Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr R Warsap Headteacher Godmanchester Primary School Park Lane Godmanchester Huntingdon PE29 2AG

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and pupils during my visit on 12 June 2014 to look at work in mathematics.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: interviews with staff and pupils; scrutiny of relevant documentation; analysis of pupils’ work; and observation of six lessons.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

The overall effectiveness of mathematics is good.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

Achievement in mathematics is outstanding.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

 By the end of Year 6, pupils have reached high standards because they have made outstanding progress overall. The proportions gaining the high Levels 5 and 6 are well above average and nearly all pupils achieve or exceed the expected Level 4. All groups of pupils do equally well. So for example, pupils eligible for free school meals leave Year 6 having achieved standards that are higher than the national average for pupils who do not receive free school meals.  Year 6 pupils are very well prepared with the necessary reasoning and problem-solving skills for the next stage in their education. They thoroughly enjoy this type of mathematics activity and demonstrate excellent attitudes to learning.  Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage get off to a good start. For example, they were learning number bonds to ten by a using a mixture of activities that developed their ability to sequence numbers and to

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

understand that the number represents a quantity.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

 The reason why teaching is good rather than outstanding is that in most years, pupils make good progress from starting points that are typical for their age. This is because of good teaching over time. Once they enter Year 6 they benefit from outstanding teaching where the progress that they make accelerates considerably.  Teachers demonstrate that they are proficient at teaching pupils how to solve word problems with varying levels of complexity. More-able pupils develop their reasoning skills well because the extra activities that they receive are designed to develop this aspect of learning. It is not until Year 6 that other groups of pupils experience enough problems and investigations which have more than one answer that they really develop their reasoning and logic skills.  Teachers develop pupils’ understanding of mathematics and their fluency with number well. For example, in all classes visited, pupils were using

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

various types of practical apparatus that really helped them to understand the calculations they were completing successfully.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

 An effective curriculum underpins the good and outstanding teaching in the school. Teachers concentrate on providing activities and work for pupils that is based on their ability. Extra help from well-trained teaching assistants is available to challenge the most able and to support those who find mathematics difficult.  One aspect of the curriculum that is not well enough developed is the use of mathematics within other subjects to consolidate pupils’ learning. Opportunities are provided for pupils to practise their skills but they are not well enough coordinated to link skills learnt in mathematics lessons with topics in other subjects.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

Leadership and management of mathematics are good.

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

 A very effective working relationship between senior leaders and the mathematics coordinator is apparent. Checks by senior leaders on the school’s work in mathematics result in whole-school priorities to strengthen teaching and achievement that the coordinator then develops successfully. Teachers receive good quality mathematical advice on how to strengthen their teaching. For example, the priorities to stretch the more- able pupils and foster resilience in those that find mathematics work more difficult were evident in the teaching in all the lessons observed during the inspection.  Leaders have demonstrated an outstanding capacity for further improvement through the strengthened teaching which is consistently good or outstanding and the resulting outstanding achievement over the last two years. However, the impact of the leadership is not outstanding because teaching remains good overall. Teachers do not get enough

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Ofsted 2014–15 subject survey inspection programme: mathematics

opportunities to learn from the outstanding teaching within the school to further strengthen their practice.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 developing reasoning skills amongst all groups of pupils by providing pupils with a greater variety of problem-solving activities  improving the curriculum by coordinating better the use of mathematics in other subjects  strengthening the impact of the leadership of teaching by enabling staff to work alongside outstanding teachers.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop mathematics in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As explained previously, this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection.

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