Chawton Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Chawton Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 5 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 February 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Along with staff and governors, you have ensured that the school provides a warm and welcoming learning environment. The school's core values, 'love, courage and fellowship', are embedded and underpin the positive relationships betw...een staff and pupils.

Senior leaders have worked effectively with governors, the diocese and the local authority to ensure a strong focus on continuous improvement, through a period of staffing change. Your determined and resilient leadership has ensured that the school has continued to improve outcomes for all pupils. Governors are committed to the school.

They are knowledgeable and understand the improvement priorities. Governors regularly visit to monitor leaders' actions and maintain their up-to-date knowledge of the school's performance. They ensure that their statutory duties are met, for example, by auditing the school's safeguarding arrangements.

Governors have the skills, knowledge and understanding to hold leaders fully to account, challenging and offering support when required. Your planned programme of continuous professional development for staff has led to significant improvements in the quality of teaching across the school. Careful monitoring and evaluation have ensured that the sequences of learning in English and mathematics are more precise.

Improvements to assessment procedures enable teachers to identify pupils who may be underperforming more quickly. As a result, pupils receive tailored support and are making stronger progress. Leaders provide a wide range of learning opportunities across the curriculum.

Recent improvements in the teaching of science have encouraged the pupils to be more scientific in their thinking, particularly when carrying out experiments. As a result, pupils' scientific knowledge and understanding are developing well. The science leader has been instrumental in making the necessary changes to the curriculum and provides support and guidance to staff.

Leaders recognise the need to further develop the practice of leaders for other subjects, to improve provision in the wider curriculum. The sequences of learning in the foundation subjects are not as clear as those for English and mathematics. Pupils are proud of their achievements.

They are happy in school and have positive attitudes to their learning and lessons. Pupils respect each other's ideas and work well together, striving to do their best. Pupils say that behaviour is good and that bullying and name-calling are rare.

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. One parent said, 'This is a very caring and nurturing school and I leave my child in their care with confidence.' Most parents value the community feel of the school and the vast majority feel that their children are well cared for and safe.

Leaders have taken decisive action to address the areas identified in the last inspection. Handwriting is now systematically developed across the school. Pupils take pride in their work and present it well.

The early years outdoor learning environment is now well equipped and enables children to develop their skills in all aspects of their learning. During this inspection, children were observed practising their language and communication skills in the outside role-play area. They also develop their understanding of habitats by observing the birds using the bird box, through the camera that has been set up for this purpose.

The school's website has been redeveloped and information is now more easily accessible for parents. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Staff and governors receive regular training and fully understand their safeguarding responsibilities and duties. The processes for raising concerns are understood by all staff. Your mantra, 'don't worry if you might be wrong, worry that you might be right', resonates with all staff and ensures that they report any concerns they may have immediately.

Leaders monitor and follow up on potential concerns rigorously, and involve external agencies when necessary. Leaders have ensured that the school's recruitment processes are robust. They carry out the required checks to ensure the suitability of all adults who work with pupils.

Once appointed, staff undertake an in-depth induction to ensure they fully understand their safeguarding responsibility and the reporting systems. Governors monitor safeguarding procedures effectively. They ensure that the school's single central record is compliant and kept up to date.

They also carry out regular checks, talking to staff and pupils. Inspection findings ? During this inspection I explored three lines of enquiry. The first of these focused on how leaders have improved teaching since the last inspection.

Leaders have used support from the local authority effectively to improve teachers' practice. Consequently, teaching is now consistently good across the school. Teachers' strong subject knowledge enables learning to be pitched at the right level for all groups of pupils, particularly in English and mathematics.

Assessment procedures have been sharpened to ensure that gaps in learning are addressed through additional support for underperforming pupils. The school's recent focus on ensuring that pupils have opportunities to work at the higher standards is bearing fruit. Teachers now have a good understanding of what pupils' learning at greater depth looks like.

Consequently, the proportions of pupils achieving the higher standards in core subjects across the school are increasing. ? The sequence of learning in English is now much clearer. Pupils have the opportunity to study in-depth texts that are linked to other areas of learning.

Pupils are given interesting ways to apply their grammatical knowledge. For example, during 'Chawton Week', pupils had the opportunity to write letters from different viewpoints to Lady Bertram from Mansfield Park. Pupils confidently employed different persuasive devices, such as exaggeration, rhetorical questions and emotive language, in their writing.

• The second line of enquiry focused on the progress pupils make in mathematics. At the end of key stage 2 in 2018, pupils' attainment and progress in mathematics were well below national figures. Leaders recognise that this was partly due to inconsistencies in how mathematics was taught across the school.

Leaders' actions to remedy this drop in mathematics outcomes have been successful. ? Teachers' subject knowledge in mathematics is well developed as a result of the training and support they have been given. The mathematics curriculum has been redeveloped so that the sequence of learning builds on pupils' prior knowledge.

Pupils are encouraged to use practical equipment to support and deepen their understanding of key concepts. Pupils are also given opportunities to apply their knowledge through problem-solving and reasoning tasks. Teachers directly teach each group of pupils to ensure that their work is pitched at the right level.

Pupils' misconceptions are addressed quickly to ensure they have a good understanding of the concepts and skills covered. Pupils are keen mathematicians. They strive to do well and embrace challenge.

Pupils are now making good progress in mathematics across the school. ? The third focus for this inspection looked at the effectiveness of leaders in providing a broad and balanced curriculum. The curriculum provides a wide range of learning opportunities.

These are enhanced through the use of regular visits and visitors. For example, the actor who played 'Veruca Salt' in the film 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' recently visited the school as part of a topic on chocolate. ? British values are threaded through the curriculum.

For example, pupils in key stage 1 developed their understanding of mutual respect and tolerance when exploring why Guy Fawkes wanted to burn down the Houses of Parliament. Pupils have a good understanding of democracy through taking part in the elections of school councillors and house captains. ? The opportunities that pupils have to learn how to play a range of musical instruments are a strength.

Leaders make effective use of Hampshire's music service so that pupils benefit from being taught by specialists. During the inspection, pupils in Years 1 and 2 were learning how to play African drums. ? A specialist teacher supports the teaching of physical education across the school.

He provides valuable professional development for teachers. He also ensures that pupils have the opportunity to participate in local tournaments and enjoy sports in regular after-school clubs. ? Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education as attainment and progress are now good.

The subject leadership of English, mathematics and science is strong. However, the leadership of other subjects requires further development to improve provision. The sequences of learning in foundation subjects are not always clear.

As a result, the opportunities to develop pupils' subject-specific knowledge and skills to a greater depth are underdeveloped. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? sequences of learning in the foundation subjects are improved so that they develop pupils' depth of knowledge and understanding more effectively ? subject leadership is strengthened so that subject leaders have the skills to secure further improvement in teaching and learning across the curriculum 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 Mo Galway Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, other leaders, pupils and members of the governing body. I also spoke to a representative of the local authority and of the diocese. We visited all classes together to observe teaching and learning.

I scrutinised a wide range of pupils' work alongside your subject leaders. I took account of nine responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire and considered 41 responses from parents to the online questionnaire, Parent View, including 41 free-text comments. I also spoke to a number of parents at the beginning of the school day.

I observed pupils' behaviour at breaktime and as they moved around the school. I analysed a range of the school's documentation, including: information about pupils' achievement; attendance information; the school development plan; and a range of the school's policies and procedures, including those for safeguarding. We also discussed your evaluation of the school's effectiveness.

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