Ellenborough and Ewanrigg Infant School

Ellenborough and Ewanrigg Infant School Victory Crescent, Maryport, Cumbria, CA15 7NE

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Early years provision Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teaching is good. As a result, pupils make good progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. The standards that pupils reach by the time they leave at the end of Year 2 are average.  Children get off to an excellent start in the early years, and last year made outstanding progress.  A focus on improving pupils’ writing has been successful. This can be seen in pupils’ books where work is very neat and presented well.  Lessons are lively, fun and interesting. Pupils concentrate well and listen carefully to teachers.  The classrooms are stimulating places for pupils who have easy access to a wide range of resources to help them learn successfully.  Teaching assistants and the Pastoral Carer make a good contribution to many aspects of pupils’ learning.  The school has strong relationships with parents, who are extremely supportive and say that they are very pleased with the school and the progress

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

their children are making.  Behaviour, safety and pupils’ attitudes to learning are excellent. Pupils are considerate and polite. They are calm and quiet around school and settle down quickly to their work in lessons.  Attendance is rising and is already above average for this school year.  The curriculum offers pupils a wide range of opportunities and experiences, such as gardening, learning new computer skills, sports activities and keeping fit, all of which enrich pupils’ learning.  The school shows a high level of care for pupils enabling them to get the most they can out of all the school offers.  Leaders check the progress of all pupils regularly to ensure that nobody falls behind.  Governors are involved fully in the school’s development and work closely with the headteacher to ensure that pupils’ achievement and teaching continues to improve. They often visit the school to check how well it is doing.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers do not always plan work that challenges pupils enough, especially for the most able.  Teachers’ expectations are sometimes too low.  Teachers’ marking does not always help pupils understand how to improve their work and what they need to learn next.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed five teachers and visited 10 lessons, two of which were joint observations with the headteacher.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, staff, pupils, parents, governors and a representative of the local authority.  The inspector observed break time and talked regularly with pupils as they moved around school.  The inspector scrutinised pupils’ work and listened to pupils read.  A wide range of the school’s documentation was observed including systems for tracking pupils’ progress, safeguarding arrangements, the school development plan and pupils’ work in their books.  The inspector took account of responses of the school’s most recent questionnaire for parents alongside 13 responses from the on-line questionnaire (Parent View).  Inspectors analysed 19 questionnaires completed by staff.

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Inspection team

Sue Sharkey, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Ellenborough and Ewanrigg Infant School is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.  All pupils are of White British heritage.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action is similar to the national average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is well above the national average. The pupil premium is additional government funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  Pupils are taught in four classes: Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.  The school offers a breakfast club and after-school club managed by the governing body.  The school has achieved the Eco School Silver Award and the Sainsbury School Games Bronze Kite Mark.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching to consistently outstanding and raise pupils’ achievement by:  ensuring that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve in reading, writing and mathematics are always high enough  ensuring that teachers always plan work that challenges pupils, especially the most able  ensuring that, when teachers mark pupils’ work, they let pupils know regularly how to improve their work and what they need to learn next.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher and all staff work together as a cohesive team to ensure that pupils are cared for extremely well and their achievement is good. Along with the governing body, they have been successful in their determination to make sure that all pupils have equal opportunities and that there is no discrimination in the school.  Procedures throughout the school are organised well and focused fully on raising pupils’ achievement and improving the quality of teaching. The assessment coordinator tracks pupils’ progress rigorously. As a result, it gives the school a very clear understanding of pupils’ achievement so that actions to improve teaching are prioritised for the school’s long-term planning.  The subject leaders for English and mathematics check pupils’ books regularly, as well as ensuring that teachers and teaching assistants cover all the work needed in order to raise pupils’ achievement. They

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The leadership and management are good

meet with local schools, for example, to discuss changes to the curriculum and to share ideas.  Training procedures for managing staff performance are linked to improvement planning. Due to a dip in the quality of pupils’ writing, this has recently included training to improve the school’s teaching of phonics. As a result, pupils’ reading and particularly their writing have improved across the school. Working closely with other schools has also helped to prepare the staff well for changes in the curriculum.  Leadership and management of teaching are good. The programme for monitoring the performance of teachers ensures that teaching is observed regularly, pupils’ books are checked and their progress monitored thoroughly. The outcomes are linked closely to decisions about salary increases.  Parents have very positive views of the school and are extremely pleased with the quality of education it

