Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

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

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Mrs Kirstie Baines Headteacher Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School Durley Brook Road Durley Southampton Hampshire SO32 2AR

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 July 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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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled 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 be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

As headteacher, your relentless drive to improve the school, along with the strong relationships you have built with pupils, staff, governors and parents, has ensured that the school has continued on its journey of improvement. Staff share your ambition for all pupils to be successful and this is visible in all aspects of school life.

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

Pupils love their school and speak with enthusiasm about the many aspects that they think are amazing. Their comments about you, the staff, the school visits and the other pupils are just a few of the strengths they shared. One pupil commented, ‘Everyone knows each other, takes care of each other and shows respect!’

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

Parents recognise the many strengths of the school. This was evident in the extremely positive responses from the high percentage of parents who responded to the Ofsted survey and the many parents who waited to talk to me in the playground. One parent commented, ‘I feel so lucky to be part of this school.’ Parents shared how happy they are with the school, the staff, the school community and the way in which their individual children’s needs are met. Parents rightly value the way in which the school supports their children’s overall development, as much as the strong academic success. Parents cited several examples of the school adapting provision specifically for their children.

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

At the previous inspection, you were asked to improve teaching and learning through a number of actions. These include sharpening feedback to teachers, ensuring that teachers use time well in lessons, and providing more opportunities for pupils to use their English and mathematical skills in other subjects. These have all been tackled effectively. Lesson observation feedback to teachers is now succinct and to the point, so teachers know exactly what they need to do. As a consequence, teaching is good or better across the school and teachers ensure that no time is wasted. You have reviewed the curriculum, and writing is now embedded in other subjects. Teachers identify opportunities to practise mathematical skills, and these are planned into each term’s work. However, systems for leaders to identify any potential decline in groups of pupils’ progress are under-developed, limiting their ability to take swift action when needed.

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Short inspection of Durley Church of England Controlled Primary School

As the designated safeguarding lead, you have embedded a strong culture of safeguarding, ensuring that all staff are appropriately trained. They record any concerns they may have. Robust action is taken to ensure that outside agencies are informed and involved, so that pupils are kept safe. Governors know what they need to do to check that safeguarding is strong, and they carry out useful monitoring visits to ensure that practice is effective. Safer recruitment practices are embedded, and staff checks are carried out in line with statutory guidance.

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Inspection findings

 Your leadership is a key strength at the school. You seek feedback and take advice to ensure that the school continues to improve. Consequently, many of the strengths from the previous inspection have been developed further and the school has improved in many areas.  Outcomes are consistently very strong. Almost all pupils achieve age-related expectations and many are working at greater depth by the time they leave the school. On the rare occasions when there is a dip in attainment, leaders take robust action to resolve issues, then successfully target these pupils to catch up rapidly. For example, leaders acted decisively when children in the early years did not achieve as well as expected last year. Leaders carefully and systematically analyse the attainment and progress of individuals, and identify exactly what needs to be done for each pupil. Although leaders do not routinely analyse progress over time for classes and groups of pupils, this has not been a barrier to

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Inspection findings

pupils doing very well.  The curriculum is well developed and, in areas such as music and sport, pupils excel. Pupils very much appreciate the wider opportunities they have, such as competing in tournaments, going on residential visits, and engaging in the wide range of after-school clubs. The school is disproportionately successful in these areas for such a small school. For example, the swimming team came third in a Hampshire tournament. Pupils also sang at the Royal Albert Hall with pupils from across the country. In other subjects, pupils learn a range of skills, gain knowledge, and engage in discussions that reflect their breadth of historical and geographical knowledge. For example, in one Year 6 lesson, when exploring the meaning of a poem, pupils included their thoughts about dialect, past generations and other literature, sharing their reasoning articulately and confidently.  Leaders’ actions to monitor and develop teaching are effective and have resulted

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Inspection findings

in teaching that is consistently good and often excellent. Feedback from leaders is accurate and very well structured to ensure that teachers know how to become even better.

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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

 systems to analyse the progress of classes and groups are tightened so that leaders can identify and tackle any areas of underperformance.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the chief executive officer, the director of education for the Diocese of Portsmouth (CofE), 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

During this inspection, I met with the headteacher; assistant headteacher; teachers; a group of governors, including the chair; and a group of pupils. With the headteacher, I visited all classes and looked at pupils’ work in their books. I reviewed the school’s information about pupils’ progress and attainment. I also reviewed other documentation linked to safeguarding, governance and school improvement. I observed lunchtime and spoke informally to pupils. I also considered staff and parent feedback through the Ofsted surveys.

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Information about the inspection

In order to evaluate the school’s effectiveness, I selected a few key areas to explore in detail. These include safeguarding, how well leaders had tackled the areas for improvement from the previous inspection, how broad and balanced the curriculum is, and how well leaders use data to identify ways to improve the school.

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