Langwathby CofE Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Langwathby CofE Primary School Salkeld Road, Langwathby, Penrith, Cumbria CA10 1ND

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Outcome

Langwathby CofE Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school. Children in the Nursery skip happily into class at the start of the day. They cannot wait to play with their favourite toys. Older pupils enjoy chatting and playing with their friends at break-time. Pupils feel safe and secure at this school. They know that staff have their best interests at heart.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school expects pupils to try their best at all times. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils enjoy the interesting learning that staff provide. They stay focused in lessons and complete their tasks with care. Pupils know that staff will help them if there is anything that they do not understand. Pupils typically achieve well in the subjects that they learn.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in and around school. Even the youngest children quickly learn to follow simple rules and routines. Pupils show respect to staff and to each other. These sensible attitudes help to ensure that the school is a calm, pleasant place in which to learn.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with a range of activities to support their personal development. For example, pupils can participate in a range of sports after school. They experience residential stays at outdoor activity centres. Pupils relish opportunities to take on responsibilities such as membership of the school council. These activities help to prepare pupils for the next stage in their education.

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

The school provides pupils with an ambitious curriculum that covers a wide range of subjects. All pupils benefit from this strong curriculum, including those with SEND.

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

The curriculum contains the most important knowledge that the school wants pupils to acquire. Pupils learn this key knowledge in small, carefully-ordered steps from the early 21 March 2024

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years to the end of Year 6. This helps to ensure that pupils build new knowledge upon what they already know and can do.

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Staff use their strong subject expertise to design learning that is both interesting and memorable. In lessons, staff check regularly to make sure that pupils have understood each new concept before moving to the next one. This enables staff to correct any misconceptions that pupils may have developed.

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The school makes effective use of information from assessments, for example, to make any adjustments to teaching that might be necessary. In most subjects, the school has developed a clear understanding of how the curriculum is supporting pupils to know more and remember more over time. This helps the school to improve and refine these subject curriculums even further. In a very small number of subjects, the school’s oversight of the impact of the curriculum is less effective. This limits the school’s ability to make any improvements to the curriculum in these subjects, should this be necessary.

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The school has put reading at the heart of the curriculum. In the Nursery class, children learn to listen carefully for sounds, for example, when they play clapping games. Through the phonics programme, children start to learn about letters and sounds as soon as they begin the Reception Year. This continues in Year 1. Staff have received suitable training to help them to teach phonics effectively. They ensure that the books that pupils read match the sounds and letters that they have learned. This enables pupils to read with confidence and success. Any pupils who need to catch up in reading receive prompt and effective support to help them to do so.

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In all key stages, pupils are introduced to a wide range of exciting books and stories. Pupils learn to apply their strong reading knowledge when they learn other subjects. Across the school, pupils typically achieve well in reading, including pupils with SEND.

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The school quickly identifies the additional needs of pupils who may have SEND. Careful adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum, when necessary, enable this group of pupils to access it fully. The school works closely with other professionals to secure expert help for pupils who need it. Parents and carers are fully involved in this process. Pupils with SEND achieve well from their starting points in the subjects that they study.

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Most pupils attend school regularly and arrive punctually. Many attend every day. Pupils develop positive attitudes to learning. They are attentive in lessons and stay focused. Pupils try hard not to disturb others by talking. This helps to create a climate in which everyone can learn.

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Through the curriculum, pupils learn how to keep themselves safe when they use the internet. They develop an age-appropriate understanding of relationships, and they learn to value difference and diversity among people. Pupils enjoy learning about faiths and cultures that are different from their own. They learn about British values such as the rule of law and democracy. These experiences prepare pupils for life beyond school.

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Governors carry out a range of activities to check the effectiveness of the school’s work to improve the quality of its provision for pupils. Governors and the school have due regard 21 March 2024

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for any impact on staff’s workload and well-being when making decisions about the quality of education that pupils receive.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a very small number of subjects, the school’s work to understand the impact of the curriculum on pupils’ learning is at an early stage. This limits the school from making any further, necessary improvements to these subject curriculums. The school should ensure that, in these remaining subjects, it has an accurate understanding of how the curriculum enables pupils to know more and to remember more over time.

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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 November 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.

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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 21 March 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). 21 March 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 18 December 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection, a new chair of governors has been appointed.  The school does not make use of any alternative provision.  The school is a Church of England primary school that is part of the Diocese of Carlisle. The last section 48 inspection took place in December 2019. The next section 48 inspection is expected to take place during the academic year 2024/25.

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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 that 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.  The inspectors met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and other school leaders. 21 March 2024

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 The lead inspector met with members of the governing body, and with a representative of the local authority. The lead inspector also spoke on the telephone to a representative of the diocese.  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 to teachers, spoke to pupils and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The lead inspector also listened to some pupils reading to a familiar adult.  Inspectors also spoke to leaders about the curriculum in some other subjects and looked at a range of pupils’ books.  The inspectors considered the views expressed by parents and carers in their responses to Ofsted Parent View. This included free-text comments. An inspector also chatted to a few parents at the start of the school day.  The inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and for

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pupils.  The inspectors spoke to some pupils about their experiences of school life.  The inspectors spoke with staff to discuss the school’s support for their workload and well-being.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector/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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Inspection team

Mavis Smith, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Philip Barlow Ofsted Inspector 21 March 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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