Crudgington Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Crudgington Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 14 February 2017, 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 Crudgington Primary School was judged to be good in November 2012. This school continues to be good. Leaders have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Since becoming headteacher, you have managed a number of changes to the leadership team and teaching staff. This has left you without the support of a deputy headteacher but, despite this, you have successfully brought about pos...itive change and improvement. You have the complete support of the governing body and the local teaching school alliance, as well as the overwhelming majority of parents.

The children are central to the school's work and this is reflected in the happiness and enthusiasm shown by all those in your care. You have created a school environment where every success is celebrated, and the children show a great love of learning. This is evident from the joy that the children show in sharing their work and achievements.

In every class, the pupils were very keen to talk to me about their learning, the task at hand and life in general at school. They were all very happy and spoke eloquently and enthusiastically. A pupil in Year 4 told me, 'I love it here and I've made loads of friends even though I only arrived at Christmas.

This is a really happy school.' Pupils are very proud of their work and this can be seen on the walls in every corridor as well as in the classrooms. A display of artwork on the theme of harvest has enabled the pupils to experiment to great effect with alternative mediums.

In a classroom for pupils in Year 3 and Year 4, the 'Learning Superheroes' display allowed the pupils to add post-it notes with statements about what they had learned recently. For example, one pupil added, 'This month I have done metaphors, adverbs and who, which, where to make my writing epic.' You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection.

The lessons I observed generally proceeded at pace, and teachers and support staff were effective in ensuring that pupils were fully engaged. In a class for Year 4 and Year 5 pupils, the work set in mathematics was very demanding and required a high level of organisation and ability. The teacher expected pupils to break down problems into manageable pieces and then draw everything together to produce the final answer.

However, the level of challenge was not consistently high in all the lessons I observed. You have addressed concerns regarding the outdoor learning provision for the youngest children in the school. Despite restricted outdoor space and the need for dual usage, you have managed to create a separate area for learning and investigation that is well used and has a positive impact on children's learning.

You admit that there is still some work to do, and through the hard work and generosity of the school's 'Friends' the funds have been provided to train a member of staff as a teacher of forest schools. You intend that this training will benefit all year groups and not just the early years. Safeguarding is effective.

All procedures and policies are in place to ensure that safeguarding has a very high profile. You have provided all staff with the appropriate training and have developed a shared understanding that the safeguarding of pupils is everyone's responsibility. The safety of pupils is a priority for the whole school community.

This is best illustrated by the 'Super Safeguarding Squad', a team of pupils who have responsibility for cascading messages relating to keeping safe. They have a high profile in the playground and around the school, identified by their distinctive t-shirts. They also have a dedicated noticeboard, which provides information to their peers about safety and whom to speak to if they are worried or concerned.

Inspection findings ? The school is very thorough in responding to pupil absence. Procedures are rigorous and action to establish the reasons for absence is immediate. Leaders fully understand the need to involve outside agencies promptly when pupils go missing from education.

• As part of the school's ongoing drive to address high levels of absence and persistent absence among vulnerable pupils, leaders have a good understanding of the circumstances relating to individual pupils and the factors influencing absence levels. ? Governors are well informed and support leaders in their drive to reduce rates of absence. However, the current absence levels are high for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those pupils who receive free school meals.

• Leaders are fully aware of the need to address weaknesses in reading amongst the more able pupils in key stage 1. This has led to a number of initiatives that are having a positive impact on raising standards. However, at this stage the progress and attainment of these pupils are below the national average.

• Through good communication and clear expectations, parents are now better equipped to support their children's reading and provide teachers with relevant and accurate feedback via reading diaries. Parents willingly volunteer to support readers in school and leaders have taken advantage of this generosity to develop a comprehensive support programme. ? Teachers have reconfigured classrooms to include dedicated reading areas, and leaders have provided suitable reading materials to support and enthuse all pupils, including the most able.

• Leaders have introduced a number of initiatives to support strong progress in mathematics and these are starting to have impact. However, too few middle-ability pupils achieve a greater depth of understanding in mathematics. ? Pupils are aware of the next steps they should take in their learning and teachers communicate this well.

Evidence of improvements can be seen in the pupils' books alongside examples of work at a high standard. The high expectations that teachers have are reflected in the care that pupils take in the presentation of their work. ? The school's development plan has accurately identified spelling as an area for improvement following poor performance for all groups of pupils in the most recent statutory testing at the end of key stage 2.

Pupils are given plenty of opportunity to practise the spelling of new words and are encouraged to use them regularly in context. A weekly programme of testing, following support from parents, enables the school to monitor progress and improvement. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? staff work effectively with the parents of all groups of pupils to make sure that their rates of attendance are at least in line with the national average ? a higher proportion of pupils achieve a greater depth of understanding in reading and mathematics by embedding recent initiatives for improvement ? teachers set work that consistently provides all groups of pupils with a high level of challenge.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Telford and Wrekin. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Richard Ellis Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection I met with you and your senior leaders, and with other members of staff.

You and I conducted a learning walk, which involved brief visits to classrooms to observe the quality of teaching and learning. During this time, I took the opportunity to look at pupils' books with you. I also spoke with a number of pupils about their learning and their experiences of being a pupil at your school.

I looked at displays around the school and saw further examples of pupils' work. I scrutinised the single central record with the person responsible to check that it complied with the government's requirements. I also met with governors, and scrutinised the school's current achievement information with key leaders for mathematics and English.

I held discussions with the designated safeguarding lead and looked at behaviour logs. I checked that the school met all of the national requirements regarding safeguarding, and reviewed attendance information. I reviewed the 34 responses to Parent View and spoke with a number of parents at the end of the school day.