Henry Chichele Primary School

Henry Chichele Primary School School Lane, Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire NN10 8NQ

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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 a good school

 The headteacher and his team provide strong leadership. They have worked vigorously to improve teaching, learning and systems to check pupils’ progress since the previous inspection. This has led to improvements in both teaching and outcomes.  Because they are now well taught, current pupils learn well, make good progress from their starting points and reach the standards expected for their age.  Pupils learn in a supportive environment where their teachers know them well. As a result, pupils have positive attitudes to learning and work well together.  Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs or disability are making good progress.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is effective.  Pupils enjoy school life and they behave well. Their conduct around the school is good. Pupils of all ages get on well together.  The provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and

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This is a good school

cultural development is good. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain and their next stage of education.  Children in the early years benefit from good quality provision and they are well prepared for Year 1.  The governing body supports the school well and has a good awareness of its strengths and weaknesses. It is rigorous in holding the school to account for pupils’ progress and ensuring that it continues to improve.  Most of the staff are proud to be members of the school team.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers do not always follow the school’s marking policy to ensure that pupils’ work improves.  Some questions asked by teachers and teaching assistants do not challenge pupils to think deeply enough.  The teaching of skills to enable strong progress in grammar, punctuation and spelling is not yet consistently effective.  Pupils do not have sufficient opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning and solve problems independently of the teacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise achievement further so it is outstanding by ensuring that: – questions posed by teachers provide suitable challenge for pupils to enable them to deepen their understanding – teachers follow the school’s marking policy and provide pupils with precise feedback in their books that gives them clear guidance on how they can improve their work – pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar increases in accuracy so that pupils’ progress is consistent across the school – pupils are provided with even more opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning and challenge themselves further.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The headteacher provides effective leadership, ably supported by the senior leadership team. They have a positive impact in improving the quality of teaching and raising standards. There is a shared vision that enables good teaching to flourish and pupils behave and achieve well. This is a school that lives its aims. Everyone works together for lifelong learning.  The school’s self-evaluation is accurate and identifies what needs to be done to improve the school further. There are suitable procedures for checking the progress and attainment of individuals and groups of pupils to help them perform as well as they can. Any pupils at risk of falling behind are quickly identified and given extra support to help them keep up with other pupils. The school ensures that there is no discrimination and that all pupils have equal opportunities to succeed.  Leaders make effective use of information from regular checks on teaching, learning and assessment to

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

develop teachers’ skills and improve teaching. Teachers’ pay levels are determined by how successful they are in helping pupils to achieve well.  Plans for improvement are organised effectively and set out appropriate actions to address the areas for improvement. The introduction and focus on the ‘five Rs’ (resilience, reflection, resourcefulness, risk taking and relationships), supported by a focus on questioning and thinking driven by Bloom’s taxonomyfa underpin the school’s drive for improvement. Further work is required, however, to develop the higher-order skills. Leaders ensure that progress towards the agreed priorities is shared widely with the school community.  Leaders at all levels, including those responsible for subjects, are supported well in developing their roles and in how they use assessment information to check that pupils are making good progress in each year group. Meetings with teachers to discuss the progress of individual pupils have enabled leaders to

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

become more actively involved in school improvement. This has led to improvements in teaching throughout the school.  Leaders do not ensure that the school’s marking policy is implemented consistently by teachers to help pupils improve their work.  The range of subjects that the school offers is broad and balanced and promotes pupils’ academic achievement and personal development well. English and mathematics are given the necessary prominence which ensures that pupils gain the necessary skills at a good rate. Other subjects such as science, history, music, French and art are also covered. The curriculum supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. It is enriched by a range of trips and residential visits as well as after-school clubs such as the ‘mad science club’ and choir.  Leaders spend additional funds for the pupil premium wisely. This includes spending on additional

