Leedstown Community Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Leedstown Community Primary School Townshend Road, Leedstown, Hayle, Cornwall TR27 6AA

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Outcome

Leedstown Community Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy school, behave well in lessons and value the opportunities to learn new knowledge. They have positive attitudes towards learning and want to achieve well. Lessons are calm and focused. Pupils work well together and show care and consideration for one another. Pupils treat their school with respect and seldom misbehave. Bullying is rare. Staff have high expectations of pupils and pupils are keen to demonstrate their best behaviour. Staff look after pupils well and pupils feel safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is welcoming. Staff celebrate pupils’ good work. Pupils are rightly proud of their work when it is displayed in the classroom or around the school. Pupils enjoy reading and leaders’ recent investment provides pupils with a wider range of books to read. This reflects leaders’ efforts to raise the profile of reading across the school. Pupils benefit from a daily breakfast club that sets them up well for the day.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s curriculum allows pupils to develop an understanding of the world around them. A range of trips help to bring the curriculum to life. This also helps pupils understand about modern Britain. Pupils treat one another with respect, regardless of background. Many pupils speak English as an additional language. They settle in well to school and other pupils are keen to welcome them to the school community and support them with their learning of English.

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

Leaders’ efforts to ensure that pupils study a broad curriculum are paying off. Pupils enjoy learning about and across the wide range of subjects. The curriculum is suitably challenging and builds on pupils’ interests. This enables pupils to achieve well. For example, in history, they consider a range of sources to help them ask questions about the past. However, there is not sufficient emphasis on the content that pupils need to know and remember. Leaders offer pupils wider opportunities, such as the annual enrichment week. This provides a chance for pupils to access activities such as surfing, visiting a local farm and cooking. Leaders choose these activities to promote pupils’ 29 October 2019

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Pupils learn to read well. Teachers have devised a programme to teach phonics that is well thought through. Staff make sure that younger pupils are confident in the sounds they have already learned before introducing new ones. Adults use the milestones in the programme to pinpoint those pupils who may be at risk of falling behind and make sure that they receive the support they need. Some pupils are behind where they should be but they are showing signs of catching up. Teachers regularly read to pupils, which helps promote a love of reading. In the main, the books pupils read match their ability. However, there are times when the books are too simple. When this occurs, pupils read books fluently without the need to apply their reading strategies.

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Leaders recently introduced a new approach to how mathematics is taught in the school. Early signs show that this approach is bedding in well but teachers are not fully confident yet. Pupils enjoy this new approach but some find the work too easy. In addition, some pupils who struggle, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, do not always finish their work.

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Pupils who speak English as an additional language settle well into school. Staff show an increasing awareness of these pupils’ needs and make attempts to support their language acquisition. However, this support is not precise enough. These pupils are at very different stages of language acquisition. There are times when they wait too long for work that matches their needs.

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Children in the Reception Year settle well. They share their classroom with pupils in Year 1. Staff monitor children’s progress closely and provide them with a broad, engaging curriculum. Children in the Nursery Year access meaningful activities. These activities provide children with a strong foundation for future learning. Adults ensure that they supervise children well. Children in the early years are safe. Staff have had the training required to enable them to maintain children’s safety.

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Leaders have a secure understanding of the school. Recently, the school was in a trust which merged with another trust. Early signs show that staff are positive about this change. They state that they feel well supported and receive high-quality training and support. The chief executive officer (CEO) has wasted no time in getting to know the school well.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that recruitment processes are robust and that all adults have the necessary background checks. Leaders record this information on the school’s single central register. Leaders make sure that staff are suitably trained so that they are vigilant. They take care when identifying and recording concerns about pupils’ welfare. They pass these concerns on to leaders without delay. Leaders take the right action, working with external agencies where needed. Trust staff support leaders well with safeguarding and check that arrangements are 29 October 2019

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robust. They carried out a thorough safeguarding audit when the school first joined the trust.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teachers attempt to meet pupils’ varying needs, particularly as pupils are at different stages of language acquisition or speak English as an additional language. Leaders recognise that the strategies for pupils to develop their language acquisition or knowledge across subjects are not as effective as they should be. Leaders should ensure that teaching meets the needs of these pupils well.  Leaders have recently changed the approach to teaching mathematics. Teachers are still familiarising themselves with this approach. Leaders need to make expectations clear and check on how well this new approach is meeting pupils’ needs.  Leaders ensure that pupils access a broad curriculum. In history, the curriculum provides lots of opportunities for pupils to use sources of evidence to find out about the past. However, pupils are not always clear about how accurate these sources are because they do not have a strong enough understanding about the period of history

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

they are learning about. Teachers should ensure that pupils learn and revisit key knowledge to support future learning.

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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 first section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Leedstown Community Primary School, to be good in July 2013.

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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. 29 October 2019

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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. 29 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10111595 Type of school Primary

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School details

School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 3 to 11

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School details

Website www.leedstownprimaryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Ofsted inspected the predecessor school in July 2013, when inspectors judged the school to be good. In January 2017, the school joined a multi-academy trust. In September 2019, this trust merged with another trust. The school is now a part of Kernow Learning multi-academy trust.  Leaders have arranged the school into four classes each morning and three in the afternoon.  An increasing proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors looked closely at reading, mathematics and history during the inspection. Inspectors met with senior leaders and curriculum leaders, considered pupils’ workbooks, conducted lesson visits and spoke with teachers and pupils.  The lead inspector met with the CEO from the trust and members of the local governing body.  The lead inspector met with the designated leader for safeguarding. He also considered the school’s single central record. 29 October 2019

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 The team inspector analysed attendance information, behaviour logs and exclusion records.  Inspectors met with several parents and carers who had requested an opportunity to give their views about the school during the morning of the inspection. Inspectors also considered responses to the online survey, Parent View, and the staff survey. There were no responses to the pupil survey. However, inspectors sought pupils’ views about the school when inspecting individual subjects.

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Inspection team

Nathan Kemp, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Paula Marsh Ofsted Inspector 29 October 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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