Cherrywood Community Primary School

School report Cherrywood Community Primary School Mayfield Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 8LH

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Overall effectiveness

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

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

 Teaching over time has not been consistently good enough across the school. As a result pupils in Year 6 have not made good enough progress from their individual starting points at the end of Year 2, in writing and mathematics.  Teachers do not always use the information they have to make sure lessons sufficiently challenge and support all pupils, especially the most-able.  Teachers’ feedback on pupils’ work does not always give clear guidance about how it can be improved. As a result, pupils do not make the necessary corrections as a matter of routine.  Senior and middle leaders do not monitor closely enough the quality of teachers’ marking and its impact on pupils’ learning and progress, to ensure that marking is consistently of a high quality.  The presentation of the pupils’ work is not of a consistently high standard. Teachers do not always set high enough expectations in this area or model neatness in their own marking

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

 School development plans for mathematics and writing are not sufficiently focused to show precisely how leaders will raise standards.  School leaders have succeeded in accelerating progress for some pupils but this is not yet consistent across all subjects or year groups.  The governing body has not had enough access to information throughout the year about the progress groups of pupils make. As a result, governors have not held the school sufficiently to account.

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The school has the following strengths

 Children in the Early Years make good progress from their individual starting points and are well prepared to move on to Year 1.  Pupils’ behaviour is good. They work hard in lessons and are keen to learn.  Pupils across the school enjoy reading. Younger pupils quickly learn the links between sounds and groups of letters (phonics).  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and well cared for is excellent. The school works closely with outside agencies to ensure pupils who are more vulnerable get the additional support they need.  The social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of the pupils is very good. They are well prepared for the next stage in their education and life in modern democratic Britain.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed the learning in 16 lessons. The lead inspector observed two whole-school assemblies led by the headteacher. No joint observations were carried out.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils and senior leaders. An inspector also held a meeting with members of the governing body and held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  An inspector listened to pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 read and scrutinised samples of pupils’ workbooks.  A wide range of documents was examined, including the school’s information on pupils’ recent progress. The inspectors looked at planning and documentation about how the quality of teaching is checked, and at records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding arrangements.  An inspector spoke with a number of parents who were dropping their children at school. Six parents responded to the online survey, Parent View. The views of the staff were considered from the feedback of

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Information about this inspection

the 29 staff questionnaires and one letter from a member of staff returned to the inspection team.

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Inspection team

David Hogg, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. All pupils, including those in the Reception class, attend full-time.  While the majority of pupils are from a White British background, the proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is well above the national average as is the proportion of pupils who do not speak English as their first language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported on the school roll is in line with the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is higher than that found in most schools. Over 40 per cent of the pupils are supported by the pupil premium. This is funding provided to give extra support to those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after.  The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school at other than the normal times is well above the

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Information about this school

national average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that:  teachers use the information they have on how well pupils are achieving more effectively, to plan activities that challenge all groups of pupils, especially the most able  teachers’ feedback provides precise guidance to pupils on how to improve their work, and pupils are then given the opportunity to promptly make necessary changes  pupils take greater care in the presentation of their work and that teachers consistently demonstrate this quality when they mark

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise achievement of all groups of pupils, including the most able, by ensuring that their skills in writing and in mathematics are developed more quickly.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management in order to raise achievement by ensuring that:  school leaders rigorously check the quality of the feedback pupils receive on their work  school improvement plans include specific actions that will improve the quality of teaching of writing and mathematics and identify how the impact on pupils’ achievement, will be measured  The governing body is given more information, more frequently, about the progress of different groups of pupils so that governors can review the work of the school to ensure that pupils’ achievement improves.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because leaders have not ensured that teaching is consistently good and that all pupils achieve well in all subjects.  There is a determination by the senior leadership team to improve the school further and raise the pupils’ levels of achievement. School plans do identify the areas in writing and mathematics that require further improvement but they are not sufficiently precise. They do not indicate how the impact of the school’s work will be evaluated and checked.  Senior leaders review the work of teachers, both in their classes and through scrutiny of pupils’ books, to judge how effective teaching is across the school. This information is then used to decide on promotion opportunities or salary increases. The senior staffs have provided targeted support and guidance to help individual teachers to improve their skills. Although teaching is improving, the school accepts there is still

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The leadership and management require improvement

work to do, to ensure that teaching is consistently good or better.  Middle leaders take an active role in scrutinising pupils’ books. However, they have not helped the senior leadership team to improve the quality and consistency of the feedback comments teachers provide to pupils.  The local authority has provided a low level of support to the school. Its reviews have picked up some of the key issues the school is working to address. Governors have accessed a range of training opportunities provided by the local authority and this has strengthened their skills. However, the local authority has not identified the slow progress made by some pupils between Year 2 and Year 6, as a priority for the school to tackle.  Leaders constantly strive to provide pupils with a programme of interesting learning activities. They look to provide pupils with experiences that that will help them learn. For example, pupils across the school

