils sit with one another in mixed-age seating. They enjoy talking together. They helpfully pack away equipment after lunch.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Safeguarding polices and procedures meet requirements.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils feel safe in the school. They know one another well. They understand how to stay safe; for example, when using the internet. Pupils say that teachers and other adults in the school help them to stay safe.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils are aware of the different types of bullying, such as those connected with race and gender. They say that bullying and name-calling are rare. A check of the school’s record of behaviour confirms this. The vast majority of parents and carers say that incidents of poor behaviour and bullying are rare.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school makes sure that every pupil can be involved in the various activities it offers. Discrimination is not tolerated. All pupils have an equal chance to succeed.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school experienced a period of turbulence in leadership in the last academic year. The headteacher and senior teacher left the school before the end of the school year. A new headteacher is now in post, and plans are underway to appoint a senior teacher soon.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school is not yet making the most of the skills of leaders who are in charge of subjects or age groups. They have not been expected to check routinely on the quality of teaching across the school nor to help teachers to improve; for example, by telling teachers about or letting them observe what happens in sessions where learning is good or outstanding.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 A further weakness is that when targets for improvement have been set, whether for teachers or for the school, they have not typically been evaluated against the impact they have had on pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school is showing it can improve. The new headteacher understands the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The school improvement plan addresses the main inconsistencies in teaching and the gaps in pupils’ achievement. Some aspects have already been successfully improved. For example, teaching assistants are now making a much better contribution to learning; phonics is taught better; and important management structures, such as arrangements for staff appraisal, have been established.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher has the support of pupils, the staff, and parents. He has already created an atmosphere where good learning and good behaviour can flourish.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school provides a broad range of subjects to deepen pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is covered well, and is rooted in the school’s religious character. Pupils have the opportunity to learn from well-planned assemblies that link religious and cultural themes. In one assembly, good use of poetry and stories were combined to provide pupils with effective moments of reflection on spiritual things.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority meets regularly with the school and knows its strengths and areas for development. It has been effective in supporting the school in the changes to systems and its improvements.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The new sports funding is being used to coach and develop teachers so that they can teach physical education well. Some funding has been used to replenish sports resources, and provide equipment for a school games day. Pupils enjoy participating in a range of in-class and after school sporting activities. This is contributing effectively to the development of a healthy lifestyle and physical well-being.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governors acknowledge that their understanding of how well the school is doing, and what needs to be done to further improve teaching and learning, is not yet secure. Governors have not been actively involved in holding school leaders to account for the inconsistencies in teaching and learning. Their position has now improved because the new headteacher is providing them with the information they need to judge the performance of the school and its quality of teaching. Nevertheless, although some governors are now developing their understanding of data about the school’s performance, they are not yet in a position to use this effectively to help the school to move forward. Governors understand performance management in principle, and the performance management of the headteacher in particular. They are not all fully informed about how the school tackles underperformance and rewards

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The leadership and management requires improvement

good teachers. Governors are now clear about how the pupil premium funding is apportioned and how it is affecting the progress that eligible pupils make.

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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 117387 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 430750

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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 Maintained Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 114 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Margaret Kotting Headteacher Jonathan Preston Date of previous school inspection 8 May 2012 Telephone number 01992 511259 Fax number 01992 511633 Email address admin@bayford.herts.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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