Hartshorne CofE Primary School

Hartshorne CofE Primary School Main Street, Hartshorne, Swadlincote, DE11 7ES

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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

 Senior leaders and governors have made good use of training to improve teaching since the previous inspection. As a result, pupils now achieve well across the school.  Standards at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 have risen to above average. Most pupils in other year groups are working at, or above, the levels expected nationally for their age.  All groups of pupils do well, including the most- able pupils. Senior leaders and staff work effectively to help disadvantaged pupils catch up with other groups.  Children in the Reception year are taught well and make good progress in all areas of learning.  Teaching is good, particularly in Years 5 and 6. Teachers and teaching assistants work well together to guide pupils’ learning and to ensure pupils work hard.  Pupils are very happy at school. They behave well, especially in lessons. Excellent relationships with staff ensure that pupils feel safe and well cared for.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development very effectively.  The governors have sharpened their skills and now make a good contribution to improving teaching and raising achievement.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils do not get enough chance to deepen their mathematical knowledge by solving problems and carrying out investigations.  In the outdoor area, children in the Reception year have few opportunities to develop their imagination and extend their skills.  Leaders have not rigorously checked that all their spending to support disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is accelerating their progress so that they achieve more. They have not checked that their use of primary sport funding is widening participation and improving pupils’ health and well-being.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector made visits to all classrooms to check on pupils’ learning. On one visit, he was accompanied by the acting headteacher. He heard a range of pupils in Year 2 reading and looked at samples of pupils' work.  Meetings were held with school staff, a group of pupils, four governors, and two representatives from the local authority.  The inspector took account of nine responses to a questionnaire completed by staff and the 10 responses made by parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. He also analysed parents’ and pupils’ responses to the school’s recent questionnaires. He spoke informally with a few parents during the inspection.  The inspector checked a range of evidence including: monitoring records; consultants’ reports; the school improvement plan; the school’s own data on pupils’ attainment and progress; and policies, procedures and practice relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

Derek Aitken, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Hartshorne is much smaller than most primary schools.  The school shares its main building with Hartshorne Pre-School, which is inspected separately. Nearly all children from the Pre-School join Reception at Hartshorne CofE Primary.  Reception children attend on a full-time basis and are taught in a mixed-age class with some pupils from Year 1. The remaining pupils are taught in three mixed-age classes.  Almost all pupils are from White British backgrounds.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium, which is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority, is above average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is above average.  The acting headteacher took up her post in January 2015, following the retirement of the previous headteacher. She is temporarily on loan from another school pending the arrival of a new permanent

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Information about this school

headteacher in April 2015. At the time of the inspection, staff changes and unavoidable absences meant that some other key leadership and teaching roles were being filled on a temporary basis.  No judgement can be made on whether the school meets the government’s current floor standards because there were too few pupils in Year 6 in 2014.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching and pupils’ achievement by:  giving more opportunities for children in the Reception year to develop their imagination and extend their skills outdoors  providing more opportunities for pupils to use and apply their mathematical knowledge in problem- solving and investigative tasks.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:  checking that all support provided for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs has the intended impact on their achievement  rigorously checking the impact of the primary sport funding on pupils’ health and well-being.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school’s leaders, including governors, foresaw potential difficulties associated with discontinuity in staffing and implemented suitable plans to minimise them. Effective systems for reviewing the school’s work, skilful leadership by the acting headteacher and good teamwork are ensuring that pupils’ learning and well-being are unaffected by the current arrangements. Staff manage pupils’ behaviour well.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders’ checks on the school’s performance are timely and accurate. They have used this information carefully to identify training needs, to support inexperienced colleagues and to enhance the expertise of longer-serving staff. They have also strengthened the procedures for ensuring that staff are fully accountable for pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders check pupils’ progress closely and adjust teaching accordingly to support pupils who need extra help with their learning. The new coordinator for special educational needs has acted swiftly to review how this support is provided for pupils, but the impact of some resources has not yet been checked closely to see what difference they make to pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is working closely with the local authority and neighbouring schools to develop its preferred approach to assessment following withdrawal of National Curriculum levels. It is incorporating its new ways of assessing pupils’ achievement into the systems for tracking pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school ensures that no pupils suffer from discrimination. Leaders know where support is needed to accelerate the progress made by disadvantaged pupils. They have taken purposeful decisions to allocate resources, including staffing, to improve rates of progress. Their successful use of pupil premium funding has closed or reduced attainment gaps in most year groups.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils enjoy a wide range of subjects and activities such as regular theme days, performances by theatre companies and workshops. There are many strengths in the ways the school promotes pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural development. Pupils’ experiences are supplemented by activities fostered through the school’s close links with St Peter’s Church, visits to places of worship associated with other faiths and residential visits. Exchanges of work and news with schools in Jamaica and France reflect the school’s International Schools Award. Pupils’ environmental awareness is effectively promoted through diverse activities such as recycling, tree planting in the National Forest and the bird-watching club.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school promotes British values, including tolerance and acceptance of differences, well. Democratic elections are held to choose school councillors, who canvass pupils’ opinions and manage their own budget for the purchase of playground equipment. In lessons, pupils regularly discuss issues such as justice, fairness and the ways different societies work.

