Stoke-by-Nayland Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Stoke-by-Nayland Church of England Primary School School Street, Stoke by Nayland, Nr Colchester, Suffolk, CO6 4QY

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Inspection dates: 12 and 13 October 2021

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Previous inspection grade Not previously inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 12 and 13 October 2021

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are often happy at this small, welcoming, school, but they do not receive an effective quality of education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

In some lessons there is too much disruption to learning. This makes it difficult for pupils to learn. The cause of this is teaching which does not interest pupils. Some teachers allow pupils to remain off task and distract others without challenging this soon enough.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Elsewhere, pupils are polite, well mannered and respectful to each other and visitors. Where teaching interests pupils, they work well and enjoy learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to lead daily collective worship. They see collective worship as a strength of the school. Pupils have access to a broad selection of opportunities. This includes several clubs, Suffolk Children's University and helping in the local community.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe and are taught how to stay safe in their local area and online. Pupils trust adults to resolve bullying issues if they occur.

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better?

The quality of education for pupils is weak. The order in which subject content is taught is too often illogical. Pupils are not taught what they need to know in order to learn more complex things. Teaching does not help pupils remember what they are taught. As a result, pupils have gaps in their knowledge. They do not build a good understanding of concepts or ‘big ideas’ that leaders want pupils to develop.

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better?

Pupils, including children in the early years, are not taught to read effectively. Assessment is not used reliably to identify gaps in pupils’ phonic knowledge. Pupils are given books which include sounds they do not know. They find these difficult to read. This is unhelpful as it does not allow pupils to practise reading the sounds that letters make.

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better?

Staff are not well trained to teach phonics. They do not help pupils use or add to their existing phonic knowledge well enough. As a result, pupils at the early stages of reading find it difficult to read independently. Once behind in learning to read, pupils are not helped to catch up quickly.

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better?

While pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do receive help to keep up with their peers, this is not sufficient. Pupils across the school, including those with SEND, underachieve because of the weaknesses in the curriculum. 12 and 13 October 2021

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Pupils’ behaviour during lessons is not good enough. Despite the introduction of new policies and systems to secure good behaviour, too many pupils misbehave during lessons. This is because teachers’ expectations of the quality and quantity of pupils’ work are too low. Too often teachers do not make clear to pupils what they need to achieve. Teachers are inconsistent in applying the school’s approaches to dealing with off task behaviour. Most pupils’ behaviour is better than this, in and out of lessons. Nonetheless, learning time is lost due to interruptions from some pupils.

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Weak behaviour in early years disrupts the learning and results in children not achieving as well as they should to be best prepared for Year 1. A lack of clear routines leads to inappropriate behaviour from the youngest children in the school.

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Leaders’ work to support pupils in developing a range of positive attitudes and characteristics stands out as a strength of the school. Leaders and governors emphasise the importance of kindness, tolerance and respect. Staff and pupils recognise the importance of the school’s Christian ethos and how this contributes to pupils’ personal development. Central to this is the role that collective worship plays in developing pupils personally and spiritually. All pupils have opportunities to lead collective worship.

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Pupils experience a range of opportunities outside lessons, such as clubs and initiatives to help the local community. These are popular and well attended by pupils. Pupils develop a sense of responsibility through applying for roles within the school. They elect the school council and vote on topics such as what the PE kit should be. Leaders use school trips to help pupils learn about being independent.

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Pupils learn how to eat healthily and how to create balanced meals. They learn about the importance of active lifestyles. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe online, in a range of contexts. They know that it is fine for people to have different characteristics to each other. When pupils find it difficult to speak in public, their friends listen carefully in a supportive manner. Parents are extremely positive about this aspect of the school and of how staff go out of their way to ensure pupils enjoy coming to school.

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Over time, there has been insufficient scrutiny of the quality of the curriculum and teaching. Leaders and governors have not properly ensured that pupils receive a good quality of education. Weaknesses, such as those in the teaching of reading, have only recently been identified.

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New senior leaders have a secure understanding of the school’s weaknesses. They have started to address these. They have made improvements to safeguarding practices and processes for recording and managing behaviour, and they have sought external help to improve the reading curriculum. 12 and 13 October 2021

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have recently made changes to safeguarding policies and procedures. Staff have been trained on how to identify and respond to safeguarding concerns.

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Safeguarding

Leaders keep detailed records of safeguarding concerns. They take appropriate actions and escalate concerns with outside agencies where necessary.

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Safeguarding

Pupils feel safe. They are taught how to keep safe in the local area, including how to stay safe near local rivers. Pupils learn how to stay safe online through their lessons in computing and personal, social and health education. They know that adults in school will help them if they are worried.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The curriculum for early reading and the teaching of phonics does not ensure pupils develop the phonic knowledge they need to read well. Because of this, pupils at the early stages of reading struggle to read books. Leaders need to implement a systematic synthetic phonics programme and train staff to teach it well.  Leaders have not ensured that pupils remember important content in the curriculum. This results in pupils having gaps in their knowledge. Leaders should make sure that the curriculum and its implementation enable pupils to remember what they are taught to help them remember more.  There is a lack of clear routines in the early years and behaviour is not good enough. This is causing disruption to children’s learning and the progress that they make. Leaders need to make sure that clear routines are established and that children in the early years are helped to improve their behaviour.  Leaders and those responsible for governance have not identified, or acted

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

quickly to resolve, weaknesses in the curriculum. As a result, pupils are not making the progress throughout the curriculum that they should. The trust should ensure that help for leaders and governors to address these weaknesses is swift, effective, and sustained.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection. 12 and 13 October 2021

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The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 12 and 13 October 2021

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School details

Inspection number 10200554 Type of school Primary

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School details

Website www.stokebynaylandprimaryschool.org.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Stoke-by-Nayland Church of England Primary School converted to become an academy school in June 2017. When its predecessor school, Stoke-by-Nayland Church of England Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to require improvement overall.  There have been significant changes to staffing at the school. The executive headteacher, head of school, and over half of teachers are new to their role. There have also been significant changes to governance. Many members of the local governing body are new.  The school has a religious character. Its previous section 48 inspection took place in June 2017. The next section 48 inspection is due to take place between September 2021 and July 2022.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 12 and 13 October 2021

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In accordance with section 44(2) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with school leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation.

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 Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, religious education and history. For each deep dive, inspectors met with teachers responsible for subject leadership, looked at curriculum plans, visited lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also looked at curriculum plans for other subjects.  The lead inspector observed children in Reception and pupils in Years 1 to 3 read.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, before school and at lunchtime.  Inspectors spoke to leaders, pupils, staff, governors, and representatives from the trust about the school and its arrangements for safeguarding pupils. Inspectors scrutinised the school’s single central record of vetting and recruitment checks, as well as the procedures and checks for employing staff.  Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation including leaders’ improvement

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plans, their self-evaluation of the school and records of governance.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted surveys completed by parents, pupils and staff. This included nine responses to the staff survey, 16 responses to the pupil survey, and 21 responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View.

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Inspection team

Marc White, lead inspector Her Majesty's Inspector James Adkins Ofsted Inspector 12 and 13 October 2021

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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