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The leadership and management require improvement

worked on a project to commemorate the anniversary of the end of the First World War.  Assemblies allow pupils to reflect on key messages and moral issues. Pupils explore other faiths and beliefs so they are better able to celebrate the diversity within the school and modern Britain. Good relationships are fostered and discrimination is challenged. The pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding is well developed.  Primary sports funding is utilised to good effect. Following a review of staff skills, training has been provided and teachers have worked alongside professional coaches to improve their skills for example in gymnastics. Through the funding more pupils have been able to learn how to swim and be more confident in water.  The school checks how well the additional pupil premium funding and any extra resources that help pupils with additional needs are being used. Through well targeted support pupils are better prepared and ready

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The leadership and management require improvement

to learn and make expected progress. This information is discussed with key governors.  Leaders have been working hard to forge good links with parents. Only a handful of parents expressed views about the school on Parent View. However, those who met with an inspector were appreciative of the work the school was doing. They felt their children were safe, well looked after and making progress.  The school’s child protection arrangements are excellent. They ensure pupils are very well supported so that all pupils are then ready to enjoy school and learn. Safeguarding procedures meet statutory requirements and the governing body checks this aspect of the school’s work annually.  The governance of the school:  The governing body have not requested or received enough information from leaders about how well pupils are achieving at different points during each year. As a result, governors have not held the school

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The leadership and management require improvement

sufficiently to account for the progress different groups of pupils make. The governors do check how effectively the school uses the additional funding that supports disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs. Through meetings with key staff and by direct observations of extra support groups, the governors gain a good insight into the work of the school and how the school is working to improve teaching. They are able to compare the school’s results for Year 2 and Year 6 against the national picture and do so diligently. They understand the link between teachers’ opportunities for promotion and salary progression and the achievement of the pupils. Governors check the financial position of the school carefully to make sure the school is getting best value for its spending. This is also true for additional sources of revenue such as the primary sports funding. They closely review safeguarding procedures to make sure these meet national requirements and that the pupils are safe in

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. The positive attitudes of the pupils contribute well to their learning. When learning is more engaging the pupils are better motivated. They demonstrate good skills that allow them to work in small groups or on their own without too much adult supervision. However, when activities do not catch the pupils’ interest they can go off task and are less motivated. Pupils themselves say that although they try hard in class, a small minority can sometimes be a little silly.  Pupils generally move around school sensibly and are considerate towards others. They hold doors open for adults and each other. They are very courteous and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when asking each other for things without needing to be prompted by the adults working with them.  At break times, pupils play well together. Pupils enjoy running around with footballs and more traditional rhyme and call-out games. They mix well together and pupils from different cultural backgrounds get

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Behaviour

along and are friends.  Pupils have a good understanding of how bullying can harm others. They say incidents of unkindness are rare. If pupils do fall out, they say that they know that staff will help them sort out any problems.  Pupils really enjoy taking on roles that give them responsibility. An initiative led by the pupils has allowed some to take on the role of ‘Reading Champions’. Through a detailed application and interview process pupils have been appointed to act as reading buddies and to promote the love of reading throughout the school.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. The school works closely with a wide range of outside agencies to support the high proportion of pupils who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. This work is excellent and makes a very considerable contribution to the well-being of the pupils and their readiness to learn and achieve.  Pupils say they are very safe in school. They have a very good understanding of e-safety. They can explain in detail why they must take care and not share personal information when using the internet or playing games online.  Attendance is high and above the national average. The school has worked very hard over the last few years to reduce absence. It been successful in developing very good links with parents in this area and in raising parents’ understanding of why good pupil attendance is so important.  Pupils come from diverse ethnicities and between them speak some 17 languages. The school very

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Safety

effectively utilises the pupils’ language skills as ‘Young Interpreters’. This way, new pupils can have a friendly voice to speak to when they join the school. Pupils who speak English are also encouraged to join the group so they can act as friends and buddies to new arrivals.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching has not enabled pupils to achieve well from their individual starting points in Year 2 to the time they move on to secondary school, in mathematics and especially in writing.  In the past, pupils’ skills in calculating mathematics answers in their heads were not good and slowed their progress. The school is working to address this issue but has not yet raised standards in mathematics across the school. That said, in Year 5, pupils demonstrate great enthusiasm when practising different times tables. Higher-ability pupils used decimal numbers in their calculations to extend them further.  Pupils’ work is marked regularly but the quality of feedback they receive is inconsistent between subjects. The feedback teachers provide does not give pupils enough information to help them to improve their written work and develop their skills further. For example, pupils go on to repeat mistakes they could have

