All Saints Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Winfarthing

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of All Saints Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary

School, Winfarthing Following my visit to the school on 22 May 2018, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in November 2013. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your federation deputy headteacher have developed a highly effective working relationship. You share the same clear understanding of the strengths of the school, as well as its areas for improv...ement.

Together, you set the tone for a friendly, approachable, successful school, where staff are eager to do their very best for all their pupils. Since the last inspection, you have worked hard to secure further improvements to the school. You have successfully addressed areas which had been identified as priorities for development.

For example, you have ensured that the curriculum offers more-frequent opportunities for pupils to practise their mathematical and writing skills across a range of subjects. You have also introduced a new handwriting scheme which has improved the presentation of pupils' work, especially in English and mathematics. Your decision to introduce a new system for tracking pupils' progress has enabled teachers and leaders to identify quickly any pupils starting to fall behind.

As a result, interventions are quickly established, and teachers can plan work which more accurately addresses the needs of vulnerable pupils. Subject leaders, especially those responsible for subjects other than English and mathematics, have benefited from the increased support and direction given to them by senior leaders. As a result, their confidence has grown and their work is having a positive impact on pupils' outcomes across the curriculum.

Nevertheless, there is more work to be done to ensure that the content and presentation of topic books is consistently high for all pupils. You are aware that, in 2017, pupils' attendance fell below the national average, and the percentage of pupils who were persistently absent also increased. You have rightly raised the profile of good attendance with parents and carers, and you are tracking pupils and intervening quickly when a pupil's absence becomes a concern.

Despite a bout of illness this winter, attendance has improved this year. The parents I spoke to informally at the start of the day, and those who responded to Ofsted's online text platform, were extremely happy with the school. Typical comments included, 'My child has come on leaps and bounds since starting at All Saints' and 'The teachers are all friendly, approachable and professional.

Everyone gets on so well together.' Pupils behave extremely well in lessons, responding positively to their learning activities, which they find interesting and stimulating. Behaviour around school is also good.

Pupils are polite to each other, and chatty yet respectful to adults. Pastoral support, relationships and welfare are strengths of the school and you have an equally high regard for the well-being of staff. Governors ensure that they understand the needs, strengths and development priorities of the school well.

They ask appropriately challenging questions of senior leaders. They also fully support your drive to improve pupils' progress and outcomes in English and mathematics. Safeguarding is effective.

Senior leaders with directly designated responsibilities for keeping pupils safe ensure that the school's safeguarding arrangements are well organised, securely maintained and fit for purpose. Records of adults' suitability to work with children are clear and comprehensive. The designated safeguarding governor carries out regular monitoring activities, to ensure that systems are robust.

Teachers and support staff understand their role in keeping pupils safe at school, and they understand how to report any concerns. The designated safeguarding leaders liaise effectively with other agencies, ensuring that concerns are followed up quickly. Leaders seek advice in a timely manner from specialist child protection advisors, when the need arises.

The pupils I spoke to informally around the school told me that they feel safe and happy at school. Parents confirm that pupils are well looked after and well cared for at school. Inspection findings ? In order to ascertain whether the school remained good, I followed a number of lines of enquiry.

The first of these was about the steps that leaders are taking to improve pupils' progress in English and mathematics in key stage 2. In the 2016 and the 2017 key stage 2 tests, pupils' performance indicated that they had made broadly similar progress in these subjects to pupils nationally. In the 2017 national tests for grammar, punctuation and spelling, outcomes were well below the national average.

• You are rightly keen to improve the situation. Consequently, you have introduced new approaches to the teaching of spelling, reading and mathematics. I asked you to continue this work in order to improve progress and outcomes by the time pupils leave Year 6.

• In English, you introduced new procedures for teaching spelling. These include regular spelling homework, spelling tests, linking spelling to the teaching of handwriting and giving parents more opportunities to reinforce spelling patterns at home. Word mats and vocabulary lists are readily available on pupils' tables, and teachers are expected to correct common spelling mistakes across all subjects in line with the school's marking and feedback policy.

• You also introduced targeted support for any pupil starting to fall behind. When we visited lessons together during the inspection, we saw that work was well matched to pupils' learning needs. Teachers were providing opportunities for pupils to discuss concepts such as imagery, metaphor and viewpoint in literature.

In a Year 3 and Year 4 lesson, for example, pupils were rewriting a scene from 'The Jungle Book', from the perspective of Shere Khan. One pupil commented, 'I'm reading each sentence in my head and thinking hard about what Shere Khan would do next.' Pupils in Years 1 and 2 were learning to write persuasively, imagining themselves to be seeds in a garden centre.'

If you buy me, I promise to germinate in three days in a burst of colour for you to enjoy,' wrote one pupil. ? In mathematics, you are rightly ambitious for more pupils to achieve at greater depth by the end of key stage 2. You are ensuring that pupils have more opportunities to use their reasoning skills, and to use practical equipment more often to help them visualise complex problems.

Mathematical displays and challenge areas around the school are raising the profile of mathematics across the curriculum. ? Evidence gathered during the inspection showed that, while there has been an increased focus on problem-solving and reasoning in mathematics, there is still scope for some pupils, especially the most able, to be challenged further. ? My next line of enquiry was about the quality of the school's wider curriculum, and the progress that pupils make in subjects other than English and mathematics.

The school has a particular strength in art, with a good range of high-quality drawings and sketches evident in pupils' books and on display around the school. The art subject leader is passionate about his subject and supports colleagues to deliver effecting art teaching across the school. ? You have introduced a new become scheme to improve the teaching of personal, social and health education (PSHE).

Your intention is to encourage pupils to take more ownership of their learning, and help them become resilient, deeper-thinking and more responsible learners. ? When we looked at pupils' books together, we agreed that work is generally well presented, with opportunities for many pupils to write at length in subjects such as history and geography. Nevertheless, we also agreed that there are some inconsistencies in teachers' approaches to correcting spelling in topic books.

Also, not all teachers are doing enough to ensure that work is completed to the same high standard, or that opportunities are taken to deepen pupils' thinking. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they improve progress and outcomes in English and mathematics by embedding recent new approaches to the teaching of spelling, reading and mathematics ? teachers all share the same high expectations about the presentation, depth and quality of pupils' written work in subjects other than English and mathematics. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Norwich, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Norfolk.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Nicholas Rudman Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and your federation deputy headteacher to discuss the school's priorities for development and the impact of actions taken since the previous inspection. I met the leaders who have responsibility for mathematics, art, computing, science, the early years and history.

In addition, I met with three governors, including the chair, and I spoke on the telephone to a senior associate from the local authority's commissioned school improvement service. I scrutinised a variety of sources of information, including the school's self-evaluation, plans and records for the use of additional funding, and the school's assessment information. I checked the school's safeguarding and child protection procedures, the records of checks that leaders make on the suitability of staff to work with pupils, and information relating to attendance.

I undertook joint observations of learning across the school, looked at work in pupils' books and spoke with pupils about their learning during lessons. There were too few responses to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, to allow these details to be published, but I did analyse the three free-text questionnaire responses from parents. I analysed the eight responses from staff giving their views of the school.