Claverdon Primary School

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

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Mrs Gover Headteacher Claverdon Primary School Breach Lane Claverdon Warwick Warwickshire CV35 8QA

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Short inspection of Claverdon 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 March 2014.

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Short inspection of Claverdon 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 Claverdon Primary School

You and the deputy headteacher have a determined and successful focus on sustaining good outcomes for pupils. You work well with other leaders and governors, to identify and positively address areas for development. A key characteristic of the continued success is that leaders, governors and staff know the community well. Good teaching and strong bonds between pupils and staff enable pupils to flourish.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

You have ensured that pupils’ personal development is at the forefront of the school’s work. Pupils have mature and sensitive views. They are polite, happy and curious about their learning. Your school motto of ‘Reach for the stars and achieve the Rs’ is embedded among the pupils. They have a deep understanding of the school values: respect, responsibility, resilience and recognising success in themselves and others. They are considerate of each other and socialise well. There is a clear sense of teamwork between staff and pupils. Comments from pupils included, ‘Teachers are kind and helpful’, and ‘They are patient with us, so if you are finding something difficult, they will listen and explain.’

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Leaders and governors are reflective about aspects of leadership. You debated how refinements could be made to the format for evaluating the school’s effectiveness, and the way that performance data is analysed. The deputy headteacher streamlined the templates, so that leaders and governors can easily identify weaknesses and focus precisely on what needs to be improved. The systems are very effective. For example, the school improvement plan has clear time-specific actions, with measurable success criteria. As a result, leaders and governors know the impact of their work and continue to develop the school.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

You make sure that other leaders are given opportunities and are trusted to lead. This provides good wider leadership capacity. For example, the English leader has brought about successful changes to writing across the school. This leadership capacity has enabled you and your deputy headteacher to build effective external networks. As a lead school for an initial teacher training organisation, you provide good support to teachers that are new to the profession.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

You have responded well to areas for improvement since the previous inspection. Staff have been provided with opportunities to share best practice in school. Teachers with strengths in certain subjects are used to modelling and supporting the teaching of others. Staff in the early years have been to other schools to see high-quality early years provision. Teachers’ questioning has developed well and it enables pupils to think for themselves. Teachers also ensure that pupils acquire and apply new skills on a regular basis. In writing, teachers introduce new grammar and punctuation accurately, so that pupils can apply them well into longer pieces of writing. In mathematics, pupils develop good calculation skills before applying their understanding to reasoning problems. However, some of the most able pupils in key stage 1 are not consistently challenged to reach the higher standards.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Governors are skilled and they take their role very seriously. They provide an effective blend of challenge and support. Shortly after the assessment results at the end of the 2016/17 academic year, governors asked probing questions of leaders regarding the attainment at the end of key stage 1. Governors have ensured that the school website is a strong example and rich source of information for parents and carers.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Your curriculum is thoughtfully considered and enables pupils to develop a range of skills in a variety of subjects. Staff bring alive the different themes, which helps to spark pupils’ enthusiasm for learning. Pupils spoke with knowledge and excitement when describing their learning in the theme, ‘Mexico and the Mayans’, in which they contrasted modern Mexico with the ancient Mayan civilisation. Pupils also really enjoy being creative in their art lessons and the special focus art weeks. Comments from pupils included, ‘You get the chance to express yourself.’

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Staff have developed a range of enrichment activities for pupils. Extra-curricular clubs are popular, such as French, choir, football, running and book club. Pupils are motivated by the regular sports competitions on offer. The before- and after-school care you provide is also extremely successful. However, pupils are not as well provided for outside at lunchtime. They do not have a range of purposeful activities to stimulate them when playing. Pupils commented that they would appreciate more to do. The vast majority of parents are happy with the quality of education in the school. Seventy-five parents completed Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. Almost all would recommend the school to others. A fifth of parents do not feel that leaders follow up concerns well. A small proportion of parents raised concerns about how effectively leaders deal with bullying. Bullying and behaviour logs show that incidents are monitored and followed up by leaders. Incidents are rare and you

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

have taken action to ensure that they are reducing. On the Parent View survey, 94% of parents responded that they feel that their child is safe in school.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Procedures for safeguarding are well organised and easily understood by all staff. Risks to pupils are minimised because staff are vigilant and report concerns to leaders in a timely fashion. The culture of keeping pupils safe is good. You ensure that staff are trained and kept up to date with changes to safeguarding guidance. Governors are also proactive and responsible in their safeguarding duties. For example, they carry out checks to ensure that the records for vetting members of staff are compliant with statutory requirements.

