Capel Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Capel Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 15 January 2019, 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 February 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Under your determined and well-informed leadership, Capel Primary has gone from strength to strength.

You have been successful in developing a warm, caring school with high and improving standards. You have developed leadership across the s...chool highly effectively. This has helped to ensure that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), have their needs met well.

Parents and carers, staff and pupils all value your commitment to the school. Morale is high because you have ensured that there are plans and leaders in place to continue improvement as you move on from the school later this year. Governance is effective.

Governors value the open and regular communication you have facilitated. As a result, they know the strengths of the school and what it needs to improve. They are wisely ensuring that they continue to develop an outward-looking approach and work closely with the local authority during the upcoming headteacher recruitment process.

Pupils enjoy coming to school. They value their education and the supportive relationships they build with both adults and their peers. Pupils behave well.

They trust adults to help them resolve things when they occasionally go wrong. They told me, 'It's a safe school, extremely fun, you can talk to anyone – everyone is there for you.' They like the wide range of clubs on offer and the 'tasty' school meals, particularly the macaroni cheese! Parents are supportive of the school.

They particularly value the high level of care, which they say is 'second to none'. All parents who spoke to me or completed the Ofsted survey, Parent View, agreed that their children are happy and well cared for. One parent encapsulated the views of many in saying, 'This school has gone from strength to strength under Mr Taylor and his team.'

You have maintained the strengths identified at the previous inspection. Children make strong progress in early years because highly skilled teaching makes learning both fun and challenging. During the inspection, children were happily engaged in planning their work.

The teacher's skilled questions helped children to explore the possibilities. A clear focus on developing pupils' speech and language skills was evident and expectations were high. Achievement at the end of each key stage remains high and continues to strengthen still further.

In the 2018 national assessments in Years 2 and 6, high proportions of pupils attained well in reading, writing and mathematics. You have addressed the previous inspection issues. Middle leaders have benefited from effective professional development to grow in confidence in leading their subjects.

They have devised well-informed plans for curriculum development. The impact of the leaders of English and mathematics is evident in pupils' work. As the focus turns to other subject areas, effective leadership is supporting teachers well across the curriculum.

Safeguarding is effective. Processes and systems for recruitment are clear and follow appropriate guidelines and documentation. Child protection is at the heart of the school.

Concerns are reported, recorded and acted on in a timely fashion. Work with other agencies is effective. Pupils feel safe at the school.

They trust the adults to act to keep them secure. They have a good knowledge of how to keep themselves safe, including online. All staff and almost all parents who spoke to me or completed the Ofsted survey felt that pupils are safe at school.

All agreed that pupils are well cared for. Inspection findings ? During the inspection, we looked closely together at the leadership and teaching of the wider curriculum across the school. Leadership is highly effective.

The pilot history development focus has had considerable impact on raising staff confidence and supporting their planning to ensure that pupils develop appropriate subject skills. For instance, pupils' books demonstrate a well-developed sense of chronology and their ability to use source material effectively. ? Pupils enjoy their learning across the curriculum, particularly the eye-catching art developed through the study of artists and community arts days.

You are rightly encouraging leaders to focus on further developing subject-specific skills using the successful history development focus as a model. ? We also looked together at the provision for pupils with SEND. Leadership for pupils with SEND is very effective.

Learning for this group of pupils is meticulously planned and incorporates the views of parents, teachers and other professionals from within the school and beyond. The special educational needs coordinator ensures that these pupils receive the right support, so that they can make good progress from their starting points. ? Pupils with SEND are confident learners.

Their work and support are carefully matched to their needs, so that they develop both independence and skills. For example, during the inspection, a pupil proudly described how he was using the teacher's feedback and multiplication supports to help him move from two-digit to three-digit multiplication. ? We also looked closely together at standards across the school.

Attainment levels at the end of key stage in Years 2 and 6 are high in reading, writing and mathematics. Books and school data indicate that achievement is good across the school; however, there remain some variations. Where teaching is occasionally less effective, sometimes pupils do not move on to applying their learning quickly enough.

When this happens, levels of interest and engagement drop and progress slows. ? Disadvantaged pupils attain well across the school. Effective leadership of the additional pupil premium funding and regular reviews ensure that funding is effectively targeted to support pupils.

Pupils are generally making good progress from their starting points. Nevertheless, you have rightly focused on the most able disadvantaged pupils as a group who would benefit from more support. Where teaching is most effective, teachers are using focused questions to extend these pupils' thinking; however, this is not consistent across the school.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? all teaching is consistently as effective as the very best, by: – ensuring that teaching across all aspects of the curriculum builds sequentially on pupils' skills – extending opportunities for pupils to apply their learning – ensuring that questioning consistently extends pupils' thinking, particularly for the most able disadvantaged pupils. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Kent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Deborah Gordon Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, we met regularly together. I also met with members of the governing body and with staff. I had a conversation with a representative from the local authority to gather their views of the school.

I reviewed documentation, including information about pupils' achievement, the school improvement plan, and safeguarding checks, policies and procedures. Together, we visited classes across the school. In lessons, I observed pupils learning, looked at their books, heard them read, and spoke to pupils about their work.

I had a meeting with pupils to gather their views of the school. I took into account the views of parents I met on the playground. I also considered 61 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including 42 free-text responses, and I also took account of the school's own survey information.