Cropredy Church of England Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.1

Phil Goldsworthy Headteacher Cropredy Church of England Primary School Station Road Cropredy Banbury Oxfordshire OX17 1PU

p.1

Primary School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 30 November 2022, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and took place because the school has received two successive judgements of requires improvement at its previous graded (section 5) inspections.

p.1

Primary School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other staff, governors, the local authority and the diocese the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also visited lessons, met with staff and scrutinised curriculum documentation, the school improvement plan and pupils’ work. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

p.1

Primary School

Cropredy Church of England Primary School continues to require improvement.

p.1

Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is

necessary for the school to become good.

p.1

Main findings

Since the previous inspection, additional capacity has been added to the leadership team. One teacher is providing coaching for other staff to support improvements in teaching. The previous special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) left their post in August 2022. The new SENCo started in her role in September 2022. You, along with your staff, are working steadily to address the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection in October 2021. You have introduced coaching support, particularly focused on mathematics and English, to improve the consistency of teaching. This is proving to have a positive impact as staff are planning tasks that more accurately match what they intend pupils to learn. You and your staff have established a coherent curriculum in almost all other subjects which sets out what you want pupils to learn and in what order. When teachers follow this planning closely, it is helping pupils to build their

p.1

Main findings

knowledge and skills well over time. There remains some inconsistency in how accurately staff are using these plans. You have been slower to ensure that the curriculum is effectively adapted for all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Consequently, some of these pupils are not yet achieving as well as they could.

p.2

Main findings

You have precisely set out how leaders will bring about the most important changes to improve the school. This is helping governors to more effectively hold leaders to account. Governors have a stronger understanding of how well pupils are learning in English and mathematics and are beginning to challenge leaders about pupils’ learning in wider subjects. Your work to improve subject leadership is at an earlier stage of development. Not all subject leaders check that staff are delivering the curriculum consistently well so that pupils learn and remember more over time.

p.2

Main findings

Staff have been guided by you to review the behaviour expectations. Staff and pupils understand the ‘golden rules’ which set out how pupils are expected to behave. This is helping staff to be more consistent in their management of behaviour. Consequently, disruptive behaviour is reduced, which enables pupils to focus on their learning.

p.2

Main findings

You say that you and your staff have valued effective support from the local authority to improve the school. This has helped you to develop coaching support to improve teaching, strengthen the transition from early years into Year 1 and improve the English and mathematics curriculums. You explained how the guidance from the local authority has also helped you to create plans to improve the school that are sharply focused on the actions that are needed to bring about swift improvements.

p.2

Main findings

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Oxford, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Oxford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

p.2