Newchurch Primary School

School Lane, Newchurch, Isle of Wight, PO36 0NL

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 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

 The leadership of the executive headteacher and head of school is exceptionally strong. They have very effectively created leadership teams that are firmly focused on working to achieve excellence.  The leaders' view of the school's performance is very thorough and accurate. It clearly identifies the impact that teaching has on pupils’ achievement. Weaker aspects are then speedily addressed.  The school is already successfully tackling remaining weaknesses and the rate of improvement is accelerating. It is very well placed to improve further.  Pupils’ achievement is good. Newchurch is much better than most schools at helping pupils to attain the expected levels in reading, writing and mathematics.  Newchurch has adapted well to the needs of the older pupils now in the school. Their progress is accelerating and attainment is rising.  Children get off to an excellent start in Reception and make rapid progress. The large majority of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

children reach a good level of development.  Due to outstanding support for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, their behaviour is outstanding.  Excellent safeguarding arrangements help keep pupils safe at all times. The school is an exceptionally happy and safe place to be.  Teaching quality, which is regularly checked and very well supported, is uniformly good. The quality is improving well, with some outstanding teaching being observed during the inspection.  The federated governing body is exceptionally well led. Newchurch benefits from the widened expertise of federation governors. Governors are very well informed about pupils’ achievement and the effect teaching has on this outcome.  The curriculum has been exceptionally well adapted to take account of new government requirements and pupils’ needs, interests and talents.  The new assessment arrangements are very effective at helping pupils to improve.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because:

 Teaching and learning are not yet consistently outstanding. In some lessons pupils have too few opportunities to test out their ideas before tackling their work.  Expectations for the organisation and presentation of pupils’ work are not always high enough.  The most able pupils do not make as rapid progress in reading and writing as they do in mathematics.  Lower-attaining pupils are not always supported as well in class as in their special groups.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 12 lessons or parts of lessons, most of which were joint observations with the executive headteacher or head of school. In addition, the inspection team made a number of other short visits to group or individual activities which were to help pupils who have fallen behind to catch up. They visited some activities to accelerate the progress of the most able pupils. Inspectors heard a sample of pupils read and scrutinised a sample of pupils’ written work.  Meetings were held with pupils, members of the governing body and staff, including senior and middle managers along with representatives of the federation. A conversation was held with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 70 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and a small number of parents and carers bringing their children to school were also spoken to.  Responses from the 28 staff questionnaires were analysed.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised a number of documents including the school’s records on current pupils’ progress, behaviour and attendance. Documents relating to planning, checks undertaken and safeguarding were also looked at.

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Inspection team

Diane Wilkinson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Newchurch is a smaller than the average-sized primary school with one class in each year group.  The proportion pupils with special educational needs is below the national average.  Most pupils are of White British heritage. Very few come from minority ethnic groups. No pupil is at the early stages of learning English or speaks English as a second language.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the additional funding (the pupil premium) is well below average. This funding is to provide extra support for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after.  The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school has changed considerably since its last inspection when it admitted pupils up to nine years of age. As a result of primary reorganisation in the area it now admits pupils up to the age of 11. Due to the

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Information about this school

size of the building the number of pupils in each year group has decreased.  At the time of the inspection reception children were attending full time.  Since April 2014, Newchurch has been in a federation with Nettlestone Primary School. Both schools share an executive headteacher and governing body. Staff work closely with Nettlestone on a range of monitoring and improvement work. In addition, staff expertise has been used to support development work at Nettlestone, such as in the Early Years Foundation Stage.  Newchurch supports development work across a number of other local schools.  Newchurch Nursery operates from the school site and provides before and after school care for pupils. The nursery is managed by a private provider and was inspected separately in 2012.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the rate of pupils’ progress by ensuring that:  the quality of support provided in lessons for pupils who are attaining below or close to the level expected for their age is as good as that in the extra group activities provided  challenging activities are provided for the most able pupils so their achievement is as good in reading and writing as in mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further enhance the quality of teaching so it is outstanding through:  consistently expecting pupils to organise and record their work neatly and legibly  ensuring pupils have regular opportunities to test out their ideas before tackling their work.

