Sundridge and Brasted Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

School report Sundridge and Brasted Church of England Primary School Church Road, Sevenoaks, TN14 6EA

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Requires improvement 3 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Early years provision Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Parents are overwhelmingly positive about this small village school. Many agree that they ‘cannot speak highly enough’ of the school and the staff who ‘always have time for you’.  Leaders and managers, together with governors, are fully committed to providing a high standard of education for all pupils. Their actions have had a direct and highly positive impact on the high quality of teaching and the outstanding achievement of pupils.  Outstanding teaching and learning in each key stage enable pupils to make rapid and sustained progress in all subjects. As a result, all groups of pupils, regardless of their ability, are doing well throughout the school.  The school’s new approaches to teaching reading are developing a real enthusiasm and love for reading among pupils of all ages.  Staff have been particularly successful in using their questioning skills to deepen pupils’ reasoning in mathematics to make sure that pupils think

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

hard. Staff are now rightly concentrating on applying this to all subjects across the curriculum.  The outstanding headteacher is an inspirational leader. She is highly ambitious for the school and its pupils in every respect. The headteacher is well supported by her senior leadership team and a highly dedicated staff team.  Parents unanimously agree that their children are happy at the school. All pupils feel very safe in the school, a view that is supported by all parents and staff. Pupils flourish and develop into confident and mature young people who leave the school with a passion for learning.  Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. Pupils of all ages play and learn together harmoniously. They respect adults and are keen and eager to learn.  Achievement is outstanding. From their starting points, pupils make rapid progress. At the end of Year 6, all groups of pupils, including the most able, are reaching well above average standards.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teaching assistants are highly skilled and provide outstanding support for the pupils with whom they work.  As a result of excellent teaching, children in the early years have a very good start to school life.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed teaching in seven lessons, nearly all of which were visited jointly with the headteacher. In addition, the inspector looked at pupils’ work in books and listened to pupils read.  Discussions were held with pupils, senior staff leaders, subject leaders, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.  The inspector met informally with parents at the beginning of both school days. She took account of the 29 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. The responses to 14 staff questionnaires were also considered.  A number of documents were also viewed, including the school’s information about pupils’ progress and the school’s evaluation of its own work. The inspector scrutinised checks on teachers’ effectiveness, and records relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

Gay Whent, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Sundridge and Brasted is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.  Most pupils are of White British heritage.  There have been several changes in staffing since the last inspection, and a new senior management team has been created.  Reception children attend full time. The school makes provision for the early years in a combined class for the Reception children and Year 1 pupils. There are two other combined classes: Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6. Year 2 pupils are taught together in one class.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs is lower than the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium (additional government funding which in this school is for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals) is much lower than the national average.  The school is part of a collaboration with 28 other schools, known as the Sevenoaks Partnership.

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Information about this school

 The school provides a daily breakfast club.  There is a nursery on the school site that is managed by a private provider and, therefore, not included in this inspection.  The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Embed the school’s effective use of questioning and reasoning skills to ensure deepening understanding in mathematics to all subjects across the curriculum.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 In the words of a parent, ‘The headteacher is absolutely brilliant.’ Many parents agree that ‘nothing is too much trouble for the staff at this school’. The headteacher is an inspirational leader who has the support and respect of a strong team, including governors. The headteacher lost no time following the last inspection to start to improve the school. There has been a clear and focused determination to succeed and drive the school forward. Every member of staff shares this vision, as shown by the wholly positive staff responses to the staff questionnaire.  Together with her senior leadership team and governors, the headteacher ensures that pupils make increasingly better progress throughout the whole school. This strong leadership has created a culture in which teaching and excellent behaviour flourish.  Communication with parents is extremely effective. Fostering good relationships is a shared responsibility

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The leadership and management are outstanding

for every single person in the school’s community. In the words of a staff member, ‘We are a close and hardworking team who strive to achieve better for our pupils and their families.’  Subject and other leaders have a very clear understanding of their areas of responsibility, which they share across the whole school. All staff know the importance and value of being a good role model, and lead by example. Everyone does their very best to ensure that all pupils achieve their potential, that they have equal opportunities to prosper, and that there is no discrimination. Parents readily share how the school has ‘gone the extra mile’ for their children. They feel very well supported.  The support for those pupils who are disabled or who have special educational needs is very effective. They make good or better progress and attain well. This is because no time is lost in identifying their needs. Their progress is reviewed at short intervals, sometimes weekly, to make sure that they do not fall

