Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

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

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Mrs Frances Bird Headteacher Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School Roe Hey Drive Coppull Chorley Lancashire PR7 4PU

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 13 December 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 Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. On joining the school in September 2016, you quickly identified and celebrated the many strengths in the school. Your clear guidance to staff has led to further improvements in pupils’ outcomes, especially in writing and mathematics. Staff say that they are well supported in this school and teamwork is a key feature, where all play a role in school improvement. Teaching and learning are monitored regularly and used well to inform the performance management of teachers. You, governors and other leaders are not complacent and recognise that the school can be even better. Your priorities for school improvement are sharply focused on the analysis of pupils’ outcomes. You rightly have identified the need to develop pupils’ understanding of what they have read to a higher standard. You also recognise the need to support language development in Reception and key

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

stage 1. You have plans in place to further develop pupils’ mathematical reasoning.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

You and your team have taken effective action to address the areas for improvement from the previous inspection. Pupils, including lower-ability pupils, make good progress in writing due to the high priority given to this area. As a result, writing is a strength of the school. In the Reception class, opportunities for children to write are evident in all areas. Your teachers carefully structure the writing activities so that they appeal equally to boys and girls. The clear teaching of the characteristics of writing throughout school enables the most able pupils to develop a mature style of writing by Year 6. For example, one pupil wrote about how ‘the white and purple rocks surrounded the vast chunk of land’. Pupils are given opportunities to write at length. One pupil told me that this was his favourite thing about school as it, ‘gives me time to let my ideas burst’.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

Governors are ambitious for the school and, quite rightly, have confidence in you and your leadership team to continue to deliver improvements. Governors receive good-quality information about the work of the school and, in particular, pupils’ outcomes. This information, coupled with governors’ first-hand knowledge of the school, means that they understand what the school does well and what it needs to do to improve further. As a result, you are challenged appropriately by the governors to ensure that pupils receive the best education possible.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

Behaviour is good. Pupils are polite and show respect and care for one another. Pupils demonstrate an understanding of British values. Tolerance and respect for others is clear in pupils’ work and in their behaviour. Social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding is developed well. The bright, colourful and sometimes poignant displays encourage pupils to think and respond to their environment, the school’s faith and the experiences of others. This was especially true of the displays linked to Remembrance. Pupils learn about other European cultures, for example through their work on Christmas around the world. However, you and I agreed that this cultural understanding is not as well developed for cultures beyond the United Kingdom and Europe.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

Parents value the way in which leaders are using different ways to communicate with them. One parent spoke about the progress her child has made, telling me that her child has, ‘come on amazingly, both academically and socially. She feels that teachers ‘are as proud of her as I am’.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

The strong culture of safeguarding is evident across every aspect of the school’s work. You and your staff know each pupil well, and provide high levels of support and guidance. Your pupils say they feel happy and safe in school and that they are confident that staff will deal with any problems they may have. They know how to keep themselves safe, including while online, due to the good teaching and guidance they receive. Pupils, for example, referred to the information displayed near computers which prompts them to report anything which makes them feel uncomfortable. Parents, too, speak positively about how well their children are looked after, and the care they receive.

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Short inspection of Coppull Parish Church of England Primary School

Training for staff is up to date. Likewise, policies and information on the school’s website take into account the most recent government guidance on safeguarding. Consequently, all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of a high quality.

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Inspection findings

 Governors ensure that the pupil premium funding is spent to benefit the disadvantaged pupils. Alongside leaders, they carefully track the good progress made by this small group of pupils.  Your governors also ensure that sports funding has been spent to increase the sporting provision within school. As a result, more pupils take part in a wide range of sports and physical activities, for example, dodgeball, Zumba and ballet. Parents and pupils value these opportunities.  Your dedicated teaching assistants work closely with your teachers to help pupils who did not reach the expected standards at the end of Reception. As a result, these pupils are making good progress in key stage 1 and are rapidly catching up with their peers. Likewise, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points.  Pupils develop a wide range of knowledge and skills through the school’s broad