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

corrected earlier. The pupils do not always go on to use the guidance to make their work better.  The presentation of some pupils’ work is inconsistent. This is not always picked up by their teachers, who do not always model neat work themselves in their marking.  Teachers do not always use information about what pupils can do, to plan activities for different groups of pupils so that they are not too easy or too difficult. In the past, the most-able pupils have not been sufficiently challenged and so have not achieved at the highest levels. Leaders have identified this. Additional extension sessions have yet to have an impact across the whole school, however, the most-able pupils are now making better progress in Year 6 and their attainment is improving.  Well targeted learning activities help pupils of different abilities develop their understanding of the links that sounds have with groups of letters. Pupils go on to use these phonics skills to read unfamiliar or more

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requires improvement

 The progress pupils make in writing and mathematics between Year 2 and Year 6 has been too slow in recent years. The school’s own information shows that in 2014 the progress for pupils in Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics accelerated and was better than expected. Pupils’ attainment is broadly in line with national averages in all areas. The school’s work to improve the quality of teaching in other year groups did not deliver similar improvements in achievement.  Senior leaders recognise the school work with higher-ability pupils require further improvement. The achievement of higher-ability pupils has fallen below that seen nationally. The school has begun to provide greater support to the most-able pupils, to challenge them and to enable them to achieve the highest grades. The school is committed to providing pupils with equal opportunities to succeed and works hard to remove any barriers to learning.

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requires improvement

 Pupils’ attainment at the end of Year 2 in 2014 dipped as a result of weakness in teaching over the year. The school has now addressed this and the progress of pupils currently in Year 2 is better.  Pupils enjoy reading. They develop their skills as they move through the school and by Year 6 read with fluency and understanding. In Year 6 they read a wide range of books by different authors and have developed a love of reading.  Support in class and additional small-group work is used by the school to help disadvantaged pupils close the gaps in their attainment and speed up their progress. As the pupils move up through the school these gaps generally narrow. In 2014 the gap in their skills and understanding compared with other pupils in Year 6 was about one and a half terms behind in writing and over three terms in mathematics. Against the national averages for pupils who were not disadvantaged the gap was approximately two and a half terms

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requires improvement

behind in writing and three terms in mathematics. Disadvantaged pupils attained more highly in reading than their peers both in school and nationally.  Teaching assistants work with disabled pupils and those with special educational needs who have additional needs in class and this has enabled these pupils to make expected progress.  The achievement of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language is better than that of other pupils because of their positive attitudes to learning. Those who join the school at times other than at normal starting points settle well and make similar progress to their peers because of the help they receive from staff and pupils to settle quickly.

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is good

 Children join the school with a range of skills and abilities, some of which are lower than are typical for their age. Their literacy and numeracy skills are stronger than their ability to manipulate and handle objects such as pencils and paintbrushes. Over half of the children achieve a good level of development. Although a little below the national average, most children make good progress from their individual starting points and reach a good level of development. They are well prepared for the next stage of learning in Year 1.  The indoor and outdoor spaces are effectively used. Well-organised activities help build the children’s confidence and provide them with opportunities learn and develop their curiosity. For example, children learnt about caring for animals during a recent visit from a number of different pets.  The children follow instructions well and demonstrate good listening skills. In a teacher-led activity the

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is good

children followed the story carefully and discussed whether the main character’s behaviour was kind or not. The school tries to help the children think carefully about making good choices.  The class teacher plans and organises activities with the help of a team of teaching assistants. This has led to improvements in the quality of the outdoor resources which has in turn had a positive impact on the children’s learning. The staff monitor the progress children make through careful observations and provide additional support to those whose development is slower. They also extend the learning of the more able.  Those members of staff with responsibility for early years have good subject knowledge and understanding of the needs of the children in their care and provide good leadership to the team of adults. The early years leaders are striving to ensure that teaching continues to improve and become consistently

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is good

outstanding.  The school tries to work with parents to help them be more involved in their child’s learning. The school website shows the parents some of the things the children are working on and parents are able to look through a record of their child’s learning.  The children are well looked after and kept safe in the Reception class. The school and the governing body monitor the aspects of safeguarding linked to the early years provision carefully.

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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 132802 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 443892

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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 202 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Betty Read Headteacher Barbara Goodchild Date of previous school inspection 8–9 December 2009 Telephone number 01252 547896 Fax number 01252 517458 Email address adminoffice@cherrywood.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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