Cubbington CofE Primary School

Cubbington CofE Primary School Church Hill, Cubbington, Leamington Spa, CV32 7JY

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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

 Teaching requires improvement because it has not been consistently good enough, particularly in Years 3 to 6, to ensure pupils achieve well over time. Too few pupils make good progress.  The checks school leaders make on teaching and learning are not sufficiently rigorous. They do not lead to the improvement necessary to secure pupils’ good progress.  Leaders and managers, including governors, do not make best use of all of the information they have about pupils’ progress to set challenging targets for further improvement.  Plans for improvement do not contain measurable data against which progress towards priorities can be measured.  Teachers sometimes accept untidy presentation of pupils’ written and mathematical work.  Pupils’ spelling skills require improvement because not all teachers insist that miss-spelt words are put right.  Pupils do not have enough opportunities to solve problems stated in words in mathematics

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

or to use their mathematical skills in different subjects.  The feedback pupils receive through marking does not consistently tell or show them what they need to do to improve, or require them to do corrections, so their rate of progress does not accelerate.  The governing body does not routinely challenge the school about how well pupils are achieving in each year group.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics in Years 1 and 2.  The provision for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is good and leads to their good progress.  Pupils behave well. They feel safe and say that the school keeps them safe.  The school ensures that all pupils are included in everything it has to offer, regardless of their background, ability or disability.  Pupils learn, from an early age, to nurture and care for each other. They value each other because the school values them.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited 12 lessons or parts of lessons. Six of the visits were shared with senior leaders. Inspectors also observed play and lunchtimes.  A number of documents were examined, including: the school’s data on pupils’ current progress, the school’s own self-evaluation document and its learning improvement plan, other planning and monitoring documents, documents relating to safeguarding, and records relating to behaviour and attendance.  Inspectors looked at the work in pupils’ books and examined the mathematics books of pupils who left the school in 2013. They talked to pupils, formally and informally, listened to them read, and observed sessions where phonics (letters and the sounds they make) were being taught.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, governors, senior leaders, staff and representatives from the diocese and the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 79 responses in the online questionnaire for parents, Parent

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Information about this inspection

View. They also gathered parents’ views at first hand at the start of the school day and considered letters sent in by parents.  Inspectors received and considered the views of the 28 staff who completed questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Doris Bell, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Edward Masterson Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives additional funding, known as the pupil premium, is below average. This funding is for looked-after pupils and those known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs who are supported through school action is below average. The proportion supported at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is average. The proportion that speaks English as an additional language is below average.  In 2013, the school did not meet the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school is part of a consortium of schools that work together to help each other with school

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Information about this school

improvement.  During the 2012 to 2013 year, the school experienced unavoidable absences of staff, including senior managers  A privately run before- and after-school club operates on the school site. It is inspected separately.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise the quality of teaching to at least good, particularly in Years 3 to 6, by raising teachers’ expectations for pupils’ progress by:  in writing, improving pupils’ spelling and handwriting skills  in mathematics, ensuring pupils set their work out carefully, have more opportunities to solve problems presented in words and apply their mathematical skills in different subjects  improving the quality of feedback pupils receive through marking so that they are clear about where they have gone wrong and how to correct it  requiring pupils to do their corrections and giving them time to do them so that their work improves  ensuring teachers use all assessment information on pupils’ attainment and progress more effectively to make work challenging so that pupils make consistently good progress in all subjects  ensuring that, in the Reception class, evidence for children’s learning is assessed and recorded

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

better and then used effectively to help the children make good progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of leadership and management at all levels by:  injecting more rigour into the checks senior leaders make on teaching and learning so that teachers are left in no doubt about the quality of pupils’ progress and how to improve it  following up areas identified for further improvement to ensure pupils’ progress becomes more rapid  making better use of all information about pupils’ progress to set more challenging improvement targets at whole-school level, and for staff and pupils  including numerical targets in the learning improvement plan and the literacy and numeracy action plans so that progress towards priorities can be more accurately measured  improving the governing body’s ability to use the information it receives about pupils’ progress in different year groups, to challenge the school more effectively about what it is doing to improve achievement.

