Cracoe and Rylstone Voluntary Controlled Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Cracoe and Rylstone Voluntary Controlled Church of England Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love attending this school. They are happy and feel safe.

Parents and pupils alike appreciate the warm and caring environment that exists in this 'family-like' school. Pupils behave well in and around school, showing kindness and respect to one another.

Leaders plan a range of strategies for pupils to report any concerns or worries, such as leaving a note for 'the worry monster'.

However, pupils trust adults and prefer to speak directly with staff. Pupils know that staff will quickly deal with their concerns or offe...r advice about how they can manage a risky situation in a positive way. This enables pupils to practise the skills that they have learned to manage risk.

Pupils appreciate this.

Pupils enjoy a range of responsibilities on offer, from 'bee and stick insect monitors' to safeguarding auditors. Pupils support leaders to regularly monitor safeguarding arrangements around school, such as checking the premises and visitors' lanyards.

They have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe both on and offline. Pupils take their responsibilities seriously. Pupils develop their entrepreneurial skills through some of these activities, such as selling the honey and candles from beekeeping.

Pupils are proud of their achievements.

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

The school has high ambitions for all pupils to achieve well, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders continuously develop the curriculum, making use of teachers' subject expertise across the federation and resources in the community.

As such, pupils study a broad and balanced curriculum. For example, pupils regularly benefit from expert teaching in physical education when accessing a wide range of sports facilities at a local secondary school.

The school has carefully considered the important knowledge that it wants pupils to learn from the early years onwards.

Leaders ensure that all subject leaders receive early years training that enables them to plan a curriculum that prepares children for Year 1. Children benefit from this well-sequenced curriculum. They absorb themselves in the activities that have been carefully chosen by staff.

Staff model high-quality learning in these activities and the vocabulary that they want children to use. Children eagerly detect the 'villain' by observing fingerprints left around the classroom through a magnifying glass. They use language such as 'unique' and 'investigate', with a clear understanding of what this means.

Pupils with SEND benefit from well-chosen adaptations made to the curriculum which takes into account their individual needs. Leaders work closely with parents and external agencies to plan these adaptations. As a result, pupils with SEND make strong progress from their starting points.

Leaders promote reading well. Well-trained staff deliver the school's chosen phonics programme with precision and accuracy. Pupils enjoy their lessons which is reflected in their high levels of engagement.

Teachers quickly identify pupils who are struggling and ensure that they receive the right support to help them. However, some pupils who are at the early stages of reading do not read with fluency or confidence. They read books that do not match the sounds that they know.

This prevents them from progressing as quickly as they could.

In most curriculum subjects, leaders have developed precise checks on what pupils know and remember. This, along with teacher's good subject knowledge, allows them to identify gaps in pupil's understanding and respond accordingly.

Pupils can recall with confidence what they learn. They can make direct links with prior learning and can explain how previous knowledge is building up over time. As a result, pupils make good progress.

However, in a small number of subjects, such as the personal, social and health education curriculum, checks are not as precise. While pupils learn about a range of topics within this curriculum, some pupils' understanding of concepts such as fundamental British values is vague. This prevents them from progressing as quickly as they could.

Staff constantly model their high expectations of how pupils should behave. Pupils are polite and courteous to visitors. They play happily with each other.

They move around the school in an orderly manner. In classrooms, pupils focus well and engage positively with their tasks.

Staff are proud to work at the school.

They feel that they can approach leaders if they need anything and are provided with appropriate support to fulfil their roles. Staff feel that leaders are mindful of their workload and their work–life balance. Skilled and experienced governors support and challenge leaders effectively.

They know the school well and contribute to its development.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• A small number of pupils at an early stage of learning to read are not given books that match their phonics knowledge.

This hinders how well some of these pupils develop their reading fluency. The school should ensure that pupils are given books that match their phonics ability so that they can catch up with their peers as quickly as possible. ? In a small number of curriculum subjects, teachers do not use their checks on what pupils know and remember well enough to identify gaps in pupils' learning.

As a result, some pupils are unable to recall the knowledge that leaders intend them to learn. The school should make sure that, in all subjects, teachers use assessment information effectively to address gaps in pupils' knowledge.

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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in January 2019.