Setting

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

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Jo French Headteacher Box Church of England Primary School High Street Box Corsham Wiltshire SN13 8NF

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Ofsted remote visit to Box Church of England Primary School

Following my remote visit with Marie Thomas, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 17 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 Box 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. 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 Box 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 remote visit to Box Church of England Primary School

During the visit, we spoke to you and the deputy headteacher. 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:

 So far this term, approximately one sixth of pupils have had to spend some time working from home.  When pupils returned to school in September, teachers focused on their emotional well-being. They gave pupils opportunities to talk about themes such as friendship, loss and grief.  In the first term, teachers assessed pupils’ learning. They found that some pupils had lost ground in their phonic knowledge and the accuracy of their spelling. Staff in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have doubled the time that pupils spend on practising early reading skills.  Teachers found that some older pupils’ enthusiasm for reading had diminished. Teachers are devoting more time each day to reading stories and poems to pupils in Years 3 to 6.  Senior leaders have changed the order of teaching mathematics content, to help pupils consolidate their number skills. For example, pupils are given mental mathematics activities to build their speed and accuracy in

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

multiplication.  Some parts of other subjects have been modified or paused. For example, physical education lessons take place as before, but in a different venue. French teaching has been paused temporarily. Leaders plan to reintroduce this subject later in the academic year.  Leaders have drawn up plans for providing remote education. When individual pupils have to work from home, teachers make sure these pupils are given similar learning activities to their classmates in school.  No whole ‘bubbles’ of pupils have been sent home this term. If this happens in the future, teachers plan to present lessons to pupils online.

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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 Bristol, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Wiltshire County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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