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

resources to support learning and contributes to the funding of an inclusion manager. Eligible pupils benefit from additional support in lessons and assistance is also provided to ensure that they can participate in school activities such as residential visits. Although leaders track the achievement of pupil premium pupils, they do not accurately assess the impact this funding is having to narrow the gaps between disadvantaged pupils and others.  The school makes good use of its primary physical education and sports premium. Leaders have increased the range of sports clubs available and participation in them has risen, particularly by girls. Specialist sports coaches have been employed to work alongside class teachers to improve their skills. Pupils are developing healthier lifestyles and say that physical education lessons are interesting and fun. They are also more active at breaktimes, where play leaders organise a range of games for pupils of all

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

ages. Pupils also participate in school-based and local competitions and tournaments.  Leaders ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. They foster good relationships and tackle discrimination by ensuring that all pupils learn about the different beliefs and lifestyles of others. A wide range of activities such as learning about the Chinese New Year and participating in the ‘Black History Month’ enable pupils to deepen their understanding of different cultures and faiths.  The large majority of parents say they would recommend Henry Chichele to another parent. However, some wrote on Parent View that they do not feel communication between school and home is effective. Inspectors disagree with this view. A wide range of information is provided for parents in a variety of ways such as newsletters, meetings and on the excellent website. A number of parents do not believe they receive valuable information about their child’s progress. Inspectors also disagree with this view.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

Termly parents evenings and reports provide good information about how well pupils are progressing. The school also has an open door policy and welcomes the opportunity for parents to discuss their child’s progress at a convenient time.  Support from the local authority has been ‘light touch’. Nevertheless, officers have provided suitable challenge and held school leaders to account for improving outcomes for different groups such as disadvantaged pupils.  The governance of the school – The governing body has taken effective action to improve its oversight of the school since the last inspection. Governors have received up-to-date training and streamlined the way they hold school leaders to account for the school’s performance. – Governors know the school’s strengths and weaknesses, including how it compares with other schools, how well different groups of pupils achieve and the quality of teaching.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

– In addition to their own regular visits to the school, governors gather evidence about the school from the reports and presentations from the school’s leaders and from talking to pupils and parents. Governors carefully monitor the school’s budget and spending, including the extra pupil premium funding. However, they cannot comment accurately on the impact of that spending. – They supervise the headteacher’s performance and make sure that teachers’ annual targets and any rewards are linked to pupils’ progress. – Governors make sure that the school meets statutory requirements, including those for safeguarding. The school’s website is clearly set out and extremely accessible, providing valuable information for staff, pupils, governors, parents and carers.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Governors and leaders make sure all checks are made before staff are employed. They ensure that staff are informed about matters relating to pupils’ safety

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

and welfare. Leaders create a safe environment where pupils feel supported and safe. Staff training is kept up to date and staff members know what action they should take when concerned about a pupil’s welfare.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 The quality of teaching and learning has improved since the last inspection and is now typically good, because teachers and teaching assistants have much higher expectations of what pupils can achieve. Staff are positive, confident and friendly in lessons; this creates a good environment for learning. Constructive relationships and well-planned lessons supported by good resources help capture pupils’ interests.  Classrooms are attractive and organised effectively. Teachers use interesting displays and examples of pupils’ work in classrooms and around the school to show what good work looks like and to stimulate pupils’ learning.  Teachers know their pupils well and use assessment information effectively to identify and plan for pupils’ needs in each lesson and over time. Pupils say they enjoy interactive lessons. Curriculum days are particularly enjoyed by pupils. During the inspection, pupils were involved in a science day to investigate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

wildlife on the school’s doorstep. Pupils in Key Stage 1 were enthralled by the snails they found and used these as a stimulus to talk, write, count and paint.  Lessons start crisply and set an appropriate learning pace. Pupils respond well, are engaged and motivated to learn. Pupils are happy to work together and have a positive attitude to learning. Teachers structure lessons well to support learning. Pupils are provided with opportunities to develop ideas and plan how to tackle tasks. For instance, in a Year 1 lesson, team leaders had the responsibility for recording and feeding back their team’s ideas about how the story of the Three Little Pigs could be re- invented using different characters. However, this type of opportunity is not provided often enough.  Teachers have good subject knowledge and make regular reference to past learning in lessons. Most teachers have high expectations of all groups of pupils and use questions skilfully to challenge pupils, but

