Cranbourne Primary School

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

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Mrs Ruth Huckle Headteacher Cranbourne Primary School Lovel Road Winkfield Windsor Berkshire SL4 2EU

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 30 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 March 2014.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice in specific areas. This may indicate that the school is improving towards being outstanding. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

Since the previous inspection, the school has gone from strength to strength. Pupils at Cranbourne consistently achieve standards that are above the national average in all key stages. Teaching has continued to improve and is strong across the school. Teachers have consistently high expectations of pupils’ learning. Leaders are ambitious and set aspirational targets for pupils’ achievement. As a result, a high proportion of pupils achieve standards that are above those expected for their age.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

Pupils have very positive attitudes to learning, take pride in their work and strive to achieve their best. Pupils waste no time before enthusiastically settling to their learning tasks. They also reflect thoughtfully about their learning, readily seeking to improve their work following feedback from their teachers. Classrooms are purposeful, happy places of learning. Relationships are positive and warm. Pupils behave very well in class and around the school. The vast majority of parents and carers express high levels of satisfaction about the work of the school including the quality of teaching and leadership. As one parent commented, ‘It’s just brilliant at Cranbourne!’ You have a secure understanding of the many strengths of the school and which aspects could be developed further. Governors are very well informed of pupils’ progress and hold leaders to account for all aspects of the school’s performance.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

You have taken effective action to strengthen the roles of middle leaders, as highlighted by inspectors during the last inspection. These leaders now play a much greater role in driving improvement.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

Other aspects of the school have also continued to improve. For example, you have enhanced the curriculum and developed the school’s approach to assessment. The well-planned, interesting curriculum ensures that pupils are able to learn well across a range of subjects. However, while pupils are making good progress, they do not attain as highly in some subjects, such as history and geography, as they do in English and mathematics. Leaders acknowledge that there are not enough opportunities for the most able pupils to work at a deeper level of learning in these subjects.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

You, rightly, make the safety of pupils a high priority. You organise suitable, timely training and provide regular updates for staff. This means that staff are knowledgeable, alert and responsive to any concerns. The school’s family support worker is often a first point of reference, providing support for families who need early help. You make sure that any concerns are referred promptly to outside agencies when appropriate. You do all that you can to ensure that pupils are kept safe, following through referrals and working closely with families. Nevertheless, while concerns are suitably logged, you are aware that records of the school’s response to these are not as systematic and detailed as they could be.

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Short inspection of Cranbourne Primary School

Pupils at Cranbourne feel safe and well cared for. They are entirely confident that any worries or issues are dealt with quickly by staff. Pupils say that other pupils are kind and that they always have friends to play with during breaktimes. You make sure that pupils learn about the importance of routines such as fire evacuation drills, which help to keep them safe. Pupils are also very knowledgeable about how to keep themselves safe online. For example, they explain confidently how they must always ensure that they know the identity of anyone they are communicating with online.

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Inspection findings

 During this inspection we agreed to focus on some aspects of the school’s work, including how well current pupils are learning in English and mathematics, including the most able boys; the effectiveness of leadership and governance; how well pupils, including the most able, are learning across the curriculum and how this prepares them for life in modern Britain.  The school’s assessment information shows that current pupils, including the most able boys, are achieving well in English and mathematics. Scrutiny of pupils’ work in books confirms this. In our visits to classes we could see many examples of high-quality writing. Pupils write confidently and fluently in a range of genres and many of them demonstrate great flair. They use adventurous word choices and show a very good grasp of punctuation and grammar, explaining clearly the rules they must use, for example when adding suffixes to root words. When writing about a setting, a Year 1 pupil vividly described the

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Inspection findings

weather as ‘… a gargantuan, blustering tornado’. Younger children in Reception get off to a great start and the rich learning environment provides a wealth of opportunities for them to develop their early reading and writing skills very well. Across the school, pupils delight in talking to visitors about their learning, sharing their work and fluently reading extracts from their writing.  Pupils develop their calculation skills very well, quickly becoming adept at formal written methods of calculation. They set their work out carefully, putting ‘one digit in each box’ to avoid errors when calculating. Pupils’ problem-solving and reasoning skills are also catered for well. Teachers routinely make sure that pupils explain their reasoning and learn to justify their answers. Pupils work systematically, for example when finding the different possible outcomes when solving problems. As a result of skilful teaching, pupils are making very good

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Inspection findings

progress in mathematics. Many pupils are working above the expected standard for their age.  Leaders and governors work together in strong partnership. You share ambition, responsibility and a commitment for pupils to achieve as highly as they can. High expectations for pupils’ achievement underpin your approach. You and other leaders track pupils’ progress and attainment carefully. Together, you visit classes, review pupils’ work in books and find out pupils’ views about their learning. Leaders also check other aspects of the school’s work, such as participation rates in sporting events, ensuring that all pupils benefit from these opportunities.  There is a great sense of teamwork and teachers enjoy the opportunities they have to share their expertise and learn from each other. The improvement plans and subject leaders’ action plans show how leaders are continuing to strengthen all aspects of the school’s work. Governors hold leaders to account routinely, for

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Inspection findings

example by asking probing questions during meetings. As one governor explained, ‘We ask the right questions at the right time.’ Governors now make sure that minutes of meetings highlight any questions they have asked of leaders. This enables them to readily pick up any unresolved questions at subsequent meetings.  The school’s curriculum is planned cohesively and enables pupils to make good progress across many subjects. In science, pupils learn to work like scientists by planning their experiments, for example to test the different properties of materials. From an early age, pupils learn to use the correct terminology to describe scientific processes.  Interesting topics and engaging activities help to capture pupils’ interest. During the inspection, pupils were completely engrossed in a discussion about the process of mummification. However, when reviewing pupils’ work with leaders, we agreed that in some subjects, such as history and geography, pupils’ work is

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Inspection findings

not of the same high standard as it is in English and mathematics. There are also not enough opportunities for the most able pupils to learn more deeply in these subjects.  Pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain. They have planned opportunities to learn about life beyond their locality in their topics about other countries including Africa and Sri Lanka. Teachers capitalise on these opportunities so that pupils learn how world leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, have played an important role in shaping society. Pupils also learn about other religions, including festivals, through their learning in religious education. Older pupils reflect thoughtfully on challenging moral issues and historic events such as the Holocaust. They also craft effective argument texts based on wider social and controversial issues such as selective breeding and driverless cars.

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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

 pupils’ learning in the wider curriculum in subjects such as history and geography is strengthened, and the most able pupils have more opportunities to learn at greater depth  record-keeping is strengthened so that leaders can see at a glance the actions the school has taken following any safeguarding concerns.

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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 Bracknell Forest. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Together with you, I visited all classes to look at pupils’ learning. I met with you to discuss the school’s self-evaluation and met with a group of leaders to discuss and review pupils’ progress across the wider curriculum. I met with three governors, including the vice-chair of the governing body. I spoke with pupils during visits to classes and met with a group of pupils from Reception to Year 6. I reviewed a wide range of documents relating to safeguarding, including the school’s pre-employment checks on the suitability of staff to work with children. I also reviewed other policies and documents and the school’s assessment information. I considered the views of parents through the 95 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and met parents at the start of the school day. I also took account of the 19 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.

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