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The leadership and management are good

 The executive headteacher and head of school have gained the confidence and commitment of all who work in the school. This ensures that there is a very strong emphasis on improving the quality of pupils’ learning, which has accelerated well over the last year. Subject and other middle leaders are very well supported and play an effective role in bringing about improvement.  Leaders are constantly checking the effect that teaching has on pupils’ progress, for example through checking the quality of teaching and scrutinies of pupils’ work. As a result, where any pupils are not doing as well as they should, effective strategies are put in place to address the issue. This has ensured that equality of opportunity is promoted well, and more pupils make the expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics than in most schools.  Having successfully raised the rate of progress, leaders turned their attention to increasing the proportion

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The leadership and management are good

of pupils making much better progress and higher levels of attainment than expected. This has paid off especially well in mathematics. Current priorities are targeted at gaining the same results in reading and writing where leaders recognise that more still needs to be done.  Leaders ensure that additional funding is used well to help disadvantaged pupils. Their progress is at least good and sometimes better than their classmates’. Most reach the expected standards in reading and mathematics by Year 6.  Support to improve the quality of teaching is very effective. Staff are set challenging targets for improving pupils’ achievement. Staff new to the profession or to the school quickly adopt practices that work well at Newchurch and their individual teaching expertise is encouraged. These strengths supported the change in size of year groups and age range very effectively.  The recently introduced curriculum provides excellent opportunities for pupils to do well. Activities are very

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The leadership and management are good

rich, interesting and challenging and links between subjects make learning relevant and meaningful. The new assessment arrangements are equally good; pupils have a very good awareness of how to do better. The full effect of these developments on pupils’ achievement is not yet evident, but it is clear they help to accelerate rates of progress. Extra activities, in clubs, visits and through exciting experiences provided by visitors, are very good.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and development is excellent. Developing British values, such as tolerance and fair play and the discouragement of extremist behaviour, helps prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. Newchurch pupils are very caring towards one another, polite and helpful to visitors, willingly take on responsibilities and are very well prepared for the future. Leaders ensure that behaviour is outstanding.  The school has benefited in a range of ways since federation with Nettlestone; for example in joint

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The leadership and management are good

monitoring procedures and checking the accuracy of assessment. Opportunities for staff development have improved exceptionally well. Newchurch leaders provide support for Nettlestone staff where relevant.  Parents and carers are highly appreciative of the school and very well informed, including through an especially effective website. Their work with reception staff in helping children settle in to school is exemplary.  Safeguarding fully meets requirements. The policies, procedures and vigilance of staff are excellent, as is the level of care to pupils and their families and all who work in the school.  The sports funding grant has been used to good effect in increasing pupils’ participation in sport and providing expert teaching in a wide range of activities.  As it is a successful school the local authority rightly provides only low-level monitoring. Newchurch leaders, however, have wisely used the expertise of officers, especially in developing the skills of middle

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The leadership and management are good

leaders.  The governance of the school:  The school benefits from the very strong governing body, which has increased its expertise well in a range of aspects since federation. This helps ensure that governors hold leaders to account especially well, for example, by comparing pupils’ achievement with that of pupils in similar schools and schools nationally. They are very much integrated in the school community. Teamwork with staff, especially on monitoring and improvement work, is excellent. Hence governors have a very good understanding of pupils’ achievement, the quality of teaching and dealing with any underperformance. Their knowledge is used to very good effect in carrying out their performance management duties. The procedures for this are very good. Governors have excellent information to use when deciding salary increases. Governors’ continuous pursuit of value for money is evident in the effective allocation of additional funding which is

