Lyng Church of England Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Lyng Church of England Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 18 October 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 March 2013.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Most parents are pleased with the school and would recommend it to others.

Parents attending the family lunch praised the work of the school in ensuring that their children are happy and safe and settle in quickly. All parents... in your own recent survey said that they received good information about their child's progress. Typically, one parent wrote, 'Thank you for the amazing and detailed report on my child's progress.'

You ensure that parents are kept informed about their children's learning through the website, drop-in sessions, termly reports, assemblies and newsletters. You, subject leaders and governors have an accurate view of the school's strengths and areas for development, which justifies your view that this is a good school. You have addressed effectively each area for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

You are continually raising achievement and improving the quality of teaching, despite the dip in the performance of Year 6 pupils in the national tests in reading and mathematics in 2016. The school aspires to its values. You have developed a culture of high expectations across the school, with a sharp focus on improving outcomes for pupils.

As a result, most groups of pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, make good progress and often better progress than other pupils. During our lesson visits, we noted the positive engagement of all pupils in their learning. Provision in the early years and provision at key stage 1 are strengths of the school and lead to consistently good progress.

Pupils continue to achieve high standards and make good progress in writing across the school. Pupils are assessing their own learning regularly, which is having a positive impact on their progress. You have maintained strong links with the parish church and promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, including fundamental British values, through the school's Christian ethos.

Pupils were overwhelmingly positive about their school. You enrich learning by providing a wide range of visits to places of interest, such as Norwich Castle, and through visitors to the school, such as the fire service. You have also increased the range of after-school clubs, including sports clubs, which are popular with pupils and enable them to increase their skills and confidence.

You created a new website after the previous inspection to ensure that it met requirements and have updated it recently so that it is easier for parents to use. Attendance continues to be above average, with no significant differences in the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and their classmates. Pupils' behaviour in lessons and around the school is good.

They are polite and courteous and show respect to others. They rightly say that bullying is rare and the incident book reflects this. Safeguarding is effective.

The leadership team and governors have ensured that all safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. The school is developing a strong culture for safeguarding. Most parents, all staff and nearly all pupils believe that pupils are safe in school.

Staff maintain good levels of supervision throughout the day to ensure pupils' safety and pupils' safety is a regular agenda item at staff meetings. There is a named safeguarding governor and governors are briefed regularly about safeguarding. All training is up to date, including staff training in safeguarding and safer recruitment training for the headteacher and chair of governors.

Leaders ensure that the single central record of checks on the suitability of staff and visitors to work with children is up to date and meets requirements. The premises are safe and secure. In discussion, pupils said that they learn how to stay safe.

During the inspection, they were observed playing safely and using equipment safely. Inspection findings ? A key focus for the inspection related to how well the school had addressed the decline in standards in reading and mathematics at key stage 2 in 2016. Year 6 pupils did well in their tests in 2014 and 2015, but outcomes in reading and mathematics declined in 2016.

You effectively addressed this decline by thoroughly analysing the Year 6 test results in 2016 and raising expectations for teaching and learning in reading and mathematics. The staff introduced greater challenge to extend the learning of the most able pupils in reading and mathematics. You revised the programme of guided reading and provided more opportunities for pupils to develop problem-solving skills in mathematics, carefully monitoring how well pupils were doing in these areas.

• As a result, you have successfully increased the proportion of pupils with high prior attainment who are reaching the higher standards in reading and mathematics. The school's data shows that, in 2017, standards in reading and mathematics in Year 6 moved from below the national average to above average, and pupils made better progress than they did in 2016. ? Pupils' work, visits to lessons and class timetables for current pupils show that these plans and approaches continue to be implemented effectively.

Results from your accurate assessments are already showing an increase in the proportion of pupils working at greater depth. Although outcomes for pupils in Year 6 with high prior attainment have improved from 2016, you have rightly recognised the need to increase the proportions of these pupils reaching the highest standards in reading and mathematics in your school improvement and development plan. ? I checked how successful leaders were in helping boys to catch up with girls in the early years provision and in the Year 1 phonics programme.

