Hordle CofE (VA) Primary School

Hordle CofE Primary School Hordle Lane, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 0FB

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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

 The headteacher offers inspirational leadership to this school. Staff and pupils understand exactly what is expected of them and are very well supported to achieve high standards.  Other leaders share in the delivery of the headteacher’s vision and ensure very high levels of consistency in the work of the school from Nursery to Year 6.  Leaders are successful in promoting outstanding teaching and learning. Staff morale is high, pupils have great pride in being a member of ‘Team Hordle’ and the vast majority of parents hold the school in very high regard.  Governors are very well informed about the current strengths and developmental work of the school and use this knowledge to offer very useful challenge and support to senior staff.  There is considerable emphasis on ensuring that all pupils make consistently very good progress. Achievements are monitored closely and any insecure learning is addressed very quickly.

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This is an outstanding school

 Teachers have good subject knowledge and make very good use of their excellent knowledge of every pupil to drive forward everyone’s learning rapidly. Teaching assistants support their work expertly.  All groups, including those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds or pupils who have special educational needs or disability, are taught and looked after very well. As a consequence, the small gaps in achievement between these groups and others have now been virtually eliminated.  Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They are keen to look after and show respect for each other. This means that very high standards of behaviour are maintained in lessons and on the playground.  Attendance has improved over recent years to be above the national average. This positive trend continues. Some pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium (extra government funding) and some who have special educational needs do not attend as well as others.

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This is an outstanding school

 The school has very good links with its community. Parents feel well informed about their child’s progress and enjoy rapid and easy access to teachers and senior leaders. Relatively few parents play a part in the broader development of the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that the attendance of all groups in the school at least matches the overall national average.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Enable parents to develop their very good understanding of the school’s work for their children into more substantial contributions to whole-school issues.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 The headteacher brings outstanding leadership to this school. She has a clear vision for the standards that will be reached by all pupils, how current strengths will be maintained and further improvements brought about. This vision is shared enthusiastically, understood and subscribed to by all staff, pupils and parents. This means that ‘Team Hordle’ is a stimulating, very supportive and happy place in which to work and learn.  Leadership responsibilities are shared widely. The senior team and middle leaders have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and each other’s. Decisions are taken quickly and are enacted consistently. Staff are very well informed of all of the school’s policies and practices and feel very well led. Morale is very high as a consequence. One member of staff captured the spirit of the many positive comments received by inspectors by saying, ‘Since being appointed at Hordle, I have been completely

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

inspired’.  Development planning takes the form of brief, highly focused ‘excellence plans’. They concentrate on the quality of pupils’ learning and their welfare. They are practical and useful documents which drive improvement by steering small but significant improvements in teaching each term and maintaining outstanding behaviour throughout the school.  Leaders know their school very well. They spend a lot of time observing teaching and learning in lessons and make accurate and perceptive judgements about the quality of each and the connections between them. This excellent knowledge of the current quality of learning is brought together with effective assessments of pupils’ progress to gauge the success of teaching and the curriculum.  Everyone here considers themselves to have the potential to learn, develop and contribute. Frequent opportunities for training are woven into the work of all staff. Many teachers undertake small-scale

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

research into aspects of teaching and learning and report their findings and recommendations back in ‘nugget’ opportunities in staff briefings. Training and development needs are identified quickly and accurately. Any agreed changes to practice are supported and then lessons are monitored to ensure that new practice is embedded and benefits to learning are brought about quickly. Newly qualified teachers are very well supported to acquire a good range of skills quickly and to use them with confidence.  Leaders have recently reorganised their approach to assessment to be able to drive learning even more powerfully. Changes in the curriculum and new ways of assessing pupils’ progress have been combined very effectively and have driven significant developments in teaching. There is now a focus on every pupil achieving the school’s ambitious expectations by the end of each academic year. Progress is monitored

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

closely and any need to support individuals is spotted and responded to very quickly and effectively.  The organisation of what is taught, when and how is a great strength of the school. The learning culture among staff means that new ideas are assimilated positively. For example, recent changes to the organisation of the teaching of mathematics have promoted much stronger learning across the whole school from the Nursery class to Year 6. Pupils show a good understanding of life in modern-day Britain because leaders have defined clearly what this means for every age group. Older pupils have a good grasp of ideas such as democracy and the implications of voting, and the work of the police and other services. They are able to understand how individual freedoms can be protected and maintain a strong sense of respect and responsibility to each other. The policy document on fundamental British values for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

