Trenode CofE School

Trenode CofE School Widegates, Looe, Cornwall PL13 1QA

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Standards of pupils’ achievement have declined since the previous inspection. In 2017, standards in reading and mathematics improved. However, outcomes in writing at key stage 2 are still well below the national average.  Until recently, governors did not hold school leaders sufficiently to account for the progress made by pupils. As a result, the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement were allowed to decline.  Governors are not clear about which strategies for improving the achievement of disadvantaged pupils have the most impact.  School leaders have not ensured that the school’s website meets statutory requirements.  The curriculum does not provide pupils with enough opportunities to learn about other cultures and faiths. This does not help to prepare them well for life in a multicultural society.  Subject leaders do not have a comprehensive understanding of how well pupils are achieving in their subjects across the school.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teachers do not make the best use of outdoor learning spaces to deepen learning experiences for children in the early years.  Rates of attendance have fallen below national averages since the previous inspection. Recent initiatives appear to have reversed this decline.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The recently appointed acting headteacher has an accurate view of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. She has acted quickly to address weaknesses. The actions taken have led to improvements in the quality of teaching and have contributed to rising standards across the school.  Recent external support has helped to improve leadership and the quality of teaching.  Pupils across the school are engaging with the improved levels of challenge provided by their teachers. They are happy to describe how they enjoy being challenged and can show how their efforts are leading to improving outcomes.  Pupils are polite and caring. They are proud of their school and feel safe and well cared for.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of leadership and management, including governance, by ensuring that: – governors use effective systems to monitor the progress made by different groups of pupils to ensure that they make good progress – governors effectively monitor the impact of the school’s use of additional funding to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils – the school’s website meets statutory requirements and includes details of the curriculum for each year group and an analysis of the impact of pupil premium funding – the curriculum provides pupils with opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and faiths so that they are better prepared for life in a multicultural society – outside learning spaces are used more effectively to promote investigation, curiosity and the development of communication skills, especially for children in the early years – subject leaders develop a stronger view of the quality of provision and outcomes

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

for their subjects across the school – leaders continue to monitor the attendance of all pupils and maintain the current improvements.  Raise pupils’ achievements in writing at key stage 2 by ensuring that: – teachers use accurate assessments of writing that help them to plan the next steps for pupils – writing tasks challenge the most able pupils – pupils, especially lower- and middle-ability pupils, spell correctly and use grammar and punctuation accurately.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

 Until recently, school leaders, including governors, have not had an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the quality of education at the school. As a result, the quality of teaching and the outcomes achieved by pupils have declined since the previous inspection.  The local authority acted swiftly when monitoring reports showed that the school was in decline. The local authority challenged the school to make urgent improvements and this resulted in a restructuring of the school’s leadership and governance.  The recently appointed acting headteacher and interim chair of governors have an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and priorities for improvement. Together, they have taken swift action to deal with the most important aspects and this has led to improvements across the school. Leaders are aware of the range of improvements needed to ensure that the school offers a good quality of education for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

its pupils and they have appropriate plans in place to achieve this.  Until recently, systems for tracking pupils’ progress were not used effectively to check the progress made by specific groups of pupils, including the most able pupils. This resulted in school leaders not acting quickly enough to help pupils when they were falling behind. A new system, introduced at the start of term, is already helping teachers to assess the progress of pupils more closely and to identify any gaps in their learning. Teachers are using this information to provide specific support so that these gaps can be closed.  Over time, pupils have not been making the progress expected of them. This is because teaching has not sufficiently met pupils’ needs, and teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve have not been high enough. School leaders are now holding teachers to account for the progress made by their pupils.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

 Leaders acknowledge that they do not have a firm understanding of the impact of the school’s use of the additional funding provided to help disadvantaged pupils. While these pupils are making good progress, leaders are unable to identify which interventions are the most successful.  Subject leaders have had few opportunities to gain a clear understanding of how pupils are achieving in their subjects across the school. This is being addressed so that leaders can have a greater impact and raise standards of achievement across the curriculum.  School leaders have followed advice from the local authority and have begun to improve outside learning spaces for children in the Reception Year. However, these spaces are not used effectively to maximise children’s learning across the early years curriculum.  While the curriculum is broad, it is not sufficiently preparing pupils for life in modern Britain. Older pupils describing their studies in religious education displayed a deep

