Luckington Community School

School report Luckington Community School

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The Green, Luckington, Wiltshire, SN14 6NU

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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 Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The staff of this inclusive and caring community school ensure that pupils feel safe and valued.  Pupils make good and improving progress in reading, writing and mathematics due to the good teaching they receive.  The school takes effective steps to promote all pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This helps all pupils to develop the skills and personal qualities needed to work with others in the school and the community.  Parents, pupils and staff are extremely positive about all aspects of the school.  Teachers have strong subject knowledge and use this to plan interesting lessons for the pupils.  Pupils are proud of their school and have excellent behaviour. They take on responsibilities within the school as they get older and this supports their growing independence. Pupils value highly the caring culture of their school.  The headteacher and governors have a good knowledge of the school and have taken prompt

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

action to ensure that standards of teaching remain high.  Provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage is good. Children learn well from sharing the experiences of the older pupils in the same class.  The school prepares pupils very well for the next stage in their education and parents report how well older siblings have settled into their new school.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Although some disadvantaged pupils make good progress they are not yet catching up with the performance of other pupils nationally or in the school, particularly in mathematics.  Teaching is not yet consistently outstanding.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed both classes for three different sessions each, three of these jointly with the headteacher.  He heard pupils read and attended an assembly.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, other members of staff, the Chair of the Governing Body and one other governor, and a telephone call was held with a representative of the local authority. The inspector met a group of pupils, as well as talking with them in lessons and at playtimes.  The views of parents were ascertained by analysing 23 responses posted on the online questionnaire (Parent View). In addition to this, the inspector examined letters from parents and met parents before and after school.  The inspectors looked at pupils’ books and a range of documents, including the school’s own data on pupils’ current attainment and progress, the school’s evaluation of its performance, school improvement planning, documentation relating to teachers’ performance over time, and records relating to

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Information about this inspection

safeguarding.  An analysis of the staff questionnaire (nine responses), together with an ongoing dialogue with teachers and teaching assistants, gave the inspectors an insight into the views of the staff.

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Inspection team

Tom Morrison, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a much smaller-than-average sized primary school with two mixed-age classes.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported at school action is around average.  The school provides full-time Early Years Foundation Stage provision. There is a separately managed pre- school on the school site.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the additional funding known as the pupil premium is well below average. The pupil premium is additional funding for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority.  The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.  There have been staff changes on a temporary basis during the past year.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently outstanding by:  further developing the role of support staff in promoting learning and independence of pupils  teachers observing each other and sharing practice to improve learning.  Improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs, especially in mathematics, by planning interventions based on a more accurate knowledge of their effectiveness.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher and the governing body have high aspirations for the school and its pupils and communicate those to staff and the wider community. The school’s vision and entitlement statement is embodied in the good relationships and strong practice throughout the school community.  The headteacher has taken strong actions to improve teaching, including holding teachers and other staff to account for their performance, and acting quickly to support staff that are new to the school. She has a very good understanding of the quality of teaching, and of the strengths and areas for improvement of staff. This has enabled appropriate training, linked to individual and school improvement plans, and has resulted in good and improving teaching and achievement.  The curriculum has a themed approach through which key skills are developed, supplemented by published schemes to address specific concepts or knowledge. This allows staff the flexibility to create

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The leadership and management are good

