Rocklands Community Primary School

Inspection Report Rocklands Community Primary School

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120847 Unique Reference Number NORFOLK LEA LEA 280903 Inspection number 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005 Inspection dates Mr. George Knights LI Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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74 The Street School address Primary Type of school NR17 1TP Community School category 4 to 11 Age range of pupils 0195 348 3369 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01953 488079 Fax number 62 Number on roll Mr.Charles Mcllwhan Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs. Pauline Dixon Headteacher 6 December 1999 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 280903 7 November 2005 - 4 to 11 8 November 2005 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

Rocklands is a smaller than average sized primary school about five miles north-west of Attleborough in Norfolk. It has 62 pupils on roll, around two thirds of whom are boys. The school serves a rural area, with about two thirds of pupils coming from the village in which the school is located. Pupils join this school, aged four, with language and number skills below those expected for their age. Almost all are of white British heritage and all speak English as their first language. The number having special educational needs is above average, though no pupil currently has a statement of special educational need. Pupils come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and the number eligible for free school meals is below average.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005

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Grade: 1

Rocklands Community Primary School is an outstanding school. Quality and standards in the Foundation Stage are excellent. Children under five make a very good start to their education and, by the time they are in Year 1, are enthusiastic and confident learners. Pupils achieve very well throughout the school, reaching well above average standards because teaching is outstanding. Pupils are valued as individuals and close attention is paid to ensuring that the needs of all pupils are met equally well. Excellent attention is paid to the personal development and well-being of pupils. The care, support and guidance pupils receive are exceptional, helping them to grow in confidence and to relate very well to others. The school provides a rich and exciting curriculum which stimulates pupils and gives them a real enjoyment of learning. The school has improved significantly since the last inspection, not least because it has developed

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Grade: 1

rigorous and effective systems for reviewing what it does and for implementing further improvements. Because the school has developed this culture of questioning and refining its practice, there is no aspect of the school's work that requires significant improvement in order to raise standards. Nevertheless, the school's detailed management plan sets out what it is currently working to improve still further and the school's capacity to achieve this improvement is very good. As a Beacon School for the past four years, the school is relatively well resourced. These resources have been put to very good use and the school gives good value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

No significant improvement is required in order to raise standards. The school has identified aspects of its work that it wishes to improve further and work on these aspects is under way.

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Grade: 1

The achievement of pupils is excellent. When they start school, children's attainment is slightly below average but they settle quickly into classroom routines and establish very good working relationships with Year 1 pupils, with whom they share the class. Because of the excellent teaching they receive, children in the Foundation Stage become enthusiastic and happy learners. They make impressive progress during their first year in school so that, by the time they reach Year 1, they are working at expected standards. Lively, dynamic teaching ensures that this progress is maintained during the next two years, enabling pupils to continue to achieve exceptionally well. Consequently, standards in national assessments at the end of Year 2 have, for several years, been well above average and have been improving, year on year, at a faster rate than improvement nationally. Excellent teaching, particularly in Years 5 and 6, means

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Grade: 1

that the achievement of older pupils is also outstanding, and results in national tests at the end of Year 6 have been well above average and have also been improving at a faster rate than nationally in recent years. Very careful attention is paid to ensuring 2 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005 that all pupils achieve at similar rates. The school sets and meets challenging targets, thereby ensuring a pattern of impressive improvement in standards in recent years.

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Grade: 1

Great care is taken to ensure that pupils' personal development is as good as their achievement in subjects. All pupils in the school are confident and enthusiastic learners, who enjoy all aspects of school life. Pupils behave exceptionally well. They form excellent relationships with one another and with members of staff and show high levels of concern for the care and welfare of one another. In lessons they work very hard, always striving to do their best. Many examples were observed of older pupils' helping and supporting younger ones. Boys and girls work very well together. A clear sign of their enjoyment of school life is that pupils' attendance levels are well above average and punctuality is very good. The school makes an outstanding contribution to pupils' social, moral and cultural education. It has, since the previous inspection, also improved its contribution to pupils' spiritual development, through activities in

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Grade: 1

lessons and assemblies, and this provision is now good. The school is a safe environment and great care is taken to encourage pupils to adopt healthy lifestyles. The 'wake and shake' sessions, much enjoyed by staff and pupils, are just one illustration of the attention paid to enhancing pupils' mental and physical health. Pupils make a good contribution to the local and wider community. During the inspection they successfully organised a charity event raising funds to purchase goats for Africa. The school council is very effective in enabling the views of pupils to be made known and acted upon. Children's numeracy, language and computer skills are well-developed and provide a secure foundation for their future economic well-being.

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Grade: 1

The exceptional achievement of pupils is a result of outstanding teaching in all areas of the curriculum. In their first two years in school, pupils learn extremely well because the teaching they experience is vibrant, challenging and sensitively matched to individual needs. This successful start is built on very impressively as pupils move through the school. A notable feature of lessons is the very good planning of activities that take account of the age of the pupils and the stage they have reached in their learning. This means that, although all classes contain pupils from more than one year group, all pupils make similar progress. Great care is taken to stretch and challenge the most able whilst, at the same time, ensuring that pupils with special educational needs also make very good progress. Teachers successfully overcome difficulties arising from the low number of girls, selecting materials and organising groups with sensitivity

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Grade: 1

to girls' needs. Very effective and flexible use is made of teachers' expertise. All pupils benefit from teachers' specialist skills. A notable illustration of this is the successful introduction of all pupils to a range of foreign languages. Teachers and teaching 3 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005 assistants work successfully together and this further contributes to pupils' outstanding learning. Teaching assistants are involved with teachers in planning and hence have very clear insights into the purposes of lessons. Their support for teachers in whole class sessions and their work with groups are of exceptional quality. Teachers take great care to assess pupils' work thoroughly and accurately. Teachers' questioning of pupils is exceptionally good. They ask challenging questions, listen carefully to pupils' responses and incorporate what they have learned into their assessments and future

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Grade: 1

planning. The consistently high standards of marking, with detailed written comments that both encourage and challenge, help pupils to refine and improve their work. Older pupils are given targets for their work and are involved in judging the extent to which they are achieving them. They thus know how well they are doing and how to improve.

