The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You lead the school in a calm, purposeful manner and have built a strong leadership team with the capacity to drive improvement. Areas identified as strengths at the last inspection have been improved. Children and parents value the support they are given by a knowledgeable and caring staff team. New assessment systems have enabled greater understanding of where pupils need help and this is raising standards across the school. Governors continue to take a central role in driving the school forward. There is a very friendly, welcoming atmosphere with a warm ethos seated in the values of the school. The pupils and staff emanate the school’s core values through sincere and caring relationships. Classrooms are positive, purposeful environments where pupils are able to concentrate on their learning. Pupils are polite, work hard and want to achieve well. They can clearly explain what they are learning and how teachers help them improve. Those I met told me they love school, enjoy their learning and are proud of the progress they have made. They spoke fondly about their teachers and value the care and attention they receive to make them successful learners. They appreciate the sporting opportunities offered to them and one pupil was very much looking forward to her first swimming session. You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. All staff have benefited from focused professional development which has enabled them to lead their curriculum areas effectively, resulting in a good-quality, wide-ranging curriculum. Ongoing, bespoke training linked to current areas of improvement has enabled staff to increase and sharpen their skills. Teachers ensure that the guidance given to pupils enables them to reach their targets. The majority of staff responded to Ofsted’s questionnaire and overwhelmingly gave positive responses, for example: ‘There is no other school I would rather work in as the staff go the extra mile to give 100% to the children.’ You provide good support to any member of staff who needs assistance, or is less confident, to improve. The governing board make a strong contribution to the advancements in the school. They perform their strategic role effectively and ask pertinent questions during meetings. This is because you give them the information they need to understand the progress made by the pupils as well as the performance of other aspects of the school. They are committed and give a significant amount of their time to visit and engage with staff and the children. This enables them to challenge you if sufficient progress is not being made towards areas of priority. About 10% of parents submitted responses to Parent View. These were overwhelmingly positive, with parents saying that they believe their child is safe, well cared for and taught to a good standard at school. The parents I spoke to confirmed that their children love coming to school and never want to miss a day. They stated that teachers are approachable and help resolve problems swiftly. There was a resounding endorsement of the school on Parent View with 100% of the responses stating they would recommend the school to others. You have written a detailed self-evaluation of the school which is regularly monitored and reviewed. You have effectively identified the strengths and weaknesses and communicate your vision to the staff team and governors confidently. Increasing the skills of the leadership team has enabled them to undertake wide and regular monitoring of the quality of learning across the school. This has assisted progress towards priority areas. You have valued the support and advice of the local authority and appreciate their expertise in guiding you to form your judgements about the school. Monitoring of lessons and of pupils’ work has shown that while progress of pupils is good overall, and in some parts of the curriculum very good, it is not sufficiently rapid in all areas. While good progress has been made in improving reading skills, pupils do not always have sufficient opportunity to develop their understanding of text. Although pupils have secure skills in number and calculation, teachers do not consistently give pupils enough opportunity or time to apply these skills through open-ended investigations and word-based problems. Safeguarding is effective. There is a vigilant culture of safeguarding in school. You have ensured that staff and governors are trained well and are knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms of potential abuse, including areas such as radicalisation and extremism. 2 The single central record is well organised and indicates that staff make all relevant checks required. It is monitored by the governors and updated regularly. Child protection records are appropriately detailed and of a good quality. They demonstrate that referrals are made immediately to external agencies, such as social care, when this is required. Staff use the behaviour policy fairly and consistently and incidents of poor behaviour are rare. Pupils are adamant that incidents of bullying are almost non-existent and that any disagreements are resolved quickly. They feel safe and know that staff will keep them safe in school. The broad curriculum and visitors to school ensure that pupils understand how to keep themselves safe, especially online. In conversation with me, a Year 2 pupil explained why you must not put any personal details on the internet. Pupils value the visits from the emergency services as they appreciate it helps them know what to do in a crisis, such as a fire in the home. Inspection findings Children’s levels of attainment on entry into Nursery are below what is expected for their age. Staff get to know the children well and make every effort to build positive relationships with families. Many children need additional support with their speech and language development to enable them make good progress with their communication skills. The remodelling of the outdoors and themed classroom areas are providing a range of experiences to increase language and communication skills. This provision supports children in making good progress. Attainment at the end of the early years is broadly in line with national expectations. Attainment in the phonics check has been below the national average for the past three years. You have recognised that a different approach to teaching phonics is needed and invested in a new scheme. Staff have been trained in delivering this programme but it is too early to see rapid improvement in this area. Pupils at the end of key stage 1 make good progress and are attaining in line with their peers nationally. However, not all pupils who are in receipt of pupil premium funding are reaching the national expectation. You recognise this and have diverted resources to support these pupils. In 2016, pupils at key stage 2 made rapid progress in writing and mathematics, with progress scores in the top 10% of schools nationally. You are determined that this strong progress continues and is reflected in reading this year. Current assessment information suggests that pupils are on track to make good progress this year. The scrutiny of pupils’ work confirms that they are making good progress in English and mathematics. In some cases where adult expectations of what pupils can achieve are consistently high, pupils make excellent progress. However, this level of expectation is not the case throughout the school. You use the pupil premium effectively and have increased staffing levels in order to allow pupils to receive more intensive teaching. The school has been 3 recognised nationally for the positive progress the pupils who are disadvantaged make compared with other pupils nationally. While effective improvements have been made in developing reading skills, you have identified that further emphasis needs to be placed on improving pupils’ understanding of what they are reading. You want this to begin when children arrive in school and to immerse them in a culture of reading. While pupils are able to calculate, and use numbers effectively, they do not all make the fastest possible progress as some teachers do not give them enough opportunity to apply what they know through problem-solving activities. As a result, many pupils cannot demonstrate confidently their mathematical reasoning. Procedures for encouraging attendance are robust and the school has effective and motivating strategies to sustain good levels of attendance compared with national figures. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: pupils are given rich opportunities to read widely and develop a sophisticated understanding of what they are reading as well as a true love of literature through consistently high aspirations and expectations being held of them, all pupils rise to the challenges set for them and achieve the highest levels of learning across the curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Derbyshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Kate Nash Ofsted Inspector 4 Information about the inspection During the inspection, we discussed your self-evaluation and I shared my key lines of enquiry. I met with three members of staff, four governors, including the chair, a group of pupils and a number of parents. I held a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority. I considered the responses of parents from Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. I spoke with parents as they brought their children to school. I visited all classes in the school, spending a short time in each. I looked at a wide range of pupils’ work. I viewed a range of documents, including leaders’ evaluation of the school’s current performance and plans for improvement. I considered evidence and records relating to safeguarding, assessment, attendance and how the pupil premium funding is spent. I examined the school’s website to check that it meets the requirements on the publication of specified information. I analysed the responses to Ofsted’s staff and pupil questionnaires.