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Inspection findings

and exciting curriculum. Subject leaders understand the strengths and areas for development in their subjects and track pupils’ progress and attainment to inform their next steps. Your teachers are keen that pupils are given chances to excel in a wide variety of situations, including sport, drama and outdoor education.  Pupils make good progress in reading. Your staff promote a love of reading through special days and events, for example book swaps and book bingo. The school has been awarded with a Learning Excellence Award for raising self- esteem in reading. Pupils say that they have been introduced to new authors as a result of these events.  Pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, read fluently and with expression. The pupils I heard read used appropriate strategies to help them to work out unfamiliar words. Phonics is taught well and the proportions of pupils reaching the expected standard at the end of Year 1 are in line with national

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Inspection findings

averages.  Your pupils understand what they read as a result of the effective teaching they receive. One of your pupils spoke to me about the way in which teachers help them to see the effect of a word on the reader. However, you and I agreed that this higher standard of reading comprehension is not developed well across key stage 2.  Your pupils make good progress with written calculations. This is as a result of strong leadership in this area. Your teachers understand the school’s policy and implement it effectively. Mathematical understanding is developed well in the early years. For example, children were engaged in an activity where they had to see how many sprouts they could pick up with large tweezers in a minute. They then counted the sprouts and matched a written number to the pot. In a Year 6 mathematics lesson, pupils were encouraged to select a difficult ‘vindaloo’ challenge where they were asked to explain their thinking. They demonstrated

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Inspection findings

the resilience which you are promoting in order to solve problems. However, progress in mathematics is less strong where pupils do not have opportunities to investigate numbers and explain their thinking. Consequently, some of the most able pupils do not reach the higher standards of which they are capable. You are aware of this and work is underway to improve this aspect of teaching and learning.  Your early years leader has a good understanding of the needs of the children. Children enter school with standards which are slightly below typical for their age, although this does vary from year to year. Nevertheless, as a result of the good teaching they receive, a similar proportion of children to that seen nationally leave Reception with a good level of development. The difference between boys and girls seen in 2015, where boys did less well than girls, was reversed in 2016. There was an increase in the proportion of children reaching a

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Inspection findings

good level of development in 2016. There is no difference between the achievement of boys and girls currently in the Reception class. Good transition arrangements ensure that children receive the ongoing support they need as they move into Year 1.  You and your leadership team recognise the importance of early support. With this in mind, you purposefully deploy resources and the support of external agencies to the youngest children – speech and language support, for example. As a result, children are acquiring language skills quickly. These skills are further enhanced through the good use of questioning by adults which is encouraging increasingly well thought out responses from the children. One child, for example, when asked about why they have to look after the school chickens, replied, ‘When it’s icy and cold in the winter, we have to feed the chickens because they can’t get the worms because it’s really hard to peck.’

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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 most able pupils are challenged to reach the highest standards by: ­ further developing their comprehension skills ­ providing further opportunities for pupils to investigate numbers and explain their reasoning in mathematics  pupils develop a wider cultural understanding, beyond the UK and Europe.

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

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Information about the inspection

During this short inspection I met with you, the deputy headteacher, subject leaders, and governors and I was able to speak to a representative of the local authority. You and I visited classes to observe learning and looked at work in pupils’ books. I met with pupils throughout the day and spoke with six parents in the playground before school. I took into account the 29 responses to the pupil questionnaire, the 10 responses to the staff questionnaire, the 21 responses on Parent View and 13 free text comments made by parents. I heard several pupils read and observed pupils on the playground and in the dining hall. I conducted a detailed review of safeguarding, including checking on the school’s policies, procedures and record-keeping. I talked to you, other staff and governors about how the school ensures children are kept safe. I also considered a range of other documentation including school improvement planning and information about pupils’

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Information about the inspection

Prior to the inspection, I identified a number of lines of enquiry which informed the focus of my work in the school:

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Information about the inspection

 How successfully have school leaders addressed the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection?  How well is boys’ learning supported in the early years, to prepare them for the challenges of Year 1?  How effective are leaders’ actions to accelerate progress in key stage 1 for pupils who did not meet the expected standard at the end of Reception?  How effective are leaders’ actions to ensure that higher prior-attaining pupils attain the higher standards in reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2?  How effective is safeguarding?

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