the Nursery class, for example, is promoting good practice in all respects.  The strong emphasis on sports and teamwork permeates the school. The school embraced the Olympic principle of ‘personal best’ wholeheartedly. Classes have been rebranded as ‘teams’ and pupils subscribe to this ideal and work together for everyone’s benefit. Extra government funding to promote sports in primary schools is used exceptionally well. This has led to the provision of a hockey pitch, physical education (PE) training for all teachers and more time in the week devoted to PE. As a result there are steadily growing numbers of pupils taking part in a wide range of competitive sports, especially more girls and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and successful work to tackle the problem of obesity. Leaders’ work is recognised by the school having won the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Olympic Legacy Award, for the exceptional use and outstanding impact of the sport premium last year.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 Equalities and diversity have high prominence in the school. Pupils are taught about differences and given practical ways in which to learn about and express respect for people from different backgrounds and with different beliefs. They know that discrimination is not tolerated here. As a result, Years 5 and 6 pupils can talk in a mature and informed manner both about different family structures and how some of their friends have different religious beliefs. The ‘Grandhordle’ scheme allows pupils to work with senior members of their local community regularly and in a natural and productive way. Many pupils develop very good social skills because they are given such opportunities.  Pupils’ cultural and spiritual development is promoted very well. There are many trips and visits planned over the year to supplement learning in specific subjects. Many pupils took part in the recent languages festival hosted by a local school. As befits a school which is so keen to involve pupils in sports, there was

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

a Great Hordle Run underway at the time of the inspection, which aimed to raise money for Sport Relief by clocking up 500 miles across the school. A ‘worship thought of the week’ in the newsletter and other significant opportunities in assemblies contribute to reflection on spiritual matters. There are close and productive links with the local church.  The school makes excellent use of the extra pupil premium funding to support the progress and welfare of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Leaders draw on nationally published research on how the money can be best spent. It has been used to employ a pupil premium champion to train staff and monitor the quality of provision and outcomes and to work through the implications of the school’s new approaches to mathematics for this group. A concentration on developing disadvantaged pupils’ oral skills right from the early years is being particularly influential in supporting their current rapid progress.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 Parents value the high-quality information they receive about their child’s progress and also the ready availability of class teachers and senior staff. However, few give their time to work with staff and governors to contribute to the school’s development in the medium and long term  The local authority provides very good support for the work of the school. Its annual visits result in reports which accurately identify and reinforce the school’s many strengths and also highlight areas for further development. The nature and number of the latter mean that the local authority rightly regards the school as a very low priority for support and intervention. However, the school has chosen to commission inspection visits in recent years and these have resulted in insightful and useful feedback from local authority officers, for example in aspects of literacy developments and the work in the Nursery and Reception classes. The school has also benefited from working closely with the local authority on

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

developing its assessment scheme.  The governance of the school Governors are very well informed about all aspects of the work of the school. They visit frequently, usually for a specific purpose associated with their particular responsibility. Governors combine the information they glean from visits with a close scrutiny of current achievement information. They hold the head and other senior leaders closely to account to ensure that the school is on target to meet the standards clearly defined in each of the excellence plans. They know how good teaching is and oversee performance management processes closely, ensuring that pay rises are associated only with high-quality outcomes for pupils. Governors exercise close and expert oversight of the school’s finances and its medium- and long-term development plans.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. There is a very strong culture of care for every pupil’s

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

happiness and well-being. Policies and guidelines are thorough, written clearly and are maintained up to date. They drive the day-to-day work of the school strongly and are frequently revisited in staff briefings and other meetings to refresh everyone’s understanding of aspects of child protection. The governor with responsibility for safeguarding has specific child protection expertise. She visits at least every half term and undertakes a detailed and comprehensive scrutiny of all procedures to ensure that they are maintained to a very high standard. Training has been undertaken in the government’s ‘Prevent’ duty and everyone is aware of their responsibilities to protect children from radicalisation and extremism.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

 Teaching promotes rapid and secure learning. It stimulates an enjoyment of learning and sustains excellent working relationships between pupils and teachers.  Teachers are well aware of how to get the best from every pupil. They use their very good subject knowledge to adapt work appropriately and offer just the right amount of challenge for every group. The pupils themselves relish this and many say that they are ‘never bored’ in lessons. More-able pupils are carefully identified and provided with more challenging activities. Parents who responded to the online questionnaire are understandably delighted with the quality of teaching in the school.  Teachers and teaching assistants work very well together. They share a clear understanding of the aim of each piece of work in terms of its constituent skills and knowledge. Teachers often question pupils skilfully to check and support this learning. Short conversations are used to explore the depth of pupils’

