Buntingsdale Primary School and Nursery

Buntingsdale Primary School and Nursery Buntingsdale Park, Tern Hill, Market Drayton, TF9 2HB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Requires improvement 3 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 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

 School leaders, including governors, have been successful in improving standards and progress.  School leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of the school well and use their analyses to make improvements.  There are effective systems for checking the quality of teaching and its impact on pupils’ progress. Leaders have quickly identified and dealt with any problems. As a result teaching is good.  Teachers plan lessons that ensure pupils are able to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life problems. This engages their interest and extends their learning.  The marking of pupils’ work helps them to understand how to improve. Pupils appreciate the comments their teachers make in their books.  This is a happy school where pupils behave well, are proud of their school and show positive attitudes to learning.  New pupils are made to feel welcome, quickly settle into school and start learning without delay.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe is good. Parents appreciate the care and support provided by the school for them and their children.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development is good and they are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  The school makes good use of external support and partnerships to accelerate its own improvement.  The effectiveness of the governing body has improved and governors now provide a good balance of support and challenge.  Children in the early years make good progress because adults assess their skills carefully and provide well-designed activities to help them develop further.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Achievement in writing is not as strong as it is in reading and mathematics. Progress in writing slows because pupils lack the experience and confidence to work out how to structure their writing for themselves.  Pupils do not use technical language regularly or accurately in some subjects.  In subjects other than English and mathematics, there is not always sufficient challenge for older or the most-able pupils and teachers do not always use assessment in these subjects well enough to form a clear picture of how well individual pupils are achieving.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed parts of eight lessons and a small group of pupils being supported by teaching assistants. Three observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher.  The inspector considered assessment data on pupils’ progress and attainment, listened to pupils in Year 2 read, and looked at work in pupils’ books. She examined documents, including school plans and the school’s self-evaluation of its own performance, school policies , documents linked to safeguarding and child protection, and the minutes of meetings.  There were insufficient responses to the online questionnaire Parent View for these to be displayed, but 12 questionnaires based on these questions were handed to the inspector by parents who were unable to access the internet and these were taken into account. The 11 responses to the staff questionnaire were also considered.  Meetings were held with pupils and parents, and also with key members of staff, governors and a

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Information about this inspection

representative from the local authority.

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Inspection team

Mary Le Breuilly, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The school converted from an infant school to a primary school in 2012 and there are Key Stage 2 pupils from Years 3, 4 and 5 in school.  There is one class in Key Stage 1 consisting of Year 1 and Year 2 pupils and one class in Key Stage 2 consisting of Year 3, 4 and 5 pupils. There is a full-time early years class in the school comprising of Nursery and Reception children.  The large majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is smaller than average.  At around one in six, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is average.  More than a quarter of pupils are disabled or have special educational needs. This is an above-average proportion.  The numbers of pupils joining and leaving the school partway through their primary school education is higher than is usually the case. This is because the school serves an army base and over half the pupils

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Information about this school

come from service families who are sometimes posted elsewhere or enter the school partway through a term.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve progress in writing so that it is as rapid as it is in reading and mathematics by:  encouraging pupils to try to structure their writing for themselves and not always wait for the teacher to help them  improving pupils’ use of specialist and technical language in all subjects.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve teaching by ensuring that:  work in subjects other than English and mathematics consistently provides an appropriate level of challenge for all pupils, especially older pupils and the most able  teachers assess pupils’ work accurately and regularly in subjects other than English and mathematics so that they know how pupils are performing at all times.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher leads the school with drive and ambition and is ably supported by an effective deputy headteacher and a dedicated team of staff. Together with governors, they have ensured that behaviour is good and teaching and achievement are improving.

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The leadership and management are good

 Rapid school improvement has been secured because of a determined team effort. There is no complacency and all staff share the headteacher’s determination to raise the aspirations of pupils and improve teaching. Standards have risen since the last inspection.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school checks its own work carefully by looking at pupils’ work, making regular checks on pupils’ progress and watching lessons taught by other staff. Other aspects of school life, such as attendance and finances, are also carefully monitored. The school’s evaluation of how well it is doing is thorough and accurate, and based on the evidence from leaders’ systematic monitoring. It is used to inform leaders’ careful and effective planning for further improvement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Staff are keen to develop their skills and to do their best for their pupils. They work well with each other and with a group of local schools to secure improvements in teaching. The school’s system of setting targets for teachers ensures that they are held to account for pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Other school leaders, such as subject leaders and the leaders of the Early Years Foundation Stage and Nursery, provide appropriate support for their colleagues and are increasingly involved in monitoring how well the school is doing.