The early years leader has successfully narrowed the gap between boys and girls by setting ambitious expectations that all children will achieve a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year. ? Children enter Reception with levels of development below what are typical for their age. Staff strongly emphasise play, physical development, shared story writing, social interaction and communication across all areas of learning.

They do this within topic themes, such as pirates, to captivate boys' interest. As a result, in 2017, all girls and almost every boy achieved a good level of development, whereas in 2016, only two-thirds of the boys reached a good level of development. The early years leader is ensuring that the provision is moving from strength to strength.

• The school's data shows that, in 2016, a small number of boys with moderate learning difficulties did not reach the required standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check, whereas all girls reached the standard. Nevertheless, there has been a three-year upward trend in the proportion of pupils reaching the required standard. ? The school's reliable data shows that, in 2017, all the girls and most of the boys reached the required standard in the phonics screening check.

The key stage 1 teacher makes good use of a published phonics programme for boys who are falling behind. As a result, by the end of Year 2, all boys reach the required standard and there were no gaps between boys' and girls' attainment. ? I looked at the new website to see if it complies with requirements, especially for the statements on the impact of the school's use of additional funding for the pupil premium and primary sports in 2016/17.

I looked at the policies on the website, including the special educational needs policy, to ensure that they were up to date. Leaders started to develop the new website two weeks before the inspection and have now almost finished it. The website now complies with all requirements.

• The policy for special educational needs, the local offer and the special needs report are all included on the website. All policies are up to date, including those for safeguarding and e-safety. These are made available to parents.

There are clear impact statements on the use of additional funding for pupil premium and primary sports, showing good progress. The website provides detailed information about the curriculum and assessment for all class groups. It includes contact information for parents, a list of staff and governors, admissions arrangements, regular newsletters and a brochure.

• I checked how effectively the new governors were monitoring the work of the school and contributing to overall improvements. The new governors have developed an effective structure with the appointment of an experienced governor as chair. This, together with the local authority governor training in monitoring, evaluation and data, is enabling new governors to provide effective levels of challenge for the school's work.

Governors have strengthened their role and now monitor key aspects of the school's work, checking the progress that the school is making against its priorities for improvement. ? Since the beginning of the previous academic year, all governors have visited the school to check the school's work. As a result, they have a realistic view of the quality of teaching and learning.

Governors are using data well to hold the school to account for its additional spending. They ensure that all policies are up to date and check the website for compliance. ? Governors have reviewed the school's values with staff to ensure that they reflect the school's Christian ethos and promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively, including fundamental British values.

Although they are closely monitoring safeguarding procedures, they have not reviewed the records of incidents of behaviour with the school to look for any patterns of unsafe behaviour to further strengthen the culture for safeguarding. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they implement the school improvement and development plan in full in order to increase the progress of the most able pupils in reading and mathematics ? they rigorously analyse entries in the incident log so that they have an accurate view of trends in pupils' behaviour and safety over time. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Norwich, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Norfolk.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Declan McCarthy Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, subject leaders and governors to discuss the progress made since the previous inspection. I held a telephone discussion with the representative of the local authority.

I looked at a range of documentation, including your self-evaluation documents, your school improvement and development plan, governors' minutes and assessment information. I examined your safeguarding policies and procedures, including records of incidents of behaviour, attendance figures, your vetting procedures to ensure the suitability of staff to work with children and records of staff training. I took account of the 19 questionnaires and text responses to Parent View and your own recent survey of parents, and I held discussions with eight different parents at the family lunch.

I also looked at the nine staff responses to their questionnaire and the 11 questionnaire responses from pupils. I took part in joint visits to lessons with you and looked at the work that pupils were doing. I also spoke to pupils about their learning and held a meeting with 12 pupils to seek their views about the school.

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