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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 may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The downward trend in attainment since 2011 brought the school’s national test results to well- below average for Year 6 in 2013. Well-documented issues related to staffing, particularly at senior management level, contributed to the severity of the decline but, overall, the pupils’ achievement was inadequate. Progress in mathematics was particularly weak.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 This year’s Year 6 test results, which arrived during the inspection, are much improved. The proportion of pupils making the nationally expected rate of progress in Key Stage 2 compares favourably with national figures for 2013.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Early indications from this year’s results are that attainment in Year 6 is above the 2013 national floor standards. Although more pupils reached the higher levels in the tests this year, the proportion making good progress is still too low given their above-average starting points in Year 3. Progress varies too much in Years 3 to 6 to secure good progress over time.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children start and end their Reception Year with the skills expected for their age. They gain from their experience in Reception, but their progress is not consistently good. Children learn to read and write, and to interact well with each other. Evidence for mathematical learning is sparse, and children’s learning journals do not include sufficient information to show their progress, except in writing.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 There has been an upward trend in attainment in Year 2 since the previous inspection. Year 2 pupils’ attainment has been consistently ahead of national results in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils use their knowledge of phonics to help them read new words, and they have good comprehension skills. The results in the phonics screening check for pupils in Year 1 were above the national average. Pupils enjoy reading, and they read well.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils learn the structures and techniques of writing from an early age and they use them well in longer pieces of writing. They mostly use their writing skills well in other subjects. Nevertheless, spelling remains weak and handwriting is often untidy, making it difficult to read what pupils have written.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In mathematics, pupils’ calculation skills are secure. The many exercises they do, mostly correctly, show this. In some books, however, calculations are not set out neatly so that hundreds, tens and units are lined up correctly. This leads to unnecessary errors.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 There are too few opportunities for pupils to solve problems presented in words or to use their mathematical skills in different subjects and begin to realise the importance of mathematics in everyday life.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, make good progress, and achieve well. These pupils receive good support from teachers and well-trained and well-briefed teaching assistants.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 More-able pupils, assisted by work with other schools, make good progress in writing. Their progress requires improvement in mathematics because their learning is often restricted by mathematical exercises that do not challenge them enough.  Throughout the school, the small numbers of pupils supported by additional funding (the pupil premium) make good progress. However, there were too few pupils eligible for that funding in Year 6 in 2013 to make reliable comparison of their results with those of other pupils, or with eligible pupils nationally.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils throughout the school are enjoying the additional activities available to them through the primary schools sports funding initiative. This funding has enabled pupils to experience a wide range of sporting activities, as well as increasing opportunities for them to take part in competitive sport.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Assessment information is not used well enough to help all pupils make good progress in all year groups. This is the case particularly in Years 3 to 6 but is evident also in Reception, where there is insufficient evidence of what children do to verify that they make good progress. Staff do not make best use of assessment information to help and challenge pupils to make more rapid progress.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers’ marking is limited in its usefulness to help pupils make better progress. Marking is not always precise or helpful. It rarely contains improvement points or gives pupils examples of what to do to improve. Consequently, pupils are restricted in how well their work improves and they do not make better progress.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils’ books show that teachers’ subject knowledge is mostly good across all subjects. However, teachers do not always demand enough of pupils, for example, in relation to the quality of their spelling and handwriting, or the use and application of mathematical skills.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Good teaching in Years 1 and 2 has successfully addressed the issue raised at the previous inspection about Key Stage 1. Pupils are successfully encouraged to think more deeply, challenge themselves to improve, and also to challenge and help each other. This was evident in Year 2 as pupils helped each other to improve their writing.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Additional support is helpful for pupils who struggle with their learning. A strength in teaching is the way these pupils are fully included in all aspects of learning and in all subjects.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Occasionally, help for lower-ability pupils comes too late to be of benefit. For example, in one session, some less-able pupils did little work because they did not understand what was expected of them, and they did not receive help early enough to help them succeed.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour well and make a strong contribution to their personal development. They successfully teach pupils to be reflective and caring, and to work and play together well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils understand and appreciate the school’s procedures to promote good behaviour. They know about different types of bullying, and what to do should they experience or know of any. They report that bullying is very rare, and are confident that staff deal with any form of misbehaviour quickly and effectively.  