St Anne's CofE Primary School

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

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Miss Ruth Moor Headteacher St Anne’s CofE Primary School London Road Godmanchester Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE29 2WW

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE 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 St Anne’s CofE 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 St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Your dedication and determination that pupils at St Anne’s CofE Primary School make the best possible progress is evident. You are ably supported by your assistant headteachers. As a new leadership team, you have set high expectations for staff and pupils. You provide good-quality training for staff so that they are becoming increasingly skilled. You have an accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school, and have ensured that your leadership team has clear roles and responsibilities in regard to improving the achievement of pupils even further. Leaders carefully and regularly monitor the progress different groups of pupils make.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Since taking on the role of headteacher in 2016, you have ensured that ‘The St Anne’s Spirit’ remains a strength of the school. The school has experienced a number of significant changes to the staff team in recent years, including most teachers and all senior leaders. After this period of change and uncertainty, which had a negative impact on its effectiveness, the school is now good and improving once again. Parents appreciate how you have stabilised the school. All staff who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire are proud to work at St Anne’s.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Pupils behave extremely well, both in class and around the school. They talk enthusiastically about tasks in class and share ideas to support each other’s understanding. One parent told me, ‘You can tell which children have attended St Anne’s as they are always the most polite, caring children and this is down to the school’s ethos.’

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Pupils have a positive attitude to their learning and are reflective. The relationships between pupils and staff are positive. This ensures an environment that is highly conducive to learning. Pupils told me how much they enjoy school. One pupil said, ‘We are a kind, welcoming school.’

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Pupils attend school well and overall attendance has been in line with the national average consistently since the previous inspection.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

Governors have an accurate view of what is working well and what could be even better. They have specific roles and responsibilities and are dedicated to their work. They have a strong focus on pupils making the best personal and academic progress.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

At your previous inspection, leaders were asked to improve the quality of teaching and learning by making sure that work is always hard enough for the most able pupils. They were also asked to strengthen the support for pupils who are disadvantaged. Although there is still more to do, both of these areas have continued to improve, particularly since your arrival. The increased level of expectation is evident in the work that we saw during the inspection, and in the proportion of pupils who are on track to achieve the higher standard.

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Short inspection of St Anne’s CofE Primary School

You, your leadership team and governors have successfully created a strong safeguarding culture and ethos. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Pupils say they feel happy and safe. They explain that this is not just because of what teachers do, but because other pupils in the school make them feel safe too. Parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, said that their children are happy and secure at the school. You take the approach that ‘safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility’ and ensure that all staff receive appropriate and regular training. Leaders, including governors, carry out audits of safeguarding across the school. This includes monitoring the school’s single central register to ensure that it is kept up to date and meets statutory regulations. Safeguarding across the school is effective.

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Inspection findings

 In order to check that the school remains good, I followed a number of lines of enquiry. My first line of enquiry was to establish how well pupils achieve in mathematics. The attainment of the pupils across the school is regularly higher than that of other pupils nationally. However, in 2016 and 2017, key stage 2 pupils’ progress from their starting points was lower than that found nationally in mathematics. I wanted to determine how well leaders are ensuring that pupils make consistently good progress, and how effectively pupils are taught mathematical skills.  You and your team have analysed the reasons for pupils’ progress in mathematics being below average. You have identified what is needed for each individual pupil to succeed and teachers have acted on this.  You rightly decided at the beginning of 2017 to introduce a new mathematics scheme. As a result, pupils are given increasingly effective opportunities to develop

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Inspection findings

their reasoning and problem-solving skills. During the inspection, we observed pupils being challenged to think hard about what they were learning. Pupils are starting to apply what they already know using a range of different examples.  The actions you have taken are already having an impact on pupils’ learning. We looked at pupils’ books and found that these showed that a good range of mathematical skills are taught. Teachers use an increased range of resources to support understanding across all classes. Pupils are now making good progress in mathematics at key stage 2.  For my next line of enquiry, I looked at writing and considered whether pupils are making good progress. I chose to look at this because pupils’ progress in the subject has declined over the last three years, and was particularly low in 2017.  You were aware of the need to further develop pupils’ writing skills, and have already begun to take effective action to improve the way in which pupils write.

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Inspection findings

With other leaders, you carefully monitor the quality of teaching, learning and assessment of writing. You ensure that support, guidance and training are made available for staff to further improve the teaching of writing.  During the inspection, we saw teachers modelling writing and giving pupils open- ended tasks. In Year 2, pupils used what they had seen on a short video to write what they thought would happen next. All the pupils were able to produce a piece of high-quality writing. Pupils said that they now have more ideas and find writing easier. A Year 6 pupil talked enthusiastically about writing from the viewpoint of a particular object. He had enjoyed writing as the shirt he would wear under his jumper in winter, and how it felt.  Current pupils’ books show improving standards in writing throughout the school. The effect of your new approach is accelerating the progress most pupils make.

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Inspection findings

This was also seen in your in-school assessment information. You recognise that writing in subjects other than English is not yet as strong, and have instigated work to improve this.  My final line of enquiry was to consider the progress that disadvantaged pupils make. Although you have a small proportion of disadvantaged pupils compared to national figures, these pupils underachieved in 2016 and 2017. Progress for disadvantaged pupils therefore was well below the national average for all pupils.  As part of your pupil progress meetings, you ask each teacher to identify the specific needs of each pupil, the ways in which these have been addressed and the impact this is having. Governors receive detailed reports about the support that disadvantaged pupils receive. They meet with you and with other senior leaders to see how well pupils are progressing. They understand the issues that are arising as a result of your analysis.

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Inspection findings

 Current school assessment information and work we saw in books show that these strategies are working, and that the large majority of disadvantaged pupils are now making good progress.

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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 continue to improve the quality and consistency of teaching and learning to support pupils to develop the full range of curriculum skills  the progress of pupils across the school, including those who are disadvantaged, is accelerated so that they achieve as well as they can in writing.

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

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Information about the inspection

 At the start of the inspection, we discussed the key lines of enquiry for this inspection, your evaluation of the school’s performance, plans for future improvements and information about current pupils’ learning.  I evaluated your school evaluation and improvement planning documents, as well as reviewing minutes of governing body meetings.  The school’s safeguarding arrangements, records, files and documentation were examined. Discussions were held with the safeguarding leaders.  Together, we observed pupils’ learning in all classes. We looked at samples of pupils’ work in each class to evaluate the progress pupils are making over time.  I spoke informally with pupils during lessons regarding their learning. I also met with a group of pupils.  I met with the chair of governors and six other governors.  I met with representatives from the Diocese of Ely and Cambridgeshire children’s services.  The views of the 70 parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent

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Information about the inspection

View, the 28 staff who completed Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and the 129 pupils who completed the online pupil questionnaire were taken into account. I considered 53 parental comments from the free-text service that was available during the inspection.

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