Leavening Community Primary School

Inspection of Leavening Community Primary School Back Lane, Leavening, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 9SW

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good 13–14 November 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders want pupils to experience a broad and interesting curriculum. At the moment, pupils are not doing as well as they could be. This is because work is not matched well enough to what pupils need to learn next.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and feel safe. They say that their school is a special place, like a second family, and they look forward to coming every day. Bullying is very rare. Pupils trust adults to help them if they have a worry and say that any problems get resolved quickly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. They move around school calmly because there are clear routines and staff expect them to behave well. Occasionally, pupils lose interest in the tasks teachers set because they do not build on what pupils already know.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are polite and welcoming to visitors. In lessons, pupils want to learn. They listen well and try their best. Pupils enjoy the increasing range of sports and extra- curricular activities. They like to sing, swim and play tag rugby.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are keen to have extra responsibilities. They know that these roles make a difference for others. For example, the young leadership team support school leaders to help the school improve.

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better?

Pupils do not develop detailed knowledge and skills over time because the curriculum is not sequenced well enough. Leaders have begun work on improving things. However, this is at an early stage. Teachers use different approaches to curriculum planning in different classes. Some staff instability since the last inspection has added to the lack of a consistent approach. Leaders and governors have tried hard to address these issues.

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better?

Leaders have begun to identify the most important subject knowledge that pupils should learn in each subject but this is in the early stages of development. Pupils do not follow a well-organised curriculum. Important knowledge is not organised in a way that helps them build their understanding as they move through the school. In the Roman history topic, for example, pupils did not know when the Romans invaded Britain.

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better?

Teachers are beginning to check what pupils remember in some subjects, although this is not consistent. Where there are some signs of improvement, for example in mathematics, leaders have made sure that training has improved the skills and understanding of teachers. However, this approach is not being used in all classrooms. Where it is improving, this is because teachers ensure that pupils’ knowledge builds over time, so it adds to what they know, and teachers tackle pupils’ misconceptions well. However, this is not seen in all subjects or in all year groups and teachers do not always know enough about what pupils should be 13–14 November 2019

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learning, or check that they have learned it, so as to plan the next steps.

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Children begin to learn to read as soon as they start Nursery. Pupils’ reading has improved as a result of the changes leaders made to the teaching of phonics. The proportion of pupils passing the phonics screening check in 2019 increased significantly. However, this has not been sustained. Younger pupils are not reading books which are matched to their knowledge of sounds. Leaders have created attractive reading areas in the classrooms. However, some older pupils say that they do not enjoy reading and find it boring.

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Children get off to a good start in Nursery and are safe and happy in the early years. Staff are good at supporting children, particularly the most vulnerable. Staff have established clear routines that allow the children to develop their independence. The children enjoy the activities provided in the inside and outside learning areas. However, the whole-school curriculum has not been planned to include the early years. Consequently, what the children can actually do is not always used to plan for the next steps.

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Leaders provide well for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff quickly identify any barriers to learning and put appropriate support in place. Disadvantaged pupils are included in all aspects of the school. They enjoy additional educational visits and after-school clubs.

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Relationships between pupils and staff are warm and encouraging. Staff are aware of any pupils who may need additional emotional support and positive well-being is promoted by all.

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Staff have worked hard to improve pupils’ attendance. It is much better than it was. However, some pupils still do not attend often enough. The school is working with these families to reduce pupils’ absences.

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The small team of staff are proud to work in the school. They feel that leaders consider their well-being and workload.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Pupils feel safe and they are confident that staff will support them and help them with any concerns. School leaders ensure that those pupils who are vulnerable are safe. The register that records the checks on all adults in school is compliant with all the legal requirements. These checks make sure that the adults the school employs are suitable to work with children. Staff and governors are regularly trained, although the record-keeping of this training is not consistent.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 A period of turbulence in staffing and governance over recent years has hampered leaders’ ability to focus on improving the quality of education. The teaching of reading has improved but is not good enough. Some pupils, including weaker readers, do not have the correct books to read and so do not have the opportunity to practise the sounds they know. Leaders should ensure that reading books are precisely matched to each pupil’s reading ability so that pupils develop confidence and fluency in reading. The teaching of reading in key stage 2 needs to develop pupils’ reading for enjoyment.  The curriculum plans for subjects such as science, geography and history do not support teachers to build pupils knowledge sequentially. Pupils do not understand and remember key facts and ideas well enough. Leaders need to ensure that the content of all subject plans is well chosen, carefully sequenced and that the end

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

points are clearly identified.  Across the wider curriculum, leaders have not made sure that teachers have the required subject knowledge. Teachers need more training to improve their professional knowledge, and better guidance to teach a range of subjects more effectively.  Leaders have not ensured that teachers use assessment information well enough. Teachers do not consistently check pupils’ understanding and adapt their teaching accordingly. Leaders need to make sure that teachers are skilful in using assessment to help pupils learn successfully.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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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How can I feed back my views?

If you’re not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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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. 13–14 November 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10089008 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 6–7 May 2015

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Information about this school

 The school receives support from the local authority through a termly visit.  The Nursery is managed by the governing body.  The school has a breakfast club and an after-school club managed by the governing body.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 We met staff responsible for safeguarding. We spoke with pupils, staff and governors about safeguarding. We looked at the records of staff employed at the school and the checks made on them.  We did deep dives in reading, mathematics, science and history. We met with subject leaders, visited several lessons, met with teachers, spoke with pupils and looked at pupils’ work.  We spoke to the headteacher, senior leader, teachers and support staff.  We spoke with pupils in meetings and around the school site. 13–14 November 2019

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 We spoke with parents at ‘pick-up’ time.  We met with a representative from the local authority.  The responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaires were considered. This included ten responses to the pupils’ survey, eight responses to the survey for staff and two free-text responses to Ofsted’s Parent View.

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Inspection team

Lucie Stephenson, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Gillian Wiles Ofsted Inspector 13–14 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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