Trinity Church of England Primary School

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

p.1

Mr Scott Dainty Headteacher Trinity Church of England Primary School Main Street Aldwincle Kettering Northamptonshire NN14 3EL

p.1

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 27 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 May 2012.

p.1

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are a clear sighted and highly effective leader. Since your recent appointment, you have guided the school through its expansion to a primary school while setting high expectations for pupils’ achievements. As a result, standards at your school have risen considerably over the last year. You have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your school and act with urgency to bring about necessary improvements.

p.1

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

You are well supported by other leaders, particularly the effective assistant headteacher who leads colleagues by example with strong classroom practice. Your subject leaders are relatively new to their roles; however, they demonstrate a secure understanding of the strengths and areas for development in their subjects. Their plans for improvement are based firmly in careful analysis of the assessment information you collect. The training and support they provide to other colleagues has improved the quality of teaching and learning. This is a significant improvement on a key issue identified at the previous inspection.

p.1

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

You have created an excitement for learning in your pupils. Pupils spoken with during the inspection were keen and enthusiastic to learn; they spoke of the increased challenge in their work. Pupils demonstrate good attitudes to learning and this can be seen in the well-presented work in their books. You provide pupils with a wide variety of opportunities, including musical and sporting activities after school. Pupils appreciate these opportunities and after-school clubs are well attended. The vast majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s free text service or to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, are highly supportive of the school. As one parent said, ‘Pastoral care and well-being are taken very seriously and the school provides a caring and supportive environment.’

p.1

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

Previously, children leaving the early years were not well prepared for the challenges of Year 1. Outcomes in reading and writing in particular were well below those of other children nationally. In the last two years, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development was also below the national average. You have tackled this with urgency and purpose. You have successfully raised the expectations of your early years teachers and improved the quality of learning in reading and writing. A significant change in the systems for teaching phonics is raising attainment effectively. These changes are responsible for the improvements in reading and writing in the early years and key stage 1. Assessment information for 2016 shows that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development is well above the national average for 2015.

p.2

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils at your school is small. It is clear that you track the achievement of these pupils carefully. You target the extra funding appropriately to meet their needs. The most able disadvantaged pupils in your school do very well. School assessment information shows that those who are able achieve the higher standard alongside their peers in mathematics, reading and writing. Across your school, disadvantaged pupils of all abilities make good progress from their starting points. Current published data suggests that disadvantaged pupils’ absence is higher than other pupils nationally. However, current school data shows that disadvantaged pupils’ attendance is at least in line with other pupils nationally.

p.2

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

Pupils at Trinity enjoy reading immensely. During the inspection, I had the pleasure of listening to a small group of pupils read their books. Their books were suitably challenging and pupils were able to explain their strategies for understanding their texts clearly. I also spoke with other pupils about their reading habits and preferences. Your pupils have strong views about their favourite authors and the different genre of books they enjoy. It is clear that reading for pleasure, as well as for learning, is encouraged at your school. Pupils of all abilities achieve well in reading, including the most able pupils.

p.2

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

The governing body has recently reviewed its structures to become more efficient and to use the skills individual governors have to serve the needs of the school. Governors have a sound understanding of the achievement of pupils, including that of disadvantaged pupils. Currently, the governing body is improving its systems for checking wider aspects of the school’s work, including linking its monitoring activities with the school development plan. This is not well established and governors acknowledge that this needs improvement to provide more effective challenge to school leaders. Safeguarding is effective.

p.2

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

Your systems for keeping pupils safe are effective, but more than that, it is clear you put the individual safeguarding needs of your pupils above all other considerations. You strive to find solutions for those pupils with challenging needs and work well with parents and outside agencies to keep pupils in school and learning. You ensure that your staff are trained to be vigilant and to recognise signs of concern with regard to child protection. Your systems for identifying which concerns need immediate action are robust and ensure no time is wasted in protecting children from harm, including pupils missing from education in your school. You ensure wider training for safeguarding is undertaken by all staff. You are aware that you need to ensure your pupils gain a wider understanding of the diversity of life in modern Britain. You have appropriate plans in place to address this, such as visits to a variety of places of worship. You understand the risks

p.3

Short inspection of Trinity Church of England Primary School

associated with preventing extremism and radicalisation within your geographical area and are active in planning to tackle this. Systems for keeping paperwork secure are appropriate.

p.3

Inspection findings

 Care and consideration are the hallmarks of your school ethos. Pupils enjoy coming to school and feel confident they are safe. Pupils say adults will listen to them and take their concerns seriously.  School leaders have acted with urgency to halt a decline in outcomes from previous years and improve the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers know their pupils well and plan learning that meets the needs of different groups of pupils accurately. The headteacher and subject leaders ensure that continuous training keeps teachers and teaching assistants up to date with what they need to do to raise attainment in this school.  The school does not currently have key stage 2 statutory test outcomes because the school did not previously have Year 6 pupils. At the time of the inspection, there was no national data published for the 2016 key stage 1 tests. However, the school’s own data shows that pupils achieve well at the

p.3

Inspection findings

expected and higher standard in mathematics, reading and writing and their progress across the key stage is good. In 2016, outcomes for the Year 1 phonics screening test have improved and are now above the 2015 national average. Every pupil in Year 2 last year has now achieved the expected standard.  Current school assessment information shows that pupils across the school make good progress in learning in mathematics, reading and writing. The school’s assessment information for those pupils who are most able demonstrates that they are working at greater depth in all subjects. School leaders are aware that pupils’ learning in spelling needs further development. Work in pupils’ books confirms this to be the case. Pupils do not have a sound understanding of spelling patterns.  Pupils’ learning in the wider curriculum is also sound. Work in pupils’ books and school assessment information shows pupils working within age-related

p.3

Inspection findings

expectations in subjects such as science and history, for example.  School leaders have managed the school expansion well. The learning environment is well presented and celebrates the pupils’ achievements.  The local authority has ensured that school leaders have been well supported with the changes to the building and expansion into a full primary school. The local authority was also quick to identify concerns relating to the beginnings of declining outcomes for pupils. It provided support to the new headteacher to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This has resulted in the positive outcomes seen on this inspection.

p.4

Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

p.4

Next steps for the school

 governing body systems for evaluating the effectiveness of leaders’ work are closely linked to the proposed actions in the school development plan  pupils develop skills in spelling that are age appropriate and accurate.

p.4

Next steps for the school

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

p.4

Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, the assistant headteacher, the early years leader and the subject leaders for English and mathematics. I spoke with the chair, the vice-chair and two other members of the governing body. I also held a telephone conversation with a local authority representative. I toured the school visiting all the classrooms to observe teaching, to speak with pupils and to look at the work in their books. I observed pupils’ behaviour both in class and around the school. I heard a group of most-able and less-able readers. I considered a range of school documentation including assessment information, the school’s improvement plan and self-evaluation documents. I took into account the 22 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and the 12 free text responses from parents. I took into account the six staff and 29 pupil responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaires. I checked the single central record of recruitment checks and other

p.4

Information about the inspection

documentation relating to safeguarding. The school has addressed the issues from the previous inspection. The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  During this inspection I considered whether:  early years leaders ensure that all children, including the disadvantaged, make accelerated progress so that they catch up with their peers nationally, particularly in reading and writing  given the starting points, enough pupils achieve the higher standards in phonics and mathematics, reading and writing at key stage 1  the school challenges the most able well enough at any key stage

p.4