Edale CofE Primary School

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

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Nancy Lees Executive Headteacher Edale CofE Primary School Grindsbrook Booth Edale Hope Valley Derbyshire S33 7ZD

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 11 October 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions that have been taken since the school's recent section 5 inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection that took place in February 2017.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

Having considered all the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

The local authority's statement of action is fit for purpose.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

The school's improvement plan is fit for purpose.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Edale CofE Primary School

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the diocese of Derby, the regional schools commissioner, and the director of children's services for Derbyshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took place in

 Urgently address the serious weaknesses in the school’s safeguarding arrangements by: – ensuring that all staff who work, or apply to work, at the school are rigorously vetted – maintaining a single central register in accordance with statutory requirements – ensuring that all staff who work with pupils receive appropriate safeguarding training – ensuring that records of any safeguarding concerns are logged and appropriate support is provided for pupils – ensuring that staff and pupils are helped to understand how to keep safe, including awareness of the dangers of extremism – making sure that all staff understand the allegations against staff policy and procedures.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took place in

 Improve the leadership and management by: – ensuring that stability in leadership is brought about as quickly as possible and that those responsible for leading and managing the school are properly supported – devising effective protocols for the management of behaviour, including incidents of serious misbehaviour and bullying – ensuring that all curriculum plans, including for subjects other than mathematics or English, for key stage 2, are implemented effectively – ensuring that pupils receive an effective programme of personal, social, health and economic education, across the school – implementing an effective policy to manage teachers’ performance and ensuring that their teaching is supported well – ensuring that the school keeps accurate records of behaviour, teaching quality and pupils’ progress and that leaders monitor and evaluate these aspects of the school regularly – maintaining a website which is compliant with statutory requirements

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took place in

– monitoring and evaluating the use of all government funding, including physical education and sports premium, pupil premium and special educational needs and/or disabilities funding – implementing an effective policy for the support of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities which complies with statutory requirements – implementing an effective policy to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding, so that they are properly prepared for life in modern Britain and the next stage of their education – developing a coherent reading strategy across the school and ensuring that pupils have access to a wide range of reading material appropriate to their age and ability – strengthening communication with parents, particularly with regard to the actions being taken to improve the school.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took place in

 Improve the quality of teaching in key stage 2 to accelerate the progress of all pupils by: – ensuring that teachers’ planning takes account of individual pupils’ needs and capabilities  – building more opportunities for pupils to extend their understanding and tackle more complex tasks in all subjects, so that the most able pupils can reach higher standards, particularly in mathematics  – moderating all teachers’ assessments thoroughly to ensure their greater reliability  – ensuring that pupils use what they learn in English grammar and punctuation lessons to read and write more effectively  – listening to pupils read regularly and developing their comprehension skills more effectively  – ensuring that teachers have opportunities to learn from best practice both in the school and elsewhere.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took place in

 Improve pupils’ personal development by: – ensuring that pupils develop a broad understanding and appreciation of the faiths, cultures and communities that make up modern Britain – ensuring that pupils know how to keep themselves safe, especially online – helping pupils to understand how to lead a happy and healthy life and to be understanding of different types of relationships and lifestyles – working with families to ensure that pupils arrive at school on time – developing pupils’ leadership skills and self-confidence by helping them to take on more responsibilities as they get older through the school.   

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Evidence

This inspection focused on the areas for improvement concerned with safeguarding and with leadership and management. The inspector observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the executive headteacher, members of the governing body and a representative of the diocese. He held a discussion by telephone with a representative of the local authority.

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Context

Since the inspection, the headteacher has left the school. The role of the executive headteacher has been confirmed until the end of the academic year. Discussions are taking place concerning the possibility of the school becoming an academy. The staffing for teaching in key stage 2 has changed.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

All of the specific safeguarding issues identified at the inspection in February 2017 have been dealt with effectively. The school carries out and records the vetting checks on staff as required. The staff have been given a good level of essential training in safeguarding. This included awareness of the dangers of extremism. The school keeps a good record of who has completed which training.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The policies and procedures for the staff to report and to record any safeguarding concerns have been clarified and communicated to them. The staff are now aware of the policies and procedures for dealing with allegations against members of staff. The local authority has provided close and thorough support to the school on safeguarding. This has helped the school to make the necessary improvements quickly. The school has produced a clear and straightforward guide to safeguarding, given to anyone joining the staff temporarily, to inform them quickly and efficiently about what to do, if necessary.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The leadership of the school has been secured until the end of the current academic year. The long-term arrangements for the school are uncertain. This is hampering the governing body and the senior leaders in planning for sustained improvement. This matter needs a prompt resolution so that the recent progress made by the school can be secured.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The governing body has ensured that a process for managing the performance of the staff is now in place. It is due to start operation shortly. The school’s website now meets the requirements for what schools must publish. The website has been improved in order to assist the school in communicating better with parents. The staff report that parents are now more satisfied with communications with the school. That is because the school has introduced new ways of keeping parents informed. These include a regular parents’ forum, which is attended by members of the governing body and senior leaders.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The school has a new policy for supporting pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The senior leaders have ensured that the policy complies with the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’. The governing body now checks routinely how effectively the school uses funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. It checks also on the school’s use of additional funding received through the pupil premium and the physical education (PE) and sport premium.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The school has improved the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, using a wide-ranging approach. This was reflected in displays around the school and activities taking place in classrooms during this inspection. The activities include opportunities for the pupils to work with the pupils at a partner school. In addition, the pupils visit a school in very different circumstances from Edale. The pupils have opportunities to discuss topical news events. For example, in one lesson during this inspection, they discussed the proposed independence of Catalonia.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Leaders have ensured that clear curriculum plans for key stage 2 have been completed. They indicate appropriate attention to the full range of national curriculum subjects. The plans incorporate a programme for the pupils’ personal, social, and health education (PSHE). The programme includes a range of opportunities for the pupils to develop their awareness and understanding of fundamental British values.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The attention paid to teaching literacy and numeracy is evident in the classrooms. The school has increased its emphasis on reading. Leaders have purchased a good range of new books which have increased the pupils’ interest in reading. The classrooms now contain spaces and resources to encourage the pupils to read. The pupils are starting to take advantage of the new resources and are reading more books and reading more often. The inspector observed a teacher listening to the pupils reading fluently, with confidence and good inflexion.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

New policies and procedures for managing behaviour and dealing with bullying are now in place. The school’s anti-bullying policy includes clear and practical guidance for the staff on how to deal with any bullying. It sets out the requirements for recording any reported incidents and the actions taken in response.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

The school’s PSHE programme provides opportunities for the pupils to learn about healthy living. The school teaches the pupils about some aspects of how to keep themselves safe, such as when using the internet. The PSHE programme, however, does not contain much to indicate what the school does more broadly to help the pupils to learn how to keep themselves safe.

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External support

The local authority acted swiftly to increase the level of support to the school after the last inspection. It has put into practice a comprehensive statement of action. The support has been crucial in stabilising the leadership of the school. It has also helped to rectify the shortcomings in safeguarding that were identified at the inspection in February 2017.

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