Duncton CofE Junior School

Duncton CofE Junior School Inspection report

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125980 Unique Reference Number West Sussex Local Authority 293423 Inspection number 12 February 2008 Inspection date Jacquie Buttriss 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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Junior Type of school Voluntary controlled School category 7 °10 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 48 School The governing body Appropriate authority Angela Thornley Chair Helen Martin Headteacher 23 May 2001 Date of previous school inspection Willett close School address Duncton Petworth GU28 0LB 01798 342402 Telephone number 01798 344290 Fax number

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7-10 Age group 12 February 2008 Inspection date 293423 Inspection number .

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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

This small rural school was reorganised in September 2007 from a first school to a junior school. Both teachers are new since reorganisation and the new headteacher took up her post in April 2007. This school is federated with Graffham Infants School. The two schools operate as one, sharing the same headteacher and governing body. There is a very small proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and very few pupils of different ethnic origins or for whom English is an additional language. The school has been awarded the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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Grade: 2

This is a good school with some outstanding features. The articulate and enthusiastic pupils work hard and make good progress. As one parent commented, 'My son enjoys school so much ° he finds it both challenging and rewarding'. Pupils reach above average standards overall. Achievement is good. The very few pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are supported well and make good progress. The confident, friendly pupils greatly enjoy school and have highly positive attitudes to learning. As one parent put it, 'My child has never been more excited and involved in school'. Behaviour is exemplary and attendance is good. All this contributes to the good progress they make in their personal development. Pupils demonstrate good awareness of the need to adopt healthy lifestyles and they say they feel safe at school. The active school council gives pupils a strong voice and their ideas are often adopted, such as naming the classes after birds. Pupils are keen

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Grade: 2

to take on responsibilities and enjoy involvement with the wider community. Good achievement in basic skills prepares pupils well for their next stage in learning. Good teaching is having a positive impact on pupils' learning. As one Year 4 girl said, 'I like lessons because the teacher makes them really fun'. Teaching is well planned and varied, with the result that pupils are well motivated to do their best. Very good relationships enable pupils to work very well together on purposeful activities. Assessment is satisfactory, but pupils do not yet have sufficient opportunities to develop independent learning skills and to evaluate their own progress. This is because academic guidance is underdeveloped. Not all pupils have individual targets that enable them to know how well they are doing or how to improve their work. Pastoral care is a strength of the school, with good support from outside agencies where

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Grade: 2

appropriate. However, not all teachers and other members of staff are up-to-date in their training in child protection procedures. The exciting curriculum topics are providing great motivation and enjoyment across the school. The well-planned curriculum is good overall, with excellent opportunities for linking learning across subject areas and good curriculum enrichment through a variety of additional activities, visits and visitors. Leadership and management are good. The headteacher sets a clear direction which is successfully driving forward school improvement at a rapid pace. The school works outstandingly well with others, especially the local independent boarding school. The excellent federation partnership with an infant school in a nearby village is a distinctive strength of the school, enabling a mutually beneficial sharing of resources and expertise. Governors fulfil their roles very well. However, some subject leaders' inexperience limits their ability to monitor the quality

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Grade: 2

of provision across their subjects and, as a result, too much responsibility for checking what goes on in school falls on the shoulders of the headteacher. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive and many wrote passionately in support of the school.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ develop subject leaders' roles to support the headteacher in the monitoring of provision, achievement and pupils' personal development ■ improve strategies to help pupils assess their own progress so that they know how well they are doing and how to improve ■ ensure all staff receive up-to-date training in child protection procedures. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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Grade: 2

Pupils come into Year 3 with broadly average attainment. Standards across the school are above average, but there are clear variations between year groups. The unusually small numbers of pupils make statistical comparisons unreliable. Scrutiny of the work that pupils have completed since September 2007 and teachers' records of their progress show that they make good progress overall, and that those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities also make good progress. As a result of teachers' recent emphasis on writing, there has been a particularly strong improvement in the development of pupils' writing skills. Both girls and boys now thoroughly enjoy their writing. As one Year 5 boy said, 'I like writing because you can let your imagination go wild'. Most pupils work hard and achieve well. However, younger pupils of higher ability are not always given work that is sufficiently challenging, and hence make less good progress.

