Clavering Primary School

Clavering Primary School Clavering Road, Hartlepool TS27 3PN

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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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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The headteacher has ensured that there has been a positive response to the areas for improvement left at the most recent monitoring inspection.  Leaders have put systems in place to manage pupils’ absence effectively. As a result, pupils’ overall attendance has improved and the proportion of pupils regularly absent from school has reduced considerably.  Governors are skilled professionals, who are ambitious for the school’s future. They use their expertise to support and challenge leaders. Although governors’ role in monitoring is established, the mechanisms used to report their findings are inconsistent.  Teachers plan in detail. For the most part, lessons are highly structured so that pupils make good progress. Occasionally, activities are not demanding enough, particularly for the most able pupils.  Pupils receive a range of enrichment activities, which supplement an effective curriculum. This is supported by detailed subject-specific

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

progression documents. However, the quality of these documents varies between subjects, as does that which relates to pupils’ personal and social development.  Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make good progress. This is because their needs are identified accurately and they receive appropriate levels of support.  Pupils take great pride in their work. They behave exceptionally well and are respectful of others. Pupils’ movement around the school is calm and orderly, and their attitudes to learning are extremely positive.  Parents and carers are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. They greatly appreciate the approachability of staff and value the many and varied activities available for their children. Those parents who spoke to inspectors expressed how happy and safe they felt that their children were.  Pupils’ outcomes overall are good, and the proportion of pupils achieving at the expected

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

standard is consistently above the national average. There is some variability in the proportion of pupils attaining at the higher standard.  Children in the early years make good progress. However, the quality of staff interactions when children access free-choice play activities varies.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and learning by ensuring that: – more pupils, particularly the most able, are challenged to think hard about their learning and develop the knowledge and skills needed to attain the higher standard in a range of subjects – continue with efforts to develop pupils’ mathematical problem-solving and reasoning skills, so that they become increasingly self-assured to explain their thinking and confident to tackle more complex problems – inconsistencies in the quality of staff intervention, during children’s free-choice activities in the early years, are ironed out.  Improve the quality of leadership and management by ensuring that: – curriculum progression documents for all subjects, including pupils’ personal development, are of an equivalent standard and replicate those of the most effective to make sure that more pupils are able to attain the higher standard in a range of subjects

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– standardise the mechanism for governors to report the findings from their monitoring activities.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher has devoted her career to the school and its community, and is determined that all pupils will achieve success, both academically and personally. She ensured that there was a positive response to the areas for improvement left at the monitoring inspection in November 2018. She acted swiftly to tackle the areas for improvement effectively. Most noticeable is the marked improvement in pupils’ overall attendance and the reduction in those pupils regularly absent from school.  The headteacher is ably supported by the deputy headteacher and assistant headteachers. They have ensured that, despite the headteacher’s recent absence, there has been no pause in the pace of improvement.  Development plans are formed from an accurate analysis of pupils’ outcomes and from the findings of regular monitoring activities. Such plans are evaluated regularly to give leaders an accurate understanding of the school’s overall effectiveness.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The physical education (PE), school sport and physical activity programme director ensures that the additional sport funding is extremely well used. There is a strong programme of competition, residential activities, and after-school clubs available to pupils. Leaders monitor pupils’ participation levels to ensure that increasing numbers of pupils can represent their school. Curriculum plans are well thought through to ensure that pupils acquire the knowledge and skills required to make excellent progress. As a result, all Year 6 pupils have successfully achieved their 25 metres swimming award and have represented their school in competition.  The special educational needs coordinator is skilled and knowledgeable. She knows the pupils well and ensures that their personal plans are reflective of their needs. Advice from a range of external professional partners informs and supplements the provision

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

for individual pupils. This ensures that pupils’ targets are precise, and the support that they receive is appropriate for pupils to be successful. Consequently, pupils with SEND make good progress from their starting points.  Additional pupil premium funding is used to support disadvantaged pupils to access a wide range of enrichment experiences. Leaders are clear about the barriers faced by disadvantaged pupils and they do all they can to minimise these. However, the quality of the pupil premium strategy documentation is not reflective of the support provided. This was discussed with leaders during the inspection.  Staff value the training opportunities they receive. Since the most recent monitoring inspection, leaders have focused much of this upon developing a ‘mastery’ approach to teaching and learning. While there is evidence that increasing proportions of pupils are achieving more highly than was previously the case, there is more to do to embed the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

desired changes to teaching and learning, and to ensure that pupils, particularly the most able, are challenged in their learning.  Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. Those parents who spoke to the inspectors expressed how happy and safe their children were. They value greatly the approachability and support of staff, when they need to ask questions or share concerns. Parents welcome the many activities available for their children to access. Only a very small minority of parents questioned the volume of activities available for their children, and the impact that this might have on their academic studies.  Leaders have developed a secure knowledge-based curriculum which prepares pupils for the next stage of their education. Leaders have produced study progression documents, which identifies what pupils will learn in each year group in a range of subjects. However, they vary in quality. For example, in PE, study progression

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

documents are extremely detailed. They identify precisely how activities will build upon those previously taught to enable pupils to make excellent progress. In geography, there is a strong focus upon activities that will build pupils’ knowledge, but insufficient focus upon how pupils will develop equally strong subject-specific skills. Pupils can therefore name lots of places, but their mapping skills remain at a basic level. This prevents pupils from achieving more highly.

