Harbury CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Harbury CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 27 March 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 October 2013. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

You lead the school with resolute and dedicated commitment to the achievement and welfare of your pupils. Pupils enjoy learning. One said, 'I'm so happy here.

Everyone really looks after you.' The overwhelming majority of paren...ts and carers who responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online survey, support what you and your staff are doing. Typical of the positive responses was a parent who said, 'The teaching staff at the school are excellent and are exceptionally interested in the welfare and learning of the children.'

Staff enjoy working at the school. One of your colleagues told me, 'I feel well trained and guided by the headteacher who always puts pupils first.' You track the progress of your pupils well and put help in place in a timely manner.

You set ambitious targets for your pupils and they have a clear idea of how well they are doing. Your governors are a strength of the school. They are well informed and eager to be involved and challenge you and your staff effectively.

Governors are well trained in how to use progress and attainment information and use this with rigour to support your whole-school planning. As a result, pupils currently at the school are making good progress across a range of subjects, including reading, writing and mathematics in key stage 2, key stage 1 and the early years foundation stage (EYFS). The school is welcoming.

Pupils are friendly and well behaved. They feel secure and safe. Your school is an engaging place for pupils.

There are quiet reading areas, active outdoor play areas and a Heritage Room, spaces that encourage reading, practical mathematics and links with the community. In the main, pupils achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics. Test scores in these subjects are above national averages at key stage 2 and in key stage 1.

Pupils' scores in the phonics screening test were above national averages. Pupils do better in the EYFS than the national average. In 2017, a minority of girls did not make as much progress as they should in mathematics.

Therefore, you have made this a focus of your planning and improvement work this year. As a result, girls now make much better progress in mathematics in key stage 2. At the last inspection in 2013, you were asked to address a number of issues.

These included: ? helping pupils make faster progress ? ensuring that pupils spend more time on task ? providing pupils with more opportunities to write at length. I could see that you have made progress with all these features of your school. Most pupils in the school are making better progress than the national average in key stage 1 and key stage 2.

I saw lessons that were engaging and interesting and offered challenge to keep pupils learning. There are plenty of opportunities to help the most able pupils. You give them access to Warwick University Science trips, intensive small group work and extension tasks that you find suit these pupils.

I saw careful questioning by teachers to help pupils think more deeply about mathematics and English. Pupils books show pupils making progress with longer writing tasks, for example, work on Charles Darwin linking history and science. Safeguarding is effective.

You place the highest value on keeping children safe. You told me, 'Our number one job is to keep pupils safe.' The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

Your safeguarding culture is meticulously planned and well informed by up-to-date training. Your staff help pupils learn how to keep safe through clear messages at registration and in assemblies, for example. Your social, moral, spiritual and cultural curriculum helps pupils learn how to have respect for one another.

They learn how to reduce incidences of bullying and how to be responsible citizens in a safe society. For example, you give pupils effective lessons on how to use the internet and mobile phones safely. You keep records in a detailed and thorough manner, which means you can share information between your staff in a timely manner and make sure your actions are effective.

Pupils said that they feel confident who they should turn to if they are worried about anything. Your governors check and challenge you on your safeguarding procedures and they too are committed to safeguarding as the school's top priority. Inspection findings ? In 2017, pupils did better than the national average in reading and writing and mathematics assessments.

Pupils did better than the national average in key stage 1 and in key stage 2. A few pupils did not make good enough progress given their starting points. You analysed the results and identified that some middle-ability girls did not make enough progress in mathematics.

• The current cohort of girls in key stage 2 is making much better progress. This is because you have trained staff to teach reasoning and problem solving more effectively to pupils and especially to disadvantaged pupils. I saw lessons in which pupils were successfully solving algebraic problems and applying their reasoning to calculating the areas of shapes.

Pupils are now confident when they complete mathematics tasks. They ask for help when they need it. They discuss their difficulties more readily with their teachers.

Teachers get help to pupils more quickly, and pupils respond well to feedback given to them. ? Your staff are tracking pupil progress even more closely. As a result, staff intervene more quickly and effectively to give pupils the help they need.

• I saw work in lessons and in pupils' books that showed pupils making progress in how to perform a range of calculations, for example multiplication and division of fractions. In other books, pupils were solving challenging and complex equations. As a result, pupils, including middle-ability disadvantaged girls, enjoy their work and make good progress.

• Teachers' planning builds in varied and frequent practice in lesson time and in homework for pupils. These tasks help pupils become skilled at mathematical problem solving. This means that pupils develop conceptual understanding and have the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

• In key stage 1, you have worked with teachers to make mathematics practical and more in context. I could see in the EYFS that pupils are eager to work on number problems. Your staff have helped their confidence in linking numbers, performing basic addition and seeing number in the world around them.

As a result, children enjoy number and make good progress. ? We also explored the reasons why some pupils' attendance was not as frequent as it should have been last year. You have worked hard at this, setting challenging targets with families and taking time to discuss with them how home and school can work together to motivate and engage pupils.

As a result, attendance is now much improved. It was already higher than the national average overall. Now, there are only a very few pupils whose attendance is still too infrequent.

• The school is an exciting and secure place to learn. Through assemblies, a wide range of trips, school drama and music productions, art clubs and booster classes, your staff bring out talents and abilities from pupils in all year groups. Your leadership is caring, ambitious and effective.

Pupils, parents and staff are proud to be part of the school community. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the improvements in pupils' mathematics learning lead to consistently good outcomes. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Coventry, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Warwickshire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Graham Tyrer Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I observed learning in lessons throughout the school. I conducted a work scrutiny in each lesson I visited.

I had meetings with the headteacher and other members of the senior leadership team and middle leadership team. I met with representatives of the governing body. I met with pupils and discussed with them their learning and workbooks.

I scrutinised the single central record, met with the designated safeguarding lead and scrutinised a range of records of recruitment, welfare plans and actions taken to keep pupils safe. I scrutinised a wide range of documentation that the school produces as part of its self-evaluation. I inspected the school's development planning, policies and documents published on the website and made available during the inspection.

I took into account the 11 responses from the staff questionnaire. There were 68 responses to Parent View and 42 free-text responses. There were no responses to the pupil questionnaire.