Canewdon Endowed Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Inspection of Canewdon Endowed Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School High Street, Canewdon, Rochford, Essex SS4 3QA

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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 Good 4–5 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy being at this school and say it is fun. Most attend well and are keen to learn. Pupils get off to a good start in early years. They settle quickly and are keen to learn. In the rest of the school, teachers do not build well enough on this strong start. Over the last two years, pupils’ attainment and progress, in national tests, have been too low. There are a wide range of opportunities for pupils to enjoy sport, art and singing. Staff arrange trips to exciting places such as the Harry Potter film studios.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff expect pupils to behave well at all times. This starts as soon as pupils join Reception and continues in each age group. There is good behaviour at lunchtimes, when pupils are active and play well together. Pupils show respect to teachers, visitors and each other. Pupils learn in a safe environment. Bullying is rare, but pupils know what to do if they have concerns.

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better?

The early years provision gives children a secure foundation for the next stage of their education. Children achieve well across the early years curriculum. There has been effective training for the team. This results in, for example, a consistent approach to teaching phonics.

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better?

This good start is not built upon sufficiently in key stages 1 and 2. Pupils do not make progress that is good enough because teachers’ expectations of pupils are not high enough. Some teachers’ ambition of the curriculum for their pupils is too low. Published outcomes for pupils’ achievement have been low for two years.

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better?

Pupils study all the subjects of the national curriculum. Teachers organise these subjects around topics. The result of this planning prevents pupils from learning more and remembering more over time. For example, science is taught as set of one-off topics rather than a clear sequence of learning scientific knowledge. In music pupils’ knowledge of vocabulary is weak. This is because pupils do not study the subject regularly enough. Sometimes teachers focus on getting the task done rather than whether learning is taking place. Furthermore, in English and mathematics, there are gaps in pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

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better?

Pupils enjoy reading. The school is working to increase parents’ involvement with reading. For example, parents visit Reception and learn phonics alongside their children. There has been effective training for teaching assistants to support learning. They work well with pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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better?

Staff work hard to increase pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The local Member of Parliament explained how democracy works when he visited the school. There are many opportunities to take part in clubs and activities for 4–5 February 2020

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sport, art and singing. The school is enhancing links with the local church. Pupils understand how to stay safe and healthy. Leaders have recently introduced the ‘daily mile’ to improve physical exercise. Leaders are exploring ways to raise pupils’ aspirations further.

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Leaders and governors are ambitious for their pupils. Yet, there is inconsistency in how well the curriculum is taught. This is both in the way teachers organise when they teach subjects, and the way subjects are taught. The new leadership recognises the weaknesses and understands what teachers need to do. Leaders and governors have taken some effective action this academic year. For example, the arrangements for teaching older pupils have been changed in response to the weak public examination results. Teachers have benefited from some training through the school’s federation to improve the quality of their teaching. There has not been enough impact.

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Leaders have effective strategies and work hard to improve attendance. Most pupils enjoy coming to school. In most cases of absence there are good reasons and where this is not the case leaders take robust action.

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New leaders have sought support from outside the federation and this has begun. It is too soon to see the impact.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

All requirements are met for pre-employment checks. Staff are suitably trained and know what to do if they have concerns about pupils’ welfare. There are appropriate systems to check that pupils are kept safe and to follow up any referrals to external agencies. There are regular checks from governors. A representative of the local authority has been invited in to the school to make sure that leaders are doing the right things.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teachers do not plan a curriculum that is ambitious enough for their pupils. This leads to pupils doing work that is too easy and not gaining the knowledge and skills of which they are capable. Teachers should improve their knowledge of what pupils can already do and set work that is matched to their age and abilities.  The curriculum is not organised in a way that allows pupils to develop sufficient cumulative knowledge and understanding in different subjects. As a result, pupils do not make enough progress across the curriculum. Leaders should improve the curriculum by planning for pupils to acquire knowledge and understanding in scientific, linguistic, artistic and humanities subjects in a systematic way. 4–5 February 2020

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 There have been some training events for teachers, for example in delivering phonics and mathematics. It is clear that teachers have picked up useful tips from these events. However, they are one-off opportunities. The school needs to develop a more consistent approach to professional development leading to teachers having the knowledge and skills to deliver effective lessons across the curriculum.

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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.

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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. 4–5 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10133410 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Interim Executive Headteacher Samantha Willis

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School details

Date of previous inspection 11–12 May 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The interim executive headteacher took up her post in January 2020.  Most classes are mixed-age groups. Since September 2019 Year 6 has been taught as a single-age class.  The vast majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds.  The school is federated with another local school. Both schools share the same executive headteacher and governing body.  A high proportion of pupils join the school at times other than the usual start date and leave earlier than the usual leaving date.  An independent pre-school operates on the school site. It is inspected separately.

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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 with the interim executive headteacher, subject leaders, all teachers and groups of pupils, including the school council. We also met with the chair and a 4–5 February 2020

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member of the governing body. We held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority and of the diocese.  We started the inspection on the first day by carrying out deep dives in reading, mathematics, science and music. This involved discussions with curriculum leaders, visits to a series of lessons with school leaders, discussions with pupils, discussions with teachers, work scrutiny undertaken with school leaders and the review of relevant documentation.  On the second day we undertook further discussions and additional visits to lessons and analysed 24 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View together with nine responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 22 pupil questionnaires.  We inspected safeguarding through scrutiny of the school’s single central record of recruitment checks, discussion with the designated safeguarding lead, and discussion with other staff and pupils.

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Inspection team

Adrian Lyons, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sue Pryor Ofsted Inspector 4–5 February 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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