Canon Popham Church of England (VA) Primary and Nursery School

Canon Popham Church of England (VA) Primary and Nursery School Church Balk, Edenthorpe, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN3 2PP

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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’s inspirational leadership and clear vision for the school’s development have given leaders, governors and staff a vigorous sense of purpose. Consequently, areas identified for improvement when the school was last inspected have been met. Standards are rising and the quality of teaching and learning has improved.  Governors’ good knowledge, experience and commitment have supported the school well on its journey to becoming good.  Pupils throughout the school, including those who are disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs or disability, make good progress from their starting points and achieve well.  Good teaching provides imaginative experiences and activities that capture pupils’ enthusiasm for learning.  Children in the early years get off to a good start. They have a good standard of education in a rich learning environment that supports their learning. Outcomes are above national

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This is a good school

expectations.  Pupils know how to keep themselves and others safe at school, in the wider community and online. Bullying is rare and pupils are confident that staff will address any problems that do arise.  Pupils attend school regularly and have positive attitudes to learning. They are polite and behave well in lessons and around the school. Pupils have respect for each other and strongly empathise with the needs of others.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers do not always ensure that teaching assistants are deployed well enough to fully support learning.  Pupils are not sufficiently involved in deciding which activities and topics they would like to  Some of the new leaders do not monitor interventions or record assessment findings rigorously enough.  The school is only partly successful in working in partnership with parents to find out what children 2 of 10 study. achieve outside school, so that it can make the best use of this information during the school day.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching further and, in so doing, raise levels of achievement to outstanding across the school by: ensuring that teachers deploy teaching assistants effectively to fully support pupils’ learning providing opportunities for pupils to lead their own learning in lessons so that they can contribute to decisions made about activities and topics studied.  Strengthen the effectiveness of the leadership team by: ensuring that newly appointed leaders accurately and rigorously monitor the impact of the school’s additional support programmes and activities, and that assessment information is consistently recorded. using information about what children achieve outside school more effectively to support learning in school, particularly for children in the early years. 3 of 10

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 Since the previous inspection, the headteacher has communicated a clear vision for the school’s development. She has demonstrated thorough commitment towards ensuring that the academic and pastoral experiences of each pupil in the school are positive. Parents and pupils confirm this. The school’s senior leadership team has responded very effectively to the recommendations from the previous inspection.  The headteacher has empowered staff to lead on various aspects of the school’s work and the senior leadership team has encouraged partnership working both within and beyond the school. This has led to the development of strong teams responsible for significant improvements to the way staff work well in partnership for the benefit of the pupils. For example, regular comparison of pupils’ work with other schools has led to significant improvement in the standards of writing over time, which addressed the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

recommendation from the last inspection about raising standards in writing.  School leaders have worked hard to ensure that the processes of self-evaluation are reflective. The systems introduced, during the last two years, have significant influence on moving the school forward. Clearly defined roles and effective discharge of responsibilities, among established and home-grown leaders, has helped embed recent developments in the school.  Monitoring of teaching and learning is thorough and performance management is effective. When leaders observe where improvements are needed, they provide rapid focused support to bring about a change for the benefit of the pupils. They have used the areas for development from the previous inspection effectively to drive improvement and, as a result, the quality of teaching has improved. There is a consistent approach to issues such as how pupils’ work is marked and corrected following the school’s

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

agreed policy. Regular meetings are held between senior leaders and class teachers to monitor individual pupils’ achievement and these are followed by plans to address any underachievement.  Newly appointed leaders have provided informative documentation and effective support and challenge for a number of new initiatives in the school. However, they have not yet had sufficient time to develop their own leadership capacity in line with that of existing leaders. This includes monitoring in depth the quality of additional support programmes and activities and the recording of assessment outcomes across the school, including those for pupils who are disadvantaged or who have special educational needs or disability.  Subject leaders make a valuable contribution to improving the quality of teaching through lesson observation, scrutiny of pupils’ work in books, analysis of assessment information and talking to pupils

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

about their learning. This has contributed well to the improvement in writing over a period of three years. Current evidence shows that achievement across English and mathematics has improved this year compared with that of 2015.  The curriculum enables all pupils to have access to broad, balanced and enriched learning opportunities across a range of subjects. Work in pupils’ books shows purposeful writing linked to topics. For example, ‘Local history about mining and the miners’ strikes’ encouraged all pupils, including boys, to participate fully in the writing process. This work alongside an outdoors survival activity led to some creative and imaginative writing. Pupils were proud to talk through sketchbooks across a range of subjects, including those inspired by visiting a mine. ‘It was really scary when we all had to turn off the lamps on our helmets’, said one girl in Year 5. Although the school has designed the curriculum with pupils’ interests in

