Melton Primary School

Melton Primary School Melton Road, Melton, Woodbridge IP12 1PG

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Overall effectiveness Good

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is good school

 School leaders and governors have focused well on establishing a positive culture within which pupils’ personal and academic development are now thriving.  A culture of high expectations driven through by leaders has led to rising outcomes and a focused approach to improving teaching and learning.  School leaders and governors take a systematic approach to improving the performance of staff. Consequently, teaching, learning and assessment are good and pupils are making good progress.  Gaps in the outcomes of different groups, especially between disadvantaged pupils and others, are closing.  Leaders have secured particularly good improvements in the quality of pupils’ reading across the school.  Pupils have a strong sense of how well they are learning because they regularly talk about their work, including strengths and weaknesses, with teaching staff and one another.  Teaching assistants make a good contribution to

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This is good school

the learning of pupils, including disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.  Due to the effective leadership in the early years, children are now getting a good start to their education. Even at this early point in the academic year, they are quickly learning new routines and how to get on with one another.  Pupils, including in the early years, are well looked after. They are safe and feel safe.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The most-able pupils are not consistently well challenged.  Some unevenness in the outcomes for boys in writing and girls in mathematics persists.  School leaders have not fully developed the roles of some subject leaders.  Leaders do not present assessment information to governors in the best way to help them fully grasp the impact of funding for specific groups or purposes.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that teaching consistently provides the right level of challenge for the most-able pupils so that they make faster progress and more achieve at a higher level.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the outcomes for all pupils by: ensuring that any gaps in the development of the writing of some lower attaining boys are identified earlier and resolved quickly in order to raise the standard of their work supporting the small minority of girls who are less sure about their work in mathematics to develop higher levels of confidence.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership further by: improving subject leaders’ roles in analysing assessment information more rigorously providing governors with more sharply analysed assessment information which shows clearly the impact of additional funding on pupils’ progress and the standards they reach.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The headteacher has worked with governors and senior leaders to create a culture of high expectations in both behaviour and academic achievement. It has been a successful three-year journey for the headteacher and governors, resulting in rising standards and much improved achievement throughout the school.  Additional government funding (the pupil premium) to support disadvantaged pupils is being used well to help these pupils to make improved progress and to narrow the gap between their attainment and that of others. A shift from providing support for social skills and personal development to more sharply focused work on pupils’ academic development has helped to accelerate progress.  Leaders pay strong attention to equality of opportunity for different groups of pupils. The analysis of assessment information is focused sharply on highlighting any differences between groups. Differences in performance between boys and girls reflect the national picture and the school is determined to close

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

these gaps. The attainment of both is improving and both boys and girls make good progress.  The positive atmosphere ensures that everyone is welcome in the school and is treated with respect. Discriminatory behaviour is not tolerated. Staff provide a range of opportunities for pupils to learn about fundamental British values. They are respectful of others, and understand the importance of having and following rules. Pupils’ participation in discussions and debates, including putting forward proposals to the local parish council, help them to understand how democracy works.  Staff are ambitious to do well. Their responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire were wholly positive and those who commented were universally fulsome in their praise of the school and how it has helped them to improve their practice.  Checks on teaching and learning, including looking at books and analysing assessment information for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

individual teachers, mean that leaders understand the development needs of staff well. Teachers and support staff draw on a wide variety of training opportunities to develop their practice. Consequently, teaching is improving and other aspects of the school are developing well.  Subject leaders are enthusiastic about their roles and are developing the skills to evaluate and improve their areas. However, they are not yet analysing pupils’ attainment and progress rigorously enough or taking as strong a lead in improving teaching as senior leaders.  The curriculum is tailored well to pupils’ needs and interests, while broadly meeting requirements. Literacy and numeracy are covered well and planned effectively using National Curriculum guidance. Pupils have good opportunities to learn how to write programs of their own in computing. The teaching of a modern foreign language is at an early stage of development but good plans are in place to provide a

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

full curriculum in French soon.  Pupils have good opportunities in lessons and assemblies for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Additional funding for physical education (PE) and sport is used well to part-fund a sports coach, shared with another school. This is having a good impact on pupils’ participation in sports and PE as well as improving their skills. Pupils are enthusiastic about PE and over 100 pupils attend after-school activities. The school participates, with great success, in local sporting competitions with other schools.  Pupils’ safety is paramount and all adults are vigilant around the school making sure that pupils are safe. The procedures in place are robust and rigorously applied. Good links with outside agencies ensure that action can be quickly taken if there is any safeguarding concern. The school’s website provides information for parents and links to other websites where they can seek further information or help.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The governance of the school The governing body is well organised and its members are very actively engaged in the work of the school. They meet with staff and pupils regularly to find out how well developments are bedding down and the effectiveness with which policies and procedures are followed. Governors have a good overview of the performance of the school and know the most important areas where pupils’ performance needs to be improved. The governing body sets ambitious targets for the headteacher. Governors have good oversight of the curriculum, safeguarding and staff performance. They know how good teaching is. Minutes of meetings show that governors ask challenging questions of school leaders and provide regular reports of their visits to the school. While they are involved in decisions about how to spend additional funding to overcome disadvantage or support sport, and are aware that these are making a positive difference, they do not a have a

