Ampfield Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The executive headteacher leads a dedicated staff team whose members ensure that pupils enjoy learning and achieve well. Parents and carers report how happy their children are to attend school because of the care and support that each child receives. The school's strong educational partnership with the larger John Keble Church of England Primary School has supported recent improvements to the quality of teaching and learning.

As a result, pupils are making increasingly strong progress in reading and writing. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. They have positive relations with the adults who work with them and with each other.
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Pupils attend well and enjoy coming to school to learn and play with their friends. The many pupils who start at the school at different times of the year are helped to settle quickly and they make very strong progress, often catching up on much of the learning they have previously missed. A highly committed governing body supports and challenges leaders to improve the school.

Governors are ambitious for pupils to reach high standards. Children make a successful start to school in the Reception class. They develop confident communication skills both with adults and between each other.

Children quickly become competent to read, write and use numbers. Leaders have recently enhanced the ways in which they use teachers' assessments to check on pupils' progress. Additional teaching helps pupils who need to catch up, particularly disadvantaged pupils.

Many of them now make secure gains in rates of progress. Leaders are aware that pupils do not consistently have tasks that are set at the right level of challenge. In mathematics, pupils do not have enough opportunities to apply what they know.

Teachers and other adults help pupils to understand what they are learning. However, pupils do not know clearly the next steps that would help them to reach a higher standard in their work. The curriculum covers all subjects and engages pupils' interest, but it does not provide enough opportunities for pupils to deepen their learning or to develop independence.

Information about this school

The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school, with three mixed-age classes. There are very small cohorts. For example, at the time of the inspection, there were seven children in Reception and just one pupil in Year 6.

Since September 2013, the school has been federated with John Keble Church of England Primary School under one governing body and an executive headteacher. Since the previous inspection, there has been almost a complete change of leadership and staff. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is lower than is seen nationally.

The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is higher than in most primary schools. The majority of pupils who attend the school are of White British background. A few pupils speak English as an additional language.

There is much less cohort stability than in most primary schools. Almost all pupils on roll travel from outside the village in which the school is situated. Many pupils join the school for a relatively short time during their primary education.

Pupil stability is higher for children in Reception and pupils in key stage 1 than it is in key stage 2. In 2016 and 2017, there were too few pupils in Year 6 to judge whether the school met the government's floor standards. The school provides a pre-booked after-school club that is run by the governing body.