Harpley CofE VC Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Harpley School has improved since the last inspection and is a good school.

The headteacher, staff and governors have developed a strong team approach that instils a sense of belonging and a family atmosphere within a vibrant school community. This is valued highly by parents and carers as illustrated by the many positive comments, such as the following description of the school by a parent: 'a special school, run with heartfelt passion by both the staff and the community to provide a friendly and caring learning ethos'. Teaching has improved to a consistently good level across the school.

The close partnership between teachers and teaching assistants is a key feature of the school's success.... The progress of every pupil is closely tracked, and they benefit from consistently good support and guidance in lessons that help them to achieve well. Pupils clearly enjoy their learning, as reflected by their high attendance.

Their excellent behaviour ensures that they focus diligently on their work. Pupils' achievement is good, and standards have risen, for example, in mathematics and reading, to above-average levels. Standards in writing are improving, although not as quickly as in other areas.

The introduction of writing targets is beginning to improve pupils' understanding of what they need to improve. These are not embedded in practice for the older pupils. Pupils enjoy the range of cross-curricular topics, although these do not always provide sufficient opportunities, especially for more able pupils, to extend their writing skills.

The effective teamwork between teachers and teaching assistants is particularly successful in supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff know each individual and have a good understanding of their particular needs. They provide effective guidance to help them to make good progress and attain well compared to similar pupils nationally.

Children settle quickly and happily into Class 1. They really enjoy being with the older pupils from Year I and Year 2, and the rate of progress of some of the more-able children is stimulated by their awareness of what the older ones are doing. Outdoor provision has improved.

Although the current building improvements limit some free-flow between activities, staff plan carefully to minimise their impact and maintain a good outdoor programme. The school has an outstanding partnership with parents and carers that contributes greatly to their children's learning and to improving the school, for example by raising significant funds through the centenary appeal to extend the building. Teachers use assessments carefully to match activities to the range of abilities within the mixed-age and mixed-ability classes.

They make good use of interesting resources to stimulate learning and use questions effectively to encourage pupils to contribute their ideas. They do not consistently use more-challenging questions to extend more-able pupils, for example, when looking to develop the use of more-exciting words and phrases in their writing. The headteacher continues to provide enthusiastic and purposeful leadership both in promoting good classroom practice and in targeting areas for improvement.

The strong collaborative approach encourages all staff and governors to contribute successfully to improving the school. A detailed and effective tracking system enables the school to set realistic yet challenging targets and to amend these where there is a high level of change in the small year groups. A good governing body has improved its procedures to provide an accurate check on how well the school is doing and give a clear direction to its work.

As a result, standards are rising. The school has a good capacity to continue to improve.

Information about the school

This is a small school.

Pupils come from the villages of Harpley and Houghton and almost 50% come from outside of the immediate area. An above-average proportion of pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals. There are no pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average. Pupil mobility (the proportion of pupils leaving or joining between Reception Year and Year 6) is high. The school has achieved Healthy Schools' status and is part of the Litcham Learning Community.