Audley Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Audley Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 30 October 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 December 2014.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment as headteacher in September 2017, you have quickly established a compelling vision for continuing to improve the school.

The school's motto, 'a journey to excellence', successfully sums up your aspiration for every p...upil to be 'the best that they can be'. Most parents are very supportive of your leadership. One parent, expressing a view typical of many, stated, 'Audley is a lovely school' and another added, 'Our child has flourished at Audley.'

Leaders and staff know pupils and their families extremely well. Many parents commented that staff are approachable and frequently 'go the extra mile' to help and support their children when needed. Your school provides a calm and caring environment for pupils to learn.

Pupils have positive attitudes towards their learning. They listen carefully to each other and work well together. Routines and expectations are clear and understood.

Pupils are confident and courteous, moving about the school in a sensible and orderly manner. They say that teachers are kind and help them to learn and improve their work. Your evaluation of the school's effectiveness is honest and accurate.

Despite some changes in staff and recent recruitment challenges, standards are being successfully maintained. This bears testament to the commitment of your senior leadership team. From starting points above those seen nationally, pupils make strong progress in English and mathematics.

The proportions of pupils achieving the expected and higher standards in national tests are above the national averages. As a result, pupils achieve well at Audley. At the time of the previous inspection, leaders were asked to provide more opportunities for pupils to write at length in different subjects and to improve the presentation of their work.

Across the school, pupils are given many opportunities to write at length. They write successfully for different purposes and in various subjects. For example, linked to their learning in science and history, Year 6 pupils wrote convincing, persuasive letters to the curator of a museum about the invention of the light bulb.

The majority of pupils present their written work with care and earn recognition awards for their efforts. However, teaching does not reliably give enough attention to developing pupils' accurate spelling and punctuation. Leaders were also asked to improve the quality of teachers' questioning and ensure that lessons are suitably challenging so that pupils concentrate well on their work.

Teachers' secure subject knowledge enables them to use questioning effectively to check pupils' understanding and address any misconceptions, most of the time. Occasionally, teachers' questioning is not matched well enough to pupils' learning needs and this slows their progress. The development of subject leadership was also identified as an area for improvement.

Since becoming headteacher, you have successfully strengthened both senior and middle leadership and created a new team of increasingly effective subject leaders. Capable senior leaders provide helpful support and training to colleagues new to subject leadership. This work is still at an early stage of development; however, subject leaders have made a promising start in leading their areas of responsibility.

For example, the introduction of new approaches to teaching mathematics is effectively enhancing pupils' problem-solving skills. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

Your well-trained staff are vigilant and know how to report and record any concerns, when necessary. As a result, you make swift and detailed referrals to other professionals and agencies. Records are carefully maintained and requests for help are diligently followed up.

Safeguarding policies and procedures have been conscientiously updated to reflect the government's most recent guidance. Governors also keep up to date with their safeguarding training and visit the school to carry out helpful safeguarding audits of the school's provision. All pupils spoken to said that they feel happy and safe at school.

They understand how to keep themselves safe when they are online. Older pupils confidently explained that not all information found on the internet is factually accurate. Pupils said that bullying does happen occasionally, but it is dealt with effectively by staff.

Pupils feel that their views matter to staff and that they can easily talk to an adult in school if they have any worries or concerns. Inspection findings ? During the inspection, we looked closely at specific aspects of the school's provision, including: the effectiveness of leaders' work to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well; the effectiveness of teaching and learning in early years and the support for boys' achievement; and how effectively the curriculum enables all pupils to make good progress. ? Over time, compared to national figures, disadvantaged pupils make broadly average progress in reading and writing and above-average progress in mathematics.

Disadvantaged pupils receive effective targeted teaching and support, enabling them to make good progress. Leaders are ambitious for this group of pupils to achieve well and carefully plan activities to deepen pupils' knowledge and understanding. The success of this approach is evident in pupils' work.

For example, high-quality and informative posters, produced by disadvantaged pupils in key stage 1, showed the depth of their understanding about life in Victorian Britain. ? A higher proportion of children than that seen nationally achieve a good level of development by the end of their Reception Year. Thoughtfully designed indoor and outdoor learning experiences successfully appeal to both girls and boys.

Adults use questioning to sensitively extend children's thinking and understanding. Boys and girls enjoy a wide range of early reading and writing activities. For example, many boys choose to write, confidently using their developing knowledge of phonics to write simple words.

As a result of strong leadership and skilful teaching, both boys and girls get a good start to their education in early years. ? You, ably supported by senior leaders, are steering the work to develop and enrich the curriculum. You are successfully designing a curriculum that reflects the needs of your pupils.

Progression in pupils' learning is carefully planned to strengthen their knowledge, skills and understanding in a wide range of subjects. Stimulating topics capture pupils' interest and encourage them to make links between different areas of their learning across subjects. Year 6 pupils relished the challenge of using and applying their mathematical problem-solving skills as they worked through different role-play scenarios in a French café.

Newly appointed subject leaders are starting to contribute to these curriculum developments. You acknowledge that further work is needed to refine the assessment of pupils' learning in subjects other than English and mathematics to further improve pupils' outcomes. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they sharpen the assessment of pupils' learning in subjects other than English and mathematics.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Claire Prince Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you and senior and middle leaders, and spoke to the chair of the governing body.

I also had a telephone discussion with your school improvement adviser. Together, you and I visited classes in most year groups. I considered 71 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including 33 free-text comments.

21 responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire were also considered. I met with a small group of pupils, talked to pupils informally about their learning and scrutinised work in pupils' books. I analysed a range of the school's documentation, including information about safeguarding.

We discussed your

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