Egginton Primary School

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

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Mr Richard Kitching Headteacher Egginton Primary School Church Road Egginton Derby Derbyshire DE65 6HP

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 14 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 Egginton Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since that time, there have been substantial changes in leadership, staffing and governance. You lead the school with confidence. Since your appointment in January 2017, you have rapidly identified the most important priorities to help the school move forward.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

On joining the school, you identified that standards of behaviour were not as high as they should be and you have successfully tackled this as a priority. Pupils conduct themselves well around the school. While some pupils were a little unsettled in some lessons, pupils, staff and parents and carers say that behaviour has improved since you joined the school. Pupils welcome the ‘golden rules’, the positive reward system and increasingly consistent expectations staff now have. Pupils are reflective, polite and caring, and generally have positive attitudes to their learning.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

You and your staff have swiftly introduced, or are further developing, a wide range of initiatives, which are improving standards in the school. You recognise there is still work to be done, but your clear-sighted vision and ambition for the school mean that lost ground due to staff turnover has rapidly been made up. In a short time, you have raised staff expectations of what pupils can achieve. Encapsulating this, one pupil in Year 6 said, ‘You’ve got to challenge yourself so you can learn more and be the best you can be.’ You and other staff are successfully tackling the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Your work to develop the roles of subject leaders, as well as the relevant training provided for staff, and work with local schools, is supporting these initiatives. You provide teachers with clear and focused feedback, so they know what they need to do to improve the quality of their teaching.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

Most staff make clear what pupils are learning and pupils know what to expect and what they are aiming for. Teachers have secure subject knowledge and are increasing the level of challenge so that pupils, particularly the most able, make better progress. In mathematics, teachers provide pupils with opportunities to practise their problem-solving and reasoning skills. This is enabling pupils, including the most able and those who are disadvantaged, to make stronger progress. Pupils often write to a high standard. Pupils in key stage 2, for example, explained why editing skills are important to improve the quality of their work. However, teachers do not consistently move pupils on to more challenging work quickly enough. While improving, the progress and attainment of the most able and disadvantaged pupils are inconsistent.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

You and other staff have a good understanding of how well pupils are doing in each class and have regular, detailed meetings to discuss their learning. Your evaluation of the school’s performance is accurate and improvement plans focus on relevant actions to raise standards. You have prioritised the most important things. Plans do not, however, focus sharply enough on specific targets for accelerating pupils’ progress. Leaders do not check the progress of different groups of pupils carefully enough, particularly that of the most able and disadvantaged pupils, to ensure that actions are having the maximum impact. You have rightly recognised this is an area for development and plan to review the school’s systems for checking the progress of pupils.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

The very large majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire or who spoke with the inspector, were positive about all aspects of the school. Many commented on the friendly, caring, ‘community’ ethos of the school and the approachability of staff and yourself. Many commented on the positive changes since your appointment.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Records are detailed. Leaders take timely action when they have any concerns about pupils’ well-being. Staff receive relevant and up-to-date training. The school’s single central record and recruitment processes are thorough. Some minor amendments were made during the inspection.

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Short inspection of Egginton Primary School

Pupils spoke with confidence about how the school teaches them to keep themselves safe, for example when online. Pupils say teachers respond to any concerns they have and bullying is rare. Pupils are confident that staff will respond to concerns they may have. The very large majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, said their children are safe.

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Inspection findings

 Current work shows that the majority of pupils, including the most able and those who are disadvantaged, are making good progress in writing and mathematics. However, sometimes teachers do not use information about pupils’ learning well enough to ensure that pupils move on to more challenging work quickly enough. In mathematics, for example, pupils sometimes complete many examples of work at the same level of difficulty. In writing, teachers do not consistently challenge pupils rigorously enough to be more precise in their use of language, spelling, grammar and punctuation. As a result, some pupils’ progress is not as rapid as it could be.  Teachers provide pupils with frequent opportunities to develop fluency in mathematics and to improve their problem-solving and reasoning skills. However, this is not yet consistent. Teachers have not taught some pupils to interpret mathematics problems independently or to demonstrate and communicate their

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Inspection findings

reasoning.  Leaders and the governing body do not have a sharp enough overview of the progress of different groups of pupils, in different classes and subjects. As a result, targets for teachers’ performance are not as focused as they could be to hold staff to account. Similarly, the governing body is not as effective as it could be in holding leaders to account to help drive even more rapid improvements.  Leaders’ plans for the use of the pupil premium identify clearly how the funding will be used. However, leaders and the governing body do not check the progress of disadvantaged pupils carefully enough to be sure that the actions they have chosen have the maximum impact on accelerating pupils’ progress and raising their attainment.  The attendance of disadvantaged pupils was a line of enquiry explored during the inspection. As a result of leaders’ actions, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils improved in 2017 compared to 2016. Current attendance has improved further.

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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

 they refine their use of information about the progress of different groups of pupils to more effectively set challenging targets and hold staff to account to help drive even more rapid improvements  they more carefully target the use of the pupil premium to ensure that more disadvantaged pupils make accelerated progress.  all teachers securely equip pupils with the reasoning and problem-solving skills they need in mathematics, so more pupils progress to the higher levels  all teachers use assessment information effectively to decide when to more quickly move pupils on to challenging work. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Derbyshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector met with the headteacher and members of the governing body. The inspector spoke with parents at the beginning of the day. He met with pupils informally during the school day, as well as holding a formal meeting with a group of pupils. The inspector observed teaching and learning in all classes jointly with the headteacher. During these visits, the inspector looked at pupils’ work and spoke with pupils to evaluate the quality of their learning. He also examined with the headteacher pupils’ work in a sample of their books.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector scrutinised a variety of documents relating to safeguarding; behaviour; the quality of teaching, learning and assessment; pupils’ attainment and progress; staff performance and leaders’ plans for improvement. The inspector assessed the impact on standards of leaders’ actions taken since the last inspection, as well as additional lines of enquiry. He considered the 22 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, as well as the 60 responses to the pupil questionnaire and nine responses to the staff questionnaire. The inspector also considered the range and quality of information provided on the school’s website.

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