Killigrew Primary and Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Killigrew Primary and Nursery School

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

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your forward-thinking leadership enables a positive direction for the school. You skilfully manage the two sites of the school.

You are ably assisted by your deputy headteacher and other leaders, who provide further capacity to ...the leadership of the school. You have responded swiftly and successfully to the areas for improvement from the previous inspection. Pupils are proud of their school and talk enthusiastically about the things they do.

They behave very well and have a good understanding of the school's values. You have ensured that the quality of teaching is consistently strong. You and your staff have high expectations of what pupils can achieve no matter what their prior attainment or barriers to learning.

Teachers' subject knowledge is very good and they deliver lessons that engage pupils. As a result, behaviour is extremely positive across the school and many pupils are making strong progress. Teachers plan, observe and support each other admirably.

They check on pupils' understanding as a matter of routine to help pupils to improve their work. Teachers give pupils the skills they need to be able to review and edit their work. As a result, pupils understand clearly how to improve the quality and accuracy of their work.

They are proud of their achievements and this is reflected in the quality of the work seen during the inspection. Pupils' positive attitudes towards learning contribute to the strong progress that they make. Pupils behave extremely well, both in lessons and around the school.

They are polite and courteous to each other, as well as to staff and visitors. Pupils stated that behaviour is good and that the staff make sure that learning always takes place. Pupils are polite and think of others before themselves.

When asked how they would spend money to improve the school, one pupil commented that she would build a log cabin on the school field to protect her friends from hay fever. This positive attitude was typical of the pupils' responses. The large majority of parents and carers who responded to the online survey, Parent View, are extremely satisfied with the different aspects of the school's work, with many commenting that they strongly agree with the statements asked.

Comments such as 'The ethos and culture at the school is brilliant with a safe and friendly environment for children' are typical of the many positive comments offered by parents. The overwhelming majority of parents feel that the school keeps their children safe and manages the behaviour of pupils well. You have ensured that Reception children get off to a good start in the early years.

It is a welcoming and engaging environment for children. Staff plan interesting and challenging learning activities so that children make strong progress. Children are settled and happy and socialise well.

The local authority provides effective support, recognising the capability and effectiveness of senior leaders. Governors know their school and community well. They undertake training to increase their knowledge and understanding and have recruited new governors who have specific skills.

As a result, they regularly challenge and support you. Governors are highly supportive of the school and make the views of pupils a priority when they are considering improvements. You have ensured that the curriculum is broad and balanced and leadership of the curriculum is effective.

Pupils develop a variety of skills across the different subjects and are encouraged to be like artists, historians and musicians. In particular, science and history are strong because you have sought expertise to build and develop pupils' skills. For example, Year 4 pupils were observed taking part in an Egyptian day.

These real-life experiences enable pupils to develop key skills required when they move to secondary school. Safeguarding is effective. A strong culture of safeguarding is evident.

Leaders take their responsibilities extremely seriously, ensuring that policies, practice and procedures meet all statutory requirements. These include the safer recruitment of staff and volunteers. Your staff know and understand what they should do if they have concerns about pupils.

They carefully record any concerns and follow them up rigorously to ensure that no child comes to harm. Where necessary, leaders work very well with external agencies to safeguard children's welfare and ensure that vulnerable pupils and their families receive the support they need. Analysis of records shows that leaders are tenacious in their approach to obtaining support for vulnerable families.

Governors keep themselves informed with safeguarding training and successfully use their knowledge to ensure that the school's safeguarding procedures are compliant. They regularly monitor safeguarding in and outside the school to employ best practice. Inspection findings ? My first line of enquiry to check if the school remained good centred on how well leaders spend the pupil premium grant to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

You have addressed the disappointing progress scores that have existed in previous years. Analysis of pupils' workbooks and school assessment information shows that good year-on-year progress is now being made. Consequently, pupils eligible for the pupil premium grant are catching up with their non-disadvantaged peers.

• Disadvantaged pupils form a strong part of leaders' progress meetings with teachers. Leaders look outwardly to implement a range of strategies. For example, the school successfully runs a one-to-one mentor programme, as well as writing case studies about pupils for school staff to follow.

All of the strategies implemented are proving a success and making a difference to disadvantaged pupils. Therefore, the grant is being correctly spent to address the needs of the increasing number of disadvantaged pupils. It is well monitored by the governing body and your leaders to measure its impact on pupils' progress.

• Despite recent improvements, there is still work to do in order for the progress of disadvantaged pupils to be in line with that of their peers, particularly in writing and mathematics. ? My second line of enquiry focused on the attainment of pupils within key stage 1. As a result of effective teaching across key stage 1, pupils are attaining higher than the national average at the standard expected as well as greater depth.

Analysis of workbooks, especially in writing and mathematics, shows that skills are well taught and secure within pupils' work. During the inspection, pupils in Year 2 were observed being taught challenging suffixes and were asked to spell the root word as well as the suffix. ? Progress over time in pupils' English and mathematics books is clear to see.

Pupils are making strong progress from a range of different starting points. However, progress in subjects other than English and mathematics, across key stage 1, is not as strong as pupils do not receive the same high level of teaching or challenge. ? My final line of enquiry was to check how well leaders have addressed the areas for improvement from the previous inspection.

The most able pupils achieve well throughout the school, as a result of a high level of challenge and expectation. Teachers and leaders are aware of their needs. Subject leaders also monitor these pupils via planning and book scrutiny.

As a result, leaders have ensured that the most able pupils attain outcomes that are higher than the national average for reading, writing and mathematics. The middle-ability pupils are well challenged, but not consistently to the same high standard as the most able. ? Subject leaders are very knowledgeable about their areas of responsibility.

They regularly monitor the impact of their work and lead staff training sessions to improve practice across the school. They are currently writing new frameworks to assist teachers plan skills across the individual subjects to drive further improvements. The aim is to create greater awareness of outcomes across different groups and year groups.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? middle-attaining pupils and those identified as disadvantaged receive a consistently high level of challenge, especially in writing and mathematics, to increase their progress by the end of key stage 2 ? leaders at all levels have a deep understanding of the outcomes being achieved by pupils 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 Hertfordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Joseph Figg Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I spoke with you and your subject leaders, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority. I spoke to a group of pupils as well as individual pupils and members of staff. We made visits to lessons to observe pupils' learning and conducted several learning walks around the school.

We also looked at pupils' books across a range of ages and abilities as well as information from the school's assessment system. I scrutinised a range of documentary evidence, which included the school's self-evaluation, current progress information and details of pupils' attendance. I evaluated safeguarding referrals and child protection records, including the single central record.

I also looked at the school's website. In addition, I took account of 116 responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey, and 111 free-text comments from parents. I also analysed 30 responses from the staff questionnaire.

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