Grayshott Church of England Controlled Primary School

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

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Mrs Sharon Pritchard Grayshott Church of England Controlled Primary School School Road Grayshott Hindhead Surrey GU26 6LR

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School

Following my visit to the school on 27 June 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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School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You joined the school as headteacher in April 2016 and quickly established a strong and convincing vision for improving the school. Parents and carers are supportive of your leadership and the positive changes that are happening. A parent typically commented, ‘This is a wonderful community school, where my children have thrived.’

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School

You and your senior leaders are ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. Your evaluation of the school’s effectiveness is accurate. Your sensible, planned approach is bringing about sustainable improvement. For example, your recent investment in improving the quality of provision in the Reception class is successfully enabling children to get off to a good start. You know that there is more to do to increase the proportion of children that exceed a good level of development by the end of Reception. However, parents are highly appreciative of what has been achieved so far. A parent explained that her child ‘has come on in leaps and bounds’ since starting school last year.

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School

Pupils enjoy learning in the calm and positive environment that you ensure is in place. Routines are very well established and help pupils to feel secure. Pupils are kind and considerate. They move about the school in a composed and orderly manner, cheerfully holding doors open for each other. Pupils value their teachers, with most pupils spoken to scoring the school as ‘ten out of ten’. Pupils relish the many opportunities that they have to contribute responsibly to the life of the school. For example, pupils are proud to be play leaders at breaks or to be elected to the role of house captain.

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School

At the time of the last inspection, you were asked to strengthen the role of subject and middle leaders and develop the use of performance information, to improve pupils’ progress and outcomes. Subject leaders are confident in their roles and feel well supported by senior leaders. Helpful training and individual support are successfully enabling subject leaders to take a strategic approach to the development of their subject area. They have been productive in ensuring coverage and progression in all subjects across the curriculum. Leaders at all levels know that the next step is to sharpen the assessment of pupils’ learning in subjects other than English and mathematics.

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School

Staff and governors are now making effective use of performance information to improve the precision of teaching and pupils’ outcomes. Governors have received some useful training, and wisely have more planned, so that they can interpret pupils’ progress data and hold school leaders to account. Your careful analysis of the data has led you to rightly prioritise the achievement of the most able pupils across the school so that a greater proportion of them are able to achieve at the higher standard, particularly in writing.

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School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders have successfully established a safe and caring school community in which pupils can thrive. Adults undergo thorough checks to ensure their suitability to work with children. Staff know pupils well and make efficient use of their training to keep an eye on pupils’ welfare and conscientiously report any concerns. Files are well maintained and show that leaders respond swiftly to any concerns that are raised.

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School

The vast majority of pupils who responded to the online survey said that they feel safe at school. Pupils spoken to say that they respect their teachers and feel well cared for. A pupil explained, ‘The teachers are really lovely and if you have a problem, they sort it out straight away.’ Pupils are able to describe how to keep themselves safe online and know what to do if they have any concerns. Parents are also given helpful information about internet safety through the school’s website.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, we looked closely at specific aspects of the school’s provision, including the effectiveness of leaders’ work to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well, the effectiveness of provision for the most able pupils to achieve the higher standards, particularly in writing, and the effectiveness of teaching and learning in subjects other than English and mathematics.  Disadvantaged pupils are making faster progress than in the past. Leaders’ thorough understanding of disadvantaged pupils’ needs enables them to make effective use of additional funding to support these pupils. Disadvantaged pupils receive skilfully tailored support to help them catch up with others as soon as possible. The positive impact of this approach can be seen in reading and writing, with an increased number of pupils making strong progress in these subjects.  Leaders are ambitious to increase the proportion of the most able pupils

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Inspection findings

achieving at the higher standards, particularly in writing. Pupils across the school enjoy many opportunities to write for various purposes and in different styles. For example, in Year 3, pupils proficiently wrote lively, imaginative poems effectively, demonstrating flair in their use of language and poetic effects. Much has been achieved this year to improve the quality of provision in the Reception class so that the most able children are identified early on in order to be stretched and challenged in their thinking. However, despite promising signs of progress, some of the most able pupils do not consistently write as well as they could, particularly in Reception and key stage 1.  Capable subject leaders have adeptly redesigned the curriculum to ensure that pupils successfully develop their skills and knowledge in a wide range of subjects. Pupils are motivated to learn through exciting topic titles, such as ‘local heroes

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Inspection findings

and villains’. Skilful teaching enables pupils to make links in their learning and to apply their English and mathematical skills to other subjects. For example, in science, pupils wrote instructions, carried out experiments and compared their results with increasing complexity across the school. In geography, younger pupils explored maps and older pupils calculated how far each family in the class travelled to get their food. Subject leaders are rightly ambitious to further improve pupils’ outcomes by sharpening the assessment of pupils’ learning in subjects other than English and mathematics.

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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

 an increased proportion of the most able pupils achieve greater depth in writing in all year groups  they sharpen the assessment of pupils’ learning in subjects other than English and mathematics  outcomes for children in early years continue to improve, so that an increased proportion of the most able children exceed a good level of development.

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

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Information about the inspection

I met with you and senior leaders, and spoke to governors. I also had a discussion with a representative from the local authority. Together, you and I visited classes in all year groups. I considered the 49 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including 29 free-text comments. There were 14 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire, which were taken into account, together with the 79 responses to Ofsted’s online survey for pupils. I also met with a small group of pupils, talked informally to pupils about their learning and scrutinised work in pupils’ books. I analysed a range of the school’s documentation, including information about safeguarding. We discussed your evaluation of the schools’ effectiveness.

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