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

this is not always the case.  The most-able pupils, in particular, are not always set sufficiently challenging work in lessons and asked challenging questions. As a result, teachers do not encourage pupils to think deeply about their answers and extend their understanding of the subject being taught and any link beyond the subject.  Teachers make good use of teaching assistants who make a strong contribution to pupils’ learning. Targeted support by teaching assistants often helps to give a boost to those pupils in danger of falling behind in their reading, writing or mathematics.  Teachers generally give detailed and helpful feedback through marking of pupils’ work in English and mathematics, which helps pupils improve their work. In other subjects such as science and history, marking is much less detailed and does not help pupils move forward with their learning.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils are extremely proud of their school. They talk enthusiastically about their lessons and other aspects of school life. They trust their teachers and know that if they have any worries or want help with their work they can always talk to them. Most parents say their child is happy at school because they are well looked after.  Pupils enjoy their learning. Pupils of all ages work well together, listening carefully to each other and contributing to discussions so that they can learn from one another. This helps them make good progress.  Pupils have a good understanding of the different forms bullying can take, including those relating to race or derogatory language. Pupils spoken with at breaktimes said, ‘We all get on well.’ They said that incidents of bullying are rare, ‘just falling out’, and when this does happen they can tell a member of staff

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Personal development and welfare

‘and it all gets sorted’. Their views are supported by school records.  Pupils say they feel safe in school and almost all parents agree with this. The school site is kept secure and visitors are carefully checked. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations. Cycling proficiency sessions increase their awareness of road safety. They know that they must not talk to strangers and are aware of the risks associated with mobile phones or the internet. The regular visit of the ‘Life Education Bus’ helps pupils understand the risks of alcohol and drug abuse.  Staff provide a great deal of support for pupils with difficulties, which enables them to make good improvements in their behaviour and their learning.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils behave well around the school, during breaktimes and lunchtimes. They are courteous and respectful towards one another and adults. They treat the building with respect. Their movement around the school is calm and orderly. Staff and parents’ views reflect this positive picture that behaviour is consistently good at the school.  Most pupils listen carefully during lessons. However, sometimes, if they have to sit for too long listening to the teacher or if the group size is too big for the activity, a few pupils lose concentration and do not get on with their work as well as they should.  Attendance is broadly average. Most pupils arrive punctually to school, but a small number of parents travel some distance and traffic congestion sometimes prevents them arriving on time. The efforts made by the school to promote good attendance are generally successful.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Pupils’ achievement has improved since the last inspection and is now good. Last year, all pupils in Year 6 made expected progress from their starting points and around half made more than expected progress. Consequently, attainment rose to be above average. Attainment at the end of Year 2 increased to be above that typical for pupils’ ages in reading, writing and mathematics.  Work in pupils’ books and school records this academic year show that the large majority of pupils are making at least expected progress and increasing numbers are making more than expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs or disability make good progress relative to their starting points. This is because the work set and the support provided is well suited to their specific learning needs.  Reading is successfully promoted throughout the school, with regular use of the library and daily guided

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Outcomes for pupils are good

reading activities. As a consequence, pupils show an interest and enjoyment in reading. The school’s librarian is a tremendous asset. Older pupils acting as ‘book buddies’ listen to younger pupils read. Occasionally, reading books are not changed frequently enough and one or two most-able readers feel their reading book is ‘too easy’. Younger pupils are able to name the type of book they enjoy reading. Older pupils are enthusiastic readers, have favourite authors and recognise the features of a good story.  Pupils write effectively for different purposes and in different styles. The content of pupils’ extended writing is often interesting, imaginative and thoughtful. Good links are made with other subjects such as science and history. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are being developed appropriately but there is some variation in the progress pupils make. For instance, when writing about food chains, some pupils in

