Long Melford Church of England Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ms Jan Tringham Long Melford Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Cordell Road Long Melford Sudbury Suffolk CO10 9ED

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Following my visit with Christine Redpath, Ofsted Inspector, to your school on 25 to 26 May 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions that have been taken since the school's previous monitoring inspection.

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

The inspection was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection that took place in June 2015. The full list of the areas for improvement that were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached.

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time:

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

The school’s improvement plan is fit for purpose.

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England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection. I am copying this letter to the chair of the executive board, the director of education for the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Suffolk. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Improve leadership and management at all levels, including governance of the school, by: – ensuring that leaders have an accurate picture of the school’s strengths and areas for development – making use of information from assessments to check regularly on the progress of pupils – ensuring that the plans for improvement are more tightly focused on the key issues that need to be addressed – developing the role of middle leaders so that they play a key part in the improvement of the school – ensuring that governors challenge the leadership of the school from an independent view of the school’s performance and are not overly reliant on the headteacher.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Improve pupils’ achievement and behaviour by improving the quality of teaching across the school so that it is at least good by: – ensuring that the mathematics curriculum is well planned and taught effectively throughout the school – raising teachers’ expectations of what pupils, particularly those that are disadvantaged and the most able, can achieve in lessons – ensuring that pupils take greater pride in their work – giving pupils better guidance in lessons and in their books as to how they can improve their work.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised documents and pupils’ books. Inspectors met with the interim headteacher, the associate headteacher, a group of pupils, some parents before school, the chair and vice-chair of the interim executive board, a representative from the local authority and subject leaders. The lead inspector scrutinised the school’s record of recruitment checks on staff and safeguarding procedures and records.

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Context

Since the last inspection, three members of staff have left the school and been replaced by temporary teachers. A new temporary leader for special educational needs has been appointed. The school is due to convert to academy status on 1 September 2016. One member of staff was absent during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Leaders have an accurate picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the school, although their recording of their self-evaluation lacks detail. Plans for improvement are clearly linked to the areas identified for improvement by the previous inspection. The school’s plan and local authority statement of action have been more closely aligned and this is driving the school’s improvements forward. Actions taken to improve the quality of teaching are having a positive impact but teaching remains variable and staffing changes mean that some key messages need to be revisited more frequently. Leaders continue to check the quality of teaching in a variety of ways but feedback provided does not always make sufficiently clear the most important things that teachers need to do to improve. Leaders have further developed assessment systems and provided training so that they are better understood by teachers. They now have a clear system in place to

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

enable them to track the progress of pupils accurately over time, which was lacking previously. However, leaders have not ensured that while systems are being established they continue to have robust evidence, based on pupils’ work, of the progress that they are making. The role of middle leaders for English and mathematics is developing well and these leaders are taking greater responsibility for checking and improving the quality of teaching and pupil achievement. They have drawn on support from the local authority in taking steps to secure improvements which are beginning to have positive impact. For example, they have established medium-term plans which are ensuring a more consistent approach to teaching these subjects and provided helpful resources to support teaching. They have established better assessment processes and made clear their expectations for all pupils and for teachers. They have clear plans in place for further improvements.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Leadership of special educational needs is also developing well and the new leader is implementing plans to build on the good practice evident in some classes and to further develop provision for these pupils. She has audited staff skills and now plans to enhance the skills of teaching assistants through support and training. She is also providing training to increase teachers’ understanding of how to meet pupils’ needs within lessons more effectively. The interim executive board (IEB) visits the school regularly. It has supported the interim headteacher by extending the contract for the associate headteacher so that there is greater leadership capacity within the school in the absence of a deputy headteacher. It meets with subject leaders and checks the progress of the school’s plans for improvement. It has recently successfully appointed a substantive headteacher who takes up her post in September 2016. However, the board does

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

not ask for sufficient detail about the progress of pupils to enable it to thoroughly check that progress is improving as rapidly as it needs to. The board recognised that pupil premium funding provided to support disadvantaged pupils was not targeted sufficiently for those pupils for whom it is provided. It commissioned a second review of funding for disadvantaged pupils and tasked the associate headteacher with drawing up an action plan for improving the use of this funding. These plans are now in place and clearly identify how pupil premium funding will be spent and how spending will be evaluated during the current financial year. Parents spoken to during the inspection are predominantly supportive of the school. They recognise that improvements have taken place, commenting for example on improvements in the school environment and with homework. Some are understandably unsettled by changes in staff that have taken place and the further

