Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy 37 Thorpe Road, Chacombe, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX17 2JA

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Outcome

Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Natalie Coates. This school is part of Evolve Church Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Ricky Emms, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Karen Falvey.

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy school where staff know pupils well. Pupils say that everyone gets on together. They strongly support Chacombe CEVA’s 5 Golden Rules and say that staff set a good example to them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe and are keen to tell visitors how proud they are to be part of their school. They wear their uniforms smartly. As pupils get older, their uniforms are often decorated with shiny badges. These badges show the many responsibilities that pupils have, such as monitors and reading ambassadors, to play a part in their school. Pupils enjoy raising money for the local food bank. They help to run the tuck shop.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Extra-curricular clubs, such as choir and science, are popular. Residential visits to Whitemoor Lakes and special workshops to teach skateboarding are much-enjoyed treats.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are well behaved and respectful. Staff care for pupils. There are high expectations for all pupils. Staff help pupils to achieve well. Pupils like their lessons and become fluent readers and young mathematicians. They have opportunities to write about Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition and to learn about the geography at Edgehill. They are well prepared for secondary school. 5 November 2024

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

Staff at this small school are ambitious for the success of every single pupil. They are knowledgeable about their pupils and their needs and ensure that all pupils are included in lessons. The school successfully identifies the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff adjust what they do so that these pupils can learn alongside others and achieve the best outcomes possible.

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

Getting all pupils to read is a priority, and the curriculum for this is planned and delivered well. Children in the Reception class begin learning phonics from their very first day at the school. They learn the different sounds letters make. They practise writing the letters. Pupils soon become fluent, enthusiastic readers. They learn how to read and write increasingly complex words. Those who need to catch up with their reading are supported effectively each day by skilled staff. The reading books pupils are given are well matched, to help them to become confident readers.

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

The curriculum for writing is also carefully designed. Pupils thus become capable and creative writers. Pupils in Year 4, for example, were able to write confidently about how to invade an Anglo-Saxon settlement, posing carefully considered questions.

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

Mathematics is similarly well considered. Teaching helps to build pupils’ quick recall of number facts, including multiplication tables. This helps pupils to reason mathematically and to solve problems with confidence.

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

Staff are currently teaching the second year of a revised curriculum for foundation subjects, such as geography and computing. The school has thought carefully about what pupils will learn and when. This is ensuring that pupils build good amounts of knowledge over time.

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

Teachers have secure subject knowledge and implement the curriculum well. Pupils, in turn, pay attention and work hard across subjects and achieve well. Although teachers check that pupils are learning, the ways that they sometimes do this are not as effective as they could be.

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

Pupils are consistently well behaved. Caring staff in the early years teach children the importance of being kind, of listening and of following instructions. All pupils, including children in the early years, demonstrate these skills and behaviours. They cooperate well and try their best. They move around the school sensibly and are polite to visitors. They are keen to come to school to learn. They attend well.

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

The school’s personal development programme helps pupils to be well prepared for life. They are taught effectively about relationships and how to keep themselves safe online. They learn, in an age-appropriate way, about the protected characteristics and British values. Reflecting the school’s caring ethos, there is an emphasis on supporting mental well-being. Pupils learn how to recognise their own emotions and respond appropriately if they become angry or anxious. The school’s pastoral care, for those who need it, is of a 5 November 2024

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high quality. Pupils are also given lots of opportunities to practise citizenship through, for example, the school council.

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The school is well led and managed and is supported well by the trust. The school has addressed decisively all weaknesses identified at the last inspection. Staff say that leaders are mindful of their workload. Staff receive effective training to help them to teach the different subjects, including phonics. 5 November 2024

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s approach to checking what pupils know and remember is inconsistent, particularly in the foundation subjects. This means that gaps in pupils’ learning, and any misconceptions pupils may have, are not routinely identified and addressed across the curriculum. The school needs to ensure a consistent approach to checking what pupils know and can remember, so that gaps in their learning and misconceptions can be swiftly identified and addressed.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

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Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in March 2019.

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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. 5 November 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). 5 November 2024

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 5 and 6 March 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of Evolve Church Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust comprising this school and three others. All of them are primary schools.  The school is part of the Diocese of Peterborough. Chacombe CEVA Primary School’s last statutory inspection under section 48 of the Education Act was in June 2022. These inspections normally take place every five years.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s educational provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 5 November 2024

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 Inspectors held discussions about the curriculum; visited a sample of lessons with leaders; met with teachers; spoke to pupils from different year groups about their learning and looked at many samples of pupils’ work. They heard pupils reading to a familiar adult.  The inspectors met with the CEO of the multi-academy trust and the local governing body, and held a video interview with the coordinator for provision of special educational needs and disabilities. They scrutinised a range of school documents.  The inspectors also visited the school’s breakfast club.  The inspectors took note of the responses to Ofsted Parent View and considered the response to the Ofsted staff questionnaire, as well as the Ofsted pupil questionnaire. They met pupils from different year groups to ask about their views of the school.  In order to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the

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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

Roary Pownall, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Christopher Wheatley Ofsted Inspector 5 November 2024

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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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