Church Lane Primary School & Nursery

Church Lane Primary School Church Lane, Sleaford, NG34 7DF

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Overall effectiveness

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

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This is an outstanding school

 The headteacher and deputy headteacher provide outstanding leadership.  The governing body, ably led by the Chair of Governors, makes sure it supports and challenges the school exceptionally well.  Senior leaders and subject leaders have planned an exciting curriculum that motivates the pupils and makes sure they enjoy their learning.  School leaders promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development throughout the curriculum and it is built excellently into the ethos of the school.  The learning environment is attractive and stimulating and provides an excellent balance between providing support for learning and the celebration of pupils’ work.  Behaviour is exemplary in lessons and around school because pupils are courteous and respectful to each other and to adults.  Pupils have a real pride in their work and are keen to do well.  Attendance has improved significantly over the last year and is now well above the national

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This is an outstanding school

average because of the rigorous implementation of the school’s policy and changes to holiday patterns over the year.  School leaders have focused on coaching the teachers and teaching assistants to raise teaching standards over time.  The teaching is outstanding in the large majority of classes and is consistently good in all others.  The attainment and progress of all the pupils are checked regularly by the school leaders and teachers to make sure that all are making good or outstanding progress.  Attainment is low on entry to the school but is well above national averages by the time they leave at the end of Year 6.  Pupils’ progress is outstanding. Every pupil over the last two years has made expected or better progress by the time they leave. The percentage of pupils making above expected progress is consistently well above the national averages in reading, writing and in mathematics.  Vulnerable pupils also make outstanding progress

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This is an outstanding school

because they receive excellent teaching and high levels of support from the well-trained support staff.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 14 lessons or parts of lessons. Most classes were observed twice. They also observed pupils working in smaller groups. Some of the lessons were observed jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  The inspectors also heard pupils read and checked their reading records.  Meetings were held with the senior leaders, subject leaders and other members of the teaching staff.  A meeting was held with the Chair of the Governing Body and three other governors.  A telephone conversation was held with the local authority’s link officer.  Many discussions took place with pupils both formally in two groups and informally in lessons and on the play areas.  The inspectors took account of the views of 12 parents from Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View), and conversations were held with many of the parents at the start and end of the school day. The inspectors also analysed the 22 responses to the questionnaire for staff.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including: the school’s own data on pupils’ recent and current progress; planning and monitoring documentation; reports on the quality of teaching over time; records relating to behaviour and attendance; the school’s improvement plan; documents relating to safeguarding; and the minutes of various meetings, including those of the governing body.

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Inspection team

Nigel Grimshaw, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is just below the national average.  The proportion supported at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is just above the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium is above the national average. This is additional funding provided to schools for children in the care of the local authority and those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  Almost one-third of the school population is from minority ethnic backgrounds, mainly from Eastern Europe, and this number has increased in the time since the last inspection. Almost all of these pupils speak English as an additional language.  All the children in the Early Years Foundation stage attend school on a full-time basis.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school’s governors manage a daily breakfast club, an after-school club and a holiday club.  Pre-school provision which caters for children between 0 and 4 years of age operates on the school site under the auspices of the school governors.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop further the roles of the subject leaders, particularly those who are new in post.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher and deputy headteacher provide outstanding models of professionalism. As such they have created a strong team ethic within the school where everyone is keen to support and help others, with a common goal of making the school outstanding in every way.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 They have focused very strongly on the quality of teaching. Creating posts of responsibility for coaching other staff has made sure that the quality of teaching has been consistently good and usually outstanding over the last three years.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Subject leaders and other middle leaders have clear roles and responsibilities and carry out monitoring activities rigorously and feedback to staff effectively. However, several are new to their current posts and are still learning about some aspects of their role, such as the need to provide regular written reports for senior leaders and governors.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Checks on pupils’ progress and attainment are undertaken rigorously and regularly. These checks are used effectively in informing teachers’ planning of work to meet the pupils’ needs and interests, in pupil progress meetings between teachers and school leaders, and in discussions undertaken to check on the performance of individual staff.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school leaders have recently revised the school’s curriculum to make sure it meets the expectations of the new National Curriculum. The curriculum provided for the pupils is vibrant, exciting and motivational for pupils and for staff. The enthusiasm of the staff is a key factor in pupils’ success. Subject areas are woven together through topics so that English and mathematical skills can be developed in a wide range of subjects to make learning more fun and more relevant to the pupils.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development has been incorporated seamlessly into the school’s work. The school has won an international award through UNICEF for being a ‘Rights Respecting School’. Pupils are taught about their rights and the rights of others in society. They are encouraged to take part in debates and in writing arguments for and against different viewpoints, such as the value of graffiti art. There is an elected school council that has weekly opportunities to express views about school improvements and to plan national and global charitable collections and school festivals, such as the Harvest Festival. They took a valuable part in discussions during the school’s Vision Day involving 62 governors, staff, parents and pupils. The high level of harmony within the school illustrates the tolerance and respect pupils show to each other. The school therefore prepares the pupils very

