St Martin's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Scarborough

Inspection of a good school: St Martin’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Scarborough Holbeck Hill, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 3BW

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Inspection dates: 20 and 21 February 2024

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Outcome

St Martin’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Scarborough continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy and inclusive school. Parents and carers, staff and pupils appreciate being part of its community. Many describe the school as being like a family. The school communicates regularly with parents. It provides frequent opportunities for parents to find out about their child’s progress and how to support them in their education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils achieve well and engage fully in all that the school offers. Staff consistently model the behaviours that are expected of pupils. They foster nurturing and caring relationships. Pupils are polite and respectful to adults and their peers. They usually behave well in class and around school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides a range of activities and experiences to support pupils’ broader development. Residential visits enable pupils to participate in outdoor and adventurous activities, and visit contrasting locations to where they live. Extra-curricular clubs, including art, cricket and football, are well attended. Pupils enjoy participating in local and regional competitions. They proudly provide match reports to the school at the end of the week. These are celebrated as part of the school’s Friday celebration worship assemblies with parents.

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

The school has carefully considered the knowledge and skills that pupils must learn as they progress through the school. Pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve the expectations of the curriculum. Teachers make appropriate adaptations to pupils’ learning, such as the use of picture cues or prompt sheets. These enable all pupils to fully access the curriculum. Scarborough 20 and 21 February 2024

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Teachers provide regular opportunities to recap prior learning. Pupils benefit from the ‘3Qs’ (three questions) posed at the start of each lesson. These require pupils to recall what they have learned in previous lessons or units of work. Pupils recognise that this helps them to remember what they have learned. The school has revised the curriculum in recent years. Older pupils have not previously learned some important knowledge that they need to access the new curriculum. They have gaps in their learning. The school recognises this. Although still at an early stage, it has taken steps to identify and address these gaps.

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Children in Reception benefit from the well-mapped-out curriculum. This effectively develops their knowledge and skills. Adults provide purposeful opportunities for children to count and recognise numbers. They foster strong and positive relationships. Children enjoy learning with their peers. High-quality interactions enable children to develop the skills required to become confident and independent learners.

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The school has implemented a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics. Staff teach with confidence. They demonstrate strong subject knowledge. They anticipate and address pupils’ misconceptions swiftly. The school has established clear processes to ensure that pupils at risk of falling behind are quickly identified. The school provides high- quality support to enable pupils to rapidly catch up. Pupils at the early stages of reading read books that are well matched to their phonics knowledge. They learn to read with increasing fluency and accuracy. Most pupils develop a love of reading as they progress through the school. Carefully selected texts and extracts from literature encourage pupils to read a variety of authors and genres. The school has introduced an ambitious approach to support pupils’ independent reading once they have completed the school’s phonics reading scheme. However, this requires further refinement. Some pupils do not

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consistently select books that align with their stage of reading. Sometimes, books are too challenging. They do not accurately match some pupils’ stage and confidence in reading.

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Pupils participate in services at the local church during the year. The school provides opportunities for pupils to contribute meaningfully to the local community. These include visiting a local care home to sing to and speak with residents. Pupils learn how their actions impact on others. Older pupils experienced this directly when they distributed Christmas decorations to members of the community. Pupils described to the inspector how these and other random acts of kindness help other people to feel positive and happy.

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The school has systems in place to ensure high levels of attendance. Most pupils attend school regularly. The school’s strong partnership with parents enables supportive and productive conversations about attendance to take place. Although the school regularly reviews individual pupils’ attendance, it does not routinely analyse patterns of absence for groups of pupils, such as those who are disadvantaged.

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Staff are confident that leaders support their workload and well-being. Staff benefit from the professional development opportunities that leaders provide. Leaders, including those with responsibility for governance, are rightly proud of the school. Sometimes, the school’s evaluations of the actions taken to develop practice further are not sufficiently Scarborough 20 and 21 February 2024

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precise. Where this is the case, the school does not have an accurate understanding of its actions on pupils’ academic and/or broader development.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils in key stage 2 do not read books that consistently match their stage of reading. This diminishes these pupils’ enjoyment and/or understanding of the books that they read. The school should further refine its approach to reading so that pupils consistently read books that match their reading ability.  Checks made by the school to evaluate the impact of its actions are not sufficiently precise. It is not possible to fully identify whether the school’s actions to support pupils’ academic and personal development are having the intended impact. The school should ensure that checks made on actions to develop practice accurately inform further improvements.

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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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in April 2014.

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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. Scarborough 20 and 21 February 2024

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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 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). Scarborough 20 and 21 February 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website stmartinscofeprimaryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 16 October 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection, the headteacher and deputy headteacher joined the school.  The school is an average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is above the national average.  The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is well below the national average.  The school is part of the Church of England Diocese of York.  The school’s most recent section 48 inspection was March 2017.  The school does not use any 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. Scarborough 20 and 21 February 2024

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 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector spoke to the headteacher, deputy headteacher and special educational needs coordinator about their work to develop the school.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and geography. For each deep dive, the inspector 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.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: 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

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safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspector met with representatives from the governing board.  The inspector met with the school’s improvement adviser from the local authority and spoke to the assistant director of education from the Diocese of York.  The inspector reviewed responses to Ofsted’s parent questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View. Responses to Ofsted’s staff and pupil surveys were also considered.

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Inspection team

Matthew Harrington, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector Scarborough 20 and 21 February 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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