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Outcomes for pupils are good

Key Stage 2 did not write key words such as prey, predator, producer and consumer with sufficient precision. Throughout the school a range of resources, such as dictionaries, are available, but some pupils do not use these as a matter of routine to help them spell correctly.  Outcomes in mathematics are developing well. Pupils develop confidence in calculation and mathematical operations at a good rate. They are increasing their confidence in problem solving and reasoning but are not always presented with enough opportunities to develop and extend their thinking in these areas.  The most-able pupils generally make greater than expected progress but they do not always make as much progress as they are capable of because the work and the questioning is not sufficiently challenging.  Progress across other subjects is good overall. By the time pupils leave the school, they are well prepared for their secondary education.

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Early years provision is good

 The early years is led and managed well. The early years leader has established effective links with parents and pre-school settings and, as a result, children settle in Reception and grow in confidence and independence.  Children enter Reception with levels of development typical for their age, although there is a wide range.  Children, including the most able, make good progress from their different starting points so that by the end of Reception, the proportion making a good level of development is above the national average. This means that they are well prepared for their work in Year 1.  Good teaching makes sure that children quickly get used to routines and expectations. They behave well and get on well with each other, learning to develop their social skills through sharing and taking turns. When they were playing outside, children waited patiently to get their chance to play on the wheeled

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Early years provision is good

vehicles.  Staff encourage children to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills well through a range of interesting and well-planned activities including exploring and experimenting. The science day captured children’s imagination and they were able to use magnifying glasses to look at the shape and pattern of snail shells, count the number of legs on different plastic insects and add them together, test out whether snails preferred the light or dark habitats and write what the hungry caterpillar might like for lunch on each day of the week. This activity was particularly successful at extending the investigational skills of the most-able children. Reading is taught well and daily sessions help children to learn their letters and sounds and begin to enjoy books. Sometimes, the groups are too large, which makes it difficult for all children to be sufficiently engaged.  All staff work closely together, regularly assessing and recording the progress of each child, planning their

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Early years provision is good

next steps in learning. Opportunities for parents to contribute their views about the progress their child is making are limited.  Disadvantaged children and children who have special educational needs or disability settle well and make good progress because of the care and support they receive from staff. Additional funding is used appropriately to close the gaps between their classmates and as a consequence they make good progress.  The early years team promotes pupils’ safety and well-being. Staff provide high levels of supervision and engagement in learning activities. They ensure that all safety and safeguarding arrangements are robustly applied. Consequently, all children feel safe and secure in the school.

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School details

Unique reference number 133552 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 10001818

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School details

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 239 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Angela Robinson Headteacher Stephen McClymont Telephone number 01933 352850 Website http://henrychichele.northants.sch.uk Email address head@henrychichele.nothants-ecl.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 3–4 October 2013

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than averaged-size primary school.  Most pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is below average.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is below average. This is additional government funding provided to give extra support to looked-after children and those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability, including those with a statement of educational need or an education, health and care plan, is below average.  The school is increasing in size from one form to two forms of entry. There are two classes of Reception and Year 1 pupils.  All children in the early years attend full time.  The school met the government’s floor standards in 2015, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed pupils’ learning in 14 parts of lessons. In addition, the inspectors made some short visits to observe learning at other times. The phase leader with responsibility for English shadowed one inspector for part of one morning.  Discussions were held with pupils, staff, a representative from the local authority and members of the governing body.  Sixty-two parents responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View. The inspectors also took account of the 29 responses made online. In addition, inspectors talked with parents at the end of the school day.  The inspectors heard pupils read and looked at a number of documents, including: the school’s own information about pupils’ learning and progress; planning and monitoring documents; the school development plan; records relating to behaviour and attendance; safeguarding information; and health and safety documentation.  The inspectors analysed responses to the inspection questionnaire from 19 members of staff and 21

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Inspection team

Paul Weston, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Jane Ferguson 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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