St Peter's CofE Primary School

St Peter’s CofE Primary School Holmans, Street Lane, Ardingly, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH17 6UQ

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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 Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leadership is effective. Leaders have successfully raised the quality of teaching and improved outcomes for pupils.  Governance has strengthened. The governing body knows what the school does well and what could be even better. Governors have a clear understanding of their strategic responsibilities.  Current pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) consistently make good progress from their starting points because provision is carefully matched to their needs.  Pupils develop into keen and successful learners because provision for their personal development and welfare is good. A wide range of effective strategies enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  Pupils’ behaviour is good. They enjoy learning,

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

listen attentively in class and work cooperatively with each other. They mostly model the school’s values to a high standard around school.  The quality of teaching is good. Teachers have secure subject knowledge. They use this to plan interesting lessons which help pupils to deepen their knowledge and understanding.  Teachers and teaching assistants know pupils well. They work successfully together to ensure that pupils’ needs are met well, including pupils with SEND.  The curriculum is broad, balanced and interesting for pupils. Good use is made of locality trips and links to further enhance learning successfully.  Subject-specific skills across the wider curriculum do not build sequentially for pupils across the school. As a result, some pupils, especially the most able, are not achieving the high standards they are capable of across the wider curriculum.  The early years setting is good. Children make

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

good progress across a range of areas. They enjoy learning and exploring the interesting environment. Nevertheless, sometimes the teaching of phonics is not closely matched to children’s needs.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that sequences of learning across the wider curriculum build on pupils’ subject- specific skills so that more pupils, especially the most able, achieve at the highest standards in a wide range of subjects.  Further raise children’s achievement in phonics in the early years.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher, with strong support from the deputy, leads the school well. Despite a considerable period of staffing changes and class restructuring they have maintained a determined focus on raising achievement for pupils. As a result, teaching has improved and current pupils are making good progress across the school.  Leaders monitor the school’s effectiveness with care and use a range of information to plan successfully for ongoing school improvement. They have strengthened assessment systems which they use well to target support for pupils and staff where it is needed.  Teachers are very positive about the effective professional development they have received, including that provided by the local authority. They recognise how the new system for assessment helps them to plan lessons which respond to pupils’ learning needs.  The leaders of English and mathematics have successfully raised standards in these

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

aspects across the school and the curriculum. Leaders have developed clear action plans based on accurate assessments of the strengths and weaknesses in these subjects. Improvement initiatives have been clearly targeted and supported by high- quality staff training. As a result, teachers are clear about what is needed and confident in delivering this in their lessons.  Leadership for pupils with SEND is effective. Despite only recently taking on the post the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has used careful analysis of pupils’ needs to underpin the delivery of individualised provision. She knows the pupils and their needs well and monitors their progress regularly. As a result, pupils with SEND are making good progress from their starting points.  Leaders show determination to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve successfully. They evaluate carefully individual pupils’ needs and use the pupil premium grant well

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

to provide extra help to improve outcomes. Disadvantaged pupils make strong progress in a range of subjects because of the highly appropriate tailored support they receive.  Additional sports funding is used well by leaders to inspire pupils to participate in physical activities. Participation in a wide range of physical activity, such as fencing, ballet and golf, is high. Leaders’ commitment to providing a wealth of enjoyable sporting activities for all ensures that pupils develop positive attitudes to physical activity.  Leaders’ work in developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is strong. Pupils are respectful and tolerant and demonstrate a keenness to be supportive and kind to each other. The development of British values is woven closely through school life through, for example, a range of assemblies and additional learning opportunities.  Parents are mostly supportive of St Peter’s. They enjoy the many opportunities to be

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

involved in the school through, for example, the very active Friends of St Peter’s School (FOSPS) group or through the events that celebrate pupils’ work. They value the community atmosphere and the way pupils of all ages mix happily at school.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Leaders have ensured that learning topics capture pupils’ interests and capitalise on the local environment to enhance their learning in a meaningful way. Subject leaders have ensured that pupils acquire knowledge through a broad range of studies. However, subjects have not been reviewed to ensure that pupils develop specific skills, for instance as scientists or historians, sequentially as they move through the school. As a result, outcomes for pupils in the wider curriculum are not as high as they are in English and mathematics. The most able pupils in particular are not reaching their potential in the wider curriculum.

