Trinity Oaks Church of England Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Trinity Oaks Church of England Primary School Brookfield Drive, Horley, Surrey RH6 9NS

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Outcome

Trinity Oaks Church of England Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers praise Trinity Oaks as an ‘incredibly welcoming, nurturing school at the heart of our local community.’ The school’s Christian ethos underpins everyday life and pupils’ personal development is at the core of the curriculum. Pupils certainly enjoy their learning and value how easy they find it to make friends in this small school. Teachers support them well to develop confidence, resilience and a genuine respect for each other and the wider community. Skilled early years staff enable children to progress well in Nursery and Reception. Older pupils are proud to act as buddy readers or as leaders to support younger ones. As one pupil said, ‘Everyone here is so kind.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff know each pupil as an individual and foster warm relationships, so that pupils feel safe and secure at school. Pupils value the school rules and typically behave well here: any form of unkindness or inappropriate behaviour is rare. Pupils trust staff to resolve any worries they may have.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Despite the significant challenges related to the pandemic and staffing over the past year, the acting headteacher and staff have maintained high expectations of all pupils. Building on existing strengths, they have maintained a key focus on raising the standard of early reading and mathematics. Leaders know where there is further work to do in some subject areas and to enhance how well assessment is used. The curriculum is broad, and pupils benefit from a range of after-school clubs, activities and visiting speakers. Trinity Oaks prepares pupils well for their next steps and future learning.

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

Despite significant disruption caused by both the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to senior leadership recently, leaders and governors have worked with the diocese and local authority to maintain and develop the curriculum. Leaders know that their curriculum planning and assessment are not quite where they want them to be as not all subject leaders have had the time and training that they need. However, work has begun to 26 and 27 April 2022

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implement new schemes and over the coming months, leaders have clear plans to strengthen how well some subjects, such as science and languages, are led.

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Nevertheless, teachers demonstrate appropriate subject knowledge and deliver learning well across most subjects. Working together, they discuss what to teach and follow plans diligently to ensure that there are appropriate sequences of learning. Visits to physical education (PE) lessons provided strong examples of this. Here, pupils are supported well over time to develop their knowledge and skills and they develop confidence to recall these and apply them in different contexts.

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Leaders prioritise the promotion of early reading. Work to improve the teaching of reading is well under way, and a new scheme for teaching phonics is being embedded. Phonics is now taught in a largely consistent and systematic way in Reception and key stage 1, so that most pupils read well by the end of the key stage. Children are supported to learn to love books. However, teachers’ assessment is not always fine-tuned enough to precisely match the decodable books and age-appropriate books with which some pupils engage. Some pupils who struggle with their reading do not practise reading books that match exactly the sounds they know. This prevents them from making swifter progress.

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New leadership of mathematics has reinvigorated the subject this year. Provision for early mathematics is strong. From Nursery up to Year 6, the curriculum is well sequenced and planned. Pupils enjoy mathematics and are proud to be able to apply their skills to their learning in other subjects. Teachers are consistent in their approach and typically ensure that pupils really understand what they are learning. However, in mathematics, as in other subjects, refinements to assessment are needed to more appropriately challenge some of the most able pupils.

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Typically, the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is a strength and ensures that these pupils learn well in the school. The special educational needs coordinator carefully identifies individual pupils’ needs and ensures that their progress is tracked well. Across the school, teachers and teaching assistants work well together to use suitable strategies that help pupils with SEND to learn well alongside their peers.

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Strong relationships exist between most parents and staff, and in-person communication is warm and welcoming. However, the frequency of some communications has been affected recently due to staff absences during the pandemic. Leaders recognise that this, together with the recently reduced capacity of leadership, has left a minority of parents frustrated. These parents would like better communication, particularly about behaviour and/or provision for their child’s SEND. Leaders and governors need to ensure that communication systems address these concerns.

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Pupils behave well in class and around the school site. They know and respect the school’s rewards and routines, so any disruption during lessons is rare. Pupils play happily and socialise well at break- and lunchtimes. They are considerate of others and polite. Teachers ensure that Trinity Oaks promotes enthusiasm and equips children with communication skills and confidence. Pupils are well prepared for their next stage of education. 26 and 27 April 2022

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Teachers ensure that developing pupils’ resilience and well-being is at the heart of the curriculum. Staff know their pupils very well and offer a range of support to families. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe outside school and when online.

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Safeguarding

Safeguarding leaders have suitable expertise in all aspects of safeguarding. Appropriate checks are made on all adults who work with the children in school. Leaders coordinate an effective package of training for all staff. Leaders have created a culture of vigilance where adults respond swiftly should any pupils require extra help. Detailed monitoring enables leaders to source support from external agencies when necessary.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The pandemic and recent changes in the senior leadership team have delayed leaders’ plans to improve the curriculum in science and some foundation subjects. Here, subject leaders need to identify what key knowledge pupils need to know by when, so that better assessment underpins more effective progress. Currently, not all pupils’ learning is fully maximised. Recognising this, leaders and governors are committed to, and have begun, improving subject leadership. Consequently, the transitional arrangements have been applied. Leaders need to identify the exact content that teachers should deliver and how this knowledge will accumulate over time.  Leaders’ new phonics scheme is now rolled out across the school, but support for some of the weakest readers is not organised as well as it needs to be. As a result, some pupils who struggle with their reading do not progress swiftly enough. Leaders need to

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

swiftly ensure that these pupils are using books that are more closely aligned with the sounds that they know in order to practise their reading skills.  The majority of parents praise the communications from the school and recognise the many strengths that Trinity Oaks offers children. However, a small minority do not. The reduced capacity of senior leadership during the pandemic has left some parents feeling frustrated by communications that they feel could be better. A few parents reported that their worries may not have been heard. Leaders and governors need to refine communication systems so that all parents feel fully involved and informed about their child’s education.

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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 26 and 27 April 2022

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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 a section 5 inspection immediately.

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This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2017.

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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.

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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. 26 and 27 April 2022

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Rachel Perez-Lofty

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School details

Headteacher Marnie Fisher (Acting Headteacher)

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Date of previous inspection

1 and 2 March 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 At the time of this inspection, the previous headteacher had recently left and the governors were in the process of recruiting a new headteacher to start in September 2022. In addition, the school business manager had left and her replacement was due to start in June 2022. The school was being led by the deputy headteacher as acting headteacher.  The most recent section 48 inspection took place in September 2017. Leaders and governors are aware that the next section 48 inspection is due soon.  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 had received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders, and has taken that into account in his evaluation of the school.  Deep dives were conducted in reading, mathematics and PE. As part of these, the inspector met with leaders, visited lessons, talked to pupils about their work and met with teaching staff to talk about their approach to designing and delivering the 26 and 27 April 2022

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curriculum. The inspector also reviewed a sample of pupils’ work in science and French, and spoke to pupils about their work in these subjects.  Meetings were held with the acting headteacher, subject leaders and staff.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector reviewed the school’s website and policies and met with safeguarding leaders. He also spoke to pupils, staff and governors, and scrutinised school records of the safeguarding checks made on adults working in the school.  The inspector met with members of the governing body and reviewed documents relating to governance. An online meeting was held with representatives of the diocese and a telephone call was made to a representative of the local authority.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils to discuss their views about many different aspects of their school. The inspector also had informal conversations with pupils at

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break- and lunchtime.  The views of pupils, parents and staff as represented in meetings and in the responses to Ofsted surveys were considered.

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Inspection team

Matthew Newberry, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 26 and 27 April 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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