Catterick Garrison, Le Cateau Community Primary School

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

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Mr Ian Mottram Headteacher Catterick Garrison, Le Cateau Community Primary School Brough Road Catterick Garrison North Yorkshire DL9 4ED

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School

Following my visit to the school on 7 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 October 2012.

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School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Working alongside a highly skilled and talented governing body, your determined leadership has brought about improvements to teaching and learning. You have rigorously addressed any issues of underperformance and have brought together a skilled and enthusiastic teaching team. You have accurately identified the school’s strengths and current priorities. You detail further actions to address these priorities in the sharply focused school development plan.

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School

You have managed very effectively the issues arising from a highly mobile school population, skilfully minimising any negative impact on pupils’ outcomes. You are working closely with a large number of outside agencies linked to the local garrison. Given that nearly one third of the school’s pupils arrived in the past 18 months, you acknowledge that there is a continuing need to implement new strategies and actions aimed at further developing the inclusive learning environment. You are aiming to ensure that pupils’ personal development and emotional resilience are strengthened and that their aspirations are raised.

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School

Improved quality of teaching, learning and assessment is now accelerating quickly the rates of progress of current pupils. You and other school leaders keep a close eye on the quality of teaching, and your feedback to teachers links directly into focused school improvement planning and teacher appraisal. You acknowledge that teachers do not always pitch work appropriately, and so some activities do not always fully challenge and stretch pupils. Pupils’ personal development and excellent attitudes to learning remain key strengths of your inclusive school. The school has many strategies to encourage and celebrate pupils’ regular and punctual attendance. However, you recognise that these have minimal impact on improving the attendance of disadvantaged pupils, some of whom are regularly and persistently absent.

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School

Pupils develop good citizenship skills, being keen to take on responsibilities through roles such as ‘class monitor’, school councillor, digital leader, play buddy or librarian. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent. Pupils have a thorough understanding of British values and benefit from being part of a truly multi-cultural school with pupils from 22 different countries. Pupils said that they feel safe and grow in confidence during their time in the school. They respect and listen attentively to each other and to adults.

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School

You have successfully tackled the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Because teaching is far more consistent, pupils’ progress and attainment in writing have improved. Most pupils are making strong progress. Work in books is of a much improved standard and well presented, and handwriting is mostly extremely neat and legible, especially that of younger pupils. All pupils have many opportunities to write at length, their interest often captured by links to topic work, such as designing a spy gadget when writing a non-chronological report. Teachers use questioning well, and the pace of learning secures pupils’ concentration in lessons. Most pupils in each year group are on track to reach standards expected for their age by the end of the academic year.

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School

You have undertaken the role of designated safeguarding lead effectively, ensuring that all policies, procedures and records are of high quality and are up to date. Summary records of incidents of concern are meticulously kept. Any incident of poor behaviour is taken seriously and each is recorded and acted on. There are few records of alleged bullying, and pupils categorically stated that no bullying happens at Le Cateau. All staff are appropriately trained and have a secure understanding of their responsibilities for safeguarding.

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School

Pupils are very knowledgeable about bullying and e-safety. Pupils know how to stay safe and free from worries while in school. They understand how to avoid situations that may prove dangerous when not at school.

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School

Almost all parents stated that their children are safe in school. The culture of keeping pupils safe and putting them at the heart of the inclusive, friendly school community is very evident. The school promotes pupils’ personal, social and emotional development very well. The school motto of ‘Equally Important, Equally Different’ sums up Le Cateau very well.

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Inspection findings

 You have taken determined and rigorous actions to strengthen the progress of current pupils in the light of the dip evident in the school’s results in the end of Year 6 tests in 2016. You have been ably supported by the governing body. Governors fully understand the issues faced by the school in sustaining pupils’ progress, given that a large proportion of the Year 6 pupils came to Le Cateau from abroad during the academic year, as well as a large proportion joining across all year groups in the school.  The steps you have taken to tackle recent issues of underperformance in teaching have been rapid and effective, and are now having a very positive effect. Work seen in books during the inspection and analysis of the school’s tracking data clearly demonstrate strong progress over the autumn term for most pupils in reading, writing and mathematics.  The leadership and management of the school are strong. There is a tangible

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Inspection findings

drive to improve from all leaders, including governors, and to provide a supportive and understanding environment where all pupils can thrive, especially those pupils who have already been to a number of schools.  Governors are highly skilled in their roles, know the school inside out and know the journey it has taken to reach this point. They are very well informed and take nothing at face value. Governors question and challenge very effectively and are fully engaged in putting into place key actions to move the school forward even more rapidly. Governors and leaders have set the bar high in their expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment. The capacity for the school to improve further is very strong.  Children are getting off to a fast start in their reading. The systematic and rigorous teaching of phonics starts in Nursery and moves into Reception. All adults are skilled in teaching phonics, activities are targeted well to meet the

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Inspection findings

needs of every child and work is well matched to children’s abilities.  The high profile of reading is prevalent through displays and activities around classrooms, such as in the Nursery, where children have received many postcards from around the world as part of their topic based on the book, ‘Meerkat Mail’.  Pupils in Years 1 and 2 read well to the inspector and were able to build and blend unknown words. The school’s own tracking data shows that pupils’ progress in reading is accelerating rapidly, and a much greater proportion of pupils than previously appear on track to meet the expected standard in phonics at the end of Year 1.  Teachers’ ongoing assessments and monitoring of pupils’ successes or misunderstandings in their work allow planned activities to be amended or changed. Teachers’ feedback consolidates pupils’ understanding effectively. Ensuring that pupils are always sufficiently challenged is an area that you are

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Inspection findings

continuing to address.  Pupils are attentive in lessons and have largely excellent attitudes to learning. Relationships are strong. Pupils know how well they have done in their learning and the next steps they need to take to do even better.  Pupils’ enjoyment of mathematics is obvious. Some pupils informed the inspector that this is their favourite subject. Pupils are becoming more proficient in their reasoning and problem-solving skills, and you said that you are further developing this aspect of mathematics, with the aim of consolidating pupils’ calculation skills.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they continue to improve outcomes for pupils by:  ensuring that teachers’ expectations of pupils’ progress and attainment remain consistently high, and that work set challenges and stretches pupils’ thinking and understanding  further developing the school’s inclusive learning environment, which challenges and enables every learner to flourish. Leaders should ensure that the rates of attendance for disadvantaged pupils improve quickly, and especially reduce the proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are persistently absent.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you and the acting deputy headteacher. You and I visited lessons in each key stage. I met with the chair and vice chair of the governing body. I spoke to pupils about their work and their views of the school, both in lessons and in meetings. I listened to some pupils read. I considered the views of parents from the Ofsted online survey, Parent View. You, the acting deputy headteacher and I scrutinised pupils’ work in books. A range of documents were considered relating to safeguarding, performance management, governors’ meetings and external evaluations of the school. I also considered the school’s development plan and self-evaluation, the curriculum, tracking of current pupils’ progress and pupils’ recent achievement in statutory assessments.

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