Leadenham Church of England Primary School

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

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Mr Matthew Nicholson Headteacher Leadenham Church of England Primary School Main Road Leadenham Lincoln Lincolnshire LN5 0QB

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 7 March 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 July 2012.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. As headteacher, you have ensured that all staff have a clear understanding of the needs of each pupil and the progress that each makes. Staff use this information to provide effective challenge and support so that pupils make the progress that they should across all subjects. Your staff’s detailed knowledge of each pupil also helps them to provide the necessary care and attention to ensure that pupils are safe. Because of this, pupils make good progress in their learning in a caring, close-knit community. Pupils engage well in their learning because they feel supported, and because they have good relationships with all of your staff and with each other. The pupils that I met said that they enjoyed attending your school because of the support that they receive and the close relationships that they have with all members of the school’s community.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

You and other leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and of the areas where further development is necessary. You are quick to take effective action when you identify areas that need improvement. For example, you have rightly recognised that pupils in all years require further support to develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills in mathematics. In response, you have introduced a more challenging curriculum that is helping pupils to develop their mathematical skills with greater rigour and apply these skills to real life situations. You have also rightly recognised that too few pupils, particularly the most able, make faster than the expected progress in their learning. Your analysis of the progress that pupils make in all areas of their learning is now more precise. This means that you now identify more quickly pupils who are making slower progress than they should, and ensure that these pupils receive the necessary support. This

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

work has led to increased proportions of pupils in most year groups now making more than the expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics because they have attained greater depth in their understanding. You rightly recognise that more pupils should attain this level of understanding, however. You have taken action to resolve this, but it is too early to measure its impact fully.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

You regularly check the quality of teaching to ensure that your teachers’ classroom practice meets your high expectations. These checks enable you and other leaders to identify good practice and share this with staff. Your checks on teaching also mean that you provide support to teachers where classroom practice does not meet your expectations. You work closely with other local schools to ensure that your staff learn from, and contribute to the development of, teachers at other schools. You have identified the need to work with other schools as a key priority for your school, to ensure that your staff receive a broad range of opportunities to develop their practice. Such opportunities help your staff to check the accuracy of their assessment of pupils’ learning. As a result, teachers have a precise understanding of how well their pupils are achieving.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

At the last inspection, inspectors asked you to ensure that pupils developed a more secure understanding of the different cultures and beliefs that exist in modern Britain. Pupils now receive regular opportunities to learn about a range of religious beliefs, both through the curriculum and through their visits to places of worship, including a Buddhist temple, a synagogue and a church. Pupils have also watched performances from other cultures, including a Rio carnival and a Chinese dance. These experiences have widened pupils’ understanding of the multicultural nature of British society and have developed their understanding that they should respect people who are different from them. Pupils’ knowledge of the full range of different choices people in society can make, however, is not as strong as it should be, including in relation to sexual orientation.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

Members of the governing body are ambitious for the school. They readily support you and other leaders in your drive to maintain and build upon the school’s provision. The governing body has an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and of those areas where further improvements are necessary. Governors undertake their own visits to the school to check on the accuracy of the information that they receive from you and other leaders. They use this information well to provide a good level of challenge to you and other staff. In so doing, they recognise the strong leadership that you, as headteacher, provide for the school, and the ambition that you and other leaders have for the success of all members of the school’s community. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

All staff keep a close check on pupils’ welfare. Staff receive regular safeguarding training, including about the different types of abuse, how to prevent radicalisation and extremism, and the actions that they should take when they have a concern about a child. This training means that staff have a clear understanding of their responsibility to keep pupils safe. All staff understand the actions that they should take when they have a concern about a child.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

Those leaders who have responsibility for safeguarding work closely with staff, parents and local agencies to ensure that pupils receive the support they require. The actions that leaders take are timely and focus on ensuring that pupils receive effective support. Pupils learn how to stay safe when they go online. Leaders also ensure that they engage with local agencies to educate pupils about how to be safe. The school has worked with the local police to ensure that pupils understand how to be safe when in the local community. Pupils have also received training on road safety from an external agency.

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Short inspection of Leadenham Church of England Primary School

You and other senior leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality.

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Inspection findings

 Through the introduction of a new mathematics curriculum, leaders have taken effective action to develop pupils’ problem-solving and reasoning skills more effectively. Because of this, greater proportions of pupils in all year groups are now making at least the progress they should in mathematics. Leaders rightly recognise that the proportion of pupils who make more than the expected progress in this subject, while increasing, remains too low.  Through their close monitoring of pupils’ progress, leaders have been able to identify quickly where pupils, particularly the most able pupils, make slower progress in their learning than they should. The support that leaders have put into place is enabling increased proportions of pupils, including the most able pupils, to make more than the expected progress. Leaders rightly recognise that there is more to do to ensure that increased proportions of pupils achieve this

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Inspection findings

greater level of progress in their learning.  Leaders use additional government funding well to support relevant pupils in their learning. Leaders ensure that these pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive the support they need to make good progress in their learning. Because of this, increased proportions of these pupils are now making at least the progress they should in reading, writing and mathematics.  Leaders use the physical education (PE) and sport premium well to provide training for teachers and to offer sports activities to pupils. As a result, pupils are more engaged in PE lessons and more participate in after-school sports clubs.  The early years leader works closely with local nurseries and children’s parents to identify the needs of the children who attend the school’s early years provision. As a result, she has put into place effective support that enables children to reach

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Inspection findings

a good level of development. In 2016, the proportion of children who reached a good level of development was above national levels. There are too few children currently in the Reception Year to comment on their attainment.  All pupils that I met said that they feel safe at the school and that they have an adult to speak to if they have a concern. These pupils said that teachers listen to them and help them when they have a concern.  All parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, agreed that their children are happy and safe at the school, and that the staff look after them well. All parents who expressed a view said that, where bullying occurs, staff deal with it effectively. All pupils that I met, and all parents who expressed a view, would recommend the school to others.

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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

 teachers throughout the school build on the strategies already in place to challenge and support pupils to make more than the nationally expected progress in all subjects, but particularly in mathematics  teaching helps all pupils to have a secure understanding of the full range of characteristic of people in British society, including those characteristics related to sexual orientation.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, the early years leader, other staff, pupils, and seven governors, including the chair of the governing body. I spoke with an external adviser who supports the school in its improvement work. I also observed teaching in all year groups. I visited these lessons with you in your role as headteacher. I observed pupils’ behaviour during break and at lunchtime, during which time I spoke with pupils. I met with some parents at the beginning of the school day and took into account the 15 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also took into account the three responses to a questionnaire for staff. I examined a range of documents, including those related to safeguarding, attendance, the school’s use of additional government funding, pupils’ attainment and progress and governance. I also took into account the school’s self-evaluation and its improvement plan. I scrutinised the school’s single central record and the school’s

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Information about the inspection

recruitment procedures. At the end of the day, I gave oral feedback to you, members of the governing body and a representative of the Diocese of Lincoln.

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