exciting and varied lessons. Together with a wide variety of clubs, activities and trips, this ensures that all pupils are interested and enjoy school life. As a result there is equality of opportunity and no discrimination.  Assemblies, activities and lessons in history, religious education and personal, social and health education teach pupils about tolerance for other cultures, life in modern Britain and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.  The early years provision is effective and there are very good arrangements to ensure that transition into the school, between classes and on to secondary school is smooth, particularly for pupils with additional needs.  The school has prioritised literacy and this has resulted in pupils making good progress. This is shown by the actions to support those pupils that did not reach the Year 1 phonics (letters and the sounds they make) threshold and by the strong progress that pupils make in reading and writing during Key Stage 2.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school has made good use of additional funding to develop physical education. The pupils were enthusiastic about the range of sporting opportunities and the competitions that ‘the headteacher enters us for’. All pupils that were questioned were involved in some sporting activity and they particularly enjoyed the physical education lessons taught by the ‘coach’.  The school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils meet statutory requirements. Leaders ensure that practice is up to date by completing a yearly audit. The school always aims to meet the outstanding criteria in this audit. Staff training on safeguarding is up to date, and forms part of the induction processes for new staff.  Disadvantaged pupils are supported well by additional funding to pay for staff, software and resources. This is carefully detailed on the school website. However, these interventions are not always monitored carefully enough to demonstrate how effective they have been.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority provides light-touch support for this good school in line with its policies.  The headteacher has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development for the school. For example, the current school development plan highlights actions to improve teaching and learning through teachers observing each other and sharing practice. The headteacher prioritises action to remediate any pressing concerns and ensures that reports and monitoring documents are available when scheduled by the governing body. However, not all documentation was quickly available for the inspection and full information about the curriculum is not published on the school website.  The governance of the school:  Governors have a good understanding of the school through regular meetings, visits to the school and meetings with key staff. They each take responsibility for a subject and use observations and

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The leadership and management are good

assessment information to help challenge the school on performance. Every year subject leaders present a report to governors on the development plan for the subject.  Governors are aware of nationally produced information about the school’s performance. They triangulate their understanding by gaining information about the quality of teaching. They are clear that staff pay progression is linked to good performance.  Governor financial management is effective in balancing the budget while improving the environment of the school. Governors are aware of how the additional funding for sport and disadvantaged pupils is used and can see the benefit to pupils of greater physical activity. It is not clear how the governors monitor whether the funding for disadvantaged pupils has resulted in improved outcomes.  The governors have a wide range of useful skills and make sure that their training is up to date. They

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The leadership and management are good

provide a good level of challenge to the headteacher, ensuring that pupils’ achievement is improving. They are fully aware of the steps that have been taken to improve staff performance, and use pupil progress information to make decisions about salary progression.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils are punctual to lessons, move between activities quickly and calmly, take responsibility in the classroom and outside, and show through their actions how much they love the school. They are very enthusiastic about their learning across different subjects and year groups.  Pupils, parents and staff are unanimous in their agreement that behaviour is excellent and the school’s actions to promote positive behaviour are very strong.  There is a very caring culture in the school which is exemplified by the way that older pupils support younger pupils with their work and in other ways. For example, a Year 6 pupil organises an ‘assault course’ for the younger pupils each week and this week planned to do this inside to avoid the danger of slipping in the wet. There is a large wall display showing the thanks from a range of charities for the large amount of money that the pupils have raised over the past year.

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Behaviour

 The school has taken very effective action to improve the behaviour of pupils with particular needs through behaviour contracts and ‘social stories’. This has meant that potential disruption has been minimised. Other pupils in the classes give strong support to these pupils and parents are extremely happy with the way that the school has managed and improved this behaviour.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  All staff and parents who responded to the questionnaires feel that the pupils are very safe in the school. Pupils feel completely safe and are very confident about keeping themselves safe including when using the internet.  Arrangements to keep pupils safe are well thought through. Policies are up to date and audited annually by the governors and senior staff. Staff training and governor safeguarding training is up to date.  Risk assessments for the school site and for trips out of school are very thorough and the school has organised visitors and visiting activities to help the pupils understand how to stay safe.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching over time is consistently good. The school has acted swiftly to support pupils and staff during change with a result that pupils continue to make good progress across all subjects including reading, writing and mathematics. Records of teaching from the past few years show how teaching has improved.  Teachers have a very good understanding of individual pupils’ strengths and weaknesses and use this to plan appropriately challenging activities to further learning. The headteacher has taken action to ensure that this careful individual planning is safeguarded during a period of staff change and the new teachers have benefited from this.  The work in pupils’ books from last year and this year show that pupils make good progress in their understanding and knowledge over time. The teachers carefully mark and assess the pupils’ work and make helpful comments which are acted upon. Pupils understand the marking system and value the help

