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

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Dean Jones Executive Headteacher Chartham Primary School Shalmsford Street Chartham Kent CT4 7QN

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Ofsted visit to Chartham Primary School

Following my visit with Frances Nation, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 3 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 visit to Chartham 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 Chartham 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 Chartham Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you and other members of your leadership team. 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 opened the school fully for pupils on 2 September 2020. You expected all pupils to attend from this date, except children in Reception, who had a phased start and were expected to attend full time from 21 September 2020.  Current attendance is slightly better than usual for this time of year.  Pupils are accessing the school’s normal range of curriculum studies. Some slight adjustments have been made to the way certain subjects, such as computing, are delivered. This is due to the way you are managing the number of pupils using a particular space or set of resources at any one time. Pupils are currently spending more time learning in the school’s outdoor environment.  Staff have begun to evaluate pupils’ new starting points across the curriculum, but particularly in phonics, reading and mathematics. Support is available within year-group ‘bubbles’ for those pupils who need additional support to

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

catch up.  Assessments of pupils’ phonics and reading comprehension skills are ongoing. Teachers use the resulting information to identify where additional help is needed. This is the case in all year groups, including for children in Reception.  Pupils are following the school’s normal mathematics curriculum. Staff have been assessing pupils’ learning loss as part of their day-to-day classroom practice. More formal mathematics assessments were completed recently and will be used by leaders to identify where additional support is required.  You have plans in place to develop your remote learning offer further, based on feedback from staff, pupils and parents. Your plans include introducing more online learning, as well as continuing to provide a range of other resources to support pupils’ learning at home should this be required.

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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 regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Kent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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