Claytons Primary School

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

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Mrs Jensa Carter Headteacher Claytons Primary School Wendover Road Bourne End Buckinghamshire SL8 5NS

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 5 July 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 Claytons 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 Claytons Primary School

Since joining the school in September 2016, you have led with clear passion and determination to ensure that the school builds upon its strengths. You are ably supported by your deputy headteacher and other senior leaders. Together, you have an effective understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. You listen carefully to good advice from your local authority’s adviser and are acting effectively upon your detailed plans to secure even stronger outcomes for pupils. You have quickly gained the trust and support of your staff. The vast majority state you do all you can to ensure that they are motivated, feel respected and are effective in their roles.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Pupils enjoy learning at Claytons Primary School. They say that the teachers ‘are the best’, and that staff ‘look after us really well’. They understand that you have high expectations of them and appreciate, therefore, why ‘teachers are strict, but in a really good way’. Pupils hold the nurturing support provided by your learning support assistants, in their role as ‘koalas’, in particularly high regard. If ever pupils have any worries, they state that the ‘koalas’ will ‘always do the right thing to help them’. Parents are supportive of the school too. One comment, typical of many, stated, ‘My children are very happy and love going to school. They don’t like being ill and missing out.’ Leaders have addressed successfully the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Science has a clear prominence within the curriculum and pupils develop their scientific skills effectively. The recent ‘science week’ provided fun and

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

informative opportunities to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding further. Middle leaders demonstrate good capacity to lead their areas of responsibility. They show strong capability to monitor and assess pupils’ progress, and to influence improvements to teaching and learning in their individual subject areas.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Current pupils are making good progress. The large majority of children have achieved a good level of development in the early years, this year. Most pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 have reached the standard expected for their age in phonics. In key stage 1 and key stage 2, a large majority of pupils have made strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. However, more pupils in key stage 2 are capable of working at the highest standards in writing. Similarly, some pupils in key stage 1, particularly those who are most-able, are not yet making accelerated progress in mathematics. Leaders are aware of this, but more needs to be done to ensure that a greater proportion of pupils achieve the highest standards in writing and mathematics.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Disadvantaged pupils are achieving well. Leaders provide effective support that is intended to meet pupils’ individual learning needs. However, leaders are not yet evaluating fully the effectiveness of strategies that support disadvantaged pupils’ social and emotional needs. As a result, leaders, including governors, are not able to demonstrate convincingly the full impact the pupil premium grant has on improving outcomes for this group of pupils.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

You ensure that systems to keep pupils safe are robust. For example, when recruiting new staff all appropriate employment checks are made and recorded accurately on the school’s single central record. Good quality safeguarding training is an integral part of the induction of all new staff, with regular updated information provided for the whole staff team, whenever necessary. As a result, everyone knows what actions to take to safeguard children.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Pupils develop a strong understanding of how to be safe. For example, they shared their effective knowledge of e-safety and know not to share personal information online. Pupils understand that they must keep their online passwords secret from anyone but a trusted adult, and that sharing pictures of themselves on social media can pose a risk.

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Short inspection of Claytons Primary School

Pupils expressed an accurate understanding of what bullying is, and knew what actions to take if they had any worries or concerns. They told me that bullying rarely happens at Claytons Primary School. Leaders keep detailed records of any poor behaviour. These show that they manage the rare bullying incidents swiftly and successfully.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, we focused on how leaders ensure that pupils are enabled to work at the highest standards in mathematics in key stage 1 and writing in key stage 2. We also scrutinised leaders’ work to ensure that disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported effectively to make good progress from their starting points. Lastly, we evaluated how well leaders ensure that pupils develop a strong sense of British values and are ready for life in modern Britain.  You monitor carefully pupils’ mathematics learning. Your mathematics coordinator uses this information wisely to enhance teaching, and has introduced recently helpful strategies to ensure that pupils can develop higher-level mathematical skills. For example, in Year 1 work in books showed some pupils were completing activities that stretched their calculation abilities. However, this

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Inspection findings

area of leaders’ work has only recently commenced and most-able pupils are not yet consistently achieving the standards in mathematics that they are capable of.  Teaching provides many successful opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills. For instance, in key stage 2 pupils learn how to structure their writing appropriately and are provided with effective guidance from staff. In Year 5, pupils were planning carefully their ideas for a ‘super-villain theme park’. Adults provided good support, asking searching questions that helped pupils organise their writing correctly before putting pen to paper. However, teaching does not yet consistently challenge the most able writers. Leaders know that a greater proportion of pupils have the potential to write at the highest standards and this is rightly a priority for the school’s ongoing improvement.  You have ensured that disadvantaged pupils make good progress. For example,

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Inspection findings

additional support such as the before-school reading club ensures that this group of pupils catches up quickly. You also provide support for some disadvantaged pupils’ emotional well-being. However, you are not yet able to describe persuasively the success of these strategies. As a result, leaders and governors do not have a full understanding of the impact the pupil premium grant has on supporting disadvantaged pupils’ welfare or their overall outcomes. Therefore, they cannot review or refine this support thoroughly.  Teaching supports pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities well. Your special needs coordinator works effectively with other staff and external professionals to tailor classroom teaching to pupils’ specific needs. The teaching within the additional resourced provision for pupils who have autistic spectrum disorder is also of high quality. Teachers have a good understanding of

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Inspection findings

the special educational needs of these pupils and adapt their teaching accordingly, so that pupils make good progress from their starting points.  Your work to develop pupils’ understanding of British values is a strength of the school. The school’s own values of ‘community, learning, ambition, you, tenacity, opportunity, nurturing, and safety’ are central to this success. For example, the deputy headteacher’s assembly on the Black athlete Jessie Owens skilfully linked the school’s value of ‘tenacity’ to the British values of tolerance and respect. Later, pupils told me they were angered that people are sometimes discriminated against because of the colour of their skin, reflecting passionately on what they had learned.  Pupils develop a strong knowledge of different faiths and religions. When I met with pupils, one told me that, ‘There aren’t many children with different faiths in our school.’ However, they said that they enjoy learning about different religions

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Inspection findings

in their religious education lessons. Pupils are ready for life in modern Britain because you ensure that they value diversity and each other’s differences.

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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

 they evaluate fully the effectiveness of all strategies funded by the pupil premium grant so that support for disadvantaged pupils is as effective as possible  a greater proportion of pupils, specifically those who are most able, achieve the highest standards, particularly in writing and mathematics.

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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 Buckinghamshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Together with you, I observed learning across classes in key stage 2. I spoke to pupils and examined work in their exercise books. Meetings were held with senior leaders, including the deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher. I met with three governors, including the chair and vice-chair of governors. I took into account 130 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, including 82 written comments and one email sent to Ofsted. I also analysed 16 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. A range of documents was reviewed, including: the school’s development plan; leaders’ evaluation of the school’s effectiveness; the school’s single central record of recruitment checks made on staff; information about pupils’ achievement; pupils’ education, health and care plans; records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance; and minutes of governing body meetings.

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