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Short inspection of Claverdon Primary School

Pupils feel safe in school. They have a good understanding of the different forms of bullying. Several pupils commented that they think that bullying is rare and if it were to occur, adults would be quick to address it. Internet safety week and assemblies enable pupils to be clear about how to keep themselves safe. For example, they know that they must not give out personal information online and that they must tell a trusted adult if someone they do not know tries to contact them on the internet.

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Inspection findings

 You have secured positive improvements to the quality of provision in Reception. In 2015 and 2016, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development was not as high as it should have been. Staff have been supported to develop their understanding of assessment, so that they can support and challenge children more effectively. A particularly strong characteristic of the good teaching is staff’s ability to ask questions that encourage and allow children to think for themselves. Staff plan activities that enable children to develop a high level of independence. During the inspection, children took part in an open- ended mathematics investigation outside. They worked on their own, or in groups, to draw different two-dimensional shapes and discussed their properties. Children demonstrated a secure understanding of shape. For example, when asked the question, ‘How do you know this is a rectangle and not a square?’

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Inspection findings

Children’s responses included, ‘Because a rectangle has two longer sides, and a square has four sides that are the same.’ You have also ensured that children’s writing develops well. They show good progress in their letter formation and enjoy using cursive script. Your strategies have had a positive impact on children’s progress and, in 2017, a much higher proportion of children achieved a good level of development.  You rightly identified on your school improvement plan that standards need to be raised across key stage 1. In 2017, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected and higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics was not high enough. You have put in place training for staff to build their understanding of the demands of the curriculum. There are positive early signs to show that your actions are starting to have an impact. For example, we looked at the good progress that some of the most able pupils have made in their writing. However,

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Inspection findings

teachers are not providing a consistent level of challenge for the most able. Occasionally, they do work that is not sufficiently challenging. This needs to be addressed, so that more pupils achieve the higher standards by the end of key stage 1.  We also looked at the progress that boys make across the school in English. Their attainment and progress are not as high as that of girls in several year groups. However, there is clear evidence to show that their progress is starting to accelerate. It is also important to note that over half of the boys in the school are summer born, which is a high proportion. You identified that boys’ basic skills were lacking in English. Specific sessions on handwriting, spelling and sentence structure are enabling boys to be more accurate in their writing. Boys enjoy the well-resourced library and reading corners. Particular authors and books have been selected to spark their interest. You have also planned curriculum themes

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Inspection findings

that appeal to the boys. For example, the World War 2 theme in Year 6 has had a positive impact on boys’ writing. They used high-quality emotive language when writing from the point of view of a character who was helping prisoners at a concentration camp. Most of your strategies to accelerate boys’ progress started in the autumn term and are continuing for the remaining part of the academic year. As the year progresses, the full impact of the strategies needs to be evaluated, so that you know which strategies prove most or least successful.

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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

 teaching in key stage 1 is sufficiently challenging for the most able pupils, so that more pupils achieve the higher standards  strategies for accelerating boys’ progress in English are monitored for impact, so that leaders know which actions are proving most and least successful  a range of purposeful and enjoyable activities is put in place for pupils at lunchtime, so that they are suitably engaged throughout the school day.

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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 Warwickshire. 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 other leaders. I also met with three governors. I spoke to pupils informally and formally. I made short visits to six lessons with you and looked at a range of pupils’ books. I spoke to parents at the start of the day and considered 72 free text responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. I also considered the responses to the online questionnaire completed by pupils and staff.

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Information about the inspection

I scrutinised various documents including the school’s self-evaluation, the improvement plan and the documents that you use to check the quality of teaching. You shared with me the most recent assessments of pupils’ attainment and progress. We discussed the national test results and assessments undertaken by pupils in 2016 and 2017. I also looked at the school’s published information on the website, as well as minutes of governing body meetings and information about attendance, behaviour and safety.

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