Preshute Church of England Primary School

Preshute Primary School High Street , Manton, Wiltshire SN8 4HH

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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This is an outstanding school

 In this outstanding school, the motto ‘Live life, love learning’, is breathed every day. It truly reflects the headteacher’s, school leaders’, and governing body’s determination to ‘whet the appetite for lifelong learning’.  The headteacher’s drive and ambition for the school has ensured that all aspects of the school have improved since the last inspection; they are now all outstanding.  Complacency is not part of this school. Staff at all levels play their part in driving the school improvement. The school is developing leaders at all levels.  The deputy headteacher provides high-quality training for teaching assistants. She has also helped improve girls’ appreciation of mathematics.  The special educational needs coordinator and his team ensure that all pupils who are struggling with their learning, for whatever reason, are fully supported so that they make outstanding progress.  The quality, rate and depth of learning continues

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This is an outstanding school

to improve. Teachers consistently apply the new assessment system which is enabling everyone to be well informed about pupils’ achievements.  Close monitoring by senior leaders and the governing body is ensuring that high-quality teaching continues and that pupils achieve their very best.  Pupils continue to be excellent ambassadors for themselves, their parents and their school. Pupils’ personal development and welfare are at the heart of the school’s work.  The governing body is fully involved in the life of the school and knows its work extremely well. Governors celebrate successes and are swift to act to ensure that the quality of education at Preshute remains on an upwards trajectory.  Children in the early years get off to a cracking start. The excellent teaching and small, but splendid, learning environments enable them to be exceptionally well prepared for Year 1.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Provide more opportunities for all staff to share the very best aspects of their work.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 The headteacher, ably supported by her deputy, astutely identifies staff development needs, which are met through high-quality training. Along with the governing body, they have created a lifelong learning community where adults along with pupils are inquisitive, ambitious and have a hunger for learning. Morale throughout the school is high.  The school makes excellent use of external partners to moderate pupils’ work and share best practice. This helps the school leaders to know that their assessment of pupils’ work is accurate.  Teachers work closely with partner schools to share best practice. However, staff do not have enough opportunities to share the very best aspects of their own work with each other.  The school has a vibrant curriculum. An appreciation of the arts and development of pupils’ creativity remain as key elements. Since the previous inspection, greater emphasis is placed on developing pupils’

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

basic skills, enabling them to continue to reach higher standards by the end of Year 2 and Year 6. Consequently, pupils are better equipped to start secondary school.  Day trips, residential visits, and external visitors, ensure that pupils gain first-hand experiences of meeting with other people who have different life experiences and beliefs. These experiences are very effective at enriching pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and preparing them for life in modern Britain.  Pupils and their parents appreciate the clubs and extra-curricular activities that the school offers. Although some would like more, those on offer complement and enhance the well-designed curriculum provided in the general school day.  Links with the newly established vicar in the parish, arrangements with other local schools and neighbours, and involvement with the Preshute Primary School Association improve the facilities available

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

to pupils. This partnership work is essential given the shortfalls in the school’s buildings and the particularly restrictive outdoor space.  Excellent use is made of the primary physical education and sport grant. It is used to provide much- needed equipment, specialist coaches and access to facilities that the school cannot provide directly. The ‘sports week’ is a resounding success and is highly popular with parents and pupils alike. It enables pupils to try new sports such as fencing. Following the success of sports week, new highly popular after-school clubs have started such as street surfing.  Information to parents is clear and timely through newsletters and parents’ evenings. The school’s website contains all of the required information. There are plans for it to be refreshed when time and funds allow.  Parents have good opportunities to provide feedback to the school through bi-annual questionnaires and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

the parent forum held six times a year. Each term, the governing body randomly selects parents of pupils from each class, and invites them to a meeting to discuss various topics relating to the school (the parent forum); for example, the school’s provision for sport. The governing body and senior leaders listen carefully to the suggestions made and have altered provision accordingly, such as providing a wider range of sporting activities that pupils can do to develop successful sporting teamwork and individual successes.  Some parents reported that they do not feel that senior leaders take their concerns about potential bullying into account. With the help of pupils and using the information from the parent forum, the school has just released an updated anti-bullying policy. Its production, involving everyone, coincided with anti- bullying week. Both of these have helped pupils understand they must not stand by but stand up to any

