Over Kellet Wilson's Endowed Church of England Primary School

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

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Mrs Jo Williams Headteacher Over Kellet Wilson’s Endowed Church of England Primary School School Lane Over Kellet Carnforth Lancashire LA6 1BN

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Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 11 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 October 2013.

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Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. All groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. By the time they reach the end of Year 6, pupils are well prepared for the next stage in their education.

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Primary School

Children receive a good start to their learning in the Reception class. You have made improvements to the learning environment and make the best possible use of all the available areas. Both indoors and outdoors, children experience interesting and exciting provision that stimulates them to explore new thoughts and ideas through imaginative play. For example, I observed children playing happily in the mountain-rescue helicopter set up in the role-play area and watched them plan a rescue attempt for another group of children who were stranded mountaineers. Adults use skilful questioning to encourage children to extend their thinking. Children are continually encouraged to write or draw pictures of their experiences. Consequently, approximately two thirds of them have reached beyond national expectations in writing this year.

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Primary School

There is a real family atmosphere in the school and a sense that it is very much at the heart of the local community. Parents appreciate how well you and all your staff care for their children. They typically comment on your own welcoming approach and on the way other staff are always willing to listen, respond positively to any concerns and give help where needed.

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Primary School

The teaching of phonics is particularly strong and 100% of pupils reached the required standard in the Year 1 phonics check in 2017 for the fifth consecutive year. This gives pupils a firm foundation to become fluent readers at the earliest possible stage. Reading continues to be a strength of the school because you have successfully tackled the dip in reading outcomes seen in the 2016 end-of-key-stage- 2 test. Over the past year, you have improved teachers’ skills in developing pupils’ comprehension and understanding. During the inspection, I spoke to a range of pupils from Years 3 to 6 who told me that they frequently read for pleasure at home as well as in the daily sessions in school. They enjoy selecting from the wider range of fiction texts you have provided in the library, but do not always have access to a similar range of non-fiction texts to support their topic work.

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Primary School

Leaders have designed a curriculum that builds on the resources and harnesses the rich cultural heritage of the surrounding areas. This year, for example, you have developed whole-school topics around Lancashire life – with a focus on the Tudor influence – and the Lake District. You enrich pupils’ learning with a wide range of visits, for example to Wordsworth’s house in Cockermouth. Equally, you invite visitors into the school to extend pupils’ personal and social development. Recently, you participated in a Global Learning Week. Pupils had the opportunity to meet a refugee, who gave them a first-hand perspective on how it feels to live in fear and have to flee from one’s country and the chance to reflect on how this contrasts with their own lives in Britain.

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Primary School

Leaders ensure that there is coverage of the national curriculum, but pupils’ progress is not always consistently good across all subjects. Topic work engages pupils’ interests well but does not always support them in systematically building on their skills, knowledge and understanding in subjects such as history, geography and science as they move through the school.

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Primary School

Leaders and governors take safeguarding very seriously and ensure that all staff and visitors to the school are aware of policies and procedures to keep pupils safe. Recent training on e-safety gave governors the opportunity to check the security of the school’s internet filtering system, and staff teach pupils how to keep themselves safe online.

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Primary School

Pupils care for one another well. Reception children have an older ‘buddy’ to look out for them and help them settle in to school. Pupils understand that bullying of any kind is unacceptable, including racist or homophobic bullying, and you constantly reinforce this message in worship and through the values you promote in the wider life of the school. I spoke to groups of pupils from key stage 2 during their rounders tournament. They told me that bullying is extremely rare and that they are confident staff will always deal with any issues quickly and effectively. Pupils report that they feel safe and almost all parents agree. Training for staff is up to date and reviewed at least annually. Likewise, the school’s policies and information meet the requirements of ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (2016). Consequently, you and your leaders, including governors, have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are robust and records are

