Olveston Church of England Primary School

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

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Mrs Amanda Luke Headteacher Olveston Church of England Primary School Elberton Road Olveston Bristol South Gloucestershire BS35 4DB

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 2 May 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 July 2014.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary 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 specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection will be a full section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Leaders at all levels contribute to school improvement very effectively. They have an incisive understanding of how well pupils are doing, because they track pupils’ progress robustly. This helps them to understand when to intervene to improve teaching. Staff who responded to the survey feel motivated and respected and they are proud to be part of the school, because they feel well supported by leaders. A staff member commented, ‘Senior leaders are amazing, they are always ready to help us.’

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Highly effective teaching over time helps most pupils to make strong progress. This leads to extremely positive outcomes in all key stages. At the end of the early years, children consistently achieve better than children nationally. Pupils routinely achieve well in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1. Over the last two years, the proportion of pupils who achieve the expected standards at the end of key stage 1 and 2 has been considerably higher than that of pupils nationally. The proportion of pupils who reach higher standards has been at least in line with that of pupils nationally, and is often well above. Strong teaching ensures that most current pupils make effective progress to reach the standards expected of them. Some disadvantaged pupils, who had previously fallen behind in their learning, are making exceptionally strong progress. However, a minority of disadvantaged pupils and some pupils who have special educational

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

needs (SEN) and/or disabilities are making slower progress.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

You have worked extremely hard to build positive relationships with parents and this has paid huge dividends. Parents welcome your regular presence at the school gate and praise the fact that you know the children well. The overwhelming majority of parents are very pleased with the work of the school. The exceptionally positive responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire are testament to this. Typical comments include ‘This is a wonderful, nurturing school…teachers are superb’ and ‘My child walks in each day with a smile and walks out with a smile.’ Almost all parents who responded to the survey are happy with their children’s progress.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

You encourage pupils to help themselves when they are learning. This has a positive impact and pupils are developing the confidence to persevere when learning gets tricky. Pastoral provision is highly effective in enabling many pupils, including pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, to manage their emotions and behaviour. This is making a marked difference to pupils’ readiness to engage in their learning. Current teaching is now building on pupils’ positive attitudes and helping them to make better academic progress.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Pupils come to school eager to learn and are keen to participate in extra-curricular activities, such as the running club. This promotes excitement among pupils and gives pupils a healthy start to the day. Pupils understand teachers’ expectations of them, find their learning interesting and are extremely well-mannered and respectful. They develop positive, cooperative relationships with other pupils.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Governors are keen to support the work of the school and gain evidence of the school’s work during their visits. They talk to leaders and observe pupils’ learning, which helps them to check the effectiveness of your actions. However, they agree that they need to evaluate the progress of all groups of pupils more sharply.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

You and your staff are fully committed to pupils’ safety and welfare and all adults develop warm and caring relationships with pupils. Your insightful knowledge of pupils and their families helps you to identify when pupils need extra help. For example, some pupils are unable to attend regularly due to reasons beyond their control. You take the time to get to know the reasons for pupils’ absence, meet regularly with parents and carers and provide pupils with extra work to do at home. Parents are grateful for your support and typical comments include ‘We are not just treated like another number…we are treated with compassion and understanding.’

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

Pupils’ behaviour is impeccable. Pupils listen carefully to adults, because they know what is expected of them. Pupils can clearly explain the ‘traffic light’ behaviour rules and enjoy the opportunity to collect ‘gems’, for example when they are kind or work hard. Pupils confirm that this motivates them to behave well. Almost all pupils, parents and staff who shared their views confirm that behaviour is well managed.

