Old Mill Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Old Mill Primary School, Broughton Astley

Following my visit to the school on 18 January 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 September 2012.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since that inspection, both you and your co-headteacher have created a sense of care and nurture for the school community.

The school's positive culture ensures that staff and pupils share a determination that everyone... will do their best at all times. You rightly, when necessary, do not shy away from dealing with issues, and underperformance is challenged in a timely fashion. This ensures that all staff are clear about what is expected of them to secure good outcomes for all pupils.

Parents I spoke with and the responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, were almost unanimous in their view that pupils are taught well and are safe and happy. One parent told me how welcomed her children had felt, and how this had enabled them to settle well and make good progress. Pupils enjoy school and demonstrate high levels of engagement in lessons.

They work cooperatively and purposefully together and are proud of their achievements. Teachers and teaching assistants work together effectively to provide learning activities tailored to the needs of individual pupils and groups. Pupils from Year 6 told me proudly of the responsibilities they have in school, including school council, playground helpers and administrative support.

The school has significant strengths in teaching and learning across subjects and year groups. Teachers plan lessons that ensure that pupils can choose and be directed to more appropriate activities for their capabilities and achieve greater depths to their learning. This is particularly evident in mathematics, where pupils' progress is strongest.

However some disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities need to make faster progress to catch up with their peers. Senior leaders and governors have an accurate view of the school's performance. This is made possible through consistent, accurate and regular monitoring of teaching, learning and pupils' progress.

Governors and senior leaders have clear goals and a shared ambition to improve the school further. Plans for improving the school further are in place. However, these plans are not precise enough.

They lack the precision to enable leaders to prioritise actions well enough and fully hold governors and leaders to account for their roles and responsibilities in improving the school. Safeguarding is effective. Pupils that I met during the inspection, both in meetings and while visiting the classrooms, were unanimous in their view that they are happy at school and enjoy their learning.

They feel safe because the adults care about them and look after them well. They understand and are aware of different forms of bullying and the upset these can cause. They insist that bullying is rare, but if any problems arise between pupils that cannot be sorted out between them, staff soon deal with them in a fair way.

Pupils have a secure understanding of how to keep themselves safe, including the safe use of the internet. The leadership team has ensured that the safeguarding procedures and records are completed with sufficient detail to comply with the best safeguarding practices. Leaders, governors and staff, including those new to the school, undertake regular training relevant to child protection and safeguarding issues.

Inspection findings ? Leaders take effective action to promote consistent progress across all subjects. Termly reviews of pupils' progress ensure that teachers and leaders respond quickly to any decline in pupils' outcomes. The additional support provided to pupils who require extra help with their learning is well monitored to ensure that it is successful.

This now needs to be sustained to ensure that all pupils continue to catch up, closing any gaps in learning rapidly. ? Pupils of all ages and abilities read fluently and talk with confidence about the types of book they like and their preferred authors. However, leaders are not complacent about pupils' outcomes, for example they have introduced a number of initiatives to further improve reading outcomes.

As a result, the school's progress-tracking information demonstrates improving outcomes for pupils and significant improvement in the early years and the national phonics screening check results in Year 1. ? Since the previous inspection, the curriculum has developed considerably. You have responded well to the recent national changes and have created a curriculum that responds to the needs of pupils' personal interests and experiences.

This ensures that pupils are fully engaged in their learning and promotes a good understanding of modern British values. ? The school's values, which are shared by leaders, governors, staff and pupils, underpin the curriculum. Pupils speak knowledgeably and respectfully about tolerance for each other and people of different faiths and backgrounds.

Pupils take up the wide range of extra-curricular activities enthusiastically, including the choir, which was given a special compliment by pupils sharing their positive experiences. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? pupils' outcomes, regardless of their ability, level of disadvantage or their special educational need and/or disability, continue to improve by spreading the already very successful and strong practice seen in mathematics across the rest of the curriculum ? plans for improvement clearly identify key next steps, with clear milestones for success, through which leaders and teachers can be held fully accountable for the impact of their actions. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the director of children's services for Leicestershire.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Philip Garnham Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and the school's co-headteacher and we agreed key lines of enquiry. I also met with three governors, a group of pupils from Year 6 and parents at the start of the school day.

I considered the responses of parents from Parent View. You and I visited all classes in the school together, spending a short time in each, and looked at a sample of pupils' work together. I viewed a range of documents, including an evaluation of the school's performance and plans for further improvement, information on how the pupil premium is spent and a number of policy documents, including those for child protection and special educational needs.

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