Elmstead Primary School

Inspection Report Elmstead Primary School

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115260 Unique Reference Number ESSEX Local Authority 290181 Inspection number 16 °17 October 2006 Inspection dates Cheryl Thompson Reporting inspector

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

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Holly Way School address Primary Type of school Elmstead Market, Elmstead Market Foundation School category

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Colchester, Essex CO7 7YQ 4 °11 Age range of pupils 01206 822889 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01206 827219 Fax number 199 Number on roll (school) Mr Andrew Dickerson Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Clive Middleditch Headteacher 30 April 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 290181 16 °17 October 2006 4°11 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 two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

Elmstead Primary is an average sized primary school serving the local village and surrounding area. Almost all pupils are White British. A quarter of the pupils live out of the school's catchment area. The numbers of children eligible for free school meals and who have learning difficulties are much lower than found nationally. When they start school, children's attainment is wide ranging and in some year groups is below average but is average overall.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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Grade: 1

This is an outstanding school. The school had been over-cautious in its judgement that it is good. Pupils receive a very good education which combines attaining high standards with the enjoyment of a wide range of learning opportunities. The headteacher took over a 'very good' school and, through outstanding leadership and management, has developed its provision further and sustained high standards. His attention to encouraging all staff to undertake further professional development has ensured excellent teaching from a very competent and confident staff who share his vision that 'every child counts'. This vision is evident in the outstanding care, guidance and support provided. Pupils are known well by all staff and are totally confident that someone will 'sort out' any concerns. Attendance is good because they love coming to a school where they feel happy and secure. Pupils' personal development is

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Grade: 1

outstanding. Their behaviour is excellent. Through their membership of various committees and the school council, pupils make an outstanding contribution to the school community. Pupils' achievement is excellent. They attain very good standards in literacy and numeracy which, coupled with very good social and team-work skills, prepare them extremely well for their future lives. The excellent curriculum means that teachers link subjects to make learning relevant and fun. Consequently, pupils are very keen to learn and through a good programme of personal, social and health education, develop a good understanding of how to lead a healthy lifestyle. There is an outstanding range of clubs and sporting opportunities which contribute significantly to pupils' fitness. The school provides high quality extension opportunities for more able pupils and well organised support for those with learning difficulties. Consequently, pupils of all abilities make extremely good progress

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Grade: 1

as they move through the school. Achievement in the school is outstanding and standards are significantly above average. The exception to this is in standards of handwriting and presentation at the top end of the school. The academic guidance provided is exemplary. Individuals have time with their teacher to discuss their targets for improvement and how they are going to achieve these. Exceptionally good teaching and assessment of work ensures pupils' progress is tracked carefully and they are congratulated for achieving targets or given more help to meet them. Children get off to a flying start in the Foundation Stage (Reception) because the care, teaching and curriculum are outstanding. Standards in Reception are wide ranging but are slightly above those typical for the age group. The school's evaluation of its work and planning for further improvement are accurate. There is no complacency and the capacity for further improvement is very good. As

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Grade: 1

one parent wrote '.. improvements are sought, not to achieve 'results' but rather to give the children the best primary experience possible'. Self-evaluation and the resulting improvement planning is extremely detailed and comprehensive. It is not yet outstanding because it is burdensome and therefore difficult for the school to gain a crystal clear picture of the impact of its planning. The school provides exceptionally good value for money. 2 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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What the school should do to improve further

• Improve standards of handwriting and presentation, especially in the classes for older pupils. • Refine school self-evaluation and improvement planning so that it is easy to track the impact of initiatives.

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Grade: 1

Achievement is outstanding. Analysis of data shows attainment on entry is average but this masks the fact that within the intake there are usually similar numbers of very able children and children who have learning difficulties. Due to proficient support and challenging teaching, over their time in school, pupils of all abilities make exceptionally good progress so that standards are significantly above average by Year 6. In 2006 the progress pupils made between Years 3 and 6 was in the top 25% of the nation. Standards attained by Year 2 until recently have been well above average. In 2006 standards were well above average in mathematics, above average in writing but around average for reading. Pupils' progress was good from a broadly average starting point. Children get off to a flying start with reading and writing as a result of accomplished teaching of letter sounds (phonics). Their books show impressive progress since the

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Grade: 1

start of the school year. Handwriting skills are taught thoroughly in the younger classes but the policy of allowing older pupils to develop their own style has not been successful. Standards of handwriting and presentation in Year 6 are not good enough and do not reflect pupils' abilities.

