Castle Camps Church of England (Controlled) Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Castle Camps Church of England (Controlled) Primary

School Following my visit to the school on 23 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 March 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your collaborative approach to leadership brings the staff together to enable pupils to make good progress.

All staff who responded to the online survey agree that they are proud to work at a school where ...leaders do all that they can to ensure that there is a motivated, respected and effective team. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. Comments on Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, praise the warm and welcoming ethos that focuses on helping every child to succeed academically and develop into confident, articulate individuals.

One parent spoke for many in saying that, 'My child loves this school and I love it too. All the staff are wonderful.' You set high expectations for pupils' behaviour and they rise to the challenge.

Consequently, pupils behave very well in class. They are polite, respectful and kind to each other and to adults. At social times pupils happily mix with each other, with the older children acting as buddies to support the younger children.

During the inspection the older buddies were seen organising games for the younger children to ensure that playtime was fun. Governance is strong. Governors know the school well and are clear about the challenges it faces as well as its priorities for the future.

They are robust in holding you and other leaders to account for the school's performance. They use a range of evidence to do this, including external reports, internal reports and regular visits to the school during the working day. The governors also offer support to you and your staff.

You and your team have worked hard to address the areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection report. Leaders and governors have ensured that time is now set aside for teachers to share best practice across the school in order to improve the quality of teaching. Subject leaders also have the time and training to enable them to monitor their areas of responsibility regularly.

Equally, pupils are also provided with more opportunities to learn how to use computers, for example when writing up and editing English work in a mixed Year 2 and 3 class. The impact of these changes can be seen in the high standards that have been maintained in the early years and key stage 1. You know that more can be done to improve achievement in mathematics.

Equally, you acknowledge that you need to continue to work closely with parents and carers to ensure that pupils' attendance remains above national benchmarks at your school. Safeguarding is effective. All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

The recording system contains a clear chronology of actions that staff take so that you can follow up concerns quickly. Pupils' safeguarding files contain detailed evidence of how the school works closely with external agencies in order to keep pupils safe. Leaders have ensured that staff clearly understand procedures to follow in the event that they have any concerns about a child.

Staff receive regular training on safeguarding, and you use weekly briefings as an opportunity for updating this knowledge when required. Staff know how to recognise signs that a pupil may be at risk. Governors have a detailed oversight of safeguarding.

They use a range of evidence to monitor the effectiveness of safeguarding, including visiting the school to check systems and procedures and local authority audits. Consequently, all necessary checks are undertaken in a timely fashion to ensure that governors, staff and volunteers at the school are suitable to work with children. You record information appropriately on the school's single central record, which meets all statutory requirements.

Pupils who spoke to me told me that they feel happy and safe at school. This view was overwhelmingly supported by the parents who responded to Ofsted's parental survey, Parent View. Pupils also said that while they sometimes fall out with their peers there is not any bullying at the school.

Pupils were also confident that if bullying did occur 'the teachers would stop it' and said that they were happy to 'go to any staff with our worries'. Inspection findings ? The curriculum is motivating for the pupils and allows them to make strong progress from year to year across the school. It is appropriately balanced and extends pupils' understanding of a range of subjects from science and topic to religious education and physical education.

Every class has a strong working atmosphere, with the pupils clearly interested in the topics covered. ? Staff carefully plan the learning in all curriculum subjects to ensure that it meets the needs of pupils and they become increasing confident across individual lessons. For example, in a Year 6 lesson the pupils undertook an experiment on light.

The pupils clearly enjoyed the experiment and were keen to share their conclusions with the whole class. This was part of a topic on light which started with an assessment to ascertain what the pupils already knew. The teacher used the results of the assessment to help plan the sequence of lessons to extend pupils' understanding.

• The curriculum is supported by a range of extra-curricular sporting activities that are held before and after school. Pupils enjoy these sports clubs, which help them to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The curriculum is also enriched with visits and visitors as well as themed events.

Governors spoke highly of the wider enrichment gained from events such as annual science week as they amplify the learning in the classrooms. ? Work in mathematics is planned carefully so that it is sequential and develops pupils' knowledge over time. Teachers are skilled at questioning pupils to check their understanding of mathematical concepts and to ensure that there are no misconceptions.

Pupils' actions show that they feel comfortable offering answers to the teacher and are not worried about getting things wrong. In mixed-aged classes, learning is personalised to meet the needs of the pupils. Teachers set different work to meet the needs of pupils who are in the same class but not in the same academic year.

• Leaders and governors recognise that in the last three years progress in mathematics at key stage 2 has declined from being well above national figures in 2016 to being broadly in line with them in 2018. Consequently, improving progress in mathematics is a key part of the school's improvement plan. You acknowledge that to improve achievement in mathematics there needs to be greater challenge for the most able pupils as well as greater use of reasoning skills in mathematics lessons.

• The school's overall attendance figure was higher than national figures in 2017, although it did decline from 2016. In 2018 the overall attendance figure was 96.7%.

The procedure for any child who is absent from school is clear and you work with families where there are attendance concerns. Even so, you acknowledge the benefits of clearly communicating to parents and carers the link between attendance and achievement. Equally, you recognise that for this work with parents and carers to be successful leaders and staff must focus more sharply on information about a pupil's attendance.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? staff focus more sharply on information about pupils' attendance and achievement ? they communicate clearly the link between attendance and achievement to pupils, parents and carers ? pupils' progress in mathematics improves through a continued focus on providing greater challenge for the most able as well as developing pupils' reasoning skills in lessons. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Ely, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Cambridgeshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely James Adkins Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and your deputy headteacher. I also met with the chair of the governing body and two other governors as well as a representative from the local authority. Senior leaders visited every class to jointly observe teaching and learning with me.

I spoke to pupils during their lessons and met with a group of them at lunchtime. We reviewed pupils' work in lessons. You presented information, including attendance information, the school's self-evaluation document and the school's improvement plan.

Safeguarding records were scrutinised and I discussed with you a wide range of matters related to safeguarding. I reviewed the information and policies on the school's website. I considered the 35 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and the 14 responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire.