Shottery St Andrew's CofE Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Shottery St Andrew’s CofE Primary School Hathaway Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 9BL

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Outcome

Shottery St Andrew’s CofE Primary School continues to be a good school. However, inspectors have some concerns that standards may be declining, as set out below.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and pupils describe the school as having a ‘family feel’. Inspectors agree that staff know pupils well. Relationships are positive and older pupils often help the younger ones. Pupils are happy and feel safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils behave well. They follow instructions and enjoy the ‘dojo’ points for good work and behaviour. However, a small number of pupils do not show respect to their teachers or other pupils during lessons. Sometimes, some children in the Reception Year disrupt learning, especially in phonics (letters and the sounds they represent). Pupils and parents say that bullying is rare in this school. If it happens, it is dealt with quickly by staff. Pupils say they are confident to tell an adult if anyone makes them feel sad.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Sometimes teachers’ expectations are too low. Pupils repeat work they have already done, particularly in mathematics. This means work is not demanding enough, especially for the most able pupils.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy the wide range of visits and clubs offered. The recent visit to Viney Hill adventure centre for Years 4 to 6 was a memorable experience. Pupils said they ‘loved it’.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Most children settle well in the early years. However, a small number struggle to cooperate, share and take turns during activities. This disrupts learning on occasion for other children. Staff have begun to assess children’s abilities. Information collected is well presented in learning journals. Parents are strongly encouraged to support their children at home. Workshops and newsletters provide ideas for how they can help. Adults encourage children to take responsibility for equipment used. Children tidy up well. However, some children lack independence. They ask adults to help them with their coats instead of trying for themselves. 25 September 2019

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Some subjects, such as music, have well-thought-out plans in place. Lessons build up pupils’ knowledge and skills steadily, in a sequenced way. This ensures that pupils achieve well in music. All pupils play musical instruments during lessons, such as glockenspiels. This helps their performance skills.

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Other subjects, such as art, religious education or French, are less well planned. Teachers use different schemes for their planning of the same subjects. This means that some pupils’ skills and knowledge are not connected well. Pupils’ learning is then disjointed. Also, leaders have not checked that all subjects are taught or given enough teaching time. For example, there are no plans for pupils to learn a modern foreign language this year. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 do not have daily phonics. This means they have less time to practise and become fluent readers.

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Reading is taught well. Younger and older pupils read regularly at home and school. Books match pupils’ abilities. A good range of texts are available for all ages. Teachers track pupils’ reading carefully. Extra support provided by teachers helps pupils who struggle with reading to catch up. Teachers encourage a love of reading. They read to and with pupils. Reception Year children have daily phonics lessons. However, some able children already know their early sounds. These children have to wait until other children catch up with them before they move on.

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There is a clear plan in place for teaching calculations in mathematics. This works well. Other aspects are less successful. Pupils have too few opportunities to practise problem- solving and reasoning skills. Work is sometimes repeated from last year. This limits pupils’ progress. In 2019, results in mathematics were lower than in reading and writing at the end of key stages 1 and 2.

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A good range of opportunities and activities aid pupils’ personal development. Pupils take on roles of responsibility such as house captain or librarian. Pupils raise funds for different charities. Visits and workshops by the Royal Shakespeare Company help develop pupils’ cultural awareness. A local church group contributes to pupils’ spiritual development through regular assemblies.

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Leaders arrange specialist support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Extra in-school support is also provided by school staff. Leaders identify what difficulties pupils have. They create individual targets for pupils to work on to combat their difficulties. Teachers receive copies so that they can plan work around these plans. However, leaders have not checked these plans for some time or updated them. As a result, pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they could.

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Staff say that the headteacher is supportive. They feel she listens and modifies workload to help staff’s work–life balance.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

All adults make sure that pupils are safe. Lessons and visitors teach pupils how to keep 25 September 2019

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themselves safe, especially online. Staff have regular training. This helps them recognise when children are at risk. They report any concerns to safeguarding leaders in the school. Occasionally, some records of these concerns are not organised well. Leaders make sure that they check that new staff are suitable to work with children. Staff assess risks for different activities to avoid possible dangers. This includes road safety. This is because pupils do physical education in the building across the road from the school.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some children in the early years do not follow instructions and disrupt learning for others. Others lack early independent skills or are not challenged well enough. Leaders need to establish clear expectations for good behaviour of children from the outset and help parents to understand that. Teachers also need to plan activities which encourage resilience and independence for Reception Year children and move the most able on in their phonic knowledge when they are ready.  Curriculum planning in some subjects, such as music, is effective. Pupils build up their knowledge and skills sequentially. However, this has not been replicated across the whole curriculum. Plans for some subjects, such as design technology and art, are disjointed. Teachers source their ideas for lesson content from different schemes. They do not take into account what pupils have learned before, or what they need to learn to meet national curriculum requirements.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s curriculum is not sufficiently broad and balanced. No time has been allocated this year for modern foreign languages. Only a small amount of time is spent on some subjects. This includes phonics. Phonics is not taught daily across key stage 1 to ensure that all pupils become fluent and confident readers.  The mathematics curriculum lacks ambition. Pupils often repeat work from previous year groups. There are too few opportunities for pupils to develop their problem- solving and reasoning activities. Mathematics books show that there is no clear sequence of learning. Mathematics planning should be sequential so that pupils can use and apply previous learning to new concepts taught.  Pupils with SEND do not acquire the knowledge they need to succeed well. Learning plans and targets set up by leaders have not been reviewed. This means they do not know if the plans and targets have been successful or had any impact.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged Shottery St Andrew’s CofE Primary School to be good on 20 October 2015.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

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. 25 September 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10088588 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.shotterystandrewsprimary.org.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 20 October 2015

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Information about this school

 Last year there was high mobility within the school; 16 pupils left and 26 pupils joined during the course of the year in different year groups.  The school provides childcare both before and after school.

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Information about this inspection

 Early reading, mathematics and music were considered as part of this inspection.  The lead inspector met with the headteacher, who is also the special educational needs coordinator, and the vice chair and newly appointed chair of the governing body.  Inspectors held discussions with staff responsible for managing phonics, literacy and music. Meetings were also held with teaching staff and groups of pupils to talk about the quality of education.  Inspectors visited all classes. The headteacher joined an inspector on lesson visits to observe mathematics and look at work in pupils’ books.  The lead inspector listened to pupils from key stages 1 and 2 read.  Inspectors spoke to groups of pupils to collect their views about school.  Inspectors carried out checks on safeguarding procedures. These included a meeting 25 September 2019

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with the headteacher, as designated safeguarding leader, to judge the effectiveness of school policies and systems. Staff and governors’ knowledge and training were explored. Recruitment and vetting procedures for staff appointments were examined. Pupils were also asked if they felt safe at school.  Inspectors also considered a range of documents provided by the school, including leaders’ evaluations of the school’s effectiveness, the school’s action plans and documents relating to attendance, behaviour, admissions and leavers. They also looked at the school’s website, school policies and curriculum documents.  Inspectors considered the 12 responses to Parent View and the free-text responses. They spoke with several parents informally on the playground at the end of the day.  Inspectors took account of the 15 responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire but staff views were collected

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Inspection team

Heather Simpson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Benjamin Taylor Ofsted Inspector 25 September 2019

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regulates and inspects to 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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