The Newton Community Primary School

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

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Mrs Alana Brown Headteacher The Newton Community Primary School Caxton End Eltisley St Neots Cambridgeshire PE19 6TL

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 15 September 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 November 2011.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Although the school remains good, it is clear that it has improved since the last inspection. You are deeply committed to creating the very best educational experience for every pupil in your care and you are making good progress towards achieving this aim. You have created a hard-working, happy school that is clearly on a firm upward trajectory.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

You and the deputy headteacher work well together. You have different skills and personalities and these complement each other well. You share the same drive to continually move the school forward. Leadership is developing more widely within the school and this is having an impact on raising standards and improving the quality of teaching.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

Pupils behave very well because expectations are high and the rules are clear. Pupils are polite and friendly, good mannered and welcoming. There is an atmosphere of mutual respect in the school and adults model clearly how pupils should behave in their interactions with each other.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

Pupils love their school and have very positive attitudes to learning. You have developed a very rich and stimulating curriculum that is a real strength of the school. An example of this is the racing car project in which pupils worked with engineers over a six-month period to design and build a racing car. This culminated in every pupil in the group being given the opportunity to race the car on the track at Goodwood. Pupils told me, ‘we go to interesting places’, and they talked about a range of interesting visits they have been on, such as to Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. Pupils told me about a forthcoming visit to Duxford Air Museum and it was notable that they linked this very explicitly to their learning about the second world war.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

You and the deputy headteacher have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. The school’s single central record of employment checks is well maintained and meets statutory requirements. As the designated safeguarding leads, you and the deputy headteacher have been appropriately trained to carry out the role effectively. You have a thorough knowledge and understanding of child protection procedures and you are deeply committed to protecting the pupils in your care. You keep up to date with statutory guidance and have updated the school’s safeguarding policy to reflect recent changes to the statutory guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’.

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Short inspection of The Newton Community Primary School

Pupils feel very safe at school. They have enormous confidence in staff and know that they will be listened to if they are concerned about anything, whether in school or out. One pupil spoke for many when she said, ‘you can always go to them if you’re upset.’ Pupils said that staff ‘really listen to you’ and are ‘kind and helpful’. This open and supportive culture provides a very safe place for pupils to be. Every parent who responded to Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire) said that they feel that their child is safe and happy at school.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils achieve well at Newton Community Primary School. Overall attainment at the end of key stage 1 was well above the national average for the five years to 2015. Overall attainment was also above the national average at the end of key stage 2 during the same period, and well above the national average in 2015. Pupils’ progress was similar to the national average in 2014 and 2015.  The proportion of Year 6 pupils who reached the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics combined in 2016 was above the national average. A particularly high proportion achieved the expected level in mathematics and almost half of pupils reached the higher standard in reading.  The progress that pupils made between the end of key stage 1 and the end of key stage 2 was above average in reading this year, continuing the trend of above-average rates of progress in the subject. Progress in mathematics was also above average this year, demonstrating a continued improvement over the

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Inspection findings

last three years.  The progress that pupils made in writing was well below average, having been broadly average over the preceding three years. During this inspection I looked at the progress that pupils are making in writing. Together with the deputy headteacher, we looked closely at the work in pupils’ exercise books. As you had retained pupils’ books from the previous academic year, we were able to look at the progress that they had made over an extended period of time. We agreed that pupils’ work showed clearly that pupils make strong progress but that too few make rapid, substantial progress.  You and the school’s literacy leader are fully aware that progress in writing is weaker than in other subjects. You have already taken action to start to address this issue. For example, you have introduced a new commercial programme for teaching writing and you have found that this has proved to be a useful

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Inspection findings

resource. However, you have also found that the very full teaching programme has allowed too little time for pupils to write at length and develop their writing style and stamina.  This academic year, the school’s governors have funded an additional teacher so that pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 can be taught in separate classes for English and mathematics. The main aim of this investment is to improve pupils’ progress in writing. It is far too early in the academic year to see whether this approach is having the desired effect.  Scrutiny of pupils’ exercise books also showed us that there is variation in the quality of pupils’ presentation of their work in different classes across the school. In some classes pupils present their work with great care, forming their letters correctly and ensuring that their work is neat and tidy. In other classes pupils’ work is less carefully presented and the quality of handwriting is weaker. Where

