Naburn Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Naburn Church of England Primary School Naburn, York, North Yorkshire YO19 4PP

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Inadequate Leadership and management Inadequate Early years provision Inadequate Previous inspection grade Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

This school was last inspected 14 years ago and judged ‘Outstanding’ under a previous inspection framework. This reflected the school’s overall effectiveness under the inspection framework in use at the time.

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

From then until November 2020, the school was exempted by law from routine inspection, so there has been a longer gap than usual between inspections. Judgements in this report are based on the current inspection framework and also reflect changes that may have happened at any point since the last inspection. 8 and 9 December 2021

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What is it like to attend this school?

Since September 2021, a new part-time headteacher has led the school. Parents are positive about the school being the heart of the community. While overwhelmingly positive about the school, some parents have questions about how well the school can provide an appropriate education for large mixed-age classes.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s curriculum is not developed. It does not meet the needs of the pupils. It does not identify the small steps of learning pupils need to remember.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Teachers do not have high expectations for all pupils. Work for some of the older or most-able pupils is too easy. Teachers are not matching work to the specific year groups within a mixed-age class. All pupils in each class are often getting the same task.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils said that they feel safe around school. If someone was being teased, most pupils would do something about it. In some lessons, low-level disruption interrupts the flow of the teaching. Teachers know they must try new behaviour management strategies to engage some pupils in learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

There is not a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. This is putting pupils at potential risk.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have concentrated on securing the Christian ethos of the school. They are rooting this vision in the ‘Parable of the sower’. However, pupils’ knowledge of other religions is limited. They do not understand British values like democracy and the rule of law. Leaders have neglected this aspect of the curriculum.

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better?

Leaders have not focused on developing the school’s curriculum. Leaders must ensure that there is a sequenced curriculum which meets the needs of the pupils in a mixed-age class. However, the current curriculum lacks detail and does not build on what pupils already know. Leaders have not considered how the curriculum will progress so that pupils know more. For example, leaders have not thought about how the early years curriculum links to the learning pupils do in Year 1. As a result, leaders have not identified the essential knowledge and skills they want early years children to remember. This is the same for all the other year groups.

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better?

Teachers are unsure how to plan for the different year groups within a mixed-age class. Consequently, activities can be too easy for some pupils, and too ambitious for others. Where teachers have identified mathematical weaknesses, they are delivering lessons linked to the previous year group. For example, the Year 3 pupils are working through the Year 2 mathematics curriculum. Leaders have not considered how or when they will cover the Year 3 content for these pupils. 8 and 9 December 2021

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Phonics is a priority for the school. The school adopted a new scheme in September 2021, but has not accessed any training for the staff in order to support its effective implementation. Phonics lessons are only taught in the early years and key stage 1. Tasks do not match the needs of the pupils. For example, Year 1 pupils were all given the same passage to read, even though some pupils had been identified as needing more support. This leads to low-level disruption, as pupils cannot read the text. There are a significant number of pupils in key stage 2 who are not secure in their phonics knowledge. They are not receiving any phonics teaching. This is planned to begin in the spring term. It is not acceptable that these pupils have not yet had an opportunity to catch up.

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Adults do not help children in the early years to focus when the teacher is giving instructions. Positive learning behaviours are not encouraged. Adults often supervise children and, as a result, opportunities are missed to extend children’s learning and language through play.

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A significant number of pupils are persistently absent from school. These pupils are falling further behind. Leaders are slowly trying to ‘change hearts and minds’ to make sure that pupils want to come to school. One initiative is to raise the profile of sporting opportunities. However, attendance rates are not improving significantly.

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Leaders have not provided a personal development curriculum for pupils. There are currently no curriculum plans for personal, social and health education (PSHE) or relationship and sex education (RSE). Pupils are not being actively prepared physically, socially or emotionally for the future.