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

detailed overview of the impact of this funding.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour well and relationships between adults and pupils are strong. Consequently, pupils work well in lessons and get a good amount of work done. The atmosphere in lessons is brisk and purposeful.  Phonics, the letters that sounds make, is particularly well taught so that pupils develop their reading skills from an early age. All groups of pupils have a good knowledge of how to sound out letters in order to read new or unfamiliar words. Pupils also write regularly in other subjects, such as science, history and geography. This helps them to practise their writing skills regularly and apply what they are learning in English to other subjects.  Teaching assistants work well with teachers to support different groups of pupils. They also take pupils aside to do extra work and, in these instances, help to prepare these pupils for the work in class or to catch up on an area they did not fully understand.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 Teachers and teaching assistants question pupils well and this helps adults to find out how much pupils know and how well they know it. Pupils have a good understanding of their own performance, what they are good at and what they need to improve.  Ongoing feedback to pupils on their work is generally good. Most pupils correct their mistakes and extend their work as guided by teachers’ written comments.  The activities that pupils are given are usually relevant and set at the right level of difficulty for most. However, work is too easy at times for the most-able pupils and, when this happens, the activity does not extend their thinking far enough.  While most pupils are developing good levels of confidence in relation to their learning, some girls are not always confident in mathematics.  Books from last year indicate that gaps in understanding or slower progress in developing some aspects of some boys’ writing, particularly lower-attaining boys, were not highlighted quickly enough, or at all.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils have a good understanding of how to be successful learners and their focus and approach to learning are very positive.  ‘Learning ambassadors’, who are pupils leading on learning and helping others to develop their learning skills, provide a really good example of how the school is promoting pupils’ understanding of how to be a good learner.  Pupils are good at assessing their own work and that of others. They check with a member of staff if they do not understand what to do and readily help one another in lessons.  Those who join the school partway through their primary education settle in quickly and are made to feel welcome by others.  Pupils’ social skills are well developed and improve as they mature and move through the school. The regular opportunities to work with others and share ideas or talk through problems in pairs helps them to

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Personal development and welfare

develop strong working relationships.  The extra support given to some pupils through the ‘nurture’ group is very effective in helping them to improve their social and personal skills.  Pupils are reflective and thoughtful. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is being developed well. Through their work in subjects such as religious education and history, pupils are enjoying learning about different religious and ethnic groups.  The school has a strong emphasis on helping pupils to keep safe. Consequently, they feel safe and all parents who responded to the Parent View survey agreed. Pupils report that bullying, should it ever arise, is dealt with very effectively by staff. Name-calling based on race, disability, gender or any other personal characteristic is very rare.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils understand the purpose of rules around the school and in their classrooms. This means that they are able to monitor their own behaviour and check themselves if they are doing anything wrong.  Lessons are calm and orderly. Pupils know where to find the resources they need during lessons. They ensure that no time is wasted moving from the carpet to their desks when there is work to be done.  Pupils get on with one another very well and they listen to one another with respect.  Levels of attendance are broadly in line with the national average and improving; most pupils attend regularly because they enjoy school. Their parents agree that they are happy and well settled in school. The amount of persistent absence, which was a little high a year ago, has now been brought down.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Work shows that pupils are making faster progress throughout the school in response to better teaching and improved identification of key gaps in their learning. Current pupils are making good progress and making up well for lost ground in the past.  The school’s results in the national tests at the end of Key Stage 2 improved significantly in 2015. A similar proportion of Year 6 pupils as those nationally made at least the expected progress from their end-of-Key-Stage-1 assessments. A higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils made expected progress. Current pupils are continuing the trend of improvement by making increasingly rapid gains in their knowledge and understanding in English and mathematics.  Pupils assessed at the end of Key Stage 1 in 2015 made good progress from their rather low assessments at the end of Reception year.  Taking current information and past data into account, pupils make particularly strong progress in

