Stanton Under Bardon Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Stanton Under Bardon Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 15 January 2019, 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 June 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Stanton Under Bardon is a smaller-than-average primary school. Staff know the pupils well.

The Year 6 pupils I spoke with said that they value beginning their education in a small school where they know everyone. Nevert...heless, they are confident about starting at a larger secondary school, next academic year. You took up the headship in August 2015, after the previous inspection.

You have a teaching commitment yourself and use this to provide time during the day for teachers to share good practice. The school staff value your commitment to them. You have successfully promoted teachers' and teaching assistants' professional development in carefully chosen areas, including the mastery of mathematics, developing assessment, the moderation of writing in key stage 2 and improving attainment in reading.

I visited all of the classes with you at the beginning of the day. Pupils in key stages 1 and 2, and children in the Reception classes, were thoroughly engrossed in learning. We observed pupils listening carefully to teachers explaining activities to them, and other pupils actively engaged in appropriate tasks.

Teachers and teaching assistants consistently ensured that pupils explained their reasoning clearly and justified their answers well. Pupils were given the resources they needed to support their learning. The pupils I spoke with told me that they enjoy coming to school and learning.

Key stage 2 pupils confidently described how the school promotes tolerance and encourages them to embrace differences. I saw displays of pupils' work across the school which confirm the success of this approach. Pupils told me that behaviour is good.

During the inspection, both in and out of lessons, pupils' behaviour was respectful, positive and polite. The large majority of parents and carers who responded to Parent View, the Ofsted online survey, value the education that the school provides and would recommend the school to other parents. The school's website does not meet statutory requirements.

Information about governors' attendance is missing. Furthermore, the school's pupil premium strategy for the current year has not been published. The pupil premium strategy published last year does not contain sufficient information.

For example, it does not explain how leaders will measure the success of the actions they are taking. You have not ensured that different groups of pupils, including those currently in the school, consistently make substantial and sustained progress in writing and mathematics. For instance, in 2018, boys' progress was weak in writing at the end of key stage 2.

You have acted on the recommendation from the last inspection to further improve the effectiveness of how the staff question the pupils to increase their understanding. I observed teachers and teaching assistants, across the school, asking challenging and probing questions. The teachers and teaching assistants who talked with me value the training they have received to bring about these improvements.

Governors know the school's strengths and weaknesses. They can describe the challenge and support they provide to school leaders. However, they have not fully addressed the area for improvement identified in the previous inspection.

The minutes of governing body meetings do not record how governors hold the headteacher to account for the performance of the staff and progress of the pupils, or any action to be taken. This makes it difficult to track the impact of governors' work or to evaluate the benefit for pupils. Parents and others cannot see the impact of governors' work in these records.

Safeguarding is effective. All staff have a very good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. They know and understand their duty to report concerns through, for example, the 'Prevent' strategy and regarding female genital mutilation.

Overall and persistent absence are consistently low. I looked at the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils because the percentage was higher than usual last year. You have taken appropriate action to significantly reduce persistent absence so far this year.

Governors support leaders effectively to make appointments to the staff team and ensure that rigorous checks are made on adults before they are allowed to volunteer or work at the school. These records are kept diligently. You have ensured that pupils are not taken off the school roll until they have been accepted onto the roll of another school, ensuring that they are not missing in education.

The pupils who spoke with me are confident that the school keeps them safe. They say that there is little, if any, bullying. They told me that when pupils have disagreements that they cannot resolve, a member of staff will bring them together and help them to sort out their disagreement quickly and fairly.

Pupils told me how the curriculum helps them to stay safe, including learning about online safety, cycling proficiency and road safety. The large majority of parents and staff who responded to Ofsted's surveys also believe that the school keeps children safe. Inspection findings ? Historical information shows that pupils leaving key stage 2 in 2018 made progress that was consistently in line with the progress of other pupils nationally.

However, the progress pupils made in reading was weaker than the progress pupils made in writing and mathematics. You identified this and have been successfully working to improve the quality of pupils' reading across the school. I inspected pupils' reading comprehension work with you.

Teachers are now asking pupils questions that test their understanding of texts and pupils are showing a secure understanding of what they read. Teachers' assessment of current pupils' reading shows that they are making good progress. ? Space inside and outside of classrooms is used well to promote learning.

Every classroom has a selection of interesting books, attractively displayed to encourage pupils to develop a love of reading. I spoke with pupils, who are enthusiastic about the books they read and the ones they want to read next. ? I observed Year 5 and Year 6 pupils working in class and looked at their work in reading over time with you.

The most able pupils are consistently challenged to explain and justify their answers in depth. They are making good progress towards securing these skills. ? I listened to a group of pupils from Year 6 read.

These pupils read fluently, tackled unfamiliar words by using their phonics skills well and told me that they enjoy reading. They demonstrate the skills necessary to attain the expected standard by the end of key stage 2. ? The most able pupils demonstrate the skills required to attain at the higher standard in reading by the end of key stage 2.

These pupils read challenging texts with great fluency and show insight into the motivation of characters. The pupils told me that they enjoy reading and explained who their favourite authors were and why. ? You have ensured that British values are promoted prominently across the school.

In addition, you have established a culture that celebrates people from all backgrounds and have incorporated this into the curriculum. ? Pupils talk with confidence about British values, particularly the importance of tolerance of people from all backgrounds and faiths. Pupils also understand the process of democracy through voting for members of the school council.

Pupils' work on diversity and tolerance is celebrated in displays across the school. ? In 2018, no children exceeded the expected level of development in mathematics by the end of Reception, although some exceeded this measure in reading and writing. Leaders have taken effective steps to ensure that all mathematical activities now challenge the most able children.

• Teachers and support staff challenge children in the Reception classes to explain their ideas and to attempt increasingly difficult tasks. For example, children successfully placed numbers in order from zero to nine, then reused the zero and the one to make the number 10. Other children ordered numbers beyond 10.

Achievement in mathematics is improving. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the actions that are agreed at meetings of the governing body are recorded in sufficient detail to enable them to track developments and to evaluate the benefit for pupils ? different groups of pupils make consistently strong progress in writing and mathematics ? the school's website meets statutory requirements. In particular, the school's pupil premium strategy, and the attendance information for governors over the past 12 months, should be published.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Leicestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Clive Worrall Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you and the leader of the early years foundation stage.

I also met with the chair of the governing body, two other governors and with teachers and teaching assistants. I scrutinised a range of documents, including those relating to pupils' progress, the school's improvement planning, the pupil premium strategy and documents relating to attendance and safeguarding. I visited all key stages with you to see the learning that was taking place and observed groups of pupils in key stages 1 and 2 learning mathematics, reading and writing.

I spoke with pupils informally in classes and at lunchtime. I looked at work in pupils' books. I listened to two groups of pupils from Year 6 read.

I took account of the views of 54 parents through responses to Parent View, and a letter from a parent delivered at the beginning of the inspection. I also took account of the 10 responses to Ofsted's staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted's pupil survey.