Kingfield Primary School

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

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Fiona Nicholson Headteacher Kingfield Primary School Kingfield Road Woking Surrey GU22 9EQ

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 15 June 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 February 2012.

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders are determined, capable and effective as a direct result of your decisive and insightful leadership. You have ensured that the school is a place where pupils’ good outcomes go hand-in-hand with their excellent personal development. As a result, pupils feel part of one community which is underpinned by very strong values. They are fully signed up to the school’s motto, ‘Be the best you can be’. Pupils are friendly, polite, respectful to each other and hugely proud of their school. They learn and achieve well because of the hard work and dedication of all the staff. Pupils’ behaviour is very good and sometimes impeccable. Governors work effectively to make sure that the strong ethos of the school is maintained and leads to continual improvement in pupils’ progress. The overwhelming majority of parents are

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

A critical factor in pupils’ good achievement is the way in which teachers and teaching assistants know individual pupils well. Staff put great effort into understanding what support and challenge pupils require to make progress. This means that teachers plan lessons that meet pupils’ needs effectively and that staff make sure pupils have the help they need to be happy and ready to learn at school. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils, for example, generally make as much progress and sometimes more than other pupils in the school and other pupils nationally. Equally, those pupils who are young carers get impressive support to help them manage their responsibilities and learn well. Leaders know the school well and make accurate judgements about its effectiveness. Based on these, leaders take the right actions to secure any necessary improvements. This is typified by the way leaders responded to the need to improve science and

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

mathematics that was identified at the time of the last inspection. The teaching of these subjects has improved, as has pupils’ achievement, because the curriculum for these subjects has been revised and made more comprehensive and exciting for pupils. Leaders’ careful monitoring of teaching, learning and assessment ensures that improvements are timely.

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

You are ambitious for further improvement and know that more needs to be done for the school to become outstanding. You rightly judge that levels of challenge in lessons need to rise even further if pupils are to make really rapid progress. For example, you recognise that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, while making good progress overall, could make more progress in their writing during key stage 2. You also know that the most able pupils, who generally enjoy school and love a challenge, could achieve even more highly in reading and mathematics. You and other leaders are already taking effective action to improve pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar as you have rightly identified this as a priority. Pupils’ progress in mathematics is good overall but is often not as strong as in reading and writing. While leaders’ monitoring links the impact of teaching and assessment on

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

pupils’ learning, this is not yet specifically focused on securing outstanding outcomes for pupils.

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

Although the majority of pupils’ attendance is high, you, other leaders and the home– school link worker have worked tirelessly to support a minority of pupils whose levels of absence have been too high in the past. These pupils now come to school much more regularly. This work is not finished, however, as these pupils’ attendance needs to rise further. You are taking the right actions to achieve this.

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

You rightly place the highest priority on keeping pupils safe and this defines the culture in the school of putting pupils’ safety first. Pupils, staff and parents recognise and value this. Leaders act swiftly and successfully to address any safeguarding issues that arise. Policies and processes are tight. Governors regularly check the effectiveness of the school’s work to keep pupils safe.

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Short inspection of Kingfield Primary School

Leaders ensure that staff are well trained and knowledgeable so that they can spot and deal with any problems quickly, liaising well with any external agencies when necessary. Staff provide good-quality guidance for pupils in lessons and assemblies. Pupils are supervised well at breaktimes and lunchtimes and you make sure the school site is checked very regularly so that any safety issues are resolved without delay. You also provide parents with useful information, for example through a recent workshop to help parents keep their children safe on the internet. All staff and governors have had training about keeping pupils safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation; you have also implemented a specific set of actions to ensure that this aspect of safeguarding is woven through the school’s strong work to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

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Inspection findings

 You set high expectations for staff and pupils alike. You make sure that all leaders support you well in checking that these expectations are put into practice. Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s effectiveness and have identified the key aspects of its work that need to improve for it to be judged outstanding. For example, you and other leaders are already rightly taking action to improve pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders, including subject leaders, have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Consequently, teaching, learning and assessment in mathematics and science, for example, have improved. Leaders work very well together as a team to check the quality of teaching and assessment and their impact on pupils’ learning. These checks are not yet focused sharply enough on ensuring that pupils make outstanding progress.

