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

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Polly Kossowicz Headteacher Langham Village School North Street Langham Holt Norfolk NR25 7DG

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Ofsted remote visit to Langham Village School

Following my remote visit with Wendy Varney, 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 Langham Village 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 Langham Village 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 Langham Village School

During the visit, we spoke to you. 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:

 No ‘bubbles’ have had to work from home since the school reopened in September 2020. Individual pupils have worked at home while waiting for COVID-19 test results.  Pupils are studying their usual range of subjects.  Pupils have completed written assessments in English and mathematics. Teachers use the information these give them to determine which parts of those subjects pupils need most help with. In all subjects, teachers check pupils’ understanding during lessons, adapting what they teach accordingly.  More pupils than in a normal school year need extra help with English and mathematics. You have allocated additional time for teaching assistants to help with this. Pupils work with teaching assistants on those aspects they find most difficult.  In mathematics, some pupils receive additional, online, one-to-one tuition to help them to catch up.  You have adjusted the way you teach reading to the youngest children in the

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

school. Children in Reception are taught phonics in small groups. You would not ordinarily arrange phonics in Reception this way until later in the academic year.  Some of the content you had planned to teach across different subjects in the spring and summer terms 2020 was not taught. Teachers are adding this to what they teach this academic year.  Some children in Reception have less well developed social, language and number skills than is normal for the school. You have adjusted the early years curriculum to support children in these aspects of learning.  In future, if a bubble or individual pupil has to isolate due to COVID-19, you plan to deliver education remotely by teachers setting work online. You will combine this with online education packages created by other organisations. You intend to align the work set as closely as possible to the work pupils would have completed if they had been in school.

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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 Norfolk. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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