Llangrove CE Academy

Llangrove CofE Academy Llangrove, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 6EZ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Early years provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The inspirational leadership of the executive headteachers and their very high expectations for all the pupils have led to improvements in all aspects of the school’s work.  Leadership is outstanding at all levels. School leaders, including governors, have focused on improving pupil achievement through high-quality teaching. Standards across the school have risen since it opened as an academy and became part of a federation of schools.  Teaching is now good and often outstanding. As a result pupils make good progress and achieve well. Pupils say that teachers make learning fun.  Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They show a deep interest in learning and behave extremely well around the school. Pupils have a very good understanding of how the school helps them to keep safe.  The school is very effective in promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through an exciting and relevant curriculum. As a

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

result, pupils are well prepared for their next stage of education and for life in modern Britain.  Children in Reception settle in quickly and happily when they start school. As a result of good teaching, they make good progress and are well prepared for starting Year 1.  All parents greatly value the work that the school does with their children. They recognise and appreciate the improvements that have taken place since the school opened as an academy.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 In a few lessons, the work set for the more-able pupils is not sufficiently challenging. As a result, not enough pupils reach above-average standards by the end of Year 6.  Teachers do not always identify and correct spelling errors in pupils’ writing. As a result, standards in writing are not as high as in reading and mathematics.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed seven lessons or parts of lessons, two of them jointly with the executive headteachers.  The inspector looked at work in pupils’ books and listened to some pupils in Year 1 read. He met with a group of pupils to gain their views of the school. The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktime, lunchtime and at the end of the school day.  The inspector looked at a range of documentation including assessments and records of pupils’ progress, the school’s checks and records relating to safeguarding, child protection and attendance, records of how teaching is managed and the school improvement plans showing how well the school is doing.  Meetings were held with the executive headteachers, other staff and two governors. The inspector had a telephone conversation with a representative of the academy federation. He attended an assembly.  The inspector took account of the 22 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and the ten

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Information about this inspection

responses to the staff questionnaire. He also spoke to several parents at the end of the school day.

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Inspection team

Adam Hewett, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Llangrove CofE Academy converted to become an academy school in February 2013. When its predecessor school, Llangrove CofE Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, its overall effectiveness was judged to be satisfactory.  The academy forms part of the Herefordshire Marches Federation of Academies. The schools within the Federation of Academies are led by two executive headteachers who also provide leadership to other local schools.  This academy is very much smaller than the average-sized primary school.  Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage attend full time.  Pupils are taught in three mixed-aged classes. Pupils from Reception and Year 1 are taught in one class, pupils from Year 2 and Year 3 in another, and pupils from Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 in the third class.  Almost all pupils are of White British background. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below that in most schools.

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Information about this school

 The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is below the national average. This is additional government funding for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority. The pupil premium provides support for an eighth of the pupils in school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported at school action is one in ten pupils, which is below the national average. The proportion identified for additional support through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is one in ten pupils, which is above the national average.  In 2013, there were too few pupils in Year 6 for the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress, to be applicable.  A nursery operates on the school site. This is not managed by the governing body and was not part of this

