Chelford CofE Primary School

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

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Mrs Alison Scott Headteacher Chelford CofE Primary School Oak Road Chelford Macclesfield Cheshire SK11 9AY

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 January 2017, 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 March 2012.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

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

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

You, along with your team, continue to ensure that Chelford Primary School is a nurturing community where every individual is highly valued. There is a warm and welcoming feel to your school and the quality of relationships between pupils is striking because of their cooperativeness. The learning environment is purposeful, calm and respectful. You and your staff ensure that pupils’ attitudes to learning and their behaviour around school are excellent. Pupils think of the school as an extension of their family and they care for each other. Consequently, the school is a tolerant and harmonious place in which to learn. Pupils are encouraged to build their confidence and develop resilience in their learning because staff respect the views of every individual. Parents are also unreservedly positive about how well you and your staff provide for their children. Parents commented that staff care about each and

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

every pupil, that there is a fantastic learning environment and a lovely sense of community built on Christian values. You are determined that each of your pupils will grow, learn and achieve in a school that shows ‘care for everyone’.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

As a result of the depth of knowledge that you and your staff have about each and every pupil, you cater well for pupils’ individual needs. Teachers plan effectively for the range of year groups that they have in each class. As a result, pupils make good progress and achieve well across the school, including in the early years. You and your staff have worked successfully to improve the quality of writing across the school. It is delightful to see the quality both of pupils’ handwriting and their written work, for example in key stage 1 where standards are high. In addition, pupils in key stage 2 have a secure knowledge and understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar. When questioned about their written work on the harvest festival, pupils could explain with ease the use of a hyphen and semi-colon, giving further examples and using technical language with precision.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

Aside from academic studies, pupils also have the opportunity to develop a wide range of additional skills, for example in the school garden, where they grow vegetables and organise plant sales. Pupils are also very able to talk about the work you do to promote British values. They have an understanding of the democratic process and they appreciated a visit from the mayor. Pupils also say they value their student council because you ensure that it has a strong voice. Across the school, pupils know right from wrong and they are clear that their behaviour is very good because they value and respect the school’s code of conduct. Pupils are also respectful of other religions and cultures because of the teaching they receive about Buddhism, Sikhism and Judaism, for example. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

You and your team have taken action to address the areas for improvement since the last inspection. In mathematics, pupils’ progress has strengthened and it continues to improve. This is clearly evident in your most recent key stage 2 results because practically every child achieved the expected standard. Some most-able pupils also achieved a high standard. This is because teachers’ strong questioning affords pupils the opportunity to think for themselves and explain the rationale for their answers. An in-depth scrutiny of pupils’ work that I undertook shows that, across the school, progress and achievement in mathematics continues to be strong. Pupils across the school say that mathematics is one of their favourite subjects. In my discussions with pupils, these were the books of which they were most proud.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

During the inspection, we agreed that the next steps are to ensure that even more pupils achieve a high standard in reading and mathematics, and a greater depth in writing by the end of key stage 2. Most pupils are very able and they achieve high standards at the end of the early years and key stage 1. With further challenge, they could make even more progress and more pupils could achieve a high standard by the end of key stage 2. Also, we agreed that leaders need to continue to develop an effective system to measure pupils’ progress and achievement across the wider curriculum. This will enable pupils and their parents to know how much progress they are making in other subjects, for example history, geography, physical education and modern foreign languages. With this additional information, teachers should be well placed to plan even more challenging learning for their pupils and help them to make excellent progress across the full range of subjects.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

Parents and pupils feel that the school is a safe place to be. Leaders, including governors, ensure that staff receive high-quality training and, as a result, staff know how to recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse. Recently, staff undertook additional training on supporting pupils’ emotional well-being. Staff are also aware of how to address issues such as ‘sexting’ or peer-on-peer abuse, should these arise.

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Short inspection of Chelford CofE Primary School

Pupils are taught about how to stay safe both online and in everyday life. There are regular visits from the local police and fire services, for example, to cover a range of situations that young pupils may face. In Year 5, pupils can act as e-safety officers for other pupils in the school. Adults and pupils undertake training together about staying safe online. When they return to school, they are used to support other pupils’ awareness of how to stay safe when using new technologies.

