Hartpury Church of England Primary School

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

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Mr Simon Millington Headteacher Hartpury Church of England Primary School Over Old Road Hartpury Gloucester Gloucestershire GL19 3BJ

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 17 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 November 2014.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England 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 Hartpury Church of England Primary School

Following your appointment in September 2017, you have worked effectively with the deputy headteacher and governors to continue improving the school. You have identified the right areas for improvement based on a good knowledge of the pupils and their needs. In particular, your passion for promoting a broad curriculum, based on practical learning and use of the outdoors, enables pupils well. This approach is at the heart of your work and contributes to making this a school where pupils are keen to learn and want to attend. Together with a new chair of governors, who also started in September 2017, you are managing change well. Governors play a key role. Their finely balanced support and challenge, including timely checks and visits, are effective in holding you to account. Governors have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and use this well to inform their decision-making.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

The quality of education is good. Pupils are enthusiastic about their learning and show a willingness to contribute and get involved. Teachers help pupils to make decisions in lessons. For example, they guide pupils to choose different activities, depending on their confidence and level of understanding. Teachers know the pupils well and establish productive relationships with them. As a result, pupils make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage in their education. The majority of parents are positive and would recommend the school. A typical parental comment was: ‘Both my children enjoy going to school every morning and come out smiling. I can see clear progress being made.’ However, a small minority of parents expressed dissatisfaction with communication between the school and home. This is something you have agreed to investigate further.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

Since the previous inspection, leaders have focused on continuing to improve teaching, learning and assessment, including in mathematics. Your school development plan clearly identifies areas for development. It sets out actions to tackle weaknesses, for example deepening mastery in mathematics. This is enabling your teachers to strengthen aspects of their teaching, including their subject knowledge, to ensure that pupils achieve well.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

However, we agreed that some weaknesses remain. In particular, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils is lower than pupils who are not disadvantaged. This is the case in reading, writing and mathematics and holds these pupils back, including those who are most able. In addition, pupils’ mathematical knowledge and fluency in mathematics, as well as aspects of their reading in key stage 2, are not as strong as they could be. This compromises elements of their preparedness for secondary education.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Staff are well trained and diligent in looking after pupils. They know what to do to refer or escalate any concerns to senior leaders. Leaders deal with concerns swiftly and robustly to keep pupils safe. Staff are not complacent. Their motto, ‘It could happen here’, is shared and well understood. You have developed constructive partnerships with external agencies, which you use effectively to safeguard pupils. Leaders ensure that all safeguarding arrangements, including recruitment and pre-employment checks, are fit for purpose.

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Short inspection of Hartpury Church of England Primary School

Pupils learn how to stay safe in different contexts. For example, they take part in fire drills, lessons on e-safety and anti-bullying activities. Pupils say that they trust staff and have confidence that staff listen to any worries that pupils have. You keep a log of incidents which happen during breaktime, which you use well to monitor pupils’ activities. This provides you with useful information to help any pupils who find managing playtimes difficult. Parents have a positive view of safeguarding. All those who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, said that their child feels safe in school.

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Inspection findings

 Our agreed first line of enquiry focused on pupils’ achievement in mathematics in key stage 2. Your deputy headteacher, who leads mathematics, has a strong understanding of the subject. She uses her knowledge and enthusiasm effectively to inspire teachers and motivate pupils. She plans professional development and training well to extend teachers’ subject knowledge. For example, teachers now fully understand the requirements of the national curriculum and therefore plan work in order for pupils to reach key milestones.  Teachers employ a range of effective strategies to help pupils learn key concepts in mathematics. For example, they make effective use of images, practical resources and equipment. As a result, pupils gain a good understanding of topics, including number and calculation, fractions, and shape and space.  Teachers’ expectations of pupils’ work in mathematics are not consistently high.

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Inspection findings

They do not routinely challenge pupils when their work is not good enough. Pupils sometimes produce poor quality work which contains mathematical inaccuracies or demonstrates misconceptions. These go unchallenged, which detracts from the quality of pupils’ work.  We also agreed to evaluate the impact of the schools’ strategy for using the pupil premium to help disadvantaged pupils. You and your staff know the pupils well. You gain a good knowledge of pupils through monitoring activities and meetings to discuss pupils’ progress. As a result, you allocate resources and tailor provision well to meet pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils get the right help and make good progress.  You have been creative and are effective with the additional funds available to support pupils through the pupil premium grant. Pupils benefit from well-chosen activities and resources to help them overcome their individual barriers to

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Inspection findings

learning. These include, for example, music tuition, additional lessons with a specialist mathematics teacher, and an electronic reading tablet. Consequently, pupils feel well supported and start to catch up with their more privileged peers.  However, disadvantaged pupils do not do as well as their peers in reading, writing and mathematics, including the most able pupils. The long-term plan to raise their achievement is not yet set out with a clear rationale or precise and measurable next steps to help them overcome barriers.  Finally, we focused on disadvantaged boys whose previous attainment was low in reading to evaluate how well they are catching up. We also evaluated the quality of provision and teaching in helping those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This is because, historically, these boys do not do as well as girls in the school.  You ensure that those who need help are identified and supported. This takes the

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Inspection findings

form of extra sessions with the class teacher and a teaching assistant, as well as ensuring that pupils have appropriate help in lessons and guided reading sessions. As a result, the boys who receive this support make faster progress and start catching up. However, they still have problems in understanding what they are reading because of gaps and weaknesses in their range of vocabulary.  You are taking the right steps to motivate pupils, especially to encourage boys in reading, and are creating a strong culture of reading in the school. For example, you have introduced reading challenges and purchased new books and materials which pupils are keen to read. However, some pupils are trying to read books from the school’s reading scheme which are too difficult for them. This slows their progress and reduces their enjoyment of reading.

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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 publish the school’s pupil premium strategy and that it contains a clear rationale and intent, together with defined measurable outcomes to raise standards for all disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics  teachers accelerate pupils’ progress and deepen their mathematical knowledge and fluency by building more quickly on what pupils already know, can do and understand  pupils continue to develop a wide and extensive vocabulary to help their reading, especially boys whose previous attainment was low.

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

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Information about the inspection

We agreed the timetable and related activities at the start of the inspection. I scrutinised safeguarding records and we discussed a wide range of matters related to safeguarding, including staff recruitment, training and vetting arrangements. I reviewed evidence to show how you work and liaise with multi-agency partners to keep children safe. Together, we visited lessons in key stage 2. We scrutinised a sample of pupils’ workbooks and I spoke with pupils and subject leaders, in line with our agreed key lines of enquiry. I heard pupils read and talked to them about their experiences of reading. I also met with representatives of the governing body and reviewed school documents, including the school’s self-evaluation summary and samples of governors’ visits. I held a discussion with a group of governors. I took full account of the 20 responses on Parent View, including the 20 free-texts received for the inspection and spoke to parents at the start of the school day. Additionally, I

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Information about the inspection

took into account three responses to a staff survey carried out as part of the inspection. I also met with your newly qualified teacher.

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