Boxgrove CofE Primary School

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

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Mrs Kim Thornton Headteacher Boxgrove CofE Primary School The Street Boxgrove Chichester West Sussex PO18 0EE

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 31 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 October 2013.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and other leaders know the school well and understand its strengths and the areas to improve. The staff team is ambitious and outward-looking, always on the lookout for ways to develop their skills and increase their knowledge. For example, senior leaders have taken time to undertake lesson observations jointly with teachers so that all teaching staff are able to accurately identify strong aspects of teaching, as well as recognising areas on which to work. As a result, teaching is good and pupils learn well. Governors echo the ambition of leaders and offer a good balance of support and challenge to leaders. They draw on a range of evidence to reach a secure view of the school.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

Pupils achieve well in the school and make good progress from their different starting points. Behaviour in lessons is impeccable and pupils are eager to learn. Pupils speak highly of their teachers and teaching assistants. One pupil said, ‘Teachers will help you if you’re struggling, but they won’t just give you the answer. They guide you through it.’ Pupils are overwhelmingly positive about the school. They enjoy learning and appreciate the many opportunities that staff provide for them to learn across a broad curriculum. Trips to such places as the theatre, Porchester Castle and an aquarium are particular favourites. Parents and carers too are overwhelmingly positive about the school because pupils are happy, well taught and cared for well. One parent described the school has having ‘such a friendly atmosphere and my children are always excited to go and learn. You have fully addressed the areas that inspectors asked leaders to improve at the

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

last inspection. Inspectors asked leaders to give pupils more opportunities for writing creatively, and to learn how to evaluate the quality of this work for themselves, so that they recognise how they have made progress. Leaders were also asked to encourage pupils to think for themselves about how to overcome an issue when stuck. Pupils support each other’s learning well and help each other to improve their work. As a result, pupils are resilient and develop the resources to overcome problems and challenges in their learning. Nevertheless, you and your senior team recognise that there is still work to be done to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as other pupils. We also agreed that at times there is not enough challenge in mathematics to challenge the most able pupils.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

Pupils are safe in school because everyone embraces the fact that safeguarding is each person’s responsibility. This creates a community where the well-being of pupils is central to its work. Staff have a clear understanding about the signs that may indicate that a pupil might be at risk, and are quick to report any concerns. Leaders ensure that all staff are trained and kept up to date with the latest advice and guidance in all matters of child protection.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

Governors take their responsibility for safeguarding very seriously and carry out all the right checks to ensure that pupils are safe. These include the checks that staff carry out to ensure that only suitable people can work in the school. Governors also speak to staff regularly about their understanding of safeguarding matters to check that all staff have the right training and knowledge about how to keep pupils safe.

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Short inspection of Boxgrove CofE Primary School

Pupils say that they feel safe in school and parents and staff agree that this is true. When asked about bullying, pupils could explain the meaning of the word with great clarity, and understand the many different types of bullying. However, most were unable to remember any incidents occurring in the school. Pupils have complete confidence in staff to deal with any incidents as they arise. Pupils learn how to keep safe in a range of situations, including on the road when walking to the church. E-safety is taught regularly so that pupils have a clear, age-appropriate understanding of how to stay safe online.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection focused on three key lines of enquiry, the first of which investigated the progress that pupils make in key stage 2 in writing. Their progress in writing in 2017 was much less than their progress in reading, although it was in line with national figures. Leaders and governors have prioritised improving writing across the school in their development plans. The assistant headteacher, who leads English in the school, has a clear grasp of the strengths and areas for improvement in writing, and has effective plans to bring about further improvements.  Senior leaders have ensured that staff have the right level of training and professional development so that teachers’ subject knowledge is strong. Teachers understand how to teach writing effectively and are putting this into practice. Staff provide pupils with clear guidance on how to write well and improve their work. This guidance includes targets to help pupils focus on key

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Inspection findings

aspects of their writing and so make good progress. Pupils use these targets regularly and can show examples in their work and explain clearly how they have improved and edited their writing. Pupils are now making good progress and are on track to achieve at least in line with age-related expectations.  We also agreed to investigate how well pupils achieve in reading and mathematics in key stage 1. Pupils achieved below national expectations in these subjects in 2017 at the end of Year 2. However, senior leaders’ actions to improve outcomes in reading have had a strongly positive impact in key stage 1, including in the teaching of phonics.  During the morning, we agreed to change our focus to the rates of progress that pupils make in mathematics across the school. Current pupils attain well across the school and make good progress, because they are taught accurately and carefully. The subject leader of mathematics provides a strong role model and a

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Inspection findings

clear sense of direction. She has made changes to the mathematics curriculum and to the way that the subject is taught so that pupils can make more rapid progress. Teachers and teaching assistants have received recent training and ongoing support as needed. Pupils in key stage 1 are now making good rates of progress in lessons. Nevertheless, we agreed that there was insufficient challenge for the most able over time when pupils’ workbooks were scrutinised.  The third line of enquiry concerned disadvantaged pupils. In this small school, there are relatively few disadvantaged pupils. In common with other pupils, staff know each one very well. Teachers keep detailed, accurate records of the progress that individual pupils make, and meet regularly with senior leaders and governors to evaluate pupils’ progress and look for ways of accelerating their rates of progress. Some disadvantaged pupils are achieving as well as other

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Inspection findings

pupils nationally. The current progress of others is rapid so that the difference between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally is diminishing. However, some disadvantaged pupils, including a significant minority of pupils who have additional barriers to learning, make slower rates of progress than could be expected given their starting points.  Senior leaders understand and track the progress of individuals. However, they do not evaluate the progress of disadvantaged pupils as a group, nor bring enough rigour to evaluating the impact of their spending of the pupil premium funding. This limits their ability to identify the most effective ways of spending this additional funding and to plan further improvements accordingly.

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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 have consistently high expectations of what the most able pupils can achieve in mathematics and move them quickly on to more challenging work when they are ready  the difference in the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally is further diminished by closely evaluating the impact of the pupil premium spending and using these evaluations to plan further improvements.

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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 Chichester, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for West Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I met with you, the assistant headteacher, the leader of mathematics and two members of the governing body. I spoke with representatives of the local authority and of the diocese on the telephone. We visited classes from all year groups in the school to observe teaching and learning and look at pupils’ work. I observed pupils’ behaviour around the school, including at playtime and during an assembly. There were no responses to the pupil survey. However, I spoke to many pupils from across the school during the day, in classrooms and during morning break. I also met with a group of nine pupils from Years 2 to 5 in the afternoon. I considered 11 responses to the staff survey and 32 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including 22 written comments. I spoke to several parents at the beginning of the day. I scrutinised several documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school’s pupil-tracking information, the

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Information about the inspection

school development plan, minutes of recent governors’ meetings and reports from the local authority. I examined the school’s safeguarding policies, procedures and checks.

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