Claycots School

Claycots School Monksfield Way, Slough, Berkshire SL2 1QX

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The interim executive headteacher and senior leaders are resolute about improving pupils’ progress and providing a high-quality education.  Recent improvements in teaching have led to a rise in pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics. However, pupils’ progress is not yet consistently strong across the curriculum. Consequently, pupils do not yet do as well as they could in the other curriculum subjects.  Most teachers use their precise subject knowledge to enthuse and interest pupils. However, some pupils, particularly the most able, are not challenged sufficiently to reach the high standards of which they are capable.  Pupils feel safe. Staff are well trained. As a result, staff are vigilant in ensuring that all pupils are safe.  Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported by skilled staff. Consequently, these pupils do well.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

are well prepared for life in modern Britain because of the carefully planned spiritual, moral, social and cultural education embedded within the curriculum.  Governors are committed to school improvement. They receive effective training and understand their responsibilities. However, they are not stringent in holding leaders to account.  Leadership of early years is strong. Well- planned teaching means that children enjoy learning and develop well.  Attendance is at the national average. Few pupils are persistently absent.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the rates of pupils’ progress by: – continuing to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that the few remaining inconsistencies are reduced – ensuring that governors sharpen their knowledge of the schools’ strengths and weaknesses so that they challenge leaders more effectively.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The interim executive headteacher has swiftly galvanised leaders and staff since her appointment in September 2018. As a result, teaching, learning and assessment are increasingly effective and staff morale is high.  Claycots Primary School has expanded substantially over recent years. The Town Hall annex now has pupils in all year groups, from Nursery to Year 6. Leaders have managed the considerable challenges associated with expansion well, including the increase in numbers of staff.  Leaders’ commitment to high expectations and good-quality training has ensured that teachers are well supported when they join the school. In September 2018, a large number of teachers joined, forming a high proportion of the staff. They quickly became familiar with school values, policies and procedures, providing interesting activities for pupils and maintaining high standards of behaviour.  Pupils know the values of the school very well because leaders and staff are resolute in

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

consistently promoting them. Notably, the school values of ‘mutual respect, tolerance and celebration of difference and diversity’ shine through the curriculum. For example, in assemblies pupils heartily sing the school song, which celebrates those values. Pupils were able to describe to inspectors how the song helps them to understand the importance of respect and tolerance.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils experience an appropriate range of subjects. The curriculum is further enriched with the addition of other subjects. For example, key stage 2 pupils study Mandarin and Spanish. Aspects of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are thoroughly embedded throughout lessons, preparing pupils well for life in modern Britain.  Leaders ensure that the primary school sports funding increases the range of activities available to pupils. As a result, pupils enjoy a wide and varied range of sporting

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

opportunities, including inter-school sports competitions.  Additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is increasingly well spent. In previous years, this funding has not resulted in improvements to disadvantaged pupils’ progress. However, leaders have carefully evaluated how extra funding has been spent in the past. As a consequence, they have now allocated additional funding to initiatives that make a difference to disadvantaged pupils’ progress and personal development.  Leaders ensure that training for staff is effective. Teaching assistants are well trained. They feel valued by leaders because leaders invest in their professional development by offering opportunities to undertake professional and academic qualifications.  The school has a special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) on each campus. They work together to ensure that pupils with SEND develop well, enjoy their learning and make increasingly strong progress.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders ensure that provision for pupils who speak English as an additional language is increasingly effective, enabling these pupils to participate fully in classroom activities. Teachers also provide support for parents who want to improve their English, by offering them adult literacy lessons after school. This also helps to strengthen relationships between staff and parents.  Almost all parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, agreed that their children are happy at school. The vast majority believe that the school is well led and managed.

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Governance of the school

 Governors are passionate about their roles and responsibilities. They share leaders’ high aspirations.  Governors are determined in ensuring that pupils are safe. They monitor leaders’ checks on the suitability of staff and make sure that staff are appropriately trained.  Training for governors has increased over the past year. Governors have embraced further opportunities to develop their expertise, which consequently continues to improve. However, governors do not challenge leaders well enough; for example, they do not use their knowledge of the schools’ strengths and weaknesses to inform their questioning.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders work diligently and relentlessly to ensure that pupils are safe. Checks on staff and visitors are appropriate and detailed.  Staff receive good safeguarding training. As a result, they prioritise safeguarding and are vigilant in identifying when a child may be at risk.  Leaders understand local issues well. They are proactive, and work proficiently with local agencies and the local authority to keep pupils safe. For example, leaders were instrumental in setting up a group made up of designated safeguarding leaders from local schools so that they could further improve their knowledge of the risks pupils face.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teaching in the past did not enable pupils to make good progress. This has resulted in a legacy of some underachievement. However, leaders’ swift actions have led to recent improvements in teaching, learning and assessment so that current pupils make increasingly strong progress.  Pupils work hard and concentrate well. Teachers’ careful planning leads to most pupils completing challenging activities. However, not all the most able pupils are challenged as well as they could be, and as a result some do not reach the high standards of which they are capable.  Teachers use precise questioning to generate pupils’ interest. Pupils enjoy discussing issues within subjects. This deepens their knowledge, skills and understanding.  Relationships between teachers and pupils are strong. Pupils believe that teachers listen to them and appreciate their needs. As a result, pupils feel well cared for and confidently ask for help if they do not understand something.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Pupils read well across all year groups. The school library is a hub of activity where pupils choose books appropriate to their reading ages. Additionally, the school’s displays support a positive view of reading.  Teachers use constructive feedback in line with the school’s assessment policy. This enables pupils to deepen their understanding and to learn from their mistakes. For example, Year 6 pupils closely followed their teachers’ guidance in correcting errors made when adding fractions with different denominators.  Teaching assistants support pupils with SEND very well. They use careful planning based on information within individual education plans or education, health and care plans to ensure that they use appropriate support strategies. As a result, those pupils make increasingly strong progress.  Most parents believe that they receive valuable information about their children’s progress. However, a small proportion of parents who responded to Ofsted’s online