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The leadership and management are good

 Additional funding to support the learning of pupils from service families, disadvantaged pupils and those whose circumstances make them potentially vulnerable has been used wisely, as shown by their good and improving achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Good use is made of the additional funding for sport. The school subscribes to a local partnership that provides guidance and training for staff and also allows pupils to access a wider range of sports. As a result, pupils’ participation in sports has increased.

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The leadership and management are good

 The curriculum is broad and balanced and prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain. There has been an appropriate focus on developing pupils’ knowledge and skills in reading, writing and mathematics, and the wide range of visits and additional activities broadens pupils’ experiences and gives relevance to their learning. However, the levels of challenge in subjects other than English and mathematics, as well as the rigour with which pupils’ achievement is assessed, are not strong enough.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school makes sure that all pupils have equality of opportunity and there is no discrimination of any kind. The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and British values well. Pupils are valued and supported as individuals, whilst also being helped to see themselves as part of a diverse community.

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The leadership and management are good

 School leaders, including those in the early years, have worked effectively to improve attendance and have made good use of outside agencies to help pupils and their families come to school regularly. Consequently, attendance, whilst still below average, is steadily improving.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority has provided substantial support for a range of aspects, and specifically to improve school planning and monitoring, the accuracy of teachers’ assessments and pupils’ achievement in reading and writing. This has helped the school to improve more rapidly.

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The leadership and management are good

 Parents are confident that the school is keeping their children safe and doing its best to help them progress. They feel that teachers listen to any concerns they have.  The school’s safeguarding arrangements are comprehensive, fully meet statutory requirements and are effective in ensuring the safety of the pupils.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Governance has improved strongly since the last inspection. Governors have a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the school because they receive regular information about standards and other matters. They understand information about pupils’ achievement well, monitor finances rigorously and make careful checks on safeguarding. They ensure policies are up to date.  Governors provide a good balance of support and challenge to the school and hold the school firmly to account. They are very active and take part in many of the school events. As a result, parents know them well and can approach them with any issues they have.  Governors are fully aware of the quality of teaching. They do not solely rely on reports from the headteacher but also monitor the work of the school directly by looking at books and walking round the school when lessons are underway. They ensure that teachers’ pay is linked to their performance.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils behave well in lessons and around school. They treat each other and the adults in school with respect and friendliness.

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Behaviour

 New pupils are quickly welcomed and helped to settle in. Teachers ensure that everything is ready for them when they start and pupils help them to get to know routines in class. Several pupils had joined the school just before the inspection and one told the inspector that he had already made many friends and been made to feel welcome.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ books show that they are increasingly taking a pride in their work and that they usually try hard to do the best work they can and to present it neatly.

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Behaviour

 Pupils engage well with learning and are eager to please their teachers. The vast majority of pupils are attentive in lessons and work hard to complete the tasks they are set. If pupils lose focus or disrupt others, staff act promptly to minimise the impact on their learning.

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Behaviour

 The school is effective at helping to improve the behaviour of pupils who find it difficult to behave well. Teaching assistants are adept at defusing potentially disruptive situations.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils say they feel safe in school, and their parents agree.

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Safety

 Pupils know that bullying can take various forms, including name-calling and cyber-bullying. They are clear about what they should do if it happens to them and would trust an adult at the school to help them. They say there are very few bullying incidents and are very confident that any that do occur are dealt with effectively by staff.

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Safety

 Pupils are taught how to keep themselves and others safe in a range of situations; for example, through specific lessons and through assemblies that are used to show pupils how to stay safe online.

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Safety

 All necessary checks on adults are carried out, and staff training in child protection is updated regularly.

