Haydonleigh Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Haydonleigh Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 22 January 2019 with Paula Marsh, Ofsted Inspector, 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 June 2015. This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Pupils told inspectors that they enjoy school. This is seen in pupils' high rates of attendance, which are consistently above the national average. Pupils are usually well motivated and take full opportu...nity of the teaching on offer.

They are polite and courteous, and typically collaborate well together in lessons and at social times. The number of pupils on roll has increased significantly as the school has grown towards its full capacity of 21 classes. The well-established leadership team has a secure understanding of the many strengths of the school and of aspects that require further work.

Leaders are working on the right aspects of improvement. As a result, leaders' current actions to address previously identified weaknesses are beginning to take effect. Staff are very positive about the support they receive to continuously improve.

However, the headteacher and deputy headteacher recognise that some of their actions are recent and that there is more work to do to ensure that phase leaders' actions have maximum impact on ensuring that pupils in every year achieve their potential. By the end of key stage 2, proportionately more pupils now leave the school in Year 6 with knowledge and skills in reading, writing and mathematics which are in line with, or above, what is expected for their age. Pupils make above-average progress in reading and writing, and average progress in mathematics.

Pupils' achievement at the end of key stage 1 has improved markedly in recent years. Leaders' recent work is beginning to pay off. However, there remains some variability in pupils' progress in reading and writing between classes in the lower years.

Most parents who responded to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, report that they are happy with the quality of education their children receive. The proportions of parents who report that they would recommend the school to another parent is in line with the national average. However, a minority of parents raise concern over how well leaders and managers deal with concerns when they arise or about the provision on offer for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The improvement of the provision for pupils with SEND forms a central part of the school's improvement plan. At the last inspection, you were asked to ensure that pupils' application of their writing and mathematics knowledge and skills improved. Increasingly, teaching enables current pupils to write at length and many pupils solve mathematical problems and can reason with confidence.

However, on occasion, teachers do not use their assessments precisely enough to ensure that their teaching is closely matched to pupils' needs. As a result, in a minority of classes teaching does not challenge pupils who have previously been of average ability. In these classes, teaching is not finely tuned to support the individual needs of pupils with SEND.

Leaders are already tackling these aspects. However, this work is recent and needs time to strengthen. Safeguarding is effective.

Safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The school's recruitment checks of new staff are in line with national requirements to ensure the suitability of staff to work with children. Staff say that the high focus on staff training in regular staff meetings ensures that safeguarding pupils is a high priority for everyone.

Staff spoken to on inspection apply their training confidently so that pupils' risk of harm is minimised. The school has responded to actions from the most recent safeguarding audit to strengthen whole-school systems. Safeguarding record-keeping for pupils who are at risk of harm is well organised and detailed.

Any referrals and work with other agencies are timely and appropriate. Statutory requirements are met. Inspection findings ? The first aspect I looked at was how well the teaching of early reading and phonics helps children and pupils to read and spell accurately.

In the recent past, the proportions of pupils reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check have been below the national average. ? The current teaching of reading is increasingly successful in supporting pupils to read accurately by the end of Year 2. Pupils who have previously struggled in applying phonics skills to read and spell receive precise additional interventions to help them make progress.

As a result, these pupils in Year 2 read with increasing accuracy and are catching up. However, the impact of teaching phonics in a minority of classes in Reception and Year 1 is inconsistent because it does not deal with pupils' misconceptions well enough. Teachers do not use their assessments of what children and pupils already know to plan work that is closely matched to their needs.

Consequently, some children and pupils with lower-than-average speaking and reading knowledge are not yet able to apply their knowledge of phonics to read or spell in line with their age. ? I also examined the extent to which senior leaders, including governors, are successful in holding leaders and teachers to account for ensuring that pupils' achievement continues to improve over time. ? Leaders have robust systems in place to check the use of funding for pupils with SEND.

Pupils' interventions and individualised support are tracked closely. Increasingly, pupils with SEND make good progress over time. However, sometimes the work that pupils are given in whole-class situations is not as well matched to pupils' needs as the work set in small-group interventions.

As a result, on occasion, pupils' progress in writing is hindered. ? Governors have ensured that there is a clear plan in place to use the pupil premium fund. Increasingly, disadvantaged pupils make strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

However, leaders have not yet been successful in ensuring that disadvantaged pupils' attainment is in line with that of other pupils in the school or nationally. ? Governors receive a significant amount of information from leaders about pupils' achievement. However, they do not routinely validate the school's self-evaluation.

As a result, at times they rely too heavily on information they receive. This limits their ability to hold leaders to account stringently enough for pupils' academic progress, including that of pupils who are disadvantaged. ? A strong collective responsibility exists for ensuring that leadership systems within phase teams are working well.

However, some of the established monitoring systems check compliance with school policy rather than the impact of teaching on pupils' development and academic progress over time. Consequently, while most children and pupils make positive gains in their learning across a full range of subjects, some pupils make average, rather than consistently strong, progress over time. ? The final aspect I looked at was the teaching of mathematics in key stage 2.

A large proportion of pupils have knowledge in mathematics in line with their age because of the good teaching they receive. The curriculum provides a wealth of opportunities for children to solve problems and to reason in mathematics. ? Leaders' actions to narrow the differences between girls' and boys' attainment in mathematics are proving successful.

Most pupils make good progress over time. However, there are some variations in the progress that pupils make in the same year group across different classes. At times, pupils with the same starting points are set work with differing expectations in different classes.

This hinders pupils' ability to secure the more challenging concepts so that they achieve the highest standards. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the teaching of phonics in Reception and Year 1 enables pupils who have lower-than-average speaking and reading knowledge to catch up and read independently with the accuracy and fluency expected for their age ? teaching consistently enables pupils to apply their phonics to spell accurately ? phase leaders' actions are effective in improving pupils' outcomes so that more pupils with average attainment achieve the highest standards ? governors hold leaders to account stringently for the impact of additional funding for SEND and the pupil premium, to improve pupils' achievement even further. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Swindon.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Julie Carrington Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I spoke with you, your deputy headteacher, phase leaders and two governors. I also held telephone discussions with a representative from Swindon local authority and an external adviser.

We made visits to lessons to observe pupils' learning and gather their views about their learning. We scrutinised pupils' English, mathematics, reading and curriculum books from a range of year groups. I heard pupils in Year 2 read.

I considered a range of documentary evidence, including: development plans; school-performance information; phase leaders' monitoring records; analysis of pupils' attendance; governing body documents; and safeguarding documentation. In addition, I took account of 145 responses to the Parent View online survey and the free text messaging service. I gathered the views of staff and pupils through discussions during the inspection and reviewed the online staff survey.

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