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

mind, the pupils themselves said during interviews and informal discussion with inspectors that they would like the opportunity to decide some of the activities and topics they study, and they confidently illustrated their capacity to do so.  Science is a strongly developed and well-led area of the curriculum. The school has recently achieved a nationally accredited quality mark in science. Work in pupils’ books confirms that a wide range of learning experiences across the full range of the science curriculum are provided, including effective development of skills in working scientifically. Each class has generated a book of experiments and investigations, which contain detailed knowledge and understanding about primary science alongside information generated by groups or the whole class. 4 of 10  Senior leaders’ work to promote British values and develop pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development is exceptionally good. Christian assemblies are celebrated by the whole community on

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

Monday mornings in the church which is physically situated in the heart of the school. Democratic principles have been developed through the pupils’ own political party generated campaigns in a mock school election held last year.  Pupil premium funding is used effectively by leaders and impacts positively on outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. The provision of sport in school is good and effective use is made of additional sports funding to encourage pupils’ participation. The pupils have achieved success in local and regional competitions, such as football and netball.  The school has worked well with the local authority and taken every opportunity available to work in partnership with local networks and consultants, including outstanding schools. This has been effective in enabling the school to review its work and moderate standards to ensure that teachers’ assessments are accurate. The local authority and external consultants have full confidence that the school now has the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

internal capacity to maintain the pace of improvement.  The governance of the school The governing body has reorganised into a much slimmed-down group that ably evaluates and analyses information about the school and raises challenging questions. Governance has effectively supported and challenged leaders so that they have been able to remedy the areas for development from the previous inspection. Communication has been a key area for development and so governors now know the school well. This improvement has enabled governors to ‘get to the bottom of things’ with tenacity, resulting in rigorous analysis of safeguarding arrangements, the school budget and the outcomes pupils achieve. Governors have also explored and implemented a range of ways of communicating with parents, including through social media. The governing body is able to offer support because they are skilled and knowledgeable in the area of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

education and have a good understanding of the local community. They are well trained and keep themselves up to date through local network meetings about important matters, such as the ‘Prevent’ duty (a government programme to try to prevent young people from being radicalised) and safer recruitment of staff. Governors make regular visits to school to focus on specific areas such as mathematics. They are committed to working with senior leaders to monitor and evaluate outcomes including, for example, the use and impact of pupil premium funding or how performance management improves the quality of teaching. However, they rely too heavily on school leadership to provide all the answers about how to resolve some of the questions they raise.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. They are implemented well and fully comply with statutory requirements. The work the school does to help children understand and manage risks to their

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

own safety is exemplary. Parents and pupils are extremely confident about pupils’ safety.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 The headteacher has developed a culture of high expectations to ensure that all the areas for development from the previous inspection have been addressed so that pupils’ learning potential is maximised.  All teachers are supported through high-quality training to provide lessons that challenge pupils and raise achievement. Following the last inspection and its findings, the school’s initial focus was on the teaching of writing. The successes achieved in successfully raising attainment in writing have been threaded across all aspects of teaching.  Teachers’ effective use of information on pupils’ prior learning enables them to provide pupils with support just when it is needed. Across the school, lessons are well structured and staff provide clear instructions. Consequently pupils know exactly what they will be learning.  The quality of marking and feedback has improved since the previous inspection and pupils are confident

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

to make improvements to their work and to reach their targets. Pupils often confidently assess their own and each other’s work. 5 of 10  Focus groups for small groups of pupils take place during assemblies. These provide the opportunity for pupils with identified weaknesses in literacy or numeracy to be supported, or for most-able pupils to be given greater challenges to tackle. The support is provided by staff and teaching assistants while the headteacher leads the rest of the pupils through an assembly. All pupils have access to these focus groups, with attendance and outcomes recorded. Recorded information shows that this provision is very effective in supporting pupils to meet short-term targets for development.  Teachers encourage pupils regularly to read in class, either from the board, their own work or from books they are currently reading. As a result, pupils talk confidently about authors and the reason why they like

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

different styles of writing. Pupils are expected to use a wide range of increasingly complex vocabulary in their writing and this is enabling them to demonstrate an increasing command of language. The teaching of writing has improved and standards in writing have moved from below to above the national average over a three-year period. Pupils enjoy writing because class teachers set challenging and engaging tasks for them in both English and other subjects across the curriculum.  The teaching of mathematics is good. A clear and successful system for teaching calculation and number is in place. Staff regularly reflect on the progression of learning in this, and other subjects, across year groups. As a result, pupils develop their confidence to tackle complex problem-solving activities, such as when older pupils are asked to find the volume of cubes and cuboids from given information.  The approach to assessment is closely linked to the new expectations of the curriculum and is being