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve the quality of teaching by making sure that:  the work set for the more-able pupils is sufficiently demanding in all lessons  teachers identify spelling mistakes in pupils’ writing and ensure that pupils accurately and consistently apply their spelling knowledge in all pieces of writing.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school is extremely well led by the two executive headteachers. They divide their time across all the schools within the academy federation but ensure that they have a deep knowledge and understanding of, and direct involvement in, each of the individual schools. They have set a clear direction for Llangrove Academy that has focused on using the staff expertise within the federation to improve teaching and raise achievement for pupils. This has resulted in teaching that is consistently good or better and higher standards of attainment.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteachers are very well supported by other school leaders both from across the federation and within the school. The deputy headteacher leads and manages the school on a day-to-day basis and is highly effective in this role due to her detailed knowledge of the individual pupils.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 School leaders rigorously analyse the results of effective monitoring and evaluation and set challenging targets for the progress each pupil is expected to make. Since becoming an academy, the school has introduced a detailed system of collection and tracking of pupil progress data that is used extremely well to set high expectations of what each pupil is expected to achieve.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The successful impact of actions taken by leaders to raise standards demonstrates the school’s capacity for sustained improvement.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Opportunities for staff from the school to work alongside other colleagues from within the Herefordshire Marches Academy Federation have been developed very well. This has allowed the sharing of expertise and improvements in teaching approaches.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school uses its primary sports funding to access a specialist sports teacher employed by the federation for one day each week. This has widened the sporting opportunities available to the pupils and has provided them with opportunities to compete successfully in competitions, including tag-rugby and gymnastics, against pupils from the other schools. This has contributed to improving pupils’ understanding of how they can keep healthy and their physical well-being.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The pupil premium funding has been used very effectively. It provides additional adult-led support to develop social and emotional understanding and extra help for mathematics and English for disadvantaged pupils. Staff are very aware of the particular needs of these pupils in school and monitor their progress closely.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The academy promotes equality of opportunity well. The school’s curriculum supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well. Subjects are taught through a series of interesting topics that enable pupils to develop their skills and knowledge across all subjects and to apply their reading, writing and mathematics abilities in their work. Pupils are provided with excellent opportunities to work with children from other schools and this helps them to broaden their knowledge of wider society and develop a deeper understanding of different beliefs and cultures.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The management of teachers’ performance is conducted extremely thoroughly, with appropriate targets set for each member of staff. Progress against these targets is monitored closely throughout the year and is supported by a comprehensive range of training activities. Teachers’ pay progression is firmly linked to the progress that pupils make and the impact of each teacher’s contribution to on-going improvement of the work of the school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  The school governors have become a very effective force in supporting and challenging school leaders to bring about the improvements that have taken place since the school opened as an academy. They use the comprehensive range of information and data that is made available to them to evaluate how well the school is doing in comparison with other schools nationally. Governors make regular visits to the school and have a good understanding of how the performance of both pupils and staff is checked. They have used the training opportunities that are available within the federation to develop their own skills as governors. Governors are fully aware of their responsibilities in ensuring that there are strong links between teachers’ performance and pay progression. They ensure that the resources that are available to the school, including the pupil premium, are used in appropriate ways to bring about

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The leadership and management are outstanding

improvements in achievement for all groups of pupils. They ensure that the school meets all legal requirements in relation to safeguarding and protecting the pupils.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils show a deep interest in their learning and their exemplary behaviour in lessons reflects this. They are polite, courteous and caring towards each other both in classrooms and on the playground. Older pupils support and show consideration for the youngest children in school and this helps the youngest children to settle in happily and quickly.

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Behaviour

 Pupils appreciate and value the good range of opportunities they have for taking responsibility within school. Activities such as a recent debate about the referendum in Scotland help them to develop a good understanding of the democratic systems that operate within Britain. There is no discrimination within the school.

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Behaviour

 The school has very good systems in place for identifying and recording any incidents of inappropriate behaviour or bullying and is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for its pupils. There is a whole- school approach to behaviour management that pupils understand. However, due to the exceptionally high levels of responsibility that pupils take for their own behaviour, sanctions are very rarely needed.

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Behaviour

 The school’s deep commitment to developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is reflected in their clear understanding of what is right and wrong and their appreciation of the school’s value of showing respect for all people.

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Behaviour

 The school places a strong emphasis on ensuring that pupils attend regularly. Good use is made of the welfare officer who is employed by the federation to maintain the above average attendance levels.

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Behaviour

 Parents’ views of the school are universally positive. They greatly appreciate the work that it does with their children and believe that the school has improved significantly since it became part of the federation.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. There are strong procedures in place to help keep the pupils safe when they are in school, including secure entrances and robust safeguarding arrangements. Pupils say that they feel extremely safe within school and feel confident about talking to any of the staff if they have any concerns.

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Safety

 Pupils have a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe in a wide range of situations, including road safety and when using the internet.

