Ashbury with Compton Beauchamp Church of England (A) 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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Miss M Northeast Headteacher Ashbury with Compton Beauchamp Church of England (A) Primary School Ashbury Swindon Wiltshire SN6 8LN

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(A) Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 23 February 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 June 2011.

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(A) Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have continued your relentless drive to raise standards and ensure that pupils are supported effectively. All the teaching staff are new to the school since the previous inspection. You have shared your vision for improvements and have developed a strong sense of community through consultation and collaboration. Teachers work effectively together to improve their own practice and fully embrace the drive for improvement. All members of staff who completed the staff questionnaire say they are proud to be members of staff at Ashbury. You have ensured that a strong compassionate culture pervades all aspects of the school’s work. Your focus on ensuring respect, thoughtfulness and consideration is clearly evident. The very succinct school motto ‘We care’ is demonstrated through the excellent relationships between adults and pupils. Pupils

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(A) Primary School

are extremely supportive of one another. The caring ethos of the school supports pupils’ personal development and welfare exceptionally well.

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(A) Primary School

Pupils are extremely positive about the school. They know that the strong relationships they develop together help them to understand one another’s differences. They have great respect for one another and are extremely considerate to each other. They fully embrace the school’s motto and say they feel totally included in all that happens in school. They enjoy the celebrations of their successes at prize giving and know that all their efforts are rewarded, whether this is their academic or personal achievements or their good attendance. Those that completed the online pupil questionnaire all said they would recommend the school to a friend moving to the area.

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(A) Primary School

Visits to lessons, the scrutiny of pupils’ work and your own records of checks on the quality of teaching confirm that teaching is good over time. Pupils make good progress and some make rapid progress. Teachers know pupils well. They know their starting points and plan lessons effectively to make sure that every pupil is provided with work at the right level of difficulty. This enables pupils to make good progress in lessons and become successful learners. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs or disability within the school is small. These pupils achieve as well as their peers because they receive support that is well matched to their particular needs.

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(A) Primary School

Teachers provide good-quality feedback to pupils to help them to know what they need to do to improve their work. Pupils say that they know they are making progress in their learning because of the ‘response marking’ teachers provide. They talk with enthusiasm about their own progress. One pupil reflected that this is because teachers ‘push you to your limits’. Pupils understand the targets they are aiming to achieve and regularly assess their own learning.

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(A) Primary School

You and your teaching staff have developed key performance indicators linked to the National Curriculum. These enable teachers to accurately check pupils’ achievements. You regularly check that there is sufficient evidence in pupils’ work to confirm teachers’ judgements. Since the changes to the National Curriculum, teachers have recognised that some skills and aspects of learning required in particular year groups had not been previously taught. You provide additional learning opportunities for pupils to help them to gain new knowledge quickly and enable them to continue to make good progress.

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(A) Primary School

The school’s religious character is an integral part of everyday life at Ashbury. Pupils’ behaviour is excellent. They consistently display high levels of enthusiasm for learning and eagerly cooperate together in lessons. Consideration for others is evident. One pupil willingly gave up an opportunity to record his findings during a lesson because he noticed that another pupil had not had a turn. This level of sensitivity and concern was palpable during the inspection.

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(A) Primary School

You have successfully improved pupils’ knowledge of multicultural Britain and their global awareness, which was an area for improvement in the previous inspection report. You place a high priority on making sure that pupils learn about British values and provide opportunities for pupils to learn about the cultural diversity in Britain. Pupils learn about a wide range of religions and are able to demonstrate a good understanding of different faiths and beliefs. They know that some people have beliefs that are different from their own because teachers make effective use of audio-visual resources to show how different religious festivals are celebrated. The religious experiences of pupils within the school community are also shared and celebrated.

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(A) Primary School

There are a number of new members of the governing body. The Chair of the Governing Body, who is also new to the role since the previous inspection, has ensured that new governors receive training to help them to understand their roles and responsibilities. They are now challenging you more through their questioning at meetings, but this is not always evidenced in governor minutes. You provide useful information to governors to enable them to check on the progress pupils are making. In their link responsibilities with subject leaders, governors raise questions and observe pupils’ learning to find out more about the curriculum and how teachers assess pupils’ learning. The school improvement plan is a useful document which is clearly linked to raising pupils’ achievement. It includes clear indicators relating to pupils’ progress to enable leaders to measure the success of the actions and to gauge the success of the plan. However, currently it is unclear how members

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(A) Primary School

of the governing body check on the progress of the plan. Their role in evaluating the work of the school is not clearly defined. Governors are aware that some aspects of the school’s website need to be reviewed as soon as possible, to ensure all the Department for Education requirements are met.

