Selattyn CofE Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Ms Claire Morgan Headteacher Selattyn CofE Primary School Glyn Road Selattyn Oswestry Shropshire SY10 7DH

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 January 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in March 2011.

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

 The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.  You have continued to provide strong and effective leadership, ensuring that the vision for every child to succeed is firmly embedded across the school. Staff, governors, parents and pupils all play their part in this, so that the school is a happy and safe environment for learning. Parents are consistently positive about the school, citing the deep knowledge and understanding that staff have of each child.  The previous inspection report identified the need to involve pupils more fully in their learning by ensuring that they understand their targets and are clear about what they need to do next to improve their work. Since that time, the work done to develop pupils’ learning behaviours has paid dividends. Consequently, pupils are very engaged in their learning and can discuss their work in detail. They are fluent when explaining how they might improve their

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

work further, referring to teachers’ comments but also offering their own views.  At the time of the last inspection, the school was also asked to formulate a plan to develop pupils’ appreciation of different faiths and cultures. This has been done effectively. You and your staff have worked hard to ensure that the Christian values of the school are explicitly linked with British values and that all pupils have a clear understanding of how this leads to tolerance and respect for others, regardless of culture, religion or race. The more recent development of a Local Curriculum is enhancing this further. Its six strands aim to develop independent learning, social skills, problem solving skills, global awareness, knowledge about the environment and healthy choices. This, together with the regular ‘family days’ that the school provides, enable all pupils to develop and sustain links with their immediate community and

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

beyond.  You and your governors have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. The school’s action plan identifies appropriate priorities for development and how these will further improve outcomes for pupils. For example, you have accurately identified the need to further improve pupil progress in mathematics at Key Stage 2, tackling this through a focus on developing problem solving approaches that permeate the curriculum. Pupils are provided with many opportunities to apply their mathematics knowledge in a range of contexts, such as during Local Curriculum activities, as well as in lessons. During the inspection, the impact of this could be seen in the confidence with which pupils selected and applied mathematical concepts to solve the problems presented.

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

The school has effective and rigorous safeguarding policies and procedures that go beyond statutory requirements. There is a strong culture of keeping children safe that is shared by all staff. Children are confident to ask for help if they have problems and staff know what to do if they have concerns. You work effectively with outside agencies to ensure that vulnerable children get the help and support that they require. Although serious concerns are few, the school keeps detailed records of even minor issues to ensure that nothing is missed.

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

There have been no permanent or fixed-term exclusions since the last inspection. This is because the ethos of respect and caring for each other is entrenched in the everyday life of the school. Consequently, the bullying incident log is empty. Pupils confirm that bullying doesn’t happen and their parents agree.

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Short inspection of Selattyn CofE Primary School

You and your governors make sure that recruitment checks are rigorous and that all visitors to the school are carefully and appropriately vetted. Training for all staff and governors is kept up to date to ensure that responsibilities are understood and carried out effectively. You have recently developed a new policy to ensure that staff are well-informed about the requirements of the government’s Prevent strategy and whole-school training is due this term.

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Inspection findings

 You and your governors are on a journey of continuous improvement. You know what the school does well and where there is room for improvement. Your school improvement plan identifies what you want to achieve, by when and who is responsible. As a result, you are very clear about the progress that the school has made and where progress is still required.  In the four years since the last inspection, you have made a range of improvements to enhance outcomes for pupils. For instance, as a result of the changing cohorts entering the school, you moved from a mixed Reception and Year 1 class to Reception only. This has enabled you to focus more effectively on ensuring that children in the early years develop the skills and understanding to make greater progress over time and to quickly identify where additional support may be required. As part of this work with the children, there is a strong focus on developing their resilience.

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Inspection findings

Consequently, children are happy to ‘have a go’, even if they are not sure, because they are confident that they will get it right eventually. Although the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development last year was lower than the national figure, the school’s tracking shows that almost all made good progress from their starting points. Systems for tracking progress in the early years are currently being re-developed and at this point there is not enough information to securely estimate the progress children are making towards the early learning goals.

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Inspection findings

 In 2015, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check dropped significantly. However, in a very small cohort, this represented two pupils who did not meet the standard for very specific reasons. Nonetheless, you have been rigorous in investigating ways in which the teaching of phonics can be further improved, including greater use of smaller group teaching to better match the development needs of children from early years onwards. Although further investigation of the best approaches is required, you plan to introduce this rapidly.

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Inspection findings

 Teachers seldom leave this school to take positions elsewhere. This is because they feel valued within what they describe as a ‘family’ environment, with strong leadership which encourages initiative. Teachers say that expectations of them are high, but support is also readily available. They value the regular training to keep them abreast of changes, but also speak of the ongoing professional dialogue about learning that is maintained on a daily basis as a result of your regular ‘drop-ins’ to classrooms. As a result, teaching and learning over time is consistently good, with some outstanding practice. By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils achieve well, particularly in reading.

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Inspection findings

 In response to the national changes to assessment, you have developed a new system for recording pupils’ progress and attainment in Key Stage 1 and 2. This enables you to keep track of individual pupils’ progress across the school and teachers are using the information effectively to plan activities that meet the needs of the pupils they teach. However, we agreed that further development is needed to ensure that the system enables all staff to quickly identify where a particular group of pupils may be falling behind. You are currently working on refining the attainment descriptors used by the school to help you to pinpoint more precisely where each pupil is in their journey towards mastery.

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Inspection findings

 The curriculum is a strength of the school. Although only in its second year, the recently developed Local Curriculum is having a positive impact, not least because it is delivered through the school’s vertical family groups. Consequently, older and younger children are working together regularly, both in school and in community-based activities. Older children in a family group happily take responsibility for supporting their younger members or those having difficulties, further developing the ethos of inclusivity within the school.

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Inspection findings

 Governors’ commitment to the school is impressive. They have a detailed knowledge of the school’s current performance and regularly participate in a range of activities, including those that will allow them to check progress made against agreed actions. Although minutes of meetings do not always show where they have provided challenge, their involvement in improvement planning and in developing the school’s vision is testament to their work in this area. They are well informed about the quality of teaching in the school and its impact on pupil outcomes and have a detailed understanding of how additional funding is used to secure improved rates of progress.

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Inspection findings

 The school provides a wide range of sporting and cultural activities, including golf, multi-sports, rugby, football, technology and gardening clubs. Pupils are also able to access piano, guitar and recorder lessons as well as regular drama productions. These contribute very well to their personal development and to developing their ability to work together with mutual respect and tolerance. There is an active school council and the school appoints a head boy, a head girl and monitors each year. These are roles of responsibility that pupils are eager to undertake. They are very proud of their school and keen to demonstrate this through such roles.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the plans to further improve the teaching of phonics so that the level of challenge is well-matched to pupils’ needs and abilities are implemented rapidly  assessment processes and systems, including in early years, enable teachers and leaders to rapidly identify where cohorts or groups of pupils are underperforming in particular areas of learning. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Education for the Diocese of Lichfield, the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Director of Children's Services for Shropshire Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you and your deputy headteacher, staff, parents and three members of the governing body, including the Chair of the Governing Body. I also met with a local authority representative. I accompanied you on visits to lessons, looked at pupils’ work in their books and spoke to pupils as they worked. I considered the responses to ‘Parent View’ for the school as well as the information that the school had gathered from parents. I evaluated the accuracy of your self-evaluation and considered a range of other documents, including the school improvement plan. I checked the effectiveness of your safeguarding arrangements, recruitment procedures and the training records for these.

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