Great Linford Primary School

Great Linford Primary School St Leger Drive, Great Linford, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK14 5BL

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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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 created a happy school full of ambition and aspiration. She is supported exceptionally well by staff who share her vision of excellence. All work tirelessly together to ensure that pupils have a successful school experience.  Governors are equally committed to the school. They use their skills and knowledge well to hold leaders to account. They work systematically to ensure they have a secure understanding of the school’s effectiveness.  Staff are proud to be part of the school and benefit from excellent support and training. Consequently, many have been promoted to leadership roles in other schools and some provide support to the local authority.  Leaders have ensured that teaching, learning and assessment remain good overall, despite staff turnover. Staff new to the school and the profession are supported very well to develop their skills.  Leaders and governors have ensured that pupils benefit from a rich curriculum that

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

supports their academic, social and emotional growth and development.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development is supported exceptionally well. This underpins much of the work of the school.  Current pupils make strong progress overall. By the end of key stage 2, pupils attain highly and make excellent progress in reading and mathematics and good progress in writing.  Pupils are proud of their learning. However, expectations for pupils’ presentation of their work, including handwriting, are inconsistent.  Pupils behave exceptionally well. A culture of respect permeates the school and pupils thrive on this. They take pride in being considerate and demonstrating thoughtful behaviours.  Children in the early years make good progress in all aspects of their learning and development, including phonics. They are prepared well for their transition to Year 1.  Safeguarding is effective. Leaders provide a

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

wide range of training and information to support staff, parents and carers.  Disadvantaged pupils benefit from well- considered provision that targets their barriers to learning. Consequently, they make rapid progress and attain well across the curriculum.  Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is also very strong. Pupils with SEND do well and make rapid progress.  Parents are unanimous in their praise for the school and its staff.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to develop the quality of teaching and learning so that all is as strong as the best, enabling pupils to make excellent progress and attain highly.  Ensure that expectations for pupils’ presentation of their work, including their handwriting, are consistently high.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

 The headteacher’s passion for the power of education to enrich lives and provide pupils with life chances permeates the school. She is ably supported by members of the leadership team who share her ambition and aspiration for all involved with the school.  The headteacher has established a clear vision throughout the school. The school’s ‘ROOTS’ values of ‘respect, overcome challenges, opening our minds, taking care, and speaking kindly’ underpin the life of the school. Pupils are proud of these values and the way that they make school a ‘nice place to be’.  Leaders have built a rich curriculum around these school values. They ensure that it balances pupils’ social and emotional development with their academic learning and ambition. Consequently, it promotes pupils’ SMSC development exceptionally well and supports pupils to make strong progress in all aspects of their learning and development.  Middle leaders are effective because they have been supported and trained well by

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

senior leaders and have worked very hard to develop appropriate expertise about their areas of responsibility. They are given time to develop their subject areas and to provide support for teachers and learning support assistants. They evaluate their aspect of provision well and they identify the actions required to improve or refine it. As with all other staff, they keep the needs of the pupils at the centre of their decisions.  Over the last 18 months, many staff have been promoted to leadership roles at other schools, demonstrating the success of the professional development and training provided by leaders. The programme of continual professional development and joint planning provided by leaders is effective in ensuring that pupils receive a good quality of provision despite these changes. Teachers newer to the school and/or the profession are supported exceptionally well to refine and develop their craft.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

 All staff are proud to be part of Great Linford Primary School. They enjoy the drive for excellence and work very hard with leaders to deliver the best possible provision for pupils. They benefit from leaders’ well-considered actions to reduce workload and are very positive about the support that leaders provide to ensure the well-being of staff.  The leadership of the provision for pupils with SEND is a strength of the school. The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) makes sure that the specific needs of these pupils are considered carefully, and that provision is adapted to ensure that pupils make rapid progress from their starting points.  Leaders have precisely identified the best actions to help disadvantaged pupils overcome their barriers to learning. Leaders’ relentless work with families and external agencies is very effective and disadvantaged pupils consequently make excellent

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

progress. Similarly, children looked after receive exceptional support and make outstanding progress.  Parents are unanimous in their praise for the school and its staff. All who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, would recommend the school. Typical comments included reference to the ‘approachable and welcoming’ staff and the ‘positive, determined, creative and caring senior team’. Parents say that their children are ‘thriving’ and the headteacher is ‘fabulous’. These opinions were echoed by parents who spoke to inspectors and those who emailed comments to the school.