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Governance of the school

 Governors are determined and skilled professionals, who are ambitious for the future of the school. They review their effectiveness regularly against nationally endorsed frameworks to ensure that they use their collective skills to provide objective challenge and support to leaders. This is reflected in governing body minutes.  Governors undertake their financial responsibilities diligently. They ensure that additional funding is targeted to those pupils it is designed to support.  Governors undertake their role in monitoring regularly and, for the most part, feedback their findings to the wider governing body. However, there remains variation in the reporting mechanisms used. For example, the designated governor for health and safety produces a highly detailed report, which makes recommendations for improvement that are diligently followed up. This is not commonplace.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders ensure that all appropriate employment checks are undertaken to ensure that anyone wishing to work with children are fit to do so. All relevant information is stored within the single central record. Some administration omissions noted during the initial check were put right during the inspection.  Staff undertake training and receive frequent briefings to ensure that they are fully aware of the important role they play in keeping pupils safe. Staff are clear on the procedures that they must follow to report any concerns.  Strong relationships enable staff to notice any changes in pupils’ demeanour. Designated staff ensure that any such concerns are reported quickly. Relationships with other agencies are effective in ensuring that pupils receive any additional support they may need in a timely manner.  Safeguarding records are currently paper based, with some aspects of safeguarding

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Safeguarding

chronology held in separate files. This makes oversight for the designated officer less efficient. Leaders are aware of this and are in the process of introducing an electronic system to store evidence and associated documentation. During the inspection, it was noted that some positive monitoring outcomes were not recorded as systematically as those where concerns were raised. This was discussed with leaders.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Leaders have secured an effective approach to assessment. Pupils’ progress is plotted relative to their starting points, which gives leaders an accurate view of any pupils who may be falling behind in their learning. Termly review meetings ensure that any lull in pupils’ progress is picked up quickly. As a result, pupils in all year groups are making good progress.  Teachers know their pupils very well. In all year groups, there are strong relationships and high levels of respect evident. This contributes towards pupils’ positive attitudes to their learning.  Teachers set exceptionally high standards for pupils’ handwriting and presentation of their work. Consequently, pupils’ books in a range of subjects are exemplary.  Pupils receive a daily phonics session. By the time pupils leave key stage 1, all pupils have acquired the necessary skills and knowledge needed to meet the Year 1 screening standard. This gives pupils a firm start to their reading.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers build upon this positive start, and pupils are encouraged to read widely and often. Since the most recent monitoring inspection, leaders have ensured that there is a greater emphasis placed upon broadening pupils’ vocabulary and developing pupils’ higher-order reading skills, such as inference. As a result, more pupils are working towards attaining the higher standard than was previously the case.  The teaching of writing is consistent across all year groups. Teachers use quality texts to highlight the key features associated with different styles of writing. Pupils then learn to use these skills and apply them in their own writing. Teachers expect pupils’ writing to be of a consistently high standard in all subjects. This means that pupils are consolidating their writing skills effectively.  Leaders ensure that pupils have a secure grasp of a range of mathematical concepts. There is a heavy emphasis placed on enabling all pupils to be fluent mathematicians,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

able to calculate efficiently and accurately. They have done this successfully. Since the most recent monitoring inspection, pupils now receive increasing opportunities to reason and to problem solve. However, a review of pupils’ work in books indicates that this is not embedded practice. Occasionally, pupils, particularly the most able, work through less challenging fluency activities before moving on to more demanding work.  Teachers have good subject knowledge in a wide range of subjects. In core subjects, they use this to good effect to plan units of work that build pupils’ knowledge securely. Over time, this has enabled an above average proportion of pupils to achieve the expected standard. However, there is greater variability in the proportion of pupils who attain the higher standard.  Leaders have produced study progression documents for subjects beyond English and mathematics, to support teachers in their planning. A review by inspectors showed that

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

they are of varying quality. As a result, in some subjects such as geography, teachers do not consistently build upon what pupils already know, can do and understand. When this happens, pupils’ progress in these subjects slows.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They can explain the dangers surrounding social media and what to do to keep themselves safe. Those pupils who spoke to inspectors said that they felt safe in school and that there were no unsafe places.  The highly effective PE curriculum provides an important contribution to pupils’ mental and physical well-being. It instils in pupils the importance of staying fit and healthy and the benefits of being active. This is evidenced by the wide range of after-school clubs accessed by pupils.  Bullying incidents are rare and, when they do happen, they are managed effectively and thoughtfully by leaders. Pupils expressed great confidence that should an incident occur, it will be dealt with quickly and sensitively by a trusted adult.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effective. It is supported by a

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Personal development and welfare

thoughtful programme of assemblies. While leaders ensure that all aspects of pupils’ personal development are covered, units within the planned programme of study vary in detail and quality.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Well-established routines ensure that pupils’ movement around the school is calm and orderly. Pupils are well-mannered, displaying high levels of respect to each other and to adults. They are polite and welcoming to visitors.  Playtimes are full of fun. There are lots of activities for pupils to participate in, should they wish to. Older pupils support younger pupils in their play by organising games.  Pupils behave exceptionally well. Pupils respond positively to the high expectations set, by all staff, for their behaviour, which means that there are very few behaviour incidents that occur in school. Pupils exhibiting more challenging behaviours are managed sensitively and in keeping with the advice and guidance from experts.  Since the most recent monitoring inspection, leaders have worked tirelessly to improve pupils’ attendance and to reduce the number of pupils regularly absent from school.