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The leadership and management are good

closing the gap for vulnerable pupils well.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils have an excellent awareness of the British values set out in the moral and social expectations of the school. They gain an excellent understanding of how to behave in a wide range of situations both in school and beyond.  Excellent support for pupils who find it difficult to behave consistently well ensures their behaviour improves especially well over time.  Exceptionally good support helps reception children adopt very effective learning behaviour from the start. Pupils greatly enjoy school and are very keen to work hard. They have a real thirst for learning so that as staff raise the demands made on them as they move through the school, pupils respond very positively. This is clearly evident in the extra work Year 6 pupils undertake to reach the higher attainment levels in national tests.  Attendance levels are consistently above average and there are few poor attenders.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ relationships with adults and each other are exceptionally strong. Throughout the school pupils get on very well together and, when asked to do so, work very effectively in groups or pairs. Playtimes and lunchtimes are very harmonious occasions.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  The school very successfully fosters good relations and discourages discrimination. Pupils develop an excellent awareness of the tolerance and respect they should show towards others who may have different backgrounds, cultures or religions. They are very well prepared for living in a diverse British and global society.  Bullying in any form is extremely rare and pupils and their parents and carers report that any that occurs is always dealt with speedily and successfully.  Very good attention is given to moving around the school safely. Equally, pupils are very well prepared and know how to avoid dangers in the wider world. For example, teaching ensured in one lesson that pupils fully understood the role of sports officials and how they should respond to them.  A great deal of work has been undertaken to ensure that pupils are very well informed on how to avoid

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Safety

hazards when using the internet, including social media.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is consistently good. This a testimony to the very strong support for teaching quality by the executive headteacher and head of school. It has ensured that learning is at least good, despite staff changes and the retraining undertaken for teaching the older year groups.  Staff explain and demonstrate new learning clearly so most pupils quickly grasp what is expected of them. They are rigorous in checking how well pupils are doing throughout lessons, adapting the level of support or providing more challenging activities as needed. Teachers’ marking of written work is equally good, giving pupils very good advice on how to improve.  Pupils’ improvement targets are used to very good effect to check progress towards them, including by the pupils themselves. They have an excellent awareness of what to do next. However, occasionally, staff do not give pupils sufficient opportunities to decide how to tackle a new problem before doing so.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The expectations staff have of the way pupils should present their work is too variable. A minority of staff do not reinforce the importance of good organisation well enough. This affects pupils’ capability, for example, to accurately complete a mathematics calculation. Some otherwise good writing is marred by poor handwriting and careless spelling, which limits pupils’ achievement.  The management of pupils’ behaviour is excellent so learning rarely slows in lessons. Pupils work very well together in groups or pairs.  Teachers use curriculum guidance very effectively to plan challenging activities for pupils working at different stages. This helps ensure important literacy and numeracy skills are consistently taught well.  Teaching ensures those needing extra help in their literacy or mathematics reach average attainment levels. It also ensures those pupils who could work in greater depth or beyond the levels expected for

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The quality of teaching is good

their age are challenged in their learning. Specialist teachers and well-trained teaching assistants play a very effective role. However, sometimes support for these groups of pupils, especially the less able, is not quite as good.  The special group for pupils who find learning especially difficult (called The Challenge Group) has had a major success in ensuring most of the pupils who attend it achieve well and reach the expected Level 4 by the end of Year 6.  Teaching in Reception is outstanding because staff consistently look for ways in which to help children learn very effectively. This is most notable in the recent developments in the teaching of writing.  Homework is used to very good effect to support learning, often helping pupils to prepare for the next activity or test their skills; for example, in mental mathematics. Longer-term homework projects are very effective in helping pupils to achieve in a range of subjects and to show their talents.