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Grade: 2

Pupils demonstrate outstanding enjoyment of all aspects of school life and they have very positive attitudes to their learning. 'I like making my work better', said one Year 5 girl. Most pupils have healthy lunchboxes and enjoy taking part in a variety of physical activities. They know whom to go to if they have any concerns about safety and they say there are no incidents of bullying or verbal abuse. Attendance rates have risen and are now above average. Outstanding behaviour is a striking feature, both in classrooms and around the school. Enthusiastic school councillors take an active part in school improvement, for example by amending playground procedures, and say they feel very proud of their school. One school council member eagerly commented that the school 'helps us to celebrate our efforts'. Pupils enjoy participating in community activities, such as African drumming at village fairs and helping to maintain the local environment. Pupils develop very good teamwork through

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Grade: 2

cooperative learning and their good achievement in basic skills prepares them well for their future lives. Pupils' spiritual and moral development is outstanding and their social development is good. However, their cultural development is more limited as it lacks sufficient opportunities to explore some aspects of cultural diversity within Britain.

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Grade: 2

Good, and sometimes outstanding, teaching leads pupils to make good progress and develop a love of learning. Pupils are clearly well motivated and highly enthused by the stimulating variety of relevant learning activities. Role-play is especially well used to bring learning to life. As one parent suggested, 'Just ask the children about their trip to China on Duncton Airways with staff as their cabin crew!' Teachers have effective classroom organisation skills and good subject knowledge, which encourages pupils' confidence in using appropriate subject vocabulary, such as 'personification' in a literacy task. Because teachers know their pupils well, work is generally well matched to their individual learning needs, but in some younger pupils' lessons, the pace slows and there is insufficient challenge for more able learners, with the result that they do not always achieve their full potential. However, most of the time, as one Year 5 pupil

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Grade: 2

5 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008 said, 'the teacher makes us feel we can work really hard and do really well and makes us feel very proud of ourselves'. All pupils certainly do take special pride in their 'posh' books! The excellent relationships between teachers and pupils result in exceptionally good behaviour and encourage very good cooperative learning. However, pupils' independent learning skills are not always sufficiently developed and they are not yet encouraged to evaluate how well they are doing in their work. Teachers' marking does not always help pupils to know how to improve their work. Teaching assistants provide good support, but are not always used effectively, for example when assessing individual children's responses when the teacher is teaching the whole class.

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Grade: 2

As one parent wrote, 'The curriculum is exciting and interesting' and, as another commented, is 'constantly stimulating the imagination'. Curriculum planning has improved greatly since the last inspection and is now good. Subjects are creatively linked across the curriculum and delivered through exciting topics, such as the current China project, that engage pupils fully on their learning journey. There are good links with other schools and organisations to extend learning opportunities, especially across the federation of two schools. A variety of clubs and activities, visits and visitors, such as a recent inspiring visit from a disabled policeman, provide good curriculum enrichment. Personal and social education are good, but health education is less well-developed to help pupils understand even better the benefit of adopting healthy lifestyles.

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Grade: 3

Very strong pastoral care is a feature of the school. The very few pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are well supported and any vulnerable pupils are exceedingly well cared for. The school has good procedures in place to safeguard children and to secure their welfare, with good support from outside professionals. However, whilst the headteacher has been trained in child protection, other members of staff have not and this is a notable gap in provision. There are good transition arrangements into Year 3 and on to the next school. Academic guidance is a relative weakness. Currently, most pupils do not know their individual targets. Aspects of assessment are good, but information is not used sufficiently to help pupils to evaluate their own progress, so they do not always know how well they are doing.