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

developed in line with local school networks. Staff are becoming more secure at making judgements about pupils’ performance. They work closely in a cluster of schools to share practice and skills and to ensure that the performance of pupils is judged accurately by checking pupils’ work jointly.  Pupils who have special educational needs or disability progress well because teaching is modified well to meet the needs of each individual. However, the analysis of information about the progress of these pupils is not as good as it could be. Disadvantaged pupils supported by pupil premium funding are well supported in lessons and so they do as well as other pupils in the school.  Some teaching assistants effectively help pupils to make better progress whether in whole-class lessons or during out-of-class support sessions. However, sometimes the support that pupils are given does not encourage them sufficiently to ‘have a go’ and to think for themselves. Additionally, some teachers do not

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

deploy teaching assistants effectively in supporting pupils’ learning.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils across the school are articulate and have positive attitudes to learning. They take pride in their work and see mistakes as a challenge to overcome.  The pupils are not afraid to show their own capability for leadership skills. Inspectors were approached informally by pupils who talked confidently about science topics and other areas of the school. Older pupils take on a variety of roles of responsibility, such as the school council. They see their roles of responsibility as having a direct and powerful effect on their own school. They confidently complete classroom learning environment audits to let teachers know where expected displays in each classroom should be. While talking to inspectors, they said that they were thinking about using school council meetings to suggest improvements to their lessons and the curriculum, particularly about areas of

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Personal development and welfare

learning that they think would be of benefit to them.  The school has clear Christian values that permeate throughout the learning and attitudes of the pupils. For example, each class has a prayer corner with many artefacts that the pupils themselves have contributed. Pupils are encouraged to explore other faiths, cultures and the experiences of those with difficulties, so that they can empathise with others. This was seen when pupils themselves asked to learn how to communicate using Makaton (the use of signs, gestures, symbols and pictures): a method used by staff to communicate with some of the pupils who have special educational needs or disability. Discrimination is clearly not tolerated here. 6 of 10  Across all age groups, pupils learn about the importance of exercise and staying healthy. Regular exercise is keenly encouraged and undertaken, not only during physical education and games lessons but also

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Personal development and welfare

during playtimes. There is a wide variety of resources and play activities made available for pupils to use during breaks from lessons.  The school works closely with several external agencies to ensure that it promotes equal opportunities for all its pupils to feel safe and do as well as they can.  Pupils have an accurate understanding of what makes an unsafe situation and are able to talk knowledgeably about online safety and the potential dangers of using social media. For example, one boy, when describing that children can make mistakes when sending texts or emails to other children, commented, ‘You must never do anything wrong online because it stays there forever.’

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils, parents and governors are of the view that behaviour is good and behaviour records confirm this.  Throughout the school, consistently good behaviour forms a significant bedrock to the school’s community. Pupils display honesty and integrity and greet visitors in an open, friendly and natural manner. Even though they know how to behave properly, there are occasions when behaviour is not as good as it could be, such as being inattentive or fidgeting during assembly, or not fully participating when singing communally.  Relationships between staff and pupils, and among pupils themselves, are excellent. As the pupils move through each year group, there is an atmosphere of mutual respect and they told inspectors that they feel well supported in all aspects of school life.  Pupils are taught about different forms of bullying and are adamant that poor behaviour or bullying rarely

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Behaviour

happens. If it does occur, they say that it is dealt with swiftly and effectively by adults. Pupils behave well during breaks and lunchtimes and when moving around the school.  Attendance in school is above the national average and pupils are punctual to lessons and other activities.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Pupils make good progress from their different starting points and achieve well throughout the school.  Pupils’ achievement has improved since the previous inspection. Their attainment at the end of both key stages 1 and 2 was above average in 2015. Pupils’ achievement in writing has improved significantly over a three-year period.  Inspection evidence indicates that pupils enter the school with skills and knowledge typical for their age in most areas of learning. They get off to a good start in the early years and a higher proportion than the national average leave Reception with a good level of development.  Pupils in Year 1 achieve well in the phonics (the sounds that letters make) screening test at the end of the year. Achievement is above the national average. Additional support is in place in Year 2 for the very few pupils who do not meet the expected standard in Year 1.  By the end of key stage 1, pupils attain standards that are in line with the national average in reading and