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

understanding of Christianity. However, their knowledge of other cultures and faiths is limited.  The acting headteacher leads the school with a collaborative, open style that is valued by staff and by parents. Staff feel valued and they are confident that the school is improving rapidly. They appreciate the opportunities to take part in training and describe how this enables them to teach more effectively.  The curriculum offers pupils a wide range of experiences that enhance their learning. The curriculum is enhanced by a good selection of after-school clubs and by visits to places of interest that give pupils first-hand experiences connected to their learning. Pupils in key stage 1 are currently working in a range of lessons to prepare for visits to a lifeboat station, fire station and police station. During the inspection, they were producing detailed sketches of a lifejacket in art, investigating the qualities of the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

materials used in science and writing descriptions in literacy.  School council elections give pupils the chance to learn about democracy. Year 6 pupils spoke articulately about the British parliamentary system, naming political parties and describing how elections operate. They described how the school helps them to consider the opinions of others and to recognise when people are expressing extreme views.  The sport premium funding is used effectively and enables pupils to take part in a wide range of physical education and sporting activities.  School leaders make sure that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive appropriate support and this ensures that these pupils make good progress.  Leaders have acted effectively to improve rates of attendance and to reduce the previously high levels of persistent absence. Recent initiatives have led to a significant improvement in overall attendance at the school.

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Governance of the school

 Since the previous inspection, governors have neglected to maintain effective leadership, a good quality of teaching and good standards of achievement. Governors have not held leaders to account and they have not provided the necessary vision or strategic leadership to maintain or improve standards. Consequently, the school has gone through a period of decline and unsettled leadership.  The recently appointed interim chair of governors, a national leader of governance, has used her wealth of experience to create a more effective governing body. As a result, the governing body is now focused on the key priorities, such as the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.  Governors are aware of the need to improve their understanding of how additional funding is used to support disadvantaged pupils and to provide annual reports on the school’s website.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  There is a culture of safeguarding in the school because staff know that it is their first priority to keep pupils safe. Staff know the pupils well and take great care to make sure that all welfare needs are met. This includes working with other agencies to ensure that any concerns are quickly addressed and the best support provided. Staff are clear about the procedures to follow should they have a concern about a pupil’s welfare.  Leaders make appropriate checks on all staff to ensure that they are suitable to work with children. Good systems are in place to check that all staff have up-to-date safeguarding training.  The school provides excellent guidance for parents on safety issues and parents believe that their children are safe when at school. Pupils know how to stay safe, including when they are online.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 The quality of teaching has varied considerably across the school since the previous inspection. There has not been enough effective teaching to help pupils make at least good progress and reach higher standards by the time they leave Year 6. As a result, pupils’ outcomes in 2015 and 2016 were well below the national averages for reading, writing and mathematics. In 2017, Year 6 pupils’ achievements improved in reading and mathematics but outcomes in writing remained well below national expectations.  Until recently, the most able pupils in key stages 1 and 2 were not suitably challenged and few reached the higher levels in reading, writing and mathematics. Currently, the most able pupils are being challenged across the school and this is leading to rising standards. Parents are aware of the higher expectations. One parent commented: ‘My child’s thirst for learning has returned with gusto and she looks forward to every day in

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

school. I feel that she is valued, stretched and motivated by the staff around her.’  At the end of the last academic year, school leaders recognised that the school’s assessment system was not providing them with enough accurate information about the achievements of pupils from their different starting points. As a result, teachers were not setting suitably challenging work for the pupils in their classes. Leaders took appropriate steps and a new system was introduced. This is being used effectively by teachers to identify gaps in pupils’ learning and to plan suitable interventions that are helping pupils to make good and, in some cases rapid, progress.  The assessment of children joining the early years accurately describes children’s knowledge and skills compared to what is typical for their age. Teachers and teaching assistants are making accurate ongoing assessments of children in the Reception Year

