Bressingham Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Bressingham Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 22 November 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 October 2013. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders have high expectations for pupils and staff and they and the governing body have a clear vision of the school priorities and how they will be achieved. Parents, carers, pupils and staff find leaders very approachable, and this has help...ed create an atmosphere in which parents view the school as an important part of the local community.

The school has a strong team of teachers who share the responsibility of subject leadership and who have developed a good broad and balanced curriculum. Leaders have enriched the curriculum with projects such as '100 memorable moments', where pupils are encouraged to do a wide range of activities over their time at the school. These include singing around a campfire, learning to knit and visiting the Houses of Parliament.

Pupils are polite, courteous and curious and they behave well during lessons and at breaktimes. They take a pride in their work and value the support that they are given from the adults in the school. They play well together at breaktimes and use the extensive playground equipment sensibly.

They are able to share resources in lessons and in the playground, and there is a strong sense that pupils care for each other. Pupils were able to tell me what constitutes bullying, but they said that it is very rare in the school. When it does happen, they know how to report it and know that it will be dealt with quickly and effectively by adults.

Pupils enjoy the initiatives recently introduced, such as team spellings and the reading challenge. A strong team spirit exists among staff, and they support each other to get the best from the pupils. Teachers have a good subject knowledge, which has been strengthened through the school's partnership with the Acorn Alliance.

Teachers have been able to moderate writing across the alliance with teachers from other schools. This has deepened their understanding of what they need to do to support pupils to write at greater depth. Leaders have also introduced mathematics mastery into the curriculum, which is having a positive impact on progress in mathematics.

Parents whom I spoke with and those who responded to the Ofsted online survey Parent View were unanimous in their support for the school. They value the pastoral care given by staff. One parent said: 'My son loves coming to school and when he comes home he loves to talk about what he has done.'

Another parent said: 'A lovely school with excellent staff – not just excellent teachers but all staff including lunchtime helpers and the cleaning staff'. This highlights the community feel that leaders have created in the school and is typical of the comments received. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders have created a culture in which staff, pupils and governors understand the importance of keeping children safe. All adults in the school are vigilant in identifying any concerns, and you have developed clear systems for reporting them, which are meticulously followed.

Parents appreciate the work that all staff do to keep their children safe and the majority agree that their children feel happy and safe in the school. You told me that incidents of bullying or racist or homophobic language are very rare, and pupils confirmed this. Pupils say that they feel safe in the school and they have a good understanding of how to stay safe in the outside world and when using the internet.

Inspection findings ? I wanted to find out whether pupils are being stretched in their learning, particularly in mathematics. You shared information with me showing that pupils are making good progress in mathematics and an increasing number are achieving greater depth in their understanding. This was confirmed when I looked at pupils' mathematics books and observed them learning in class.

• Your teachers have benefited from training with the Acorn Alliance and are now including more problem-solving and reasoning questions in their lessons. They also encourage pupils to talk about their work using mathematical vocabulary, which has allowed pupils to work at higher levels. It is clear that leaders have encouraged the use of problem solving and reasoning and this is particularly evident in the Year 6 books.

It is beginning to be developed in other year groups. ? Teachers use their good subject knowledge to set challenging work for the pupils and they are able to stretch the pupils further by asking high-order questions such as: 'how do you know' or 'give me your reason'. The majority of the current Year 6 pupils are working at greater depth in mathematics.

• I looked to see whether there were any differences between the progress of boys and girls in writing and mathematics. You told me that you have introduced new texts and topics into the curriculum that have captured the imagination of the boys and encouraged them to develop and enjoy their writing. I saw an excellent example of this, where pupils were reading 'Traction Man' and writing their own extract from the story.

All pupils were fully engaged and enjoying the activity, and it was good to see the promising quality of some of the boys' writing. ? The school information shows that boys and girls are making strong progress in writing and mathematics, and this is also clear from the work in their books. ? Leaders have developed the team spelling competition to include links to sport, such as most-valuable player, team captains, and player of the week.

This has captured the attention of the pupils, and they are keen to learn their spellings. ? The curriculum allows pupils to be challenged while still having fun with their learning. There is a clear drive from leaders to push pupils to work at greater depth, and teachers are rising to this challenge.

I saw examples in many lessons where teachers used opportunities to extend learning. In one lesson, pupils were working on perimeter, and one pupil had measured the length of one side of a square as 2.2cm.

The teacher initially told him to round the number to a whole, but then changed her mind and told him to have a go with the decimal place. He went on to solve the problem successfully. ? Leaders have created an exciting wider curriculum that the pupils enjoy.

Pupils' progress in subjects other than English and mathematics is followed accurately but not in as much detail as for English and mathematics. The amount of time spent on individual subjects varies between teachers. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? problem solving and reasoning in mathematics is embedded in the curriculum across all year groups ? the coverage of subjects other than English and mathematics is consistent across year groups.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Norfolk. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Nick Templeton Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I visited all year groups with the acting head of school, where we looked a pupils' books.

I met with pupils from Year 6, who shared some of their work with me. I also met with two governors. I took account of the 36 responses from parents to Parent View and 34 free-text comments.

In addition, 11 responses to the online staff survey were taken into account. I talked informally to pupils during lessons and breaks. Finally, I examined a range of documents, including the school development plan, assessment information, governors' minutes of meetings, behaviour logs and safeguarding information.