Christ Church, Streatham Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Christ Church, Streatham Church of England Primary

School Following my visit to your school on 4 October 2016, 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 November 2011.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have rightly placed a high priority on sustaining strong leadership in the school.

You ensure that subject leaders receive high-quality professional development so that they are able to fulfil their ...responsibilities effectively. When you noted that pupils' achievement in mathematics needed to improve, you ensured that leaders received the right information and training so that they could support staff to improve the quality of teaching in mathematics. Teachers and teaching assistants are now more confident and teach more effectively those aspects of the mathematics curriculum that needed to improve.

As a result, more pupils are making better progress in mathematics across the school. You, other leaders and governors have responded well to the previous inspection report so that the quality of teaching is now checked regularly and rigorously. You identify promptly when a teacher needs to develop any aspect of their teaching.

You are able to draw on expertise in your school and other local schools to provide teachers with appropriate support. Staff benefit from regular opportunities to collaborate, share good practice, train together and make sure that their assessments are accurate. Pupils are polite and welcoming.

They engage enthusiastically in discussions, listening respectfully to each other. They respond promptly to their teachers' high expectations. They share ideas and resources well.

Pupils state that lessons are rarely interrupted by poor behaviour. Their positive attitudes have been nurtured by the strong Christian ethos of the school and rooted in values such as respect for others and willingness to appreciate challenges and learning. Your high standards are reflected in your expectation that pupils' behaviour overall could be even better.

You recognise that some pupils may lose focus in lessons when they find a task too easy or too hard. While you acknowledge that this is sometimes due to the quality of teaching needing to improve, you rightly seek to boost pupils' resilience and determination when working on a task. Your introduction of a new system for recording behaviour has successfully led to improvements.

You have also recognised when a few pupils have needed extra help to interact positively with others. You appointed a learning mentor whose work with pupils is highly effective in helping them to manage their behaviour well and to be much more settled in lessons and at breaktimes. You maintain close and productive relationships with parents and carers.

Your expectations that staff maintain regular contact with parents and, for example, follow up absences vigilantly, mean that levels of attendance are above average overall and no group of pupils attends less regularly than others. Parents who spoke to me and those who completed the online Parent View questionnaire feel that they are well informed about their child's progress. You provide welcome opportunities for parents to learn more about the subjects pupils study and how to support their child's learning at home, for example about how phonics is taught and how pupils' work is assessed.

You have launched initiatives to boost opportunities for families to read together. Pupils across all year groups are familiar with a well-established routine for the successful completion of homework. You promote pupils' well-being and safeguarding through workshops for parents about anti-bullying and healthy eating.

You have applied your strengths of leadership to supporting another local school, with which you formed a federation in 2013. You have managed this development successfully. In your role as executive headteacher of both schools, you are supported well by the deputy headteacher at Christ Church, Streatham.

You both know the school, staff and pupils very well and have an accurate view of the areas of strengths in teaching and leadership and where it needs to improve. Safeguarding is effective. You and other school leaders ensure that all staff receive up-to-date safeguarding training.

Staff receive regular communications about any safeguarding concerns. The single central record indicates that all required checks are made on staff to ensure that they are suitable to work with children. Staff are mindful of specific risks to pupils within and beyond the local community.

They provide helpful guidance to parents on how to keep their children safe, for example when working online or when they are out and about in the community. Pupils have frequent opportunities to learn about keeping safe through the curriculum as well as by going on trips and hearing visiting speakers. Leaders keep well-documented case files which show that the school carries out effective work with outside agencies and parents.

This helps those pupils concerned to improve their attitudes to learning and attendance. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported so that they make progress at rates close to or above the national average. The entrance to the site is monitored well and governors are mindful of, and are pursuing, further developments to make the site even more secure.

Pupils are kept safe and they say that they feel safe. They are confident that there is always an adult they can turn to if they have any worries and that any concerns will be resolved quickly. Inspection findings ? Leaders have established an effective routine to check the quality of teaching.

Their evaluations rightly take into account a range of aspects of teaching, such as support and challenge, providing work at different levels of difficulty and the use of questioning. This comprehensive approach reflects leaders' high expectations for the quality of teachers' planning to ensure pupils make good progress. Leaders have made sure that all teachers have had appropriate training to support these key priorities.

