St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

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

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Mrs Marion Watson Headteacher St Lawrence Church of England Primary School Lower Church Road Skellingthorpe Lincoln Lincolnshire LN6 5UZ

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 5 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 September 2012.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and other school leaders have improved the quality of the teaching so that it is now consistently at least good. Your teachers ensure that learning is closely matched to the ability of the different pupils. Lessons are managed well so learning is not disrupted. Pupils have good attitudes to learning, behave well and focus well on their work, which they clearly enjoy. There are now many instances of pupils achieving better assessment results than other pupils nationally.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

School leaders, including governors, know the school’s many strengths and are ambitious for the pupils to achieve at the highest possible standard. You and your team, many of whom are new to the school, have built on the good practice identified in the last inspection. New staff have been well supported to enable them to have a positive impact quickly and contribute to the school’s improvement priorities. Teachers consistently challenge pupils through their use of questioning.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

Leaders have introduced a number of new initiatives into the school, such as the approach to teaching English. These initiatives are already proving to be effective. This is shown by the recent significant increases in pupils’ rates of progress and achievements in reading, writing and mathematics in all national assessments. The progress made by disadvantaged pupils has also increased, so they too now make faster progress than the national average. Parents I spoke with told me that they are very pleased with the school and all feel their children are making good progress. They value the information you provide, so they can support their children at home and be involved in the many activities you run. They appreciate that you and the staff make yourselves available at the start and end of each school day.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

Pupils told me that they feel safe at school and there is always someone they can talk to if they have a concern. One pupil I spoke with told me, ‘The teachers are like your second parents.’

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The work with the charity, Salt Malawi, has been used very effectively to increase pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness. This was demonstrated when the pupils learned about the lives of the African children and made collections for them. These included collecting 18 bags of shoes, which were sent to Malawi for the children to wear to school.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The school has a strong safeguarding culture. You, as safeguarding lead, ensure that there is constant vigilance and an ethos of ‘it could happen here so be ready’ is shared by staff. Everyone with whom I spoke is confident that they would recognise the signs of abuse, as a result of regular and systematic training and updates for all staff. Staff know the school’s procedures for reporting any concerns they have and who to talk with to seek advice.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The school’s policy on how to deal with any safeguarding issue is clear and up to date. The school leaders have no complacency regarding the pupils’ safety, and continually review the safeguarding procedures, including ensuring that access to the school premises is secure. The school has worked with a number of outside agencies, including healthcare services, to support families and to keep pupils safe.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The school’s records show that prompt action has been taken to provide support for families who need help. Parents told me that they know that the children are safe while at the school and value the lessons that the pupils have had about keeping themselves safe on the internet. Pupils spoke confidently about the online safety lessons that they have received. Pupils know that they can share concerns with a trusted adult in school and that adults will help them to deal with any issues that they have.

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Short inspection of St Lawrence Church of England Primary School

The school keeps detailed records during the staff recruitment processes. All the required checks on staff are completed. All staff are trained to the appropriate level for their role.

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Inspection findings

 Governors having a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development. School leaders and governors have used their knowledge to develop detailed improvement plans.  Governors have used pupils’ attainment data to hold leaders to account and identify where the school has needed to improve. These plans have resulted in a number of improvements, particularly in the pupils’ national assessment tests.  Governors and senior leaders have been less effective in using progress data to identify where pupils in key stage 2 need additional support. This had led to some groups of pupils not making secure progress since their end of Year 2 assessments. Leaders have more recently introduced a new tracking system, which is beginning to support them in identifying pupils who are not making good progress.  The pupils enjoy the many trips they make, the range of clubs they can take part in

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Inspection findings

and the visitors who come to talk to them in school.  Pupils are encouraged to challenge themselves in their learning. They are keen to discuss their learning and can confidently answer questions about their work.  As a result of the improvements in teaching, there are very many instances of the pupils achieving better results than pupils nationally. This includes pupils in the early years and in the national phonics screening check for Year 1 pupils. The school is rightly proud of the high proportion of pupils who achieve standards at greater depth in Year 2 and Year 6 national assessments.  Attendance is good. The school works closely with families to improve attendance rates when this is needed.  The school’s values are well understood by the pupils and can be seen in the pupils’ attitudes and behaviour.  Many opportunities are provided to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, such as ‘Godly Play’, making ‘Sir Lawrence of Skellingthorpe’

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Inspection findings

and the large-scale community art work pupils have completed with local artists.  The school provides a broad and balanced curriculum. Pupils achieve the same high standards of presentation in their work in subjects such as science, geography and history as they do in their English and mathematics work.

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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

 they improve the systems to track pupils’ progress so they can quickly identify pupils at risk of not making secure progress in key stage 2  teaching staff provide support for any such identified pupils and then check the impact of the support to ensure that accelerated progress is made.

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Next steps for the school

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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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you and we agreed the key lines of enquiry for the inspection and the activities we would carry out during my visit. I also met with a large group of school governors, including the chair and vice-chair of the governing body and a number of parent governors. I spoke on the telephone with a representative from the local authority. I spoke with a group of parents before school and examined parental responses on Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey. I also met with pupils from Years 5 and 6. I had a meeting with a number of school leaders, including the leader for the early years.

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Information about the inspection

You and I visited all classrooms to see pupils’ learning and look at work in their books. In addition, I examined the school’s safeguarding records and procedures and anonymised records of safeguarding concerns. We discussed the school’s evaluation of its own work and action plans for further improvement. You shared with me your work on improving the quality of teaching in the school and provided details of your most recent attendance data.

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