Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Inspection Report Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

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121502 Unique Reference Number North Yorkshire LEA 281028 Inspection number 8 February 2006 to 9 February 2006 Inspection dates Mrs Lesley Clark CfBT Lead Inspector Reporting inspector

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

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Low Street School address Primary Type of school Husthwaite Voluntary controlled School category York, North Yorkshire YO61 4QA 3 to 11 Age range of pupils

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01347 868371 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01347 868197 Fax number 128 Number on roll Mr Andrew Markham Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Ian Yapp Headteacher 28 February 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 281028 8 February 2006 - 3 to 11 9 February 2006 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February 2006

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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 one additional inspector.

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Description of the school

This is a very small primary school serving a widespread area of social and economic advantage north of Easingwold, including several small villages and outlying farms. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is about average as is the number of pupils with statements of special need. The majority of pupils are of white British heritage. When children start school their standards are broadly average.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February

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Grade: 2

This is a good school with some outstanding features, a view which matches the school's view of itself. A strong Christian ethos underpins all that the school does and values. Attendance is good. Pupils like coming to this school because the outstanding curriculum offers high levels of challenge as well as extremely enjoyable times when the whole school works together on a single project. Provision in the Foundation Stage is outstanding and gives children excellent opportunities to learn productively from intensely interesting and purposeful activities. Pupils achieve well because of good teaching and good overall leadership and management. Standards are above average overall and exceptionally high in English. The school recognises that teachers' marking does not always give sufficient help to pupils to enable them to learn from their mistakes. Provision for pupils' personal development is good and pupils are given good

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Grade: 2

levels of care, support and guidance which are particularly effective at developing their confidence. As a result, they are very articulate. Care of vulnerable pupils is outstanding. Good provision is made for pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and they make good progress because of the good level of individual help they receive. Behaviour is good. However, pupils have limited strategies to cope if there is rough play and sometimes older pupils do not listen to or respect each other's views as well as they should. The school has made good improvement since the last inspection and is extremely well placed to improve further because of outstanding leadership by the headteacher. It gives good value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Ensure that pupils have a good range of strategies to help them cope when they fall out with friends or find some children's play too rough; and find ways to help all pupils listen to and respect other people's views. • Develop more effective systems for assessing learning to ensure that pupils learn from their mistakes and build upon what they know and understand.

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Grade: 2

Achievement, including the achievement of those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, is good throughout the school and outstanding in English. Children enter the Foundation Stage with broadly average standards but their literacy skills are limited despite their sophisticated communication skills. They achieve well because of outstanding provision to ensure that social, emotional and learning difficulties as well as potential high achievers are identified early. Standards are above expected levels by the start of Year 1. Pupils continue to achieve well in Years 1 and 2, especially in English. Standards are above average in reading, writing and mathematics and children have a very good grounding in basic skills when they start in Year 3. This means that pupils' reading and writing can really take off, leading to high standards by the end of Year 6 in English, with three-quarters exceeding expected levels in the 2005 national

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Grade: 2

2 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February tests. Historically, pupils' achievement has been better in English than in mathematics. However, the 2005 national tests confirmed that the school's strategies to raise achievement in mathematics are proving successful, with standards currently above average, as in science. Contextual value added data confirms good progress. The high standards in English result from outstanding teaching, high quality individual help given to lower and higher achievers and opportunities to debate ideas. Listening skills are less fully developed and so pupils miss out on learning as much from each other as they might. Vulnerable pupils make outstanding progress. The school is likely to meet its challenging targets for the standards pupils attain in English and mathematics.

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Grade: 2

Pupils' personal development and well-being are good as is their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Personal development is outstanding in the Foundation Stage because thought-provoking activities encourage children's curiosity and social skills, capturing their imaginations. For example, they tumbled over themselves with excitement to tell the whole school that the tiny spaceship they had made for an alien's toy had disappeared, 'just like that!'. Attendance is good and pupils clearly enjoy coming to school, appreciating 'Challenge' and 'Activity Days' when they learn through solving problems. Behaviour is good. There is some rough play but pupils are in agreement that 'this is better than it was'. However, they are not sure what to do about such incidents except to seek adult help. Generally, pupils have good attitudes to work but, occasionally, older pupils neglect to listen to and respect another's views. Pupils have good