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The leadership and management are good

provides for their children.  The curriculum supports achievement well and is enhanced by a variety of visits and clubs. Pupils learn the importance of staying healthy by, for example, dancing and exercising to pop music or joining in with cross-country running through the school’s close links with local schools. Taking part in the football club encourages the importance of working in a team.  Strong links are maintained with the local church. As a result, there is good cooperation between the school, church and the community to promote effectively pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural development.  The school has used its primary sport funding successfully in a number of ways. For example, staff are very pleased that the funding used to enable pupils to learn to swim has resulted in pupils being much confident in the water and has increased their enthusiasm to want to continue swimming as they get

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The leadership and management are good

older.  The local authority provides effective, ‘light touch’ support for this good school.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is involved fully in all aspects of the school’s work and members regularly visit classes and talk with staff and pupils. As a result, it is well aware of the quality of teaching and the link between salary progression and teachers’ performance. Governors check the achievement of different groups of pupils in relation to other schools. Since the previous inspection, they have improved their effectiveness with which they support and challenge the school. The governing body has a firm grasp on finances, including the pupil premium and the primary sport funding which are both targeted to raise pupils’ achievement and enhance their well-being. Governors ensure that safeguarding arrangements meet statutory requirements.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Whether pupils are in lessons, walking around school or in the playground their behaviour is of the highest standard. Pupils have very positive attitudes to learning and enjoy their work. They are very respectful towards each other, to staff and visitors.  During lessons, pupils concentrate extremely well working conscientiously to complete a task. They move sensibly from whole-class discussions on the carpet to working at tables without any fuss, quickly settling to their work and always giving their very best. Pupils present their work neatly and with obvious pride.  At break times, pupils have an extensive outdoor provision which is divided into different areas where children can enjoy playing with their friends. There is a wide range of resources available so that pupils can, for example, play ball games, enjoy more physical activities in the adventure play area or sit on

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Behaviour

benches and chat quietly to each other.  Pupils thoroughly enjoy the opportunities to take part in different clubs. For example, the garden club which extends pupils’ learning to the outdoors. Seeds are planted so that flowers and vegetables can be grown and enjoyed later in the year. Such opportunities enable pupils to broaden their horizons and provide valuable opportunities for pupils to experience working and cooperating with others in different situations.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils say the school is a safe place and they are fully aware of how to keep themselves safe. They know they can talk to any adult in school who will always help them. All parents who responded to Parent View say that their children feel safe in school.  The school provides regular opportunities to raise pupils’ awareness of the different types of bullying. Pupils report that, if there were to be any bullying, they are confident they could talk to any adult in school who would help them.  The Pastoral Carer works very closely with parents to ensure that pupils attend school regularly. Attendance is improving and already this term it is above average. Good attendance at the breakfast club contributes to pupils arriving on time and readiness for work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is good and parents agree. Teachers and teaching assistants have excellent relationships with pupils. They consistently celebrate pupils’ efforts and successes helping them to become confident and successful learners.  All lessons have a clear focus on what pupils are going to learn. This ensures that pupils know what skills they are developing helping them to know whether they have been successful or not.  Teachers question pupils skilfully to develop their knowledge and understanding. When pupils are answering, others listen carefully so that they learn from each other. Very good behaviour management during lessons ensures that pupils understand the importance of listening as well as answering questions and taking turns.  Pupils become absorbed during lessons because teaching is interesting and delivered calmly in well- managed classrooms. Teachers match their teaching and activities closely to pupils’ needs, but there are

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The quality of teaching is good

occasions when expectations of what pupils can achieve are not always high enough, especially for the most able.  Teaching assistants, the Pastoral Carer and other adults play a key role in supporting pupils. They are well trained and make a valuable contribution to the progress of all groups of pupils.  Teachers’ marking of pupils’ work is frequent and shows clearly what pupils have done well. Teachers have been developing the way they mark the work in pupils’ books, but there is not yet consistency in helping pupils know what they have to learn next in order to improve their work.  Teaching supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils are given frequent opportunities to work together in lessons and they do this enthusiastically. For example, in Year 2 pupils had been preparing fruit for a fruit smoothie. They then used what they had learned to write the instructions for someone else to use. Pupils worked well in pairs and learned much from each other,

