East Harling Primary School and Nursery

East Harling Primary School and Nursery Gallants Lane, East Harling, Norwich, NR16 2NQ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Early years provision Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 The quality of teaching across the school is not consistently good enough to ensure that pupils make good progress.  Teachers do not always set work at the right level of difficulty for different groups, particularly the most able pupils.  Teachers do not always know how well pupils, including the least able, have learned when they have been working with teaching assistants.  The headteacher’s and senior leaders’ monitoring has not been sufficiently rigorous to quickly bring about the necessary improvements in teaching.  Subject leaders are not given enough opportunities to check up on teaching and learning in their subjects so that they can help staff improve their practice.  The special educational needs coordinator is not given enough time to check on the effectiveness of the support provided for pupils who need extra help.  In the Nursery and Reception classes, the teaching of literacy and numeracy is not sufficiently well

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

planned or challenging to help children make good progress.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils in Years 1 to 6 enjoy an exciting range of learning activities, often taught through interesting ‘topics’ that link subjects together. Consequently, they are keen to learn.  Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They show consideration and respect for others.  Pupils enjoy school and feel safe. Parents agree that their children are happy and safe in school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited 15 lessons. They also observed pupils working in small groups with teachers and teaching assistants. Some of the observations were carried out together with the headteacher.  Inspectors visited break times, assemblies and lunch times.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, governors and staff. Inspectors spoke with separate groups of pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 as well as the school council.  A discussion was held with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors looked at a wide range of school documentation, including: the school’s own evaluation of its performance and its improvement plan; information about pupils’ progress and the support given to pupils who have special educational needs and those eligible for pupil premium funding. Inspectors also looked at records of leaders’ monitoring of teaching, and those relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in all year groups and heard some pupils from Year 1 read.  This inspection was part of Ofsted’s Parent View (online questionnaire) pilot for free-text comments from parents and carers. The views of 44 parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire were taken into account along with 22 responses to the staff questionnaire. Inspectors also spoke with some parents at the start of the school day.

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Inspection team

Cheryl Thompson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is an average-sized primary school. It has seven classes, one in each year group, including Reception, where pupils attend full time. There is also a nursery class each morning.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, at approximately eight per cent, is below average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium, at around seven per cent, is much lower than average. This extra funding is for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in care.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  Since the previous inspection, there have been staffing changes in Key Stage 1 and considerable changes to the governing body.  The school provides a breakfast club and an after-school club.

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Information about this school

 At the start of September 2014, the school became a founding member of the newly-formed Acorn Learning Alliance of four nearby schools. There are plans to include more schools in the future.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching and achievement by ensuring that teachers:  set high expectations for achievement, especially for the most and least able pupils, by providing challenging learning activities  keep a closer check on pupils’ learning, including those who find learning difficult, particularly when they have worked in groups with teaching assistants  provide activities in the early years that promote good progress in all areas of learning.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen the impact of leaders and governors on pupils’ achievement by ensuring that:  subject leaders have the time they need to check on pupils’ learning in books, lessons and when working with teaching assistants  findings from leaders’ monitoring of teaching and learning are used to provide teachers and teaching assistants with detailed advice about how to improve their practice

