Ravenswood Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Ravenswood Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 27 March 2018, 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 2013.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are an effective headteacher who leads a team that is passionate about meeting the needs of each pupil in the school.

You and your team are focused on raising aspirations for pupils by supporting them to develop the skills... and attributes to be effective learners. Your investment in training ensures that staff are skilled and knowledgeable. Your staff have opportunities to see outstanding practice in other schools, both in this country and overseas.

They conduct research to inform their choices about how to improve the school. Pupils' behaviour is exemplary. Pupils are welcoming and respectful to both adults and each other.

In lessons, they are motivated and work hard. They collaborate effectively to complete tasks and to evaluate the quality of each other's work. These are all contributory factors to the strong progress that pupils consistently make in English and mathematics.

Governors are passionate about the school and know it well. They ensure that they have up-to-date training. One governor has created an induction programme for new governors so that they can contribute fully to the work of the governing body.

They work with you and your leaders to monitor closely the school's work and to identify priorities for improvement. For example, governors talk confidently about the impact of activities funded by the pupil premium grant and the impact of the family support worker in meeting the needs of pupils and families. You are ensuring that the children have a good start in Nursery and Reception classes.

This work starts before children join the school. Parents and carers in the local community have opportunities to bring their pre-school children to reading activities where they receive books and learn how to share them with their children. Adults in the early years classes promote children's independence.

In the Nursery, children talked to a partner to plan their day and were asked to tell the teacher what they intended to do. For example, one child replied, 'First I will do some writing, then I will go outside and finally I will make an Easter basket.' Their 'wow books' show that children are accessing a rich curriculum which enables them to make strong progress from their starting points.

Children are well prepared for Year 1. You have worked hard to address the areas for improvement in the previous inspection. Leaders have focused on ensuring that pupils develop 'must-have basic skills' through consistently effective teaching and the use of targeted support and help.

This has resulted in higher attainment and faster progress across the school in English and mathematics, including phonics. Teachers take every opportunity to improve pupils' spoken language and vocabulary choices. Pupils can explain how they use criteria to evaluate their writing and to identify what they need to do to improve.

Teachers use questioning skilfully, so that pupils develop their understanding of texts. The most able pupils are provided with challenges to deepen their understanding. In mathematics lessons in key stages 1 and 2, pupils are expected to explain how they solve problems and find errors in their work independently.

The pupils interviewed said that they are regularly challenged in English and mathematics lessons. Your evaluations of the school are informed by a secure range of evidence. You make effective use of external advisers and leaders from other schools to support your monitoring and evaluations.

As a result, you have identified appropriate priorities for school improvement, including ensuring that the most able pupils are consistently challenged across the curriculum. Safeguarding is effective. You and your leaders, including governors, have ensured that there is a culture of safeguarding pupils.

Staff training is comprehensive. Regular safeguarding updates are provided for all staff to ensure that they understand school policies and procedures for keeping children safe. When new staff and governors join the school, they access an induction programme so that they understand their safeguarding responsibilities.

Staff are vigilant and know what to do if they have concerns about a pupil. Records of concern are well organised. Leaders meet regularly and frequently to monitor pupils closely.

You work effectively with outside agencies and other schools to support pupils' needs, including when pupils transfer to other schools. Training is comprehensive, and meticulous records show when an update is due for each member of staff. This ensures that staff always have up-to-date information about school policies and procedures for keeping children safe.

Your procedures for checking the suitability of new members of staff to work with children are diligently maintained. Pupils of all ages told me that they feel safe at school. They know what bullying is, say that it is extremely rare, and know what to do if they have any concerns.

Pupils know how to stay safe when using the internet. They say that this is because of lessons the school provides, with key messages reinforced by e-safety ambassadors. Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection, we agreed that I would look at how effectively leaders are ensuring that disadvantaged pupils are making the best possible progress from their starting points.

This is because, in recent years, disadvantaged pupils have made less progress than their peers in key stage 2 and there have been variations in the standards achieved at the end of key stages 1 and 2. ? Leaders make effective use of the pupil premium funding to provide support for pupils. This includes support with basic skills in key stages 1 and 2 and specialist speech-and-language teaching across the school.

In both cases, this enables pupils to overcome barriers to learning so that they can fully access the curriculum. Funding for additional teaching assistants provides support for all disadvantaged pupils in lessons. Workbooks show that the most able disadvantaged pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

• My second line of enquiry was about how leaders are ensuring that the most able pupils are challenged. This is because, in 2017, the most able pupils made less progress than their peers at the end of key stage 2. The proportion of pupils working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics was lower than similar pupils nationally at the end of key stage 1.

• Leaders ensure that the most able pupils are tracked closely. Their progress is discussed with teachers regularly and support is provided where progress needs to be improved. Assessment information for current pupils shows that the proportions of pupils working at above the expected standard for their age is increasing.

You agree that small variations in the quality of teaching for the most able remain. You are providing support for some staff so that this does not have a negative impact upon pupils' progress. ? My third line of enquiry was about how leaders are ensuring that pupils are provided with a broad curriculum which promotes basic skills and enables pupils to make good progress across a range of subjects.

This is because the school's plans and self-evaluation are heavily focused on improving outcomes in the core curriculum and place less emphasis on the wider curriculum. ? Reviews of pupils' workbooks highlight variations in opportunities for learning in non-core subjects. The pupils said that learning in some subjects is infrequent.

This is partly due to the organisation of the curriculum into topics which place an emphasis on some subjects at different times of the year. However, you recognise the need for non-core subject leaders to be driving improvements in their subjects more effectively so that pupils access learning in sufficient depth. ? My final line of enquiry explored how effectively leaders have acted to improve attendance.

• Rates of attendance and punctuality are improving because of robust monitoring and the support provided to families by the school's attendance officer and family support worker. Good attendance is celebrated in newsletters, on the school's website and in MIMO (Miss It and Miss Out) assemblies. The attendance officer also works with other agencies for families who need additional support.

Although persistent absence remains a concern for some pupils, the overall proportion of pupils with persistent absence has declined each year since 2016. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? non-core subject leaders drive improvements in their subjects more effectively so that pupils access learning in sufficient depth and outcomes improve across the wider curriculum ? the most able pupils make the progress they should by eliminating remaining variations in the provision they receive. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Suffolk.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Keith Pullen Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection We discussed the lines of enquiry for this inspection, the school's internal evaluation of its performance, plans for future improvement and information about progress and attainment of current pupils. Meetings were held with you, members of your senior leadership team and your governors, including the chair of governors.

I met with four of your subject leaders and spoke to a representative of the local authority on the telephone. I gathered a range of evidence to evaluate the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. This included joint observations of teaching and learning in all classes with you and your senior deputy headteacher.

I looked at samples of pupils' current work across all subjects during lessons. I spoke informally to a number of pupils in classrooms about their learning and met with a group of pupils to talk about their school experience and their workbooks. I examined policies and procedures for the safeguarding of pupils, including mandatory checks made during the recruitment of new staff and records relating to referrals made to external agencies.

I held discussions with you, your designated safeguarding lead and your attendance officer. The views of 22 parents who responded to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, were taken into account. I also considered the views of 33 staff and 65 pupils who completed online surveys during the inspection.