Hinchley Wood Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Hinchley Wood Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 17 January 2017 with Leah Goulding, 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 May 2012. This school continues to be good. Together with your leadership team, you have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection and have developed a values-led curriculum for the benefit of all pupils at Hinchley Wood.

The school has continued to grow to become a three-form entry school. The challenges that such an expansion... pose have been tackled proactively by all members of the school community. The school has recently joined together in a cooperative trust with four other local schools.

You are looking forward to the advantages and development opportunities that this will bring. You have maintained the standards that the school has become accustomed to at the end of key stages 1 and 2 and have ensured that pupils now meet the new higher expectations of the national curriculum. Outcomes at the end of the early years foundation stage have also improved through effective teaching and leaders' careful monitoring of progress.

The school's values are displayed prominently, understood by the whole community and are celebrated in many ways. As one parent commented: 'Hinchley Wood Primary is a great school with caring staff and a strong focus not only on academic work but also on 'Values'' and that their children 'always come out with a big smile and eager to learn.' These values have a very positive impact on the behaviour of the pupils who clearly care about each other and look after each other.

Pupils are overwhelmingly positive about the school. I was enthusiastically welcomed by all pupils who are polite, friendly and enjoy talking about their learning. The majority of parents who spoke to me, or responded to Parent View, Ofsted's online questionnaire, are very positive about the school and would recommend it to others.

Parents commented that 'the school does well at supporting pupils of all abilities and encourages a strong partnership with parents' and 'this school ensures children's excellent education, safety and happiness'. Parents of Reception children welcome the information and strong communications about learning that are shared with them. However, a significant minority of parents feel that leadership of the school could be improved, for example, through more effective and timely communication.

Since the previous inspection, you have implemented a new assessment and tracking system that allows you to see how well pupils are progressing. You and your team then carry out careful analysis of this information. This is used to inform planning for interventions to ensure that all pupils, including the most able, make at least, and in many cases more than, expected progress.

Planned, thorough checks by the leadership team ensure that assessments are accurate and that pupils are making good progress. Your self-evaluation is accurate, you know what needs to be improved and you understand the current priorities for the school. At the time of the last inspection you were asked to strengthen the involvement of middle managers in monitoring teaching.

Since that time the school has restructured its leadership team. You and your larger senior leadership team now share responsibility for monitoring the standards of teaching and learning across the school. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders ensure that statutory checks are carried out on the suitability of staff to work with children. Staff have an up-to-date knowledge of current safeguarding requirements.

They are vigilant about the risks posed to children because of the recent training they have received. Pupils across the school have learnt about what bullying is, how both bullies and their victims feel and what to do if they ever felt worried or concerned about their own safety, or that of others. Pupils report that bullying rarely happens and that they are confident that teachers deal effectively with these rare occurrences.

Leaders acknowledge that some areas of safeguarding administration could be more efficient and effective. Governors are aware they need to continue to ensure that effective and secure systems and procedures are in place. Inspection findings ? During this inspection, I focused, in particular, on the following aspects of the school: the effectiveness of the school's work to keep pupils safe; how well pupils achieve and make progress in key stage 1; how leaders are ensuring that outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, are improving; how leaders ensure the highest quality of teaching and learning in the school; the effectiveness of school's governance.

• You have maintained a culture of high expectations. Working together with other leaders and governors, you have identified the right priorities for improvement and have the correct actions in place to achieve them. ? The key stage 1 leader has ensured that all groups of pupils, including the most able, are making good progress from their starting points.

These actions have ensured that results in the phonics screening check have improved after a recent decline. Pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, persevere and use their phonic knowledge to accurately make sense of their reading. Pupils in key stage 1 are engaged in their reading and are making good progress.

• Pupils across the school are given many opportunities to write at length and the successful use of talk partners develops their skills and understanding in writing. Progress is good in writing books. Handwriting develops towards a joined script in Year 1 and is embedded in Year 2, although some pupils in key stage 2 need more opportunities to practise their handwriting style.

Teachers give accurate guidance to help pupils to improve their skills in grammar, punctuation and spelling. However, this guidance does not have sufficient impact to enable pupils to consistently demonstrate a greater depth of understanding. ? Pupils across the school are making good progress in mathematics.

This is evident in their books where good progress in mathematical skills and fluency are demonstrated. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to develop their skills in mathematical problem solving and reasoning. ? Your decision to make the role of inclusion manager non-classroom based has been a success.

Now, you and your leadership team have an increased focus on checking the progress of pupils who have special education needs and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged. Leaders ensure that careful planning of intervention strategies is targeted and based upon the needs of each pupil and what each needs to do to catch up. As a result of this work, disadvantaged pupils are currently making good progress.

The pupil premium grant is carefully used to accelerate progress for all disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, for example through the provision of a club for most-able mathematicians. ? Overall attendance is above average. However, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average and is not improving.

The school's actions have not been effective in improving attendance for this group of pupils. ? You have coached your current leadership team to be effective in monitoring, evaluating and analysing assessment information. They are reflective and effective practitioners.

Leaders are clear about the need to further improve teaching to raise standards and strategies are in place which are having a positive impact on outcomes. The monitoring carried out by the leadership team identifies training and support needs. This support is then put into place to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the school.

• The leadership team is well supported and challenged by the governing body. Governors have a clear understanding and strategic direction for future development. Governors self-evaluate their own impact on raising standards.

They are implementing succession planning for the strong and experienced chair of the governing body and chairs of committees presently in place. Members of the various committees focus on what matters and visit the school regularly to see the impact of leadership. ? The governing body is aware that a significant minority of parents have concerns about the capacity for effective leadership in the school.

However, current leaders have maintained the high outcomes and good teaching despite significant staff changes. Nonetheless, governors have plans to strengthen the leadership structure by advertising for a deputy head. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? more opportunities are put into place for pupils across the school to develop skills in mathematical problem solving and reasoning ? skills in grammar, punctuation and spelling are effectively developed to enable more pupils to achieve at a greater depth in their writing ? the attendance of a small number of disadvantaged pupils rises to match that of other pupils ? communication with parents by the school leaders is as timely and as informative as possible.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Marcia Goodwin Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, your leadership team, teachers, other members of staff, pupils, four members of the governing body (including the chair) and a representative of Surrey local authority throughout the day to discuss various aspects of the school's work.

Together with you and other leaders, we visited sections of 10 lessons and scrutinised a range of pupils' work. We listened to disadvantaged pupils from Years 2 and 3 read. I took account of 40 responses to the staff survey, 30 responses to the pupil survey and 172 responses by parents to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View.

We spoke to a number of parents at the beginning of the school day. We analysed a range of the school's documentation, including information about pupils' achievement, records of leaders' check on the quality of teaching, the school development plan, safeguarding checks, policies and procedures and attendance information. We discussed your own evaluation of the school's effectiveness.

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