Ingleton 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 Dawn Barry and Mrs Joanna Colledge Co-headteachers Ingleton Primary School Low Demesne Ingleton Carnforth Lancashire LA6 3DY

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 11 May 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 December 2010.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. This is because you have created a culture of high expectations and equality of opportunity where pupils enjoy learning and all members of the school community feel valued and their views respected. You monitor the quality of teaching and the progress of all pupils carefully. As a result your pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, continue to make good progress and are well prepared for secondary school.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

The school is an attractive, calm and exciting place to learn. Your pupils are very proud of their school. They take pride in their appearance and that of the school. They talk enthusiastically about the ways that you and your staff care for and encourage them. They are supportive of each other and have a well-developed sense of their growing responsibilities for themselves and others. They talk with enthusiasm about their learning and experience of school, and are keen to show and talk about examples of their work.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

Governors are very knowledgeable about the school. They use this detailed knowledge and their clear understanding of what the school needs to do to improve further to hold you determinedly to account. They are very actively engaged with the school and use their close links and carefully structured visits to help them get a very clear view of what needs to be done. Governors seek every opportunity to improve their skills. They are well supported by the local authority in this. They have particularly welcomed the detailed way that you track and report on pupils’ progress. This is because it gives them even keener insights into how well the school is doing and where action needs to be taken to improve further.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

The previous inspection identified the need to challenge your most able pupils more rigorously, giving them and all pupils more opportunities to develop their skills as independent learners. You have addressed this effectively. The school is rich in computers and other devices that help pupils extend and deepen their learning and independence. This, combined with more focused teaching, has resulted in these most able pupils’ outcomes improving. You are clear, however, that there is still work to do here. Your most able disadvantaged pupils, for example, are still not achieving the highest scores in end of key stage 2 assessments.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

All the parents and carers spoken with during the inspection said how much their children enjoy school and felt that they are well supported and taught by your staff. Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and the school’s own surveys of parents’ attitudes to the school show high levels of satisfaction. Parents said that they feel that staff are readily available and that their views, as parents, are carefully sought.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

You and governors attach the highest priority to ensuring that all pupils are safe. You have put robust systems in place that are followed rigorously. Records are detailed and of high quality. Frequent reviews of safeguarding procedures help to ensure that they are very robust and pupils’ safety is assured. Regular training helps staff and governors understand clearly what constitutes risk. This training keeps them up to date with best practice. Pupils report that they feel safe and know what to do if they have any concerns. They report that they can turn, with confidence, to any member of staff and their concern will be dealt with.

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Short inspection of Ingleton Primary School

Pupils work and play well together. They are aware of the needs of others and show consideration to and understanding of each other. You are very active in ensuring that their experience at school, both in and out of the classroom, offers them insights and opportunities to understand cultures and beliefs other than their own. As a result of this, your pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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Inspection findings

 You lead the school well. You are clear about what needs to be done to improve the work of the school further. You are resolute and creative in the way you engage with the school and the community it serves. You set high standards for yourselves and expect others to have similar attitudes. This has had a very positive impact on the school. Staff, pupils and parents share your vision and work hard with you to help the school achieve success for all its pupils.  You monitor the work of the school carefully and rigorously. You have recently introduced a whole-school monitoring system that gives you, your staff and governors keen insights into what aspects of teaching are having the most positive impact on pupils’ learning. It is early days, but there are clear signs, supported by inspection evidence, that it is beginning to work well. Staff are able to use the increasingly detailed information this tracking

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Inspection findings

tool provides about pupils to focus their teaching carefully so that pupils, including your most able and those who are disadvantaged, make even better progress.  Key stage 2 results and the school’s own monitoring have shown that outcomes for pupils in mathematics have not been as consistently good as they should be. You have acted effectively to address this. Often working with other schools, you and the school’s mathematics leader have organised carefully targeted training and effective support for staff. As a result, there has been an increased emphasis on problem solving and using mathematics in ‘real-life’ situations in classrooms. Pupils welcome this. One pupil said that he particularly liked going back over his work to find new and different ways to resolve a particularly knotty mathematics problem.  The school offers a varied diet of learning to its pupils, both in and out of the classroom. There is a wide range of clubs after school. These are well

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Inspection findings

attended and enjoyed. Pupils reported that the gardening club was a particular favourite. In school, pupils have opportunities to play a musical instrument. The school has a string orchestra of over 30 energetic musicians. There are also opportunities to play a wide range of games and sports, often against other schools and using different venues in the area.  The school’s curriculum is broad and balanced. You are increasingly developing and extending the opportunities pupils have to study in depth subjects beyond the ‘core’ of English, mathematics, science and physical education. In a Year 5 art lesson, for example, pupils were designing and painting mosaics. This not only extended their manual dexterity and eye for style and detail: it also gave them opportunities to broaden their knowledge about ancient Rome learned in history lessons.  The school has an agreed approach to marking which is followed by staff. It

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Inspection findings

often involves opportunities for pupils to respond to staff’s written and oral comments. Pupils report that they welcome this and the chances it gives them to improve their work further. Spellings are corrected but it is unclear how this marking helps pupils improve their spelling. However, pupils report that they enjoy the chances they are given to write, particularly at length, and they say they enjoy the whole-school writing projects where everyone in the school is writing at the same time. This sense and awareness of the strength of community is a hallmark of your school.  You work effectively with parents. You seek their views regularly and they support the school vigorously. You have developed clear and detailed communications with home. For example, you have recently introduced online reporting to parents about the learning journeys of their children in the Nursery and Reception Years. This enables parents to log on, see how

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Inspection findings

their children are doing and respond on a very regular basis. Your early years staff report that this communication has made their contact with parents even closer and effective in these vital years.

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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

 pupils’ progress continues to be monitored rigorously so that teaching is even more carefully focused on pupils’ needs  the most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, continue to be rigorously challenged and supported by the school to achieve at the highest levels of attainment.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this short, one-day inspection, I met with you, phase and subject leaders, with a range of staff and with five members of the governing body, including the chair of the governing body. I also spoke with local authority officers. I visited classrooms with you and saw a range of lessons. While in the lessons, where appropriate, I spoke with children and pupils about their work and experience of the school. I also scrutinised a range of pupils’ books and folders. I spoke more formally with a group of Year 4 pupils at lunchtime. I spoke informally with individual and groups of parents, reviewed information on Parent View and your own surveys of parents’ opinions of the school’s work. I scrutinised a range of documents including the school’s most recent evaluations of its performance and other records and logs. I attended an assembly near the end of the school day.

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