Ramshaw Primary School

Oaks Bank, Evenwood, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, DL14 9SD

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 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

 Leadership is good. School leaders, including governors, have very high aspirations for the school and are working together to further improve pupils’ attainment.  Effective teaching results in pupils making good progress from starting points that are below those typical for children of their age.  The school has worked hard to provide a varied and interesting curriculum. Pupils are delighted with and benefit from the wide range of enrichment activities that the school provides.  Pupils make the best progress in lessons when challenging work makes them think hard, use reasoning and work cooperatively.  The early years provision is good.  A palpable ethos of nurturing and care permeates this fully inclusive school. All pupils and their families are warmly welcomed and supported.  Behaviour is outstanding. Pupils are courteous, polite and respectful. Their behaviour in lessons is excellent and their attitudes to learning are

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

exemplary.  Pupils feel safe in school. They have a deep understanding about the forms bullying can take. Pupils’ knowledge of e-safety is outstanding.  Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted extremely well. Pupils have a deep awareness of the needs of others and empathy with those less fortunate than themselves.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The teaching of phonics and early reading skills is an area for development because pupils are not making quick enough progress in the early years and Key Stage 1.  The quality of pupils’ presentation and handwriting is not always good enough.  Teachers do not always provide pupils with enough guidance about the next steps required to make their work even better.  Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve, especially the most able, are not always high enough and, as a result, they do not always make the progress of which they are capable.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed teaching and learning in 10 lessons, one of which was a joint observation with the headteacher.  They observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including information about pupils’ attainment and progress, safeguarding, behaviour and leaders’ monitoring of teaching.  In addition, inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books with the deputy headteacher and records of the learning of children in the early years.  The inspectors held meetings with school leaders, teachers, a representative of the local authority and members of the governing body.  They also spoke both formally and informally with groups of pupils. They listened to some pupils read and observed activities at the school’s breakfast club.  The inspectors took account of the 10 responses to Ofsted’s online parent questionnaire, Parent View, met with two parents, read two letters received from parents and held informal discussions with parents at the

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Information about this inspection

start of the school day.  The inspectors also took account of the eight responses to the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Belita Scott, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Christine Inkster Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is much smaller than the average sized primary school.  The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium funding has fallen year on year and is now average. The pupil premium is additional government funding for pupils who are known to be eligible to receive free school meals and for children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of disabled pupils or pupils who have special educational needs is above average.  A higher proportion of children than usual join or leave the school throughout the year, including a small number of pupils from a Gypsy/Roma background.  Children in the Reception class attend full-time.  The school runs a breakfast club.  The headteacher is a local leader of education and supports schools within and outside the local authority.  The deputy headteacher is a specialist leader of education.

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Information about this school

 The headteacher is also headteacher of St Chad’s Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School in Bishop Auckland.  The school is a National College teaching school and a teacher training centre for Durham University.  The school is part of the leadership group of the Primary Teaching Schools Alliance for County Durham.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise standards further, especially for the most able pupils, in reading, writing and mathematics in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 so that more pupils reach or exceed national expectations by:  making sure that all teachers provide more precise feedback to pupils about how to improve their work, give pupils time to act upon the advice and then accurately mark the pupils’ responses to check that misconceptions have been addressed  improving the quality of pupils’ handwriting and the presentation of pupils’ work in mathematics  raising teachers’ expectations about what the most able pupils can achieve.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise standards in phonics and early reading skills in the early years and Key Stage 1 by:  providing training so that teachers and teaching assistants have deep and extensive subject knowledge  ensuring that the pupils access reading books which provide the right level of challenge so that better progress can be made.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is well led and managed. School leaders, including governors, have high aspirations for the school and have created a warm,welcoming and positive climate for learning .  Leaders have created a palpable ethos of nurturing and care which permeates this inclusive school. It leads to harmonious conditions in which all pupils thrive and behave extremely well.  Pupils and parents trust the adults in school implicitly and know that any problems they may have will be dealt with quickly and appropriately.  Leaders are working hard to make further improvements to teaching and learning. For example, the school has changed the timetable for teaching English and mathematics in Key Stage 2 so that each subject is taught throughout an entire morning session. This is improving pupils’ abilities and perseverance in solving mathematical problems and increasing their stamina forl onger pieces of writing.

