Christ Church New Malden CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Christ Church New Malden C of E Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their school.

They are happy and safe in this nurturing environment. The school's Christian ethos threads through every aspect of school life. Pupils are encouraged to support each other and maximise their own potential.

Leaders and staff place pupils at the heart of their school. They value pupils' ideas and have recently appointed a pupil leadership team to make sure these are heard.

Leaders expect all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to achieve well.

Pupils strive to m...eet these expectations. In singing assemblies, for example, leaders are ambitious for all. Older pupils are expected to sing in four-part harmonies, which, with practice, they achieve.

All staff expect pupils to behave well. Pupils are courteous and respectful towards each other. Pupils understand what bullying is.

If bullying occurred, pupils would tell an adult, who would resolve it swiftly.

Leaders provide a range of visits to complement the curriculum. The school has its own resident pet pigs, Dotty and Truffles.

Pupils learn to care for these animals by feeding and grooming them and cleaning up after them. The pigs also play a very important part in supporting pupils with social and emotional needs.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders have designed a curriculum that is broad and balanced and builds up pupils' understanding over time.

Subject leaders are knowledgeable and continuously seek to evaluate and improve the curriculum. For example, they make sure that there are a diverse range of authors among the books pupils read. Within each subject, leaders have broken down the aims into smaller learning steps.

For instance, in art and design, pupils in Year 4 make careful observations and experiment with colour mixing, texture and brush type before creating their own still-life paintings.

Subject leaders provide staff with purposeful training to teach the curriculum. This includes suggestions on how to adapt activities so that all pupils, including those with SEND, access the learning as intended.

For example, in geography, teachers are encouraged to break down instructions to make them simpler. In music, pupils are offered individual chime bars rather than the whole xylophone when composing. Some staff are not always consistently clear about the intended key learning.

This means pupils sometimes end up learning things that are not as helpful for what comes next in the planned curriculum.

Leaders prioritise reading. Children in the early years start to learn phonics from the beginning of the Reception Year.

They practise with books that closely match the sounds they know. Leaders introduced the current phonics programme last year. Most staff are trained to teach early reading well.

For example, teachers check what sounds pupils have remembered and provide sufficient practise so that pupils read with increasing fluency and accuracy. However, a small number of staff do not model new sounds and reading strategies with precision. In these cases, pupils do not develop their reading confidence as quickly.

Leaders know there is further work to do to embed the current phonics programme.

Staff in the early years use important mathematical vocabulary with children right from the start. They make sure children use and understand words such as 'smallest', 'same' and 'biggest' when comparing objects of different sizes.

Children are encouraged to count confidently. Teachers carefully check children's understanding. For instance, they use marbles of different sizes to show that object size does not affect the number within a group.

In personal, social and health education (PSHE), pupils learn about personal boundaries and privacy. Pupils spoken to stated they would go to a trusted adult if they were worried about anything. Older pupils have an appropriate understanding of diversity.

For example, they know that it is wrong to treat people differently because of their sex or race.

Leaders provide many opportunities for pupils to join clubs. Choir is the most popular, with a quarter of the school belonging to either the infant or junior club.

Pupils value the introduction of recent rewards for positive behaviour, such as the 'good deeds at lunchtime key'. Pupils with talents and interests outside of school are encouraged to share these in school, for example through playing a musical instrument in the school concert.

Many staff are proud of the nurturing culture in the school.

They feel supported with their workload. Leaders and governors have focused more recently on staff well-being, which is welcomed. For example, they check that additional responsibilities given to staff are accompanied by appropriate time and resources.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders provide up-to-date and regular training. This ensures staff know what signs to look out for that may indicate a pupil is at risk of harm.

It also means that staff know how to raise concerns quickly, including if that concern involves a member of staff.

Pupils are taught about the dangers in their community. For example, they are taught how to cross the level-crossing safely.

Pupils also learn why it is important not to share personal details online.

Governors understand their statutory duties and perform these effectively. They oversee safer recruitment.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some staff are not teaching key learning explicitly enough in wider curriculum subjects. This means not all pupils remember important knowledge well enough to help with what they learn next. Leaders need to continue to embed and monitor the intended curriculum so that all pupils know and remember more in every subject.

• Leaders have recently introduced a new phonics programme. Most staff have the expertise to help pupils learn to read well. However, a small number of staff are less consistent in utilising the intended strategies of the programme.

Leaders should ensure that these staff have sufficient confidence and subject knowledge to teach phonics. This will help pupils to learn to read with consistent confidence, fluency and accuracy.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2013.