St James and St John CofE Primary School

Inspection of St James and St John CofE Primary School Main Street, Chackmore, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire MK18 5JE

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Inspection dates: 30 April to 1 May 2024

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Outstanding Previous inspection grade Good 30 April and 1 May 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love coming to this happy and nurturing school. There is a clear and purposeful vision for both pupils’ behaviour and the quality of their work. Pupils demonstrate the school’s values, which include courage, kindness and respect in their everyday conduct. Pupils build strong friendships, not only in their classes but across the school. Children in the Reception Year make a strong start as they settle into school routines. Consequently, pupils behave well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy learning and making connections between subject areas and the world around them. Staff have high expectations of what pupils can achieve and pupils achieve well. They particularly love reading and enjoy, as one pupil said ‘getting lost in a world of books’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy the leadership responsibilities they have and take them seriously. For example, pupils can become school ‘councillors’, ‘eco-warriors’ or play leaders. These roles help pupils to develop their resilience and communication skills. Pupils know what is right and wrong and that they should not discriminate against others. They want to help others in need, both in the local and wider communities.

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better?

The school has designed a curriculum that sequences the key knowledge, skills and vocabulary that pupils will learn. Teachers’ subject knowledge has developed strongly in the last two years. As a result, staff deliver the curriculum with growing expertise. Pupils have positive attitudes towards their learning. They show this in both their focus in lessons and in the improving quality of their work.

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better?

The school’s recent focus to improve pupils’ achievement in writing has been successful and pupils write with greater confidence and accuracy. In most other subjects, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, learn and remember important knowledge. However, in a few subjects, staff do not always check regularly enough what pupils remember. As a result, there are gaps in pupils’ knowledge, and they do not learn as well as they could in these subjects.

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better?

The school has high aspirations that all pupils will succeed and play a full part in school life. Leaders have worked hard to identify individual needs. Teachers write targets that are precise and useful for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and adapt learning more effectively. Consequently, pupils with SEND are achieving well.

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better?

The school teaches pupils to read very well. This has led to high achievement in reading in recent years, especially in the phonics test at the end of Year 1 in 2023. One of the main reasons for this high achievement in reading is the exceptional development of pupils’ speaking and listening skills in the Reception class. Skilled staff ensure that pupils learn phonics extremely well. Pupils who need extra practice receive it so that they can keep up with the other children. Pupils across the school 30 April and 1 May 2024

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have a suitable book that they read for pleasure and this helps them to develop their confidence and fluency. Leaders develop pupils’ love of reading throughout the school. As a result, disadvantaged pupils adore books and successfully access the rest of the curriculum.

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Pupils’ behaviour is positive across the school. There are clear routines for all pupils, including the youngest. This helps pupils know how to behave. The school teaches pupils how to manage their own behaviour well. Pupils enjoy school because they feel safe and well cared for. Consequently, most pupils attend school regularly. The school provides effective help for pupils and their families to overcome barriers that make regular attendance more difficult.

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The school teaches pupils about equality and protected characteristics. Pupils are clear about what these are and about respecting people from different backgrounds. In Reception, for example, children think about various cultures by looking at books and tasting different types of food. Pupils develop a secure understanding of their local area through trips to important local sites such as Silverstone. These visits link strongly to the curriculum and help pupils make connections in their learning.

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Leaders care deeply about the school and its community. Leaders at all levels have a strong commitment to the school’s values, ethos and ambition. Governors are well trained and active in their roles. They provide an appropriate level of challenge and support to help move the school forward. Staff feel well supported, and the school benefits from a positive relationship with its community.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a few subjects, staff do not systematically check what pupils have learned and can remember. As a result, not all pupils achieve as well as they could. Leaders should ensure that teachers use assessment to check what pupils have learned and use this information to adapt the curriculum so that all pupils develop and embed their knowledge in all areas of the curriculum

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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. 30 April and 1 May 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). 30 April and 1 May 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 28 and 29 September 2022, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 This is a below-average-size primary school split across two sites.  The school is part of the Diocese of Oxford.  This school has before- and after-school provision provided by an external provider.  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.  Inspectors met with senior leaders, staff and pupils. The lead inspector also met with the representatives of the governing board.  The inspection team carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and music. It discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, 30 April and 1 May 2024

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teachers and pupils. Inspectors also visited lessons, looked at samples of pupils’ work and looked at writing across the curriculum.  Inspectors considered the responses to the Ofsted Parent View survey, including the free-text comments. They also took account of the responses to the confidential staff survey and gathered the views of both staff and pupils throughout the inspection.  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 culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed and scrutinised a range of the school’s documentation, including leaders’ plans for improving the school, minutes of governing board meetings and records of attendance and behaviour incidents.

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Inspection team

Neil Pilsworth, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Sackett His Majesty’s Inspector 30 April and 1 May 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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