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The quality of teaching is good

sharing their ideas as they discussed the sentences using photographs to remind them.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils build effectively on the excellent start they make in the early years. In different groups in Years 1 and 2 pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics from their starting points. This is evident in their books as well as when they are talking with teachers or answering questions. For example, daily teaching of phonics (matching letters to the sounds they make) is helping pupils improve their reading and writing skills. In the 2014 Year 1 national phonics screening check, 100% of pupils met the expected standards indicating that this is likely to be higher than pupils nationally. This was an improvement on the previous year as the teaching of phonics has improved.  Phonics are taught to pupils in small groups and often pupils from different year groups work together. For example, during a phonics lesson pupils in Years 1 and 2 were reading words with an ‘ai’ sound in the

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The achievement of pupils is good

middle and including these words in sentences; at the same time another group was writing words that ended in ‘ng’. All pupils concentrated well and listened to the teachers carefully to make sure they were using accurate sounds for these letters.  In recent years, attainment in reading writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2 has been broadly average. In 2013, there was a dip in writing but, as a result of the school’s swift actions, assessments in 2014 indicate that writing is now well in line with reading.  The school has recently initiated a new mathematics programme which ensures that, as well as mathematics lessons, there are short daily sessions in small groups, similar to phonics. In one group, the focus was to reinforce the addition of single-digit numbers for a few pupils in Years 1 and 2 who needed more practice. Good use of resources meant that pupils were able to understand how to calculate the

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The achievement of pupils is good

numbers to find the total with more confidence. Leaders are confident that this is already improving pupils’ mathematical skills.  The one-to-one and small-group teaching provided for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, as well as for disadvantaged pupils, help them to make good progress. Their progress is frequently reviewed to ensure that the support they receive from teaching assistants, teachers and the Pastoral Carer is consistently tailored to their individual needs.  The most able pupils generally make good progress from their individual starting points, especially in writing. However, sometimes teaching sets tasks that are not always challenging enough and this results in too few making outstanding progress.  The school uses pupil premium funding effectively to support disadvantaged pupils and ensure that they make good progress. In 2013, the end of year teacher assessments showed that disadvantage pupils were

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The achievement of pupils is good

two terms behind other pupils in school in writing and half a year in reading. However, decisive action taken by the school in the previous academic year, has successfully eradicated the gap. In mathematics, the teacher assessments for 2013 show that the attainment of disadvantaged pupils was higher than similar pupils nationally, and 2014 assessments indicate a similar picture. Compared to their peers in school, disadvantaged pupils were just less than half a term behind other pupils in 2014. Inspection evidence shows that the school’s sharp focus on supporting disadvantaged pupils in mathematics is closing the gap securely.  Pupils are enthusiastic readers and enjoy reading. They take books backwards and forwards between school and home and happily talk about what they are reading. As they move through Years 1 and 2, they use their phonic skills effectively to help them read new words or to reinforce words with which they are

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The achievement of pupils is good

less familiar. Pupils in Year 2 are beginning to use punctuation successfully to help them put expression in their voices when they read out loud.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children start school with skills that are generally well below those expected for their age, especially in speech, language and communication. In recognition of this, adults have a sharp and effective focus on talking to and questioning children throughout the many exciting activities children enjoy during the day in order to extend their speaking skills and help them to learn new words at a very rapid pace.  Changes made to provision and teaching in the early years have ensured that children make excellent progress and achieve outstandingly well. For example, improvements have been made to the teaching of phonics throughout the school. These were hugely successful in helping children to learn exceptionally well. As a result, in 2014 children made outstanding progress so that the vast majority entered Year 1 with skills in line with expectations for their age.  Children are extremely polite and very well behaved. They are courteous towards each other and play

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The early years provision is outstanding

happily together either in the classroom or outdoors. For example, following snack time nursery children moved sensibly away from the table and chose a book to look at. They happily talked about characters they recognised from their favourite stories and were keen to share their thoughts while waiting for everyone to finish their snack.  The early years provision is led and managed outstandingly well by a talented team including the headteacher. Staff quickly get to know each child’s learning needs and plan exciting activities designed to encourage children to learn through exploration. Since the previous inspection the outdoor learning area has been improved and now provides children with opportunities such as parking their vehicles in numbered parking spaces, using paint to practise their early writing skills or playing skittles during which the teacher questions children about how many they have succeeded in knocking down.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children thoroughly enjoy learning; they are keen and enthusiastic and are consequently very well prepared for their future learning.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 112134 Local authority Cumbria Inspection number 448426

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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 Community Age range of pupils 3–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 60 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair George Parker Headteacher Wendy Kendall Date of previous school inspection 10 March 2010 Telephone number 01900 812931 Fax number 01900 812931 Email address admin@ellbra-ewan.cumbria.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 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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