Christ Church New Malden CofE Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Christ Church New Malden C of E Primary School Elm Road, New Malden KT3 3HN

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Inspection dates: 11 and 12 October 2022

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Outcome

Christ Church New Malden C of E Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their school. They are happy and safe in this nurturing environment. The school’s Christian ethos threads through every aspect of school life. Pupils are encouraged to support each other and maximise their own potential. Leaders and staff place pupils at the heart of their school. They value pupils’ ideas and have recently appointed a pupil leadership team to make sure these are heard.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders expect all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to achieve well. Pupils strive to meet these expectations. In singing assemblies, for example, leaders are ambitious for all. Older pupils are expected to sing in four-part harmonies, which, with practice, they achieve.

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What is it like to attend this school?

All staff expect pupils to behave well. Pupils are courteous and respectful towards each other. Pupils understand what bullying is. If bullying occurred, pupils would tell an adult, who would resolve it swiftly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders provide a range of visits to complement the curriculum. The school has its own resident pet pigs, Dotty and Truffles. Pupils learn to care for these animals by feeding and grooming them and cleaning up after them. The pigs also play a very important part in supporting pupils with social and emotional needs.

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum that is broad and balanced and builds up pupils’ understanding over time. Subject leaders are knowledgeable and continuously seek to evaluate and improve the curriculum. For example, they make sure that there are a diverse range of authors among the books pupils read. Within each subject, leaders have broken down the aims into smaller learning steps. For instance, in art and design, pupils 11 and 12 October 2022

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in Year 4 make careful observations and experiment with colour mixing, texture and brush type before creating their own still-life paintings.

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Subject leaders provide staff with purposeful training to teach the curriculum. This includes suggestions on how to adapt activities so that all pupils, including those with SEND, access the learning as intended. For example, in geography, teachers are encouraged to break down instructions to make them simpler. In music, pupils are offered individual chime bars rather than the whole xylophone when composing. Some staff are not always consistently clear about the intended key learning. This means pupils sometimes end up learning things that are not as helpful for what comes next in the planned curriculum.

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Leaders prioritise reading. Children in the early years start to learn phonics from the beginning of the Reception Year. They practise with books that closely match the sounds they know. Leaders introduced the current phonics programme last year. Most staff are trained to teach early reading well. For example, teachers check what sounds pupils have remembered and provide sufficient practise so that pupils read with increasing fluency and accuracy. However, a small number of staff do not model new sounds and reading strategies with precision. In these cases, pupils do not develop their reading confidence as quickly. Leaders know there is further work to do to embed the current phonics programme.

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Staff in the early years use important mathematical vocabulary with children right from the start. They make sure children use and understand words such as ‘smallest’, ‘same’ and ‘biggest’ when comparing objects of different sizes. Children are encouraged to count confidently. Teachers carefully check children’s understanding. For instance, they use marbles of different sizes to show that object size does not affect the number within a group.

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In personal, social and health education (PSHE), pupils learn about personal boundaries and privacy. Pupils spoken to stated they would go to a trusted adult if they were worried about anything. Older pupils have an appropriate understanding of diversity. For example, they know that it is wrong to treat people differently because of their sex or race.

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Leaders provide many opportunities for pupils to join clubs. Choir is the most popular, with a quarter of the school belonging to either the infant or junior club. Pupils value the introduction of recent rewards for positive behaviour, such as the ‘good deeds at lunchtime key’. Pupils with talents and interests outside of school are encouraged to share these in school, for example through playing a musical instrument in the school concert.

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Many staff are proud of the nurturing culture in the school. They feel supported with their workload. Leaders and governors have focused more recently on staff well-being, which is welcomed. For example, they check that additional responsibilities given to staff are accompanied by appropriate time and resources. 11 and 12 October 2022

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders provide up-to-date and regular training. This ensures staff know what signs to look out for that may indicate a pupil is at risk of harm. It also means that staff know how to raise concerns quickly, including if that concern involves a member of staff.

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Safeguarding

Pupils are taught about the dangers in their community. For example, they are taught how to cross the level-crossing safely. Pupils also learn why it is important not to share personal details online.

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Safeguarding

Governors understand their statutory duties and perform these effectively. They oversee safer recruitment.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some staff are not teaching key learning explicitly enough in wider curriculum subjects. This means not all pupils remember important knowledge well enough to help with what they learn next. Leaders need to continue to embed and monitor the intended curriculum so that all pupils know and remember more in every subject.  Leaders have recently introduced a new phonics programme. Most staff have the expertise to help pupils learn to read well. However, a small number of staff are less consistent in utilising the intended strategies of the programme. Leaders should ensure that these staff have sufficient confidence and subject knowledge to teach phonics. This will help pupils to learn to read with consistent confidence, fluency and accuracy.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2013. 11 and 12 October 2022

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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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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. 11 and 12 October 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10240385 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Robert Shrimpton

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School details

Date of previous inspection 8 June 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher joined the school in September 2022.  The school is split across two sites approximately 600 metres apart. The infant department is in Lime Grove and the junior department is in Elm Road.  The school does not make use of 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. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with the headteacher and other members of the senior leadership team. They also met with the chair of governors, four other governors, two representatives from the diocese, and the local authority school improvement partner.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, music and geography. For each deep dive, the inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, 11 and 12 October 2022

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visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke with pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The inspectors also looked at curriculum plans in art and design, PSHE and history.  To evaluate safeguarding, the inspectors checked the single central record of pre- employment checks and met with the designated safeguarding leader. They reviewed documentation related to safeguarding, including case records.  The inspectors held meetings with groups of pupils to discuss their views.  Inspectors considered the views of parents through Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View.

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Inspection team

Alison Colenso, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Helen Rai Ofsted Inspector 11 and 12 October 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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