Churchfield CofE VA Primary

Churchfield C of E VA Primary School Cheshunt Wash, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire EN8 0LU Inspection dates 9–10 February 2016

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is an inadequate school

 Arrangements and procedures for safeguarding pupils are inadequate because leaders have not given sufficient priority to pupils’ safety and welfare.  Governance is not effective. Governors lack sufficient knowledge of their duties and do not monitor the safeguarding policy and processes effectively enough.  While pupils report that they feel safe in the school, the systems and practices in place do not ensure that all concerns are addressed.  Middle leaders do not take enough effective action to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the school.  The quality of teaching across the school is variable. Teachers do not plan learning to match the knowledge or skills of pupils well enough. As a result, pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability do not make enough progress. This is because their individual needs are not provided for

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This is an inadequate school

well enough.  The most-able pupils do not achieve as well as they could. Not enough teachers plan learning that enables these pupils to achieve their best.  The effectiveness of teaching assistants varies across the school. The pupils they work with are not making fast enough progress.

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The school has the following strengths

 Behaviour in lessons and around the school is good. Pupils are polite, courteous and keen to learn.  Pupils’ achievement is improving in phonics, mathematics and writing.  Outcomes in the early years are good. This is because teaching is inspiring. Children learn in a rich and vibrant environment and achieve above what is typical for their age by the time they leave Reception.

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 As a matter of urgency, improve arrangements for safeguarding pupils by: – implementing safeguarding systems, policies and procedures effectively – communicating safeguarding concerns in a timely and organised way to ensure the welfare of pupils – following up concerns raised by staff about pupils systematically – ensuring that governors know precisely what their responsibilities are and the action they should be taking to check that pupils are safe.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching by: – making sure that teaching assistants focus on promoting good learning with pupils they are supporting – ensuring that differing groups and abilities of pupils are suitably challenged so they can make good progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by: – ensuring that the quality of teaching is consistently good across the school – precisely monitoring the impact of the teaching and support for pupils who have special educational needs or disability.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 Governors and senior leaders have not ensured that safeguarding policies and processes are clear and robustly applied. As a result, senior leaders do not act swiftly enough when serious concerns are raised. Senior leaders and governors do not evaluate risks to pupils and staff well enough. They do not review what should change or how it can be minimised following events. This oversight puts pupils and adults in the school at risk of such events recurring.  Leaders are not accurately evaluating the effectiveness of the school. While they take time to review the strengths and weaknesses, they are overgenerous in their view of the effectiveness of their safeguarding procedures in the school.  The leadership of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is not rigorous enough. Leaders do not monitor the impact of the teaching for these pupils effectively. Consequently, the achievement of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

pupils who have special educational needs or disability is not good.  Middle leaders, several of whom are very strong teachers, do not take effective action to ensure that this excellent practice is commonplace across the school. As a result, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment remains inconsistent.  Senior leaders’ focus on monitoring the quality of teaching and learning has had some positive impact. The assessment system implemented to track the progress of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics is helping to drive improvement in pupils’ achievement. Teachers understand how the assessment systems work and middle leaders are using it effectively to inform senior leaders of the progress of pupils.  Leaders ensure that performance management targets for staff are clearly linked to the school priorities and pupil outcomes. These actions are still too new to measure the impact.  Pupil premium funding is being used effectively to enhance the achievement of disadvantaged pupils.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

Individual pupils receive extra help to improve their reading, writing and mathematical skills. This has led to attainment of this group of pupils improving, and the gap between their achievement and that of other pupils nationally narrowing.  Leaders and governors use the sports premium funding effectively. Pupils benefit from the opportunity to represent the school in a wide range of competitions and festivals, and have enjoyed some successes. This has led to them becoming more active participants in sporting activities and understanding the benefits to their physical health of doing so. Specialist coaching for Key Stage 2 teachers has resulted in them becoming more confident in their own skills and has led to higher-quality sport provision for pupils.  The curriculum is broad and covers a wide range of topics. In addition, senior leaders provide a range of opportunities to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, personal and social development. This includes good use

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

of visits, including residentials, and visitors to enrich the quality of the curriculum. The local church is used well to give the pupils the opportunity to access, and contribute to, the local community.  The school actively promotes British values. For example, one pupil talked about the school council being a place for pupils to make decisions in a democratic way that is similar to the British parliament system. This helps to prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain.  The local authority has provided good-quality training for staff which has made a strong contribution to the improvements in teaching and learning of reading, writing and maths.  The governance of the school – Governors are not fully aware of their responsibilities and therefore have not challenged senior leaders in relation to child protection systems. They have not been rigorous in their evaluation of the safeguarding systems and procedures that should be in place in the school. Consequently, systems for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

safeguarding are not protecting children as well as they should. – The impact of the governors’ work in other areas of the school is positive. They have supported and facilitated improvements which have led to better resources for pupils to enhance their learning environment. – Governors have focused on raising standards which has resulted in improved outcomes for pupils in writing and mathematics but not yet consistently in reading. – Governors have precise systems in place for overseeing the performance management of teachers. This leads to performance being monitored and any pay awards being linked to pupil progress.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The quality of teaching is too variable. Teachers do not routinely use the assessment information they have to plan learning that is matched well enough to the individual needs of pupils, or that builds on their prior knowledge, understanding and skills. For example, the work planned for the most-able pupils is often too easy and results in them repeating learning or not deepening their understanding. At times, they can complete the activity without learning anything new.  The teaching of reading requires improvement. This is because up until recently teachers have not ensured pupils make the progress they could across Key Stage 2. Following a period of training, teachers are now starting to give a higher priority to the teaching of reading. For example, teachers’ use of high- quality books to teach reading is leading to pupils making better progress.  For younger children and pupils, teachers miss opportunities to extend and practise their skills and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

abilities in phonics (letters and the sounds that they make). Pupils have too few opportunities to say their sounds aloud, and this limits their progress.  The presentation of pupils’ work in their writing and the topic books is variable especially in Key Stage 2. Teachers do not expect all Key Stage 2 pupils to present their work with care. This results in some pupils producing careless work.  Teachers place too much emphasis on the activities that pupils complete, rather than on what they will learn from completing the activities. For example, in Years 3 and 4 during a science investigation, pupils were finding out what plants would grow best in the rainforest. Teachers explained every step of the activity with limited opportunity for pupils to investigate the learning for themselves. As a result, pupils followed instructions rather than deepening their understanding of the science behind the activity.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The effectiveness and deployment of teaching assistants varies widely. In some classes, teaching assistants question pupils and support them well. In these classes, pupils learn more. Too many teaching assistants have not received sufficient training to use skilful questioning that help pupils make rapid progress.  Relationships between adults and pupils are positive. The pupils contribute to lessons willingly, knowing that their thoughts and contributions are valued. This is developing their confidence in their learning.  Where teaching practice is strong, teachers use questioning well to check that pupils understand what they are learning. In one lesson seen, the teacher used questioning effectively to help pupils explain their understanding about why the Chinese New Years are named after animals. The teacher used further questions to encourage the pupils to use clues from a story to help them give reasons.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 Teachers provide appropriate opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills across other curriculum subjects. For example, in Years 5 and 6 classes pupils were learning about space and were producing well-written reports about moon landings.  Pupils have a good understanding of what their ambitious targets mean. They are clearly aware of what they need to do to improve. This is a new way of working and leaders are checking regularly to see if these targets are helping pupils to make better progress. This system needs more time to impact upon pupil achievement.  In some classes feedback is showing an improvement and it is helping to move pupils on in their learning. There has been a focus on this since the last inspection but it is not yet consistent across the school, which means that pupils do not always make the progress they could.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  The current systems and procedures in place do not ensure that pupils, particularly those at risk of harm, are safe. This is because systems to share information regarding concerns about individual children are not good enough.  While systems to identify children at risk are not robust, staff work well with external agencies to support vulnerable children who are known to schools.  Pupils say that they feel safe within school and felt confident that staff would help them if they needed to speak to someone. Parents are also positive about this aspect. It is the wider work of the school, to ensure that children at risk are identified and supported, that is lacking.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils typically behave well in lessons, at play and while walking around the school. They understand what is expected of them and rise to the school’s expectations for good behaviour. Pupils are eager to learn and enthusiastic about what they are doing and are eager to share this with adults.  Pupils listen attentively in class and work effectively together. They help each other and develop their social skills working within pairs and groups. This was seen in Key Stage 1 when pupils were listening to a recap of Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. They discussed the story cooperatively in pairs and responded knowledgeably to questions, confirming their understanding, which led to the pupils making predictions about the future course of the story.  Pupils know and understand the school rules and confidently stick to them. Pupils feel that they are listened to and any incidents that occur can be talked about with an adult and they will be dealt with.