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Safety

 Good-quality support is provided for pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable, and the school works well with external agencies to ensure that support is targeted appropriately.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching has improved since the previous inspection and the quality of teaching is now good. Teachers and teaching assistants are committed to their pupils and keen to see them succeed.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Reading is taught well and pupils quickly learn how to sound and blend letters. By the end of Year 1, in 2014, the standards in the phonics screening check were above the national average. Pupils of all ages are encouraged to develop a love of reading.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The school uses global education themes very effectively to set pupils’ learning in a worldwide context and broaden their views of the world. This makes the learning more relevant and interesting for pupils, and so it contributes to their enthusiasm for learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils who need extra help in lessons, such as disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, some disadvantaged pupils and some of those learning English as an additional language, are supported well by teachers and teaching assistants. Additional small-group or individual support is provided by well-trained staff for those pupils who need it, and this ensures that they make good progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants play an important role in supporting the work of groups of pupils of all abilities so that pupils are not disadvantaged by learning in mixed-age classes.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use questioning to challenge pupils to think for themselves, to give reasons for their answers, and also to check pupils’ understanding. They work to improve their pupils’ vocabulary but sometimes they do not encourage pupils to make enough use of specialist or technical language; for example, when talking about grammar in writing or investigations in science.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching in English and mathematics supports the learning and progress of the most-able pupils well by ensuring appropriate levels of challenge in the activities that are planned for them. In other subjects, teachers plan carefully to make lessons interesting but do not always provide enough challenge for older or more-able pupils.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking of pupils’ work is good. Teachers give pupils praise for what they have done well, and challenge them to improve through helpful comments. Pupils are very confident that this process helps them to learn well. Pupils are skilled at assessing their own and each other’s work in lessons. However, although the work in all subjects is carefully marked, the standards at which pupils are working in these subjects is not always checked and recorded. Because of this, teachers are not always sure how well individual pupils are achieving in subjects such as science, history and geography.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The work in pupils’ books shows that they have opportunities to practise their writing in a range of subjects. However, pupils sometimes rely too much on their teachers to help them organise their work. As a result, pupils do not develop as rapidly as they should the ability to organise their writing for themselves.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Standards in Key Stage 1 have risen in reading, writing and mathematics, though the improvement in writing is not quite as strong as in the other two subjects. The school’s data shows that standards are expected to rise again this year to above-average levels. Almost all pupils make rapid progress in reading and mathematics. Although progress in writing is not quite as rapid, the majority of pupils make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The school converted to become a primary school in 2012 and the current Key Stage 2 contains pupils from Years 3, 4 and 5. Consequently, there are no end-of-Key Stage 2 results to report to date. The school’s own data for pupils in Key Stage 2 suggests that the very small group of Year 5 pupils who will leave in September 2016 are all making at least the progress they should in reading, writing and mathematics and that individual pupils are exceeding the expected rates of progress in reading and mathematics. All are predicted to reach at least the standards expected for their age.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils in the school are making good progress. Most are on track to exceed expected progress in reading and mathematics by the time they reach Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs receive well-targeted support that helps them to progress as well as their classmates.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disadvantaged pupils make very good progress and attain standards in reading, writing and mathematics that are often above those of other pupils in the school. By the end of Key Stage 1, they are ahead of their classmates in all subjects, and especially in reading. A similar pattern is emerging in Key Stage 2.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Those pupils who join the school at various points during the key stages are helped to settle in quickly and they achieve well.

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The early years provision is good

 Children join the Nursery with levels of skill and knowledge that are very varied. They are broadly typical for their age overall but children’s personal development and understanding of the world are frequently weak. Children make good progress in all areas of learning and are well prepared for the education they will receive in Key Stage 1.

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The early years provision is good

 Children enjoy each other’s company and are keen to learn. Adult-led activities, such as those that help children to learn the sounds that letters make, move children’s learning on quickly. All children achieve well.

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The early years provision is good

 The home visits made by staff prior to children starting Nursery ensure that they know the children and their parents well and plan for particular learning needs. In this way, they help the children make the best possible start in their learning.

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The early years provision is good

 Effective routines and good behaviour management by staff ensure that the children in Nursery learn to behave well, and to play and cooperate with each other.

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The early years provision is good

 The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year has increased and school assessments indicate that it is on track to rise further this year.

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The early years provision is good

 Staff monitor the progress of children in the setting with rigour and accuracy. Because they know the skills and abilities of each child well, they are able to guide them towards activities that will help them develop further.

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The early years provision is good

 Children respond well to the mix of adult-led activities and those they choose for themselves. As a result, they develop rapidly. Activities frequently capture the imagination of children and encourage them to practise vocabulary and learn about the world. For example, activities based on the book The Jolly Postman encouraged pupils to count money in the role-play post office, to write and deliver letters and to mend and make equipment for the post office.

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The early years provision is good

 Leadership and management of the Early Years Foundation Stage are good, and there are well-established systems for ensuring that children are safe, that staff know the children well, and that the assessments made about children’s skills and understanding are accurate and used to guide planning.

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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 123397 Local authority Shropshire Inspection number 453526

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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 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 66 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Michael Revell Headteacher Hilary Alcock Date of previous school inspection 15 January 2013 Telephone number 01630 638370 Fax number 01630 638971 Email address admin@buntingsdaleprimary.co.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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