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Inspection findings

 Governors are well trained and have a good range of appropriate skills and experience. They challenge and support leaders effectively and make sure that pupils make good progress, keeping a close eye on the achievement of different groups of pupils, for example disadvantaged pupils. Governors make sure that arrangements for keeping pupils safe are effective.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils’ personal development is a key strength of the school. Their strong social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding is developed through a range of opportunities both in and out of lessons, which they enjoy hugely. This is typified by the way the school’s values are woven throughout the school day. For example, the value of the month at the time of the inspection was cooperation. Pupils demonstrated this value in the way they worked together in lessons and played harmoniously with each other at breaktime. The school’s two pupil councils make a valuable contribution to the school’s work. The school has recently been identified as a regional finalist for the Department for Education’s Character Award.

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Inspection findings

 As a result, there is a striking sense of community in the school which encompasses staff, parents and pupils. Pupils are friendly, happy and very respectful of each other and adults. Parents value the regular communication from the school and the range of ways in which staff support their children’s learning.

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Inspection findings

 Teachers and teaching assistants are passionate about helping all pupils to succeed. They work hard to challenge pupils well and give them valuable advice about how to improve, based on their comprehensive knowledge about individual pupils’ needs.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils make good progress overall. Rates of progress and the standards pupils reach are above average in reading, writing and phonics. While pupils’ outcomes in mathematics are solidly good, they are generally not as strong as in reading and writing.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress as a result of determined efforts by staff and leaders. These pupils now, by and large, achieve at least as well as other pupils in the school. Their rates of progress are mostly similar to and sometimes better than other pupils nationally. Although some small gaps in their achievement remain, leaders have identified these and are taking the right steps to close them.

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Inspection findings

 The most able pupils enjoy being challenged by hard work. While they make good progress overall, they are not always stretched enough in mathematics and reading to enable them to make really rapid progress. Leaders do not track these pupils’ achievement closely enough in order to spot when they could make even more progress.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive effective support to succeed. Although their progress in writing is good, it is sometimes slower than in other subjects because they could be challenged more highly.

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Inspection findings

 Parents, staff and pupils rightly agree that pupils’ behaviour is very good and sometimes excellent. Pupils are proud of their school. They like helping each other and seek to achieve their best. 

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Inspection findings

 The majority of pupils attend school very regularly so the overall rate of absence is below the national average. In the past, a relatively small number of pupils have struggled to come to school regularly enough. Leaders, supported incredibly well by the home–school link worker, have worked with determination and success to improve this. While these pupils’ attendance has improved markedly, it often remains below that of the majority of pupils. 

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Inspection findings

 Provision in the early years is very effective. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception Year is above average and rising. Gaps between outcomes for disadvantaged children and others are closing well.

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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

 the attendance of the small proportion of pupils who attend less regularly than the vast majority improves further

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Next steps for the school

 levels of challenge in lessons rise so that pupils make outstanding progress

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Next steps for the school

 leaders’ monitoring of teaching and assessment is sharpened further to focus on pupils making rapid and sustained progress. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, other leaders, teachers, pupils, the chair and vice chair of the governing body and a representative of Babcock 4S (the organisation contracted by the local authority to provide school improvement services). We visited sections of seven lessons and I scrutinised a wide range of pupils’ work. I observed an assembly and visited the breakfast club. I took account of 25 responses to the staff survey and 13 responses to the pupil survey. I also analysed 27 responses by parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, alongside 102 responses to the school’s own questionnaire for parents. I observed pupils’ behaviour at break time and around the school. I spoke to a number of parents at the beginning of the school day. I analysed a range of the school’s documentation, including information about pupils’ achievement, records of leaders’ checks on the quality of teaching, the school improvement plan and safeguarding checks, policies and procedures. We discussed

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Information about the inspection

your own evaluation of the school’s effectiveness.

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