Cullingworth Village Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Cullingworth Village Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 24 January 2018, 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 December 2012. This school continues to be good.

You and your leadership team have successfully maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment in 2013, you acted quickly and prioritised the structure of your senior leadership team to provide a more effective model of leadership for your school, including the leadership of English... and mathematics. You appointed a new deputy headteacher in 2014 and restructured your leadership team in 2015.

As a result, leadership and management have improved. You have successfully managed a transitional period of growth for the school in terms of both the increased number of pupils and the extension of the school buildings. You have strategically developed systems and processes to allow you and your senior leaders to identify correctly areas of the school that need improvement and to support and improve performance in those areas.

Your determination and passion for continual improvement have ensured that leadership at all levels is focused on the progress of pupils. As a result, outcomes for pupils have been strong, overall, since the last inspection, with some variation from year to year. Governance is a real strength of the school.

Governors are very knowledgeable, committed and provide robust challenge and support to leaders at all levels. There is strong capacity in the school's leadership to achieve the improvements that you aspire to, in order to become an outstanding school. You and your leadership team have successfully tackled the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection report.

At the last inspection, you were asked to increase the proportion of good or better teaching. You acted swiftly, and with resilience, to eradicate any weak teaching. You also focused strongly on staff development and sharing good practice, not only within your school but also through effective collaborations with other schools.

You have created a very strong culture of teamwork among your staff, who value and support your drive for improvements in teaching and learning. You and your senior leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching and have put in place effective monitoring systems and procedures to support further improvement. As a result, all teaching across the school is now strong.

At the last inspection you were also asked to ensure that the leaders of English and mathematics have the opportunities to find out how good teaching and learning is in lessons and find out what to improve further. You ensured that the leaders of these areas had the appropriate professional development and provided time for them to effectively monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching and learning in their respective areas. Consequently, the quality of teaching and learning has improved and the outcomes for current pupils in the school in reading, writing and mathematics are improving.

Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that there is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. You lead an extensive safeguarding team who know the pupils very well, and you have made certain that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality.

The school has effective referral procedures, and leaders take action swiftly and monitor impact closely. You recently introduced an electronic system for recording safeguarding concerns and staff have greatly welcomed it. Consequently, the school tracks and shares information with external agencies effectively and in a timely way.

You have ensured that staff and governors receive appropriate training in child protection and you and your team ensure that you carry out appropriate checks on the suitability of all staff who work with pupils. Pupils say that bullying does not happen very often, but when it does, teachers and leaders tackle it quickly. Pupils also report that they feel safe, know who to go to if they have any concerns and are confident that staff will deal effectively with any problems.

Pupils value the support they receive from staff and the way they are encouraged to look after not only their physical health but also their emotional and mental health. The relationships between staff and pupils are very positive. As a result, behaviour in lessons and conduct around the extremely well-kept and tidy school environment are exemplary.

You have succeeded in creating a very warm and caring environment where pupils and staff feel valued and part of a team. Inspection findings ? Since the last inspection, outcomes for pupils overall have remained strong. Attainment at the end of key stage 2 improved in 2017 and continues to be above the national average for the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics combined.

Following some disappointment in the 2017 outcomes, you and your leaders correctly identified specific areas that needed improvement, for example progress in reading and mathematics for the most able pupils. You swiftly implemented action plans for intervention. As a result, school assessment information indicates an improvement for the current Year 6 pupils, including the most able and disadvantaged pupils, in the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level and greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics.

You acknowledge that more work is needed here to ensure that the outcomes for all pupils, including the disadvantaged and most able, continue to improve year on year. Outcomes at the end of key stage 1 continue to be strong and above the national average, including at greater depth in all subjects and especially in reading and mathematics. Outcomes at the end of Reception continue to be in line with the national average, and children continue to make good progress from their starting points.

• You and your leaders have put in place thorough monitoring systems which show that the quality of teaching is good and continually improving. Together you carry out frequent monitoring of the teaching and learning initiatives and check their impact on the quality of teaching and the progress of pupils. As a result, the vast majority of teachers provide more challenge for the most able pupils and use targeted questioning effectively to probe understanding and support their progress.

The teaching assistants are effective in supporting pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities through consistent questioning. Pupils are encouraged to work independently and the vast majority do. All pupils in key stage 2 carry out daily mental arithmetic tasks, and teachers provide appropriate and aspirational levels of challenge for all pupils, according to their ability.

During our joint visits to classrooms and scrutiny of pupils' books, we agreed that there are some inconsistencies in the quality of teachers' feedback. There is some variability when considering if they were in line with the school policy, and in the quality of responses from pupils. We also agreed that in order for the outcomes in English and mathematics to improve even further, leaders need to do additional work.

This is needed to ensure that all pupils acquire, consistently and effectively, high-order reading and comprehension skills in English and high-order reasoning skills in mathematics. ? Governors monitor closely how the school spends the funding available for the pupils who are eligible for pupil premium. You work closely with the chair of governors and the governor with overview of pupil premium to ensure that the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils improve.

In 2017, governors and leaders found the attainment and progress of the disadvantaged pupils disappointing. Following a thorough analysis of the results, you and your team were able to accurately identify the areas for urgent improvement. Very quickly, you introduced detailed monitoring systems for the progress and attainment of the disadvantaged pupils, and every pupil now has a 'my learning plan'.

As a result, teachers have a good knowledge of the disadvantaged pupils' abilities and are able to target support effectively. Current school assessment information indicates significant improvement in the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in Year 6, including the proportion of pupils achieving greater depth in English, writing and mathematics. The attendance of disadvantaged pupils improved in 2017 compared to 2016 and it was above the national average.

The difference in attendance between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils diminished. ? You have a very clear schedule of monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning where all senior leaders are involved. You triangulate the outcomes of the monitoring process through lesson observations, work scrutiny, learning walks, pupil interviews and meetings about pupils' progress.

These outcomes are strategically linked to staff professional development. Regular 'book shares' ensure that good practice is shared across the school and all staff feel supported in their professional development. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the progress of all pupils continues to improve year on year, particularly the disadvantaged and most able pupils, especially in reading and mathematics at key stage 2 ? the teaching and learning in English and mathematics continue to improve, especially the high-order reading and comprehension skills for English and high-order reasoning skills in mathematics.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Bradford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Dimitris Spiliotis Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and your acting deputy headteacher, staff and governors.

I also spoke to a range of pupils and parents. I listened to pupils read, and together we conducted tours of the school and lessons, looking at pupils' work and observing their learning. I also, alongside senior leaders, conducted a scrutiny of pupils' work in a range of subjects.

I scrutinised and evaluated a range of documents relating to safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and school improvement. I took account of the 70 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, including the 69 extended responses from parents and carers. I also took account of the 120 responses to the pupil questionnaire and the 23 responses to the staff questionnaire.