Compton and Up Marden CofE Primary School

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

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David Bertwistle Executive Headteacher Compton and Up Marden Church of England Primary School School Lane Compton Chichester West Sussex PO18 9EZ

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Church of England Primary School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 22 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.

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Church of England Primary School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, staff, governors, the local authority and 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 met with subject leaders, discussed curriculum plans, visited lessons, spoke to pupils and heard some of them read, looked at pupils’ work, reviewed your plans for improvement, scrutinised governors’ minutes and considered the monitoring reports from the local authority. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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require improvement. Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but

more work is necessary for the school to become good.

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Main findings

You have taken highly effective action to rapidly move the school forward. It is evident that you have the full support of staff and parents as you make the school improvement plan a reality. There is a relentless determination to make this school better and you will not allow any excuses to be made as you make the necessary improvements. You and your team are very knowledgeable about the strengths of the school’s provision as well as where there is still work to do.

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Main findings

Leaders have taken impressive strides to establish an ambitious and well-sequenced curriculum. You have focused smartly on the curriculum design in the foundation subjects. As a result, curriculum planning aims to build knowledge coherently from Reception to Year 6. However, within some units of work, not all the knowledge has yet to be precisely identified. The federation has provided staff training to support how best to implement the new curriculum plans. This is helping teachers become clearer about setting the right activities that will help pupils successfully learn the planned curriculum.

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Main findings

The implementation of the new phonics programme is firmly underway. You have ensured that staff have been well trained using professional expertise linked to the validated phonics programme the school is following. Staff are now showing greater proficiency at teaching pupils to read words accurately and speedily. Pupils are reading books that closely match what they learn in phonics lessons. Teachers are clear on how to build pupils’ fluency through rereading books. However, there remain areas which require further consideration. Children in Reception Year are not starting to learn their phonics quickly when they join the school. Additionally, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has further added to gaps in pupils’ spelling and handwriting. You are aware of this and are looking at how you support pupils to ensure they become confident and fluent readers and writers.

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Main findings

Subject leaders are becoming more skilled in their role. They have an emerging oversight in evaluating how well pupils are learning the curriculum. Working in subject teams across the federation is strengthening this work. The new inclusion leader has made a notable impact so far. She is ambitious for all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to achieve highly. She has set about working with teachers on delivering the curriculum to pupils with SEND in a way which focuses on high expectations for all. This has begun with comprehensive training for all teachers on how to enable all pupils to access the taught content.

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Main findings

Governors are astute. The team are insightful about how well school improvements are becoming embedded. They have rigorous systems in place to check out carefully what leaders tell them.

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Main findings

You have made effective use of support from the local authority and diocese. A strong, professional relationship is in place. You are clear about what external checks you need to confirm your thinking. You take on board with gusto the next recommendations for further improvements to the implementation of the curriculum. You make sure that governors are kept in the loop.

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Main findings

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

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