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

grasp of key ideas and this information steers the next steps. This guides learning securely and confidently.  Responses to a pupil not understanding a key idea are rapid and effective. Teachers say ‘we fix so we don’t have to catch up’, meaning that misconceptions or misunderstandings are seen and sorted out within the lesson, or as soon afterwards as possible. Teaching assistants play a highly effective role in pupils’ learning. They too often ask pupils to reinterpret ideas, use new words in a sentence or justify a piece of mathematics to drill home the learning.  Pupils respond very positively to the simple but effective ways in which teachers provide feedback on their work in accordance with the school’s policy. Pupils from Nursery to Year 6 understand fully how the feedback system works. Pupils’ work in their books showed a relatively small number of repeated mistakes, for example in punctuation and grammar, because of the way that the school’s policy on

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

feedback is used so consistently effectively.  Phonics (letters and the sounds that they make) is well taught throughout the school from very early techniques in the formation of sounds and letters in Nursery through the more formal identification of sounds and letter patterns in writing and reading in Reception. This results in pupils’ very good literacy skills in Year 1 and 2. Phonics skills are reinforced very strongly in all year groups by all staff. This underpins very good teaching in reading and writing from Nursery and Reception right through to Year 6.  Mathematics teaching has been strong for many years but has improved significantly this year. All teachers and teaching assistants have a clear understanding of what constitutes good learning in mathematics. The new National Curriculum is being delivered imaginatively and very successfully to enable pupils to regard mathematics as a creative and useful subject.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  All policies, systems and procedures are clear, well understood by all staff and operated reliably. As a result, instances of poor behaviour are rare but are managed very well when they occur. Staff are very confident in the systems and procedures in place to maintain high standards of behaviour and respect, and they operate them diligently. As a result, pupils know that they can approach any adult for help and they are confident that the response will be appropriate, timely and effective.  There is a very strong culture of safeguarding. Staff training is regular and is frequently refreshed by updates in briefings. Staff are alert to the needs of all children and carry out their responsibilities assiduously. The governor with oversight of safeguarding has very good knowledge about this issue and helps the school to maintain very high standards by visiting frequently and auditing current practice

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Personal development and welfare

rigorously.  Pupils show an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They know the dangers associated with working on the internet and older pupils are taught how to have safe online conversations. Sex and relationships lessons are very effective. Pupils were proud of their understanding of road safety and other risks to their welfare.  Attendance is slightly above the national average. It is a priority for the school to ensure that recent improvements are maintained: there are many systems in place to help parents and pupils understand the need to attend reliably. Very effective liaison with the local general practitioner committee ensures that consistent messages are sent about ill-health resulting in time off school. In addition, rewards are given for good attendance. Reports home send clear messages about how good attendance has been over the last period and every member of staff has pupil attendance as a performance management

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Personal development and welfare

objective. Nevertheless, some pupils eligible for the pupil premium and some with special educational needs have not attended as well as others in recent years, but there are signs that steps being taken to address this are being successful.  The school works with a wide range of external agencies to support pupils with more complex needs. This work is exceptionally well organised and very successful. Records of such work are kept meticulously.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils show a mature and thoughtful respect for each other, their teachers and their environment. Rules are understood and pupils follow them, usually without requiring any reminders. Pupils respect the idea of ‘Team Hordle’ and want to behave well for the benefit of everyone in their class.  The playground is a pleasant, well-organised and well-supervised area in which pupils run, play and socialise happily and with an understanding of the need to show respect to others.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is exemplary. They are very attentive to their teachers and teaching assistants and move between activities quickly and efficiently without any fuss. This very good behaviour enables learning to remain focused throughout lessons.  Many pupils have developed a good level of resilience in their learning. They regard making mistakes as a natural part of their work and use such moments to reflect on what they are doing, often in a mature and

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

 All groups of pupils in each year group are making at least good progress and the progress of many pupils is outstanding: a very significant proportion are exceeding expectations for their ages.  More-able pupils have made better progress than similar pupils nationally, and others, in the past. Academically talented pupils currently in the school continue to learn very well. This is because teachers use their good subject knowledge to steer these pupils to work that interests and challenges them.  Pupils’ progress in mathematics has been very secure for several years but has become a real strength of the school recently. Pupils now take more strategic approaches to problem solving: they use their mathematics skills in the process and identify for themselves areas where new knowledge and learning is required. Many pupils use mathematical reasoning skills that are significantly better developed than

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

others of their age. They also demonstrate considerable fluency in their application of mathematics. Some pupils who have previously struggled with mathematics were seen in one lesson representing three- dimensional shapes on paper successfully because of the way in which the teacher presented the ideas logically and built on prior learning. Younger pupils were observed using practical ways of adding and subtracting, using equipment well, and then beginning to make the move to more formal paper methods and develop mental skills.  Reading has developed strongly in the school over recent years. Many pupils made excellent progress from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 in 2015. Writing has had a more chequered history with some inaccuracies in assessment affecting progress a few years ago, but learning in this area is now very impressive. Progress measures in 2015 exceeded even those for reading. Current achievement remains