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Inspection findings

pupils present their work more carefully and handwriting is better developed (as appropriate to their age), it is notable that teachers model the school’s handwriting style for pupils when marking their work or writing on the board, and that the development of an efficient handwriting style is given a high priority.  Teachers spend a great deal of time and effort providing written feedback for pupils on the work in their exercise books. You have focused on improving the quality of marking and the results of this are clear. When we looked at pupils’ work together we saw that, in some instances, pupils were told explicitly what needed to be done next to improve their work and that their teachers’ words had a direct influence on improving pupils’ subsequent work. In other examples the impact of teachers’ efforts was less clear.  The proportion of pupils who reached the higher levels at the end of key stage 1

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Inspection findings

and went on to achieve the higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined at the end of key stage 2 this year was low. Inspection evidence, such as the work in pupils’ books, shows clearly that the most able pupils do make good progress and that the issue is to do with writing generally rather than this group of pupils specifically.  In 2016, almost half of the Year 6 cohort of pupils reached the higher standard in reading, approximately a third did so in mathematics, and a third in grammar, punctuation and spelling. This reflects the good provision that is in place to meet the needs of the most able pupils. The school’s rich and exciting curriculum provides a wealth of interesting opportunities that spark the interest of this group of learners. Teachers provide suitable tasks to ensure that the most able pupils are given an appropriate level of challenge. For example, in a Year 2 phonics

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Inspection findings

session we observed, an extended sentence was dictated for the most able pupils to remember and write, applying their newly gained phonics knowledge.  The quality of phonics teaching is good and pupils are making good progress. During the inspection, I observed a lively, multi-sensory phonics session in which pupils were highly engaged, well motivated and making good progress. Pupils were given plentiful opportunities to blend sounds together to read words and to separate them into their individual sounds in order to spell.  You took effective action in response to the falling trend in the Year 1 phonics screening check, and in 2016, results were above the national average. The literacy leader monitors pupils’ progress very closely and effective action is put in place where pupils are at risk of falling behind. Although phonics teaching has improved, you are not complacent and you know that there is still work to do.

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Inspection findings

For example, during the inspection, we observed teachers using sounds incorrectly when spelling words and not enunciating sounds clearly. You are in the process of arranging training for all staff to improve the quality of teaching further.  Pupils attend school regularly and on time. You greet the pupils and their parents at the school gate each day and you have found that this encourages a prompt start. You monitor pupils’ attendance regularly and thoroughly and take effective action when absence starts to rise. There are clear reasons behind the previous lower attendance of some past pupils and there are currently no groups of pupils whose attendance is low.  Governors know the school well and have a clear understanding of its strengths and areas for future development. They sensibly take into account information about the quality of the school from external sources such as the local authority and the school’s improvement partner. Governors are very willing and committed

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Inspection findings

to the school. It is clear that they are increasingly able to ask the right questions in order to hold the leadership team to account.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  the quality of teaching in writing continues to improve so that a greater proportion of pupils make more rapid progress, by ensuring that:  pupils have more frequent opportunities to write at length  feedback is sharply focused so that pupils know how to improve their work  pupils present their work carefully and develop a neat, efficient handwriting style.  phonics teaching continues to improve so that recent improvements in attainment are consolidated and built on. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Cambridgeshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you, the deputy headteacher, the leader with responsibility for English, and a group of governors. I met with a group of key stage 2 pupils and spoke to other pupils during the day. We observed teaching and learning together in three of the classes. We looked at a range of pupils’ exercise books, together with the deputy headteacher, and I looked at other examples of pupils’ work in their classrooms. I took into account the views of the 44 parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, as well as the eight responses to the staff survey and 82 responses to the pupil survey. I checked the school’s single central record of recruitment checks and I looked at a range of other documents.

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Information about the inspection

I focused on the following key lines of enquiry during this inspection:  How well do the most able pupils do?  Do pupils make good progress in writing?  What is the quality of phonics teaching and do pupils make good progress in learning phonics?  What has the school done to improve the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are eligible for free school meals?  How effective and up to date is the school’s approach to safeguarding children?

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