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The leadership and management are outstanding

behind.  The school checks to make sure that the additional government pupil premium funding is used effectively to support the needs of disadvantaged pupils. As a result of a very well matched personalised approach, these pupils achieve as well as, and often better than, other pupils in the school.  Primary school sport funding is used highly effectively. There has been a massive increase in participation in sport, where nearly 60 pupils now engage in extra-curricular activities including the early morning ‘wake up club’. The school is very proud of winning two district sports championships in athletics and swimming in the last year, and is fully involved in competitions for cross-country, football and ‘kwik’ cricket. The school’s healthy eating focus includes working with parents to introduce a healthy lunch box policy, as well as a healthy eating picnic for children to enjoy with their older buddies before they start school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The quality of the curriculum is inspiring and very effectively engages pupils’ interests. It supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and emotional development exceptionally well through a wide range of activities, from Saxon Day workshops to learning to ride a bike safely. The curriculum promotes pupils’ understanding of British values very effectively and prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain. When a pupil in Year 6 wrote to the local Member of Parliament asking how ‘government worked’, an invitation for the whole class to visit the Houses of Parliament and receive a private tour followed. The school election that took place last month created much interest in the voting system. Pupils are eager to explain how and why they voted for the school’s successful ‘Tomorrow’ party.  The school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils meet statutory requirements. School policies and all paperwork are rigorous, detailed and up to date. Most parents strongly agree that their child is well looked

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The leadership and management are outstanding

after at the school.  The local authority has provided beneficial support for the school. This has enabled the headteacher to ensure that the school’s work is accurate and to make precise decisions about its next steps. In addition, the school has received very positive training and networking opportunities from the Sevenoaks Partnership of schools.  The governance of the school:  Governors are highly committed to the school and take an active role. They know the school very well through a full programme of monitoring visits. They have seen at first hand how teaching is deepening pupils’ understanding through targeted questioning and reasoning.  Governors are very well informed about the quality of teaching because they spend time in school talking to both pupils and teachers. Governors know the impact of good or better teaching on outcomes for pupils. The governing body makes sure that checks on staff performance are thorough and that

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The leadership and management are outstanding

leaders are setting challenging targets linked to both pupil progress and the school’s priorities. Governors ensure that good teaching is recognised and rewarded; they know that any underperformance has been successfully tackled. 5 of 10

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Governors fully understand how the school compares with other schools nationally. Governors are not afraid to ask searching questions in order to clarify their understanding, particularly about pupils’ progress. They are well trained and use their valuable expertise to improve the school’s performance.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. This is clearly evident in the classrooms, at playtimes and in assembly.  Pupils say that they like their school ‘just as it is’ and appreciate the ‘family atmosphere, where we all care for each other’. Their parents wholeheartedly agree.  Pupils enjoy the responsibilities they are given. They like acting as ‘buddy’ to the youngest children and looking after them as they prepare to start school. They appreciate the opportunities they receive when they are older, to be prefects, house captains, or even head boy or head girl.  Pupils’ participation in whole-class work or in small groups is consistently constructive. Pupils listen to one another, often waiting patiently for each other to explain their reasoning. In one class, all pupils were so involved in carrying out calculations together they forgot it was playtime.  Pupils look extremely smart. They are very proud of their new school uniform and that their views were

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Behaviour

considered in the choices made. They take pride in their appearance at all times, which is also apparent in the way they look after and treat their books.  Pupils relate very positively to all the school staff and to each other. Older pupils have explored the meaning of respect. They say it is important because ‘we want to live peacefully; if we respect people they will respect us’. These are some of the reasons for their excellent conduct.  Attendance is improving and is above the national average for primary schools. The breakfast club and the early morning ‘wake up’ start to the school morning have improved punctuality as well as attendance.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, including when they use the internet. They understand exactly what bullying is, and that it can take other forms such as cyber bullying. They say that there is no bullying at the school. They would trust any adult in the school to sort things out very quickly if any issues did occur.  Pupils say that they feel very safe in the school, and their parents and all staff agree. Even though the school is situated next to a busy and well used country road, they feel safe, particularly in the way that ‘there are always two teachers on duty at the gate every day’ when they leave.  Records kept by the school show very few incidents of concern, steadily decreasing in number since the last inspection. The very occasional incidents are related to specific special needs, rather than general behaviour issues. Parental involvement is included as a matter of course.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Excellent teaching in all subjects is leading pupils to make outstanding progress and achieve really well. Teachers, together with their teaching assistants, have very high expectations. They carefully plan highly interesting and exciting lessons that motivate all pupils, whatever their ability, to do well. Plans are even more carefully thought out when there are different year groups sharing the same class.  The impact of teaching on learning and achievement in literacy, reading and mathematics is reflected in pupils’ outstanding attainment. The school’s current data provide reliable further evidence of this trend, demonstrating outstanding progress in all subjects. An effective whole-school focus on improving the progress pupils make in their reading has encouraged pupils to read far more and with obvious enjoyment. One pupil in Year 6 said he recently chose a book from the school library and read for three

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

hours when he arrived home as he ‘just could not put it down’.  Marking and feedback are very clear. Comments made by teachers are thoughtfully written and enable pupils to make greater progress. Homework is interesting and also well planned. Parents’ views about homework are also taken into consideration. All parents unanimously agree that the school provides appropriate homework for their children. The school offers a weekly after-school homework club for any pupil to attend, which enables pupils to achieve higher outcomes. All teachers attend this to help should pupils need support. 6 of 10