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school leaders and governors have made very effective use of the pupil premium funding provided. The appointment of additional teaching staff and the training given to teaching assistants have been very beneficial and, as a result, the gaps between the performance of disadvantaged pupils and their peers have closed and often now they outperform their peers.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The additional sports funding, provided to all primary schools, has been used equally effectively. Five years ago the school had already appointed a sports development leader on the staff to raise the profile of sport within the school. The new funding has provided more opportunities for staff to benefit by observing good practice so that their own standards of teaching physical education have improved. Opportunities for pupils to participate in sports have increased significantly. There are nine different sports clubs for pupils to choose from after school and 55% of them took part in inter-school competitions last year. They are also benefiting from a better appreciation of how to lead healthy lifestyles and the school has recently been re-accredited with the Healthy School Award.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 School leaders have a clear view of the priorities for the school and a comprehensive development plan that addresses these. The rapid improvements in pupils’ writing results, significant improvements in attendance, and the commitment to providing an all-through education from 0-11, demonstrate the capacity to bring about further improvement.  Links with parents are a strength of the school and the parents are overwhelmingly positive in their support for the school. As one parent said, ‘The school is fantastic and the children get on brilliantly. If they are struggling they get lots of extra support.’ Another said, ‘There have been massive improvements over the last five years. My children love coming to school. They wake up excited.’

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school has maintained close links with the local authority despite being a ‘light touch’ school. The school has valued the support and guidance from the local authority and the impact this has had on the quality of teaching and on the early years provision over the last few years.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Safeguarding procedures have been applied rigorously and fully meet statutory requirements. There are good procedures in place for appointing staff, checking on visitors to the school and making sure the school environment is secure.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  Governance of the school has made significant progress since the previous inspection under the leadership, guidance and direction provided by the excellent Chair of the Governing Body. Well- developed links with the school leaders and staff have provided a structure for governors to check robustly on the school’s practices and outcomes. Consequently they have a very clear understanding of the school’s strengths and any weaker aspects. Governors are now more actively involved within the school and are each expected to spend at least one day per term observing the school’s work. Joint working with staff and parents on the ‘Vision Day’ has given a clearer focus for the long term development of the school. They have an excellent awareness of the school’s performance data and the outcomes of pupils’ achievement. They are clear that previous concerns that standards of writing were

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The leadership and management are outstanding

lower than in reading and mathematics have been addressed. They are well aware of the successful impact of pupil premium and sports funding. They are fully understanding of the performance management systems in school and how teachers’ pay is linked to their performance.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. An analysis of the school’s behaviour logs and incident records clearly show that this has been the case over time. Expectations are high from when they enter school and children develop excellent attitudes to learning that they carry with them through the school. They want to learn and to succeed and are proud of the presentation of their work. There appears to be no low level disruption to lessons. They are polite to adults and to each other. They are caring, such as in the Reception class when two other children immediately helped another child who was a little upset.

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Behaviour

 The school environment is clean, attractive and stimulating. The pupils maintain this by showing respect for the facilities and for the resources. They keep it tidy and keep themselves tidy through the consistent wearing of the school uniform. Through the school council they are making significant contributions to outstanding behaviour by planning playground activity rotas with staff so that all pupils have opportunities to play a range of activities and learn new skills.

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Behaviour

 Pupils and their parents agree that instances of bullying are very rare indeed and are dealt with promptly and effectively so that they do not re-occur. Pupils from different backgrounds and cultures work and play together harmoniously. Consequently, there have been no instances of permanent or fixed term exclusions over the last two years.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils and their parents unanimously agree that the pupils feel safe at school.

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Safety

 Pupils are given guidance about the safe use of the internet. They are all clear about how to research for their work safely and sites for working in school are checked carefully. Guidance for parents is given through the school’s website.

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Safety

 The site is secure. Visitors to the school are checked on arrival and can only enter the school through a key release system in the school reception office. Appointments to the school staff comply with ‘safer recruitment’ procedures and all staff are checked thoroughly.

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Safety

 Attendance had fluctuated until two years ago. It has now improved significantly because of the consistent and robust actions taken by the school leaders, changes to the attendance policy and the work undertaken with parents and families. Attendance is now well above the national average.

