Barton Stacey Church of England Primary School

Barton Stacey Church of England Primary School The Green, Roberts Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 3RY

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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

 Despite a period of significant change, determined effort by the interim headteacher and governors to maintain an effective school with good teaching and achievement has been successful.  The strong leadership of the interim headteacher is supported well by senior leaders in the relentless drive for further improvement.  A dip in standards in mathematics has been rigorously addressed. By Year 6, standards in reading, writing and mathematics are above average.  Consistently good teaching with some outstanding features ensures that all groups of pupils make good progress from their various starting points.  Pupils who find learning difficult and those who are disadvantaged make very good progress because their needs are especially well met through very well-managed interventions and high-quality support.  Well-organised induction procedures ensure a confident start for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Carefully planned and exciting

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

learning opportunities and effective teaching enable them to make good progress. This prepares them well for Year 1.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Exemplary behaviour is typified by a high level of mutual respect between adults and pupils. Pupils thoroughly enjoy school, are keen to learn and get along very well together. Bullying is extremely rare.  Parents express highly positive views of the school. They spoke very warmly to the inspector of all that it offers. They demonstrate their support by pupils’ excellent attendance.  Pupils’ secure sense of right and wrong and their well-developed social skills are a direct consequence of the school’s values of ‘Learn Care Share Achieve’. These underpin the strong provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Some teachers do not yet have all the skills they need to plan work that is sufficiently challenging so that pupils make the best possible progress. This is particularly the case for the middle-ability pupils.  Pupils do not have sufficient opportunities to develop a strong understanding of the different cultures that exist today in the wider world and in modern Britain.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector visited nine lessons and observed five teachers, and was accompanied for all observations by members of the school’s senior leadership team. Teaching assistants were also observed working with individual pupils and small groups. The inspector also talked to pupils about their work and heard individual pupils from Years 2, 5 and 6 read.  A wide range of documents were scrutinised, including systems for checking progress, records relating to behaviour and attendance, safeguarding procedures and the school’s analysis of how well it is doing and how it plans to improve. Records of monitoring of the quality of teaching and the minutes of the governing body meetings were also examined.  The inspector looked at samples of pupils’ work across a range of subjects and classes.  Meetings were held with members of the governing body, school staff and groups of pupils. Individual pupils were spoken to in lessons and around the school. A meeting took place with a school adviser from

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Information about this inspection

the local authority.  Questionnaires from 10 members of staff were analysed. The inspector took account of the views expressed in the 38 online responses from Parent View and informal meetings at the school during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Anna Sketchley, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 Barton Stacey Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school. Most pupils attend from the village and the surrounding area. A small minority of pupils are from families serving in the armed forces.  All children in the Early Years Foundation Stage attend school full time.  All pupils are taught in mixed-age classes.  The school is currently led and managed by an interim headteacher, who is also the headteacher of another local school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is below the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is below that found in most schools. This is additional government funding provided to give extra support to those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after. A very small minority of pupils are eligible for this funding across the school.  Most pupils are of White British heritage.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  The school offers a sports club for pupils before school on three mornings a week.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop teachers’ skills further so that the quality of teaching moves from good to outstanding, enabling all pupils to make as much progress as possible by:  making further use of the local authority support and the existing outstanding practice in the school to improve and refine teachers’ practice  ensuring that tasks have the right amount of challenge, especially for middle-ability pupils.  Extend pupils’ experience and appreciation of different cultures by providing more opportunities for them to develop a deeper understanding of the diverse cultures that exist in modern Britain and in the world today.