Teachers now more routinely plan lessons based on their knowledge of what pupils can do and need to do next. As a result, teachers know their pupils well and make productive use of personal learning plans to identify key areas in which pupils should be given more support. ? Leaders, including governors, pay close attention to the allocation of pupil premium funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils gain the support they need to do well at school.

Disadvantaged pupils from most starting points make progress at rates at least as good as, and sometimes better than, other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. ? Leaders frequently look at the work in pupils' books as part of their regular monitoring of the quality of teaching. They rightly focus on areas of priority such as challenge for the most able pupils.

When teachers use feedback in pupils' books effectively, it enables pupils to reflect on their work, make improvements and deepen their thinking. ? In line with the school's policy, teachers regularly have one-to-one discussions with pupils to agree next steps in their work which are noted helpfully on 'conference' stickers. As a result, pupils are clear about what they have to do to improve.

Work in pupils' books demonstrates that they act on this guidance and make further progress. ? There are some instances when teachers have not reviewed the quality of pupils' work as thoroughly as leaders expect. As a result, some opportunities for pupils to learn more are missed.

• Leaders have analysed carefully the specific aspects of the mathematics curriculum that needed to be better and have put in place appropriate training, covering for example mastery, depth and problem solving. Teachers and teaching assistants, especially those new to the school, are supported well to develop these aspects of their teaching, for example by joint planning with subject specialists who model good practice. ? Teachers routinely incorporate levels of challenge into their planning as a result of leaders' raised expectations for increasing rates of progress, especially for the most able pupils.

However, at times pupils are ready to move on to a more complex task more quickly. Work in pupils' books and in lessons indicates that typically pupils are not given challenging tasks soon enough. Pupils say they sometimes find work in mathematics too easy.

Training has begun to help teachers set tasks that are sufficiently challenging, especially for the most able pupils. ? Leaders have carefully selected schemes for teaching mathematics that appeal to all pupils and boost the motivation of boys, for example by introducing competitions and applying mathematics to everyday situations. This has helped to engage pupils and improve their arithmetic skills.

• The subject leaders for English and mathematics work well together so that teachers develop pupils' literacy skills when working on mathematical problems. Teachers explain complex terminology clearly so that pupils are clear on the task they have to do. Pupils who speak English as an additional language are also supported in this way through preparatory lessons so they become more familiar with the technical words to be used in a topic.

• Teaching in the early years is good. Children use a wide range of helpful and imaginative resources to boost their confidence and develop number skills from the earliest stages. ? Pupils enjoy reading and use the school library regularly to choose books about topics that interest them.

Pupils are clear on ways in which they have improved their reading because of the help they have received at home and at school. The most able pupils relish the opportunity to choose their own reading books once their reading has reached a high standard. They are not deterred by more complex vocabulary and are very pleased to pursue topics that interest them by reading fiction and non-fiction books.

• Teachers use the behaviour policy frequently and effectively to motivate and reward pupils for their attentiveness and progress in lessons. ? The new behaviour system has been highly effective in boosting pupils' engagement. The immediacy of the issuing of rewards and sanctions, with close communication with parents, means that pupils value the opportunity to receive awards.

Pupils take pride in their achievements and are very keen to improve their behaviour if a sanction has been issued. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? challenge in mathematics lessons is of the right level to enable all pupils, and particularly the most able pupils, to make the progress of which they are capable ? all teachers meet leaders' expectations for the assessment of pupils' work. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Southwark, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Lambeth.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Amanda Carter-Fraser Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection The inspector agreed to prioritise the following areas with the school at the start of the inspection: ? the actions taken by the school to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the school, so that all pupils make the progress of which they are capable ? the actions taken to improve achievement in mathematics, with particular reference to boys' attainment ? actions taken by the school to improve attitudes to learning. The inspector carried out a range of activities to explore these areas during the inspection.

She met with the executive headteacher and the head of school, the members of staff with responsibility for subject leadership and the early years leader, representatives of the governing body and a group of pupils. She spoke to parents and carers dropping off children at the start of the school day. The inspector toured the school accompanied by the executive headteacher and the head of school, visiting all classes.

She had informal conversations with staff and pupils. She listened to some pupils reading. The inspector met with the business manager to review the single central record for safeguarding.

She evaluated a range of school documentation. She observed the behaviour of pupils in and out of lessons. She took into account the responses to questionnaires completed for the inspection by 22 members of staff and 10 pupils, as well as the responses to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire.