Copmanthorpe Primary School

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

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Mrs Jennifer Rogers Headteacher Copmanthorpe Primary School Low Green Copmanthorpe York North Yorkshire YO23 3SB

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 19 April 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 April 2014.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You and your leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Following your appointment in 2015, you acted quickly and reviewed all areas of the school, correctly identifying and prioritising areas for improvement. You and your governors reviewed the school’s leadership structure following the promotion of the previous deputy headteacher, and you appointed two assistant headteachers in 2017. As a result, leadership and management have been strengthened further.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Governance is a strength of the school. Governors have a wide range of skills and expertise and are very ably led by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable chair of governors. Governors are routinely involved in school life and provide robust challenge and support to leaders at all levels. There is strong capacity in the school’s leadership to achieve the improvements you aspire to.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You are relentless in your ambition for continuous school improvement, and you always put the children and pupils in your school at the heart of what you and your staff do. Your determination and passion have ensured that leadership, at all levels, is focused not only on the progress of pupils, but also on their whole school experience. As a result, outcomes of pupils have been strong, overall, since the last inspection, with some variation from year to year.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You and your leadership team have successfully dealt with the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection report. At the last inspection, you were asked to improve the quality of teaching from good to outstanding. You were asked to raise achievement further, particularly in writing, by sharing the best-quality teaching already in school. You were advised to increase opportunities for pupils to use their writing skills in subjects other than English. You were also asked to provide pupils with opportunities to read through and check their own work and that of their classmates. You acted swiftly and focused strongly on further staff development and sharing good and outstanding practice, not only within your school, but also through effective collaborations with other schools. You took robust actions to eradicate any weak teaching and worked closely with the local authority to ensure that teacher assessments, at all key stages, are accurate.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Current school assessment information indicates an improvement in writing across all year groups, and is evidence of the impact of your actions since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Staff value and support your determination to bring about improvements in teaching and learning and professional development. Your passion has created a very strong culture of collaboration and a team ethos among your staff and governors. You and your senior leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching and have put in place effective monitoring systems and procedures to support further improvement. As a result, all teaching across the school is now strong. Pupils have more opportunities to use their writing skills in subjects like science and regularly check their own work and that of their peers.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed. There is a strong safeguarding culture in the school. You and your staff know the pupils well, and the monitoring of pupils’ welfare is thorough and detailed.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You ensure that you carry out appropriate checks on the suitability of all staff who work with pupils. Your experienced safeguarding governor monitors all areas of safeguarding thoroughly. You recognise that in order to add further capacity in your safeguarding team, more staff should undertake appropriate designated safeguarding lead training.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

You have ensured that staff and governors receive appropriate training in child protection. All staff know what to do if they have any concerns about the children and pupils in your school. You and your staff meet weekly and discuss all concerns raised about pupils. As a result, the school shares information with external agencies effectively, and leaders take action swiftly and monitor the impact of actions closely.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Pupils report that they feel safe in school and know who to go to if they have any concerns. They also say that bullying is very rare and, when it does happen, teachers deal with it effectively. Inspection evidence and the views of parents and staff also support this. Pupils value the support they receive from staff and the way that they are encouraged to look after their physical health.

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Short inspection of Copmanthorpe Primary School

Pupils are polite and respectful to each other and to staff. The relationships between staff and pupils are very positive. As a result, behaviour in lessons and conduct around the school environment are exemplary.

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Inspection findings

 Since the last inspection and your appointment in 2015, you have strengthened further monitoring systems which show that the quality of teaching is good and better in the vast majority of lessons. You have successfully widened the range of staff involved in the frequent monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning, based on a carefully planned schedule. Together, you check the impact on the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils. As a result, the vast majority of teachers provide appropriate challenge for all groups of pupils, including the most able and disadvantaged pupils, and use targeted questioning effectively to probe understanding and support pupils’ progress. We agreed that there is some inconsistency in the level of challenge in the teaching of mathematics across the school and more work is needed in this area.  The numerous teaching assistants work closely with classroom teachers and, as a

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Inspection findings

result, they are able to provide effective support to a range of pupils, including pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. Teaching assistants use effective questioning and encourage pupils to work independently.  During our joint scrutiny of pupils’ books and visits to lessons, we were able to confirm that pupils have increased opportunities to use their writing skills in a range of subjects other than English. For example, in science, pupils frequently have opportunities to carry out investigations and evaluate their outcomes. However, we agreed that there is some variation in the challenge provided by teachers across year groups in science. As a result, pupils do not make consistently strong or better progress from their starting points. You have swiftly introduced a range of initiatives to strengthen writing across all year groups, following a disappointing dip in the 2017

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Inspection findings

outcomes for pupils in Year 6. You and your leaders have correctly identified the need to maintain the focus on writing across all subjects. Consequently, current school assessment information indicates that the quality of writing is improving rapidly in key stage 2, and is further strengthened by a sustained improvement in key stage 1.

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Inspection findings

 Since the last inspection, outcomes for pupils overall have remained strong. The proportion of children in early years who achieve a good level of development has been increasing year-on-year since the last inspection and remains well above national average. Outcomes for pupils at the end of key stage 1 in 2017 remained strong. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard and greater depth in reading, writing, mathematics and science was well above national average.

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Inspection findings

 Following some disappointment in the 2017 outcomes for pupils at the end of key stage 2, you and your leaders correctly identified specific areas that needed improvement, for example attainment in science, progress in writing for all pupils, including the disadvantaged pupils, and progress in mathematics for the most able pupils. You swiftly implemented action plans for intervention. As a result, current school assessment information indicates an improvement for the current Year 6 pupils, including the most able and disadvantaged pupils, in the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level and greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics. School assessment information also indicates a sustained improvement in all other key stage 2 classes. You acknowledge that more work is needed here to ensure that the outcomes for all pupils, including the disadvantaged and most able, continue to improve year on year.

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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

 the consistency of the quality of teaching and learning continues to improve in mathematics and science, so that all groups of pupils make consistently strong progress, including the achievement of the most able pupils at greater depth at key stage 2  outcomes in writing continue to improve year-on-year, especially for the disadvantaged pupils.

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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 York. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, your assistant headteachers, staff and governors. I held a telephone conversation with the local authority school improvement partner. I also spoke to a range of pupils and parents. I listened to pupils read and, together, we conducted tours of the school and lessons, looking at pupils’ work and observing their learning. I also, alongside senior leaders, conducted a scrutiny of pupils’ work in a range of subjects.

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Information about the inspection

I scrutinised and evaluated a range of documents relating to safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and school improvement. I took account of the 153 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including the 145 extended responses from parents. I also took account of the 75 responses to the pupil questionnaire and the 27 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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