Trinity Church of England Primary School

Trinity Church of England Primary School Inspection report

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109182 Unique Reference Number South Gloucestershire Local Authority 324919 Inspection number 6 May 2009 Inspection date Martin Kerly Reporting inspector

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. The registered childcare, managed by the governing body, was inspected under section 49 of the Childcare Act 2006.

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Primary Type of school Voluntary controlled School category 4–11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 140 School (total) 0 Government funded early education provision for children aged 3 to the end of the EYFS 0 Childcare provision for children aged 0 to 3 years The governing body Appropriate authority Susie Balme Chair Mark Toogood Headteacher 7 June 2006 Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous funded early education inspection Not previously inspected Date of previous childcare inspection Littleton Drew Lane School address Acton Turville Badminton GL9 1HJ 01454 218462 Telephone number 01454 218660 Fax number

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4–11 Age group 6 May 2009 Inspection date 324919 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. 2 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by two additional inspectors who evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and investigated the following issues.

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Introduction

■ Attainment on entry to the school and pupils' progress, especially those who are more able within the Early Years Foundation Stage and Years 1 and 2. ■ Evidence of outstanding features of personal development and the care, guidance and support for pupils. ■ Pupils' awareness of the cultural diversity of modern Britain and progress by the school in promoting community cohesion. ■ Recent changes in accommodation and the differences these have made for pupils.

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Introduction

Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but the inspectors found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given in its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

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Description of the school

The school is smaller than average but numbers are rising steadily. There are five classes, each containing pupils from two year groups. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are taught in a class with a few Year 1 pupils. Almost all the pupils are White British. There are relatively few pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. There is provision for pupils to attend an after-school club on site, but this is not run by the school's governing body and so not reported on here. The school moved into a new building two weeks before the inspection. Building works continue on site with the demolition of the old building and landscaping of the school grounds.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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Grade: 2

This is a good school. It has several significant features that are outstanding, including excellent care, guidance and support for all the pupils. This contributes to their outstanding personal development and well-being. The headteacher provides outstanding leadership. He is supported very well by the other leaders on the staff and by the governors who make an excellent contribution. Pupils achieve well and attain above average standards. Parents appreciate the school's many qualities and almost all of them who replied to the inspectors' survey fully endorsed the school's work. Comments such as, 'a great school all round', 'my child is very happy' and 'committed and enthusiastic staff' were common threads in the views received. The school is oversubscribed and many children travel considerable distances to attend. The school has excellent systems for checking its work and a very accurate view of its performance. It has

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Grade: 2

made exceptional progress in addressing the few weaknesses identified in the previous inspection, whilst maintaining its strengths, and is very well placed to improve further. The attainment of children on entry to the Early Years Foundation Stage has risen in recent years and is now at least in line with, and frequently above, that usually found for their age. Children make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Good progress is being extended into Years 1 and 2 for the first time for a while and standards are rising. This follows a period of only satisfactory progress in recent years by pupils in Years 1 and 2, when relatively few of the more-able pupils achieved their full potential. Pupils currently in Year 2 are working at much higher standards, above national age-related expectations. The good progress in Years 3 to 6 is firmly established and for a significant proportion of pupils of all abilities, progress

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Grade: 2

here is excellent. Pupils who left at the end of Year 6 in 2008 had made very good progress from the end of Year 2 and attained above average standards in English, science and mathematics. Pupils now in Year 6 are on track to repeat this pattern and attain their challenging yet realistic targets significantly above the national average. Pupils clearly love their time in school. Attendance rates are above average and pupils arrive promptly. Their behaviour is exemplary in lessons and throughout the day. They show exceptionally thoughtful attitudes towards one another, with older ones genuinely caring for younger ones or those with a problem. This mirrors the outstanding care and support provided by all staff for all pupils throughout the school and the excellent partnerships with external professionals and groups to help individual pupils and families with problems. Pupils feel very safe in school and confident about approaching a member of staff if they have a problem. The

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Grade: 2

school implements a full range of procedures designed to safeguard pupils and vigilantly maintains staff training. Pupils have a highly developed understanding of how to stay healthy. The school has Activemark and Healthy Schools awards in recognition of its good work in these aspects. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent, particularly their sense of right and wrong and responsibility, although their awareness and understanding of the cultural diversity of modern Britain is less developed than other aspects. Many pupils take on roles to help around the school, for example in running clubs or being monitors. The school councillors have been actively involved in discussions about the new school and ways of operating. The school is an integral part of the local community, with pupils joining in many local events and charities, strengthening community links and cohesion. It is developing strong

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Grade: 2

international links but recognises that at this stage it has only outline plans to develop links with other areas of the United Kingdom. 4 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009 The move to the new building is a very significant development. The headteacher and governors, supported by the community, worked with great vision, clarity and purpose to obtain a new building. The building incorporates innovative designs to help promote very imaginative styles of teaching and learning and curricular experiences within an eco-friendly environment. The move was managed most efficiently and the time and energy demanded by the whole project did not eclipse other more routine developments within the school. This is a credit to the headteacher's constant determination to focus on school improvement as well as the strong support and commitment of the entire staff team. Within the good curriculum there is an excellent range of enrichment experiences involving