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

potential bullies.  High-quality and efficient engagement with parents and other agencies helps to keep pupils safe. The school provides excellent support for families in times of crisis.  The governance of the school The work of the governing body is outstanding. Governors ensure that all monies available to the school, including the pupil premium funding and primary sport grant, are used to best effect. The school’s self-evaluation is thorough and accurate. Governors have a comprehensive understanding about the progress that pupils are making. This shared understanding between senior leaders and the governing body guides the strategic direction of the school very effectively. The school development plans, including those of subject leaders and the governing body’s own development plan, are interwoven. As a result, actions that need to be taken are scrupulously monitored and evaluated. One result has been that the quality and rate of mathematics learning has

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

improved, with a distinct change in girls’ attitudes towards mathematics as a subject. The relative weakness in writing has also been resolved. The governing body ensures that teachers’ pay reflects the quality of their teaching. They keep a close eye on ensuring that all staff are providing the best education for the pupils in the school. Checks to keep pupils safe and to ensure their welfare, health and safety are robust. Staff including the governing body are kept up to date with the latest official guidance and they also learn from best practice.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

 Teaching is of a consistently high quality. Classroom walls celebrate pupils’ achievements as well as providing exciting and stimulating materials and support for learning. Attractively decorated classroom doors prepare the visitor for, and remind the pupils of, the topic theme currently taught in the class; for example, a painting of Paddington Bear with his suitcase in the infants, the planets in Year 5, and a Roman in Year 6.  Teachers’ planning is thorough and detailed. Accurate assessment of pupils’ prior learning is used to inform teachers’ planning. The systems in place enable the teachers to identify any learning gaps, which they use to plan appropriate tasks so that all pupils make at least good progress. In addition, tasks and teaching are adapted and reshaped during lessons to correct misconceptions when they occur or to provide more challenge.  Well-trained, experienced, talented, knowledgeable teaching assistants work with pupils in lessons and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

undertake short, highly targeted interventions with small groups or individual pupils. Their seamless work with class teachers and other specialists provides a backbone of support for pupils’ learning and enables the most-able pupils to work to their capacity.  Feedback from adults to pupils in all classes follows the school’s marking and feedback policies. Pupils know what they need to do to improve their work and the next steps they need to take to meet their challenging learning targets.  The school makes learning practical and relevant to the world beyond school. Tasks in English and mathematics often relate to the class topic visits the pupils have undertaken as part of schoolwork, or after external visitors have come to the school. This makes learning interesting and relevant to the pupils’ first-hand experiences. For example, Year 5 are following Major Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

International Space Station and they have had a visit from experts at the UK Space Agency based in Swindon.  Teachers provide time for pupils to acquire, consolidate and extend their learning during lessons and as part of homework activities. Although some parents feel that their children have too much homework and others do not feel that they get enough, inspectors judge that appropriate, regular, challenging homework tasks are set in reading, writing, spelling and mathematics.  In addition to regular homework, each class has a ‘Home Challenge’ (open-ended homework). The challenge links with the classes’ topic themes and promotes collaboration with siblings and parents. It is not compulsory, but the vast majority of families take part. Pupils told the inspectors that they enjoyed these challenges.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  Pupils gain in self-confidence and know how to become successful learners. Pupils learn to be resilient, resourceful and ambitious. They are not afraid to try new things or make mistakes. They work successfully in teams through negotiation and compromise. They become engrossed in their learning, persevere to do their very best and complete their set tasks.  More pupils are taking part in a wider range of physical activities and are now participating in sport outside school. The nurturing support provided by staff, and interventions when families are in times of crisis helps pupils.  The elected school council takes its role very seriously. Pupils are proud to have the responsibility of representing their peers’ views and helping make the school an even better place in which to work and learn. They know their views are important and respected as the senior leaders have made changes

