Temple Herdewyke Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Temple Herdewyke Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 3 October 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 February 2013. This school continues to be good. You and your leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

Your effective leadership is well supported by senior colleagues and a skilled governing body. Together, you have a clear understanding of the strengths and priorities for development. Your action plans are focused and t...hey help to provide an effective response to areas for improvement.

Temple Herdewyke Primary School is a considerably smaller than average-sized primary school. You have used this to create a close-knit and inclusive school community. Staff know the pupils as individuals and provide a high level of care, guidance and support.

Consequently, pupils enjoy coming to school, behave well and work hard. During the inspection, comments from pupils included, 'We feel lucky to have our school' and 'Everybody knows each other and we look out for one another.' Parents appreciate the ethos of the school, with many commenting on how happy and settled their children are.

You and the staff are skilled at managing the unique nature of the pupil intake. The school serves a local military base, which means that there is a high level of mobility. Some pupils do not stay long at the school and some enter later in key stage 2.

The number of pupils on roll can fluctuate considerably from year to year, which provides a challenge to school improvement. However, you and the staff put in place effective emotional, social and academic support for these pupils, so that they can thrive during their time at the school. You have responded well to the areas for improvement in the last inspection report in relation to the standards of reading across the school.

You decided that pupils would only read high-quality texts and books by award-winning authors. These texts have then been used to ignite a love of reading among pupils. Furthermore, books have been a catalyst to develop pupils' reading comprehension skills.

As a result, outcomes in reading are good across the school and pupils progress well in their reading skills. In the last two years, the proportion of pupils attaining the higher standard at the end of key stage 2 has been above the national average. Since the last inspection, you have created more opportunities for teachers to gain a better understanding of what constitutes high-quality teaching.

You have arranged visits to other schools to see outstanding teaching. You also ensure that teachers receive regular and useful feedback on the quality of their teaching. These approaches have ensured that teachers improve their practice over time.

Your induction procedures are effective, which ensures that new teachers are clear about the school's approaches to teaching and learning. A key strength of the school is the standard of pupils' punctuation and grammar. You have had a clear focus on this and teachers' secure subject knowledge helps pupils to develop the technical aspects of their writing.

This is evident in pupils' written work and in the proportion of pupils who achieve the expected standard in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test by the end of key stage 2. Teaching in key stage 1 is particularly effective and leads to good outcomes for pupils. In 2016, the proportion of pupils in Year 1 who achieved the expected standard in the phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) screening check was above the national average.

Furthermore, at the end of Year 2 in 2017, a high proportion of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading and writing. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about wider enrichment activities that enhance their school curriculum. For example, they enjoy the range of visits that they go on, including a trip to do adventurous activities like climbing and canoeing.

Pupils also enjoy looking after the chickens and ducks on the school site. You have set up a house system with team captains and pupils are motivated to accumulate house points for good work or behaviour. Pupils have some good ideas about how the school could be improved further.

However, they do not get sufficient opportunities to have their voices heard and for their ideas to be implemented. You receive strong support and challenge from the governing body. Governors have a range of skills and are forward thinking.

For example, they have clear plans of how they are going to promote the school in order to build pupil numbers in the future. By being proactive in meeting with parents, governors are fostering closer links with the school community. Effective training ensures that governors are able to ask pertinent questions and provide an effective level of scrutiny of performance data.

As a result, they know where there is stronger performance and where further work is required. The local authority also provides robust support and challenge to the school. You have worked closely and determinedly with the local authority in recent years to respond to areas that required improvement.

Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose and well organised. Staff receive regular training and have a good understanding of their responsibilities.

This creates a strong safeguarding culture across the school. Staff are vigilant in raising and recording any concerns that they might have about a child. As the designated lead for safeguarding, you follow up any concerns tenaciously and, when required, you involve external services in a timely manner.

Your systems for monitoring and record-keeping are thorough and effective. Staff recruitment, vetting and checking systems are rigorous. Governors also carry out checks on aspects of safeguarding in order to fulfil their statutory responsibilities.

