Hornsea Community Primary School

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

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Mrs A Whitehead Headteacher Hornsea Community Primary School Newbegin Hornsea East Yorkshire HU18 1PB

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 January 2018, 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 May 2013.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Together with your colleagues, you have created a caring school where pupils are happy, feel safe and achieve well. You are providing strong leadership by setting high expectations for teaching and learning. All leaders and staff at the school share your vision and work in unison to drive improvements. There is a real sense of community in the school, shared purpose and a strong sense of teamwork. Staff morale is high. As a result, Hornsea Community Primary School is a rapidly improving school and has the capacity to improve further.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

Governors work closely with the school and provide effective support and challenge. They know what the school does well and which areas require strengthening. Governors work well with school leaders to ensure that the school’s vision of helping pupils achieve their fullest potential is realised. Governors act as very effective critical friends.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

You were quite rightly pleased with the most recent outcomes for pupils in key stage 1 and key stage 2. These results for 2017 show that pupils are mostly achieving higher than average attainment. At key stage 2, the proportion of pupils who are now attaining the expected standard in reading and writing is above the national average; the proportion writing at the higher standard is also above average. At key stage 1, the improvement is quite noticeable. Attainment is above average in reading and writing for those pupils working at the expected standard and at a greater depth. Although standards are improving, you and your leaders are not complacent and recognise that further improvement is needed, especially in mathematics. You have recently implemented strategies to improve the progress pupils make in mathematics, particularly for those pupils who are most-able and those pupils who are disadvantaged. There are early signs that this is having a positive impact.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

However, you quite rightly acknowledge that this is at an early stage, and that these strategies need to be firmly embedded if pupils are to attain the standards of which they are capable.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

At the time of the previous inspection, you were asked to improve teaching in order to improve achievement, particularly in writing. To enable you to do this you were urged to increase opportunities for pupils to develop their independent learning skills, make sure teachers use their questioning skills effectively, and share good practice in the school. You have successfully achieved this. The introduction of a clear writing process, from planning to presentation, provides good opportunities for discussion during lessons and enables pupils to plan their own next steps in their written work. You have also worked hard in building teachers’ confidence in sharing good practice. All teachers now routinely observe each other’s practice and share ideas. As a result, the impact this has had on standards, particularly in writing, is very positive.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

Recommendations from the previous inspection urged leaders to accelerate the progress children make in the early years so that it matches the progress pupils make in key stage 1 and key stage 2. As a result of improvements to the learning environment, effective professional development for staff, and strong leadership, standards have improved significantly. Since the last inspection, the proportion of children who are ready for learning in Year 1 has steadily improved and is currently above the national average.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

The school was also asked to develop the skills of middle leaders. In response, you have restructured the leadership team and the roles they undertake. Middle leaders have benefited from a coaching and mentoring project and now lead their areas of responsibility with confidence. All leaders work effectively and contribute equally to the success of the school.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

You have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are given the highest priority and are fit for purpose. Records are well organised and accurate. You and your staff are vigilant and ensure that nothing is left to chance in matters relating to the safety and well-being of all the children in your school. Pupils are well cared for at all times and they know that adults in school are there to look after them.

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Short inspection of Hornsea Community Primary School

Staff training is up to date, and they demonstrate knowledge of how to report concerns about pupils’ welfare. When necessary, you work effectively with external agencies to support your pupils’ needs. The pupils at your school know how to keep themselves safe. They are taught about safety in the curriculum and how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. You have strong and positive relationships with parents and have built a good level of trust. Parents are confident that their children are safe and well cared for.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, I wanted to establish what actions leaders have taken that have resulted in the rapidly improving outcomes in writing in key stage 1 and key stage 2. Looking in pupils’ books, it soon became very clear that standards in writing are high in all year groups and in different subjects. Pupils have been taught how to develop their writing from an early stage of planning to a completed piece of work. During this process, pupils are encouraged to develop their handwriting, grammar, punctuation and spelling skills very effectively.  Outcomes at key stage 1 have improved rapidly in 2017, from outcomes that were similar to average in 2016. This has been achieved through a resolute focus on basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics, and swift intervention where underperformance is identified.  A positive feature in the lessons we observed is the strong contribution teaching assistants make in helping pupils achieve. These valuable members of staff have

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Inspection findings

benefited from effective professional development which they put to good use when working with pupils.  You and your leaders are very skilful in using the expertise in the school to improve teaching and learning. Your ‘marketplace’ approach, where teachers meet as a group to identify what they consider to be particularly skilful at, and where they would like to develop their practice, has been highly successful. Teachers now regularly learn from each other, which is contributing significantly to improving the quality of teaching across the school.  During the inspection, I also wanted to investigate why outcomes in mathematics are not as good as in reading and writing, especially for the most able pupils in key stage 2 and disadvantaged pupils across the school. You and your leaders have been proactive in addressing this by implementing appropriate strategies. You have recently introduced ‘same day intervention’; additional support for

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Inspection findings

those pupils who are working below what is expected of them. You have also recently introduced a greater depth group; an additional lesson each week that focuses on those pupils who are capable of attaining higher standards. However, the impact of these actions is not evident yet.

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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

 recent strategies to improve progress in mathematics are firmly embedded so that pupils, particularly the most able and those who are disadvantaged, achieve standards of which they are capable. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for the East Riding of Yorkshire. 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, the deputy headteacher, the early years leader, the safeguarding officer and subject leaders for English and mathematics. I also met with five members of the governing body and a local authority representative. I spoke with pupils informally during lunchtime and when listening to pupils read. I made short visits to every classroom with you and your deputy headteacher and we looked at pupils’ books. I scrutinised various documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, improvement plans, safeguarding documents and documents detailing your monitoring of teaching and learning. I considered the 71 responses to Ofsted’s online pupil survey, the 58 responses to the staff survey, the 69 responses to Ofsted’s online parent questionnaire, Parent View, and 66 free-text responses to Parent View.

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