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Personal development and welfare

based on them.  Pupils understand the different types of bullying, including when using computers. They learn how to keep themselves and each other safe. Pupils report that they feel safe.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils’ behaviour during lessons is impeccable. No time is lost in lessons because pupils value their own learning. Pupils develop high levels of self-discipline. They collaborate with each other, or work on their own, as the set task or teacher requires of them. They are polite, courteous and kind.  Playtimes are fun, happy, healthy and safe experiences with pupils exercising and engaging in imaginative play. When at play, the pupils are careful to look out for, and take care of, younger pupils. Older pupils with responsibilities, for example as sports leaders or Play Pod supervisors, ensure that everyone has a playmate if they want one.  During acts of worship, pupils are respectful and contemplative. Their communal singing is a delight to hear.  This is a thoughtful and caring community. Tolerance of others is strongly encouraged, as is forgiveness when things go wrong. Typically, behavioural issues between pupils are minor and very few;

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Behaviour

discrimination is rare.  The school’s buildings and available outside spaces are small and cramped. Nevertheless, every centimetre is maximised for its learning potential. Displays of pupils’ work celebrate their efforts and achievements. Although the corridors are tight, everyone takes great care to ensure that displays are not damaged.  Attendance by a few pupils has, in the recent past, not been good enough. Despite robust systems in place, the persistent poor attendance of a small number of pupils in 2014 had a negative impact on the school’s overall attendance figures. Thanks to working closely with these families, and outside agencies, the school’s attendance rate is now firmly above the national average.

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

 Children join the Reception class with skills, knowledge and understanding that are typical, or slightly better, for their age. By the time they join Year 1, they are ready to start following the National Curriculum. The high quality of phonics teaching ensures that all, or nearly all, pupils meet the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. The very few that did not meet the standard in 2015 had made rapid progress from their starting points.  The national tests show that standards at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 for reading, writing and mathematics combined have continued to be significantly higher than the national averages in four out of the last five years.  Standards of reading throughout the school are high. Initiatives such as the ‘book club’ are also enabling pupils to develop analytical and conversational skills based on their reading.  In 2015, a few pupils in Year 6, who were expected to reach the higher level for writing, had not done so

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

when the SATs tests were taken. However, pupils’ work and school records show that they had reached it before they left the school.  Current pupils in all year groups, and across a wide range of subjects, are maintaining their high standards of work. They are sustaining their progress from one year to the next.  The development of pupils’ writing has been a school focus this year. In all classes, closer relationships in all subjects with the class topic has extended the occasions for pupils to enhance their writing skills. In addition, the school has adjusted the English curriculum so that pupils have more opportunities to write in the genre they prefer, for example poetry. Pupils report that they enjoy these occasions and it has increased still further the quality of writing that pupils are producing as a result.  Disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils, and those with special educational needs, make outstanding and

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

rapid progress, as do pupils who need to catch up. The numbers of these pupils in each year group are small. Nevertheless, these groups of pupils achieve as well as, and often better than, their classmates. This is because the short, sharp interventions provided by the school are based on an accurate understanding of their precise learning needs.  Pupils who are new to the country who have a limited knowledge of English swiftly acquire an understanding of the sounds that letters make (phonics) and use this to break down and read new words. Their mastery of English is rapid and enables them to make themselves understood and be able to learn new subjects at the same rate as their classmates.  Throughout the school, staff ensure that the most-able pupils are given harder challenges so that they too can excel. Further initiatives have been undertaken by the school, such as specialist mathematics clubs, so that these pupils can continue to work with their peers, but have more opportunities to extend

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

their mastery of more complex problems.  Following discussion with pupils, the deputy headteacher has instigated new teaching approaches so that girls now really enjoy mathematics. They are making accelerated progress and achieving even better than in the past so that they now often achieve better than the boys do.  The school is highly successful at enabling pupils to have enquiring, innovative minds through developing a love of learning in all their subjects. The careful planning of topic work and the ‘Home Challenge’, which incorporate a wide range of subjects using meaningful first-hand experiences, inspires pupils. As a result, pupils make swift and sustained progress in these subjects too and develop a wide range of interests that they investigate beyond the school gates. The provision of a highly experienced French teacher enables pupils to have a firm foundation to study French further. Pupils are exceptionally well prepared for

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Early years provision is outstanding

 Outstanding leadership and management continues to ensure that the provision for the youngest pupils remains outstanding. Children’s progress and attainment remain outstanding. Children join the Reception class with skills and abilities that are typical, or slightly better, for their age.  The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year is much higher than the national average. Children start Year 1 well prepared for their studies with much better than average skills, particularly in speaking and writing.  The teaching of phonics is systematic, methodical and of a high quality. Children also make rapid progress in their written work because staff help them to apply their phonics learning when writing.  The small, but vibrant, outside area now complements the exciting indoor spaces; it has been expertly designed to maximise outdoor learning opportunities. Here, as inside, children develop their excellent

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Early years provision is outstanding

understanding of numbers, shapes, and measuring.  The assessment of children’s development is regular, rigorous and accurate. The information collected identifies the skills that individual children need to develop. Staff then use it to plan activities that will sharpen and hone those skills, but they are also exciting, which motivates and inspires the children. In particular, activities promote rich communication opportunities and aid collaboration skills and fine motor development.  All adults work closely together to nurture and encourage the children. They are excellent role models. Adults demonstrate and share their own joy of learning with the children. Children have impeccable attitudes towards their learning. They become confident and self-assured.  Children feel safe, and are kept safe, in this warm and welcoming environment created by the school staff. At playtimes, they enthusiastically use the items in the ‘Play Pod’ to create things based on their

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Early years provision is outstanding

own imaginations. They mix freely with the older pupils, who help them learn to keep the ‘Play Pod’ neat and tidy.

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School details

Unique reference number 126349 Local authority Wiltshire Inspection number 10003586 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 School category Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 205 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Zoe Garbutt Headteacher Celia Hicks Telephone number 01672 512754 Website www.preshute.wilts.sch.uk Email address head@preshute.wilts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 30–31 March 2011

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Information about this school

 Preshute is smaller than the average-sized primary school. There are seven classes in the school.  A large proportion of pupils come from outside the immediate village area.  The proportion of pupils with a statement of educational need or with an education, health and care plan is below average.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is below average. This is additional government funding provided to give extra support to children who are looked after by the local authority and those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  Most pupils are from White British backgrounds. A very small number of pupils are at an early stage of speaking English as an additional language. Seven different languages are spoken at home by pupils in the school.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is lower than average.  The school is above the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’

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Information about this school

attainment and progress.  The school manages a daily breakfast club and several after-school clubs.  The school does not use any alternative provision and there is no off-site unit run by the school or in conjunction with other schools.  The school was previously inspected in March 2011. Since then there has been a review of the staffing structure, a new senior leadership team has been formed and the governing body has been reconstituted.  The school is now part of the Marlborough collaboration of schools, working with Great Bedwyn, Ramsbury and St Michael’s (Aldbourne) schools, known locally as the GRAP schools.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors visited lessons and carried out most observations jointly with the headteacher.  Meetings and reviews of school documentation were conducted with the headteacher and senior leaders.  Discussions were held with pupils, staff, the school’s improvement partner, and members of the governing body.  An inspector attended a school assembly, and observed a visit from members of the ‘Open the Book’ society.  Discussions were held both formally and informally with pupils about their experiences in school.  The inspectors observed pupils arriving at school, at break, lunchtime, and at the end of the school day.  The inspectors talked to pupils about their reading and listened to them read.  A range of documentation was scrutinised, including: the school’s own information about pupils’ performance and progress; safeguarding, health and safety documentation; records relating to behaviour and monitoring attendance; and the school’s development plans.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors took account of 74 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey of parental opinion, and of a further 39 written submissions made to the online commentary facility made available alongside it.  The 50 views expressed through the pupils’ online questionnaire and the three written submissions were also considered.  The inspectors analysed responses to an Ofsted inspection questionnaire from 21 members of staff.

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Inspection team

Steffi Penny, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Faye Bertham Ofsted Inspector Janice Isaac Ofsted Inspector guidance 'Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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Inspection team

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, further education and skills, 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. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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