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The leadership and management are good

 Well-considered support, guidance, and training from local authority specialists have been highly effective in helping staff to improve teaching and to raise pupils’ achievement in the early years and both key stages.

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The leadership and management are good

 The questionnaires and comments received by the inspector show that parents are highly satisfied with the school’s work.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders, including governors, ensure that current government requirements for safeguarding are fully met and that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

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The leadership and management are good

 The additional primary sport funding has been spent appropriately, for example to train staff and to provide extra coaching for pupils in different sporting activities. However, leaders have not evaluated the impact of the actions they have taken on pupils’ health and well-being.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has improved its effectiveness considerably in the last two years. Governors quickly commissioned the review of their work recommended at the previous inspection. They acted promptly on its findings and acquired a more informed picture of the school’s performance and the confidence necessary to hold the school’s leaders to account. Their analysis of information on pupils’ attainment and progress is accurate and up to date. They correctly identify areas of relative strength and shortfalls in pupils’ skills.  Governors reflect on their practice regularly and test out new ways of working. They have reallocated their responsibilities to enable individual governors to gain a more strategic view of the impact of the school’s work. They know where extra support is needed to secure good achievement. They can identify where gaps in attainment for disadvantaged pupils have reduced and can assess the impact of most of

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The leadership and management are good

the actions they have taken to raise their achievement.  Governors check the quality of teaching through focused ‘learning walks,’ by reviewing the work in pupils’ books and considering data on pupils’ achievement. They have dealt appropriately with previous underperformance in teaching and make sure any salary increases are merited.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Children in the Reception year are happy and secure and quickly form trusting relationships with adults. They behave well when they choose what to do, and move onto another activity only when they have exhausted the possibilities of the previous one.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is consistently good. Occasionally it is outstanding. Pupils’ enjoyment of a wide range of subjects and their willingness to work collaboratively help them to achieve well. Pupils’ strong bonds of trust with staff ensure that they cooperate fully, following the guidance they are given by adults. Pupils in all year groups concentrate fully and work diligently on their own, while staff work with groups of pupils on other tables. This ensures that lessons proceed smoothly and that tasks are completed fully, and on time.

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Behaviour

 Pupils present their work neatly and take pride in their work. They work equally well in pairs or in small groups, discuss methods and whether answers are correct, and listen carefully to each other’s spoken contributions. Older pupils show a growing confidence in their ability to assess how well they are doing and to select resources from reference materials, to help them to improve their work.

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Behaviour

 Pupils behave well in assemblies and in the dinner hall and are unfailingly polite and welcoming to visitors. They are quick to help staff to tidy away equipment. They also behave well in the playground, although space limitations restrict the opportunities for any pupils who are not keen on physical activities to socialise with each other and to enjoy playtimes fully.

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Behaviour

 Most pupils know each other and their siblings well because they have grown up together in the village and have shared experiences outside school. This helps them to understand each other’s personalities, to resolve any disagreements, and to spot when someone needs some reassurance or help.

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Behaviour

 Pupils quickly develop the confidence to express their opinions clearly and thoughtfully. They understand the importance of citizenship skills and perform their roles as councillors, playground pals, and monitors responsibly. They value the certificates and prizes they receive which acknowledge their helpful behaviour and talents.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Access to the school’s buildings is restricted to authorised personnel. Staff employment checks are up to date, clearly documented and reviewed regularly by relevant staff and governors.

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Safety

 Staff supervise pupils closely. Midday supervisors receive regular training, including for directing play at lunchtimes. Incidents are rare, but those that do occur are fed back to the headteacher and followed up quickly with pupils and, if necessary, their parents. Outcomes are clearly recorded and sanctions are proportionate to the misdemeanours. There have been no exclusions or reported incidents of prejudice- based bullying in the last two years.

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Safety

 Pupils’ enjoyment of school is reflected in their above-average attendance. Pupils feel very safe in school because they fully trust staff to act in their best interests. They know how to stay safe in potentially dangerous situations, such as near busy roads, on Bonfire Night, or when using social media.