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Outcomes for pupils are good

reading, developing good phonics skills as they move through the school. Guided reading is helping pupils to establish effective comprehension skills.  In English, pupils’ writing becomes better formed and extended at a good rate as they move through the school. In mathematics, pupils are deepening their knowledge and understanding of numbers well and becoming increasingly skilled in solving problems.  Pupils are making good gains in learning about different aspects of science, history and geography. Artwork around the school is vibrant and imaginative and reflects the use of a wide range of media. Both the two- and three-dimensional work is of good quality. Pupils’ skills develop well as they move through the school.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are well supported and they make good progress. The few who speak English as an additional language learn English rapidly and this then helps

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Outcomes for pupils are good

their progress in other subjects.  Pupils joining the school partway through their primary education make similar progress to that of others.  Pupils are prepared well for the next stage of education. They articulate ideas fluently and read well across the curriculum to support their learning in a broad range of subjects.  Not all boys are making the good progress in writing that is made by other boys and by girls. In mathematics, observations indicate that some girls lack confidence and are hesitant about explaining their work, which hinders their progress.  The school is working on helping more pupils to achieve higher levels and for more of them to make better than expected progress. This is a focus in the school development plan which shows that the school is doing the right things to raise standards even more. An increasing number of pupils are reaching higher levels and making more than expected progress as a result.

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Early years provision is good

 School leaders have worked effectively to improve the early years provision so that it is now good. Effective support from the headteacher and local authority last year helped children to achieve much better outcomes at the end of their Reception year than in previous years.  The improvement and more consistent performance across different areas of learning, particularly in literacy and mathematical development, were due to much better assessment by teachers. This led to earlier identification of gaps in learning which were filled by strengthening teaching in those areas. Consequently, children last year were well prepared for Year 1.  Children are now provided with a wide range of activities that cover the areas of learning well. Practical work, pitched at the right level, helps them to learn well. Encouragement from adults means that children are now suggesting their own ideas to explore.  Staff make good use of the outdoor area and other areas of the school to support learning. For example,

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Early years provision is good

children enjoyed going out to the wooded part of the grounds to role-play cutting down trees using axes and chain saws with full sound effects, inspired by the teacher’s very effective demonstration of how to do this.  Writing is supported well through a range of resources that help children form letters, such as small whiteboards, marking out letters in chalk on the ground and using foam. Phonics is rigorously taught right from the start of the Reception year.  Children’s interest in numbers is maintained through practical work and good demonstrations by adults of how to count accurately and how to spot missing numbers.  Adults take good care of children and they are kept safe. Routines and rules are reinforced very effectively so that, even at this early stage of the academic year, children have a good grasp of the expectations about behaviour. They respond quickly when asked to line up, listen or be quiet. Personal

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Early years provision is good

and social skills are systematically established.  Adults’ questioning is not always used as well as it could be to draw children’s ideas out more, especially for the most able.

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School details

Unique reference number 124597 Local authority Suffolk Inspection number 10001877 This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 147 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Phil Bruce Headteacher Mark Girling Telephone number 01394 382506 Website www.melton.suffolk.sch.uk Email address admin@melton.suffolk.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 10 September 2013

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Information about this school

 Melton Primary School is smaller than most primary schools but the number on roll is increasing.  The vast majority of pupils are from White British heritage. A small number of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds, and some speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs has gone down since the last inspection and is now broadly in line with national averages.  In contract, the proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals has gone up to nearly a third and this is higher than usually found.  A comparatively high number of pupils leave or join the school part way through their primary education.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited classes across the school, sampling lessons in each classroom at least once. A number of these visits were carried out jointly with the headteacher.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, other members of the senior leadership team, subject leaders, a group of teaching assistants, the Chair of the Governing body and four other governors, and a representative from the local authority.  The lead inspector conducted a telephone discussion with the special educational needs co-ordinator.  Members of the inspection team spoke informally to pupils in lessons and around the school as well as holding more formal discussions with a representative group of pupils from Key Stage 2.  Inspectors listened to pupils from across the school reading to check how well they were developing their reading skills.  In carrying out the inspection, the inspection team took account of the 24 responses to the Ofsted online

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Information about this inspection

questionnaire (Parent View). A member of the team also spoke with parents as they dropped off their children at school.  The inspection team took account of the responses to an Ofsted questionnaire completed by 22 staff.  Members of the team observed the work of the school. They looked at the school’s self-evaluation summary, the improvement plan, a range of policies and procedures, documents relating to the work of the governing body and the arrangements for ensuring that pupils are safeguarded. Documentation reviewed included records of data relating to pupils’ attainment and progress, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

Gulshanbir Kayembe, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Debra Flowerdew 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

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Inspection team

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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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