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The local authority identified the school as being vulnerable in 2019, and gave leaders extra support. However, the support provided has not prevented the overall decline in standards. The local authority knows that intensive support is now needed in order to ensure that the quality of education becomes acceptable. The diocese agrees with the local authority that there are significant areas of the school’s work that need improvement.

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The governing body is small and has some new members. Link governor roles for safeguarding and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are established. However, due to COVID-19, these governors have not visited school or met with the appropriate link leader. Governors are aware that staff feel their workload has increased considerably. They share the staff’s concerns about the protection of their well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Safeguarding

The required checks on the suitability of people to work, volunteer and govern at the school were not complete when scrutinised, and the record contained several administrative omissions. 8 and 9 December 2021

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Leaders have not ensured that the school’s safeguarding policy is up to date. It does not reflect the most recent information about how to keep children safe. Pupils know to tell an adult if they are worried. However, leaders do not always respond quickly enough to these concerns. There is a lack of procedure and process in reporting and recording safeguarding incidents in the school. While staff have read key safeguarding documents and have had recent training, they could not recall the crucial information within them. Plans to ensure that staff and pupils are safeguarded while pupils are being supported with intimate care have not been done.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Procedures and processes for ensuring that pupils are safeguarded are not effective. Leaders should ensure that all statutory checks are made on staff, volunteers and governors to ensure that they are safe to work with pupils. Leaders should ensure that the practice for reporting and recording safeguarding concerns is clear, and is followed by all staff. Leaders should take immediate action to safeguard pupils effectively.  The curriculum is not structured or coherent. This applies to all subjects. Leaders have not clearly identified the important knowledge and skills that pupils must know and remember. As a result, pupils experience lessons that are disjointed and do not build on prior knowledge. Leaders should ensure that they construct an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum that builds on the knowledge and skills pupils already have.  Some pupils in key stage 2 cannot read and write sufficiently well for their age.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Leaders have not ensured that these pupils have received intensive interventions to catch up. Staff in key stage 2 have not yet had training in how to teach phonics. It is essential that this training happens swiftly, and these pupils begin to make progress towards reading and writing with fluency.  There is not enough challenge and ambition for all pupils in the mixed-age classes. Teachers do not know how to ensure that each year group has work that is at the appropriate level. As a result, tasks can be too easy for some pupils and too hard for others. This can then lead to low-level disruption. Leaders should ensure that teachers have the skills to deliver lessons to mixed-age groups.  Pupils have not had any PSHE or RSE teaching. This means that they have not developed the knowledge and skills they need in order to develop healthy relationships, and to live in modern Britain. Leaders should act urgently to ensure

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

that well-planned curriculums are developed and implemented.  A third of pupils are persistently absent from school and this is showing little or no sign of improvement. This contributes to the lack of progress made by some pupils. Leaders have started to try and engage families through a football initiative. However, the rates of persistent absence remain high. Leaders should take more robust and effective action in order to meaningfully improve attendance and reduce persistent absence rates. 8 and 9 December 2021

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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.

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How can I feed back my views?

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

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How can I feed back my views?

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. 8 and 9 December 2021

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School details

Inspection number 10199426 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller-than-average primary school.  It is a school with a religious character. The last section 48 inspection of the school was on 26 May 2017.  The school does not use any alternative providers.  The headteacher was appointed in September 2021, and is employed two days a week to lead the school.  The demographic of the school has significantly changed since the last inspection.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. 8 and 9 December 2021

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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 leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, curriculum leaders and pupils. Meetings were also held with representatives of the governing body, the local authority and the diocese.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, history and art. For each deep dive, inspectors met with curriculum leaders, spoke to pupils and teachers, visited lessons and looked at their work. Inspectors heard pupils read.  Inspectors examined safeguarding records, attendance figures, curriculum plans and policies.  The views of parents were considered from 33 responses to Ofsted’s parent survey.  The views of staff were considered from meeting with staff, and from the responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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 The views of pupils were considered from meetings with them, and from the responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Alison Stephenson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Eleanor Belfield Her Majesty’s Inspector 8 and 9 December 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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