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Governance of the school

 Governance is effective. Through a determined process of training and review governors have developed a clear understanding of their strategic role. They have strengthened processes and communication so that they support and challenge leaders effectively.  Governors have a good understanding of the strengths and development needs of the school. They use a wide range of information to develop that understanding. They speak to a range of leaders and visit the school for themselves to find out more about specific areas of development.  Governors oversee well the school’s financial management. For instance, they know that the additional money the school receives for sports and for the pupil premium has a positive impact on improving outcomes for pupils. This close scrutiny ensures that governors fulfil appropriately their financial obligations.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Leaders have created a strong safeguarding culture that permeates throughout the school. Staff know pupils well. They keep a watchful eye and know the steps to take if they have any concerns. Pupils are confident that they feel safe at school. They trust in adults to keep them safe.  Leaders provide appropriate training to ensure that staff know how to identify children at risk and what actions to take to keep them safe. When recruiting new staff, all appropriate background checks are made. This information is logged accurately on the school’s single central record. The school’s safeguarding practices meet statutory government guidelines. Leaders, including governors, check regularly to ensure that records are well maintained.  Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when online. They know how to use the internet responsibly. All staff and parents spoken to during the inspection, and

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Safeguarding

the overwhelming majority of parents who responded to Parent View, feel that children are safe.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teaching is typically strong across classes, particularly in mathematics and English. As a result, pupils can confidently recall and apply their learning, demonstrating a secure understanding of a variety of concepts.  Teachers have secure subject knowledge. They use technical vocabulary and build on prior learning well in mathematics and English so that pupils make good progress from their starting points. Teachers’ expectations are generally high. They use questions effectively to probe and help reshape pupils’ thinking. Overall, they cater well for the range of abilities in their classes.  The support provided by teaching assistants is generally of a high quality. Teachers and teaching assistants work well together to ensure that lessons run smoothly and pupils make good progress from their starting points. Carefully designed additional help for pupils with SEND focuses closely on pupils’ specific areas of difficulty.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers plan the teaching of writing carefully so that pupils build the composite skills needed to write successfully for a range of purposes. Pupils have good opportunities to practise their writing and grammar skills, study good writing from high-quality texts and write at length in a range of genres.  The teaching of mathematics provides pupils with a range of opportunities to refine and apply their skills. For instance, in Years 5 and 6 teaching reinforced the need for accuracy in measuring. Pupils then applied this in increasingly challenging activities involving measurements of both lines and angles.  The wider curriculum provides exciting opportunities for pupils to learn in a range of subjects. Teaching connects this learning successfully to opportunities provided by the wide range of local trips. For instance, pupils in Years 1 and 2 had been on a trip to the Ashdown Forest. They took pictures and sketched a particular view. They then

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

reproduced this view in the style of an artist they had been studying.  While teaching of the wider curriculum provides a wide range of interesting activity it does not build skills for pupils as successfully as in English and mathematics. As a result, pupils do not develop strong subject-specific skills, for instance as scientists or historians. Because of this, pupils, particularly the most able, do not achieve across the wider curriculum as well as they do in the core curriculum.  Motivating and precise phonics teaching in Year 1 means that pupils are confident in recalling previously learned sounds, spotting patterns and applying their knowledge. In early years direct teaching of phonics is sometimes less well matched to children’s needs. Nevertheless, adults take care to ensure that this important learning is repeatedly reinforced at opportune moments throughout the day.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils’ welfare is of central importance across the school. Staff know the vulnerable pupils well. They keep a weather eye out for them, checking for instance if they have had breakfast.  Pupils are kind to each other. They enjoy taking care of each other, for example through the system which buddies Year 6 and Year R pupils. They reflected that, ‘We all remember how it feels to be new. It’s good to help out.’  Parents appreciate the sense of community created by the school. They value the way pupils are looked after and taught to look after each other. A parent writing on Parent View encapsulated the views of many in saying, ‘This is a fantastic village school which nurtures its pupils and brings out the best in them. My children are happy and thriving.’  Pupils relish the opportunities to be part of the wider life of the school. They are proud

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Personal development and welfare

to represent the school in sports or take part in events such as sharing their work with their parents.  Pupils generally take a good level of pride in their work. High-quality, careful work adorns the school corridors and classrooms. Very occasionally some pupils do not take sufficient care in their day-to-day recording through, for example, using consistent spellings or taking care with the presentation of their work.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils are adamant that bullying does not happen at their school. They are confident that should it occur it would be quickly resolved by staff. The ethos of the school and the skills they learn, such as being peer mediators, help them to resolve minor fallings- out quickly and to move on from these. Pupils told the inspector proudly, ‘Nobody who has had a fall out hasn’t made friends again.’  Behaviour around the school and on the playground is generally positive. Pupils listen attentively in assembly and contribute their thoughts confidently and appropriately. On the playground pupils enjoy both a wide range of activity and the social time with each other.  Most pupils demonstrate excellent learning behaviours. In lessons, pupils usually work well together, demonstrating respect and positive relationships. They respond promptly to class teachers’ instructions. However, a handful of pupils in some classes are slow to