Pupils mirror the good example set by staff in that they care for, support and nurture each other well. They work together well and respect each other’s differences. They are proud to accept responsibility, for example, as play leaders, school councillors and monitors and they readily help each other at play and lunchtimes.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance levels are high. Pupils enjoy coming to school. They say they are safe and well cared for when they are there. They want to do well. In lessons, they try their best to succeed, even when teaching is less motivating. They feel they make progress, but some said that their work is sometimes easy, they finish it quickly and have to wait for more. They are not yet confident enough to move their learning on by themselves.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils bring much from their backgrounds to help them in school. This was evident in their home learning books, and in their good information and communication technology skills, which staff build on well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils have a good understanding of the potential dangers associated with using the internet and mobile phones, and accessing social-networking sites. The school is extremely vigilant in these areas.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils say they feel safe in school and that they are taught to keep themselves safe at all times.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school’s leaders and managers did not act quickly enough to arrest the decline in attainment and in pupils’ achievement in the academic year ending summer 2013. Although both attainment and progress are much improved this year, leaders are still not focusing staff sufficiently on securing the pupils’ good progress.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Except for behaviour and safety, the school’s evaluation of its own work is too generous. The priorities in the learning improvement plan, and in the action plans for literacy and numeracy, are not sufficiently linked to measurable improvement in pupils’ achievement over time.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Teaching and learning are monitored by senior leaders. Their monitoring does not evaluate pupils’ progress sufficiently, nor do they follow up weaknesses rigorously. Similarly, evaluations of teaching do not show what practice does or does not promote good learning.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The management of the Early Years Foundation Stage has not ensured that sufficient evidence is recorded to show children’s progress in the different areas of learning. As a result, the school had difficulty providing the information inspectors asked for to show how well the children had achieved this year. The leadership and management of other subjects are under review to fit with the new learning programmes in September.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders have identified the underachievement in mathematics, and the actions needed to tackle it. However, mathematics does not feature in the learning improvement plan or in the objectives set for teachers.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Procedures for managing teachers’ performance are applied and appropriate. They are followed up with support and training which staff report helps them in their work.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 School leaders ensure that pupils’ personal care, development and well-being are promoted effectively. Well-designed learning opportunities support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Consequently, pupils gain a good understanding of life in this country and abroad, and of their place in the local community. This learning turns them into mature, confident and articulate youngsters.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Visits, visitors and a good range of extra-curricular activities add to pupils’ enjoyment of learning and their personal development. Music is a particular strength and pupils’ performance skills are well developed.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority stepped up its monitoring of the school following the 2013 results but, confident that the school is once again improving, stopped the visits in the spring term. The school works closely with a local group of schools that help each other with improvement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 All aspects of safeguarding, including those for child protection, meet the government’s current requirements and all staff training is up to date. The school is vigilant in supporting pupils and, where necessary, their families. Parents praise the staff for their readiness to help.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The provision for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is well led and managed. Support staff are trained in different aspects of special educational needs so that support can be better tailored to individual pupils. The school works hard to eliminate discrimination of any sort and to ensure equality of opportunity for all pupils.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The sports funding for primary schools has improved the skills of the staff to teach sport. The school is currently preparing questionnaires for staff and pupils to assess the full impact of the sports funding.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governors visit the school regularly and use their expertise well to ensure pupils’ personal development, safety and well-being. They have had training in how to interpret published data on attainment and progress for pupils in Year 6. However, they do not routinely challenge the school about how well pupils are learning in each year group, to ensure consistently good progress before Year 6. Governors do not make best use of the information they receive to set challenging targets for further improvement.  Governors manage staffing and finances well. They support the headteacher in making decisions about salaries based on teachers’ performance. Governors know how additional funding, such as the pupil premium and the primary schools’ sports funding, are being spent, and can pinpoint the impact these initiatives are having on pupils’ learning and personal development.

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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 125660 Local authority Warwickshire Inspection number 439916

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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 197 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Theresa Saul Headteacher Catherine Clarke Date of previous school inspection 19 November 2009 Telephone number 01926 422967 Email address admin3144@welearn365.com 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 and 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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