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Behaviour

They have sought the advice of colleagues to support them in developing a strategic and cohesive approach to managing pupils’ absence. In a very short space of time, there are marked improvements to pupils’ overall absence compared with this time last year. The proportion of pupils persistently absent from school has dropped considerably and is currently well below the national average for 2018. Leaders acknowledge that they must continue to monitor pupils’ absence closely.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 In 2018, the proportions of pupils achieving the expected standards at the end of both key stages 1 and 2 were above the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics. This has been sustained over several years. A review of pupils’ books and assessment information indicates that this continues to be the case.  There is greater variability in the proportion of pupils who attain at the higher standard. Since the monitoring inspection in November 2018, this has been a focus for leaders. This is paying dividends as more pupils in the current Year 6 are expected to achieve more highly than was previously the case. While this is an improvement, there is some remaining variability in the proportions of pupils working securely at the higher standard in different year groups and subjects.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points. The proportion of pupils in each year group varies, but the proportion achieving the expected standard in

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Outcomes for pupils Good

reading, writing and mathematics combined has been above the national average for other pupils over time. A review of their current assessment information and work in their books indicates that this is being sustained.  Highly effective support and precise targets ensure that pupils with SEND make good progress. Consequently, the vast majority of pupils with SEND can access the subject- specific knowledge and skills associated with their age-related expectations.  Pupils’ outcomes in subjects beyond English and mathematics overall are good. However, the variability in the quality of subject-specific study progression documents leads to some variability in pupils’ outcomes in the wider curriculum. In those subjects where progression documents are highly detailed and activities build pupils’ knowledge and skills equally, pupils attain more highly. However, in other subjects where progression documents are less effective, such as geography, pupils’ progress slows.

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Early years provision Good

 The early years leader has a good understanding of how young children learn. She has secured accurate assessment and ensures that all welfare requirements are met.  Since the most recent monitoring inspection, she has worked alongside local authority advisory staff to provide greater structure to the organisation of the Nursery day. This is contributing to the proportion of children reaching a good level of development, which continues to be above the national average, and, more importantly, to the increasing numbers of children are exceeding this.  The Reception and Nursery classrooms and shared outdoor provision are well resourced, vibrantly displayed and accessible to young children. Staff ensure that children are respectful of their environment and that they are fully involved in the tidying up routines. Consequently, the environment is well maintained and all areas of learning are enticing to young children.

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Early years provision Good

 Children behave well. This is because all staff model and reinforce good manners. They encourage children to turn take and to share, and to respond appropriately to each other. Throughout the inspection, children were frequently overheard to say, ‘excuse me’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when asking a question of each other or requesting support from an adult.  Children use their early phonics skills effectively to read and to write. Children in Reception were able to write signs for their animal kingdoms successfully. For example, two boys had decided on where in the outdoor giraffes and dolphins would live. They were able to write signs for ‘jiraffs live heer’ by the trees and ‘dolfins live heer’ against the water play.  The quality of teaching is good. Staff use assessment information accurately to plan activities that will meet the needs and interests of children. Adult-led sessions are focused and support children’s learning effectively. However, during free-choice

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Early years provision Good

activities, staff intervention is variable. Occasionally, staff, particularly in the Nursery, focus their interventions upon ensuring that children are playing safely and considerately. They do not routinely intervene to move children’s learning on or extend children’s thinking. When this happens, children’s progress slows.

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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

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address head@claveringschool.org.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 21 November 2018

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Information about this school

 Clavering is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is slightly below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils with SEND, including those that require an education, health and care plan.  Most pupils are of White British heritage.  The school received a monitoring inspection in November 2018. At that time, inspectors identified some priorities for improvement which the school was advised to address.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in all year groups and spoke to pupils about their learning. The vast majority of inspection activities were undertaken alongside members of the senior leadership team.  Inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books and spoke to them formally and informally about their learning and behaviour. A group of pupils were heard to read.  Meetings were held with pupils, senior and middle leaders, five members of the governing body and two representatives from the local authority.  Inspectors considered the 91 responses recorded on Parent View, including 46 free- text responses. Inspectors spoke to parents informally at the start of the school day.  Inspectors examined documents relating to safeguarding, governance, school improvement planning, self-evaluation, pupils’ progress and attainment, attendance, behaviour and the curriculum.

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Inspection team

Diane Buckle, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Dame Nicola Nelson Ofsted 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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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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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