Cam Hopton Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Cam Hopton Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 14 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 May 2015. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Before your arrival, just over two years ago, the school had gone through an unsettled period. There had been a succession of headteachers and a difficult staffing restructure. During your time in post, you have worked with ...staff to restore morale and provide greater stability.

You lead with calm authority and have built on the skills of your capable senior and middle leaders. These leaders bring experience, a readiness to learn and enthusiasm to their work. Leaders have raised expectations of staff and pupils in the school.

They know where they want the school to be and how to get there, and they share this well with staff. They are ambitious for the school and are encouraged by the success they have had so far. Staff across the school share the desire to help pupils become the best they can be, in keeping with the school's motto of 'Life in all its fullness'.

All staff who responded to the survey issued during the inspection agree that the school culture is aspirational for all pupils. Leaders are well supported by governors. The governing body has developed and improved its effectiveness since the previous inspection.

It includes experienced and new governors, who all have the necessary skills and expertise to fulfil their responsibilities. Governors now play a key role in helping to define the school's long-term strategic plans. They also provide leaders with greater challenge as a result.

Governors' focus on the achievement of different groups of pupils helps to hold leaders to greater account. Leaders have been receptive to the help provided by the local authority and other external sources to improve provision. They use the views of others to enhance their understanding of the school's effectiveness, and they are swift to act on any recommendations.

Staff are keen to look 'outward' and learn from colleagues in other schools. They share practice, attend training and apply what they have learned from external research. The school is a welcoming and inclusive place, where all pupils are valued as individuals.

Staff are approachable and treat pupils with respect. Pupils' behaviour is good in lessons and during social times. They move around the school in a sensible way and treat each other with consideration.

Pupils who spoke with me were friendly and cheerful. They are loyal to the school and were keen to tell me about why they enjoyed their school experience. All these pupils say that they would recommend their school to others.

Staff have developed good relationships with parents and the local community. At the beginning of the inspection, we agreed on the key lines of enquiry to be considered during the day. These included establishing the effectiveness of safeguarding and leaders' actions to raise pupils' achievement across the school.

We also considered the extent to which the areas for improvement from the previous inspection had been addressed and whether absence and exclusions had declined. These lines of enquiry are considered below under 'Safeguarding' and 'Inspection findings', where they have not already been referred to. Safeguarding is effective.

As the designated safeguarding lead, you have a detailed, confident oversight of the processes in place to protect children. Checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with pupils are up to date and comprehensive. Staff receive appropriate training to ensure that they know what to do and who to speak to should they have concerns about pupils.

You know about individual cases as all concerns are entered into the online referral system and you monitor them. You work effectively with outside agencies to ensure that pupils get the support they need. Governors take their responsibility for the oversight of safeguarding seriously.

They undertake the same child protection training as staff. Governors involved in appointing new staff to the school also receive safer-recruitment training. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, particularly online.

The pupils who spoke with me suggested numerous, sensible ways to say safe when using the internet. These included not sharing personal details, changing passwords frequently and telling an adult if they saw something that made them feel uncomfortable. Pupils feel safe in school.

They feel that staff look after them and that there are members of staff they can speak to if they have any concerns. All pupils who spoke with me and nearly all of those who completed the survey issued during the inspection agree that bullying is rare. Inspection findings ? Teachers take responsibility for the progress that pupils make in their classes and as they move up through the school.

• Teaching is consistently good across the school. Staff know the needs of pupils well and plan activities that are matched to their abilities. Pupils engage with their work because activities are interesting and stimulating.

They are keen to answer questions during class discussion and settle quickly to independent tasks. ? Classrooms are vibrant and colourful learning environments. Staff have created informative 'working wall' displays.

These are a useful learning resource because : they highlight key concepts, ideas and knowledge for pupils to refer to. ? Leaders use pupil premium funding effectively to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. Leaders have used the funding to provide initiatives such as art therapy, assertive mentoring and homework club.

This helps pupils to engage with their learning. Leaders monitor pupils' progress closely so that timely intervention is put in place to help pupils catch up if they fall behind. ? The work in pupils' books shows that they make strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics because of the rigour of the curriculum in these areas.

Pupils acquire deep knowledge and develop high-level skills because learning objectives are sequenced effectively and make appropriate demands of pupils. However, some foundation subjects do not provide pupils with enough knowledge or tasks that are sufficiently demanding. ? Attendance rates over time have been slightly below the national average.

Staff have been proactive and have implemented clear systems and strategies to tackle this, for example letters are sent to parents alerting them to poor attendance and the impact of it. Consequently, overall attendance has improved, as has the attendance of disadvantaged pupils, and is in line with the national average. The attendance of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who have an education, health and care plan (EHC) is above the national average.

However, the attendance of those pupils with SEND without an EHC is below the national average. ? In the past few years rates of exclusion have been above the national average. This has declined since your arrival and there have been no exclusions this academic year.

This reflects pupils' good behaviour, the positive relationships between staff and parents, the supportive school culture and the higher expectations of staff. ? At the previous inspection, one area for improvement was to improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that pupils use the advice provided by teachers to improve their work. Staff have worked successfully to achieve this.

Leaders have reorganised the way in which teachers provide feedback to pupils and have taken teachers' workload into account. The current system is effective in enabling pupils to identify their mistakes and improve their work. One pupil who spoke with me said that teachers 'tell us what we do well and what we need to improve on'.

• Another area for improvement was for leaders to ensure that teaching assistants are used consistently well across the school to support learning. Teaching assistants now work in a more flexible way, supporting groups of different sizes and pupils with different needs. They are now skilled at asking pupils questions that prompt them to think more deeply.

Consequently, teaching assistants are more effective in their work. ? Finally, at the previous inspection, leaders were asked to ensure that pupils were provided with opportunities to practise writing at length in a wide range of subjects and topics. Staff have continued to help pupils develop their writing skills, which are improving.

However, pupils are not developing these skills sufficiently in some foundation subjects. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupils are provided with opportunities to acquire deeper knowledge in foundation subjects and to develop further their writing skills in these areas ? the attendance of pupils with SEND who receive support rises and is comparable with other groups in the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Gloucester, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Gloucestershire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Steve Smith Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I spoke with you, the deputy headteacher and the school improvement adviser. I also spoke with representatives of the governing body and pupils.

You and I visited lessons to observe pupils' attitudes to learning. We also scrutinised the work in pupils' books. A range of documentary evidence was considered, which included the school's self-evaluation, external notes of visit and minutes of governing body meetings.

I scrutinised attendance information and various safeguarding records, including those relating to the suitability of staff to work with children. I took account of the 65 responses to the Parent View online survey. I also took account of the 11 responses to the staff survey and the 54 responses to the pupil survey issued during the inspection.