Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

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

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Mrs Hannah Inglis Headteacher Long Sutton Church of England Primary School Hyde Road Long Sutton Hook Hampshire RG29 1ST

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 7 March 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 Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Despite an extended period of instability in the leadership team, senior leaders, governors and local authority officers have worked tirelessly to ensure that standards in the school remain high. Since starting in September 2017, you have wasted no time in evaluating and improving many aspects of the school. You are ably assisted by your senior leaders who, like you, have high ambitions for the school and its pupils.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

Refinements to the behaviour policy have been particularly well received. Pupils’ behaviour has greatly improved in line with the message from the school’s three ‘bees’: ‘be kind, be respectful and be the best you can be’. Parents and carers have welcomed your leadership and the improvements you have secured for their children. One parent summarised the thoughts of many, noting ‘the changes made by Mrs Inglis have been extraordinary’.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

The governing body is skilled and ambitious. Its members evaluate the school’s effectiveness accurately through discussions with leaders, scrutiny of progress information and visits to the school to gather first-hand evidence. For example, governors conduct regular health-and-safety visits, working with leaders to ensure that the school site is safe and secure. Governors keep a close eye on how well pupils are doing, particularly those who are eligible for the pupil premium and the service pupil premium funding. Governors recognise that the writing progress of middle-attaining pupils needs to rise to match the excellent progress of the most able pupils in the school. The school is a vibrant and exciting place for pupils. They enjoy the well-judged and lively curriculum. For example, pupils in the Years 1/2 classes visited the ‘living rainforest’ and told me about their encounters with sloths, snakes and blue tree

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

frogs. Pupils in the Years 5/6 class recently visited the Tower of London to learn about the Tudors in history. They used their strong communication skills to discuss and debate their thoughts and ideas across a range of subject areas.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

In the playground, pupils play with joy and enthusiasm. They report that behaviour is greatly improved and that bullying has been eradicated. Pupils share excellent relationships with staff and this contributes to the palpable sense of care and respect that is evident throughout the school community.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

At the time of the last inspection, you were asked to increase the capacity of middle leaders to improve their subject areas. They now receive useful training opportunities which help them to develop their skills and understanding. For example, the local authority provided training which helped leaders to improve their evaluation of their subject areas and improvement planning. Middle leaders appreciate the opportunity to work with senior colleagues and counterparts from other schools to learn from established and successful practitioners. As a result, all of them are competent, confident and well prepared to secure further improvement.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

Systems for safeguarding pupils are understood by the whole school community and fit for purpose. Staff receive regular training to keep them up to date with the latest safeguarding guidance. When concerns arise, these are passed on quickly to leaders who then work with the local authority and other agencies to get children the help they need.

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Short inspection of Long Sutton Church of England Primary School

Pupils know how to stay safe. For example, junior road safety officers work with parent volunteers to teach other pupils how to stay safe on the roads. The recent internet safety day encouraged pupils to think about their own internet use and how they can stay safe online. As a result, pupils make increasingly responsible decisions when using electronic devices.

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Inspection findings

 At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at: the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements; pupils’ progress (including the progress of those who are disadvantaged) in writing; the effectiveness of phonics teaching; and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in mathematics.  Pupils are taught how to write with care and precision. They use their secure understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar to create interesting and imaginative texts. High proportions of the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, attain at a high standard. Recent changes to the curriculum have provided further opportunities for middle-attaining pupils to make accelerated progress. Nevertheless, it is too early to measure the impact of these changes.  Over the past three years, there has been a slight decline in the proportion of Year 1 pupils who passed the end-of-year phonics check. Leaders have worked

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Inspection findings

with the local authority to review the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in this area and have revitalised the reading scheme and provided additional support for teachers. Teachers possess secure subject knowledge in phonics and provide pupils with useful guidance. Leaders, rightly, recognise that pupils’ progress in phonics needs to accelerate further so that a greater proportion of them are ready for the challenges of key stage 2 work.  In 2014, leaders rewrote the mathematics curriculum to ensure that pupils receive sufficient opportunity to solve problems and reason in mathematics. Pupils of all abilities regularly tackle challenging problems in mathematics lessons. Teachers use their strong subject knowledge to probe pupils’ understanding and test them further. As a result, pupils make rapid progress in 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

 a greater proportion of pupils pass the Year 1 phonics check  the progress middle-attaining pupils make in writing accelerates so that a higher proportion attain at greater depth.

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

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, senior and middle leaders, and five governors, including the chair. I observed learning in five classes, all jointly with senior leaders. Together we looked at pupils’ work. I analysed a range of the school’s documentation including information about pupils’ achievement, the school improvement plan, and safeguarding checks, policies and procedures. We discussed your evaluation of the school’s effectiveness. I considered 47 responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View and spoke to parents at the beginning of the day. I scrutinised the results of Ofsted’s pupils’ survey and gathered the views of other pupils throughout the day.

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