Trinity CofE Primary School

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

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Mr John Rowe Headteacher Trinity CofE Primary School Butt Lane Ford Shrewsbury Shropshire SY5 9LG

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 28 February 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 February 2012.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

Leaders have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment, you have focused on raising the quality of teaching and learning. You and your colleagues make regular checks on the quality of teaching, identify any further training needs for staff and then make sure this training is provided. As a result, teaching is now consistently good or better across the school.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

‘The school is inclusive of all abilities’ was one of the first comments made to me during the inspection. You, governors and staff work hard to ensure that the development of the whole child is at the heart of the school’s work. Parents and pupils value highly the additional activities provided, with a broad range of arts, music and sporting opportunities meeting the needs and interests of all pupils.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

You continually look for new ways to support and develop every pupil. You place a high priority on teaching pupils about caring and supporting others. For example, playtime leaders and reading champions voluntarily help younger pupils at lunchtimes. The whole school is making beads and cakes to sell at the ‘Fairtrade Day 2017’ to raise money for a charity. The wide range of opportunities for pupils enables them to become confident, respectful and caring individuals who are well prepared for the next stages of their education when they leave the school. Following the previous inspection, leaders and governors were asked to improve checks to make sure any slowing of progress in reading was identified quickly. There has been some considerable success in this area, particularly in key stage 2. Progress at the end of key stage 2 in 2016 was well above national averages in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

However, some pupils are not making the progress of which they are capable. This is particularly so for boys in reading and writing. You have correctly identified this in your school improvement planning and are taking effective action to support all pupils to make at least good progress.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

The previous inspection report asked leaders and governors to ensure that teachers provide work that challenges pupils. Again, outcomes at the end of key stage 2 show that leaders’ actions to improve pupils’ achievement are achieving some success. However, outcomes at the end of key stage 1 do not yet match those of key stage 2. Currently, teachers do not sufficiently challenge all pupils, especially the most able, to enable them to make the rapid progress of which they are capable. Leaders’ checks on work in books does not focus in sufficient detail on the level of challenge teachers provide.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

Your evaluation of the school’s strengths and areas for development is accurate. Your school improvement planning identifies the actions leaders need to take to further improve pupils’ outcomes. However, the planning lacks precision and does not identify the outcomes expected as a result of the actions taken. Therefore, leaders and governors are unable to evaluate fully whether the school improvement planning is successful.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

‘The school is a safe and wonderful place’ was the first comment from a pupil I spoke to. This was confirmed by every pupil and parent during the inspection. You ensure that staff prioritise pupils’ safety and well-being. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe in a range of different situations, and value the range of visitors who come to the school to teach them about safety. You encourage pupils to support safety in the local community. For example, pupils made posters for the village to encourage dog walkers to clear up after their dogs.

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

Pupils understand what bullying is, including cyber bullying. They say that bullying is rare in school, but if it does happen teachers deal with it immediately. As one pupil put it, ‘Teachers are like detectives. They find out what happened, deal with it, and it doesn’t happen again.’

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Short inspection of Trinity CofE Primary School

You have made certain that the robust systems in place to ensure the safety of pupils are fit for purpose. Staff, including staff new to the school, are fully trained and up to date with all relevant guidance. Systems to record concerns about pupils are detailed, and concerns are followed up immediately. The school works with external agencies effectively and support to protect vulnerable pupils is in place. Records are held securely.

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Inspection findings

 The early years provision is creatively designed to stimulate the interests of children. Imaginative resources bring the learning to life. For example, the rocket topic provided a variety of activities for the children to develop their writing skills effectively. This was particularly successful for the boys. Staff use a range of resources to develop pupils’ mathematical skills, both practically and in written form. Children are encouraged to use equipment such as animals to develop touch-counting, but are also challenged to write numbers to record their learning. However, expectations of the most able children are not sufficiently high. As a result, some children do not make the progress of which they are capable.  You have introduced effective assessment systems to track the progress of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils across the school are making at least expected progress, with many making more than expected progress in these

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Inspection findings

subjects. However, while the assessment systems enable pupils’ progress to be tracked carefully, leaders do not make sufficiently detailed checks of work in books to ensure that teachers are consistently challenging pupils. This is especially so for the most able pupils.  You have accurately identified that further work needs to be done to deepen learning in mathematics, especially for the most able. You have bought new mathematics resources, and leaders have worked with parents to support mathematical learning at home. You recognise that this work needs to be continued to ensure all pupils, especially the most able, make the progress of which they are capable.  Leaders have made a concerted effort to raise the attainment in writing across the school, especially for boys. The curriculum is thoughtfully designed to engage all pupils in exciting writing experiences. Books are generally well presented and

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Inspection findings

show pride in presentation.  However, expectations of what some pupils can achieve in writing are not consistently high enough across the school, especially for the most able. On occasions, teachers do not match work sufficiently well to the individual needs of pupils. As a result, some pupils do not make the progress of which they are fully capable.  You foster positive relationships between pupils and all staff. There is a strong community spirit within the school. Pupils’ enjoyment of school is reflected in their attendance. Attendance figures are now at, or above, national averages. Where issues with attendance arise, you take effective action to address them.

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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

 leaders refine school improvement planning to include precise targets against which leaders and governors can evaluate the impact of actions taken to improve outcomes for pupils  teachers have consistently high expectations of what the most able pupils can achieve  the progress of current pupils is monitored even more closely, including checking work in their books, to make sure pupils are being sufficiently challenged  the early years provision enables the most able children to make the progress of which they are capable.

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

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection I met with you, five members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. You joined me on brief visits to lessons. I talked to pupils about their learning and looked at examples of their work. I spoke to parents at the start of the day and to pupils at lunchtime. I observed pupils’ behaviour at lunchtime. I reviewed a range of documentation, including the school’s own evaluation of its performance, the school development plan, documents relating to keeping pupils safe, attendance figures and the most recent information about pupils’ achievement. I considered 31 responses to the online Parent View questionnaire, four responses to the questionnaire for staff and 15 responses to the pupil survey.

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Information about the inspection

This inspection focused particularly on the effectiveness of the leadership and management in monitoring pupils’ progress in writing and mathematics in key stage 1; how well the early years provision helps children to develop their writing and mathematical skills; how well the teaching in key stage 2 enables pupils to make at least good progress; the attendance of pupils; and the actions taken by leaders in response to the recommendations from the previous inspection.

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