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(A) Primary School

Leaders and governors ensure that all safeguarding procedures are implemented effectively. All staff have been suitably trained to help them to know how to keep pupils safe from harm. Recruitment procedures are robust. Pupils know that events, such as fire drills, help them to know what to do in situations where they may be at risk. They learn about keeping safe on the internet and know what they need to do to protect themselves when using mobile technologies. The culture of care and respect within the school is tangible. Pupils’ attendance is above average. They are happy to come to school because they know they are looked after well. They know that if they have a problem of any sort, there are always adults on hand to support them. They also know that other pupils are caring and supportive too. Parents agree. Those who completed the online Parent View questionnaire all say that their child feels safe in school.

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Inspection findings

 Year 6 pupils achieved well at the end of the last academic year. All pupils achieved Level 4 in reading, writing and mathematics and significant proportions of pupils achieved Level 5. Standards were the highest for five years. Current Year 6 pupils are on track to achieve well too. This is because teachers quickly identify any gaps in pupils’ learning and provide additional support and intervention to enable pupils to catch up.  Interesting and stimulating tasks and activities engage pupils well in their learning. This was evident in a Year 5 and 6 lesson with a focus on journalistic writing where a short film clip of ‘Tuesday’ by David Wiesner was used well to help pupils to understand how to write and adapt direct and reported speech. Pupils listened and observed attentively. They recorded their ideas carefully and shared their thoughts and ideas in a mature and considered way.  Outcomes at the end of Year 2 have been below national averages in recent

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Inspection findings

years. However, you have successfully identified the reasons for this. Standards are rising and almost all pupils in Year 2 this year are on track to achieve the expected standard for their age. Some are on track to achieve above the expected standard.  There have been significant improvements in the outcomes for children by the end of the Reception year. You have rightly provided additional support to enable a higher proportion of children to be prepared well for a secure start to learning in Year 1. Staff understand children’s needs and help them to settle quickly to learning at the start of the day. You have reorganised the way phonics is now taught, helping children to understand more clearly the link between the sounds letters and groups of letters make. Adults use effective strategies to help children to begin to write individual letters and sounds to build words and develop their early writing skills securely.

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Inspection findings

 The school has invested in an online system for recording children’s achievement in the early years. This enables parent to access this information more readily and support their child’s learning at home.  Teachers’ assessments of pupils’ learning in lessons is astute. They carefully adjust tasks and reshape learning opportunities to ensure that pupils make consistently good progress. You have also implemented a new system for recording the achievement of all pupils across the school. This enables school leaders and governors to check pupils’ progress carefully and quickly identify children falling behind.  You have developed a curriculum which provides pupils with interesting and stimulating activities. It ensures that pupils develop their reading, writing, mathematics and communication skills well. Pupils agree that teachers make learning fun. The curriculum now provides more opportunities for pupils to

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Inspection findings

learn about other cultures, faiths and beliefs. The wealth of additional activities that are on offer to pupils deepens their educational experience. They provide pupils with opportunities to take part in a wide range of sporting activities such as Kwik cricket, rugby, netball and football. In addition, pupils are provided with a rich blend of musical activities which include learning the recorder, the guitar or the piano and being involved in singing in the choir.

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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 school’s website includes all the required information as determined by the Department for Education  governors take a more active role in monitoring and evaluating the school’s work. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Education for the Diocese of Oxford, the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Director of Children’s Services for Oxfordshire County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, your English and mathematics subject leaders, staff, pupils, the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Governing Body and a representative from the local authority. I had a telephone conversation with the Diocesan adviser. I visited all classes and accompanied you on visits to four lessons and looked at work in pupils’ books during these visits. I looked at the survey results from pupils, staff and Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire) and considered the comments that had been placed on Parent View by parents. I evaluated the accuracy of your self- evaluation as well as range of other documentation. I checked the effectiveness of the school’s safeguarding arrangements.

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