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The leadership and management are good

 Effective leadership from governors has secured stability and strong leadership for the school during a period of significant change. The appointment of an experienced interim headteacher, ably supported by senior managers in the school, has dealt successfully with a recent dip in standards in mathematics.  All adults consistently encourage pupils to adopt the school’s values of ‘Learn, Care, Share, Achieve’, creating a culture of high expectations of work and behaviour. This makes a significant contribution to the rapid progress pupils are now making.  Leadership is further strengthened by the headteacher’s relentless drive to improve further and to become an outstanding school. The whole-school community are fully committed to this vision. They have accurately established together what needs to be done next and immediately implemented plans to secure rapid development. The local authority offers the school a medium level of support and the school realises

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The leadership and management are good

that there is still more to do.  Issues from the last inspection, for example improving provision for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, have been successfully addressed. This demonstrates clearly that the school has the capacity to continue to improve and realise its vision.  Teachers are in no doubt as to the quality of teaching required to ensure that pupils make the best possible progress. Robust procedures to check how well teachers are performing, and how well pupils are learning as a result, swiftly identify training needs.  This has led to securing help from local authority consultants for mathematics and writing. Together with a leading mathematics teacher and the school’s own subject leaders, they are helping to refine teachers’ practice in mathematics and writing. Evidence of the success of this support was seen during the inspection in the rapidly improving work in pupils’ books since September.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders know that there is still more to do because sometimes tasks for the middle-ability pupils are not sufficiently challenging so these pupils do not always make the quickest progress of which they are capable.  Leadership of the school’s provision for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils is very effective. Additional funding is used very wisely and is successful in ensuring that these pupils make very good progress. Pupils’ needs are identified and addressed without delay and parents are fully involved. Valuable help from external agencies, such as the outreach team from the local special school, means that pupils with very complex needs are extremely well supported by highly trained teachers and teaching assistants. As a result, equal opportunities for different groups of pupils are promoted well and the school does not tolerate any form of discrimination.

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The leadership and management are good

 Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is strongly supported by these explicit values but this does not extend to opportunities for pupils to develop an appreciation of cultures other than their own. The school does not provide sufficient experiences for pupils to develop a full enough understanding of the diverse cultures that exist today in other parts of the country, so pupils are not well prepared for life in modern Britain.  Underpinning a thoughtfully planned curriculum is the opportunity for pupils to develop key skills to support their learning. The skills of enquiry, thinking creatively, managing self and how to be a team worker enable pupils to develop self-confidence and to organise themselves well.  The curriculum is effective in engaging and interesting the pupils so they are keen to learn, and their attendance is excellent. A strong focus is placed on successfully developing literacy and numeracy skills

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The leadership and management are good

and effective links are made across subjects to practise these. Both of these aspects prepare pupils really well for secondary education.  Meaningful and memorable experiences enrich pupils’ learning, for example, visits to the Living Rain Forest and the Natural History Museum. A Ministry of Defence Survival Day taught pupils important life skills such as team work and collaboration. Pupils also enjoy a wide range of clubs and sports.  Wisely used additional school sports funding provides specialist teaching and training for teachers, enhancing the sports on offer. Adventurous activities on the school field, taster days at the local leisure centre, a well-attended sports club before school and more opportunities to take part in competitive sports all make make a considerable contribution to greater rates of participation and increasing fitness levels.  Strong partnerships with other schools, external agencies and the local community offer further support

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The leadership and management are good

for pupils’ learning and development. For example, the local agricultural college is currently working with pupils to produce a plan to develop the school pond and its surrounding area.  School staff follow safeguarding procedures rigorously and governors play a leading role in safeguarding and equality, ensuring that all statutory responsibilities and requirements are fully met.  The governance of the school:  Governors have rigorous selection procedures in place with regard to the appointment of a new headteacher and are diligently exploring all avenues.  Well-organised committees that check information and read reports, a strong commitment to training and regular visits to the school all mean that governors are very well informed. This enables them to offer good support but also to ask challenging questions to encourage the school to improve further.  Governors do not exclude themselves from rigorous evaluation and have recently completed their own

