Launton Church of England Primary School

Inspection of Launton Church of England Primary School Bicester Road, Launton, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 5DP

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Inspection dates: 20 and 21 February 2024

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 20 and 21 February 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a welcoming school. Pupils enjoy coming here where they are safe and well cared for and build secure relationships with staff. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in school life. This is across all aspects of learning and wider development. The school is highly inclusive. Pupils often talk with passion about kindness and the importance of doing the right thing.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high ambitions for pupils’ achievements. However, pupils’ learning does not yet meet these aspirations. Exactly what pupils need to know and how this is checked are not yet developed fully enough. This means that pupils’ achievement over time is too variable, including in early years.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They increasingly demonstrate the values of the school, such as resilience and compassion, as they progress into older years. Pupils are encouraged to try hard and to act kindly with rewards and certificates in assemblies. Roles such as those of ‘assembly monitor’ and ‘field monitor’ provide some pupils with the opportunity to develop responsibility. Pupils also benefit from trips that bring learning to life, for example to the Ashmolean Museum.

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better?

There are ambitious, long-term aims for pupils in the broad range of subjects on offer. However, the design of the curriculum is not yet precise enough to ensure that all staff know the exact knowledge that needs to be taught. Owing to some changes in leadership and staff, there have been delays in the school’s improvement. Staff training has not yet ensured that the teaching of the school’s curriculum consistently builds pupils’ knowledge over time.

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better?

This is an inclusive school with high aspirations for pupils with SEND. Individual support is matched to pupils’ needs, such as specific help for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs. Where staff understand what knowledge pupils need to know, helpful adaptations support pupils with SEND when they need it.

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better?

Early reading is, rightly, a priority for the school. Phonics is taught and modelled well. Staff ensure that all pupils benefit from a wide range of carefully chosen books across the curriculum. Children learn to read from the start of early years. If any pupils fall behind, they receive support to help them to catch up. However, aside from early reading, the early years curriculum is not developed so that staff know exactly what the children need to learn. This often means that activities are not as rich in language and other development opportunities as they should be. The limited curriculum also means that staff cannot check precisely how well children are developing. This has an impact on how well staff target support for children who need this help and direction. 20 and 21 February 2024

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Pupils do not achieve as highly as they should. This is because staff do not routinely check what pupils know and remember precisely enough. Therefore, they do not identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge or adapt subsequent learning to meet the needs of pupils. This means that pupils do not develop secure knowledge over time. Where staff do check pupils’ understanding and adapt teaching to address misconceptions consistently well, pupils can recall and use knowledge with greater success. However, this is too inconsistent, meaning that too many pupils do not learn as securely as they should.

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Pupils are proud of their school and attend regularly. The school has high expectations of attendance and works with parents and carers effectively where there are concerns. While disruption to lessons is rare, some pupils struggle to sustain concentration for extended periods. At times, the high expectations the schools has of pupils’ attitudes to learning are not reinforced successfully. This sometimes affects how well pupils learn. However, where learning is clearly explained and followed by carefully chosen tasks, pupils demonstrate very positive attitudes to learning and pride in their work.

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The school provides pupils with a strong moral compass. Pupils understand clearly the difference between right and wrong. They are highly knowledgeable about online safety and physical health. The school provides pupils with meaningful experiences to help prepare them to be safe in later life. However, provision for pupils’ personal and wider development is not yet designed and delivered with sufficient coherence. This means that pupils do not build the breadth of wider knowledge that they should.

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Staff and governors are passionate and committed to the school. They understand that there are improvements to make and are determined to develop the quality of education and wider opportunities for all pupils.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The curriculum does not identify the knowledge that pupils need to learn precisely enough. This means that, too often, lessons do not systematically build pupils’ knowledge over time or provide pupils with activities to practise what they have learned. The school must ensure that the curriculum sets out clearly the knowledge that pupils need so that all staff know what to teach and when.  Too often, pupils’ understanding is not checked carefully enough. As a result, staff do not identify and address pupils’ misconceptions as effectively as they should. Staff need to be trained to know how to check for understanding as well as how to adapt teaching to address gaps in pupils’ knowledge. 20 and 21 February 2024

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 Children in early years do not consistently benefit from good-quality provision. Their learning and development are not preparing them as well as they should do for when they move into Year 1. This means that many are not getting the best possible start to their time in school. Staff need appropriate training and ongoing support and guidance to improve their practice so that activities and interactions consistently improve children’s development, particularly their communication and language.  The school does not have a sufficiently precise understanding of what it wants pupils to know and remember in personal, social and health education lessons. This means that pupils do not have a secure understanding of some aspects of this curriculum. While there are some interesting and useful opportunities for pupils, such as visits and positions of responsibility, these are not coherently joined up so that it is clear that all pupils benefit from the wider curriculum on

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offer. The school should look carefully at the current provision to consider how its design and implementation can have more coherence and continuity.

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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). 20 and 21 February 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority Board of governors

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School details

Date of previous inspection 19 June 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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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

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school had 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.  The inspectors held meetings with senior leaders of the school, governors and representatives of the diocese and local authority.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, art and science. For each deep dive, the inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke with pupils about 20 and 21 February 2024

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their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The inspectors also looked at the curriculum in history.  The inspectors met with a range of pupils to discuss their views about the school and talked to pupils during playtimes and in lessons.  Responses to Ofsted Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey for parents, including parents’ free-text comments, were considered. The inspectors also considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff.  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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Inspection team

Ally Aldridge-Gibbons, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Lorraine Greco Ofsted Inspector 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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