The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You know your school well and strive to meet the needs of your pupils. Your vision is widely shared. Leaders, teachers and governors work together effectively to achieve it. Since federating with a local school, you have strengthened leadership to ensure that the quality of education continues to improve. Your approach to working in collaboration means that the learning culture throughout your school is strong. Your school is warm and welcoming. This view is shared by parents; they have very positive opinions of what is provided for their children. One parent’s comment represented the views of many, ‘Goldsborough is an excellent, nurturing, caring school. The staff are incredibly friendly and extremely dedicated. The leadership of the school is brilliant. They make parents feel like they are an important part of the school community.’ Children thrive in your school, where they are taught the life skills of respect, teamwork and perseverance. You have developed your leadership team since the last inspection, which is paying dividends. Leaders monitor the practice in school and provide clear feedback to staff on how to improve. This challenging yet supportive culture is shared by your staff, who engage regularly in ‘challenge partner’ work to drive their own improvement. You ensure that your staff take full responsibility for pupils’ outcomes. You hold them to account through regular checks on pupils’ progress and you work with staff on strategies to improve their practice. Consequently, pupils’ outcomes and rates of progress in English and mathematics are improving in all year groups. At the last inspection, leaders were challenged to raise pupils’ awareness of how well they are doing. Pupils told me enthusiastically about learning challenges that are set in books and how they respond to the feedback they are regularly given. They commented on how ‘learning ladders’ show them the sequence of learning and what their next steps are. The school was also asked to ensure that a greater proportion of teaching was outstanding. You check the quality of teaching more regularly by spending time in classrooms, looking in books and talking to pupils. Consequently, staff know how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve. Teachers also know whom to ask for help if they need to refine a certain area of their teaching. As a result, teaching is strongly improving. The new governing body is committed to ensuring the continued success of the school. Since federating in January 2017, governors have undertaken and acted upon training to address the gaps identified in the recent audit of governors’ skills. They now visit school more regularly to provide a healthy balance of support and challenge. Governors have improved their skills and abilities by working in partnership with governors of other similar schools. They are working closely with leaders to ensure that the school continues to improve. Safeguarding is effective. There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose and records are detailed and up to date. You ensure that robust recruitment procedures are in place and satisfy statutory requirements when appointing new members of staff. The training that staff receive means that they are effective in recognising and responding to signs of concern. Parents and pupils feel that the school is a safe place to be. Pupils told me that bullying does not occur in Goldsborough Church of England Primary School. However, they are confident that an adult would deal with it for them swiftly, if it did occur. Pupils confidently told me how they keep safe online. They showed a very mature understanding of cyber bullying. Inspection findings Assessment information and observations of reading sessions in key stage 2 show that pupils enjoy reading and are now making better progress from their starting points than they did in previous years. Teachers question pupils skilfully to ensure that they have a full understanding. Pupils use a range of techniques to support their answers. Teachers use high-quality literature linked to topics, which engages pupils well. However, you agreed that sometimes independent reading tasks lack the challenge necessary to enable pupils to deepen their understanding of reading and make better progress. Staff are committed to continuously improving their teaching. Teachers enjoy working together to critically evaluate each other’s work in school and with colleagues in partner schools. As a result, the quality of teaching is good and improving. Subject leaders are knowledgeable and develop their subject areas through a range of monitoring activities. They provide constructive feedback to staff and set review targets to ensure that improvements are made. Teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling is effective. Teachers encourage and remind pupils to use grammatical features and spelling techniques correctly, to improve their writing. Pupils’ technical skills as writers are developing well. You have taken measures to address the differences in achievement between girls and boys at the end of Reception and Key Stage 1. Pupils’ books show that pupils’ progress in writing is improving; their skills are being developed well. ‘Writing dens’ and opportunities to write outside are evident. However, not all areas of provision, especially areas that are more appealing to boys, are rich in language or provide opportunities for writing. This means that pupils cannot apply their learning independently in their chosen area of work or play. The mathematics leader identified that pupils were not given regular opportunities to solve mathematical problems. The recent introduction of a mastery curriculum has provided a structure for staff so that teaching is starting to address this successfully. However, at times pupils are not moved on quickly enough to ensure that they are sufficiently well challenged. On some occasions, opportunities to deepen pupils’ understanding of a mathematical skill are not evident. Teaching of a skill is sometimes too rapid and does not allow pupils to use and apply what they have learned. Work is beginning to focus on planning sequences so that the appropriate amount of time is given for pupils to master skills. The number of pupils supported through the pupil premium funding is low. Even so, the money is spent well to ensure that these pupils make good progress. One parent commented that, ‘The school knows my daughter well and has used the money to ensure her needs are fully met.’ Pupils are well looked after and love coming to school. As one child remarked, ‘We’re not just friends, we’re more like a family.’ Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: reading sessions provide sufficient time for all pupils to deepen their understanding of increasingly challenging texts teachers plan more interesting and relevant opportunities for children in the early years, especially boys, to engage in early writing activities pupils are appropriately challenged in mathematics pupils are given time to master a process, skill or operation in mathematics, before being moved on. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Leeds, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Simon McCarthy Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection I met with you, six parents, four members of the governing body, including the chair, and a representative from the local authority. I held meetings with the middle leadership team, including the leaders of mathematics and English. I talked with small groups of pupils during lessons and informally during playtime and lunchtime. Along with you, I visited all classes and scrutinised the work in pupils’ books. I also listened to some pupils read. I examined a range of documentation, including documentation relating to attendance and safeguarding. I took account of the minutes of the governing body meetings, reports written by the local authority adviser, the school’s evaluation of how well it is doing, improvement priorities, assessment information and the sport premium action plan. I reviewed the school’s website. I considered the 43 responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.