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The leadership and management are good

evaluation of the work of the governing body. A mentoring system to support new governors is well used.  Governors use their skills from the world of work effectively to check on the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress in relation to teachers’ pay and progression. This enables them to ensure that school appraisal systems are carried out correctly and that the school is providing good value for money. Governors ensure that additional funding is spent wisely and used to maximum benefit.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. School records show that there have been no exclusions for five years and that challenging behaviour and bullying are extremely rare. Pupils’ attendance is excellent.  Pupils are unfailingly polite and well mannered and impeccably behaved around the building and in worship. They get on exceptionally well together when out on the playground. They are thoughtful and articulate and a pleasure to talk to. Knowing, understanding and working at the school values is very important to them and they take an immense pride in all they do, saying, ‘This is a really good school!’  In lessons observed during the inspection there was no low-level disruption. Pupils were attentive and eager to learn. They enjoy their lessons and want to do well, saying, ‘You have to go the extra mile!’ They are very proud of their work, which is beautifully presented.  Pupils are very clear about the high expectations of work and behaviour and respond very well to the

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Behaviour

reward system. They thoroughly approve of working towards becoming a learning mentor when they win the opportunity to help younger pupils with their tasks. Responsibilities such as being a member of the school council, taking the lead in worship and in raising funds for charities and looking after the elderly at the school’s Christmas dinner are highly prized.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils say they are very comfortable in school and feel very safe. Parents fully support this view. Regular effective teaching about internet safety, pupils’ involvement in risk assessments for school visits and ‘bikability’ courses are examples of how the school heightens pupils’ awareness of how to keep safe.  Pupils say that ‘there is definitely no bullying in this school’. If anything did go wrong, they say, ‘You can trust the teachers to help you.’ Pupils know the school’s family support worker well and that she is available for them to talk to if ever the need arises. Pupils treat one another with respect, and when discussing examples of derogatory language they said that ‘you would never hear that in this school!’  When asked to describe their school using only a few words pupils responded with, ‘friendly’, ‘loving and caring’ and ‘the best school ever!’

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The quality of teaching is good

 A high level of mutual respect and excellent relationships between adults and pupils create a very positive climate for learning. Teachers make their high expectations of work and behaviour very clear to pupils, who respond well by paying careful attention and always doing their best.  Lessons are imaginatively planned so pupils are interested and eager to learn. During the inspection pupils in Years 1 and 2 were observed writing high-quality diaries of their monthly study of trees they had adopted in the school grounds. Early scientific skills were practised very successfully alongside literacy skills as they recorded the differences they observed from month to month. Pupils’ vocabulary was effectively extended as they learned words such as ‘deciduous’ and the most able pupils organised their work into paragraphs.  The quality of teaching and learning is good, with some outstanding features. Training received from local

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The quality of teaching is good

authority consultants in writing and mathematics has improved teachers’ skills. Observations of lessons during the inspection and work in pupils’ books show that the teaching of literacy and numeracy skills has improved.  Regular opportunities occur for pupils to practise these skills in other lessons, for example, when writing about ancient Egypt and constructing graphs in science. This supports the good progress pupils make and prepares them well for the future.  Learning is carefully planned, leaving pupils in no doubt as to what they are expected to achieve, and tasks are explained very clearly. However, learning is less effective for some pupils when tasks are not challenging enough so that they ‘mark time’ and do not make as much progress as they could. This was particularly observed on a few occasions during the inspection for the tasks set for middle-ability pupils.  Teachers’ good subject knowledge enables them to ask probing questions that check pupils’ understanding

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The quality of teaching is good

and progress. Teachers are developing the skill of adapting tasks within the lesson to take pupils on in their learning.  Pupils’ learning is well supported by information on the walls and in word books and by well-organised resources so that pupils can always help themselves if they are stuck.  Marking is a strength of the teaching and is very thorough and consistent throughout the school. Encouraging comments are always followed by something for pupils to do to improve their work. Pupils’ books show a good response to advice. Pupils say about teachers’ comments that ‘they really help and make us more confident about how to improve our work’.  Pupils’ progress is supported well by appropriate homework tasks and reading for pleasure.