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Grade: 1

Pupils enjoy coming to school and involve themselves enthusiastically with all that it has to offer. They flourish as a result of the respect, care and consideration shown to them by adults and consequently they show outstanding levels of respect and care towards each other. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe exceptionally well. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. Pupils gain an extremely good understanding of being part of a wider community when they take part in the 'Elmstead in Bloom' project and raise funds for charities such as Water Aid. In their school community, through membership of the Health and Safety and Eco Committees, older pupils have a very well-developed capacity for assessing risk and a good understanding of the need to re-cycle and the benefits it can bring. 3 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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Grade: 1

Teaching and learning are excellent. It is consistently good with some outstanding lessons observed. Classroom visits show very clearly that teachers enjoy their work and how much they are committed to providing extemely interesting and well-planned learning experiences for all. Highly skilled classroom assistants play a vital part in the smooth running of classrooms and the good support provided. Relationships are excellent and through the individual pupil/teacher target setting interview, each pupil is well aware of what they need to learn next. Teachers mark pupils' work very well, letting them know how well they are doing and congratulating them if they are meeting their target. Teachers assess their pupils' work thoroughly and keep a close eye to make sure they are making enough progress.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum is outstanding and complemented by an impressive range of clubs. It meets pupils' needs exceptionally well because it offers a much wider range of interesting and exciting activities than is usually found. The school achieves this in part by linking subjects. An excellent example was noted in Year 6 where pupils had been exploring people's basic need for shelter. They had designed and built their own shelters from waste materials on the school field. After a windy weekend they had great fun evaluating their efforts! A presentation from a representative of a charity helped them in their understanding of the reasons for homelessness and the need for shelter. The curriculum for the Reception children is outstanding as is the provision of enrichment activities for more able pupils.

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Grade: 1

Care, guidance and support are outstanding and underpin the work of the school and pupils' success. Arrangements for safeguarding pupils are robust and comply with the latest government requirements. The exceptionally good liaison between the on-site nursery and Reception staff means that children build quickly on the good work started in the nursery. Similarly, good links with local secondary schools ensure a smooth transition for Year 6 pupils. The school's system for tracking pupils' progress is used extremely well to make sure they reach challenging targets and make consistent, particularly good progress. Extremely good links with parents means that they are well informed about school events, how well their child is doing and what they can do to help at home. 4 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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Grade: 1

Leadership and management are outstanding. Under the guidance of the current headteacher, many aspects of the school's work have improved further from the very good levels noted at the last inspection. High standards have been maintained. The deputy headteacher is relatively new to her role but is already having an impact on the provision for information and communication technology. Key features of the leadership and management of the school are attention to detail and the commitment to ensuring each pupil achieves their best, regardless of their starting point. The provision of an outside play area was noted for improvement at the last inspection. Attention to detail is very evident in the resulting excellent outside play area for the youngest pupils. The school funds an extra part-time teacher to take extension groups to help more able pupils achieve well. Pupils with learning difficulties also have

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Grade: 1

extremely good support. Subject leaders and the headteacher monitor teaching and pupils' learning rigorously and effectively. Each week the headteacher spends time with a pupil from each year group to look at their work and talk about how well they are getting on. From these activities the headteacher and senior team have a very clear picture of what goes on across the school and what needs to be improved. Self-evaluation is good but it is not as concise as it could be. Governors discharge their responsibilities extremely efficiently. They give the headteacher and staff their full support and challenge them to strive to do even better. 5 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006 .

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Grade: 1

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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Inspection judgements

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

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Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 1 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

1 How well do learners achieve? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

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

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and interests of learners?

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

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 7 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 8 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

18 October 2006 Dear Children Elmstead Primary School, Elmcroft, Holly Way, Elmstead Market, Colchester, Essex. CO7 7YQ Thank you for being friendly and making us so welcome when we visited your school. We really enjoyed the time we spent with you. We think your school is outstanding. Mr Middleditch, the teachers and all the adults in the school work very hard to make your school an interesting place to be. You told us that you feel safe in school and we noticed that everyone takes good care of you. Your teachers organise exciting lessons so that you enjoy learning and have fun. We were very impressed with how well you behave in lessons and around the school. Having targets to help you improve your work is a very good idea and it helps you reach high standards in English, mathematics and science - well done. There was one thing we noticed which we feel you can help with. The standards of handwriting and presentation in the older classes are not as good as they should

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

be and do not always show off how clever you are. Could you try to be neater and join up your writing? We thought Mr Middleditch and the senior teachers are doing an excellent job running the school and we have asked them to do one thing to make their job a little easier. We have asked them not to include so much in the improvement planning so that it makes it easier for teachers and governors to pick out the important details. Thank you again for your helpfulness. All good wishes, Cheryl Thompson - Lead inspector Phil Hewett 9 Inspection Report: Elmstead Primary School, 16 °17 October 2006

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