Tylers Green First School

School Road, Penn, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP10 8EF

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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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This is a good school

 Pupils’ attainment is above average in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 2. Pupils make good progress given their average starting points.  The headteacher provides effective leadership. She is well supported by school leaders and governors. As a result, the school has maintained a good level of provision.  Pupils with disabilities or special educational needs make good progress.  Effective provision in the early years means that children get off to a good start.  Good teaching helps pupils in Years 1 and 2 to do their best. Teachers organise and manage lessons successfully. This, combined with effective teaching and good relationships, ensures learning is secure.  Regular checks on progress quickly identify any pupil who falls behind and support is arranged so that they can catch up.  The curriculum prepares pupils well for their next steps in education and life outside school.  The school successfully promotes pupils’ spiritual,

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This is a good school

moral and social development.  Pupils are polite, well behaved and respectful to others. They enjoy school and feel valued  The school is a caring and supportive community. Pupils feel extremely safe and are very confident that adults will look after them. Arrangements to keep children safe are excellent.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Expectations of all pupils, especially of the most able, are not consistently high.  Excellent teaching is not consistently shared among all staff.  Girls outperform boys at the highest levels, particularly in reading and writing.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes. They visited 14 lessons, five jointly with members of the school’s leadership team.  Meetings were held with members of the governing body, the headteacher, subject leaders and staff. Inspectors also spoke with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors held meetings with one group of pupils. They talked informally with pupils at break and lunchtimes. They listened to pupils read.  The 82 responses of parents and carers to the online survey, Parent View, were considered. Inspectors spoke with parents and account was taken of both written comments and telephone conversations. Inspectors also noted the 16 responses to the staff survey.  Inspectors examined several documents, including: the school’s evaluation of its own performance; plans for improvement; policies; and records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance. Safeguarding documents

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Inspection team

Robert Ridout, Lead inspector Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  Less than one in twenty pupils are eligible for the pupil premium. This is well below the national average. The pupil premium is additional funding for pupils who, in this school, are known to be eligible for free school meals.  Around one in ten pupils are disabled or have special educational needs. This is well below the national average.  Almost three quarters of the school’s pupils come from a White British background. A little over one in five pupils come from minority ethnic backgrounds. A similar proportion of pupils in the school speak English as an additional language. This is in line with the national average.  The current headteacher took up her post in January 2011 and was therefore appointed since the last inspection of the school in December 2009. The deputy headteacher took up his post in September 2014.  The school has two full-time Reception classes.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to improve the quality of teaching and so increase the number of pupils who make outstanding progress in reading and writing by ensuring teachers:  have high expectations of all pupils, particularly the most able  extend challenge and move learning on quickly when pupils, especially the boys, are ready for harder work  observe each other and share the best practices to improve learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides good leadership and is supported well by the deputy headteacher. The school has maintained a good level of provision since the last inspection and pupils across the school make rapid progress. There is a good staff team, pupils behave well and good teaching and assessment ensure that pupils learn effectively. This indicates that there is capacity for further improvement.  Subject leaders have a clear understanding of their roles. They use assessment information well to inform their planning. Checks on teaching and learning are supportive and leaders use their own effective levels of expertise to support their colleagues well.  Accurate self-evaluation and effective school improvement planning show clearly what the school needs to do next and why. Governors are involved in checking the progress improvements, and all staff have targets linked to the plan. A clear and effective programme sets out a timetable for monitoring the impact

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The leadership and management are good

of all activities.  Senior staff routinely check on the quality of learning so they know what needs to be done to improve teaching. However, the exemplary teaching that exists within the school is not always shared in order to achieve consistently high-quality teaching in all lessons.  There are well-established processes to set targets for staff, appropriate to their level of responsibility and linked to pupils’ progress. Teachers are fully held to account for how well their pupils achieve. Staff benefit from training opportunities which are provided to further their professional development.  The school teaches a wide range of subjects in a lively and interesting way so that pupils are enthused about learning. Leaders have made a good start in creating a new curriculum in the light of national developments.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively and pupils are well

