St Barnabas Church of England School, Market Lavington

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

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Mrs Jill Hibbs Headteacher St Barnabas Church of England School Drove Lane Market Lavington Devizes Wiltshire SN10 4NT

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Lavington

Following my visit to the school on 17 October 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 March 2015.

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Lavington

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. At the last inspection, you were asked to challenge pupils to achieve their full potential. Leaders, including governors, share your ambition and commitment to ensuring that pupils achieve their best. Your rigorous evaluations of the school’s effectiveness help you to identify accurately the major priorities needed to improve the school and to take appropriate action. You work closely with other leaders in the Emmanuel collaboration of schools and have purchased additional teaching resources. This is helping you to improve teaching. For example, teachers now routinely ensure that pupils practise and consolidate their skills in mathematics and apply them when solving problems. Consequently, pupils’ progress in mathematics is improving. Teachers’ understanding of how to promote greater depth in pupils’ learning is also increasing.

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Lavington

As a result of good teaching over time, the proportion of pupils who achieve standards typical for their age at the end of each key stage is often above that of pupils nationally. However, historically, few pupils achieve greater depth in their learning. In 2018, improvements to teaching in all subjects led to an increase in the proportion of pupils achieving greater depth in their learning in Year 2 and Year 6.

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Lavington

Reviews of current pupils’ work reveal that effective teaching enables pupils to achieve standards appropriate for their age. However, too few pupils are sufficiently challenged to develop greater depth in their learning. Governors provide appropriate support and challenge to leaders. They ask suitable questions and diligently seek out information about pupils’ achievement for themselves. This keeps them well informed about the effectiveness of teaching.

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Lavington

Pupils’ well-being is paramount to the work that you do. This means that you take swift action when pupils need extra assistance to catch up. Your timely interventions mean that pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, receive effective academic and pastoral help. As a result, these pupils gain in confidence, have positive attitudes to learning and make effective progress.

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Lavington

Staff are proud to work at the school because they feel well supported and respected. Adults form caring relationships with pupils and consequently pupils feel valued.

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Lavington

Pupils are extremely polite, friendly and welcoming. Their behaviour is exemplary, because they know that adults have high expectations of them. As a result, there is a purposeful atmosphere throughout the school and pupils settle to work quickly.

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Lavington

The overwhelming majority of parents highly praise the friendly and dedicated staff. They typically comment that, ‘This is a wonderful, warm school with a nurturing environment’ and ‘I would highly recommend this brilliant village school to anyone.’

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Lavington

There is a strong culture of safeguarding at the school, because all adults understand that they have a duty to keep pupils safe. You provide staff with relevant updates to training, so they know how to refer on any concerns they might have. You maintain well-organised safeguarding records and make timely referrals to external agencies when necessary. You routinely follow up your actions to check that they are having the necessary impact. You check that all adults working in the school are safe to work with children. You record this information thoroughly on the school’s single central record.

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Lavington

Pupils enjoy school and attend regularly. They say that they feel safe at school and confirm there is always someone to talk to if they are worried or upset. Pupils care about each other. Older pupils are proud to take on roles such as first aid ambassadors. Parents praise the help that adults provide, typically commenting on the school’s ‘sensitive and supportive medical care’.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed that my first line of enquiry would be to establish the actions leaders have taken to promote greater depth of learning in all subjects. This is because, over time, few pupils achieve higher standards compared to pupils nationally. You enable staff to observe teaching and pupils’ work in other schools. This is helping teachers to understand how to deepen and extend pupils’ learning. As a result, for example, more able pupils in Year 3 demonstrate their understanding of what they are reading in their written work. They use their vocabulary to good effect in order to write descriptions.  Last year, good teaching in all subjects led to above-average proportions of pupils achieving the higher standards in Year 2 and Year 6. However, too few other pupils make sufficiently strong progress to achieve greater depth in their learning. Consequently, only approximately one quarter of current pupils,

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Inspection findings

including more able pupils, are working at standards higher than those typical for their age.  My second line of enquiry was to find out how effectively you help pupils who need to catch up, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. You have regular meetings with teachers, one of whom is the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), to check how well pupils are achieving. This helps you to identify when pupils need extra help. You know your pupils and their families well. This enables you to intervene early when pupils need additional support to manage their emotions and focus on their work. This is paying dividends by improving pupils’ progress. As a result, pupils who need to catch up often make strong progress and are working closer to standards typical for their age.  Finally, I wanted to determine how effectively teaching ensures that pupils make strong progress in mathematics. The reason for this is that pupils’ progress in

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Inspection findings

mathematics has been too low for the last two years. Pupils’ progress in mathematics is also weaker than it is in other subjects. You have enlisted the support of a mathematics subject leader from the Emmanuel collaboration. This is helping teachers to gain a better understanding of how to pitch learning appropriately to meet pupils’ needs. For example, pupils comment that they enjoy new sessions, which help them to practise and consolidate their basic skills in mathematics. Our reviews of pupils’ learning confirm that pupils now apply their skills effectively to build on their previous learning. This helps them to calculate accurately, reason and solve problems.  As a result of good teaching, the majority of pupils now make effective progress in mathematics. This enables them to achieve standards appropriate for their age. For example, Year 2 pupils show their secure understanding of place value when accurately demonstrating how to add two-digit numbers. Year 6 pupils can

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Inspection findings

confidently explain how to round six-digit numbers to the nearest thousand. However, teachers do not routinely identify when pupils have made mistakes or find tasks easy. This restricts teachers from challenging pupils sufficiently and deepening their understanding. It also limits their ability to support pupils and move their learning on.

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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

 teaching in all subjects, particularly mathematics, consistently challenges pupils and increases the proportion of pupils who achieve greater depth in their learning.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held several meetings with you. I also met with the SENCo and the literacy subject leader. I held a meeting with two governors, including the chair of governors. I had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority. I checked the school’s single central record and your safeguarding records. We discussed your safeguarding procedures. I looked at the school’s self- evaluation and your school development plan. Together we reviewed your latest assessment information and observed pupils’ learning in mathematics in the mixed class of Year 5 and 6 pupils and the mixed class of Reception, Year 1 and 2 pupils. We carried out a joint scrutiny of Year 3 and Year 4 pupils’ mathematics and writing books to evaluate progress last year. I spoke with pupils in lessons and at breaktime and lunchtime to gain their views of the school. I talked to parents at the beginning

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Information about the inspection

of the school day and considered 26 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, along with 27 additional free-text comments. I took account of three responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff and 64 responses to the online pupil survey.

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