Setting

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

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Mrs Lisa Hoyle Headteacher Luddenden CofE School Dene View Luddendenfoot Halifax West Yorkshire HX2 6PB

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Luddenden CofE School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 3 March 2023 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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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Luddenden CofE School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and your deputy, the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENDCo), a range of school staff, a local authority representative and members of the governing body, including the chair, 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 reviewed a wide range of documents provided by the school, including records of local authority visits, checked safeguarding processes, undertook visits to lessons, including mathematics and phonics, visited the early years provision, spoke with groups of pupils, and observed behaviour in the dining hall and at social times. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Main findings

Shortly after the last inspection you appointed a new SENDCo. There was an acknowledgement that existing provision for pupils with additional needs was not as good

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

as you wanted it to be. In particular, you identified that you wanted to increase inclusivity in terms of learning.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

You identified that, to deliver the high quality of education that you wanted for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to receive, it was necessary to rebuild processes and provision from the ground up, rather than attempting to adjust what was already in place. To facilitate this process, you secured support from an experienced SENDCo from another school. Working together, both SENDCos designed an approach that now meets the needs of pupils, and staff, within your school.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

You now have systems in place to identify pupils who have additional needs. Support plans provide information, specific to individual pupils, that staff use effectively to help pupils learn. Where pupils require additional support, through timetabled interventions, these are now precisely focused to meet specified learning goals. When external professionals visit your school to work with pupils you ensure that your staff have opportunities to see expert practice being modelled, so that your staff can apply, where appropriate, those same techniques.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Your SENDCo, who led these changes, recently left your school. You were determined that the significant progress that had been made with regard to SEND provision since the last inspection would not be lost. You invested heavily in transition, allowing the old and new SENDCos to work in parallel for a full term. Your new SENDCo is continuing to effectively develop this area of your provision. To support them you have, again, arranged support from an experienced SENDCo to further assist them to settle into their new role.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

You, along with other leaders, have improved provision in the early years. Adults now think more carefully about the range of resources and activities they make available to children. Through your new ‘stars in jars’ rewards system, children are encouraged to become involved in a wide range of different activities that support their development. You arranged for a specialist leader in education (SLE) to work alongside adults in your early years provision to model the high-quality interactions between adults and children that are so important. This coaching has had a positive impact. Interactions between adults and children are now contributing positively to children’s development. This is an area you are continuing to develop, so that the features of high-quality interactions become fully embedded in day-to-day practice.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

You are aware that the outdoor space used by Reception and Nursery needs improving. It does not currently provide a rich environment for children to play and learn. Plans already exist to improve the outside space, and forest school area, by providing a wider range of new equipment and stimuli. Some of these had arrived shortly prior to my visit but were awaiting installation.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

While addressing the important issues identified in the last inspection report, you have continued to work on developing other aspects of the school. For example, subject leaders have continued to work on developing the curriculum in their subjects, including

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thinking carefully about how to ensure the curriculum ‘works’ when there are split year teaching groups.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Since the last inspection, you have effectively utilised support from others, including an experienced SENDCo from another school, a SLE with early years expertise and the local authority. You have thought carefully, at each stage, about how each could most appropriately support you in improving the school. At times, this had meant asking them to undertake detailed evaluations of specific aspects of your provision, helping develop systems and policies, or through working alongside staff and modelling good practice. This strategic approach, of thinking carefully about how best to utilise support, has played an important part in the improvements you have made since the time of the last inspection.

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OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

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

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