Smannell and Enham Church of England (Aided) Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Smannell and Enham Church of England (Aided)

Primary School Following my visit to the school on 8 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 February 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 determined leadership has ensured that previous strengths have been maintained and built upon. You have improved communication so that stakeholders are well informed about, and able to be involved... in, the life of the school. Governors provide useful challenge to school leaders.

They have a good understanding of the school's priorities and recognise the improvements that you are making to the school. Pupils achieve well at your school. The proportion who achieve the standard for the phonics check by the end of Year 1 is in line with the national average.

By the end of key stage 1, more achieve at least the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics than is seen nationally. During key stage 2, pupils continue to do well, making especially good progress in mathematics by the end of Year 6. Their progress in reading is improving over time and was broadly at the national average last year.

However, in 2018 the percentage who reached the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling declined to below the national average. Addressing this relative weakness is an area of current focus for you and your staff. Parents speak very positively about the nurturing environment and high levels of individual care that the school provides for pupils.

Parents appreciate the way in which the school promotes the school values of love, courage and reverence. One parent stated: 'I really value how passionate the headteacher is about learning and enabling all pupils to do their best. The school values really are lived by all.'

Pupils say that they love their school and that the staff take good care of them. Pupils spoke with conviction about the different needs that pupils have, and the need for everyone to respect each other and be supportive. This was evident in the positive way that pupils behaved towards each other.

One child commented, 'It is a loving and caring school.' Another explained, 'It's small so you are friends with everyone.' At the previous inspection, leaders were asked to improve teaching even more, and to strengthen further the quality of leadership.

Regular changes of teachers over the time that you have been at the school have meant that standards of teaching have been sustained rather than improved. You know how effective teachers are and provide them with feedback to help improve their practice. However, this is an area of ongoing work, particularly around ensuring that the most able pupils are challenged sufficiently.

The quality of leadership has improved and this is helping to drive up standards in specific subjects. Safeguarding is effective. You have established a culture where pupils' needs are the priority of all.

Staff and governors describe clear and useful systems which they use robustly and effectively. Teachers and teaching assistants are kept well informed, via regular updates about safeguarding issues and concerns. Leaders check carefully to ensure that all adults know how to recognise and act on signs that a pupil may be at risk of harm.

There is a strong sense of 'it could happen here' and that everyone needs to be aware. A safeguarding display board encourages pupils to keep themselves safe, reminding them of what they can do and who they can talk to if they are worried about something. Safer recruitment practices are secure, with all staff, governors and volunteers trained at the appropriate level.

Inspection findings ? In order to evaluate the school's effectiveness, we agreed a few key areas to explore in detail. These were: the effectiveness of safeguarding; what leaders are doing to improve outcomes in reading and spelling; the quality of the wider curriculum; and how leadership and teaching are helping all pupils to fulfil their potential. ? Leaders track each pupil's progress carefully, to check that their needs are being met well.

This is especially the case for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and the disadvantaged. Teachers are skilled at managing groups and organising activities at different levels for pupils across a range of abilities, which benefits pupils' learning. However, teachers sometimes underestimate what the most able pupils can do in lessons, so do not challenge them sufficiently.

• Pupils are very clear about tasks and what they are learning. They know what to do and how to do it. They are motivated to get on and complete the work that they are set, working well in groups to share ideas when appropriate.

Sometimes pupils are overly reliant on adult feedback and support, lacking the resilience to push themselves to achieve even better. ? In the four years that you have been at the school, you have maintained a consistently strong focus on teaching and learning. The changes of teachers and staff absence, for which there are valid reasons, have meant that this is an ongoing challenge.

Despite this, you have ensured that teaching continues to be effective and that the majority of pupils make good progress. You check the quality of teaching regularly and evaluate accurately what could be improved. Your feedback to teachers about their practice is often useful and enables them to develop their practice.

However, on occasions your feedback is not precise enough to enable teachers to improve their work as quickly as they could. ? English and mathematics leaders have a good understanding of their subjects and the priorities for improvement. They help to develop the quality of teaching and learning, because they carry out their own checks and provide useful feedback to teachers.

Leadership of other subjects is developing. You work closely with these leaders to develop their skills and effectiveness at driving improvements. ? The school provides a broad and balanced curriculum, which excites pupils and teachers alike.

The recent legacy week, focused on the First World War, resulted in high-quality work and learning focused on the impact of the war on the local area and local families. ? Leaders' recent review of the use of the sports premium has led to improvements to how the funding is used to promote sports and sports teaching. Pupils speak positively about the opportunities that they now have to compete and develop their skills.

• Leaders have taken action to improve reading. These include reviewing how reading is taught across the school, promoting opportunities for extending vocabulary, providing challenges to encourage reading and introducing regular reading sessions into the school day. These whole-school approaches have brought about some improvements in pupils' progress and attainment, but leaders rightly recognise that further improvements are possible, particularly for the most able pupils.

• In 2018, results in the Year 6 grammar, punctuation and spelling test were disappointing and did not align with pupils' achievements in other subjects. Leaders have identified that spelling strategies are not sufficiently well embedded within pupils' writing. Leaders have taken sensible action since September to improve spelling, including implementing a structured, two-year spelling plan across the school.

However, this work is in the early stages and there is more to do to ensure that pupils spell words correctly as a matter of routine. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? new teaching approaches for reading and spelling are embedded, so that outcomes in both improve to be at least in line with national figures ? pupils, especially the most able, are encouraged and supported to reflect on their learning and challenged to make even better progress ? leaders' feedback to teachers enables them to know precisely what to do to improve their practice further. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Winchester, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Hampshire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Louise Adams Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with the headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), teachers, a group of teaching assistants, governors – including the chair – and a group of pupils. With the headteacher and SENCo, I visited all classes and looked at pupils' work in books.

I reviewed the school's information about pupils' progress and attainment. I also reviewed other documentation linked to safeguarding, governance and school improvement. I spoke to parents in the playground at the beginning of the school day and took account of the 33 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View.