Shotley Community Primary School

Inspection of Shotley Community Primary School Main Road, Shotley, Ipswich, Suffolk IP9 1NR

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Inspection dates: 24 and 25 January 2023

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Previous inspection grade Not previously inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 24 and 25 January 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils do their best to showcase the ‘Shotley Bs’ in school: to be responsible and safe, be ready, be curious and be kind.

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What is it like to attend this school?

When starting school, children in early years get taken under the wing of a ‘Year 6 angel’. This helps settle children into school routines. Each Year 6 angel sits with their partnered child during assembly. They show them how to sit and listen and how to talk to a partner about the questions staff ask. Pupils have other caring duties too. They tend to the hens and help to look after the therapy dog. Tasks such as these foster kindness and responsibility.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils recognise the improvements leaders have made to behaviour. They know that it keeps getting better. They are keen to work together to collect house points for their team. Pupils understand the difference between bullying and pupils having a falling-out. They speak about the assemblies and lessons when staff explain this to them. If either occurs, pupils know how to seek support from the peer mentors or trusted members of staff. Having staff they can turn to means that pupils are kept safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils typically meet staff’s high expectations, listening to staff and trying hard to complete activities and remembering much of what they learn.

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better?

Leaders and staff have worked with determination to improve the school. Frequent staff changes have made some of this tricky in the past. Now, staffing has stabilised. This stability has allowed leaders and staff to work productively together. There is clear communication between trustees and local governors. They check to ensure that school leaders’ improvement actions make a difference.

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better?

The school is in a remote location. In recognition of this, the trust arranges networking opportunities. Leaders and staff share good practice, learning from and with colleagues from other schools. This has supported curriculum development. Leaders have clearly set out what pupils from early years to Year 6 will learn in all subjects.

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better?

Leaders recently introduced a new phonics programme. They ensured that staff were trained ahead of its introduction. They used initial checks to identify pupils’ starting points so they could match learning to pupils’ needs. Subsequently, pupils typically keep up with the pace of the programme. Children in Reception Year can blend the sounds that letters represent to read whole words with increasing accuracy. Staff provide helpful hints, such as to ‘pinch and flip,’ which helps children correct their pen grip to form letters more clearly.

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better?

The way in which staff carry out assessments at the end of lessons or a sequence of lessons usually works well. For example, teachers quiz pupils. They use pupils’ 24 and 25 January 2023

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answers to determine what they have understood. This helps to inform teaching efficiently. It shows in pupils typically having a sound recall of what leaders want them to know.

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Still, there are instances where teachers do not spot those pupils who struggle with their work during lessons. It means that some difficulties, such as some pupils’ reading being laboured or some pupils lacking an understanding of words they should know, take longer to resolve than they should.

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Leaders have put in place appropriate systems for identifying and supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers refer to helpful documents from trust leaders. These contain clear strategies to meet pupils’ needs. Teachers also receive guidance in how to set specific, measurable targets. Leaders’ taking of assemblies allows time for staff to check on the impact of catch-up support. This means that teachers can make swift changes, when needed, to ensure that pupils get the right help.

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The programme for personal development is suitably wide-ranging. Through computing lessons, pupils learn how to behave when online, helping them to identify and report cyber-bullying. The ‘global awareness’ assemblies introduce pupils to people and places they may not otherwise come across. This expands their knowledge of the world. Pupils enjoy the extracurricular activities, including clubs and inter-school sports competitions. Pupils like the way that competing against other schools allows them to socialise with unfamiliar peers of their own age.

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In the past, there were pupils who displayed difficult behaviour. Leaders clarified the approach to supporting pupils’ behaviour, including a reward system that recognises personal and whole-class achievement. The majority of pupils now behave well. Where they do not, leaders deal with this effectively.

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There are pupils who do not attend school as often as they should. Sometimes, too much time can pass before leaders take action to address some pupils’ low attendance. When this happens, these pupils have gaps in their knowledge. They also find it hard to settle back into the school’s routines. Leaders’ plans to resolve this have yet to take effect.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Trustees commission safeguarding audits. These support local governors in verifying that systems are working well, including in checking that staff and volunteers receive proper pre-employment checks.

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Safeguarding

Leaders keep their own and staff’s training up to date. This includes regularly discussing scenarios to ensure that all remain vigilant to pupils at risk of harm. Staff readily report any concerns. Leaders take appropriate actions in response, including liaising with external agencies to keep pupils safe. 24 and 25 January 2023

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The ‘let’s talk’ assemblies allow leaders to address topical concerns with pupils. These, along with the lunchtime well-being club, allow pupils to confide in a trusted adult when they have a concern.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some teachers are slow to spot and support pupils who are not keeping up with their learning. This hinders some pupils’ achievement. Leaders should ensure that teachers use their checks on what pupils know and can do to inform their teaching efficiently in order to maximise pupils’ achievement.  Leaders have not tackled the persistent absence of some pupils effectively. As a result, these pupils are routinely missing out on learning, which leads to gaps in their knowledge and difficulty in understanding the school’s routines. Leaders should implement a more rigorous approach to identifying and resolving issues with pupils’ attendance, including ensuring that these pupils quickly catch up on missed learning.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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. 24 and 25 January 2023

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Shotley Community Primary School is part of ASSET Education, a multi-academy trust.  There is before- and after-school childcare for pupils attending the school. It is run off site by a separately registered and inspected childcare provider.  School leaders make use of one unregistered alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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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.  Inspectors held meetings with leaders, including the chief executive officer (CEO), the deputy CEO, the SEND system leader, the headteacher and four local governors. 24 and 25 January 2023

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 Inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to staff, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to a sample of pupils reading to a familiar adult.  To further inspect the curriculum, the lead inspector also met with curriculum leaders to discuss monitoring and training materials for staff.  To inspect safeguarding, the lead inspector met with the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and a deputy DSL to review safeguarding records and to scrutinise the single central record of recruitment and vetting checks. To further evaluate safeguarding, inspectors also spoke to local governors, staff, pupils, and parents and carers, and reviewed surveys.  Inspectors reviewed a range of other school documentation and policies, including

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minutes of local governors’ meetings and the school development plan.  To gather pupils’ views, inspectors spent time observing and speaking to pupils. Inspectors also took account of the 32 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.  To gather parents’ views, inspectors reviewed the seven responses and five free- text comments submitted to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View. An inspector also spoke to some parents at the start of a school day.  To gather staff’s views, inspectors spoke to several staff and reviewed the 13 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.

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Inspection team

Daniel Short, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Craige Brown Ofsted Inspector 24 and 25 January 2023

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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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