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The leadership and management are good

 Middle leaders play a pivotal role in this small school. They lead developments and innovations in their subjects; effectively check on teaching and pupils’ work; report back to senior leaders about successes and plan well for further improvement.  There are many aspects of the curriculum which are outstanding and innovative. This leads to the pupils being fully engaged and interested in the learning opportunities on offer. The wide range of enrichment activities such as ‘The School of Rock’ is a strength of the school. The school’s provision for social, moral, spiritual and cultural education is outstanding. Pupils have a strong sense of social awareness.. They care for each other in school and and organise charitable events. Pupils are fully involved in decision making; the school has achieved its third Investors in Children award.  The school prepares pupils for life in modern Britain extremely well, as demonstrated by its work towards

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The leadership and management are good

UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools award. Pupils are helped to understand the democratic process effectively. For example, through elections to the school council, by working with the Parliamentary Outreach Service and through debates with the local Member of Parliament.  This caring school ensures equality for all, fosters good relations and does not tolerate discrimination Pupil premium funding is used to good effect to support disadvantaged pupils through well-focused extra help, and, as a result, they make good progress.  Safeguarding requirements are fully met. All staff and governors have undertaken safeguarding training that is relevant to their roles and responsibilities. Policies are reviewed regularly and thorough systems are in place to ensure that appropriate checks are made on all adults who work in the school.  The local authority has confidence in the school’s leadership and adopt a light-touch approach to

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The leadership and management are good

supporting the school. Educational development advisers have worked effectively on specific developments such as improving pupils’ progress in English in Key Stage 2 and developing the quality of early years provision to successfully improve outcomes for children.  Additional primary school sports funding has helped the school to provide a greater range of sporting activities for pupils. This has resulted in higher levels of participation. In some classes, sports coaches have worked alongside teachers to develop their expertise. Pupils are accessing more competitive sport through tri-sports tournaments.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is rightly proud of the school’s ethos and values. Governors acknowledge the work of senior leaders in creating a school which is truly at the heart of the community.  Governors carry out their duties relating to safeguarding diligently and have made sure that appropriate

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The leadership and management are good

policies and procedures are fully in place.  Governors ensure that the school prepares pupils for life in modern Britain exceptionally well. They monitor the work of the school closely and challenge leaders to improve routinely. Governors understand and are well informed about the links between performance management and pay progression. They effectively challenge the school about the quality of teaching and the progress pupils make.  Governors have a good understanding of pupil achievement data and hold the school to account when particular cohorts of pupils do not reach the standards expected of them.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is excellent and their attitudes to learning are exemplary. They are extremely courteous, polite and respectful to their classmates and to adults in school at all times of the school day.  Pupils have a very good understanding of the different forms bullying can take such as cyber-bullying, racist bullying and physical bullying. Older pupils are knowledgeable about homophobic bullying. Pupils spoken to during the inspection said that incidents of bullying are rare and are dealt with extremely effectively.  Pupils are encouraged to think deeply about their roles in their school and local community through a wide range of well chosen activities including ‘Godly Play’; an initiative which involves meditation and mediation with pupils from another school and which is aimed at improving community relations.  Older pupils thoroughly enjoy taking responsibility and willingly help others. This was seen, for example, in

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Behaviour

the way that older pupils look after younger pupils in the playground at break times.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school. Pupils are extremely knowledgeable about different cultures and faiths, they think deeply during acts of collective worship and have a highly developed sense of right and wrong.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. School leaders, including governors, have established highly effective systems to ensure that pupils enjoy exciting learning opportunities in school and during educational visits, in a safe manner.  Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe and secure and are happy to come to school. This was exemplified by pupils skipping into school in the morning during the inspection.  The school has very thorough systems to record, monitor and evaluate any incidents that do occur.  The highly effective work that the school has undertaken in relation to e-safety has led to pupils in every key stage having a deep, insightful knowledge of the benefits and dangers of using modern technology. The oldest pupils developed their own e-safety website during computing lessons and launched it to the whole school community. Pupils in Year 2 told inspectors to take care with photographs because images

