Setting

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

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Joanne Arscott Acting Headteacher St Peter’s Church of England (VA) Junior School School Close Greenlands Estate Tavistock Devon

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Ofsted visit to St Peter’s Church of England (VA) Junior School

Following my visit with Sarah McGinnis, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 15 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 Peter’s Church of England (VA) Junior 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 Peter’s Church of England (VA) Junior 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 Peter’s Church of England (VA) Junior School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the assistant headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) and your English lead. 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:

 All pupils were expected to return to school full time on 7 September 2020.  Pupils’ attendance is currently the same as it was at this time last year. There were no ‘bubbles’ isolating at the time of the visit.  You worked with staff to benchmark pupils’ learning. From this you have developed a curriculum plan that includes how you intend to help pupils catch up.  Pupils are studying all subjects within the national curriculum, with minor adaptions. For example, you are teaching physical education, but not the elements that are normally taught inside, such as gymnastics and dance. You are not providing the normal trips, visits and visitors that make up some of your wider offer to pupils. There are no after-school clubs currently running.  You have prioritised reading. You have given extra time to reading, in order for pupils to catch up on learning they have missed. For example, group reading sessions are now longer, and occur daily. Booster sessions are being provided

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

by a newly appointed teacher for pupils identified as falling behind.  You have also prioritised mathematics. You have started by focusing on key mathematical concepts. For example, this term, all pupils are learning about place value. With regard to the concepts missed during the period when schools were closed to some pupils due to COVID-19 restrictions, you plan to spend longer on these when they are next planned into the normal curriculum.  You plan to continue delivering remote learning when needed. You have used the lessons learned during the period when schools were closed to some pupils, due to COVID-19 restrictions, to refine how this will work. Wherever possible you want remote learning to be as close to the normal classroom experience as possible. For example, you plan to use live streaming and recordings of teachers’ lessons.

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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 board of trustees, and the chief executive officer of St Christopher’s multi-academy trust, the director of education for the diocese of Exeter, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Devon County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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