St Edburg's Church of England (VA) School

Inspection of a good school: St Edburg’s Church of England (VA) School Pioneer Way, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 1BF

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Inspection dates: 17 and 18 February 2022

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Outcome

St Edburg’s Church of England (VA) School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to belong to this welcoming community. They value the warm relationships that they have with staff. Pupils say that staff are helpful and caring and this makes them feel safe. They enjoy playing with their friends and get on well together.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff have high expectations of all pupils. These expectations reflect the ambitious curriculum that leaders have created for pupils, including in the early years. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are expected to achieve highly both academically and personally. All pupils are fully prepared for the next stage of their learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. This means that the school environment is calm and orderly. Pupils are well mannered and respectful. Pupils know who to talk to if they have worries, including about bullying. Bullying is dealt with quickly and decisively by senior leaders.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school offers many additional activities to broaden pupils’ horizons and interests. For instance, pupils develop their skills as film critics and in traditional dancing from the Punjab. Pupils have the opportunity to go on many trips including to the Woodlands Centre in Glasbury on Wye.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders have designed an interesting and ambitious curriculum to give pupils the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. Leaders, including in the early years are aspirational. They have identified the knowledge that pupils should know and remember. In mathematics, teachers give pupils time to be able to instantly recall important number facts such as times tables. The mathematics curriculum is structured so that pupils have time to secure their understanding before moving on to new content. In a small minority of subjects, the order in which pupils should learn new knowledge is not always clear enough. 17 and 18 February 2022

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Teachers carefully check how well pupils remember the essential knowledge before introducing more complex ideas. As a result, pupils achieve well because tasks set for pupils match the curriculum ambitions for pupils. This includes pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.

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Teaching pupils to read well is a key priority. Leaders make sure that there is a consistent approach to the teaching of reading. This starts with phonics in the Reception Year. Children in the early years engage very well with their well-taught daily phonics lessons. Those who fall behind are quickly identified and appropriate support is provided. Older pupils are enthusiastic about reading. They speak highly of the texts that they read. The library provides a rich opportunity for all pupils to access a wide range of books. This includes book types that they may not have read before, including audio books. The knowledgeable librarian helps pupils to develop a real passion for reading.

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Leaders identify pupils with SEND accurately. Staff draw up detailed learning plans that set out the help that a pupil will receive in the classroom and outside of lessons. Skilled support staff enable pupils with SEND to access the same curriculum as other pupils. Staff help pupils effectively and have high aspirations for this group of pupils. Consequently, pupils with SEND achieve well.

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Pupils across the school, including in the early years have positive attitudes towards their learning. They try hard and are keen to do their best. Pupils focus diligently on their work and listen carefully to their teachers. In the early years, there is an effective balance between tasks that children complete independently and those that they do with others. Pupils’ learning is rarely interrupted by low-level disruption.

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Leaders prioritise pupils’ all-round development. Pupils benefit from learning about the rule of law, democracy and human rights. Leaders provide many opportunities through assemblies and the personal, social and health education curriculum to teach pupils about the world in which they live. They learn about different cultures and religions through well-planned events and activities.

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Leaders and governors look after their staff exceptionally well. Teachers and support staff are positive about the school leader’s management of their workload and well-being. Leaders make changes where possible to reduce it.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders, including governors know and carry out their safeguarding responsibilities well. They promote a strong safeguarding culture across the school. Well-trained staff recognise when a child may be at risk from harm or is vulnerable.

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Safeguarding

Leaders make sure that pupils and their families get the right support when they need it. Partnership with other agencies is effective. This ensures that specialist help is available if it is required. 17 and 18 February 2022

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The appropriate checks are carried out when recruiting new staff. Records are thorough, detailed and checked regularly by governors.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a small number of subjects, leaders have not made sure that the curriculum is sufficiently well sequenced. This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they could in some foundation subjects. Leaders should ensure that, across subjects, curriculum plans sequence learning more effectively.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good/outstanding on 23 and 24 November 2016.

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How can I feed back my views?

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. 17 and 18 February 2022

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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. 17 and 18 February 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10200407 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website http://www.st-edburgs.oxon.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 23 and 24 November 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This is a Church of England primary school. The school’s next section 48 Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools is due in the next year. The last inspection of this type took place in March 2016.  The school offers provision for nursery-aged children.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 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.  The inspector met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator and five governors, including the chair of governors.  A telephone conversation was held with a representative from the local authority. 17 and 18 February 2022

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 The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, the inspector met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The inspector also looked at curriculum plans and pupils’ work in other subjects.  Different groups of pupils spoke with the inspector about their learning, safety and behaviour.  The inspector reviewed a range of documentation relating to safeguarding and spoke with pupils, school leaders and the wider staff team.  The inspector took account of the 68 responses to Ofsted’s Parent View including the free-text responses. He also took account of the views of staff through the 47 responses to the staff survey and the 23 responses to the pupils’ survey.

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Inspection team

Richard Blackmore, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 17 and 18 February 2022

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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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