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Grade: 1

Pupils experience a rich, varied and very stimulating curriculum. A well-planned programme for the children in the Foundation Stage provides a secure basis for further learning. As pupils move through the school their range of curriculum experiences is both broad and stimulating. Teachers ensure that strong links are made between different subjects so that, for instance, many language activities were incorporated in a recent history study of Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. Exceptionally, all pupils in the school are introduced to a range of modern foreign languages. The enthusiasm of Reception and Year 1 for German lessons was a joy to observe. The teacher's consistent use of German in all her conversations with the pupils was a key to the success of the experience. More widely, through their language sessions, pupils are gaining very good insights into aspects of different cultures and countries. Very good

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Grade: 1

attention is paid to developing pupils' personal, social and health education, both in lessons and in a range of other activities. Music features strongly and several pupils are learning to play musical instruments with visiting teachers. Music is also part of an extensive range of extra-curricular activities that pupils take part in with enthusiasm. All pupils use computers throughout the school, both to learn information and communication technology (ICT) skills and to apply these to support their learning in other subjects. The range of ICT activities is particularly rich in Years 5 and 6, where pupils make presentations using sound and pictures. The school has established strong links with other schools. This has been of great benefit in broadening the range of experiences for pupils, for instance in enabling gifted mathematicians to take part in joint activity weeks.

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Grade: 1

The care, support and guidance for pupils are also outstanding. Teachers and their assistants are careful, thorough and very diligent in their commitment to promoting pupils' health and safety. Close attention is paid to undertaking risk assessments and strategies for safeguarding all pupils are regularly reviewed. Child protection procedures are fully in place. Hence pupils come to school with a confidence and enthusiasm that 4 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005 is shared by parents. Induction arrangements are very effective and pupils quickly play a full part in the school community. Very good attention is paid to identifying pupils with specific learning or personal needs and to ensuring that these are met. All members of staff know the children and their families well. Close work with parents ensures a strong sense of partnership and mutual support, which further enhances the confidence

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Grade: 1

that parents have in the school. Teachers make sure that pupils know how well they are doing and guide them very successfully in how to progress further. This, alongside outstanding teaching, helps ensure that the excellent progress pupils make is maintained. In all aspects of school life, pupils are excellently prepared for the next stage of their education. Parents are also given considerable information to enable them to enter into full partnership in supporting their children's education. The confidence of parents in the school is summed up in one parent's comment that this is 'a very caring and forward-thinking school'.

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Grade: 1

The headteacher, staff and governors of the school share a very strong commitment to providing an outstanding education for all its pupils. The leadership of the headteacher is outstanding. Her vision for the school is extremely clear and the processes she has put in place are central to the school's success. She leads a very strong and dedicated staff and the quality of teamwork throughout the school is exceptional. The desire to work together for the benefit of pupils and their families is at the heart of all that happens in the school. The commitment of time, talents and effort by all who work in the school is very impressive. The school has rigorous systems for evaluating what it does and for using the outcomes of this evaluation to plan developments. This cycle has been fundamental to creating a questioning community that constantly strives for continued improvement. The views of parents and pupils

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Grade: 1

are sought and acted on, ensuring that they feel part of what the school is trying to do. Staff are ably supported by governors, who play a full part in the leadership and management of the school. Governors are fully involved in strategic leadership, with a clear plan for the future development of the school. They play a full part as critical friends and they contribute well to the process of review and evaluation. All of these factors have enabled the school to improve considerably since the previous inspection. The capacity for further improvement is very good. The school runs very well on a day-to-day basis with high levels of involvement and cooperation by pupils and staff. Teachers and support staff are deployed in ways that maximise their benefit to pupils' learning. The school is relatively generously resourced, having benefited financially in recent years from being identified as a Beacon School. These additional resources have

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Grade: 1

been exceptionally well used, both in recruiting strong teams of teachers and teaching assistants and in ensuring that the school is well equipped. Beacon status has also enabled the school to work with teachers from other schools, providing support for teachers in those schools and enhancing the range of experiences for Rocklands pupils. 5 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Rocklands Community Primary School, 7 November 2005 to 8 November 2005

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 1 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 1 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well do learners achieve? NA 1 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 1 The behaviour of learners NA 1 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 2 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 1 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 1 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 1 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 1 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

I would like to thank you all for making me so welcome when I came to inspect your school recently. I really enjoyed coming to your lessons, joining you in assembly and watching you play together. Thank you for talking to me about your work and telling me all the things you like about the school. Because you told me how good it is, you will not be surprised that I think yours is an outstanding school. Your teachers, and their assistants, help you to get off to an excellent start in Class 1 and then ensure that you continue to make very good progress when you are further up the school. You obviously really enjoy learning and I'm sure that this is because your teachers make lessons interesting and exciting. You work extremely hard, helping one another and striving to do your best. You obviously feel very safe in school and this is because your teachers and their assistants get to know you well, care for you and make sure

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

that you get the support you need. I believe that your school is exceptionally well run and that the staff, governors and your parents all work very well together to do their best for you. The school has improved considerably in the past few years and staff are continuing to look for ways to make it even better. There is no area of the school's work that needs to be improved a great deal in order for you to be able to do even better.

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