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Outcomes for pupils are good

mathematics, and above the national average in writing. Standards attained by Year 6 pupils in the 2015 national tests were above the national average in writing and mathematics and in line for reading. Lesson observations and a detailed scrutiny of pupils’ books indicate that the attainment of current pupils, particularly across key stage 2, is above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics.  Progress for pupils who have special educational needs or disability is good. They receive effective support which enables them to keep up and, for some, to catch up with their peers, because their needs are identified and supported at an early stage.  Overall, disadvantaged pupils achieved well compared with their peers in 2015. Current school information shows that they are again making good progress. However, there are some gaps in the attainment of disadvantaged pupils compared with that of others, particularly in Year 2 and Year 3.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

Leaders are aware of this and show the capacity to tackle this variation across year groups for this group of pupils. 7 of 10  The most-able pupils make good progress from their starting points, attaining standards that are well above national averages by the time they leave the school. They are targeted for extra support in focus groups and are also provided with extended investigative or exploratory work during lessons.

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Early years provision is good

 Children’s starting points when they enter the school are generally typical for their age in most areas of learning. Strong leadership of the early years has been promoted from within the school in recent years, and this has ensured that the higher than average proportion of children attaining the expected good level of development at the end of the Reception Year has been sustained. Consequently children are well prepared for learning in Year 1.  The leader of the early years has an accurate view of the strengths and areas for development and so the right actions to bring about improvement are continually implemented, ensuring that improvement continues. Children learn in stimulating indoor and outdoor areas. These include role-play areas and good opportunities and equipment to foster curiosity, for example in seeking out and finding out about minibeasts. Children develop personal, social and emotional skills particularly well so that they become

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Early years provision is good

confident learners. Children are happy, work well together and enjoy playing alongside each other.  Teaching is good. A wide range of activities are available, both indoors and outdoors, to develop and encourage writing skills. For example, activities are provided to develop hand control through cutting or using tongs to pick up objects.  Children in the Reception Year recognise individual letters and the sounds they make. They apply their knowledge effectively to sound out short words or to read short phrases. They are also encouraged to spell their own generated words and they are challenged to attempt unfamiliar words. They can identify missing numbers on a number line, count accurately up to 20 and say what comes next after a given number up to 10.  Parents are very positive about what is provided in the early years and state that it is one of the reasons why they chose the school. They are rightly of the view that their children are safe and well cared for at

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Early years provision is good

school. The same rigorous safeguarding procedures across the rest of the school are in operation in the early years setting.  Senior leaders have recognised the need to encourage parents to engage with their children’s learning so as to further enhance opportunities to broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of the world. However, this has been more successful for some parents than others. The range of opportunity to gather information about what children achieve outside school is not sufficiently effective. 8 of 10

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School details

Unique reference number 106768 Local authority Doncaster Inspection number 10002160

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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 Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 252 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair David Milnes Headteacher/Principal/Teacher in charge Alison Navas Telephone number 01302 884465 Website http://canon-popham.vox-cms.com Email address admin@cononpopham.doncaster.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 17 December 2013

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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized primary school.  Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.  Pupils are taught in mixed-age classes from Years 1 to 6. Pupils in Reception are taught as one year group and attend full time. Two different groups of children attend the Nursery for morning or afternoon sessions.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability or have an educational health care plan is in line with the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by pupil premium funding is below average. The pupil premium is additional government funding to support those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection there have been a number of appointments, including new leaders. The governing body has been restructured and a new chair of the governing body has been appointed. 9 of 10

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed teaching and learning in a range of lessons in all year groups, as well as the teaching of small groups of pupils. Three lesson observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher. The deputy headteacher took part in a learning walk and a scrutiny of pupils’ books.  Inspectors listened to pupils read and held discussions with pupils from across the school in lessons and in meetings as well as informally around the school. Pupils’ work in books was scrutinised in class and separately by inspectors with the deputy headteacher.  Inspectors considered 64 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as responses to the inspection questionnaire completed by 11 members of staff and the views of 11 other members of staff who met with a visiting Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI). Inspectors also met with some parents at the beginning of the school day.  A meeting was held with four governors, including the chair of the governing body. Meetings were held

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Information about this inspection

with school leaders responsible for the curriculum, pastoral care, English, mathematics, science, early years provision and provision for pupils who have special educational needs or disability.  Meetings were held with a commissioned representative of the local authority and a consultant commissioned through the diocese who have both been supporting the school.  Inspectors took notes of displays around the school and the work in outdoor areas.  Inspectors examined a range of documents including the school’s reviews of its own performance, checks on the quality of teaching, development plans, safeguarding documentation, information about pupils’ progress and various records of pupils’ attendance and behaviour.  The inspection evidence and findings were validated through a quality assurance visit from the HMI on the second day of the inspection.

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Inspection team

Desmond Dunne, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Lynda Florence Ofsted Inspector Nicola Shipman 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

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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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