Speen CofE VA School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Speen CofE VA School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are excited to come to school each day. They are greeted by kind and supportive staff. Pupils rightly trust staff and know that they can turn to adults to ask for help or share a worry.

This school is a welcoming community with a nurturing ethos. The school's values and rules, created with children's best interests in mind, run through all interactions. Pupils become responsible, caring and courageous as they are supported to develop a lifelong love of learning in readiness for their next stage.

Excellent leadership ...has secured tangible improvements across many aspects of school life. Staff have high expectations of what pupils can, and should, achieve. Pupils, including the youngest children in Nursery and Reception, live up to these.

They achieve very well. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, who have precise and highly effective support that means they engage well in learning and with the wide range of opportunities on offer. Disadvantaged pupils are well represented in every aspect of school life, such as leadership as members of the 'eco-council', where pupil leaders provide feedback to classes about how to reduce their impact on the environment.

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

Productive discussions between leaders and staff have led to an improved curriculum. Together, they have mapped out when and why ambitious content is taught. The knowledge that pupils need to know is clearly set out from the early years to Year 2.

Leaders have ensured that staff development is central to changes in the school, which means that they now have a staff body with wide ranging expertise. The school is a hub of learning for pupils and staff alike, which has been central to the improvements across the curriculum, attendance and behaviour.Pupils adore reading.

In the early years, there is an abundance of literature and introductions to rhymes and songs. This sets children up to flourish later in the school because they develop a love of stories and different texts at such a young age. The books that pupils read are well matched to the sounds they know.

Phonics is taught expertly, which means that pupils (including those most disadvantaged) learn to read well and as soon as possible. The school has chosen the specific texts they use to enhance the curriculum carefully. This builds pupils' knowledge of different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs.

Pupils, therefore, develop a rich understanding of the wider world while also learning about different types of literature.

Staff have strong subject knowledge. They check pupils' understanding frequently so that they can pick up on, and address, misconceptions.

This is often very effective. Staff model new learning precisely. This enables most pupils to know and remember the necessary subject content.

There is a strong focus on supporting pupils to use new, increasingly sophisticated vocabulary well. However, on some occasions the tasks set for pupils are not as carefully designed as they could be This means that pupils do not consistently benefit as much as they could from the challenging and well-designed curriculum.

The school has embedded an impressive programme to develop pupils' characters.

Pupils develop their understanding of the school values and fundamental British values through a rich range of enrichment activities, discussion sessions and assemblies. Pupils talk confidently about democracy and law, and why these are important. They understand that they can make a difference in the world, and they enjoy doing so.

For example, pupils are proud of their work to raise money for a school in India and for the more local 'Wycombe Food Hub'. Alongside a strong desire to help others, pupils know how to look after themselves. They have excellent knowledge of how to keep physically and mentally healthy.

The forest school teaches them how to interact safely with nature through lessons about fire safety and different plants.

Leaders and governors have a highly ambitious, coherent strategy to sustain the quality of education pupils receive. They have already made considerable improvements to pupils' attendance, which is now very high.

This means that pupils benefit more from the ambitious curriculum and teaching in the school. All staff are, rightly, unanimously proud to be a part of the school, where every decision is based on giving pupils the best start in life.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve (Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Occasionally, tasks that teachers set for pupils are not designed as precisely as they could be to deepen or retain knowledge. This means that, on these occasions, some pupils cannot recall what they have learned from the activity as readily as they might otherwise. The school should ensure that the ambitious curriculum is consistently matched with tasks that are adapted as necessary for pupils, so that they benefit as much as possible from learning activities.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

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

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in May 2015.

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