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

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Tom Pether Head of School East Allington Primary School Church Hill East Allington Devon TQ9 7RE

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Ofsted remote visit to East Allington Primary School

Following my remote visit with Susan Aykin, Her Majesty's Inspector (HMI), to your school on 12 November 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 remote visit to East Allington 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. Following changes to government guidance and the imposition of COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown restrictions, we made this visit remotely to reduce pressure on the school.

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Ofsted remote visit to East Allington 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 remote visit to East Allington Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the executive headteacher, and the leaders for mathematics. We also spoke to the chief executive officer and the director of school improvement for the multi-academy trust. We did not speak to pupils.

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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 pandemic.

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Context

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:

 A small number of pupils have had to work at home since the start of term.  All pupils are studying their usual range of subjects. Teachers are changing some of the content of lessons to make sure that pupils catch up on missed learning. Leaders plan that pupils will be back to their normal curriculum by the summer term 2021.  Teachers have checked pupils’ reading. They found that pupils continued to read during the summer term 2020, but they need more help to understand and explain what they read. Teachers are building in extra chances to read, discuss and enjoy books throughout the school day.  The school’s checks on pupils’ mathematical knowledge show that some pupils have forgotten certain knowledge, such as times tables. To support pupils’ confidence, teachers are including extra practise for times tables and other number facts.  Leaders have planned how pupils will catch up on learning across all other

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

subjects in the curriculum. For some subjects, such as science, they plan to hold special dedicated weeks which focus on specific areas that have been missed. For others, such as music, the order of what is learned has been changed.  Leaders have continued to develop learning for pupils who need to work at home. They are aiming to match it with learning at school as much as possible. Leaders say that pupils’ access to laptops is increasing. The school plans to use ‘live’ teaching sessions for English and mathematics in the future.

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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 chair of the board of trustees, the chief executive officer of the Education South West multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Devon. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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