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Behaviour

get going or unable to sustain a high level of purposeful focus when activities are more open ended, for example during discussion.  Pupils attend well. Leaders ensure that families know the importance of not missing too much school. Bespoke support is in place for the few pupils and their families for whom regular school attendance presents challenges.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Leaders’ successful actions have led to a significant rise in pupils’ outcomes. Across the school, current pupils are achieving well in reading, writing and mathematics.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress across the school. Because of wide-ranging and bespoke provision, which is regularly reviewed, this group of pupils achieves as well as, and sometimes better than, other pupils nationally.  Pupils with SEND are supported effectively by careful planning and teaching that considers their needs well. As a result, they learn well, grow in confidence and make strong progress from their starting points.  The value of reading is emphasised throughout the school. Pupils enjoy stories and are able to make reading choices based on authors they enjoy or recommendations from friends. Pupils read well for both meaning and pleasure. This helps them to access a wide range of learning successfully across the curriculum.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Writing in pupils’ books demonstrates outcomes that build from clear sequences of learning. Skills are developed well so that pupils, including the most able are achieving well across a wide range of genres. Expectations are generally high, although there is some occasional poor presentation and lack of attention to spelling. These high expectations of writing are transferred across the wider curriculum where pupils have the opportunity to write for a range of purposes.  Pupils’ mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills develop securely and strongly across the school. Pupils have a firm grasp of place value, enabling them to make accurate calculations. Their knowledge and precise use of mathematical terminology is developing well. Importantly, most pupils enjoy mathematics and feel confident in the subject.  Pupils demonstrate good knowledge across the curriculum. They are interested in their

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Outcomes for pupils Good

learning. They particularly enjoy art, because ‘you can express the way you see the world’; geography, because ‘learning about our world is important’; and investigative science. However, pupils’ books do not demonstrate clear development of subject- specific skills and this hampers their ability to fully explore and connect concepts. As a result, some pupils, particularly the most able, do not attain as well across the wider curriculum as they do in English and mathematics.  Pupils get off to a good start in their reading. Phonics outcomes are strengthening. Pupils who do not quite reach the expected level in Year 1 catch up successfully so that they are meeting the required standard by the end of Year 2. Nevertheless, children in the early years sometimes do not achieve as well as they might because occasionally teaching is not well enough focused on developing their quick and accurate phonic skills.

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Early years provision Good

 Children, including those who are disadvantaged, flourish in the Reception Year. Leaders ensure that activities inside and outside of the classrooms provide an interesting range of opportunities for children to learn across the early years curriculum.  Staff build good relationships with children. Adults nurture successfully children’s curiosity and natural desire to learn. Sometimes adults participate in play and deepen children’s knowledge and understanding with effective questioning. At other times, they stand back appropriately to ensure that children learn independently. This careful balance helps children to develop a wide range of skills to be ready for the next stage in their schooling.  The environment, indoors and out, is bright, attractive and well organised. Staff and leaders have included thoughtfully designed and clearly designated areas to promote the full range of children’s learning and development. Children are inspired by this and

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Early years provision Good

engage enthusiastically with the experiences on offer. During the inspection children were making puppets, which they then excitedly decided to use to create a performance for story-time.  Staff ensure that systems to keep children safe in the early years are rigorous. For example, risk assessments are carried out carefully and accurately to ensure that the setting is a safe place for all children to learn. Staff are trained well and know what actions to take to protect children from harm. All statutory welfare requirements are in place.  Staff make accurate assessments of children’s abilities. This information is generally used successfully to devise learning activities that capture children’s interest and develop children’s emerging skills well. As a result, children, including those who need to catch up from lower starting points, make good progress. However, there is scope for ensuring that teaching is always tightly matched to children’s needs in phonics so

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Early years provision Good

that children acquire those vital early skills quickly and securely.  Children are well supported by kind relationships and known routines to behave well. They are kind to each other and enjoy learning and playing together. They generally attend well during the more formal parts of teaching. Children sit and listen well, contributing their ideas and answers with enthusiasm. Occasionally some children struggle to engage with small-group phonics sessions. When this happens their learning in this area 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

Date of previous inspection 1–2 March 2017

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Information about this school

 St Peter’s Church of England Primary School is a smaller-than-average-sized primary school. There are now four classes from Reception to Year 6 following a period of class and staff restructuring. The school’s last section 48 inspection took place in September 2017.  The majority of pupils are White British. There are few pupils for who English is an additional language.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well below the national average.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is rising with mobility into the school. The school currently has a higher proportion of pupils than national proportions with SEND support and with an education, health and care plan.  Following the previous inspection leaders, including governors, brokered additional support from the local authority.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was the first reinspection since the school was deemed to require improvement in March 2017.  The inspector, accompanied by the headteacher, visited lessons across the school. Pupils’ behaviour was observed around the school, including during assembly and breaktimes.  The inspector looked at pupils’ work in lessons and scrutinised a selection of pupils’ books with subject leaders.  Meetings were held with senior leaders, governors and staff.  The inspector spoke to a representative of the local authority on the telephone.  The inspector met formally with a group of pupils and spoke informally to other pupils during lessons and as they moved around the school. A number of pupils read to the inspector.  A wide range of documentation was considered, including: the school’s self-evaluation; improvement plans; minutes of the governing body’s meetings; information on pupils’ progress and attainment; and records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance. The

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Information about this inspection

inspector scrutinised records relating to safeguarding.  The inspector took account of parents’ views through 46 responses to the Ofsted survey, Parent View, including 19 free-text comments. The inspector considered 16 responses to the staff survey and 38 responses to the pupil survey. The inspector also considered additional written information provided during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Deborah Gordon, lead inspector 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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