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Behaviour

 Attendance is broadly in line with national figures. Persistent absence has reduced since the previous inspection.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 From starting points which are similar to other pupils of their age, children make steady progress across the school. By the end of Key Stage 2 they attain standards in writing and mathematics which are in line with national expectations.  Over time, standards in reading at the end of Year 6 have been lower than the national average. Recent work to improve the quality of reading has had a positive impact. Pupils currently in Year 6 demonstrate a higher standard of reading skills and are on track to meet their targets.  In 2015 the majority of pupils reached the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. This was an improvement on previous years. Pupils currently on roll are on track to achieve the same.  Pupils’ attainment in the end of Year 2 tests has risen steadily in the past three years. In 2015 the Key Stage 1 results were in line with national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Pupils who have special educational needs or disability do not make good progress overall. Leaders have responded to weaker progress of these pupils by putting in additional support and interventions to help them improve their basic skills.  While results are improving overall, pupils are not making the progress they are capable of. For example, in writing, pupils’ skills are not developing quickly enough and able pupils are not able to convert their understanding and knowledge in writing.  The outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are improving. Nationally the gap between these pupils and others is narrowing. For writing, the gap has almost closed. This is because the leaders use the additional funds to provide additional qualified teaching support to disadvantaged pupils. This is having a significant impact on the progress these pupils are making.  By the time pupils leave the school they are increasingly well prepared for the next stage of their

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Early years provision is good

 Early years is good. This is because the children are happy, inquisitive and developing a love of learning in a rich and well planned environment. Adults promote independence and help children to make sensible choices when choosing their activities. Consequently, children make good progress in their time in Nursery and Reception and are very well prepared for Year 1.  Leadership and management of the early years is good. Staff are well trained and take every opportunity to develop children’s understanding of keeping safe. Adults in the setting take care that children are safe.  Teachers plan learning to provide children with many opportunities to explore and investigate what they are interested in. As a result of this children develop their independence, are challenged to think widely and become motivated learners.  Staff make good use of resources to provide exciting activities in all the different areas of learning. This

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Early years provision is good

enables children to learn extremely well. The continuous use of the outdoor area is effective. Children are able to access outside learning, through both adult-led activities and those that they choose for themselves.  Children know and willingly follow well-established routines. This results in children who are independently able to organise themselves and develop further awareness and consideration for others. For example, in the nursery class a group of boys together chose to move from the construction area to the painting table. They automatically went to the aprons and put them on before painting, without any adult prompting them to do so. Another child who had finished picked up her painting and took it to the paint drier of her own accord. She warned children around her to be careful or they would get wet paint on their clothes.  Learning journal folders provide staff and parents with a good record of children’s learning. Assessment of

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Early years provision is good

individual children’s learning is accurate and used carefully to plan their future learning. This has led to children making good progress.

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School details

Unique reference number 136024 Local authority Hertfordshire Inspection number 10001913

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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

School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 313 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mr Martin Nash Headteacher Mrs Katharine Hardwick Telephone number 01992 463289 Website www.churchfield.herts.sch.uk Email address admin@churchfield.herts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 14–15 November 2013

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Information about this school

 Churchfield C of E (VA) School is larger than the average primary school.  The majority of classes in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are mixed-age classes. The early years consists of two full-time Reception classes and one Nursery class which provides two sessions per day.  Most pupils are White British. The proportion from minority ethnic heritages is below average. Ten per cent of pupils speak English as an additional language, which is also below average.  The proportion of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium is higher than in most schools nationally. The pupil premium provides additional government funding for specific groups of children, including those who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children in the care of the local authority.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is below the national average.  The school runs its own breakfast club and after-school club.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classrooms. The headteacher and deputy headteacher took part in some joint observations with inspectors and attended all inspection team meetings.  Observations were made of pupils’ behaviour at the beginning of the day, at lunchtimes, breaktimes and when they were moving around the school. Pupils’ behaviour was also observed in the classroom.  Meetings were held with pupils, staff, governors, school leaders and some subject leaders. Inspectors spoke informally with pupils in the playground and dinner hall.  The lead inspector met the school’s local authority adviser.  Inspectors listened to pupils read, and looked at work in pupils’ books and on display. They looked at a range of documentation, including minutes from governing body meetings, the school’s evaluation of its own performance and its development plan. Behaviour and attendance records and information relating

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Information about this inspection

to safeguarding were also scrutinised.  Inspectors took account of 28 pupil questionnaires, 36 staff questionnaires and 62 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View). They also spoke to parents at the end of the day.  An inspector visited the breakfast club at the beginning of the day and spoke with staff.

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Inspection team

Tracy Fielding, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Wendy Varney Her Majesty’s Inspector Henry Weir 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

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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