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

as they learn and play. However, these assessments are not used well enough when planning for the next steps in children’s learning. Parents appreciate the detailed information, including photographs of learning experiences, which the teacher sends home each week. The parents enjoy contributing to the assessments of their children’s progress.  The quality of teaching is improving. This is because leaders are monitoring teaching more closely and taking action when it is not good enough. Staff now have much higher expectations of pupils’ work. As a result, pupils take more pride in the presentation of their work than in previous years.  Teachers understand the urgent need to raise standards of writing throughout the school, including the ability of pupils to use grammar, punctuation and spelling accurately whenever they write. A good start has been made to a new whole-school initiative to expect pupils to reach higher writing standards.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 All teachers use the newly agreed policy for giving feedback to pupils and pupils said that this helps them to move forward in their learning. One pupil commented: ‘Teachers explain things very well. When you have finished the first stage, they help you to understand the next stages.’  Teaching assistants are now receiving better direction and they provide effective support for pupils. They play a particularly important role in supporting disadvantaged pupils. Disadvantaged pupils make up a fifth of the school’s population and they are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. During the inspection, teaching assistants effectively helped disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2 to address the challenge of learning three different approaches to solving number problems. They used their expertise to encourage the pupils to find answers for themselves and to select increasingly difficult tasks.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Pupils show positive attitudes to learning in lessons and they enjoy the interesting activities provided by their teachers. Teachers use exciting resources to enhance learning. For example, key stage 2 pupils enjoy using brightly coloured t-shirts bearing numbers to solve subtraction problems.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.  Pupils’ cultural development requires improvement because they have limited knowledge and understanding about the range of cultures and faiths found in wider society.  The school provides many opportunities for the spiritual, moral and social development of pupils. Year 6 pupils described the efforts of the school council to repair a play area located in the school grounds.  Pupils throughout the school are happy to describe their work and have a good understanding of how to be successful learners. A number of pupils described the school as a family. One pupil added, ‘I like this school so much that I will send my children here when I am older.’  Pupils know how to stay safe in and out of school, including online, because of the effective guidance they receive. They are confident and able to explain what actions

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Personal development and welfare

they would take if they were worried about anything while using computers or other mobile technology.  Pupils report that there is very little bullying of any sort at school and that staff react quickly to resolve any disputes between pupils.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement because attendance levels have been significantly below national averages since the previous inspection. In 2014, overall attendance was in the lowest 10% of all mainstream schools nationally, with very high persistent absence rates for all significant groups. Attendance improved in 2015 but fell in 2016, with overall attendance below the national average and persistent absence high, particularly for boys.  School leaders have taken effective action to address the school’s historically high rates of absence. Parents have been given information about the importance of regular attendance and the school has supported families where persistent absence has been an issue. As a result of these actions, current attendance rates are improving.  Pupils report that behaviour has improved throughout the school and this is supported by the views of parents and by the school’s behaviour records. There are fewer

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Behaviour

incidents of low-level disruption in classrooms and no disruption to learning was seen during the inspection.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Pupils’ achievement over time has not been high enough. In 2016, key stage 2 outcomes were well below the national averages. In that year, one out of the eight Year 6 pupils achieved the expected level and none reached the higher level in reading, writing and mathematics combined. Outcomes in the grammar, punctuation and spelling assessment were well below the national average. Pupils made less progress from their starting points than was seen nationally in English and mathematics. Key stage 1 outcomes in 2016 were also below the national averages, particularly for writing.  In 2017, the progress made by key stage 2 pupils improved in reading and mathematics. However, the progress they made in writing was significantly below the national average. The 2017 Year 2 cohort was too small for meaningful statistical analysis. However, scrutiny of past and current work by these pupils suggests that they