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Safety

 Pupils say that there is no bullying. They are taught about different types of bullying and recognise the upset that unkind words or actions could have on others.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is always good and sometimes outstanding. Relationships between adults and pupils are extremely positive in the three classes. Pupils are keen to learn and they settle quickly to the tasks that teachers set for them. Teaching assistants work very effectively with groups of pupils and are skilled in providing additional support and promoting learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 All teachers have high expectations of pupils and plan lively and interesting lessons with activities that are usually well suited to the differing ages of the pupils within the classes. For example, pupils in Reception and Year 1 developed their understanding of different types of measuring through making their own models of snakes and comparing the lengths using cubes and by deciding which type of measuring equipment was appropriate for different tasks.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The teaching of reading and mathematics is particularly effective and, as a result, pupils make very good progress in these subjects. The teaching of reading has improved as a result of the implementation of a whole-school approach to how phonics (the sounds that letters make) is taught.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The school gives very good support to disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. Pupils’ needs are identified quickly and additional support is then provided by the teachers and teaching assistants who are suitably trained to work with individuals or small groups of pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Computers are used effectively to support pupils’ learning. For example in a Year 4, 5 and 6 lesson, pupils used laptop computers to edit and redraft poems that they had written following a recent visit to Goodrich Castle and to then upload the pieces of work to the internet. This helped pupils produce high quality and interesting pieces of very well presented work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The headteachers have ensured that teachers’ assessment of pupils’ progress is accurate through regular opportunities to compare and discuss pieces of work with staff from other schools.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking of pupils’ work in mathematics is used very well to indicate to pupils how they have achieved and to show them how they can improve their work. Marking is linked closely to individual targets for improvement that pupils understand and apply well.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The skills of punctuation, grammar and spelling are mostly taught well. However, when teachers mark pupils’ writing, errors in spelling are not always identified and this slows pupils’ progress. Opportunities for pupils to write longer pieces of work have been increased and pupils use their writing skills well in other subjects such as science and history.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers usually set work that is appropriate for the different needs and abilities within the mixed-aged classes. However, there are occasions when the tasks set for the more-able pupils are too easy and this slows their progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Most children start in school with skills and knowledge that are typical for their age. They make good progress across the school and in 2013 and 2014, by the time they left the school, every pupil in Year 6 had made the progress expected of them in reading and mathematics with a very high proportion exceeding this.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well in reading and develop a love of books as they progress through the school. In the 2013 Year 1 phonic screening check, the proportion of pupils attaining the expected standard was above the national average. In 2014, the proportion had fallen slightly but evidence seen during the inspection and the school’s own data show that pupils make good progress in reading as they progress through the school, with additional one-to-one support for any pupils who require it.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Progress in writing has not been as strong but, in 2014, attainment in writing improved and progress was in line with mathematics and reading, with all pupils in Year 6 making at least the progress expected of them. Inspection evidence indicates that whilst standards of writing are improving, they are still not as high as in reading and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make progress that is at least in line with the other pupils in school. This is because teachers have the same high expectations for these pupils and additional high quality support is provided where required.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The small number of disadvantaged pupils make progress that is at least in line with their peers in school in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2013 and 2014, there were too few pupils in the cohorts to compare their attainment without risk of identifying the individuals. Additional funding has been used to provide small-group or one-to-one tuition which is matched to the individual learning needs of these pupils and helps them make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils do not consistently achieve as well as they could with too few pupils reaching the higher levels of attainment in mathematics, reading and writing by the end of Year 2 and too few reaching the higher levels of attainment in writing by the end of Year 6. This is due to the level of challenge for these pupils not always being sufficiently high in all lessons.

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The early years provision is good

 Children in Reception make a very positive start at school. They benefit from the good arrangements that are in place to allow them to spend time in their new class before they start in school. There is a strong relationship and sharing of information between the school and the independent nursery organisation that operates on the school site.

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The early years provision is good

 Parents spoke very positively of the support that had been given to their children when they started at the school and about how well informed they were about the progress that their children were making.

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The early years provision is good

 Teaching in Reception is good. The activities that are planned for the children allow them to develop skills across all the areas of learning. Children were able to make sensible choices about the activities that they engaged in and were enthusiastic about their learning.

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The early years provision is good

 School data from 2014 indicates that children had made good progress and that attainment was above average in most areas. Progress in language and communication and mathematical development was less strong than in other areas.

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The early years provision is good

 The behaviour of the children is outstanding. They respond quickly and sensibly to adult instructions and show great consideration for each other.

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The early years provision is good

 Leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage is outstanding. An experienced early years' leader from within the academy federation works closely with the Reception teacher to ensure that the provision is appropriate to the children’s needs. This has led to improvements in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms which are now vibrant spaces that stimulate the children’s interest and offer them a wide range of learning experiences.

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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 139313 Local authority Herefordshire Inspection number 448001

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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 Academy converter Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 48 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Roberta Woodcock Executive Headteachers Peter Box and Paul Whitcombe Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01989 770322 Email address admin@llangrove.hereford.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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