Tintwistle CofE Primary School

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

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Mrs J Griffin Headteacher Tintwistle CofE Primary School South Close Glossop SK13 ILY

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 December 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 January 2013.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

School leaders have maintained the good quality of education since the last inspection. You have successfully created a culture where members of staff are provided with a range of opportunities to fulfil their potential. The staff whom I spoke with appreciate the range of professional development opportunities and the degree of responsibility that they are given. As one teacher said: ‘The head trusts us, and we trust her.’ Members of staff are mutually supportive, plan lessons collaboratively, and are always ready and willing to share their expertise. This team spirit means that your colleagues feel very involved in all aspects of school life and understand their role in bringing about further improvements.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

Yours is an inclusive school. You and your staff know the pupils very well. Parents are very supportive of the school, are made to feel welcome and feel able to talk about any concerns they may have. Among the comments I heard from the parents I spoke with before school started were: ‘I couldn’t be happier’, ‘The teachers are great’ and ‘I can’t really fault it’.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

While you fully recognise the importance of your pupils doing well in tests, the staff and governors are fully committed to your pupils becoming self-motivated, Well rounded individuals with a range of achievements and interests. Your pupils benefit from a good range of extra-curricular activities. Yours was the first school in the area to achieve the Sainsbury’s School Games Gold Award. Your display of trophies is a testament to the sporting achievements of your pupils, particularly in cheerleading. You are currently working towards Artsmark accreditation. The emphasis you place on outdoor learning through the forest school initiative is helping to build your pupils’ independence and self-esteem, and fostering their appreciation of their local environment. Your close links with the local church, your fundraising for the neighbourhood park, the bulb planting and litter picking that the pupils undertake,

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

and your work with the local allotment society all help to place Tintwistle Primary at the heart of the community and serve to foster a sense of social responsibility in your pupils.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

During the previous inspection, inspectors praised pupils’ positive attitudes to learning. This is still the case because teaching staff work hard to provide pupils with opportunities to have learning experiences which capture their interest and imagination. Pupils I spoke with told me how much they had enjoyed learning about the digestive system in science and about how excited they had been about taking part in a project which involved the creating of a ‘pirate island’ in the playground. Through, for example, the school’s involvement in the Glossop Collaboration and partnership arrangements with the University of Manchester, members of staff have access to new ideas that enable them to further improve their work in the classroom. Members of staff also told me also how much they had benefited from being able to observe and learn from their colleagues’ teaching.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

You have been largely successful in addressing the areas for development from the last inspection. In the early years foundation stage, you have invested in resources that give children more opportunities to choose the activities that they want to do. In the lesson that I observed, I saw good interaction between all the adults in the class with individual children. The oral and written feedback that teachers provide to pupils is leading to improvements in the quality of their work, although in the case of the writing of older pupils this is not yet as effective as it might be.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

Governors fully understand their strategic role and carry it out very effectively, striking the right balance between challenge and support. They bring a broad range of skills and experience to their work, are ambitious for the school and are able to interpret school performance information. They are visible in school and well liked and respected by the staff. Governance is an area of real strength at your school.

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Short inspection of Tintwistle CofE Primary School

There is a strong safeguarding culture at the school. Staff receive regular training to make sure that they are aware of the latest guidance and undertake first-aid training every three years. There are clear procedures for raising concerns and all of the necessary checks are properly carried out. All key documentation in respect of safeguarding is in place and up to date. Pupils enjoy coming to school and say that they feel very safe and well cared for. They have confidence in adults to resolve any problems. Staff are vigilant in ensuring the pupils’ well-being. Parents agree that their children are safe at school. The school holds the Derbyshire anti-bullying award in recognition of its work in this area.

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Inspection findings

 Typically, the standards that pupils achieve in reading, writing, mathematics, and English grammar, punctuation and spelling by the end of key stage 2 are similar to those achieved by pupils nationally. This is also true of key stage 1. All groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, generally make the progress that the school requires of them in order to achieve expected standards. You have recognised, however, that more needs to be done to enable pupils, particularly most-able pupils, to achieve the very highest standards when compared with their peers nationally. In mathematics, teachers are now placing greater emphasis on the teaching of reasoning skills, and in English are using a greater range of challenging texts to develop pupils’ comprehension skills. When we looked at pupils’ exercise books, we agreed that while pupils often write with flair, the content of their work is sometimes marred by grammatical inaccuracies

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Inspection findings

and spelling mistakes.  Since the last inspection, there has been an upward trend in the percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard in phonics by the end of Year 1.You have achieved this by making phonics and the development of literacy skills key priorities and by upskilling staff so that there is a consistency of approach across the school. In the Year 1 phonics lesson that I observed, the teacher’s use of the ‘Pass the parcel’ game and the pace of her teaching contributed to pupils’ enjoyment of, and engagement in, learning. The pupils showed very good recall of the work they had done in previous lessons on the link between letters and sounds.  In 2016, there was a decline in the percentage of pupils achieving a good level of development at the end of the early years foundation stage. You correctly identified that this occurred because boys did relatively less well than girls, notably in literacy. In order to address this, you worked on developing boys’ skills

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Inspection findings

and interest in writing. This led to an improvement in results in 2017 which were similar to results nationally.  Overall attendance is in line with that of primary schools nationally. The attendance of disadvantaged pupils is similar to that of other pupils nationally. Pupils are keen to come to school because they feel valued and enjoy learning. The school uses such incentives as 100% attendance medals to reward good attendance, and to ensure that pupils and parents understand its importance. A very small minority of parents choose not to send their children to school on a regular basis. You are working effectively in partnership with the local authority to address this.

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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

 teachers provide pupils with a greater degree of challenge so that more pupils are able to achieve the higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics at key stage 1 and key stage 2. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, 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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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you and with members of the governing body, including the chair. I had a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority and met with three middle-level leaders. I also spoke with a group of pupils, attended the breakfast club and heard two pupils read. I spoke with parents as they brought their children to school and I also observed four lessons. I scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plan and documents relating to safeguarding. I took account of the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and reviewed the results from your own parents’ survey.

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