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

questionnaire, Parent View, commented that communication from leaders could be improved.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils are proud of their school. They are smart, polite and welcoming to visitors.  Frequently, lessons and assemblies promote inclusion and equality. Pupils appreciate the importance of treating people equally and making sure everyone is included. For example, pupils learn about and practise sign language so that they can communicate with those pupils who rely on sign language.  Pupils are aware of how to keep safe online. E-safety education is appropriately delivered to each year group. For example, Year 3 pupils told inspectors about the importance of telling an adult when they experience anything online that worries them.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Understanding others’ cultures and religions is an important part of the curriculum. Vibrant displays around the school complement this.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils work hard in lessons. They respond well to teachers’ instructions and are enthusiastic about learning.  During social time, pupils get on well with each other. There is a harmonious atmosphere in school, and pupils in leadership roles, in particular, contribute well to this. For example, prefects are diligent in performing their roles, in monitoring the behaviour of pupils as they go to lessons, and are well respected by pupils.  Pupils told inspectors that bullying was rare. If bullying issues do arise, pupils are confident that they are quickly resolved with the help of staff.  Pupils attend school regularly, and few pupils are persistently absent. Leaders closely monitor pupils’ attendance. As a result, staff intervene quickly if a pupil is absent and offer help to families or pupils who need it.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Pupils leaving key stage 2 in 2017 made well-below-average progress in reading and mathematics. Provisional results for 2018 show that this has improved. However, although teaching has improved considerably, in 2018 progress in reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 was still below the national average.  Leaders have relentlessly tackled the shortcomings in teaching, learning and assessment so that this provision is now good. Current pupils make increasingly strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. However, progress is less strong in some aspects of the wider curriculum. For example, pupils do not do as well as they could in history and geography.  Pupils apply their knowledge in reading and mathematics increasingly effectively so that they develop their understanding well. In other subjects, this is not quite as far advanced.  In the past, disadvantaged pupils have made below-average progress in reading,

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

writing and mathematics. Current disadvantaged pupils, however, are making increasingly strong progress because of improved teaching and a well-thought-through pupil premium strategy.  Pupils with SEND make strong progress from their starting points because of high- quality care and support from well-trained teaching assistants.  In 2017, the proportion of pupils who met the standard required in the Year 1 phonics screening check was below the national average. However, this was an improvement on the previous year. Leaders have improved their approach to phonics teaching over the past year. As a result, provisional results show that phonics standards improved to the national average in 2018. Current pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 develop a secure understanding of the sounds that letters make.

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Early years provision Good

 Leaders have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in early years. They carefully assess how well children develop so that they can intervene when children fall behind. As a result, a high proportion of children achieve a good level of development and are well prepared to start Year 1.  Sharply focused teaching makes sure that children learn well. Children are encouraged to develop skills thorough independent play in a stimulating and vibrant environment. More formal teaching ensures that children increasingly sustain concentration on activities and learn about the school’s expectations.  Children’s behaviour is calm and orderly. They purposefully participate in varied activities that develop their concentration skills well. Children begin to share activities with each other at social times. This contributes to the development of children’s social skills and confidence.  Good phonics teaching means that children increasingly understand the sounds that

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Early years provision Good

letters make. They respond well to teachers’ precise questioning and learn how to put letters together to make basic words. Consequently, children’s standards in phonics are improving.  Safeguarding is effective. Staff carefully monitor children during classroom activities and independent play. High-quality care ensures that children appreciate how to act in safe ways.  In Nursery, strong teaching and expert care ensure that children learn well. Staff liaise closely with parents and with the local children’s centre so that information about children’s prior development can be used effectively to meet children’s needs.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Number of pupils on the school roll 1679

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address claycots.admin@claycots.slough.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 3–4 February 2015

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Information about this school

 The school is situated on two sites, the Britwell campus and the Town Hall campus.  The previous executive headteacher left in August 2018. The new interim executive headteacher was appointed in September 2018. A substantive executive headteacher has been appointed to join the school in January 2019.  Claycots Primary School is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged is similar to the national average for primary schools.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed learning in 66 lessons across both school sites. In several observations, senior leaders joined inspectors.  Inspectors met with the executive headteacher, senior leaders, governors and a local authority representative.  Inspectors met formally with groups of pupils from key stage 2.  Pupils’ views from surveys were considered. Inspectors also spoke to a wide range of pupils during social times and during lessons.  Inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work and observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around school.  Inspectors considered the views of staff from meetings with groups of staff and from the responses of the 95 staff to the confidential questionnaire.  Inspectors considered the views of 89 parents who responded to the confidential Ofsted parental questionnaire, including 76 free-text responses.  Documentation scrutinised by inspectors included the school’s plans for improvement,

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Information about this inspection

school self-evaluation, reports on attendance and behaviour, records relating to pupils’ safety, minutes of governors’ meetings and information on pupils’ outcomes.

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Inspection team

Harry Ingham, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sarah Hubbard Her Majesty’s Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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