Kelsey Primary School

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

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Mr Matt Ashmead Interim Headteacher Kelsey Primary School Chapel Street North Kelsey Market Rasen Lincolnshire LN7 6EJ

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 1 February 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 October 2013.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

Since your interim appointment in September 2017, you have ensured that the school has continued to move forward. In a short space of time, you have built positive relationships with pupils, parents, staff and governors. You have clear systems in place for monitoring and evaluating key aspects of the school. These include the quality of teaching and the progress that pupils are making. The recent appointment of a senior teacher has done much to strengthen leadership in the early years and the provision for disadvantaged pupils.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

The governing body has a good mix of skills, knowledge and experience. The recently appointed chair has been proactive in organising an external review of governance. Consequently, governors are now fully aware of their roles and responsibilities. The governing body has also recently completed a skills and training audit. This has helped them to establish any development areas and to plan any future training opportunities carefully. The ‘governor visit schedule’ outlines when monitoring activities take place. Recently, for example, governors have checked on the quality of safeguarding and physical education. After such visits, governors write reports and give feedback on their findings to the other governors. Consequently, governors are kept up to date with the strengths and development areas at the school. The school has a calm, yet busy and vibrant atmosphere. Pupils are fully engaged in learning. This is because teachers plan interesting lessons that motivate pupils to

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

learn and succeed. For example, pupils in the Year 3 and Year 4 class were excitedly writing short stories. The stories would later be acted out by puppets the pupils had made in design and technology.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

Teachers ensure that the most able pupils are suitably challenged. For example, in the Year 5 and Year 6 class pupils were enjoying writing a nonet, focusing on an emotion. One pupil was writing about sadness and opened the poem with, ‘I am like a drop of lonely rain, I am suffering drops of pain.’

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

Pupils, parents and staff are positive in their view that pupils are happy and safe at Kelsey. One parent commented, ‘The teaching is brilliant for our children and they love coming to school!’ Pupils told me that behaviour was consistently good and that incidents of bullying were extremely rare. Older pupils enjoy the responsibility of being junior road safety officers, sports ambassadors and playground buddies. These roles ensure that younger pupils are kept safe, encouraged to be active and have someone to play with at break and lunchtimes.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

You have plans in place to make improvements, for example in standards in mathematics and the Year 1 phonics check. However, we agreed that school development planning could be better. For example, the actions that staff are due to take are not always precise enough and the timescales for completion of actions are too vague. This means that governors cannot hold leaders fully to account.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

We also agreed that rates of persistent absence are too high. The school should work with pupils and families to ensure that this rate is below the national average.

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Short inspection of Kelsey Primary School

You have ensured that all relevant checks are undertaken on adults before they are allowed to volunteer or work at the school. You have received relevant training around safeguarding, e-safety and the ‘Prevent’ duty. There is a robust system in place for staff to record concerns they have regarding pupils’ welfare. You make swift referrals to outside agencies. Consequently, pupils and families receive extra support quickly. All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of a high quality.

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Inspection findings

 The school assessment and tracking system is in its infancy. However, teachers are checking the progress of pupils frequently and planning carefully for the next steps in learning. You thoroughly analyse this information to establish if any individual or groups of pupils are falling behind. As a result, the majority of pupils are on track to be at age-related expectations in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of the academic year. Inspection evidence would also suggest that the majority of pupils are making good progress in these subjects. We agreed that a next step would be for teachers to embed the assessment system fully by taking into account pupils’ starting points when calculating their potential progress.  Leaders for English and mathematics are knowledgeable regarding their areas of responsibility. They carry out monitoring activities to evaluate strengths and development areas. For example, a recent mathematics book scrutiny highlighted

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Inspection findings

the need for pupils to have increased opportunities to develop problem-solving and reasoning skills.  The leader responsible for the pupil premium funding has ensured that it is allocated and monitored effectively. Pupils are receiving extra support and are making good progress. The pupil premium governor is ensuring that the most able pupil premium pupils are receiving effective support in order to maximise their potential.  Children in the early years get off to a good start. Adults assess children and measure the progress they are making frequently and accurately. Consequently, the next steps in children’s learning are planned carefully. Relationships between adults and children in the early years are positive. Strong routines and high expectations mean that children behave well. Progress in writing is particularly strong. For example, some children who were mark-making in September are now confidently writing simple sentences.

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Inspection findings

 There is a broad and balanced curriculum. Evidence from pupils’ books shows a good range of learning in religious education, history, geography and science, for example. Pupils told me that they enjoy opportunities to be creative in art and design and technology. Pupils have recently developed their scientific knowledge through recent educational visits to Leicester Space Centre and The Deep. Year 6 pupils are especially looking forward to the upcoming outdoor and adventurous residential.  There is a wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer. For example, pupils can choose from football, American football, netball, cooking, choir and the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.  Teaching assistants are a strength across the school. They ask questions that help to deepen pupils’ knowledge and encourage them to think more deeply. For example, in Year 2 pupils were being challenged to think of appropriate words

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Inspection findings

that rhymed with ‘jelly’ as they wrote their own poems.  The support provided by the local authority has been effective. The adviser has supported you by confirming your judgments on, for example, the quality of teaching and the progress made by pupils in reading, writing and mathematics.

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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

 all school development plans contain precise actions and timescales in order for governors to hold leaders fully to account for their actions  the assessment system becomes fully embedded so that teachers take into account pupils’ relative starting points when calculating their potential progress  the school works with pupils and families to reduce rates of persistent absence to below the national average.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, 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 held meetings with you and the leaders responsible for English, mathematics and disadvantaged pupils. I also had a meeting with a group of governors, including the chair. I visited all classrooms with you and we examined a range of pupils’ books. I spoke with pupils informally during lessons and formally during an interview. I listened to a group of pupils from Year 1 and Year 2 read. I observed pupils’ behaviour around the school, at the start of the school day and during lessons. I met with parents at the beginning of the school day and I took into account 13 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, 13 responses to the Ofsted free-text service and five responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. There were 12 responses to the pupil survey. I examined a range of documents, including safeguarding records and policies, the single central record, the latest pupil achievement information, the school’s self-evaluation summary and improvement

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Information about the inspection

plan, records of meetings of the governing body and information relating to pupils’ attendance and behaviour.

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