St Andrew's CofE VA Primary School, Lopham

Inspection of St Andrew’s CofE VA Primary School, Lopham The Street, North Lopham, Diss, Norfolk IP22 2LR

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 February 2024

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Insufficient evidence Previous inspection grade Good 28 and 29 February 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils live up to the school’s high expectations and the shared school vision to ‘shine as lights in the world’. Pupils are polite and friendly. They speak confidently to adults and each other.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils demonstrate positive relationships. In lessons, pupils focus quickly and are keen to learn. Outside, pupils play well together, sharing equipment and making up their own games.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a growing number of trips and experiences. They benefit from several opportunities to sample life outside of their local community. Pupils visit local museums and learn about careers, such as in aviation. This raises their aspirations and gives them things to aim for in the future.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Making a meaningful difference in the community means a lot to the pupils. They eagerly raise money for carefully chosen charities. For instance, pupils organise a fundraising sporting event for a local bereavement charity. This enables pupils to understand the importance of helping others, both in school and beyond.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn together happily in mixed-aged classes across the school. They want to learn. However, the quality of education across the curriculum is inconsistent. This means pupils learn more successfully in some subjects than others.

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better?

Significant changes have taken place in the school over recent years. A stable leadership team is now in place. This has brought about a greater consistency across the school.

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better?

Curriculum plans identify the knowledge pupils should learn year-on-year within mixed-aged classes. All pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) access the full curriculum.

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better?

The precision of the delivery of the curriculum is inconsistent. In some areas, staff have strong subject knowledge and teach the planned curriculum successfully. They make adaptations to support pupils, including pupils with SEND, to achieve well. For example, in a whole-school physical education lesson, pupils learned the basic skills of tag rugby. The learning was skilfully adapted to meet the needs of pupils from early years to Year 6.

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better?

In other areas of the curriculum, the knowledge pupils need to learn is not clear. Staff do not routinely adjust learning to meet all pupils’ needs. As a result, some pupils become confused. When this happens, pupils do not build up the knowledge they should and consequently, do not achieve as well as they should. 28 and 29 February 2024

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Early reading is a priority. Phonics starts straight away in Reception. All staff are well trained to teach early reading. The school’s chosen programme is taught consistently well. Adults check how well pupils are learning. If any pupil falls behind, they receive regular support to catch up. As a result, pupils learn to read fluently.

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Pupils’ attitudes to reading vary. Some pupils choose to read for pleasure. Others do not read regularly. As a result, some pupils do not gain the broader knowledge and joy from their reading that they should. School leaders are starting to take action to develop a positive reading culture across the school. However, this is not fully achieved.

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Attendance has improved. Leaders make every effort to support pupils to attend school regularly. Behaviour is well managed. Leaders ensure that staff apply the agreed behaviour systems consistently across the school. Pupils know and understand the expectations. This ensures that there is very little disruption to learning.

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Subject leaders work across the three schools in the federation. Their effectiveness at this school is variable. Some leaders have a clear vision. They check on the curriculum regularly and make positive changes to the provision in their subjects. In other subjects, the checks on how well pupils are achieving are less effective. Leaders are not clear about what improvements are needed in their subject. This means some curriculum subjects are improving more quickly than others.

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The school recognises the need for pupils to develop into well-rounded citizens. Leaders teach the school values clearly. Pupils use this knowledge to help them to make good choices. For example, pupils talk about using their courage to complete the zip wire on a recent school trip. Pupils feel safe in school. They have a good understanding of how to stay safe online. Pupils talk confidently about different cultures and beliefs. They are very clear that all pupils are welcome at this school.

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The interim executive board works very closely with the school. Its members monitor the school regularly, holding leaders to account. They understand what the school does well and what they need to do next.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 There are inconsistencies in the way the curriculum is adapted to meet the needs of different learners. This means the curriculum is taught more effectively to some pupils than others. Leaders, including the interim executive board, should implement focused professional development for staff to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge to teach and adapt the curriculum effectively. This will 28 and 29 February 2024

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mean pupils will learn the required knowledge in the school’s curriculum more successfully.  The school does not quality assure the curriculum with enough rigour in some subject areas. This means there are inconsistencies in the effectiveness of the curriculum across different classes and subjects. The school must ensure that it monitors the curriculum regularly and takes immediate action to improve areas of weakness. This will mean improvement takes place and pupils will learn the curriculum more successfully.  The school does not ignite a love of reading among pupils. They need to adopt a range of strategies to encourage pupils to read a range of books by choice. As a result, pupils will gain both pleasure and knowledge from reading a wide range of different texts.

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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’ 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). 28 and 29 February 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority Interim executive board

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School details

Chair of interim executive board Kay Swann

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School details

Interim Executive Headteacher Rhiannon Price

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School details

Website www.federationschools.org/standrews

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 16 November 2022, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of The Saints Federation.  The headteacher currently works in an executive capacity across the three schools in the federation.  The interim executive board was appointed in June 2022.  There has been a significant fall in the number of pupils on roll since the previous inspection. This led to a recent change in class structure taking place.  The number of pupils on roll in early years is too small to report upon.  The school has a designated religious character of Church of England. Its most recent Section 48 Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools took place on 19 October 2023. The school’s next section 48 inspection will be within eight school years.  The school does not currently use alternative provision for any pupils. 28 and 29 February 2024

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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

 Inspectors held meetings with the interim executive headteacher, the deputy headteacher, subject leaders, staff, members of the interim executive board and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and physical education. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to pupils read with a familiar member of staff.  The lead inspector also considered curriculum documentation and spoke to leaders about the computing curriculum.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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

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Information about this inspection

culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documents, including behaviour logs, attendance records, pupil records, records of interim executive board meetings, school development plans and school self-evaluation documents.  Inspectors gathered parents and carers’ views by speaking to some of them at the beginning of the school day and by reviewing the free-text responses submitted to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s questionnaire for school staff. Inspectors also met with staff throughout the inspection to gather their views.  Inspectors spoke with pupils throughout the inspection to gather their views.

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Inspection team

Jonny Wallace, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Carol Dallas Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 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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