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

very strong in both areas and in the constituent skills of spelling, punctuation and grammar.  Pupils develop good skills in the use of phonics from an early age with a high proportion reaching the expected standard in the screening check at the end of Year 1. Many pupils’ books showed them able to produce lively and engaging writing and also form letters and organise work on the page very well. The recent emphasis on spelling throughout the school has been very successful: there are some dramatic improvements in spelling ages this year as a result.  Leaders have targeted the particular needs of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds with great success. Despite this group making better progress than others nationally in all three National Curriculum tested subjects in 2015, there were gaps between outcomes for this group and others within the school at the end of Year 6. Gains in learning for this group now match, and in some cases exceed, those of others in

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

nearly all classes.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability make very good progress across the school. Their precise needs are identified accurately and teachers are guided by the coordinator for special educational needs to be able to respond to them successfully in every lesson. As a consequence, work is often adapted appropriately to enable very good learning.

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Early years provision is outstanding

 The excellent leadership of Nursery and Reception means that children make outstanding progress in their time in early years and that they are kept safe and are very well cared for. As a result, the vast majority of children make an excellent start to Year 1.  Teachers’ very good subject knowledge allows them to offer the right kind of challenge to every child and to support their learning highly effectively. Phonics techniques are used consistently well throughout. In Reception, for example, a wide range of strategies are used to develop children’s understanding of the links between sounds and letters to promote the early stages of reading and writing including very good modelling of sounds and sound patterns.  Teaching is attentive and encouraging and maintains high expectations of children’s learning. A first attempt is rarely accepted: children are encouraged to refine and improve responses and they thrive

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Early years provision is outstanding

because of this. No opportunity is missed in Nursery or Reception to intervene and move learning on. Adults were observed closely questioning children to develop oral and number skills in all activities.  Intervention is rapid and well targeted. Good written work is produced as a result of continual support from teachers. Perseverance is encouraged and children’s attention spans are extended by well-judged encouragement.  Reception is particularly well organised to enable a range of different activities to take place and be supported. This enables all children to work in each area of learning very effectively through using their inquisitiveness and natural eagerness. Nursery is also a stimulating and rich environment, which offers a wide range of opportunities for learning through play. Both have exciting, colourful and well-organised outdoor areas.  Children show each other and their teachers respect and consideration. Disruptive behaviour is the

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Early years provision is outstanding

exception and the occasional upset is managed well. The high levels of concentration developed, and the evident enjoyment pupils take in the range of activities, mean that they are usually very well focused on productive tasks.  Children in both Nursery and Reception understand how to keep safe. One child in Nursery warned an inspector ‘not to eat the mud instead of the carrots’ that were being dug up! Another in Reception pointed out the dangers of running and showed a good understanding of why this rule was in place.  Assessments of children’s progress are rigorous and accurate. They are used to inform planning and support all of the adults’ work with children. Accurate and detailed records are kept of children’s achievements and these are shared with parents so they know what their children are learning and how it can be extended at home.

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School details

Unique reference number 116486 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 10011115 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 category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 330 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Karen Richards Headteacher Fiona Adams Telephone number 01425 611657 Website www.hordle.hants.sch.uk Email address adminoffice@hordle.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 29–30 September 2010

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Information about this school

 Hordle Church of England Primary School is slightly larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is average.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium (additional government funding) is below average.  The school serves a community with relatively little ethnic or cultural diversity.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set minimum expectations for attainment and progress.  A Nursery opened at the school in September 2014.  Children in the Reception class attend full-time and those in Nursery part-time.  The headteacher is a local leader of education and works with the local authority to offer challenge and support to other schools in Hampshire. Three staff are specialist leaders in education: one in mathematics, another in English and the third in finance.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection began as a short inspection of a school judged good at its most recent section 5 inspection. It was converted to a section 5 inspection and the lead inspector was joined on the second day by a team of Ofsted Inspectors.  Inspectors made short visits to all classes, jointly with the headteacher, to observe teaching and learning. They undertook longer lesson observations in the Nursery and Reception classes, Key Stage 1 and Years 3 and 4 on the second day. Because Year 5 and 6 were not in school on the second day a detailed scrutiny of work in their books was undertaken.  Inspectors met with senior staff, representatives of the governing body, other staff, and groups of pupils, and had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  The school’s development planning and self-evaluation documents, policies and safeguarding procedures were scrutinised.  The 59 responses to Parent View were taken into account, along with many written comments and two

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Information about this inspection

letters. Inspectors spoke to parents as they arrived at school with their children on both days.  Inspectors took into account the views of the 44 staff and 26 pupils who returned questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Alan Taylor-Bennett, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Rosemary Beattie Ofsted Inspector Jennifer Boyd Ofsted Inspector Rebecca Greenhalgh 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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