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The quality of teaching is good

that they get. The school has taken action over the past year to improve the system and ensure consistency across the school and this has been successful.  Teachers have good subject knowledge and use this to plan interesting lessons that develop pupils’ understanding. Effective classroom management skills and high expectations of pupils mean that pupils are enthusiastic about their learning and work hard. Teaching assistants are often skilful in supporting the learning of pupils. The school plans to develop their expertise further so that interventions and support accelerate the progress that pupils make and help them to become increasingly independent in their learning.  During lessons teachers question pupils carefully to probe for misconceptions and develop understanding. In one mathematics lesson the teacher skilfully used a pupil’s response to develop the topic in an interesting way and extend all pupils’ understanding.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The school has deployed a range of support and intervention to help disabled pupils, those with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils. In some cases this has been very successful in increasing their progress, but this is not yet consistently so across all subjects.

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is good

 The achievement of pupils is good and rising strongly due to good teaching in a safe and supportive environment.  Pupils in Year 1 develop their skills in phonics well. In 2014, they achieved levels broadly in line with those nationally in the Year 1 phonics check, and this was an improvement from the previous year. The school provided good support for those pupils that did not reach the threshold last year with the result that they achieved well in reading at Key Stage 1.  Due to the careful way that teachers match activities to the ability of the pupils more able pupils have achieved well above similar pupils nationally for the past three years in reading, writing and mathematics. The high degree of challenge given to these pupils has ensured that they make particularly strong progress.  The school is successful in developing pupils’ reading skills. There is good communication with parents about pupils’ reading development through reading journals. Pupils enjoy reading and read books from a

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is good

wide range of genres and authors.  The school has developed a range of activities to support the learning of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, and also to help improve their physical development. Some pupils have made good progress through this provision, but there are not enough pupils in this group in the school to make reliable comparisons with national data.  There are too few pupils in school who are eligible for support through additional funding to make accurate comparisons between their achievement and that of other pupils in school, or with other pupils nationally. Individual pupils have made the progress needed to achieve their targets but this is not consistent for all such pupils.

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is good

 Careful planning and good organisation provide a stimulating learning environment for Reception children in this mixed age class. The younger children are keen to take part in the learning activities for the older children and this helps them to make good progress. The Year 1 and Year 2 pupils are able to show responsibility and to take care of the younger children and this helps them to develop. Children benefit from a mixture of structured activities aimed at helping them make progress in particular areas of learning, and activities chosen from the ‘activity wall’ – a set of photographs with spaces for children to add their names.  High expectations and well-established routines have created a culture of excellent behaviour and attitudes. The strong procedures and well thought through policies ensure that children are safe and thrive during the Reception year. Transitions between activities are smooth and there is strong support

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is good

for pupils with particular needs.  Parents report that children settle into the Reception Year very quickly and that transition from the pre- school to this class and eventually into the Key Stage 2 class are seamless. The parents report that it is easy to talk to the teacher if they have any concerns and that these are followed up quickly.  Cohorts are small and comparisons with national outcomes can be unreliable. Systems for recording the learning and progress of individual children and for communicating this to parents are well developed, but summaries of this for groups of children and for learning areas are not so well developed. Nevertheless, the individual tracking ensures that children make at least expected progress and in 2014 made strong progress. Parents were particularly complimentary about the comprehensive learning journals demonstrating their child’s development throughout the year.

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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 126200 Local authority Wiltshire Inspection number 448593

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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 53 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mrs Lesley Bennett Headteacher Mrs Julia Hind Date of previous school inspection 2–3 March 2010 Telephone number 01666 840297 Fax number 01666 840297 Email address admin@luckington.wilts.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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