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders have not been effective enough in bringing about improvements at a good rate in the quality of teaching in order to ensure pupils make consistently good progress and raise standards. This is mainly because their checks on the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning are not rigorous enough to help teachers refine their skills.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Subject leaders have a reasonable understanding of the school’s data regarding the standards attained and pupils’ progress in the subjects for which they are responsible but have very few opportunities to observe learning in classes other than their own. As a consequence, they cannot unpick how colleagues’ teaching practice can be improved further and help them to do so in order to improve pupils’ progress and raise standards further.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The deputy headteacher is also the special educational needs coordinator. She provides a positive role model for colleagues in her own teaching practice, but does not have enough opportunities to check on how effective the provision is for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The arrangements for managing teachers’ performance are based on the national standards set for teachers. The individual targets set for staff relate to pupils’ progress and the development of teachers’ skills. Leaders ensure that teachers and teaching assistants have good opportunities to attend training.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Additional funding is used appropriately to provide the small number of disadvantaged pupils with extra support for their learning and to help them settle into school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Through astute analysis of data, the headteacher has a very clear understanding of how well pupils are making progress. This information is shared with governors. The school development plan itemises the correct areas for improvement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The recently revised way of teaching basic literacy skills is already having a good impact. The school’s data indicate that many more Year 1 pupils are on track to reach the expected standard in the 2015 national test.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school is an orderly and friendly community. Staff, pupils and parents comment most favourably on the strong ‘family ethos’. Equality of opportunity is promoted well. For example, disadvantaged pupils are enabled to join all class trips and visits.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The ‘topic’-based curriculum is good. English and mathematics are taught separately to ensure continuity of learning.Teachers make good links between other subjects and organise a wide range of first-hand experiences, for example, visits to museums or the chance to use artefacts from archaeological digs. They also organise their weekly timetables to allow pupils to continue their topic learning from day to day rather than in just one session per week. As a result, pupils are enthused to learn.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The curriculum and other aspects of teaching provide well for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of life in modern Britain. For example, pupils have many opportunities to take on responsibilities around the school; school councillors are democratically elected and are known by their peers as the first person to contact to put forward ideas for consideration by staff.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders successfully promote good behaviour and ensure pupils’ safety. Parents speak highly of how all staff know all pupils and care for them. Parents are confident that the school responds rapidly to any concerns they may have.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The national primary school sports funding is used well to widen the range of sports on offer. It has a good impact on pupils’ enthusiasm and success in a wide range of sports. Staff have developed their skills in teaching physical education, including adventurous outdoor activities, through attending a year-long training programme.  Over time, the school has worked very well with other local schools to organise, for example, training for staff. The newly-formed alliance with other local schools is about to appoint a new business manager to develop further the schools’ financial expertise.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority has an accurate overview of the school’s performance and has provided the headteacher with good opportunities to work with a ‘local leader of education’. Staff and governors have taken every advantage of the local authority’s training courses.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Almost all governors are relatively newly appointed. They have a wide range of skills to bring to their role, in areas such as accountancy and law, and have all attended a good deal of training. They have developed a good understanding of their roles and are beginning to ask challenging questions regarding pupils’ progress.  The headteacher provides the governors with clear information about the quality of teaching and data about pupils’ progress. Governors understand requirements related to the management of staff performance and the importance of promotion and salary increases being linked to pupils’ progress.  Governors ensure that extra funding is used wisely but have yet to check rigorously on the impact of the spending in each year group. They check that the school is promoting values and qualities that prepare pupils for life in a global and modern British society.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Governors ensure that all safeguarding procedures meet requirements.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. They take a keen interest in learning, especially their topic work. They know that they come to school to learn and work hard in lessons. Even when the most able pupils complete their work quickly, they find something else useful to occupy them and do not misbehave.

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Behaviour

 The school’s record of incidents shows that behaviour is usually good. Unacceptable behaviour is dealt with swiftly and parents kept informed. Attendance is above average.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ personal qualities develop well. They are courteous and considerate to others. Older pupils demonstrate positive qualities such as tolerance, a sense of fairness and an understanding that, with rights, there are also responsibilities. In an assembly related to Children in Need activities, they demonstrated a mature sense of empathy when comparing their own lives with those less fortunate than themselves.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in school, at home and in the community. Within school, they show concern for the safety of each other.

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Safety

 Pupils have a good understanding of bullying and the different forms it could take, such as name calling and cyber-bullying. They are confident that there is very little, if any, bullying in the school. They are very positive that staff would deal with their concerns.

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Safety

 Older pupils have a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of social media. They have an appropriate understanding of how to keep themselves safe when using the internet.