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Inspection findings

 The headteacher and governors have an accurate view of the quality of education provided by the school. Leaders’ self-evaluation clearly identifies the key areas of strength and areas for improvement with precision. The governors are adamant that pupils must achieve the very best outcomes and so they rigorously challenge the headteacher about the standards pupils achieve. Consequently, standards across the school continue to improve.  Leaders support families and their children well. The attendance of boys has been an issue in more recent years. Although the number of boys on the school roll is relatively small, leaders are determined to ensure that boys’ attendance is as good as that of girls. Leaders have strong systems and appropriate strategies in place to secure even higher rates of attendance. As a result, attendance rates are higher this year compared to last and the very small proportion of boys who are regularly absent from

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Inspection findings

school is set to decrease further. Work to ensure that the attendance rates of disadvantaged pupils remain good have also been successful.  The progress made by disadvantaged pupils is tracked and monitored well. Leaders and teachers have a secure understanding of what strategies are required to help disadvantaged pupils to progress and achieve as well as other pupils nationally. In 2016, the progress made by most disadvantaged pupils was good. Currently, disadvantaged pupils are also progressing well and the quality of their work is good; for example, the standards they achieve in writing and reading continue to be secure.  The school’s curriculum design meets the needs of pupils, given that there are only two classes. This is because teachers plan learning well and pupils are keen to learn. In a science lesson, Years 5 and 6 pupils learned about germination. They could use technical language with ease. The teacher’s

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Inspection findings

questioning was effective in drawing out a depth of understanding. This helped pupils to make links to other aspects of their learning in science.  Pupils enjoy the subjects they study. They relish visits to places of interest and participate in a range of extra-curricular activities. The teaching of history is a key strength of the school. Displays around the school highlight pupils’ engagement in their studies. Work on the Blitz was particularly good and pupils made strong progress in developing their historical understanding. Leaders and teachers ensure that pupils’ work in the full range of subjects is now well documented through portfolios and cross- curricular projects. There is, however, a need to strengthen the assessment system in those subjects other than reading, mathematics and English. This is so that pupils and their parents know how well they are doing and teachers can use this information to plan even more effectively

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Inspection findings

to maximise pupils’ progress in these subjects.  Pupils especially enjoy physical education and modern foreign languages. In key stage 2, pupils could hold a short conversation with the inspector in French. In key stage 1, pupils do additional work in their ‘busy books’. This gives them the opportunity to learn about the wider curriculum, including geography and art. Across the school, pupils’ skills in art are extremely well developed, as evidenced by, for example, the work pupils have undertaken on Gustav Klimt.  Pupils read widely and often. Pupils say they enjoy reading. The most able pupils read with confidence and fluency. They use intonation and expression well to convey meaning. Pupils can work out the meanings of unfamiliar words by using clues from the sentence or paragraph in which they occur. The less able readers read with passion and flair. It is clear to see why standards in reading are high by the end of key stage 2.

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Inspection findings

 Despite standards across the school being in line with age-related expectations, there are still further opportunities to stretch and challenge more pupils in different subjects, so they can achieve the high standard by the end of key stage 2, especially in mathematics and writing. Leaders are committed to achieving this. They are developing a stronger focus on problem solving in mathematics and promoting writing skills at every opportunity. The impact of this work is already visible in Years 1 and 2 where pupils achieve very well. Leaders are determined that this rate of improvement will manifest itself in even better outcomes by the end of key stage 2.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they:

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Next steps for the school

 strengthen the system for assessing pupils’ progress and achievement in subjects other than English and mathematics  continue to increase the proportion of pupils who achieve a high standard in reading and mathematics, and a greater depth in writing, by the end of key stage 2.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, parents of pupils from the school, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority. Also, I met formally with a group of pupils from across the school and talked informally with others around the school and in lessons. In addition, I jointly observed teaching and learning in both classes with you, and I listened to pupils read. I examined a range of documentation, including documents relating to safeguarding, minutes of the governing body meetings, the school’s own evaluation of how well it is doing, the school’s improvement priorities, attendance information, a range of policies and the school’s curricular information. I also undertook a review of the school’s website. As part of the inspection, I considered eight responses from parents to Ofsted’s free-text, eight responses to the Ofsted pupil questionnaire and six responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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