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Safety

 Staff use robust systems for ensuring pupils’ welfare. They promptly identify pupils who have specific, additional needs, so that support can be provided as soon as possible. Staff hold clear records on these pupils and work closely with relevant agencies to support them. They use a variety of follow-up strategies successfully to improve their well-being and progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Improvements in teaching are ensuring that pupils are achieving well in all key stages. Teachers know the levels at which different groups of pupils are working. They guide pupils’ learning very effectively. Lesson activities are mostly well focused on the skills that pupils need to gain or to practise next.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers manage pupils well. Excellent relationships ensure that pupils respond quickly to their promptings so that lessons move at a fast pace. Teachers work closely with teaching assistants to ensure all groups of pupils are supported and challenged to do their best.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils learned particularly well in a lesson with pupils in Year 5 and 6. The teacher’s high expectations, excellent use of computer technology and probing questions enabled pupils to deepen their understanding of the use of similes, metaphors, and personification. She ensured that pupils could explain what they needed to do next to improve their work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are supported well in small-group work. Teachers and teaching assistants have improved their knowledge of what these pupils know and can do and have tailored their contributions to move their learning forward more effectively.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Early reading skills are taught well. Staff work closely with parents to foster pupils’ enjoyment of reading and to ensure that books are well matched to pupils’ interests and reading levels. This good foundation helps older pupils to feel confident when they apply their reading skills for a range of purposes.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Writing skills are taught well. Teachers provide pupils with a good range of writing activities and ensure that they use their skills for a range of audiences and purposes. The staff’s careful guidance enables pupils in Years 1 and 2 to arrange sentences in a logical order and to select appropriate connectives to help them to construct paragraphs.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Mathematical skills are mostly taught well. Pupils develop their number and calculation skills securely in different contexts of measurement, such as lengths, areas and weights. However, pupils in Key Stage 2 are not routinely encouraged to use and to apply their mathematical understanding in problem solving and investigative tasks and this limits their achievement.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers mark pupils’ work regularly and well. Pupils’ willing and suitable responses to teachers’ helpful guidance reflect their strong work ethic.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Attainment at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 has risen considerably since the previous inspection. Standards in both key stages were above average in 2013 and 2014. Boys and girls achieve equally well although there are some variations in attainment in the different year groups because of their small size.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Results in the Year 1 screening check for phonics (the sounds that letters make), have matched or exceeded the national average in the last two years. All pupils in Year 2 who re-sat the test in 2014 were successful. Less-able pupils in Year 2 read accurately. Their good recall of storylines enables them to answer questions on their reading texts competently.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In 2014, there were too few disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 to compare their attainment with that of other pupils without potentially identifying them. Across the school, disadvantaged pupils make similar progress to their classmates, although some gaps in attainment remain in Years 5 and 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Most disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress because they receive well-judged support in lessons. However, the impact of individual support programmes has not been checked closely to ensure that all actions taken are fully effective in raising achievement.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils achieve well, especially in reading and writing. They rise well to the challenges staff pose them and make valuable spoken contributions in lessons. In Years 1 and 2, they write interesting, fluent accounts using legible, cursive script. Older pupils analyse tasks and questions carefully and use their conclusions confidently to help them to improve their work.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Across the school, most pupils are working at or above nationally expected levels. Given their below- average starting points in Years 1 and 3, this represents good achievement for current Year 2 and Year 6 pupils. In Key Stage 2, pupils make especially good use of their targets to review and to improve their work in writing.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils have a good command of different strategies for carrying out calculations. However, they do not have enough opportunities to extend their understanding by applying their skills in a wide range of practical situations in lessons.

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The early years provision is good

 Children’s knowledge and skills when they join the school vary from year to year. In some years, the intake has shown weaknesses in communication and language. All groups of children make good progress. The percentage of children who achieved a good level of development rose considerably in 2014 and was above the national average. Children are well prepared for Key Stage 1.

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The early years provision is good

 Children settle exceptionally well in the early years. Before they start in Reception year, the ‘Friends on Friday’ programme enables pre-school children to get to know the setting and their future classmates, and staff to share information about their achievements. In twice-weekly sessions at the beginning of the school day, parents typically explore books with their children. These sessions ensure that children are alert and ready to learn when lessons start.

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The early years provision is good

 Children understand and accept the daily routines well and take a full part with staff in discussing the outline ‘plan for the day’ and their recent experiences, while the ‘helping hands’ proudly take the register to the school office. Children show maturity and do not dwell unnecessarily on activities before finding something else which captures their interest. Relationships between children and staff are excellent.

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The early years provision is good

 Staff plan a good range of activities in the classroom that foster children’s enthusiasm for learning and ensure that they sustain their concentration and efforts during tasks and at play. Children also enjoy working in the enclosed outdoor area, but have few exciting opportunities there to develop their powers of imagination and to extend their skills fully.

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The early years provision is good

 Staff mostly ask children questions skilfully to assess and extend their understanding. Their careful guidance ensures that children develop their handwriting and mathematical skills securely. A few of the most-able children use complex vocabulary in their short accounts and demonstrate an understanding of simple fractions.

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The early years provision is good

 The early years provision is led and managed effectively. Staff check children’s progress regularly and use the records of their observations carefully to adjust their short- and medium-term plans to tackle areas of relative weakness in children’s 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 112824 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 454789

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 103 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Debbie Patrick Headteacher Vanessa Stokes (acting headteacher) Date of previous school inspection 25 April 2013 Telephone number 01283 217423 Fax number 01283 217423 Email address info@hartshorne.derbyshire.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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