Breamore Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Breamore Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 March 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 January 2015.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Under your uncompromising, effective leadership the school has continued to build upon its existing strengths.

With support and challenge from an ambitious governing body and a dedicated staff team, the school continues to... improve. Leaders and governors place a strong emphasis on staff development. You have been instrumental in developing a professional learning community across four local schools.

Within this community, staff develop a line of enquiry that will impact on their teaching. They undertake research, apply their research within the classroom, analyse its effectiveness and share their findings across the learning community. As a result, your staff have been able to strengthen their classroom practice.

All staff who responded to the Ofsted staff questionnaire were highly supportive of the professional development that they receive. During the inspection, the behaviour of pupils around the school was exemplary. They are polite, take pride in their work and enjoy engaging visitors in conversation.

Pupils told me that their teachers were 'friendly' and 'fair'. They also told me that they found most lessons 'really good because teachers make them enjoyable and fun' and that they 'learned a lot of interesting things'. You have addressed the last inspection's recommendations to ensure that pupils are challenged to regularly read a range of different texts.

High-quality reading texts have been introduced across the school and are linked, where appropriate, to wider curriculum topic areas, such as 'Could you be the next Nintendo apprentice?' or 'Will we ever send another man to the moon?' As a result, pupils are now exposed to a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction texts and they show a love for reading. Pupils that I heard read during the inspection read with fluency and accuracy. They talked excitedly about their favourite authors and why they enjoy certain genres.

The profile of reading in the school has also been raised by visits from famous authors and the remodelling of the library. One of the highlights of my visit was watching two of your 'reading heroes' leading story time, where they read confidently and with good expression to the whole school. The previous report also recommended that the role of subject leaders be further developed.

Since the previous inspection, a significant proportion of staff continuous professional development has been linked to subject leadership. Owing to small staff numbers, you have spread subject leadership across your two federated schools and have given leaders regular opportunities to lead their area. As a result of actions taken, leaders now have a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development in their subjects.

They carry out a range of activities to support their roles, including regular classroom observations, work scrutiny and analysing pupil progress information. Leaders acknowledge that there is still work to do to ensure that those who are new to the role are supported to lead and not just manage their areas of responsibility. Parents and carers speak highly of the school.

One parent, reflecting the views of many who responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire, remarked: 'I'm so pleased my children have had the privilege of being educated, nurtured and extended at this wonderful school.' Nearly all parents said that they would recommend the school to other families. Safeguarding is effective.

There is a strong culture within the school to safeguard pupils. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of a high quality. As the designated safeguarding lead, you are tenacious in ensuring that staff carry out their responsibilities fully.

All staff receive regular updates and training about safeguarding. As a result, they know what to do should a safeguarding issue arise. The governor responsible for safeguarding regularly visits the school and checks that records are maintained.

She reports back immediately to the school should she find anything that needs updating or altering and ensures that recommendations are acted upon. You work effectively with external agencies to ensure that everything is being done to safeguard pupils in your care. You have established strong links with two local virtual schools to ensure that children looked after who are pupils at the school receive the support they need.

Pupils have a clear understanding of what bullying is and say that 'it doesn't happen here because we are like one big family'. They told me that, should bullying occur, they would be confident that teachers would sort it out quickly. Pupils say that they feel safe at school and this view is echoed by staff and parents alike.

Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at specific areas of the school's provision: the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements; pupils' attendance; the progress of all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); and the breadth and balance of the curriculum provided. ? Pupils' attendance has been falling for the past three years. By the end of 2018, the proportion of pupils attending school was below that found for similar schools.

At the same time, the proportion of pupils who were persistently absent from school rose, although it remained below the national average. Leaders have taken robust action to address this decline. For example, they arrange to collect pupils, who might otherwise be absent, in the school's minibus; they engage with parents over the benefits of regular attendance; and they serve fixed-penalty notices, where appropriate.

Consequently, attendance has improved. Current information indicates that attendance is now above the national average. ? Pupils attain well in key stage 1; however, the progress made by the end of key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics has remained average when compared to other pupils nationally.

Leaders have introduced a number of positive changes across the curriculum. For example, they have developed the way that reading is taught, increased the opportunities for pupils to write at length across a range of subjects and strengthened the focus on problem-solving in mathematics. Work in books and progress information indicate that pupils currently at the school are making stronger progress than previous cohorts.

Leaders are aware that these changes need further time to become fully embedded across the school. ? Many pupils currently receiving support for SEND join the school during key stage 2. These pupils are quickly assessed, and appropriate interventions are put in place to support their individual needs.

In addition, their social and emotional needs are quickly identified, and effective support given. As a result, progress information and work in books show that most of these pupils are making strong progress from their various starting points. ? Progress information and work in books indicate that most disadvantaged pupils currently at the school are making strong progress to reduce the differences between themselves and other pupils.

In the past, the most able disadvantaged pupils have not always attained the higher standards of which they are capable. The school is addressing this. Pupils are now given appropriate support and challenge and, as a result, are making good progress across the curriculum.

• Your exciting, evolving curriculum is broad, balanced and accessible to all pupils. The curriculum is designed to be relevant to today's society and to ensure that pupils are globally aware, confident, successful learners. These attributes were highly evident during my conversations with pupils.

Subjects are carefully intertwined to ensure that pupils understand the cross-curricular connections between subjects. For example, skills learned in mathematics are applied in science sessions. Additionally, you ensure that learning is further enhanced by the use of artefacts, educational visits and visits by experts to the school.

As a result of exciting learning opportunities given to your pupils, they are engaged with their work and are keen to succeed. ? Leaders identified that sport was not being given a high enough priority in the school. This was quickly addressed and, subsequently, the school was awarded the gold 'School Games Award' for participation in sport.

A wide range of extra-curricular activities are also on offer to pupils, including knitting, craft and puzzler club. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they: ? increase the progress that pupils make in reading, writing and mathematics so that by the end of key stage 2 it compares more favourably with other schools nationally. 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 Brian Macdonald Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection I met with you to discuss the school's self-evaluation and plans for improvement. I held discussions with the special educational needs co-ordinator and members of the governing body.

Together, we observed learning in every year group. I held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority. I considered documentation relating to governance, safeguarding and pupils' progress and attainment.

I took account of the 14 responses to the staff questionnaire and the 54 responses to Ofsted's confidential online survey, Parent View. I spoke to several parents before school and considered the 50 free-text messages submitted by parents to Ofsted. I talked with pupils both formally and during lessons and took account of 76 responses to Ofsted's pupil survey.

Also at this postcode