Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School

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

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Mrs Briony Robertson Headteacher Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings’ Church of England Primary School Linton Road Collingham Wetherby West Yorkshire LS22 5BS

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England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 29 November 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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England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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England Primary School

Despite what has been a difficult year for the school you have continued to lead the school with strength and vision. The newly formed leadership team has benefited enormously from your empathetic but rigorous approach to leadership. The comment made by a staff member that you are the sort of headteacher who rolls her sleeves up and works alongside everyone else to get a job done is a view shared by all staff. Your belief in the skills of the very newly appointed acting deputy headteacher has enabled her to grow very quickly into the role. The skills and knowledge she demonstrates show that she has already mastered much of what is needed to be a highly effective deputy headteacher and she is already bringing about change.

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England Primary School

You know your school well, and from the outset of the inspection, demonstrated an honest and accurate evaluation of the strengths of the school and areas in need of further work. Members of staff share your vision and aspirations. They list strong teamwork as one of the strengths of the school and feel they all have only one aim, which is to do their best for all the children who attend. Provision and outcomes in the early years remain good and the adaptations you have made to the outdoor area have resulted in a much improved learning area. The sandpit digger and Archimedes screw, which moves water from one container to another, were observed being used with great imagination and cooperation on a building project undertaken by four boys. Their impressive levels of concentration on the task of achieving the right consistency in the sand demonstrated their good levels of engagement and learning. You have been highly successful in providing an

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England Primary School

environment which improves the progress of boys. Last year’s results demonstrate this well. However, you are also aware you need to monitor closely the progress of the smaller number of girls this year as their progress dipped a little last year.

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England Primary School

Since the last inspection, your hard work has succeeded in ensuring that there are sufficient opportunities for key stage 1 pupils to develop their skills to a greater depth, particularly in mathematics. The consistent use of checks to establish individual pupils’ levels of knowledge and understanding at the start of a new unit of work enables learning to be planned which very closely matches pupils’ needs. This, combined with the introduction of a new system of recording pupils’ achievement, is helping to ensure that pupils’ good progress is maintained and recorded effectively. Pupil progress information shows that standards are rising.

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England Primary School

You are acutely aware of the recruitment issues which the school has faced. You are also aware of the effect this has had on the consistency in the quality of teaching in Years 3 and 5. You are taking effective steps to resolve these issues and in the meantime have put in place high levels of support from senior leaders which has resulted in pupils currently making good progress.

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England Primary School

You and your team have ensured that pupils have a safe and secure environment by promoting the clear message that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Members of staff confirm they have received recent and relevant safeguarding training. Governors also confirm that they have updated their safeguarding training alongside staff and have developed a stronger understanding of current requirements.

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England Primary School

Senior leaders and governors have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records kept are detailed and of high quality. Seven staff have received first-aid training and another four are to be trained in January 2017. Notices around school make it clear which first-aid-trained staff are available and where they are located at all times.

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England Primary School

Staff work closely with other agencies to support the needs of vulnerable pupils and confidential records of their involvement are kept and are stored appropriately. Risks posed by trips outside school and for individual pupils are rigorously and carefully assessed. While these are stored electronically they are readily accessible to all staff. Pupils were quick to tell me how safe they felt in school. The school council has also reviewed and discussed safety in school. Pupils are well supervised at break and lunchtime as they play on a range of equipment. Records show that any accidents that happen are dealt with effectively and record-keeping is robust.

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England Primary School

Governors are very clear about their role in safeguarding pupils. Evidence of this can be seen in the close working partnership between a parent governor and the computing coordinator who are designing a course for parents on how to ensure that their children are safe online.