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Inspection findings

 Pupils continue to make good progress as they move through the school in reading, writing and mathematics. In the 2016 national test outcomes, pupils’ attainment in reading was lower than in writing and mathematics. We agreed that I would focus on reading during my visit. You explained to me that while the 2016 dip was partially related to the more demanding and unfamiliar testing arrangements last year, pupils did not do quite as well as expected when faced with some of the higher-level questions.  You responded to this by giving teachers further training in how to support pupils in developing these skills through their guided reading sessions. Preliminary outcomes from the 2017 statutory tests indicate that this has been very successful because a significantly higher proportion of pupils have reached the expected standard or beyond in reading than in 2016.  You have also added extra reading resources to increase pupils’ range of choice

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Inspection findings

of fiction texts. Pupils appreciate this and enjoy reading at school and at home for pleasure. However, they do not make much use of non-fiction texts in school in their topic work and there is a more limited range available for them to access. You explained that you have plans in place to improve this for the new academic year through purchasing an increased range of non-fiction materials.  I looked at the information available for parents of children in the early years. Parents of children in the Reception class receive regular updates on their children’s progress and make good use of the home-to-school book to maintain a dialogue with school staff. This is an improvement since the last inspection report.  You maintain good communications with parents, including through the ‘yellow pages’ published on the school website and the use of text messages. At the time of my visit, some parts of the school website were incomplete but you explained

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Inspection findings

that the site is new and you are still transferring or updating some of the information.  Transition arrangements for children entering the school in Reception and for those pupils moving on to secondary education at the end of Year 6 are good. You welcome pre-school-age children to join the Reception class for half a day each week in the year before they enter the school. This means that they are already familiar with the setting and swiftly settle in at the start of the school year. Year 6 pupils move on to at least five different secondary schools, but you maintain strong links with all of them and make every effort to facilitate transition days and to welcome secondary staff to visit your school.  Leaders and governors ensure that disadvantaged pupils are well supported to enable them to achieve their full potential. There are no significant differences in their attainment compared with that of other pupils nationally. You promote their

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Inspection findings

confidence and self-esteem through enabling them to access the full range of trips and visits and this supports their good progress and strong personal development. Similarly, those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive effective support and make good progress from their starting points.  We also agreed that I would check on how you are developing the curriculum to meet the needs of your pupils across a wide range of subjects. The curriculum you have designed for children in the early years is just right for their needs across all areas of early learning. The learning area buzzes with purposeful, practical learning opportunities that engage children’s interest and motivate them to join in and learn as much as they can.  In key stages 1 and 2, pupils build on this strong foundation and continue to make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils’ progress in

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Inspection findings

other subjects is less consistent. This is because you have not yet focused sufficiently systematically on how pupils will develop skills, knowledge and understanding in these subjects within your curriculum plans for each year group. You explained that reviewing the curriculum is identified as a priority for the school over the coming months.  We looked at samples of pupils’ work in science and topic books together and agreed that progress is less evident than it is in other written work. Comparison between books from lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2 sometimes showed little variation in the tasks set. While teachers had higher expectations of outcomes from older pupils, there was occasionally some evidence of pupils covering old ground rather than moving on to new learning as swiftly as possible.  Almost all pupils attend school punctually every day unless they are unwell or there is a very good reason for them to miss school. Attendance continues to be

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Inspection findings

above average and persistent absence is declining.

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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

 the curriculum is designed to build systematically on pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding across the full range of subjects in key stages 1 and 2, so that progress is consistently as strong in other subjects as it is in reading, 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 Lancashire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this short inspection, I met with you and with three members of the governing body. I spoke to a representative of the local authority. You and I visited classes to observe learning and we looked at work in pupils’ books. I met with groups of pupils from Years 3 to 6 to talk about their reading and gain their views on school. I spoke to seven parents at the beginning of the school day. I considered 52 responses to the online parent survey, including free-text comments. I scrutinised a range of documentation, including that relating to assessment, school self-evaluation, school improvement planning, attendance, the single central record and other safeguarding procedures and practices.

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