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Safety

that are loaded on to the internet, even if they are deleted, are, in their words, ‘always out there.’  All parents spoken with during the inspection, those who wrote to the inspectors and those who completed the online survey Parent View, feel that their children are safe and well looked after at the school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Effective teaching results in good achievement. Pupils make the best progress when teachers plan challenging work and activities which make them think hard, use reasoning and work cooperatively; this is especially true in the Year 5/ Year 6 class.  Pupils know what they are expected to learn and how their progress will be judged because assessment systems are well established and consistent throughout the school.  Pupils’ perseverance and expertise in solving mathematical problems is good as a result of extended periods of time allocated to teaching a new skill, using practical apparatus to practise the skill and then applying the skill to solve problems. As a result, in Key Stage 2, pupils are now making better progress in mathematics.  Planning for progress in Year 1 does not yet meet the increased expectations of the new National Curriculum for mathematics. Pupils who are capable of adding and subtracting up to 20 are not provided

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The quality of teaching is good

with opportunities to do so and this is limiting their progress.  Pupils are making increased progress in reading and writing since the introduction of high-qualitybooks including The Iron Man, Charlotte’s Web and Street Child. Teachers plan schemes of work carefully around the texts and, as a result, the whole school is alive with pupils’ writing. Pupils’ celebrate their achievements by taking their copy of the book home at the end of the unit of work.  Pupils in the early years and Key Stage 1 do not make quick enough progress in the acquisition of phonics and early reading skills. Adults do not always pronounce the sounds that letters make correctly and the pupils’ reading books are not always challenging enough.  Teachers’ expectations of presentation and handwriting are not always high enough. For example, pupils do not always write one digit in one square in their mathematics workbooks and this leads to difficulties

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The quality of teaching is good

when solving complicated calculations.  All work is conscientiously marked. However, teachers do not always identify precisely enough what the pupils should do next to further improve their work. Occasionally, pupils’ responses to teachers’ marking are incorrect and their misconceptions are not addressed.  Teaching assistants make a valuable contribution to the quality of teaching and learning. They liaise closely with teachers and provide effective support, usually to small groups or individual pupils. They help to ensure that pupils who require additional support in lessons, such as those with special educational needs, learn well and make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The skills and knowledge of children on entry to the Reception class vary considerably year on year due to the small numbers of children involved. From their varying, but below typical starting points, all groups of pupils, including those who are disabled and those who are disadvantaged, make good progress. They are well prepared for the next stage in their education by the time they leave the school.  In 2014, and previous years, there were too few disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 to report specifically on their attainment without identifying individuals.  The school has an in-depth knowledge of each individual child and their family. It provides closely targeted individual and small group teaching to address any issues identified in pupil progress meetings.  The most able pupils do not always make the progress of which they are capable because planning to address their needs lacks rigour, teachers’ expectations are not always high enough and work that is set is

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The achievement of pupils is good

not challenging enough.  Achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in Key Stage 2 is improving rapidly because of the implementation of innovative teaching strategies which are leading to pupils making faster progress in the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.  The attainment and progress of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is good, and in some cases outstanding, because the school makes provision for their individual needs very well and works in very close partnership with their parents.  The many pupils who join the school part way through the year are made to feel very welcome, settle in quickly and make fast progress because teachers make accurate assessments of their abilities, deliver effective teaching and ensure high quality care, guidance and support.

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The early years provision is good

 Most children start at the school with knowledge, skills and understanding which are below those typical for their age. Evidence of their good, and sometimes outstanding progress, is recorded in high-quality learning journals. Teachers annotate these journals with the next steps in learning that are planned for the children and these steps lead to more rapid progress. Accurate assessment of the children’s abilities and progress is a strength of the provision. Effective learning journals, which provide a useful record of children’s achievements, are shared regularly with parents.  Leadership and management are good. The early years leader and the other adults in the provision work in partnership with the special educational needs coordinator and a local authority consultant to plan for the best possible outcomes for the children. However, progress in the acquisition of phonics and early reading skills is not as good as it could be because adults do not always pronounce the sounds that letters

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The early years provision is good

make correctly. This needs to be tackled urgently by the school’s leadership.  There are positive relationships between adults and children. As a result, the children feel safe, are confident and relate well to adults and to their peers. Behaviour in the Reception class is exemplary.  Children who are disabled or have special educational needs are well supported and make good progress from their starting points.  In 2014 the proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of the early years increased to significantly above the national average. They were ready to meet the demands of Key Stage 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 114099 Local authority Durham Inspection number 453372

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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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 78 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rachel Webb Headteacher Dominic Brown Date of previous school inspection 16 October 2008 Telephone number 01388 832411 Fax number 01388 835593 Email address ramshaw@durhamlearning.net 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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