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Grade: 2

The good leadership of the dynamic new headteacher is already having a strong impact on increasing pupils' progress and raising standards across the school. This clear direction is leading to good teamwork amongst staff, which is successfully improving teaching, learning and the curriculum. Reorganisation of the school at the beginning of this year has been energetically managed by the headteacher and the hardworking governing body, who provide strong support and challenge to help the school improve. Newly-appointed teaching staff are successfully introducing exciting new approaches to teaching and learning which are increasing pupils' motivation and the pride they take in their endeavours. The headteacher sets challenging targets which are already leading to the raising of standards. Good equality of opportunity 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008 enables the majority of learners to achieve as well as they can. However, younger able pupils

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Grade: 2

are not always fully challenged. The school's good self-evaluation correctly identifies appropriate development priorities, leading into a clear school improvement plan which provides a good strategic framework for school development. The headteacher has recognised the need to ensure that there is better delegation of responsibilities amongst staff so that subject leaders are more involved in monitoring their subjects. Recent improvements have included the accelerated progress in pupils' writing skills and the newly-invigorated and well-planned curriculum, linking subjects creatively to motivate and engage all learners. These successes demonstrate the school's good capacity for continuing improvement. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008 .

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Grade: 2

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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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? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

2 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 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 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?

3 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. 9 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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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 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 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? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Dear Pupils Inspection of Duncton C of E Junior School, Duncton, GU28 0LB Thank you for being so friendly, polite and helpful when we came to inspect your school. You made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed talking with you. Yours is a good school with some outstanding features, which helps you to make good progress and cares for you well. These are the things we especially like about your school:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ your behaviour is excellent, your enjoyment of school is outstanding and you have very enthusiastic attitudes to learning-keep it up! ■ your teachers work hard to ensure that your lessons are fun and they plan exciting topics for you to enjoy ■ you work hard, make good progress and take pride in your achievements-well done!

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ you get on very well with your teachers and with each other and you care for each other very well ■ your school has excellent partnerships with Graffham Infant School and with other local schools to give you a good variety of learning opportunities ■ you make an excellent contribution to your school community through school council and to your local community through taking part in events, such as African drumming at village fetes and helping to look after your local environment ■ your school is in a beautiful rural setting which you help to look after very well.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

These are the things we think your school could do even better:

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ train teachers so that they can help the headteacher to make sure that all the subjects are well planned and taught ■ help you to assess your own work so that you can see your own progress, know how well you are doing and understand how to improve ■ make sure that all the staff are up-to-date in their training in child protection so that they know what to do if any of you need their help. You can help, too, by keeping up all your good work, excellent behaviour and enthusiasm. I would like to wish you lots of success in your future education. Yours sincerely Jacquie Buttriss Lead Inspector 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Duncton CofE Junior School, 12 February 2008

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Annex B

Inspection of Duncton C of E Junior School, Duncton, GU28 0LB

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Annex B

Thank you for being so friendly, polite and helpful when we came to inspect your school. You made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed talking with you. Yours is a good school with some outstanding features, which helps you to make good progress and cares for you well.

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Annex B

These are the things we especially like about your school:

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Annex B

• your behaviour is excellent, your enjoyment of school is outstanding and you have very enthusiastic attitudes to learning-keep it up! • your teachers work hard to ensure that your lessons are fun and they plan exciting topics for you to enjoy • you work hard, make good progress and take pride in your achievements-well done! • you get on very well with your teachers and with each other and you care for each other very well • your school has excellent partnerships with Graffham Infant School and with other local schools to give you a good variety of learning opportunities • you make an excellent contribution to your school community through school council and to your local community through taking part in events, such as African drumming at village fetes and helping to look after your local environment • your school is in a beautiful rural setting which you help to look after very well.

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Annex B

These are the things we think your school could do even better:

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Annex B

• train teachers so that they can help the headteacher to make sure that all the subjects are well planned and taught • help you to assess your own work so that you can see your own progress, know how well you are doing and understand how to improve • make sure that all the staff are up-to-date in their training in child protection so that they know what to do if any of you need their help.

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Annex B

You can help, too, by keeping up all your good work, excellent behaviour and enthusiasm. I would like to wish you lots of success in your future education.

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