All Saints Church of England 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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Mrs Susan Costa Headteacher All Saints Church of England Primary School Tylden Way Horsham RH12 5JB

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 3 March 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 February 2011.

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, your staff and governors have a clear vision for the school that promotes the achievement of every pupil within a caring community based on Christian values. There is a strong culture of nurturing and support, as well as high expectations. Pupils learn in a happy, calm, friendly atmosphere. One pupil summed up pupils’ views by explaining that ‘Teachers make learning fun.’ Staff are fully supportive of the direction you set for your school. Pupils are keen to help one another and strong relationships throughout the school build trust and confidence. Virtually all parents are highly positive about the school and appreciate the teaching, care and support their children receive.

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

Creativity pervades the school. This is illustrated by magnificent displays which celebrate pupils’ work, and also the imaginative approaches used to help pupils learn well. Creativity is driven by you; you encourage staff to try different ways to excite and engage pupils. You are keen for both staff and pupils to express their thoughts and feelings freely. Creativity and Christian values combine in the pupils’ ‘Spirited art’ displays. Pupils’ paintings express their beliefs about God, aided by annotations which explain their thinking.

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

You have tackled the areas for improvement from the last inspection successfully. At the last inspection, some leaders were new in post and needed further development. Currently, leadership of the school is strong. Your determination to drive further improvement, promote innovation, and show value and respect for all, acts as an inspiration for other leaders. Senior and middle leaders show subject expertise and have clear strategies to address areas for improvement. Actions taken by school leaders have significantly improved achievement in mathematics since the last inspection. Leaders are now showing the same systematic approach to tackling underperformance in phonics (the sounds that letters make) and also to raise the standard of writing further.

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

You have introduced new ways to check how well pupils are progressing in reading, writing and mathematics. This helps you to plan lessons carefully and identify pupils who may be falling behind so that you can provide well-targeted support. As a result, pupils currently at the school make good progress. Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 is consistently above national levels in reading, writing and mathematics. The proportion of children in the early years who have secured a good level of development by the end of their Reception Year is rising and is well above national levels, so that children are well prepared to start Year 1. Last year, there was a fall in the percentage of pupils who met the expected standard in phonics by the end of Year 1 and you have taken steps to address this. In 2015, the standards achieved by the end of Key Stage 1 were similar to national levels.

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Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Primary School

You ensure that procedures for safeguarding the pupils are carried out correctly. Leaders ensure that staff receive regular training and senior leaders hold relevant qualifications. Parents, staff and pupils are united in their view that pupils are safe in school. There are well-planned opportunities for pupils to learn to keep themselves safe, including e-safety. As a result, pupils have a good understanding of the risks associated with accessing or sharing information online. Pupils are confident that any concerns about bullying will be followed up rapidly and effectively. Staff take an active approach to safeguarding, following up concerns swiftly. They ensure they seek the right advice from other agencies when necessary. All current policies reflect the most recent national guidance.

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Inspection findings

 There is a very strong and consistent focus on Christian values. The school’s mission statement, ‘Seeking God in all we do’, underpins every aspect of its work, so that all members of the community are valued, cared for and supported.  Your determination to provide a good education for the pupils at All Saints came through strongly during my visit. The parents who completed Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and those who wrote comments or spoke to me personally are very pleased with the quality of education their children receive. A few parents feel that communication is not as timely as they would like.  Governors share your commitment to the school. They provide good support as well as the healthy degree of challenge required of all governing bodies. There is a wide range of skills within the governing body which are sensibly linked to the school’s development priorities. Visits are frequent so governors

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Inspection findings

can monitor actions taken and they have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. Governors rigorously oversee the procedures that ensure that pay awards for good teaching are closely linked to the good progress made by pupils.

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Inspection findings

 During our visits to classrooms to observe learning, you identified accurate strengths and areas for development when evaluating pupils’ learning. You quickly identified questions you wanted to follow up. These, and other activities, showed me that your evaluation of teaching and learning is accurate and robust.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils have extremely positive attitudes to learning. They know what is expected of their learning and behaviour. They gain confidence in a nurturing environment with high expectations and, as a result, are well prepared academically and socially for their next steps in education. We saw children in the early years and pupils in all other years responding well to adults’ encouraging approach.

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Inspection findings

 The teaching I saw across the school was purposeful and clear. Work was set to meet the different needs of pupils. You are nevertheless aware of aspects of teaching which would benefit from further development and plans are underway to address some underperformance, particularly in Key Stage 1.