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The leadership and management are good

prepared for life in modern Britain. An elected school council regularly meets with the headteacher to help shape the future of the school. Pupils demonstrate good levels of respect and tolerance for others. Discrimination is not tolerated.  The school is committed to securing equal opportunities for all pupils. Leaders recognise that girls have outperformed boys and are keen to make the necessary adjustments to ensure boys keep pace with girls. Good use is made of the pupil premium funding. Effective additional support is provided for eligible pupils and their progress is very carefully tracked. Additional sessions for individuals combined with small-group work means that eligible pupils make good progress.  Primary sports funding is used well. For example, teachers have attended training and in this area they do share good practice. This increases teachers’ confidence and competency in the subject. The number of

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The leadership and management are good

sporting activities and participation rates in clubs and team games have increased.  The local authority provides light-touch support to the school as and when required.  The school ensures that safeguarding procedures are robust and that all safeguarding requirements are met in full.  The governance of the school:  Governors have a good understanding of the school through regular meetings, visits to the school and meetings with key staff. Members of the governing body take responsibility for specific aspects of the school’s work and use their observations and the assessment of all available information to challenge the school on pupil performance and the quality of teaching.  Governors are aware of nationally produced information about the school’s performance. They use this with other information to form a realistic picture about the impact of teaching.  The governing body ensures staff pay awards are closely linked to the achievement of pupils through

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The leadership and management are good

effective performance management. Good teaching is rewarded. Poor teaching is supported and appropriately challenged.  Governor’s financial management is effective. They closely monitor how the additional funding for sport and disadvantaged pupils is spent. Governors know that the number of sporting activities and participation rates in clubs have increased. They can also show that outcomes for disadvantaged pupils have improved.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. They understand the school behaviour policy well and regard it as very fair. They respect each other’s rights and behave responsibly around school. They are well mannered and courteous to one another and adults. They play happily together at break and lunchtime.  School records indicate that behaviour is good and is improving further. Procedures for recording and dealing with incidents of inappropriate behaviour are thorough. Their effective use by staff has resulted in a consistently low number of incidents recorded.  Pupils take on extra responsibilities with great enthusiasm and genuine pride. They execute their roles as school councillors and playground buddies with a clear sense that they want to make a real difference.  In the majority of lessons, pupils listen well and are keen to work together and improve. They have good attitudes to their learning. They say low-level disruption is very rare, and were proud to show inspectors

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Behaviour

their books and keen to discuss how they could improve their work.  Occasionally, when work is either too hard or too easy, some pupils lose focus in their learning. This is particularly true of the most able boys in reading and writing.  Attendance is consistently well above average and continuing to improve for all groups of pupils, indicating their enjoyment of school.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils have a very good knowledge about how to stay safe, including when using the internet.  Members of staff ensure that pupils feel very safe and are kept safe. Classroom teachers meet and greet parents and pupils as they arrive at or depart from the school. There is also effective supervision of pupils during their recreational time at break and lunchtimes.  The school’s records are excellent. They show that instances of bad or unkind behaviour of any kind are extremely rare. Records show that if incidents occur they are dealt with quickly and effectively. There are no recorded instances of homophobic name calling and staff and pupils spoken to are not aware of having heard any.  Pupils can describe what bullying is. They know that there are various types of bullying but incidents at the school are extremely rare. Pupils know what to do if they have any concerns and say that ‘you can always

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Safety

rely on a teacher’.  The vast majority of parents strongly agree that their children are both happy and safe at the school. All staff share this view.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is effective and results in pupils making good progress in literacy, reading and mathematics. All adults provide pupils with clear explanations for tasks and ensure lessons are interesting. Consequently, pupils engage fully in their learning and routinely settle quickly to work.  Teachers and teaching assistants have good relationships with pupils and behaviour is managed well. For example, in a literacy lesson in Year 2, pupils quickly stopped discussing riddles with their work partners in order to hear what the teacher had to say.  Teachers have good knowledge of the subjects they teach. They are good at sharing new vocabulary with the pupils and this is especially helpful to those who have weaker literacy skills.  Teaching assistants are skilful and contribute well to supporting groups of pupils. These include disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs or those who are disadvantaged in any way. The