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

have made good progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics.  Since the previous inspection, the most able pupils in key stages 1 and 2 have not been challenged to reach the higher levels that they were capable of. As a result, in 2015 and 2016, a lower proportion of pupils achieved higher levels in reading, writing and mathematics at key stages 1 and 2 than was seen nationally. In 2017, the most able pupils’ outcomes improved in reading and mathematics but not in writing.  The previous inspection report noted that children started school with skills and knowledge that are broadly as expected for their age. In some years, an overall assessment is not possible because the intake into Reception can be as few as two children. However, assessments of the progress made by Reception children over time show that they make good progress. An increasing proportion of children reach a good

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

level of development by the end of the Reception Year. For example, in 2014, half of the cohort achieved a good level of development, while in 2016, two thirds reached the level. Reception children are well prepared for their transition into Year 1.  Teachers are now providing greater challenge for all pupils and this is leading to standards rising in English and mathematics. During the inspection, pupils in key stage 1 were asked to examine closely some newspaper reports to find commas used after fronted adverbials such as ‘strangely’ or ‘amazingly’. They were also required to identify direct speech and use examples in their own reports.  During the inspection, teachers challenged pupils in key stage 2 to investigate different approaches to solving number problems and to decide which one was the most effective. Year 6 pupils used different techniques to solve problems where four-digit numbers were divided by two-digit numbers. Year 4 pupils were assessing different

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

ways to solve subtraction problems. One higher-attaining pupil stated: ‘I have been investigating three methods for subtracting. I think the column method is best. It is the easiest.’  Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress because they are strongly supported by their teachers and by teaching assistants. Over time, both groups of pupils have progressed at similar rates to others with similar starting points. Outcomes have risen for these pupils as outcomes have improved across the school for all pupils. During the inspection, pupils in these groups were given good support that met their learning and behaviour needs well. The school uses most of the pupil premium funding to provide individual support and findings suggest that this expenditure is having a positive impact for these pupils. School leaders have not fully investigated the impact of the use of this specific funding.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 From the start of the current term, leaders have insisted that teachers provide opportunities for pupils to practise and improve their writing skills in subjects across the curriculum. This has started to happen, although there is insufficient evidence to show that this is now commonplace. An example of this initiative was seen in a current key stage 1 science project where pupils were writing reports on the features that should be found on a good lifejacket. Two of the most able Year 2 pupils were able to describe their detailed, labelled sketches of a lifejacket and explain why nylon fabric was a suitable choice. They also described how they had used commas in their description and three different kinds of sentence to create interest.  Pupils enjoy reading and select from a wide range of books. Since 2014, the percentage of pupils in Year 1 who achieved the expected standards in the national

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

phonics screening check has been in line with, and sometimes above, the national average. Year 6 pupils have good deduction skills and they talked enthusiastically about their reading habits and favourite authors. When asked what the school had done to help them become good readers, one pupil said, ‘Guided reading lessons help me to learn more challenging words.’  Pupils are given opportunities to prepare for the next stage in their education through strong links with their future schools. However, their readiness is hindered by their lack of ability to write effectively and by their lack of understanding of the range of different faiths and cultures that they are likely to see in wider society.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address head@trenode.cornwall.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 29–30 January 2013

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The acting headteacher took up post in June 2017.  The majority of pupils are from a White British background.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is above average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities who receive support is above the national average. The number of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is average.  The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about additional funding for pupil premium and information of the curriculum for each year group on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 The lead inspector observed learning in lessons with the acting headteacher.  Meetings were held with the acting headteacher, the chair of governors and the leader of mathematics. Additionally, the lead inspector had discussions with pupils, parents, a representative of the local authority and the school’s improvement consultant.  The lead inspector scrutinised a wide range of documentation. This included the school’s self-evaluation, school development plan, governing body minutes, local authority and school improvement reports, attendance and behaviour records and safeguarding documents.  The lead inspector jointly scrutinised pupils’ work with the acting headteacher and observed behaviour and spoke with pupils during lunchtimes.  The views of parents were considered from 15 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and from conversations with parents at the end of the school day.

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Information about this inspection

Four pupils responded to the online questionnaire designed for them.

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Inspection team

Paul Hodson, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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