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Grade: 2

visits, visitors and special events and the pupils are frequently consulted about their interests and ideas to help make the curriculum relevant and stimulating. The school has many ideas about how to make best use of the new building and grounds to strengthen the curriculum further but these are not yet formally established in a clear plan of action. Teaching and learning are good throughout the school. Teachers plan carefully, ensuring work is usually matched to the needs of different pupils. They make effective links between subjects, for example through the 'keen to be green' topic. They are beginning to trial different ways of making best use of the new additional spaces, the learning resource centre and direct access to the outdoors in order to promote further independent study skills. The pupils' exceptionally positive enthusiasm for learning, their collaborative and investigative skills and confident use

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Grade: 2

of computers provide them with an excellent set of skills needed for the next stage of education and adult life: one told an inspector, 'Learning is fun….you get to think without realising you are doing work.' Teachers assess pupils' learning well and provide excellent academic guidance. They involve pupils very effectively in reflecting on how best to learn and make good use of 'talking partners' to engage all pupils during a lesson. The outstanding lead by the headteacher is a key factor in the good leadership and management of the school. Other leaders fulfil their roles well. The school has excellent systems to check its performance involving all partners within the school. Checks are rigorous and the findings are used diligently to identify priorities for improvement in the clear and well managed development plan. Leaders monitor patterns in progress and identify where the deployment of additional help, including teaching assistants, is needed, and then carefully check what

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Grade: 2

difference the extra help is making to pupils' learning. The school has good systems for assessing and tracking pupils' progress. The school sets challenging targets for the end of Year 6, and increasingly in all other years. It recognises that some targets and expectations of more-able pupils have not always been as high as they should be during their first three years in school. Governors, very ably led by the Chair, played a major role in strategic planning towards the new school and are fully involved in all key decisions.

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Grade: 2

The care and welfare of children in the Early Years Foundation Stage is excellent. This helped the children to move into the new building with ease. After just two weeks in their new much larger setting they are moving confidently around the room, in and out of doors and around the whole building. This reflects their excellent personal development. The attainment on entry of children in the last two years has been higher than in the past, with a small proportion being above that usually found and few below expectations. Children are making good progress and most are on course to attain the learning goals expected for the end of the year in all six areas of learning. In previous years no children exceeded national expectations. This year the school 5 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009 is carefully tracking the progress of all, including the most able, and a few children are on track

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Grade: 2

to exceed national expectations. Teaching and learning are good. The staff are rapidly appreciating the potential of the new accommodation. Leadership is good. The leader has clear plans for how to make the best use of the outdoor area once it becomes fully available and to ensure children using this area benefit sufficiently from adult intervention to fully extend their learning. A wide range of experiences are provided with a good balance between independent play activities and experiences directed by an adult. Children's responses are carefully observed and logged in order to help plan future experiences.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Embed the recent good progress in Years 1 and 2, in order to raise standards further, by ensuring consistently high expectations of all pupils, but especially those who are more able. ■ Develop a clear plan to maximise the use of the new building and grounds in promoting an innovative curriculum. ■ Provide more planned opportunities to develop links at a national level and increase pupils' awareness of Britain's cultural diversity. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009 .

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What the school should do to improve further

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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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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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? 1 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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EYFS?

2 How well do children in the EYFS achieve? How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the children in the EYFS? 2 How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? 1 How effectively is the welfare of children in the EYFS promoted? 2 How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed?

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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/or disabilities make progress

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Achievement and standards

1 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. 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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learners?

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

How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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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 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated 2 How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? 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? 9 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

8 May 2009 Dear Children Inspection of Trinity CE Primary School, Acton Turville GL9 1HJ Thank you for the way you made us feel very welcome when we visited you in your brand new school building. We thoroughly enjoyed talking with some of you and visiting all of your classrooms. Trinity Primary is a good school and your parents are pleased you are able to go there. Here are some of the highlights we found during our visit.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ You behave exceptionally well in class and around the school. We could see how very much you enjoy all the activities in school and how proud you are of your new building. ■ Many of you take on jobs around the school, for example helping to look after younger ones, running clubs or being school councillors. ■ You work hard in lessons and make good progress.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Your teachers plan interesting things for you to do and are very good at helping you to think about what it is you are learning and how to improve. They are looking forward to making the best use of your superb new building. ■ Everyone who works in the school takes exceptionally good care of you to make sure you are safe and to help you if you have a problem. ■ Your headteacher is exceptionally good at introducing new ideas to improve the school. He is helped by the other leaders and staff. He is also helped a lot by the school governors who do a great job behind the scenes. We have asked the headteacher, staff and governors to work together on three things to make the school even better.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Make sure that those of you in Years 1 and 2 are helped to continue to make as much progress as possible, especially those of you who sometimes find your work a bit easy. ■ Work out the best possible ways for you to use all the new spaces in and around your new building. (We think you will have your own ideas about this which your school council will want to talk about.) ■ Help you to learn more about communities across Britain beyond your local area, and their different needs, ideas and customs. We feel sure you are going to enjoy life in your new school building. Yours faithfully Martin Kerly Lead inspector 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Trinity Church of England Primary School, 6 May 2009

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