Christ Church CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Christ Church CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 3 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 October 2014. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. The school has a strong ethos characterised through its values that encourage all pupils to take responsibility for their learning and actions. Pupils' behaviour is thoughtful and kind.

During lessons, pupils concentrate and list...en carefully. Around the school, they behave safely and are very polite and helpful. Parents and carers are extremely positive about the school and all that it offers.

A number wrote in to praise the difference that you make to their children's education. You know exactly what the school needs to do to improve further and have made a strong start since you arrived. You have successfully addressed areas that were identified in the previous inspection.

Well-considered changes to the senior leadership responsibilities have added additional capacity to the team. Senior leaders are thoughtful, proactive and effective in their work. You are currently building a team of middle leaders to complement this.

You have forged a strong partnership with governors. They are highly knowledgeable and provide an appropriate level of challenge in their determination that the school should continue to improve. You also work effectively with the diocese and the local authority.

Both support you to review the school's strengths and areas for improvement. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that the school meets statutory requirements.

The designated safeguarding lead is knowledgeable and clear in their role. The curriculum is well designed to support children in understanding risk. Pupils speak confidently about how to keep safe and report that they feel safe in school.

They are particularly knowledgeable about online safety. The safeguarding policy is comprehensive and clear. Leaders ensure that staff are regularly and thoroughly trained in the school's safeguarding and child protection procedures.

Leaders understand the local safeguarding challenges that pupils face. Record-keeping is systematic and organised. Attendance issues are followed up in a timely manner and with the support of external services when necessary.

The school carries out pre-employment checks rigorously, and the single central record is well maintained. This is to ensure that all staff are suitable to work with children. Inspection findings ? My first line of enquiry focused on what the impact has been of middle leaders who are new in post since the last inspection.

This was because there have been significant changes in these personnel in the last four years. ? New middle leaders have been recruited or promoted to lead subject areas. These leaders have demonstrated their ability and the willingness to drive standards forward.

They have already shown impact in the improvements in the number of children reaching the higher standard in writing and in changes made to the provision in the early years since the summer term. No time has been wasted. ? Middle leaders are clear about how to improve the school in their area of responsibility.

Their plans are underpinned by effective data analysis and an understanding of educational research. As a result of this, they have already begun to raise standards in all curriculum areas. ? School leaders and governors have used these changes in responsibilities as an opportunity to retain and develop staff for the benefit of all pupils.

They have used these key people to improve teachers' subject knowledge and understanding of learning. The school's evidence from classroom visits shows that this work has improved teaching and learning across the school. ? A programme of coaching activities for these new leaders has started to develop their understanding of how to support and challenge each other.

This will build leadership capacity further and enable the school to continue to raise standards. This is an area of ongoing development for the school. ? My second line of enquiry focused on the teaching and learning of writing.

This was because at the time of the previous inspection it was noted that there was a need to enrich vocabulary and raise expectations in this area of the curriculum. ? Leaders have taken a systematic approach to raising standards in writing that supports teaching and learning in the classroom. We saw examples of strong practice in all classes visited.

Pupils display high levels of engagement in writing tasks. The texts chosen to support the writing process are challenging and the vocabulary stretches pupils' existing language skills. There is evidence in the books I looked at of pupils using really sophisticated vocabulary to produce high-quality outcomes.

• Writing across the school now shows a consistency of approach. Children of all ages, starting in the early years, can explain the purpose of their writing. Teachers' high expectations mean that pupils successfully plan and then improve their work using the detailed feedback they are given.

Pupils report that they use teachers' feedback and explain that they feel it has made a significant difference in the quality of their work. ? Talk is used effectively to enrich vocabulary and generate ideas. Some pupils are now starting to confidently make meaningful links across the curriculum when writing.

This has led to an increase in the proportion of pupils achieving at greater depth in writing in 2018. ? My final line of enquiry focused on the school's assessment system. This was because : at the time of the previous inspection not all pupils and staff had a clear understanding of how to use assessment to ensure maximum rates of progress.

• Changes to the assessment system have been carefully planned and staff have quickly adapted to the new approach. The school kept the best of the previous system and streamlined other aspects. This has meant that all teachers now use this information to support pupils' progress and close gaps.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they develop middle leaders, deepening their understanding of leadership at a whole-school level, so they can further increase their capacity and impact. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of London, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Brent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Karen Matthews Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, the following activities were carried out: I met with you, other senior and middle leaders, two governors, including the chair of governors, a representative from the diocese and the local authority school effectiveness lead practitioner. I met with pupils from key stage 2. I visited classrooms with senior leaders across the school to gather evidence about our key areas of enquiry and look at pupils' work.

I looked at key documents including the school's self-evaluation of its own performance and the school development plan; information about pupil premium expenditure; information on the progress made by pupils; and documents relating to safeguarding. I also looked at information on the school's website. I analysed the confidential online questionnaires from nine members of staff, and the views of 13 parents who responded on Parent View, including 13 free-text responses.