Amotherby Community Primary School Meadowfield, Amotherby, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 6TG
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School report Amotherby Community Primary School Meadowfield, Amotherby, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 6TG Inspection dates 16–17 April 2013 Previous inspection: Good 2 Overall effectiveness This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3 Summary of key findings for parents and pupils This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because By the end of Year 6, many pupils have not There is not enough consistently good teaching reached the high standard they should to tackle pupils’ underperformance in writing achieve in writing. The proportion of pupils and mathematics. In some lessons, making more than expected progress fell to expectations are too low, slowing learning and below average in 2012. progress. There is some lack of expertise in While pupils’ performance in mathematics has teaching mathematics. improved from its low point in 2011, given While leaders are getting to grips with tackling pupils’ starting points, the proportion making writing and mathematics, initiatives are at an expected progress in 2012 was not high early stage. Progress has been made on enough. The proportion making more than improving teaching, but there is not enough expected progress is also not high enough. urgency in dealing with the remaining weaknesses in some teaching. Governors are not holding the school robustly to account for pupils’ performance. The school has the following strengths Improvements in provision for reading since Pupils feel safe and they behave well. 2010 have led to outstanding achievement in Attendance is above average. 2012. The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, Children in the Reception Year and pupils in moral, social and cultural development Key Stage 1 have a good start to learning effectively. There are many activities to literacy and numeracy skills and make good challenge pupils and help them enjoy learning. progress. Music and art are particular strengths. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are effectively supported in lessons and make good progress as a result. Inspection report: Amotherby Community Primary School, 16–17 April 2013 2 of 9 Information about this inspection The inspectors observed 12 lessons which involved seven of the school’s eight teachers. Two lessons were observed jointly with the headteacher. Discussions were held with senior leaders, staff and pupils. Meetings took place with representatives of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of school documentation, including policies and procedures for keeping pupils safe, the record of the school’s checks on how well it is doing, external reviews of the school’s work and data on pupils’ attainment and progress. Inspectors also examined a sample of pupils’ writing and mathematics in their workbooks and listened to pupils reading. The inspectors took account of the views of 19 parents who responded to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View), the school’s own survey of parents’ views and the 15 questionnaires completed by staff. Inspection team Alan Lemon, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Mary Lanovy-Taylor Additional Inspector Inspection report: Amotherby Community Primary School, 16–17 April 2013 3 of 9 Full report Information about this school The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The number of pupils on roll has increased over the last two years. The very large majority of pupils is White British. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is well below average. The pupil premium is additional government funding provided for children in local authority care, those from armed services families, and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals. The proportion of pupils supported through school action or school action plus is well below average. Currently, there are no pupils at the school with a statement of special educational needs. The school meets the government’s current floor standards which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress. The headteacher was appointed in September 2010 and this was followed by the appointment of a deputy headteacher and three teachers. What does the school need to do to improve further? Improve teaching to be consistently good or better and hence raise pupils’ achievement rapidly in writing and mathematics by: ensuring that all teachers in Key Stage 2 set high expectations of pupils to take care in presenting their writing neatly, legibly, using the correct spelling and punctuation ensuring from the outset at Key Stage 2 that pupils are taught the appropriate breadth of mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding making sure teachers use thorough assessments in planning the teaching of mathematics and during the course of lessons, set challenging work for each pupil developing teachers’ subject knowledge of mathematics improving the opportunities for pupils to take greater charge of their own learning and to develop initiative as individuals and groups in solving problems. Strengthen leadership and management, including governance, and the pace of school improvement by: providing the deputy headteacher, subject leaders and others with leadership roles, the time to check, assess and develop the work in their areas of responsibility applying greater rigour to checking the quality of teaching so that there is consistency between it, pupils’ performance and the standard of work in their exercise books. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved. Inspection report: Amotherby Community Primary School, 16–17 April 2013 4 of 9 Inspection judgements The achievement of pupils requires improvement Pupils are not achieving as highly as they ought to by the end of Year 6 given their above average starting points. In 2012, the proportion of pupils attaining the average standard in writing was in line with that seen nationally. However, the proportion reaching the higher level in writing was below the national average, and this was not a good reflection of the capabilities of a significant number of pupils. While a higher than average proportion of pupils made the expected progress in writing, those making more than expected progress was well below average. Results in writing in 2011 were stronger but still not representative of what pupils should achieve. Children in the Reception Year and pupils in Key Stage 1 make a good start to writing and firmly secure the skills to form recognisable letters, link letters and sounds and to legibly writing down their observations, thoughts and ideas. The good progress seen at this stage is not consistently maintained in Key Stage 2. Despite the fact that Key Stage 2 pupils have many opportunities to write in English and in other subjects, mistakes in spelling and punctuation are common and not tackled robustly at an early stage and pupils’ writing is often untidy. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in mathematics by the end of Year 6 has been broadly average in the past two years. However, in 2012 more pupils reached a higher level than did in 2011. This was the result of intensive teaching in Years 5 and 6, which helped overcome the disappointing results in 2011. While the proportions of pupils making expected progress and more than expected progress were above that seen nationally, higher proportions are capable of this in mathematics. The limited opportunities in other subjects for pupils to use their mathematical knowledge and skills restrict the rate at which pupils make progress. The pace of progress in mathematics across Key Stage 2 is inconsistent. At the start of Key Stage 2, the narrow focus on number, mostly on addition and subtraction, means pupils are not acquiring the range of mathematical knowledge and skills they need until they reach Years 5 and 6. Extra classes to enable pupils to learn and revise key knowledge, skills and understanding are a vital addition. Until then, pupils have too few opportunities to learn and make progress in multiplication and division, shape, space and measurement, data-handling and problem solving. This is despite the fact pupils start to make good progress in these areas in Key Stage 1. Pupils’ achievement in reading is outstanding. Their progress in reading throughout the school is consistently very strong. This is the result of leaders’ success in improving the teaching of reading, in particular, pupils very effectively learning to link letters and sounds from the Reception Year onwards. Investment in reading schemes and books has boosted pupils’ interest and enjoyment. The very large majority of pupils read fluently and confidently by the end of Year 6, becoming skilled in analysing, evaluating texts and finding information. In 2012, all Year 6 pupils had made the progress expected in reading and a well-above average proportion made more than expected progress. The school’s positive commitment to ensuring every pupil has equality of opportunity to achieve means there is no significant variation in the attainment of different groups of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. The gap in the performance of the very few pupils supported through the pupil premium, those known to be eligible for free school meals in particular, and the rest of the pupils in the school, is negligible. Currently, these pupils make expected progress and attain broadly average standards in English and mathematics. The close checks kept on the very few pupils who are disabled or have special educational needs, and the consistent support provided in every lesson, ensure they make good progress from their starting points. Most achieve broadly average standards in reading and mathematics, although fewer do so in writing. The quality of teaching requires improvement Teaching is not good because it is too varied in quality, ranging between outstanding and some Inspection report: Amotherby Community Primary School, 16–17 April 2013 5 of 9 requiring improvement.