Oakfield Church of England Aided Primary School, Ryde

Inspection of Oakfield Church of England Aided Primary School, Ryde Appley Road, Ryde, Isle of Wight PO33 1NE

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 21–22 January 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a caring school where staff go out of their way to nurture pupils well. Pupils get on well with each other and with the adults who help them. Pupils attend well. The breakfast club helps pupils, who used to be late, to arrive on time. Pupils feel safe at school and there is hardly any bullying. They trust the adults to help them if they have a problem.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in their lessons and at breaktimes. They listen to the teacher because they want to learn. Pupils enjoy their many interesting clubs. They often go on visits, including some that are residential, and they take part in local events. Pupils learn to think about others. They recently helped to make gift bags for people who are in hospital, for example. Older pupils took responsibility for younger children during a recent visit to the local church.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The quality of education that pupils receive needs to improve. Leaders have not made sure that the curriculum helps pupils to remember what they have learned. This holds them back as they move through the school.

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better?

Leaders and staff have recently increased the pace of their work to improve the school. They have developed plans that help pupils to learn knowledge in a sensible order in English, mathematics and science. New planning is having mixed success. This is because some pupils have weaknesses in their basic skills that hamper their progress.

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better?

Reception children are quick to start learning phonics. Throughout the day, adults help children to practise the letters and sounds they know. To bolster children’s progress further, teachers are helping parents to support their children’s reading at home. However, in other year groups, the phonics and early reading programmes are not working well enough to help the weakest readers to become fluent. Leaders do not provide enough support for pupils who find reading difficult. These pupils have too few opportunities for practice. Their reading books are not consistently matched to the sounds that they know. Leaders have begun to develop the necessary staff expertise to help all pupils read with confidence.

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better?

Pupils find the school’s approach to teaching reading and writing, through ‘themes’ based on books, interesting. This helps pupils in key stage 2 to write at increasing length. However, pupils’ weaknesses in basic grammar and punctuation remain, because these have not been properly secured at an earlier stage. There is a similar picture in mathematics. Too few pupils develop ‘fluency’ with numbers. There are early signs that new curriculum plans are helping pupils to catch up. They revisit important learning more often. This is beginning to help them build upon what they already know and can do, and to close gaps. 21–22 January 2020

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A few subjects are well planned to help pupils know and remember more. In science, for example, pupils are developing effective enquiry skills. Pupils are beginning to build knowledge, such as in their topic about light. Subject specialists and class teachers plan for pupils to learn interesting content across a broad range of subjects. Leaders know, however, that in several subjects learning is not yet planned to develop pupils’ learning securely.

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The curriculum is not consistently well planned for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Some pupils are not doing as well as they could. Leaders have not ensured that all staff are suitably trained to support low-attaining pupils.

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In Reception, well-trained adults waste no time in getting to know children’s needs. Careful plans help to meet these needs. The adults help children to develop effective literacy and numeracy skills. Already, some are beginning to understand the value of tens and units, for example. Parents are rightly confident that their children are doing well at school.

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Leaders’ new behaviour policy has made classrooms calm. Pupils understand and keep to the rules. Everyone says that behaviour has improved. A few pupils find behaviour difficult. The skilled ‘inclusion team’ helps these pupils to learn how to manage feelings and anxieties.

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The wider curriculum fulfils leaders’ ambition well for pupils’ personal and social development. Pupils learn about current issues, such as reducing plastic waste and healthy eating. They find out about people with different backgrounds and beliefs. An annual careers fair helps pupils to think about their future. Volunteer mentors make strong relationships to support disadvantaged pupils. Some mentors help pupils with secondary school transfer.

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Staff enjoy working at the school. Those who are new to teaching are supported well so that they continue to grow in their role.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders prioritise keeping children safe. The designated leader ensures that staff have thorough training. Everyone understands their responsibilities. They know how to recognise concerns about safeguarding. Staff are quick to notice and report these. Leaders involve other agencies when needed, and they work well with them. Leaders communicate well with families that need extra support. Governors and senior leaders make checks to ensure that the school’s procedures work well. They ensure that all staff and volunteers are safe to work in the school. 21–22 January 2020

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have not placed early reading sufficiently at the centre of their current improvement actions. Some pupils who need to catch up in key stages 1 and 2, are not doing so quickly enough. Leaders must increase staff expertise, so that the school’s phonics and reading programme has a sustained impact, and it rapidly and securely improves pupils’ reading.  The curriculum for English and mathematics has not supported pupils to become fluent with basic skills, such as grammar, punctuation and number. The school’s chosen approaches are at a very early stage of helping pupils to overcome the important gaps in their knowledge that hinder their later learning. Leaders need to ensure that the curriculum is sequenced coherently and implemented consistently, to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills with more success, as they progress through the school.  Across several foundation subjects, the curriculum is not yet clearly sequenced.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

As a result, pupils do not build their knowledge and understanding coherently over time. Leaders have begun to develop the curriculum for each subject. They should ensure that pupils benefit from a well-planned curriculum that is taught consistently well in all subjects, so they can reliably know and remember more as they progress.  The curriculum does not provide well for some pupils with SEND, particularly those with learning difficulties. They are not building securely upon what they already know to develop their understanding. Leaders have not ensured that staff have the expertise that they need. Leaders should provide staff with suitable training. Leaders must ensure that effective planning helps all pupils with SEND to access the curriculum and achieve their potential.

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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 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. 21–22 January 2020

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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. 21–22 January 2020

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Headteacher Colin Haley (executive headteacher)

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School details

Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 2017

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Information about this school

 The current executive headteacher and chair of governors joined the school in September 2018.  There has been a relatively high turnover of staff. The current key stage 1 team is very newly established.  Since the previous inspection, the school now runs a breakfast club.  The school is a Church of England (aided) school within the Diocese of Portsmouth. Its most recent section 48 inspection of denominational education was in November 2015. The school received a judgement of outstanding. The next inspection is due to take place in November 2020.

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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

 Inspectors met the executive headteacher, head of school, senior leaders, curriculum leaders, teachers and other staff. The lead inspector met the chair of governors and six members of the governing body. She also spoke by telephone to a representative of the local authority. 21–22 January 2020

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 We did deep dives in these subjects: reading, writing, mathematics, science, computing and geography. For each of these subjects, inspectors discussed the quality of education with senior leaders and visited lessons. We talked with teachers and pupils about the work in their books.  We talked to leaders and scrutinised documents and records relating to safeguarding. We reviewed the checks that the school makes to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.  We considered 39 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, including 22 written comments. Inspectors also met informally with parents at the beginning and end of the school day.  We considered the view of the 34 staff who responded to the Ofsted staff survey and took into account the school’s own very recent survey.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour on the playground, in the lunch hall, at the breakfast club and in classrooms. We met pupils both formally and informally to

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Inspection team

Linda Jacobs, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Christine Bulmer Ofsted Inspector 21–22 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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