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is good

 Children make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and by the end of the Reception Year the percentage of children who have achieved a good level of development is above average.  The sounds that letters make (phonics) are well taught. Results of the national screening check for phonics show the attainment of Year 1 pupils to be above average. Pupils throughout the school use this knowledge and other strategies to build, read and spell unfamiliar words. Pupils regularly practise reading individually or in small groups with an adult. This strong reading culture within the school enables them to make very good progress in reading. By Year 6 pupils enjoy reading and do so with fluency and expression. They intelligently discuss favourite authors and books they have read.  National information for 2014 shows that the percentage of pupils making good progress in reading was well above that expected. The proportion of pupils making good progress in writing and mathematics was

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is good

similar to that expected nationally.  Information about standards is affected by the very small number of pupils in each year group, each pupil being worth a high percentage. In addition in 2014 standards were affected by the proportion of pupils with complex learning difficulties within Year 6. Standards for pupils without special needs were high in reading and above average in writing but below average in mathematics. The school has taken rapid action to address the dip in standards in mathematics and during the inspection standards were found to be above average.  Information about the progress of the most able pupils shows that, almost all pupils who achieved a higher level in reading, writing and mathematics in Year 2 achieved a similar higher level in Year 6. During the inspection the most able pupils in Year 6 were observed working confidently in writing and mathematics lessons at a higher level than that usually expected. Some were working beyond the higher

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is good

level. Scrutiny of their books showed the same high standards.  Most able Year 6 pupils demonstrate the ability to understand and write expanded noun phrases including the use of similes and metaphors. In mathematics they confidently and successfully use long multiplication and division, including decimal numbers, when converting gallons and litres to solve a mathematical problem about travel.  Throughout the school a small number of pupils from the armed forces and an exceptionally small number of disadvantaged pupils are very well supported by extra funds and there are no gaps between their attainment and that of other pupils. They make the same good progress and reach standards that are above average and the same or higher than those of other pupils in their year group. There are currently no disadvantaged pupils in Year 6.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs benefit significantly from specially tailored

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is good

programmes and rigorous tracking of their progress. External help, offering specific training, for example from the local special school and from the hearing impaired service, is used extremely well to support both teachers and teaching assistants so that pupils with complex needs make the best possible progress.

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is good

 The Early Years Foundation Stage is well led and managed. Full attention paid to the issues raised at the time of the last inspection has resulted in good improvement and children now achieve well. Most reach a good level of development by the end of the Reception year.  Children feel safe and make a calm and confident start because of a well-organised classroom and well- planned and appropriate learning both indoors and in the outdoor area.  Children are always busy so behaviour is excellent. Exciting and stimulating activities draw children in and they become fully engaged, quickly developing some of the characteristics of effective learning as they persevere at their chosen tasks. Examples of this were creatively making a sleigh for Santa to ride on in the outdoor area and practising fine coordination and pre-writing skills while sticking and gluing at the craft table.  During the inspection the children observed were engrossed for long periods of time, sharing in

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is good

imaginative play with ‘instant’ snow and small world resources. Adults’ encouraging questions extended children’s language well as they described what the ‘snow’ felt like.  Adults join in very sensitively with children’s chosen learning and an appropriate balance exists between activities selected by children and those led by adults.  Children achieve well because teaching is good. During an adult-led small group time observed during the inspection, imaginative teaching captured children’s interest. They became fully engaged in their learning and demonstrated very good powers of concentration as they acted as postmen, counting Christmas parcels, delivering them and learning to take away to see how many were left. Children do not have as many opportunities as they might to follow up learning led by adults while choosing their own activities.  Children listen very carefully to the teacher as they successfully learn the sounds that letters make

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is good

(phonics). This is taught particularly well, enabling children to confidently blend and segment words. The most able children were observed already able to read, write and spell simple three-letter words.  Adults check children’s learning very regularly, collecting observations and photographs and using the information to plan the next steps for each individual child. As a result, a valuable record is compiled throughout the year to which parents can contribute. The Early Years Foundation Stage prepares children well for Year 1.

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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 116270 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 444218

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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 Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 103 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Janet Coetzee Headteacher Clare Beswick Date of previous school inspection 9–10 March 2010 Telephone number 01962 760340 Fax number 01962 760340 Email address adminoffice@bartonstacey.hants.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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