Setting

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

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Mrs Sarah Woolley Headteacher Frances Olive Anderson Church of England (Aided) Primary School The Grove Lea Gainsborough Lincolnshire DN21 5EP

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Anderson Church of England (Aided) Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 18 October 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Anderson Church of England (Aided) Primary School

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in February 2017. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Anderson Church of England (Aided) Primary School

Senior leaders and the governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection in order for the school to become a good school.

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Evidence

During the inspection, meetings were held with you and the deputy headteacher, the chair of the governing body, subject and other leaders, the designated safeguarding lead, and representatives from the local authority and the diocese to discuss the actions taken since the last inspection. The school improvement plan was evaluated. The inspector visited all classrooms in key stage 2, observed the pupils working, looked at examples of their work, and discussed with the pupils what they were doing. The inspector looked separately at a sample of the pupils’ work. A range of other documents was scrutinised, including safeguarding records, records of meetings of the governing body, and information about the progress of the pupils.

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Main findings

You and the senior leaders have established a clear direction for the improvement of the school, focused unequivocally on the areas for improvement from the inspection in February 2017. You resolved quickly the technical glitches with the school’s system for keeping safeguarding records. The records are now easy for the nominated staff to access. The records are fit for purpose.

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Main findings

The governing body is now frequently asking relevant and pertinent questions, not just of the senior leaders, but also of other members of staff with leadership responsibilities. The questions are helping to focus the work of the leaders on bringing about the necessary improvements. The governing body is now better organised than it was at the time of the inspection. It is more active and systematic in its approach. It knows the school increasingly well and is beginning to identify for itself key strategic priorities for improving the school. The external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium was completed promptly. It has assisted the governing body in improving the way in which it checks on the impact of the use made of the funding.

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Main findings

You and your leadership team are fully aware of, and responding well to, the heightened sense of accountability brought by the governing body. The subject leaders are able to respond confidently to the enhanced demands now placed upon them. This is because they are using accurate information about how well the pupils are doing effectively. They use the information to inform their own evaluations of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, in discussions with the teachers, and to identify things that need to be improved. They contribute well to a coherent, school-wide approach to checking on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The senior leaders use the outcomes from that process to agree priorities and targets for development with staff.

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Main findings

The teachers’ higher expectations of the pupils are apparent in lessons and in the pupils’ work. The pupils are getting more opportunities to write at length and in different subjects, such as science. The pupils told me, often with a smile and a glint in their eyes, that they are now finding the work that they are given challenging. They find the work stimulating, including for disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and the most able. That was apparent, for example, when I discussed with some pupils how they were using their knowledge of mathematics to help them to learn about the Black Death in history.

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Main findings

The pupils’ work, typically, shows care and attention to presentation. You have taken some simple but very effective steps to assist the pupils, for example in improving their handwriting. The pupils’ books are well kept and I saw many examples of carefully formed and very legible handwriting from pupils in different year groups. The school development plan is fit for purpose. It is focused tightly on dealing with the areas for improvement identified at the inspection in February 2017. You have ensured that the staff get good opportunities for appropriate professional development and training, so that they are able to make the required improvements. The opportunities have included help to make sure that the teachers assess the pupils’ work accurately and are able to teach the pupils to develop mastery in mathematics and to achieve greater depth in their knowledge and understanding in that subject and in literacy. Though still to be confirmed, the

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Main findings

results from the national tests taken by Year 6 pupils in 2017 indicate that the pupils made much better progress than in the previous year.

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External support

The school has been served well by a good range of suitable and effective support from the local authority and from the diocese. The support has been instrumental in bringing the improvements in governance, the prompt completion of the review of the pupil premium, and support for improving the teaching of different subjects. The school has benefited from a link with an outstanding school, arranged through the local authority, which has resulted in practical improvements to teaching and learning. You make good use of a range of other opportunities for support from your local connections with other schools.

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External support

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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