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Inspection findings

 Children, particularly the boys, make good and better progress in the early years. The number of children reaching a good level of development has continued to increase over the last two years to well above the national average. Girls’ progress has been slower in some areas but overall remains above that nationally.  Phonics is taught well because teachers and teaching assistants have good levels of knowledge and are well trained. Pupils’ skills are very regularly reviewed.  Key stage 1 pupils are making good and better progress in English, particularly in Year 2. Reading scores remain high this year and pupils demonstrated good reading skills when reading in class groups. They tackled new vocabulary skilfully and with tenacity.  Pupils’ progress in mathematics in key stage 1 is good. The school’s very close focus on developing pupils’ ‘mastery’ skills is evident in both the classroom and in their books. Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes, particularly when discussing

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Inspection findings

the way to solve mathematical problems. Their ability to think how to answer and their recall of past learning clearly demonstrate the increasing depth and knowledge of their learning.  In discussions with Year 6 pupils, pupils explained eloquently how reaching Year 6 meant ‘going up a gear’ in learning. The high quality of pupils’ work in their books confirmed this. In classroom observations pupils also demonstrated mature attitudes and thoughtful behaviour when commenting on and appraising each other’s work.  Work in books shows that at the start of the year pupils’ progress in Years 3 and 5 was not as consistently good as that of other year groups. Senior year leaders continue to support the temporary staff in these year groups and pupils’ progress has now improved overall.  Most-able pupils overall make strong progress across the school. Progress for this group in writing in key stage 2 dipped last year. However, work in pupils’ books

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Inspection findings

this year shows a reverse in this trend and pupils in Year 4 and Year 6, in particular, are making good and better progress.  The school has a very small number of disadvantaged pupils. Their progress is closely monitored by staff. While the pupil premium funding is used to support the needs of disadvantaged pupils it is also used to support other pupils. This sometimes makes the impact of funding on the progress of disadvantaged pupils, particularly the most able, difficult to measure.  Pupils’ attendance continues to rise and is above the national average for similar schools.  The 20 parents who spoke to me in the playground at the start of the school day were exceptionally supportive of the school, believing it to give their children a very good standard of education. Comments included, ‘This is a wonderful school’, ‘My grandchildren skip happily down the pathway every morning’, and ‘This school is just brilliant and the headteacher and all the staff are very

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Inspection findings

approachable.’ Several parents mentioned the changes of staff in Years 3 and 5 but all were sympathetic and felt the headteacher was updating them regularly and was doing all in her power to resolve the situation. The majority of comments made by parents via Parent View also reflected this view.  Governors are clear about the strengths of the school and they feel that they offer effective challenge to the headteacher. While they recognise the areas which the school needs to improve further, they agree that the training they are due to attend will enhance their ability to understand the new format in which school pupil progress information is presented.

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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

 funding for disadvantaged pupils is closely linked to accelerating the progress of individual pupils in this group  close monitoring continues to be carried out to check the progress of pupils in Years 3 and 5 until the continuity of staffing in these year groups is secure.

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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 Leeds, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Leeds. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I focused on the following key lines of enquiry:

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Information about the inspection

Early years foundation stage What have leaders done to improve outcomes for girls in the early years, particularly improving their skills in speaking, listening and mathematics? Has the outdoor provision been improved and does this contribute to improving outcomes for pupils particularly in their understanding of the world?

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Information about the inspection

Progress in key stage 1 What improvements have been made to increase pupils’ progress in mathematics in key stage 1? Are pupils currently making better progress now in deepening their knowledge and understanding from their starting points?

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Information about the inspection

Progress of disadvantaged pupils How effectively is the progress made by the very small number of disadvantaged pupils checked and monitored? Is the pupil premium funding spending sufficiently well targeted on improving outcomes for this group? Are the most able in this group making equal progress to that of others nationally?

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Information about the inspection

Leadership and management How effectively is the current leadership team performing in the absence of a deputy headteacher? Are middle leaders effective in their new roles? How effectively are governors monitoring the current changes to the leadership team?

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Information about the inspection

Safeguarding Do school leaders and governors give safeguarding a high enough priority in the school? Are safeguarding incidents recorded effectively? Are accidents and injuries recorded diligently? How effectively is pupils’ behaviour monitored, particularly at lunchtime and breaktime?

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Information about the inspection

In order to explore these areas I made short visits, with you, to lessons in every year group. I also listened to pupils read during lessons. I held meetings with pupils, staff, middle and senior leaders and nine members of the governing body. I also held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority. I held informal discussions with 20 parents at the start of the school day and took into account the 54 responses made on Parent View and the 30 responses made by pupils to the pupil questionnaire. During the inspection I scrutinised a range of the school’s documents including those relating to safeguarding and attendance, first- aid records, and information about pupils’ progress and the curriculum.

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