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Inspection findings

 Training of all staff by the leader of the early years, and collaboration between teachers in Years 1 and 2, are beginning to deliver the teaching of phonics more consistently. Steps are being taken to teach pupils in groups more closely matched to their learning needs in order to improve their rate of progress.

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Inspection findings

 At the last inspection, mathematics was identified as an area for improvement. You addressed this by appointing a senior leader with subject expertise in mathematics. She identified that more apparatus was needed to help pupils develop their fluency in mathematics and solve problems. During our visit to classrooms, pupils were using apparatus appropriately and confidently to help them tackle challenging questions. Attainment in mathematics has improved significantly since the last inspection. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 are developing their mathematical reasoning and the mathematics leader plans to extend this to other year groups.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders are determined to improve progress in writing. This is being led by the deputy headteacher who shows strong expertise in English. The school has adopted a new approach which encourages pupils to talk about their work and articulate their ideas before writing them down. Staff use texts from different genres to inspire and motivate pupils to write in different ways. Work in books shows thoughtful planning, creativity, stamina and enjoyment. These improvements are helping to further raise the standard of written work.

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Inspection findings

 You have made good headway in developing a way of tracking individual pupils’ progress, to align with the government’s recent changes to the curriculum and assessment arrangements. In September 2015, you introduced a new way to check how well pupils are progressing in reading, writing and mathematics. This provides detailed information about the skill levels of pupils and what they need to learn next. This is used by teachers to plan lessons and also helps you to identify pupils who may be falling behind so that you can provide well-targeted support. Leaders are about to analyse the latest progress information so it is too soon to evaluate the full impact of this new assessment programme.

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Inspection findings

 Information from progress checks is also used by the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) to plan provision for pupils with additional needs. The SENCo’s work typifies the systematic approach shown by school leaders to drive improvement. Robust identification of pupils’ needs leads to careful planning, including detailed pupil’s profiles with information about precise development needs. Actions taken are then evaluated for impact. When steps taken have not been fully successful, alternative strategies are tried. As a result, pupils who have special educational needs or disability are making good progress.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils in all classes talk to each other about their learning confidently. They are not afraid to challenge each other and use subject-specific language to justify their views. They also support each other and explain to their learning partners how to tackle a problem or make suggestions about how to improve their work. This dialogue is conducted sensitively and exemplifies the culture of the school which encourages adults and children to try something different, trust each other and not to worry if it is not fully successful first time. Pupils show high levels of resilience.

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Inspection findings

 The importance of learning from feedback is also shown in pupils’ ‘published work’. Teachers provide advice for improvement in pupils’ books, which is usually followed up by pupils to produce improved final pieces of work, which are published and displayed in classrooms and around the school. The celebration of all pupils’ work reflects the commitment of the school to value all pupils.

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Inspection findings

 You are passionate about providing high-quality experiences for pupils across the curriculum. For example, there is specialist teaching of Spanish to Key Stage 2 pupils and there have been significant improvements in the teaching of music across the school. A successful school choir is among the wide selection of clubs and activities available for pupils.  Pupils are finding out more about different faith groups across Horsham and the world. The school gathers together for daily worship and, in assembly, pupils listened respectfully to a visitor from another church in the town.

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Inspection findings

 The energy and excitement generated by World Book Day was used skilfully by teachers to focus on learning. Everyone joined in by dressing up as characters from a book, and there was a great atmosphere of fun as both pupils and staff explained their choices.

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Inspection findings

 Staff and pupils acknowledge each other’s different strengths and attributes and listen respectfully to each other’s contributions. There is a strong culture of learning from each other.

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Inspection findings

 West Sussex local authority and the Diocese of Chichester deploy you to other local schools to offer leadership support. All Saints receives annual visits by local authority representatives to check progress and also responds to your requests for advice. For example, an adviser has recently provided valuable support for the teaching of English.

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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 improvements currently underway continue: improving the teaching of phonics, raising attainment by the end of Key Stage 1 and helping more pupils to make good progress in writing.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Education for the Diocese of Chichester, the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Director of Children’s Services for West Sussex County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I visited lessons in all seven classes in the school, jointly with the headteacher. I spoke with pupils during playtime and looked at some of their work. I met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, members of staff and four governors, including the Chair of the Governing Body. I met a representative of West Sussex local authority. I considered the 20 responses from members of staff to their confidential online questionnaire. I took careful account of 40 responses from parents to Parent View, 35 responses by free text and conversations with parents waiting to collect their children from school. I looked at documents, including the school’s self- evaluation and improvement plan, information about pupils’ learning and progress, minutes of meetings, and records regarding safeguarding and attendance.

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