The Latimer Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of The Latimer Primary School, Anstey

Following my visit to the school on 26 March 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 second short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in November 2011. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have sustained the effective leadership that was identified at the last short inspection of the school in November 2015. The change to the headteacher partnership in September 2017 has maintained strong capacity.

Leaders an...d governors share a clear vision of high expectations and continual improvement. Governors are highly committed to the school. They are well informed.

Governors have a wide range of skills that they use well to support and challenge leaders. There is a clear ethos of care and ambition for excellence shared by the whole school team. The 'Four Ls' of learning to know, do, be and live together, coupled with the school's 'Four Simple Truths' of attitudes and behaviour are consistent in daily routines.

The conscientious staff go the 'extra mile' for pupils. Parents and carers are highly appreciative of this and are unanimous that their children are happy and safe. Parents have a high level of trust in school leaders and say any concerns are listened to and swiftly resolved.

You both have a detailed understanding of the school and the strengths of staff. You use the expertise of staff within the school well to support less experienced colleagues. You are rightly proud of the careful consideration given to staff well-being, which ensures a high level of staff retention and internal development.

You ensure middle leaders are well supported through appropriate training and coaching. They work closely with senior leaders and are making a positive impact that adds to the school's capacity for future improvement. Some subject leaders are recently appointed.

Leaders have identified that further development is necessary to ensure consistently good progress in all curriculum subjects. Leaders ensure that they look outwards and engage with research to inform best practice approaches. Teachers work regularly with colleagues from schools across the range of networks accessed regularly by the school.

This enables them to compare approaches and moderate assessments. You have successfully sustained good teaching across the school. At the time of the previous short inspection, leaders were asked to improve pupils' outcomes across subjects by extending the school's rigorous assessment system to the wider curriculum.

You were also asked to improve teachers' subject knowledge to secure more precise feedback to pupils to improve their work. These elements have had a high priority in the school's development plan. Over time, leaders have ensured that pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum, which gives pupils secure coverage of the national curriculum.

A wide range of effective training has ensured greater consistency in assessment and feedback to improve pupils' learning. Leaders have ensured that teachers have a consistent understanding of what pupils are expected to know for their age. The majority of children enter the early years at levels of development which are below that which is typical for their age.

At the end of Reception and Year 2, pupils achieve consistently close to or above national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. From different starting points, they make good progress. This good start is consolidated in key stage 2, with pupils achieving at or above national averages.

Pupils make progress in line with national averages across all aspects. Attainment in reading and writing is consistently a strong aspect for the school. It is a priority in the school's development plan to strengthen outcomes in mathematics to be consistently in line with those in English.

Leaders' chosen approach to planning the curriculum places a strong emphasis on providing pupils with a wide range of experiences and interesting topics. For example, pupils were highly enthused by their investigation of axles and wheels linked to the Wright Brothers topic in Year 2. Also, a vivid activity day following Year 4 pupils' study of Richard III ensured that key facts were well remembered.

You have sustained the emphasis on pupils' positive attitudes to learning. Pupils show pride in their work across the curriculum. This reflects the school's ethos of 'Developing Responsibility; Caring about Achievement'.

Positive behaviour has also been maintained and indeed built upon. Pupils were unanimous in saying they feel safe and trust all adults to deal with rare incidents of poor behaviour. Pupils are enthusiastic about opportunities to take on responsibilities, such as 'play coaches' and 'hall helpers' to contribute to happy lunchtimes, and paired reading with younger pupils.

The school council is proud of the community award from the parish council. Leaders place a high priority on pupils' emotional well-being and the school has received accreditation for work on promoting pupils' resilience. Pupils are well prepared to be responsible and thoughtful citizens.

The ethos of care extends beyond the school day, with before- and after-school care providing a calm, happy place. Pupils enjoy healthy food, a wide range of activities and additional time with friends. Leaders ensure that the sports premium is used particularly well.

The school is rightly proud of achieving the School Games Mark at gold level. Success in a range of competitions is raising pupils' pride even further. Safeguarding is effective.

You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. You have effective systems in place, and the local authority and governors assure themselves that these are thorough. Leaders make sure that appropriate vetting checks take place before an adult starts working at the school and that staff receive up-to-date training in keeping children safe.