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Safety

 Almost every pupil arrives at school punctually and eager to start lessons. There is no time slippage during the day as pupils move between lessons.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 School records that have been externally checked and confirmed show that the quality of teaching over time has improved and is now good or better in all classes. Much of the teaching is now consistently outstanding in all areas of the school.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The work in the pupils’ books reflects this. There is clear evidence of pupils’ pride in their work and of the outstanding progress that they are making. Pupils have targets to achieve and welcome the challenge that this provides.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Marking provides very clear explanations about the strengths in the pupils’ work and how the work could be improved and this is an important factor in the excellent progress being made. Very often the guidance for improvement is given verbally so that the pupils clearly understand the expectations but sometimes this is not mentioned in the books. The pupils say that they prefer verbal feedback because they are very clear about what they have to do next.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The classroom displays are not only attractive and stimulating but also provide clear support and guidance for learning. Teachers often refer to the displays so that the pupils can use them effectively.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers plan work that motivates the pupils and which also enthuses the teachers themselves. This combination ensures that the pupils are fully engaged in their work, enjoying the tasks, being productive and making good progress. This was particular true in a Year 6 mathematics lesson where the pupils were using Smarties as resources in tackling some very challenging work on ratios. Not one chocolate was eaten despite the temptations!

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 High expectations are the norm in all the lessons. Extension activities are almost always built into lessons to make sure that the most able pupils are challenged to think very carefully about their work. As a result of this challenge over time the most able pupils leave the school with levels of attainment well above those expected for their age. Percentages of pupils achieving the higher Level 5 and Level 6 results are significantly above the national averages.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Pupils who enter the school with little or no English language skills are given excellent support and make outstanding progress in line with their peers. Programmes of work are planned carefully to meet their needs. This is also true for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The vast majority of children start school in the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills and knowledge that are lower than those expected for their age. They make outstanding progress in this key stage. This progress is then consolidated and extended in Key Stage 1 and, with secure foundations for learning having been established, they make rapid progress in Years 3 to 6.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 By the time they leave school at the end of Year 6 they have achieved standards that are well above national averages in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils are very well placed to succeed in the next phase of their education. Several pupils achieved the very high Level 6 outcomes which indicates outstanding challenge and support for the most able pupils.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 For the last two years every pupil leaving the school at the end of Year 6 has made at least the progress they should in reading, writing and mathematics. The percentages achieving better than expected progress were well above, and sometimes more than double, the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The fact that every pupil has consistently made at least expected progress shows the high level of support for the disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. They make outstanding progress similar to that of their peers.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils who arrive at the school with little or no English are given outstanding support from well-trained staff and consequently make the same excellent progress as their peers and leave school with results a year ahead of the national averages for pupils who speak English as an additional language.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 In 2013 and again in 2014 the disadvantaged pupils actually outperformed their peers in school because of the outstanding support they receive. Overall they were the equivalent of a term ahead of their class mates and more than a year ahead of non-disadvantaged pupils nationally in both reading and mathematics and in line with pupils nationally in writing.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The outstanding provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage, and the close links with parents, make sure that the children have an excellent start to their education.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The learning environment is stimulating, attractive and well-resourced. Children and their parents are made to feel very welcome and are kept well-informed so that parents can help support learning at home and are aware of how well their child is progressing.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The adults work extremely effectively as a team and have maximised the use of the space available inside and outside to create fabulous opportunities for the children to enjoy their learning. During the inspection a beach area had been created and the children were making sand castles and developing their language about comparative sizes and about different shapes.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The levels of understanding, skills and knowledge of each individual child are checked soon after they arrive at school and teachers then plan activities that match their needs and interests. Coupled with outstanding teaching, this ensures that the children make excellent progress. The percentage of children achieving a good level of development has improved again in 2014.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are built into the curriculum the children receive. As a result they play and work together cooperatively; show that they care for each other; and develop excellent behaviour and attitudes to learning that are then carried with them through the school.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The Early Years Foundation Stage is exceptionally well led and managed. The induction for the children and their parents is seamless through the in-house pre-school provision at the school. The leader has created a strong team of staff who all know the children well and focus on developing their learning as individuals through lots of interaction, particularly to develop their language skills.

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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 120387 Local authority Lincolnshire Inspection number 449396

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 190 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Steve Faber Headteacher Helen Fulcher Date of previous school inspection 21 October 2010 Telephone number 01529 302696 Fax number 01529 304542 Email address enquiries@sleafordchurchlane.lincs.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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