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

changes for September, although a number of parents spoken to during the inspection recognise the reasons for changes. A date is now set for the school to join the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich diocese academy trust on 1 September 2016, after some delay from the intended date of 1 April 2016.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality of teaching is variable. Training and support from within the school, from local schools and from the local authority have helped some teachers to improve their practice, but teachers do not have consistently high expectations of what pupils can and should achieve in lessons. Despite steps taken to improve teachers’ understanding of assessment, some teachers do not identify clearly enough what pupils, particularly the most able, already know and understand and so do not plan lessons which move their learning on swiftly enough. Some lessons are engaging and capture pupils’ enthusiasm, such as in Year 1 where pupils were enthusiastically writing stories about ‘biscuit characters’, but sometimes lessons are uninspiring and pupils lose interest and do not concentrate. Pupils generally behave well in lessons and say that they want to learn, but where lessons are not well matched to pupils’ needs, attitudes to learning are not as strong as

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

they should be. Teachers are not consistent in their application of the school’s feedback policy. Examples of teachers’ comments helping pupils to improve their work were seen during the inspection, but in some books, there were very few comments to help pupils know what they had done well and what they needed to do next to improve further. Some feedback, for example corrections of spellings by teachers, has little impact on pupils’ subsequent writing and spelling. Additional adults sometimes provide good support for individuals and small groups. They ask appropriate questions and help pupils to understand concepts. This was seen, for example, in Year 4 where a teaching assistant probed a pupil’s understanding of terms such as curved and diagonal. However, in some cases pupils, particularly those who have special educational needs or disability, rely too heavily on this support and so are reluctant to work independently, instead waiting

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

until the adult prompts them. Insufficient opportunities are given in some classes for pupils who have special educational needs or disability to work with the class teacher and to work independently.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils are polite and courteous; they conduct themselves well around the school. They generally play sensibly together and are sociable. However, in the Nursery, some children are not being helped to develop their social skills.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Here, adults do not always spot and respond quickly when children misbehave and some pupils establish patterns of behaviour which are difficult to unlearn when they move into Reception. In lessons, pupils are often keen to learn. However, when time is not well used, for example when introductions are overly lengthy, some pupils lose interest and do not concentrate. In lessons where pupils are not challenged sufficiently, pupils also become distracted, chatting among themselves rather than working productively.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils say that they feel safe in school and enjoy school. They told inspectors that there are incidents at playtimes but these are dealt with by staff and bullying is rare. Attendance is above average, reflecting pupils’ enjoyment at school and the successful work done by leaders to remind parents of the importance of regular attendance by pupils.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Steps taken by leaders to ensure that pupils take greater care with their work have had a positive impact. Pupils in Year 4, for example, are keen to earn their ‘pen licence’ when their handwriting is at a suitable standard. Teachers remind pupils of the presentation standard that they expect and leaders check books to ensure that presentation does not slip. As a result, pupils’ work is generally neat and tidy and most pupils demonstrate pride in the work that they produce.

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Outcomes for pupils

Leaders have continued to provide support and training for teachers to improve their practice which has led to some improvements in the quality of teaching. However, pupils’ work indicates that pupil achievement remains variable because of inconsistencies in the quality of teaching. In some year groups, progress in reading, writing and mathematics is improving, such as in Years 1, 2 and 6, but this is not consistently the case. Consequently, levels of attainment across the school remain below those expected nationally.

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Outcomes for pupils

The progress of the most able pupils in some classes is too slow because work is often not sufficiently challenging for these pupils. They are given work which they can easily complete, or which does not require them to think deeply. Pupils spoken to during the inspection said that sometimes work was too easy; some pupils had written in their mathematics books on a number of occasions that their tasks were too simple, but this had not been addressed by teachers. There are examples of good practice, such as in Year 6 where the most able pupils were drawing on their knowledge of perimeter, volume, area and calculations within the context of planning an activity area. Tasks such as these require pupils to apply their knowledge and draw on their prior learning and so they make better progress.

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Outcomes for pupils

Opportunities for pupils to develop their skills in other subjects are limited. For example, pupils across the school have too few opportunities to carry out scientific investigations and to develop their understanding of scientific concepts. Some examples of quality work in foundation subjects are evident, such as in Year 6 where pupils produced quality work around a World War Two theme. Pupils were given choices about how to present their information to convey their message, resulting in creative and interesting outcomes. However, this is inconsistent and in some classes and some subjects, such as geography, there is little work produced and pupils are not helped to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in a structured way. As a result, achievement is not high enough.

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Outcomes for pupils

Disadvantaged pupils make progress that is similar to others in the school. However, because funding provided for these pupils has not previously been well targeted, they are not all making the progress that they are capable of.

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External support

The school has received a thorough range of support from the local authority. Advisers have worked with leaders to provide training and support around areas such as assessment, mathematics and curriculum development. Subject leaders for English and mathematics have been supported in developing their leadership skills and have benefited from advice in developing their curriculum areas. This has been instrumental in helping the school to move forward.

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