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Grade: 2

opportunities to express their views through School Council meetings and half-termly questionnaires which encourage them to reflect on their progress. Currently, the School Council has asked each class to post their ideas for making healthy snacks on its electronic 'Message Pad'. Pupils have good awareness of why it is important to lead healthy lives and have many opportunities for sporting activities both at lunchtimes and in after school clubs. They are well prepared for their future lives with their advanced literacy and numeracy skills.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning are good with some outstanding features. Reception children learn exceptionally well, skimming through books on space to find aliens, for example, and asking questions about planets. In all classes, teachers and teaching assistants cater well for a very wide range of abilities and ages. This provision is outstanding in English, where intensive support is exceptionally well judged to help those who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities and to challenge higher achievers. In the best teaching, there is a good balance of questions from teachers 3 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February and pupils so that pupils learn productively through talk. Opportunities for pupils to learn from each other, however, are sometimes missed because pupils would rather talk than listen. Imaginative ideas give an edge to learning as when pupils quickly

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Grade: 2

realised they had to use their new found knowledge on measuring angles absolutely accurately to determine the path across a minefield. Marking is usually encouraging but does not always indicate precisely what pupils should do to improve their work; consequently pupils repeat mistakes.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum is outstanding because while giving due weight to literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT) it makes exceptional provision for enjoyable learning through 'Activity Days' based on specific subjects and 'Challenge Days' designed to develop different thinking skills. For example, pupils arrived one day to find that Barnaby Bear had disappeared and alien footprints had appeared on floors and walls and even traces of their spaceship on the playground. The challenges included decoding messages, building towers and drama to help piece together what had happened and were designed successfully to make pupils use and apply what they had learnt. The range of extra-curricular clubs, including a '12 o'clock Club' for those who prefer to play indoors, is outstanding. Pupils have good opportunities to participate in competitive sports with other schools. The curriculum is successful in meeting the

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Grade: 1

needs of all learners, particularly higher achievers and pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

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Grade: 2

This aspect is good rather than outstanding as the school believes. It is undoubtedly true that the care, support and guidance of vulnerable pupils is outstanding and that the many systems recently put into place promise to give outstanding guidance both academically and personally in the future. However, these are too newly in place to have had full impact and pupils are insecure about what else they might do apart from go to an adult if they encounter problems with the behaviour of other pupils. Assessment systems, to track pupils' progress from year to year give good levels of information but are based on limited data because of previous shortcomings in assessment procedures. Trusting relationships between staff and pupils make pupils feel secure and create a happy working atmosphere. The school's systems to ensure child protection and pupils' health and safety, including healthy eating, are good.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The leadership of the headteacher, both in terms of his own teaching and aspirations for the school, is outstanding and has pushed through the rapid changes of the last two years, most notably in mathematics and 4 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February assessment. Management is very efficient, given the headteacher's half-timetable teaching commitment. The school improvement plan is good. The leadership team is quickly growing in expertise and its plans for school improvement are pertinent and well thought out. Governance is good and the leadership of the chair mirrors that of the leadership team. An outstanding feature of leadership is the full consultation process that takes place, involving governors, parents and pupils as well as teachers and support staff. They recently reviewed the school's logo, six apples on a tree, and

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Grade: 2

assigned a meaning to each apple to embody the school's aims and values: 'respect and consideration, learning, caring, Christian roots, challenge and enjoyment'. A programme to develop pupils' respect and consideration for each other is at the planning stage. Staff meetings provide a weekly occasion for continuing professional development because weekly briefing meetings deal efficiently with mundane matters. Successful outcomes of this strategy include the rise in standards in mathematics and an inventive curriculum that challenges high achievers. The current focus on teaching and learning, including assessment for learning, is giving rise to innovative practice using drama, ICT and classroom displays to involve pupils practising literacy and numeracy skills daily. The school is extremely well placed to improve further. 5 Inspection Report: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February

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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: Husthwaite Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 8 February 2006 to 9 February

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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 2 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 2 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 2 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 2 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 2 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 2 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 2 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 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 2 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 2 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 2 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

Thank you for welcoming me to your school and for being so friendly and helpful. I really enjoyed talking to you and seeing how you solved the mystery of Barnaby Bear's disappearance. I want to share with you what I thought about your school. What I liked most about your school - I think your teachers make lessons really interesting and that they have a lot of fun setting you ingenious challenges. - I like the way you really concentrate when solving problems. - I was impressed at how clearly and articulately you spoke when you explained some of the odd things that had happened overnight in your classrooms. - I think your school is well run and that your headteacher manages to make time for everything, including teaching for a lot of the day. What I have asked your school to do now: - I think your teachers need to give you a selection of things to do to help you cope when you fall out with your friends or find some children's play too rough.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

- I think you need to listen to each other more and respect other people's views. - I think your teachers need to give you clearer guidance on how to improve your work so you learn from your mistakes and build on what you know and understand. I very much enjoyed talking to you and watching you learn and wish you all the best for the future.

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