Darley Community Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Darley Community Primary School Darley, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 2PZ

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Outcome

Darley Community Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Darley Community Primary School is a small village school. It is much appreciated by parents and carers. The staff have created a deeply caring and supportive community. Pupils are kind and encouraging of one another. All the staff follow the headteacher’s simple but effective rules – ‘keep me safe, make me happy, help me to learn’. The ethos in the school ensures no bullying happens.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils receive a good quality of education. The addition of the pre-school is helping children get off to a really good start. The pre-school classroom is an ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of stimulating resources. Children are immediately drawn into an exciting world of possibilities. Pupils enjoy reading and have a well-stocked library to choose from. In the past, the school focused on teaching reading, writing and mathematics. However, new planning is helping teachers to cover other subjects in more depth and detail. Pupils now have separate books for each subject and are proud of the quality of their work.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The formation of the federation has helped to improve the school. Staff morale is high. The teachers enjoy working with colleagues in the partner school. Working together has helped them to improve their curriculum planning.

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

Darley Community Primary is a small school with a special atmosphere. The staff are very welcoming. They foster a strong partnership with parents. Pupils are keen to come to school. They enjoy the academic challenge and give of their best. They manage their own behaviour impeccably. The staff and pupils fully understand what bullying is and do not allow it to happen.

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

Parents are delighted with the school. All the parents who responded to Ofsted’s questionnaire, Parent View, would recommend the school. They describe the staff as ‘amazing’. Parents also praised the school’s work to help pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. 8 January 2020

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The introduction of provision for two- and three-year-olds has improved the school’s offer of education to the community. The pre-school staff are knowledgeable and committed to supporting children’s development. They have created a stimulating indoor and outdoor space. The staff skilfully help children to develop their speech and language through songs, rhyming activities and games. Teachers extend children’s vocabulary in a fun way. This ensures that children are ready to learn to read in the Reception Year.

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Early reading is taught well. Children learn phonics from the start of the Reception Year. They make rapid progress through a well-planned programme. Skilled teaching means children quickly recognise letters and the sounds they represent. Teachers give children books they can read. An adult reads with them at least twice a week. Teachers check children’s progress and give extra help to those who need it. In recent years, every pupil has met the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. All teachers read stories to pupils to encourage a love of reading. In key stage 2, teachers help pupils to hone their reading skills. However, the most able pupils are not given challenging enough texts. Their vocabulary is not developed as much as it should be. This has contributed to some pupils falling short of the standard expected in reading at the end of key stage 2.

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The teaching of mathematics is equally good. The subject leader has made some improvements. Topics are now sequenced more carefully to make sure knowledge is introduced progressively. Pupils complete lots of work. They receive a good balance of practice calculations and problems to solve. Regular 5-a-day recall tasks are helping pupils to remember the mathematics they have learned.

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The headteacher is leading work to improve how other subjects are taught. He is making sure that planning in these subjects covers all the requirements of the national curriculum. Topics have been carefully sequenced. The work in pupils’ books shows that recent topics are being covered in more depth. Pupils remember lots of details from topics they have covered. For example, pupils could describe why the achievements of Ernest Shackleton and Emilia Earhart were groundbreaking. The curriculum remains wide throughout Year 6. There is no narrowing in the run-up to national curriculum tests.

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The staff are well led and managed. They enjoy being part of a federation. They like having colleagues to work with at the partner school. They feel the headteacher manages their workload thoughtfully. There are clear systems to reduce the burden of marking.

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Pupils behaviour and attendance are excellent. Pupils have very positive attitudes. Many take advantage of the Radley after-school club. There are other clubs to foster pupils’ interest in ecology or gardening.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The headteacher ensures the staff are well trained and vigilant. Safeguarding is on the agenda for all staff meetings. The staff immediately pass information to the headteacher if they have any concerns about a child’s safety. Other staff are trained to respond if the 8 January 2020

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headteacher is not in school. The governors play an active role in supporting safeguarding. A governor with expertise provides training for the staff on online safety. Pupils are confident they know how to keep themselves safe. The school keeps detailed records about how it is supporting its more vulnerable pupils.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In recent years, pupils have made a strong start to their education. However, not all pupils have gone on to attain the standards they should at the end of key stage 2. In reading, this is because some of the texts provided for pupils do not contain sufficiently challenging vocabulary. The headteacher and the literacy subject leader should ensure that the most able pupils read and analyse more complex texts that extend and deepen their vocabulary further.  The school has reviewed its curriculum planning for all of the foundation subjects. It is now in the first year of implementing these plans. Key decisions have been taken about the content to be taught and how it will be sequenced. However, the headteacher and other leaders are not sure what difference this is making. As the new planning is implemented, they must now systematically monitor and evaluate whether these changes are helping pupils to know and remember more.

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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 Darley Community Primary School to be good on 5 to 6 May 2016.

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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. 8 January 2020

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If you are the school and you are 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. 8 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10110840 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Stuart Mallender

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School details

Website http:// www.darley.n-yorks.sch.uk /

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School details

Date of previous inspection 5–6 May 2016

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection, the school has formed a federation with Summerbridge Community Primary School. The headteacher has become the executive headteacher of both schools, sharing his time equally across the two sites. There is now a single governing body that has oversight of both schools.  Darley Community Primary School now provides its own pre-school education for children from two to four years of age. The pre-school is under the control of the governing body, so it was included within this inspection.  The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.

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Information about this inspection

 We met the headteacher, subject leaders and teachers. We also met the vice-chair of the governing body and one other governor.  We focused on the quality of the curriculum in reading, mathematics and history. We met the curriculum leader of each subject, visited lessons, talked to pupils, looked at a sample of books and talked to subject teachers.  We looked at other information about behaviour and attendance, extra-curricular 8 January 2020

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activities and wider enrichment events offered by the school.  We observed how pupils conducted themselves during the day, including during playtime and lunchtime.  We looked at the checks the school makes on adults who work in the school. We talked to senior leaders responsible for safeguarding and looked at records of the actions they have taken to protect pupils at risk. We spoke to pupils to gauge how safe they felt and to what extent they know how to keep themselves safe. We also checked whether members of staff understand and abide by the school’s safeguarding policy.

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Inspection team

Chris Smith, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julia Norton Foulger Ofsted Inspector 8 January 2020

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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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