Mappleborough Green CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Mappleborough Green CofE Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at this small, friendly school.

They love learning and try hard to do their best. They say teachers make learning fun.

Leaders have created a rich curriculum, based on the national curriculum.

Staff, inspired by the headteacher, work hard to ensure all pupils become enthusiastic about learning. They carefully plan visits and visitors to enrich the curriculum. They want all pupils to do well, and they do.

The school has developed positive links with the local community. Pupils visited the Heart of England Forest to perform in live ...theatre. They take part in events alongside pupils from other schools, such as the science workshop held on the day of the inspection.

Behaviour in lessons and around the school is very positive. Pupils are polite, kind and caring. Year 6 pupils are school buddies to children in Reception.

Staff have high expectations of pupils. They show pupils respect and pupils respond likewise. Pupils, parents and carers are proud of their school and its family feeling.

Pupils say bullying doesn't happen here. They trust adults to listen to them and help them. They know staff would stop any unkindness should it occur.

Strong, positive relationships between staff and pupils help pupils to feel safe.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders and staff have reviewed the school's curriculum. They have planned a two-year cycle of topics to meet the needs of mixed-age classes.

Leaders have developed plans that build up pupils' learning over time. They have carefully chosen resources to support teaching. Some leaders are new to post.

As a result of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, not all leaders have had an opportunity to fully check the impact of their curriculum planning.

Pupils learn in a logical and structured way. This helps them to remember and develop knowledge and skills.

Leaders quickly identify pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers ensure that pupils with SEND receive the support they need to succeed and participate fully in the life of the school.

Leaders, staff and pupils are passionate about the joys and importance of reading.

Staff use the very well equipped school and class libraries to encourage a love of reading. Pupils enjoy opportunities to share the books they are reading. They celebrate the number of words they have read and vote for the book of the month.

Story times are of a high quality. Pupils across the school sit engrossed listening to well-read stories at the end of the day. Leaders choose books to develop vocabulary and support topics carefully.

Pupils read from high-quality texts.

The teaching of phonics starts from the moment children join Reception. Children who find reading more challenging receive effective, targeted support.

This support, and the strong emphasis on listening to and sharing books, ensures children become successful readers and want to read more. Leaders have undertaken a comprehensive audit of the teaching of phonics, which identified some inconsistencies. They have recently introduced a new phonics scheme, which staff are enthusiastic about.

However, the scheme is yet to be fully embedded, so there remain some inconsistencies in the teaching of phonics.

Children settle well into Reception. Quickly established routines help children become confident, happy learners.

Leaders have identified that some pupils entered the school in September with a lower level of knowledge, in part, because of the pandemic. They have put in place activities to develop children's ability and help them catch up. However, letter formation is not consistently well taught.

Standards of presentation across the school are not as high as they should be. This does not help learning. Leaders have started to address this.

Leaders are clear about what they want pupils to learn in mathematics and when. Pupils develop fluency in number operations and calculations. They develop problem-solving skills and are beginning to become more confident in explaining their reasoning.

Pupils enjoy their mathematics lessons. They talk confidently about what they have learned, using correct mathematical language. Staff revisit learning to ensure it is secure.

Leaders and pupils are proud of their modern foreign languages provision. Pupils' ability to speak and hold conversations in Spanish is of a very high standard. Their writing in Spanish is developing well.

Pupils join in with a range of extra-curricular activities. This broadens their understanding of the world and their personal development. Pupils have visited the local church, and places of worship connected to other faiths.

They enjoy a wide range of sporting clubs and a German club.

Staff are proud of their school. They enjoy working here and feel their workload is manageable because they work as a team.

Staff feel valued and well supported by the headteacher and governors.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

All staff know their pupils and families extremely well.

They quickly notice any signs that may give cause for concern. They follow up any issues identified to ensure that pupils are safe and that families receive any help they may need.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when online.

They know the importance of talking about anything that worries them.

Governors ensure that they, and the whole staff, receive regular safeguarding training and updates. They make sure the required recruitment checks have taken place before any member of staff joins the school.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school is at an early stage in the implementation of a new systematic synthetic phonics scheme. This means that there are some inconsistencies in the teaching of phonics. Leaders should now quickly embed the programme and ensure all staff receive high-quality training in order to teach phonics effectively.

• The teaching of letter formation is not sufficiently consistent. Some pupils do not receive support quickly enough to develop good habits in writing. As a result, some pupils do not form their letters correctly and this hampers their presentation.

Leaders should ensure that teachers' standards and expectations of letter formation are higher. ? Some curriculum plans, such as those in computing, are at an early stage of development. Many subject leaders are new in post.

As a result, leaders have not had the opportunity to reflect on how successful the curriculum has been. They should now give subject leaders time to evaluate their curriculum and build on its success.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2017.