East Morton CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of East Morton CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 28 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 the school was judged to be good in January 2012.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since you took up the post of headteacher three years ago, at a time of considerable turbulence in the school's fortunes, you have strengthened senior and middle leadership and pointed staff and children in the right direction.

A...s a result, East Morton CofE Primary is a good and improving school in which parents rightly have great confidence and where pupils thrive. One parent described the school as 'a second home for our children'. Through your clear vision and engaging leadership, you have created a safe and nurturing culture.

Provision for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, rooted in strong values, is exceptional. Consequently, pupils develop excellent personal and social skills and you are preparing them well for life in modern Britain. As one young person sincerely expressed, 'We're going to make the world a better place.'

The main area for improvement which inspectors identified at the last inspection was to make sure that work is set that consistently meets the learning needs of all pupils, particularly the most able. This has, and continues to be, a key priority for leaders and governors. Effective staff training and development along with regular checks on the quality of teaching and pupils' progress, within a challenging yet supportive culture, is increasingly helping teachers to stretch the most able pupils.

Pupils with high prior attainment generally do as well as similar pupils nationally. You agree that even more of these pupils could be reaching the highest standards by the time they leave the school. Pupils throughout the school are making overall good progress, including the very few disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium.

Effective provision for the youngest children enables them to make rapid progress by the time they join Year 1. Governors bring a suitable range of skills and experience to the table. They understand the main strengths and weaknesses in the school because of improvements in the quality and detail of the information you and other leaders share with them.

The governing body has undertaken some self-review and training that has improved governors' ability to challenge as well as support leaders. Governors are not complacent about pupils' outcomes. The governing body keeps a watchful eye on the school budget and ensures that safeguarding is effective.

You and the governing body have together consulted with the school community regarding plans to join the Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust (BDAT). The intention is to strengthen leadership capacity by supporting, and receiving support from, other schools and learning from the most effective practice. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff recruitment procedures are robust, making sure all appointees are suitable to work with children. The central record of recruitment and vetting checks is complete and accurate.

You have ensured that all staff are properly trained so they are knowledgeable about the signs of different sorts of abuse, and how and to whom they should report any concerns about pupils' well-being. Adults understand the risks to pupils of radicalisation and extremism. Pupils and parents are satisfied that bullying is rare and that adults deal with any incidents effectively.

Involvement in such initiatives as Black History Month, anti-bullying and e-safety weeks and learning about famous human rights campaigners is developing open-minded, tolerant and respectful young people. This provision strongly contributes to pupils' safety. Inspection findings ? I was interested to learn whether leaders have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the progress of groups of pupils.

You and your team do indeed know the school well because of the effective checks you carry out on the quality of teaching and learning. You are meticulous in the way you and other leaders keep a sharp eye on the progress of each pupil. You take effective action in response to the weaknesses that you identify.

Despite considerable turnover in staffing, you have spotted potential in staff, giving leadership opportunities to those with little or no previous leadership experience as well as developing existing leaders. As a result, the work is shared out, enabling leaders to accomplish much. ? Following the area for improvement identified at the last inspection, I wanted to check how well the school meets the needs of the most able learners.

In the more challenging 2016 national curriculum tests, the proportion of pupils reaching a high standard in reading, writing and mathematics was above the national average. However, progress scores of pupils with high and middle prior attainment were broadly average, suggesting even more pupils could reach the highest standard. Last year's leavers suffered from some weak teaching when they were in lower key stage 2, and did well to catch up.

Given consistently good teaching throughout the key stage, progress could have been much better than average. ? I found strong evidence that teachers are increasingly challenging the most able pupils well. Together, we saw examples of effective challenge for the most able pupils in a sample of their mathematics workbooks.

Pupils enjoy being challenged and challenging themselves with the 'tricky, trickier and trickiest' problems. Leaders and teachers have a solid understanding of the latest statutory mathematics curriculum. They provide many opportunities for pupils to deepen their understanding by developing their reasoning skills and helping them to attempt challenging problems.

As a result, pupils of all abilities are making good progress in mathematics. ? In 2016 at key stage 2, the progress of all pupils was better than that of disadvantaged pupils. Though there are very few disadvantaged pupils in school who are eligible for support from the pupil premium funding, I wanted to check that leaders and teachers are making effective use of this additional funding and meeting the needs of these pupils.

Disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged make good progress because leaders and teachers plan systematically for their needs. Leaders carefully identify specific and individual barriers to learning and put in place effective plans to address these. ? Over the last three years, the proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year has been above the national average.

However, I wanted to make sure that this represents good progress. Indeed, from entry points that are generally typical for their age, the large majority of children make more than typical progress. Between about a quarter and a half of the children last year exceeded the early learning goals across a range of areas of learning.

This is because of the effective provision. I observed increasingly independent children strongly engaged and sustaining concentration on their chosen activities. Plenty of challenge was evident in this play and exploration.

• In your school self-evaluation, you identified pupils' personal and social development as being exceptional. I found that these aspects are undeniably real strengths and central to the school's success. Your exceptional vision has created a community that celebrates pupils and celebrates life.

Pupils have a good knowledge about diversity, including world faiths other than Christianity. They learn about justice and fairness. You have done a great deal of work with pupils to help them understand about stereotyping and all kinds of discrimination.

Pupils' voices are heard through philosophy sessions and the active school and worship councils. Pupils enthusiastically join in collective worship and enjoy celebrating each other's achievements in Friday assemblies. ? Pupils demonstrate impeccable manners.

Daily breaktimes and lunchtimes are exceptionally well-organised and enjoyable occasions where pupils choose from a wide menu of activities such as badminton and table tennis, or sitting under the shelter together to construct brick models or play board games while listening to music. Pupils and parents value the many opportunities for curriculum enrichment, especially the many sporting and music activities on offer. All of this contributes strongly to pupils' personal development and makes conditions ripe for continuing improvement in pupils' academic development.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? more of the most able pupils achieve the higher national standards by the time they leave the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Leeds, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Bradford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Philip Riozzi Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection We together visited some classrooms to observe teaching and learning. I asked pupils about their learning and what it is like to be a pupil at the school. I observed them in assembly and in the playground.

Along with a small group of leaders, we examined some pupils' workbooks together. I spoke with a few parents and analysed 65 responses to Ofsted's survey, Parent View. I also looked at 41 written responses from parents.

I examined 22 responses to the pupil questionnaire and 20 responses to the staff questionnaire. I spoke briefly on the telephone with a representative from the Diocese of Leeds and a school improvement partner. I examined a range of documents, including the school self-evaluation, school improvement plan, assessment information and documents relating to safeguarding.