Malpas Church in Wales Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

their time at the school. There are regular, worthwhile pupil progress meetings where teachers meet with leaders to discuss the progress of pupils in their class.

They consider any further support or challenge for those who are performing above or below expectations. These meetings also serve to check the validity of teachers' assessments, for example in evaluating pupils' development in writing. In addition, teachers moderate assessments with their colleagues in parallel classes.

These measures help to ensure the consistency and accuracy of assessment information. Leaders have introduced effective systems to track pupils' attendance. The school contacts parents quickly if a pupil is not in school to establish the reason f...or their absence.

In addition, leaders send regular letters to inform parents of their child's attendance level. They monitor each pupil whose attendance is a cause for concern and work closely with the educational welfare service to support pupils and their families to make improvements. Leaders also track the attendance of groups of pupils, for example comparing the attendance of pupils eligible for free school meals with their peers, to identify any trends.

They correlate attendance with pupils' progress and attainment. This helps them to pinpoint whenever slow progress is attributable to poor attendance, and take rapid action to help to rectify the situation. As a result of the school's improved tracking and monitoring work, the attendance of many pupils has improved over time.

In addition, considerably fewer pupils are persistently absent this year compared with last year. R4. Develop the governing body's capacity to support and challenge the school and to fulfil its statutory duties The governing body has established a clear committee structure and membership of committees draw upon the skills, knowledge and experience each governor brings to the role.

These committees meet regularly and discuss important aspects of the school's work, for example they review the need for the school to play a greater role in its community and to strengthen links with the church. Governors provide effective strategic leadership to the school. They understand the need to give both support and challenge to leaders through their role as critical friends.

Governors recognise they need a comprehensive range of information in order to do this. They carefully scrutinise the information they receive from the headteacher, senior leaders and other sources. In addition to this, they know the importance of gathering their own first-hand evidence of the school's progress.

They visit the school and meet with staff as year group link governors and meet with leaders to discuss key documents and progress data. This helps governors to ask well-informed questions and hold the school to account appropriately. For example, they ask challenging questions about the school's finances, its staffing structure and the rationale behind the organisation of classes across the school.

As a result of their deeper knowledge of the school's position, the governing body was able to independently write their statutory annual report to parents. In addition, from their visits to school to gather their evidence and the scrutiny of updates from leaders, governors are able to identify further improvements the school needs to continue to make. R5.

Improve classroom practice to support and challenge all pupils to become more independent learners Across the school, most teachers have worked effectively to improve the quality of their teaching. In nearly all lessons, teachers now engage pupils quickly with a starter discussion or activity, for example sharing ideas with a partner or observing something unusual. Generally, lessons continue at a suitable pace, although on occasions, teachers do not always sustain this.

Most teachers explain tasks clearly and provide helpful success criteria that pupils use to inform and reflect on their learning. Many teachers and teaching assistants use questioning effectively to assess pupils as they work, to ensure understanding and identify the next steps in learning. Following a visit to another school, many staff use the question prompts on their lanyards to remind them to ask more challenging or open-ended questions.

Teachers now plan more appropriate and better focused activities to help pupils develop as independent learners. For example, in Year 2, teachers plan for pupils to work imaginatively in the community café area. The pupils decide on the jobs they should do, prepare pretend food and drink, and take contributions depending on what the visitor can afford.

They write applications for jobs, citing their skills for example in fixing the oven. Teachers have worked hard to foster a culture of independent reading and the enjoyment of high-quality children's literature across the school. For example, in Year 3, pupils explore the book Flotsam and discuss it enthusiastically, exploring its intriguing images using viewfinders.

Many pupils make more rapid progress than previously in developing their reading skills. They enjoy reading for pleasure and getting 'lost in a book'. Teachers assess pupils' progress with growing accuracy and across the school they work together to ensure there is a consistent approach.

They use their informal assessments of pupil progress to inform the next steps in their learning. For example, where teachers identify gaps in pupils' understanding they modify lesson plans to ensure they immediately address these. In many classes, teachers' written feedback is effective in supporting pupils to improve their work and, consequently, many pupils are becoming more adept at improving their own work independently.

However, in a few instances, teachers miss opportunities to provide specific enough written or verbal feedback that supports pupils to improve their learning. R6. Strengthen the provision to support pupils with special educational needs Leaders have strengthened processes to identify and support pupils with additional learning needs across the school.

Using the pupil progress and attendance tracking systems, combined with adults' observations, they use data over time to identify an individual pupils' needs. The school's additional learning needs coordinator (ALNCo) confidently assists teachers and other adults to support these pupils. Leaders use an electronic management system effectively to assist in mapping the school's provision to the needs of individual pupils.

This is particularly useful in supporting teachers who are new to the school to understand the needs of the individuals they teach. Teachers are now more confident in providing effective support and provision for pupils with additional needs. They use the individual plans and one-page profiles to prepare support in their classrooms for those pupils who require universal support or other reasonable adjustments to support their learning.

A team of suitably trained teaching assistants deliver more targeted support to individuals. A skilled teaching assistant leads colleagues by modelling good practice. Leaders monitor these sessions and analyse closely the progress pupils make.

The ALNCo monitors intervention programmes and evaluates their impact to ensure their use is effective in ensuring pupils make progress. For example, the ALNCo identifies that there is good progress in sessions outside of the classroom, particularly when developing social skills, but this was not transferring back into class. As a result, intervention strategies are now part of classroom practice and pupils are more able to apply the skills that they learn in intervention sessions to real-life situations within the classroom.

The ALNCo leads worthwhile professional development activities for staff. Governors and the senior leadership team receive regular updates on the progress the school is making in terms of its provision for ALN and the progress against reform. © Crown Copyright 2022: This report may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context.

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