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Safety

 Almost all parents agree that their children are happy at school, feel safe and are well looked after. These positive views reflect the findings of the inspection.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Although teachers know their pupils’ abilities well, they are not always using this knowledge to set the highest of expectations and work with the right level of challenge to promote good achievement.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The work set for the most able pupils is not always at a level to stretch their thinking and extend their learning. These pupils are keen to work hard but on occasions, when they have finished tasks, they are expected to sit and read rather than being given a more challenging task to attempt.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Disabled pupils, those who have special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils have plenty of support from teaching assistants. Some pupils spend their literacy and mathematics group time with teaching assistants who help them to complete their tasks. However, teachers do not always keep a sufficiently close check on how well these pupils are learning, either by working with them occasionally themselves, or by reviewing the work they have done in their groups. As a result, teachers cannot always be sure that pupils are making good progress during group work

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In mathematics, the middle-ability pupils are taught more effectively than the most and least able pupils. In the older classes, the use of plain paper for calculations causes difficulties for pupils who cannot keep numbers neatly in columns. Teaching assistants help pupils with their work but cannot always see why a pupil finds learning difficult. The most able pupils do not always have work at the right level of difficulty to challenge them and help them to apply skills to different problems.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Discussions with several groups and individuals indicate that teachers do not always let pupils know the long-term targets for their attainment. Teachers mark pupils’ work regularly, although with varying degrees of helpfulness in terms of telling pupils what they need to do to improve it. When the marking does point out what pupils must do, they are very keen to respond and do so very well.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 A key strength throughout the school is the excellent relationships between teachers and their pupils. Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour very well so that no time is wasted. They provide excellent role models in their kindness and good manners, which pupils copy. Relationships between pupils are also excellent and this facilitates good learning in ‘partner discussions’.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The teaching of phonics has been strengthened with a new highly structured approach to developing literacy skills. Teachers are following this and, in the main, pupils’ understanding and ability to use phonics to help them read and spell are developing at a good rate.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers’ assessments of their pupils’ attainment and progress are accurate. The close links with local schools have provided a good number of opportunities for teachers to work together to moderate their assessments.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers are very keen to improve their practice, and demonstrate this with a very high attendance at training courses.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ achievement fluctuates over time. National data for the past three years indicate that in 2013 pupils made an average rate of progress from the end of Year 2 to the end of Year 6, but in 2012 and 2014 progress was below average. Pupils generally achieve better in reading than in writing and mathematics. This is because the most and least able pupils are not always achieving as well as they should.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The most able pupils do not always have work to challenge them in order to move them on in their learning at a good rate. Consequently, they do not always make the progress of which they are capable, especially in writing. National and school data show that not enough of these pupils make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In each year group, the number of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is small. By the end of Year 6, data indicate that they generally make the progress expected in reading and writing. However, the same pupils do not always make the expected progress in mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The very small number of disadvantaged pupils in each year group are too small to report on their attainment without risk of identifying individual pupils. However, most make expected progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In the past three years the proportion of Year 1 pupils achieving the expected standard in the national phonics check has been considerably below average. Standards are on track to be higher in next year’s check because teaching has improved and pupils are making better progress.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Children start in the early years with levels of knowledge, understanding and skills broadly typical for their age. By the end of the Reception year, attainment is similar to the national picture. Children are suitably prepared for their start in Year 1.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Children’s achievement requires improvement because teachers do not always make sure that the learning activities are at the right level of difficulty for different groups. Some activities are not challenging enough to fully engage children and make sure they make good progress.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The teaching of early literacy and numeracy skills requires improvement. Staff do not take sufficient account of what children already know and need to learn next when planning activities. Consequently, children do not make the progress of which they are capable, particularly the more-able children.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 All adults establish positive relationships with the children and their parents. Children feel safe and grow in confidence, relating well to other children and adults. Behaviour is good; children share and take turns readily.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement. Leaders’ checks are not rigorous enough to help teachers refine their teaching and the learning opportunities they provide for children.

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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 121019 Local authority Norfolk Inspection number 448685

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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 Foundation Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 219 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ingrid Sykes Headteacher Amanda Yates Date of previous school inspection 2–3 December 2009 Telephone number 01953 717221 Fax number 01953 717977 Email address office@eastharling.norfolk.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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