Sinnington Community Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Sinnington Community Primary School Friars Hill, Sinnington, York, North Yorkshire YO62 6SL

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Outcome

Sinnington Community Primary School continues to be a good school.

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Outcome

The head of school of this school is Neil Roden. This school is part of Ryedale Learning Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Mark McCandless, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by David Dangerfield. There is also an executive headteacher, Claire Lamb, who is responsible for this school and two others.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at this school thrive in a happy, caring and safe environment. The school’s important value of being ‘respectful’ is evident across the whole school. Pupils demonstrate high standards of behaviour. They have positive attitudes to their learning. Pupils benefit from positive relationships with their teachers. This contributes to the calm and purposeful atmosphere in the school. Pupils are adamant that bullying is exceptionally rare. They believe staff would deal with it quickly if it did occur. Parents agree.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils relish the opportunities for leadership roles and their personal development. The eco-warriors, for example, take pride in improving the school environment. This includes fundraising for new bins and recycling boxes, as well as planning a bottle top mosaic for the school’s garden area. Staff and pupils are very proud to be members of the school community. One parent summed up the comments of many others by saying, ‘The school has a friendly and caring atmosphere, indeed it’s like a big family of pupils, parents and teachers.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders at all levels have very high expectations of pupils and each other. This fosters the positive learning environment in which children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), can realise those expectations.

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

From their start in pre-school, staff ensure that children develop their awareness of 23 January 2024

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language and vocabulary through stories and songs. This means that children are ready for phonics learning when they move to Reception. Well-trained staff teach phonics with consistency. They use assessment well to identify children who might have gaps in their phonics knowledge. Appropriate support is then put in place. Pupils with SEND have every opportunity to access the same learning as their peers. Staff make skilful adaptations to ensure that this is the case. This contributes to pupils becoming fluent and confident readers as they move through the school. There are welcoming and comfortable reading areas in each classroom. These contain quality texts for pupils to develop a love of reading for pleasure. Leaders ensure that there is a wide representation of diversity across a range of books. This, along with the school’s personal, social and health education curriculum, helps to ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern

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The curriculum for mathematics is meticulously planned and taught. Staff receive effective professional development. Their subject knowledge is secure. This, along with pupils’ excellent behaviour and attitudes to learning, means that pupils across the school achieve well in mathematics.

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Leaders have developed the wider curriculum alongside other schools within the trust. It is tailored to the school’s local context and the history of the local area. This means that the planned curriculum is relevant for all pupils. They engage well in lessons and enjoy the topics they learn about. Pupils talked about how learning in lessons across the curriculum often prepares them well for future learning. For example, learning about the First World War prepared pupils for their learning about the Second World War. However, the curriculums in some subjects do not clearly identify the crucial knowledge that pupils should learn. Sometimes, pupils are presented with too much information. This means that sometimes pupils do not recall the important points that they need to remember.

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Pupils’ attendance at school is high. Persistent absence is low. Leaders demonstrate a rigorous approach to tracking pupils’ absences and promoting good attendance for all. There is clear evidence of significant improvements in pupils’ attendance because of leaders’ actions.

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Pupils at this school benefit from a carefully considered programme of personal development. As well as the numerous opportunities to take on leadership responsibilities, pupils enjoy a series of educational visits and visitors. Pupils talked with excitement about the residential visit to East Barnby and an educational visit to Eden Camp Modern History Museum. Leaders know that awareness of other faiths, religions and cultures is important for their pupils. As a result, they planned a series of visitors to widen pupils’ understanding of different faiths, including Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. The school has ensured a consistent approach to developing pupils’ cultural awareness.

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Leadership within the school is strong. Staff feel well supported and firmly believe that leaders prioritise their workload and well-being. Governors on the primary cluster committee understand and fulfil, with diligence, the responsibilities that are delegated to them by the board of trustees. There is clear and effective oversight of the school at trust level. The comment of one governor that ‘we want to maximise the potential for all learners in a safe environment and prepare them to take their place in a multi-cultural, 23 January 2024

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diverse society’ sums up the pupil-focused ethos of leaders.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some foundation subjects, the curriculum has not been sequenced into smaller blocks of learning that allow teachers to identify the exact knowledge that pupils should learn. This means that sometimes, pupils find it difficult to recall the crucial pieces of knowledge required for future learning. The school should ensure that the exact knowledge is clearly identified and taught, step by step, so that pupils do not have gaps in their knowledge.

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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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Sinnington Primary School, to be good in March 2019.

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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’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and 23 January 2024

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protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 23 January 2024

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School details

Headteacher Claire Lamb (Executive Headteacher) Neil Roden (Head of School) Website www.sinnington-rlt.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Sinnington Community Primary School converted to become an academy school in February 2021. When its predecessor school, Sinnington Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good overall.  A new executive headteacher has joined the school since the last inspection.  The number of pupils on roll is well below average.  The school has opened provision for two-year-olds since the last inspection.  The school does not use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 23 January 2024

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 Inspectors met with the executive headteacher, the head of school, school leaders, other school staff, representatives of the primary cluster committee, representatives of the board of trustees, the director of school improvement and the chief executive officer.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, the inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  An inspector listened to pupils from Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 reading to a familiar adult.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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 The inspectors considered the responses to the staff and pupil online surveys and Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Richard Beadnall, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Jo Heaton Ofsted Inspector 23 January 2024

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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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