Staff are clear about how to report a concern about a child's welfare, should one arise. You keep detailed safeguarding records securely. The team of leaders with a focus on aspects of pupil well-being works effectively together.

Leaders' effective collaboration and tenacious follow-up with other agencies are particularly successful in ensuring that pupils get additional help when they need it. Leaders' review of the curriculum is ensuring that teachers place even further emphasis on pupils knowing how to keep themselves safe, particularly online. Pupils show a well-developed understanding about confidential personal information and reporting anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.

Inspection findings ? Leaders provide effective training and frameworks that have ensured that teachers have subject knowledge that is securing age-appropriate teaching across a wide range of subjects. Leaders know where fluency of subject knowledge and expertise are stronger and use this well, alongside external expertise, to improve teaching and learning. ? In some classes, teachers are able to use their subject knowledge to adapt questioning and activities fluently to move learning on swiftly.

For example, in Year 6, pupils were being challenged to reason and to articulate confidently their understanding of opposite angles and angles on straight lines to solve complex problems. There is variability in fluency of subject knowledge, especially where teachers have less experience. Leaders are ensuring effective support for planning for progression.

For example, the mathematics leader is ensuring consistent systematic development of mathematics concepts, ready for pupils' next stage of learning. ? English continues to be a particularly strong subject across the school, as teachers are consistently confident in adapting questioning and planning to move learning swiftly on. ? Leaders have begun a wide-ranging curriculum review.

You have used a thorough understanding of the school's context to inform your well-considered curriculum rationale. The school's curriculum ambition includes enthusing pupils with exciting topics and also places a strong emphasis on strengthening pupils' understanding of the world beyond their local community. This intent is already having a positive impact, as was evident when Year 6 pupils shared their sensitive understanding and empathy from a recent topic about the plight of refugees.

• Across classes and subjects, extending pupils' vocabulary is given a consistently high priority. Leaders are in the process of making sure this is more systematically mapped out to support sustained progress across the school. This is forming part of leaders' current work on identifying the key knowledge and skills that pupils need to equip them for their next stages of learning.

Leaders are giving a high priority to ensuring that their curriculum equips vulnerable pupils to fulfil their potential. This has yet to be completed for all subject areas and to be put in place across the school. ? Leaders use information about pupil progress well to identify where pupils need additional support.

Leaders carefully plan and provide tailored support for vulnerable pupils. As part of the review of the curriculum, the school has looked closely at specific interventions. Leaders are supporting teachers to ensure that the impact from interventions is transferred more consistently into the classroom.

Work in books shows that this is having a positive impact for current pupils. ? Since the previous inspection, rates of fixed-term and repeat exclusions have been above national averages. There have been no exclusions this academic year.

Leaders analyse patterns of behaviour carefully. Where exclusions have been necessary, they have been well documented and a wide range of effective support put in place. ? Over time, overall attendance has remained better than that seen nationally.

However, absence for vulnerable pupils has been persistently higher than for other pupils in the school. Leaders have sharpened analysis of barriers to attendance and provided effective support for families where there are difficulties. This has secured improvement, especially in reducing persistent absence to well below national averages for all groups of pupils.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the curriculum review is completed across all subject areas, to ensure that pupils systematically build up their knowledge and skills across the curriculum ? they further develop subject leadership to secure consistently good and better progress and outcomes for all pupils, in line with the school's curriculum ambitions. 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 Mandy Wilding Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with yourselves and shared lines of enquiry. I also met staff with leadership responsibilities for English, mathematics, science, pupil well-being, early years, vulnerable pupils, and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. I met with the chair of governors and one other governor.

I spoke with pupils informally throughout the school day and held a more formal meeting with pupils from Years 2, 4 and 6. We visited classes jointly across all age ranges to observe pupils learning, speak with them and look at their books. We examined a range of pupils' books from across the school.

I reviewed a range of documentation, including leaders' evaluation of the school's current performance and their plans for further improvement. I considered a number of policy documents, including those for safeguarding. I examined the school's website and checked on the publication of specified information.

I spoke to parents at the beginning of the school day and considered the responses of 71 parents to Ofsted's online survey Parent View and 66 free-text responses. I also considered the 13 responses to Ofsted's online staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted's online pupil survey.

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