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Governance of the school

 Governors share leaders’ determination to provide a high quality of education and care for pupils and their families. They have a wide range of skills and undertake specific training to support their governance roles. Many are safer-recruitment trained and use this knowledge well to ensure that staff recruitment processes meet safeguarding requirements.  Governors have a deep and accurate understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the school. They are informed by their visits and discussions with school leaders. They scrutinise information carefully and question leaders about interpretation.  Governors do not shy away from challenge. They systematically hold leaders to account, including for the use of additional funding. As with leaders, there is no sense of complacency, rather a steely determination to keep refining practice and improving the school.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders have a detailed understanding of the local context and potential risks to pupils and the community. They work relentlessly to ensure that families and pupils have a strong understanding of risk and how to keep pupils safe. They engage with external agencies exceptionally well.  Staff are trained well and understand the signs that they need to be alert to. They make speedy referrals of any worry and know that their information might be the missing part of the jigsaw of information about a situation. Consequently, pupils’ needs are acted on quickly and appropriately.  Pupils feel safe and report that adults listen to them and sort out their worries well. Parents who responded to Parent View also say their children feel safe at school.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teaching, learning and assessment are characterised by the strong and positive relationships between pupils and adults. Teachers and learning support assistants know pupils very well and have built excellent working relationships with them. Consequently, pupils trust staff and have confidence to try hard with their learning, even when tasks are tricky.  Teachers make good use of joint planning and most adapt activities well to match the learning needs of the pupils in their class. Most teachers display high expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment and pupils make rapid progress as a result.  Most teachers have strong subject knowledge. All have benefited from training, especially that from middle leaders for subjects such as computing and art. However, some staff still require the support provided by leaders when planning and delivering some activities. This support is effective and ensures that pupils learn well.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Assessment is used effectively throughout the school. Teachers use it to identify pupils who are at risk of falling behind. Pupil progress meetings between teachers and leaders are successful in ensuring that appropriate actions are taken so that pupils make good progress overall. However, across the school, teachers’ expectations of pupils are not consistently high, so pupils’ progress varies.  Phonics is taught well. Pupils use their decoding and comprehension skills with confidence when approaching new texts. Staff have established a love of reading throughout the school. Recent changes to the teaching of reading have supported pupils to discuss books thoughtfully and with interest.  The approach to teaching writing has changed to help more pupils attain greater depth. Pupils’ books show that this has been successful, especially in Year 6. Teachers ensure that key stage 1 pupils make good progress with their writing. However,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

expectations for presentation and handwriting vary. Where they are lower, pupils do not present their work as carefully or sustain their fluent handwriting.  The teaching of mathematics is also strong and develops pupils’ learning well. Once again, teachers benefit from very strong support from leaders to hone their skills. Leaders also teach pupils who are struggling or at risk of falling behind. This is very successful, especially in Year 6.  Science and foundation subjects are also planned well, thanks to the leaders of these subjects. Activities are supported well by a wide array of trips and extra-curricular activities. Apparatus is used effectively to support understanding. Pupils enjoy the research and investigation activities, although these can lack challenge for the most able.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  Pupils enjoy coming to school because they feel valued and learn well. They are proud of their school and their ‘ROOTS’ values. Many explained to inspectors how they met the values, such as respect. They speak thoughtfully about how such values improve the world.  Pupils have a clear understanding of what bullying is and how they should respond if they experience or witness bullying. They are adamant that bullying is rare at school, but that staff would swiftly put a stop to it.  Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe in a variety of contexts, including online. They also understand the importance of keeping healthy through diet and activity. They enjoy the very many extra-curricular activities on offer that cover music, dance, sport, board games and art.  Pupils’ personal development and welfare are promoted exceptionally well through the

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Personal development and welfare

personal, social, health and economic learning they enjoy. Activities such as ‘baby watch’ and careers and financial education help them to grow in their understanding of the world and their place in it. The careers education, in particular, helps to develop their aspirations and understanding of possibilities for their futures.  Staff ensure that pupils attending alternative provision are supported well. The personal development and welfare of these pupils are promoted with care.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Pupils value their learning and behave exceptionally well due to the consistent support and very high expectations for their conduct. Those who struggle with their behaviour are given well-considered support and make rapid progress. They do not disturb the learning of others.  Leaders have established simple but very effective systems to develop pupils’ self- awareness, including about their behaviour. For example, the daily ‘circles’ at the end of lunchtime are very effective in supporting pupils to reflect on their own learning and actions and return to class with fresh determination to succeed.  They take pride in their work and are enthusiastic to discuss it. However, the expectations for presentation are not consistently high throughout the school.  Attendance remains very strong. The small proportion of pupils who were persistently absent over time have improved their attendance thanks to the work of leaders.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Outcomes for pupils are good overall. The published national key stage 2 test results from 2018 showed that the progress and the attainment of pupils in reading and mathematics were above those of other pupils nationally. Pupils’ progress in writing aligned with national figures. Disadvantaged pupils also performed well, making better progress than other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics.  2018 published outcomes for the end of key stage 1 are similarly strong. Pupils attained well, with a higher proportion attaining greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics than nationally. However, disadvantaged pupils did not perform as strongly as their peers in reading and writing.  Attainment in phonics was also good, with 88% of pupils achieving the expected standard.  The progress of current pupils is good overall, with some pupils making very rapid progress that helps them to attain highly, especially those at the end of key stage 2.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