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is good

 Due to pupils joining or leaving the school after Reception it is difficult to make comparisons across year groups. Inspection evidence clearly indicates that from their starting points, most pupils make at least good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Their progress is improving well.  In all subjects more pupils than are seen nationally make the expected rate of progress and the very large majority attain the levels expected for their age by Year 6. Their attainment is consistently above average in reading, writing and mathematics. Over the past year, progress and attainment in mathematics have risen swiftly, especially for the most able pupils.  Reception children get off to an excellent start and achieve exceptionally well. By the end of the year their attainment is above average.  In reading, the strong promotion of learning the sounds letters make in words (phonics) helps ensure

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is good

results in the Years 1 and 2 phonics screening check are above average. Pupils’ attainment is rising well and is above average.  A few pupils still find it difficult to read the sounds correctly. Very effective special activities help them to catch up well by Year 6 although the level of in-class support for them is not quite as good.  Most Year 6 pupils read widely and often, covering a range of genres. They develop a strong capacity to gain information from the text and to make astute observations about characters or story lines.  In writing, a strong emphasis on encouraging boys’ commitment and enthusiasm is paying off especially well. This has increased Year 2 pupils’ attainment in writing which had been declining. By Year 6, attainment in writing is consistently above average. Pupils’ use of grammar, punctuation and spelling is very good. Their style of language, for example in writing ‘a ship's log’, is very effective. The presentation

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is good

of Year 6 pupils’ work is good. It is less good in other year groups.  Year 2 pupils gain a very good understanding of mathematical place value and basic calculation. This is built on well in older year groups. Year 6 pupils work very confidently, for example with negative numbers, data and a wide range of mathematical problems.  The most able pupils achieve well, exceptionally so in mathematics where highly challenging learning activities increased the proportion reaching the higher Level 5 and very high Level 6 in national assessments. Their achievement in reading and writing is not quite as good, but improving rapidly this year.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress, especially in the special support activities they attend. The Challenge Group in particular has been very effective. As a result, the majority reach the levels expected in reading, writing and mathematics by Year 6.

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is good

 The school uses additional funding well to help vulnerable pupils catch up. Numbers are too small to be able to make an overall judgement about how well they are closing the attainment gap on their peers. Inspection evidence shows that their progress is at least good and sometimes better than their classmates’. Most reach the expected Level 4 in reading and mathematics by Year 6. Their attainment in writing is improving well.  At the time of the inspection there were no pupils in the school who speak English as an additional language. Pupils from minority ethnic background achieve as well as their peers.

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is outstanding

 The provision is exceptionally well led and managed by a team that is very skilled at helping children to learn important academic and personal skills.  Their work is underpinned exceptionally well by the very strong induction procedures in place. Liaison with the private nursery on site is excellent and children pay many visits to the school before they start in Reception. Parents are fully involved at all stages of the process and their knowledge of their child is used to exceptionally good effect to get children learning from the start.  The quality of teaching is outstanding. Both the indoor and outdoor accommodation is arranged exceptionally well to support high-quality learning. This prepares children very well for their start in Year 1.  Adults explain new learning very clearly, including the learning of phonic sounds or how to form letters and numbers. They are very skilled at questioning or prompting children to find out an answer.

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is outstanding

 Reception staff are very good at helping children to become capable learners. Children are encouraged to make decisions, ask for help if they need it and recognise what they can do with very little help, for example, in choosing their own resources.  Outstanding attention is given to developing children’s moral and social skills so that their behaviour is always especially good and they work and play very happily together.  Excellent attention is given to children’s safety, most notably in handling tools and equipment and deciding which activities are safe to do and when there might be a hazard.  The acquisition of early literacy and numeracy skills is given high priority. Resources that engage and motivate children to read, write or calculate are very good. For example, children greatly enjoyed writing down the orders in the ‘fast food outlet’. They quickly become skilled at adding two or three numbers to

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is outstanding

reach the correct total.  Natural resources such as rocks or seeds are used for counting, and the environment used to very good effect to help children develop their understanding of the world.  Children make excellent progress in all areas of learning, with the large majority reaching a good level of development, including in important literacy and numeracy 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 118162 Local authority Isle of Wight Inspection number 444281

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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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 205 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair David Botell Executive headteacher Kirsty Howarth Head of school Vanessa Hicks Date of previous school inspection 9 June 2009 Telephone number 01983 865210 Fax number 01983 865210 Email address admin.newchurchp@lineone.net 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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