Coundon Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Coundon Primary School Forfield Road, Coundon, Coventry, West Midlands CV6 1FQ

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Outcome

Coundon Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

There is a real sense of community at Coundon Primary. Leaders, staff and pupils work together as a close-knit team. Leaders have successfully created a warm and friendly learning environment so pupils love coming to school. Parents and carers appreciate the nurturing ethos. Many commented on how well the school encourages pupils to respect and learn from one another. The school really lives up to its motto: ‘Together everyone achieves more.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave extremely well in class, around school and at playtimes. This creates a calm atmosphere which helps pupils to feel safe and secure. Pupils know that bullying is unacceptable. Staff do not tolerate bullying and any issues are dealt with swiftly. Positive relationships between staff and pupils mean that pupils have many people to turn to if they are worried about something.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders want pupils to achieve as highly as possible. Over the last year, they have improved curriculum planning in all subjects. Although the planning is new, it is already helping pupils to make better progress across the curriculum. Pupils love the trips and visits they go on to places such as the National Space Centre, Warwick Castle and Kingswood. They say it ‘brings our learning to life’.

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

Children settle quickly into Nursery. Staff understand children’s social and emotional needs very well. They provide children with care and support to help them develop trusting relationships with staff quickly. Staff respond to children’s changing needs well. When a child becomes upset, they find out what the problem is and help them to overcome it. Staff often promote children’s communication and language through stories, rhymes and songs. For example, children actively engaged in retelling a story and imitating the sounds the animals made in the story. The provision for three-year-olds is very effective.

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

Overall, reading is taught well. Children learn phonics as soon as they start school and 6–7 November 2019

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make good progress. However, pupils’ reading books are not matched well enough to the sounds they learn. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to practise the sounds, so some pupils do not make as much progress as they should. Even so, by the end of key stage 1, the majority of pupils are confident and fluent readers.

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Staff’s aim is to develop pupils’ love of reading. Initiatives such as the ‘author study’ help to achieve this well. From studying David McKee in Reception through to Anthony Horowitz in Year 6, pupils read a wide range of high-quality books. Pupils talk confidently and enthusiastically about the books they read.

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Leaders have improved mathematics planning and provided staff with training to develop their mathematics teaching. Although this has helped pupils to make better progress, some teachers move pupils on too quickly in their learning. For example, some pupils in key stage 2 do not have a secure grasp of basic number bonds. They then struggle to complete more complex calculations accurately. This does not enable them to make as much progress as they should.

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Pupils benefit from a rich and varied curriculum. Leaders make sure that pupils develop their knowledge and skills in a logical order to deepen their learning. For example, topics such as ‘London’s Burning’ and ‘Groovy Greeks’ successfully develop pupils’ historical enquiry skills by considering whether accounts of historical events are reliable or not. However, pupils’ understanding of how to order when historical events happened is less strong. Leaders are continuing to review and refine the curriculum plans to ensure that pupils make strong progress in all subjects.

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Lots of pupils join in with clubs such as yoga, football fitness, choir and mad science to develop their wider interests. Staff also ensure that pupils’ social and emotional needs are supported extremely well. Caring for the school’s animals is an important part of this work. For example, the chicken monitors look after the chickens and pupils calm themselves at the beginning of the day by caring for the guinea pigs.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported very well. The inclusion manager ensures that they are fully included in all school activities and have full access to the curriculum. This helps them to make strong progress. This is a key strength of the school.

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Staff appreciate the care and support they receive from school leaders. Leaders are always on hand to provide staff with support, guidance and help where needed. This is especially important for newly qualified teachers. The excellent support they receive helps them to develop their teaching skills rapidly.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

All staff see their most important role in school as keeping pupils safe. Staff receive regular safeguarding training. They are always alert to any signs that a pupil may be at risk of harm. Leaders act very quickly to follow up any concerns staff report to them. 6–7 November 2019

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Leaders also ensure that they carry out the right checks on staff to ensure that they are suitable to work with children.

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As well as learning about how to keep themselves safe in the curriculum, older pupils also take responsibility for teaching their peers about safety. The police train pupil ‘Mentors in Violence Prevention’ (MVPs). The MVPs then deliver safety lessons to all classes. Pupils have a strong understanding of how to keep themselves safe when in and out of school.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s curriculum is not yet sufficiently coherently planned and sequenced in some subjects. However, it is clear from the actions that leaders have already taken to plan next year’s curriculum and train staff in how to deliver it that they are in the process of bringing this about.  Leaders have developed and implemented detailed curriculum planning that logically sequences learning in all subjects. This new planning enables pupils to build on their previous learning more effectively and develops their knowledge and skills in each subject to deepen their learning across the curriculum. However, as the planning has only recently been implemented, the full impact of it in terms of pupils’ progress is yet to be seen. Leaders should continue to review and refine the implementation of the new curriculum planning to monitor how well it is improving pupils’ outcomes in all subjects. Leaders should also provide support and training to further help staff deliver

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

the planning effectively where needed.  Overall, the teaching of reading and phonics is effective. Leaders’ aim to develop pupils’ love of reading is particularly successful. However, some pupils do not make as much progress as they should in phonics because their reading books do not help them to practise the sounds they have learned. Leaders should review the pupils’ reading books in the early years and key stage 1. They need to check that the books pupils read are closely matched to the sounds they are learning so they can practise the sounds. This will help all pupils to make stronger progress in phonics.  The mathematics curriculum is well sequenced. Teachers use a range of appropriate resources to support pupils’ learning. However, some teachers do not check carefully enough if pupils have a secure grasp of the mathematical concept being taught. They move pupils on too quickly in their learning. When this happens, pupils develop gaps in

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

their learning, which limits the progress they make over time. Leaders should make sure that teachers embed mathematical skills before moving pupils forward in their learning. Pupils need to have more opportunities to review, revisit and practise previous learning so they have a secure understanding of it in order to enable them to make better progress in mathematics. 6–7 November 2019

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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 Coundon Primary School to be good on 13–14 May 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. 6–7 November 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10088550 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 13–14 May 2015

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Information about this school

 There have been no significant changes in the school since the last inspection.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors met with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the inclusion manager, the English, phonics, history and mathematics leaders and the early years leader.  The lead inspector met with four members of the governing body. The lead inspector also had a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors focused on reading, mathematics and history as part of this inspection. They discussed the curriculum design with the headteacher and subject leaders, reviewed pupils’ work in these subjects, spoke to teachers about pupils’ learning and visited a number of lessons, including phonics and reading sessions. The lead inspector listened to six key stage 1 pupils read and spoke to them about their reading. She also spoke to a group of Year 5 pupils about their reading.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation provided by the school. They looked at school policies, curriculum documents and documents relating to behaviour.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors reviewed a range of safeguarding information including the checks that leaders make on staff prior to employment. They checked the school’s safeguarding 6–7 November 2019

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policy and spoke to staff about the school’s safeguarding procedures. Inspectors checked staff’s safeguarding training. They also checked the school’s procedures for keeping pupils safe when in school, including when using computers.  The lead inspector had a telephone conversation with a parent. The lead inspector took into consideration the 52 responses to Parent View and the 50 free-text responses.  The lead inspector also considered the 14 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.  There were no responses to the pupil questionnaire. The lead inspector met formally with a group of key stage 2 pupils and both inspectors spoke informally to pupils throughout the inspection.  Inspectors met with staff to discuss their views about the school.

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Inspection team

Ann Pritchard, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Anthony O’Malley Ofsted Inspector 6–7 November 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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