You and the staff also ensure that pupils have an understanding of how to keep themselves safe. Pupils spoke positively about how they have learned from professionals about first aid and fire safety. You have ensured that pupils know how to stay safe on the internet and pupils can articulate exactly what they would do if they were concerned about something online.

Inspection findings ? Your evaluation of the school is accurate and focused. You and the governors know the key priorities and are determined to keep improving the school. Your analysis of assessment information is precise and you constantly review which pupils require additional support.

Your ongoing and effective evaluation secures effective capacity for continued improvement. ? One of the key areas that we focused on during the inspection was outcomes for pupils at the end of key stage 2. The end-of-key-stage-2 results in writing and mathematics in 2017 were disappointing.

However, with very small cohorts of pupils, assessment information can fluctuate greatly. In 2017, there were some pupils with very complex special educational needs and pupils who arrived at the school during Year 6. You provided convincing assessment information to show that in 2017 most pupils in the cohort made good progress in relation to other pupils nationally.

• You recognised that teaching in key stage 2 for writing and mathematics could be improved and you have ensured that teachers' expectations are higher. During the inspection, the teaching observed and the evidence seen in pupils' books aligned closely with your evaluation of teaching over time. There was clear evidence of appropriate challenge, particularly in Years 5 and 6.

In mathematics, pupils are solving complex problems involving reasoning. In writing, we observed a shared writing session where pupils used ambitious and rich vocabulary in their writing. These higher expectations have not translated consistently into the quality of teaching in Years 3 and 4.

Some pupils are not provided with a consistent level of challenge. Further work in this phase of the school will enable all pupils to make the progress they are capable of. ? Teachers have boosted pupils' punctuation and grammar skills across the school.

Pupils are provided with a really clear understanding of what to include in their writing in order to be successful. However, teachers do not provide enough opportunities for pupils to embed their technical writing skills into longer pieces of writing. ? During the inspection, we looked at the quality of provision in the early years.

You started a Nursery in order to provide for the community and establish early education from two years old. Staff in the Nursery know children as individuals which means that they settle well and get off to a strong start. The Nursery is led well.

Staff use regular assessments to plan exciting and challenging learning activities. Furthermore, adults are skilled at joining in with play to extend children's language. In Reception, children receive a good blend of focused teaching and stimulating play.

They are keen learners and they enjoy the 'rainbow challenges' which help to deepen their thinking during activities. Children start Nursery and Reception with skills, knowledge and understanding that are often below a typical level expected for their age. They make good progress through the time in the early years.

You recognise in your school improvement plan that teaching of early writing needs to be improved, so that more children can achieve a good level of development by the end of Reception. ? Another area of focus during the inspection was the quality of leadership and provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The proportion of pupils who are on the special educational needs register is higher than the national average and some pupils' needs are particularly complex.

You focus on early identification and work closely with staff and parents to put in place precise additional support. You also instigate the involvement of a range of external services to further enhance the support for pupils. As a result, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported and make good progress.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? staff in the early years provide better-quality opportunities for children to develop their early writing skills ? teachers provide more frequent opportunities for pupils to embed their technical writing skills into longer pieces of writing ? teachers in lower key stage 2 have consistently high expectations so that outcomes for pupils are accelerated ? pupils receive meaningful opportunities to have a voice in the development of the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Warwickshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Matt Meckin Her Majesty's Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I held meetings with you and your senior teacher. I also met with the chair of the governing body and another governor. I spoke to pupils informally and formally.

I made short visits to four classrooms with you and looked at pupils' books. I spoke to parents at the start of the day and considered 11 responses and seven free-text responses to Parent View. I scrutinised various documents including the school's self-evaluation, improvement plan, information about teachers' performance management and the documents that you use to check the quality of teaching.

You shared with me the most recent assessments of pupils' attainment and progress. We discussed the national test results and assessments undertaken by pupils in 2016 and 2017. I also looked at the school's published information on the website, as well as minutes of governing body meetings and information about attendance, behaviour and safety.