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The quality of teaching is good

regular support for pupils who are finding it difficult to improve their reading is especially helpful.  Questions are used successfully to help pupils to think carefully. They are used effectively to probe and check pupils’ knowledge and grasp of different concepts. This approach clearly helps teachers to judge how well the pupils are doing.  Pupils’ work is regularly marked and helpful praise and guidance is given. This leads to good progress. However, this is not always the case. Expectations of pupils are not always as high as they should be and work is not always checked. As a result, pupils, especially boys and the most able, continue at a lower level when they could move on to harder work.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Attainment at the end of Year 2 is typically above average in reading, writing and mathematics.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs achieve well, with regular checks on their progress. They receive tailored support planned by teachers. Teaching assistants provide specific, well- targeted support that is clearly effective and helps pupils make good progress.  The attainment of disadvantaged pupils in Year 2 in 2014 was just under one term behind that of other pupils in the school and almost one term ahead of others nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. The school provides well for these pupils and enables them to make good progress and close the gaps between their achievement and that of other pupils in the school.  In the Year 1 phonics (the sounds that letters make) screening check in 2014, the proportion of pupils

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The achievement of pupils is good

who succeeded was in line with the national level. The school has improved how it teaches phonics in order to accelerate pupils’ learning. Evidence in both phonic and reading sessions indicates that pupils make good progress and use these skills well when reading.  Progress in mathematics overall is good because of effective teaching and strong subject leadership which improves staff confidence and skills. Pupils benefit from regular practical problem solving in both Years 1 and 2.  Pupils achieve well in reading because of regular and well-planned teacher-led reading sessions and regular reading at home. Staff ensure there is a good focus on engagement and enjoyment. However, the most able boys sometimes do not make the progress they should. The books they are asked to read are sometimes too easy for them and do not always extend them as they much as they should.  Pupils also make good progress in their writing. However, girls outperform the boys and a greater

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The achievement of pupils is good

proportion secure the higher levels of attainment. The subject leader is aware of this and has good plans to rectify it.

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The early years provision is good

 The knowledge and skills of children on entry to Reception are typical for their age. C hildren make good progress and achieve well over time. They quickly settle into the school and become confident learners because routines are clear and established. Children are prepared well for joining Year 1.  Children behave well because members of staff act as good role models. They provide activities that support them in learning and help them to work together and to share. Children feel safe at school and are kept safe. They know that members of staff will take good care of them.  Teaching is good. Teachers and other staff provide well-judged support for children. They have an acute awareness of how young children learn. There is a wide range of worthwhile experiences, including an effective system for helping children to learn about the sounds letters make.  The small number of disabled children and those who have special educational needs do well because

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The early years provision is good

teaching is matched effectively to their needs. They are supported effectively so that they can take part in all activities.  Staff are very skilled practitioners. They know when to stand back and when to intervene. This is particularly true when children are working on activities they have chosen for themselves.  Leadership and management are good. Leaders ensure that there is the right emphasis on teaching basic skills in literacy and numeracy. This is appropriately woven into planned activities promoting the good development personal and social skills.  Strong features of the school’s provision are the good team work between all adults working with children and the ever-improving links made with parents. Children’s learning is checked frequently and staff have detailed discussions with parents about how well their children are doing.  Staff work together effectively to secure children’s good progress in all areas of learning. Occasionally,

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The early years provision is good

learning slows when members of staff do not provide the right level of intervention, particularly for the most able, in order to extend their reading and writing skills.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is failing

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Grade Judgement Description

to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 110255 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 448411

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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 Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 4–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 180 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mr Steve Coleman Headteacher Mrs Janis Dieppe Date of previous school inspection 9−10 December 2009 Telephone number 01494 813201 Fax number 01494 813201 Email address office@tylersgreenfirst.bucks.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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