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers and their teaching assistants use questioning very skilfully to move learning forward. The focus on deepening pupils’ reasoning when learning mathematics has enabled pupils to make even greater progress then previously. Owing to its success, the school improvement plan has correctly identified that this is a priority to apply to other subjects.  Whether pupils are learning how to work out change, write a list poem, a letter to a good friend or a report based on their research notes, they are all engaged and deeply motivated. They make the best of all the opportunities which they receive because they think so highly of their school.  All parents agree that their children are taught well. They say that ‘teachers and the headteacher always have time for you’ and ‘everything is done to keep us informed’.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Achievement across the school is outstanding for all pupils. This is due to excellent teaching which ensures that pupils make outstanding progress from their different starting points. Many parents agree that their children ‘are excelling’ at this ‘family-orientated, nurturing village school’.  Pupils learn phonics (the sounds that letters make) very well. This is seen in the above average results in the phonic screening check at the end of Year 1. At the end of Year 2, attainment in reading, writing and mathematics has been significantly above average for the last two years. At the end of Year 6, attainment has been above average in reading, grammar, punctuation, spelling and mathematics; it is significantly above in writing. Standards achieved are notably higher than at the time of the last school inspection.  Current school data and work seen in pupils’ books provide clear evidence that standards at the school are

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

continuing to rise. Pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 are all on track to match or exceed the very challenging targets that the school has set for 2015. The school’s judgements for Year 2 in reading, writing and mathematics and Year 6 writing have been externally evaluated and verified.  Progress in reading is outstanding across all year groups. This is as a result of the school’s focus on linking reading to all aspects of the curriculum. Pupils in Years 3 and 4 apply their knowledge of the Stone Age to their current whole class book, Stig of the Dump.  Throughout the school, disadvantaged pupils also make excellent progress, doing as well as their peers. This is due to the careful attention staff give to ensuring that support is specifically directed and personalised. As there were very few pupils in Years 2 and 6 who were eligible to receive the support through the additional government funding, there is no national comparison to report.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Most-able pupils make very good progress. Their achievement by the end of Year 2 and also by the end of Year 6 is above that of other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Most-able pupils are highly motivated and enjoy the additional challenges they are set. They say that work in mathematics has been hard, ‘a lot has been demanded’, but are pleased with what they have achieved. They have enjoyed the opportunities to join in with challenging activities at other schools in the Sevenoaks Partnership.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make outstanding progress. The school has a very good understanding of individual pupils’ learning needs. The support they receive is very carefully targeted to ensure that they achieve their best. Pupils and parents are very positive about this aspect of the school’s work.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children make excellent progress from their very varied starting points, some of which are typical for their age, whereas many others are considerably lower. Year 1 pupils, who currently share the class with Reception children, are very good role models. They take special care of their new friends as a ‘mini buddy’. This helps the Reception children to settle quickly, to understand what is expected of them and to learn to share with others. As a result they get off to a flying start. Parents are very happy about the ways in which their children quickly settle in, and are encouraged to become increasingly more confident in their learning.  Children are well looked after in an interesting and stimulating environment. The teacher and her teaching assistants work very well together as a strong team. Teaching is excellent. All staff have high expectations. The focus on learning is key. Adults enable children to make even faster progress. This was

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The early years provision is outstanding

seen when they were able to discuss very intelligently whether a very small case is two or three multilink cubes long and how you describe it if is ‘almost two’ or ‘almost three’.  Assessment includes a wide variety of evidence. Assessments are checked and evaluated by external 7 of 10

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The early years provision is outstanding

moderators to ensure that they are accurate. Children like seeing their targets on the wall outside their classroom, as do their parents.  The early years provision is led outstandingly well. The teacher ensures that children work and play in a secure, safe environment where each child is known very well. There are excellent systems for tracking pupils’ progress, created by the teacher in collaboration with another local school, where any underachievement is acted upon swiftly and successfully addressed. The systems have been adopted by other schools locally.  Activities taught are very well planned to meet children’s next learning steps. They are exciting and interesting for the children, whether these take place inside the classroom or outside. Children enjoy being inside ‘the lighthouse’ in the classroom and have created the most ‘disgusting’ sandwiches for the lighthouse keeper in their story. These include blue cheese and mouldy lettuce; all written with a very

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The early years provision is outstanding

good understanding of phonics.  The behaviour of children in early years is excellent. They play and learn happily together. The curriculum is finely tuned to cater for their interests. The construction area is very well used. The imaginatively created work-site includes a tarpaulin cover over the steps. When children move to other activities, they ask the newcomers to continue to carry out their job ‘very carefully’. They not only make sure they are wearing their highly visible jacket and a safety helmet, but also have a clipboard to log what they are doing and the tools they need. They were observed in earnest conversations as they focused on their road work using spanners, brooms, road signs and rulers. Children in the Reception are happy and remain productive throughout the school day.  Children are extremely well prepared for the next stage of their education in Year 1. This is seen in their

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The early years provision is outstanding

learning of phonics as well as in number and in their measuring. More-able learners choose their own resources to measure real items from their story of Titch.

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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 118608 Local authority Kent Inspection number 462401

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 5−11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 83 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rebecca Hamburger Headteacher Kathy Taylor Date of previous school inspection 26–27 June 2013 Telephone number 01959 562694 Fax number 01959 562694 Email address headteacher@sundridge.kent.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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