There is some in-school variation in terms of pupil groups, for example most-able pupils, but these appear to be cohort-specific with no clear trends.  Current disadvantaged pupils continue to do well overall due to the support they receive to address their barriers to learning. Support from the family champion is particularly valuable.  Pupils with SEND make rapid progress from their starting points due to the high-quality provision that is based on precise identification of their needs.

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Early years provision Good

 Children get off to a positive start to their school careers in Reception Year. This is due to the strong relationships that staff quickly build with them and their families. Leaders use home and nursery visits to get to know children well and identify their learning and development needs. They use this information to plan and shape the curriculum.  The leadership of early years has changed this year as the leader has been working part-time due to being seconded to train other teachers for the local teacher training provider. However, she has ensured a smooth succession, providing training so the leadership of this phase is strong. Together, the leaders have ensured that all statutory requirements are met, and that staff follow safeguarding processes swiftly.  Teaching, learning and assessment are effective because staff plan them around children’s needs. Leaders keep a close eye on pupils’ progress and ensure that

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Early years provision Good

assessment is accurate. It feeds well into staff planning. Staff use questions well when working with children, although expectations of vocabulary development are not consistently high.  Teaching of phonics is secure and children enjoy using their skills when reading or working out the sounds they will use when writing.  Children play well together, taking turns and listening well. They are very welcoming to visitors and enjoy school. They make very good use of the newly refurbished outdoor area and enjoy the stimulating activities on offer.  Children make good progress from their different starting points and attain well as a result of the effective provision. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception Year has historically been above that seen nationally. Disadvantaged children also make good progress.  Children have an appropriate understanding of how to keep themselves safe. For

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Early years provision Good

example, some told an inspector off for going outside in the rain without a proper coat, explaining that you need to protect yourself in bad weather.  Parents are very positive about the provision and the way that staff communicate with them about their children’s progress and development. They appreciate the workshops, induction events and resources provided, as well as the time given by staff.

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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

Website http://greatlinfordprimaryschool.co.uk/

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School details

Email address office@greatlinfordprimaryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 8–9 November 2012

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Information about this school

 Great Linford Primary School is a larger-than-average-sized primary school for pupils aged four to 11. Early years and key stage 1 are one-and-a-half-form entry. Approximately 15 pupils join the school at the start of key stage 2 each year, making this key stage two-form entry.  The headteacher joined the school in 2013, following the previous section 5 inspection. All teaching staff have changed since then, many learning support assistants have changed. The current deputy headteacher was appointed in 2017.  The governing body has also changed since the previous section 5 inspection.  The proportions of disadvantaged pupils and pupils looked after are greater than the national average.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is greater than the national average.  Most pupils are from White British backgrounds.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors conducted many visits to lessons to observe learning, speak with pupils and look at their work. Most of these visits were made jointly with school leaders.  Meetings were held with the headteacher and other senior and middle leaders, including the SENCo. The lead inspector also met with governors, including the chair of the governing body, a representative from the local authority and the headteacher of the virtual school. Inspectors also took account of the views of the 42 members of staff who responded to Ofsted’s online staff survey.  Inspectors spoke to parents at the start of the inspection. They took account of the 48 responses to Parent View, along with the 27 written responses. They also considered parents’ views emailed in to the school during the inspection.  Inspectors spoke to pupils during lesson visits and during playtimes and lunchtimes. They met with a group of pupils formally and listened to some read. They examined a

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Information about this inspection

large sample of pupils’ work in their books and on an online recording platform. They also considered the 34 pupils’ responses to the online Ofsted questionnaire.  The inspection team considered a wide range of documentation, including information available on the school’s website and records relating to pupils’ attainment, progress, attendance and behaviour. Information on governance, including minutes of governors’ meetings, was scrutinised. The school’s self-evaluations and development plans were examined, along with records of the school’s work to keep pupils safe.

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Inspection team

Lucy English, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Nigel Cook 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

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

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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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