Christ Church Bentinck CofE Primary School

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

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Mrs Sandra Tyrrell Headteacher Christ Church Bentinck Church of England Primary School Cosway Street London NW1 5NS

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School

Following my visit to the school on 27 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 October 2013.

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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 and marked improvement in certain 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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School

Since the previous inspection, pupils’ progress has accelerated rapidly. Most pupils, including those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, make strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. As a result, more pupils are now achieving standards above those expected for their age. Disadvantaged pupils’ attainment has risen markedly in recent years.

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School

Pupils work very hard and with very positive attitudes. They respect each other’s ideas and work well together. They take considerable pride in their work. Pupils’ diligence as they work means they complete tasks to a high standard.

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School

Staff, parents, pupils and governors are all highly appreciative of your inclusive approach and hold you in high regard. You, and your newly appointed deputy headteacher, work tirelessly to ensure that the pupils remain at the heart of the school, and so set high expectations of all your staff. Parents are overwhelmingly confident about the strength of your leaderships. They feel confident about your leadership and know that you are always willing to ‘go the extra mile’ for them and their children. This is a very happy, purposeful school, where many parents choose to travel long distances from outside the local area. As one parent described: ‘This school is fabulous. It’s a real family.’

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School

You have identified the school’s main strengths and those areas that could be further developed. For example, you know that most-able pupils could achieve even more in their writing. You have gathered first-hand information to inform your judgements and have fully involved governors and other leaders in monitoring the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, everyone is clear about how the school can improve further, and leaders are taking the right actions to make these improvements.

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School

You, your leadership team and governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are complete. All checks on the suitability of staff to work at the school are in place. Clear systems exist for staff to make referrals when concerns arise, and subsequent actions are followed up effectively. Leaders work very well with families and external agencies to ensure that pupils receive well-targeted support when required. Staff training, including that related to the ‘Prevent’ duty, is up to date. Staff have a good knowledge of potential concerns within the local area. This increases their vigilance in spotting and reporting concerns about pupils’ well-being.

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School

The school has a very friendly atmosphere and pupils appreciate this. I observed and chatted with pupils, including during lunchtime, and they were relaxed and happy. They told me that they feel very safe in school and that bullying is not a problem. They enjoy coming to school and told me they find the staff both helpful and respectful. This helps pupils to behave well and to have positive attitudes about the school.

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School

Most parents appreciate the work that the school does to keep them well informed about their children’s progress. Several commented that the school is honest, open and warm. Because of this, pupils’ attendance is consistently above average. Staff, including the home school support worker and learning mentor, work together extremely well to support pupils’ well-being.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed two lines of enquiry for this inspection. The first of these related to the achievement of disadvantaged pupils in writing. This was because last year there were differences between the progress of these pupils and others.  Leaders make very effective use of the pupil premium funding, so that it makes a real difference to pupils’ achievements. Leaders ensure that disadvantaged pupils receive excellent teaching and highly tailored support when they need it. Because of this, disadvantaged pupils’ progress in writing has accelerated rapidly and their attainment is rising quickly.  The school has taken several important steps to improve writing. Teachers have received additional training and support from the subject leader and the local authority. This has given them greater confidence in instilling pupils with a real ambition to write across the whole range of subjects.  You have developed an innovative whole-school approach to develop pupils’

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Inspection findings

writing through the spoken word and this is now paying dividends. Pupils’ work shows great skill and their writing is extremely well presented.  During the inspection, I saw information about how you monitor the quality of teaching. Leaders’ useful feedback to teachers provides them with information so that the teaching of writing has shown substantial improvement. The work that you have done to improve this area needs to remain a focus, so that improvements continue and are reflected in pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage 2.  As a second line of enquiry, I also wanted to look at leaders’ actions to ensure that the most-able pupils in key stage 1 achieve highly. Last year, the proportion of most-able pupils achieving the higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics was lower than average.  You and your deputy headteacher have made good use of monitoring information , such as termly progress measures, to ensure that pupils in key stage

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Inspection findings

1 are fulfilling their potential, especially the most able. From the very strong progress achieved in the early years, pupils of all abilities achieve standards that reflect this and attain standards that are now higher than those seen nationally. The recent changes to develop handwriting have led to rapid improvements in the presentation of work.  Following a close analysis of assessment information, and observation of practice, teaching in this key stage is of a sufficiently high standard to ensure that all pupils make very strong progress. Staff are working effectively to ensure that pupils of all abilities are taught systematically in a way that meets their needs.

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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

 writing standards continue to rise by the time pupils leave the school at the end of key stage 2.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of governors, the director of education for the Diocese of London and the director of children’s services for Westminster. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I held several meetings with you and the deputy headteacher. I met with five governors and held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority. I considered the 51 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and the two written comments on the free-text facility. You and the deputy headteacher accompanied me on visits to classrooms. I talked to pupils about their learning and looked at the 49 responses to Ofsted’s pupils’ survey. I looked at pupils’ books and listened to a range of pupils read as they worked in lessons. I considered the 13 staff surveys that were completed to gauge staff opinion about working at the school. I also evaluated a range of school documentation, including school development plans, safeguarding records and information about current pupils’ achievement.

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