Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

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

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Mr Graham McLeod Headteacher Haslingfield Endowed Primary School High Street Haslingfield Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB23 1JW

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 11 October 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 2014.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed 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 Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

You, your deputy headteacher, the key stage 1 manager, the governing body and other leaders have built effectively on the strengths found in the last inspection. Together, you have made sure that the school continues to be a happy and friendly place. Consequently, both the pupils and staff enjoy working at Haslingfield.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

The professional debate you have with each other about what makes teaching effective and how it will improve learning for pupils is one of the main factors behind the school’s success. This contributes to your strong teamwork. The knowledgeable governing body provides good challenge to other school leaders.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

You and your leadership team are very clear in discussion about the school’s main priorities, including improving pupils’ progress in writing. We agreed that this is not reflected clearly enough in development planning, making it difficult to check whether initiatives are having the desired effect. I have asked you to ensure that written planning more closely indicates what you are trying to improve and how.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Your pupils are great ambassadors for the school and they make a considerable contribution to its success. In the lessons I visited, pupils talked readily about their work and were keen to learn. They shared ideas with each other and listened to adults well. They thoroughly enjoy school and behave well. The school’s core values are reflected in all aspects of your work and help pupils to become kind, caring and respectful citizens.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Pupils are especially positive about the way that learning is enriched by an extremely wide range of clubs and by the imaginative use of visits and visitors to bring subjects alive. I could see that you offer many more clubs than are typically found in a school of this size and these help to make school life memorable. The curriculum also includes numerous opportunities for pupils to develop their creativity and to improve their sporting prowess.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

The decision to employ specialist teachers or coaches for art, music and physical education has a good effect on the learning of pupils in these subjects. The impact of this is seen in the well-attended sports clubs, very high-quality artwork on display around school and the regular performances of the choir and orchestra in the local and wider community.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Most parents are pleased with the work of the school and would recommend it to others. Typical comments included, ‘The teachers are enthusiastic, and demonstrate commitment to the children's learning and well-being every day,’ and, ‘Our child loves it here and we would not contemplate sending her anywhere else.’ Parents make a good contribution to school life. For example, the very well-attended morning ‘coding’ club is run by a parent and is helping pupils to develop some very advanced computing skills.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Parents are particularly positive about provision for children in the early years. Although children have only been in the Reception class a short time they have settled very quickly. The teacher makes particularly good use of the outdoor area to help children explore their own ideas when they are, for example, making pancakes in the ‘mud garden’ or searching for ‘treasure’ in the sand tray.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

You have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of good quality.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

As the designated lead for safeguarding, you have ensured that all staff are trained in line with statutory requirements to ensure that they fulfil their duties to keep pupils safe from harm. You work well with other agencies to get support for pupils when this is necessary.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

All parents spoken to during the inspection feel that their children are safe at school. Children are taught about the potential dangers when they use the internet or social media and told me that they feel safe in school.

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Short inspection of Haslingfield Endowed Primary School

Older pupils take their responsibilities as ‘buddies’ very seriously. They are diligent in helping others at lunchtime or playtime. Pupils are very clear that any worries are tackled quickly. As one commented, ‘We are all like one big family.’

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Inspection findings

 We met at the start of the inspection to agree the key lines of enquiry for my day in school. The first of these was whether pupils were making fast enough progress in writing, especially boys. We wanted to look at this because in 2017, pupils’ attainment was lower in writing than in reading and mathematics at the end of both key stages.  You have already taken steps to tackle this gap in attainment. Pupils’ books show that progress in writing is already improving, although not yet consistently so. Where progress is now securely good, teachers are making writing especially engaging to reluctant boy writers by focusing on linking work to inspiring books such as ‘The Silver Sword’. In these classes, teachers plan good opportunities for pupils to write at length in English and other subjects. This helps them to practise and, through good quality feedback, improve their writing skills. We agreed that

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Inspection findings

this is not yet consistently strong across the school and because of this writing remains the main focus for improvement.  We also looked at how well phonics is taught in key stage 1. This was a focus because in 2016 the proportion of pupils reaching the expected level in the national phonics screening at the end of Year 1 was below the national average.  You were able to explain the reasons for this apparent underachievement and it is clear that the steps you took to improve provision have been effective. There was a good rise in attainment in 2017, with an above average proportion reaching the expected level by the end of Year 1. Pupils in Year 2 who had not done well enough in the previous year have been given good-quality support to help them catch up. I saw that teachers are skilled at teaching phonics, demonstrating good subject knowledge and high expectations.  We agreed to look at how well teachers meet differing needs in lessons. This was

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Inspection findings

identified as a minor weakness in the last inspection report. It is also something that you have been working to improve because too few pupils reached greater depth at the end of Year 2 in 2017.  I found that teachers plan work that engages pupils in their learning and supports the less able well. However, there are occasions across the school, but especially in Year 2, when teachers do not challenge the most able pupils well enough by planning work that fully extends their learning. You talked through with me how this is being addressed. My observations in class and a scrutiny of books reassured me that you are doing the right thing to ensure that challenge for the most able is consistently strong in all classes. You know, however, that this continues to be an important priority for school improvement.  Finally, in order to follow up one of the weaknesses identified in the last inspection report, we looked at the impact of middle leaders in securing

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Inspection findings

improvement across the school. It is clear that their roles have been greatly strengthened over the last four years.  Middle leaders, such as those in charge of subjects, clearly understand their individual and collective responsibilities and are enabled to play a full part in improving teaching and learning. They have a clear picture of what is going well and what still needs improving because they are fully involved in monitoring provision. The English leader is a good role model in her own practice and is supporting colleagues well to ensure that the recent improvements in writing become more embedded in all year groups. Similarly, provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well led and managed. The leader monitors carefully the support given to these pupils to ensure that it is having the desired effect.

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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

 pupils, especially boys, make the same consistently good progress in writing as they do in mathematics and reading  teaching, especially in Year 2, always provides the right level of challenge for the most able  school development planning clearly identifies the main priorities and how change is to be secured.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I undertook the following activities:

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Information about the inspection

 observations of teaching and learning across the school during learning walks with you and assistant headteacher  meetings with school leaders and members of the governing body  discussions with parents at the start of the school day and the scrutiny of 79 responses to the Ofsted ‘Parent View’ questionnaire  the scrutiny of seven responses to the staff questionnaire and 17 responses to the pupil survey  consideration of a range of information supplied by the school, including checks on the quality of teaching, the school development plan, school policies and records relating to attendance and safeguarding procedures  listening to some pupils reading in lessons, a scrutiny of school assessment information and pupils’ books in different subjects from the current year.

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