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Short inspection of Olveston Church of England Primary School

You provide staff with regular updates to safeguarding training, which ensure that they know what to do if they have concerns about pupils. You keep secure, detailed records and can explain what to do if further action is necessary. You make thorough checks to ensure that all adults working in the school are safe to work with children. You record this information on the school’s single central register. Several staff have undertaken first-aid training which ensures that staff know how to help pupils in the event of an accident. You have clear fire evacuation drills and ‘keep safe inside’ procedures, which ensure that adults and pupils know what to do in an emergency.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed that I would explore how effectively the school supports disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. This is because, over time, attendance for both of these groups of pupils is lower than others. Few pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make sufficient progress to achieve the expected standards and few disadvantaged pupils achieve higher standards.  Your latest assessment information and pupils’ learning confirm that exceptionally well-focused teaching support results in accelerated progress for some disadvantaged pupils. This helps them to catch up and achieve well. During discussions with pupils, they can clearly explain what they are learning. However, some teaching is not sufficiently well planned to enable a very small minority of pupils to make strong progress in all subjects.  Structured teaching support for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities helps many pupils to make effective progress. Adults model learning well and ask

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Inspection findings

probing questions to check pupils’ understanding. When pupils are unsure what to do, adults reshape learning to help pupils to achieve better. Pupils enjoy talking about their learning and regularly practise, develop and consolidate their skills in reading, writing and mathematics. However, some pupils who need extra help to manage their feelings and behaviour make slower progress, particularly in mathematics and reading. You have quite rightly focused your efforts on developing pupils’ attitudes to learning, and your work is having a positive impact. Parents of pupils who receive additional pastoral support generally comment favourably on the valuable help you provide. A parent who responded to the survey confirmed that ‘staff could not be more supportive’.  You work closely with families to encourage pupils to attend school regularly. Your actions are making a positive difference and attendance for the majority of

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Inspection findings

pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, is good. However, despite your efforts, a minority of pupils, including some pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, are regularly absent. This is sometimes for unavoidable reasons. You are committed to further reducing absence, to help pupils benefit from all the school offers.  During the inspection, I wanted to determine how well leaders, including governors, communicate with parents and ensure that they meet their statutory responsibility for keeping the website up to date. You work relentlessly to develop effective partnerships with parents and hold a regular parents’ forum. This provides parents with opportunities to share their views of the work of the school. Parents appreciate the chance to contribute their ideas and the vast majority of parents believe the school’s communication with them is effective. Governors regularly check the content of the website to ensure that it contains

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Inspection findings

all the necessary information for parents. They are currently exploring how to develop the website to make it easier to navigate.  During our initial meeting we agreed that, during the inspection, we would consider how well your curriculum supports pupils to make strong progress in a range of subjects. Inspection activities reveal that you routinely map pupils’ progress across all subjects using a ‘pupil passport’ which helps you to ensure that pupils are gaining relevant skills, knowledge and understanding across the curriculum. During our reviews of pupils’ learning, we observed Year 1 pupils developing their geographical understanding and embedding their reading and writing skills when learning about the Amazon. Across the school, teachers give pupils opportunities to write in a variety of forms such as newspaper reports, diaries and stories. Pupils enjoy their learning and a parent praised the school’s

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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 sharply evaluate the effectiveness of teaching for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, so that they can identify when pupils need to make better progress and intervene appropriately  they further improve the attendance of the minority of pupils who have higher absence, so that they attend school regularly and benefit from all that the school has to offer.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the course of the inspection, I met with you, the acting deputy headteacher and leaders responsible for early years, English and mathematics. I met with eight governors and had a telephone conversation with your school improvement adviser. I checked a range of your safeguarding procedures, including the school’s single central record. We visited the school’s breakfast club and saw pupils participating in the running club. We reviewed the school’s recent assessment information and discussed your self-evaluation and development plans. Together we carried out a learning walk in all classes, including reviewing pupils’ English and mathematics books. I spoke with several pupils about their work during lessons and gained their views of school when I spoke with them at break and lunchtime. I talked to parents at the beginning of the day, reviewed 106 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and read 56 additional free-text comments. I also considered 16

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Information about the inspection

responses to the online staff questionnaire.

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