Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Sarah Rayson Headteacher St Nicholas Church of England Primary School Priory Road Kenilworth Warwickshire CV8 2PE

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Ofsted visit to St Nicholas Church of England Primary School

Following my visit with Catherine Crooks, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 8 October 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to St Nicholas Church of England Primary School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to St Nicholas Church of England Primary School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to St Nicholas Church of England Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you and your deputy headteacher. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 You expected pupils in Years 1 to 6 to attend fully from 4 September. You expected Reception children to attend full time after a period of transition between 7 and 21 September.  You told us that rates of attendance are broadly in line with normal attendance for your school at this time of year. You have worked with concerned families to reassure them that it is safe to be in school and sought support from the specialist team at the local authority.  Pupils are studying reading, writing and mathematics as they normally would, along with an increased focus on well-being, mental health and the personal, social and health education curriculum. Topic work in the afternoons is largely unchanged, with some exceptions. The school day is now slightly shorter to accommodate staggered start and finish times, and some curriculum content, such as cooking, does not lend itself to the protective measures operating in

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

the school currently.  Teachers are prioritising getting pupils back into good reading habits and checking what letter sounds they remember. You have trained teachers to help pupils in Year 3 to catch up on lost ground in phonics. Pupils are reading every day in school and you are sending books home for them to use to practise their reading.  In mathematics, teachers are observing pupils’ responses in lessons, talking to them about what they know and including quizzes in lessons to find out what they remember. They are adjusting lessons to cover what pupils have forgotten.  Beyond English and mathematics, teachers know what was and was not taught last year. They are covering missed content through topic work where they can, with the aim of returning all pupils to the school’s normal curriculum by the end of the summer term 2021 if circumstances allow.  Teachers are building a bank of resources to support the delivery of the

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

school’s curriculum remotely, should it become needed. They are seeking to make these resources available digitally and through hard copies.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the diocese of Coventry, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Warwickshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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