Following your appointment in September 2014, and that of your new leadership team, you have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the school was last inspected. You have continued the strong ethos of including and integrating pupils from the on-site special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) specialist resource base into all aspects of school life. The very large number of parents who responded to the Parent View free-text service and the Parent View survey were overwhelmingly positive about your leadership of the school. A very large majority said that they would recommend the school to another parent. All of the staff who responded to their survey said that the school had improved since it was last inspected. Following your appointment, you immediately set about restructuring the senior leadership team in order to address the priorities for the school following its last inspection. Although the school had been previously judged as good, you recognised that there was much still to do to improve outcomes and teaching further. You have ensured that most pupils make good progress from key stage 1 to key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics. All pupils, including those in the SEND specialist resource base, have access to a wide and varied curriculum beyond the core subjects. Outcomes are improving in key stage 1, including for most able pupils, and also in the Year 1 phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) screening check. The behaviour of pupils is exemplary and there have been no exclusions in recent years. Conversely the school has a good track record of admitting excluded pupils from other schools. The attendance of all groups of pupils, including those with SEND or who are eligible for the pupil premium, is high. The previous inspection report recommended that teaching should be improved, especially at key stage 1, by ensuring that most-able pupils are stretched and challenged. You have made sure that teaching in key stage 1 is now consistently good. A higher proportion of pupils leave key stage 1 working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics. Secondly, the report advised that leaders should follow up any recommendations made to improve teachers’ skills. You have provided effective support and challenge where teaching needed to improve by rigorous monitoring, feedback and follow-up. In reading, middle-attaining pupils do well at key stage 2. You recognise that there is more to do to improve progress from key stage 1 to key stage 2 for other groups. Action plans and reports linked to additional funding for SEND and the pupil premium do not provide governors with clear enough measures by which to judge their success. As a result, governors cannot evaluate effectively enough the impact of different strategies on pupils’ outcomes. Safeguarding is effective. You have established a strong culture in the school by ensuring that senior leaders take the lead for all aspects of safeguarding. Pupils I spoke to said they felt very safe and are prepared well to keep themselves safe outside school, crossing the road or at home on the computer using social media. In their respective surveys, parents and staff said overwhelmingly that pupils feel safe in school. Policies and procedures are kept up to date to take account of the Department for Education’s latest guidance. Staff know what to do in the event of a safeguarding incident arising. Records are held securely, and written reports are maintained in a thorough and timely fashion. The school liaises closely with external services including the local authority. Some governors have not completed compulsory aspects of safeguarding training. However, this has not put pupils at risk, and the training is scheduled to be completed next month. Inspection findings Outcomes for pupils at the end of Year 6, based on the progress they make from key stage 1, are consistently high in mathematics and writing. All groups of pupils made strong progress in writing in the most recent assessments in 2018, and middle- and high-attaining pupils did well in mathematics. Leaders ensured the accuracy of writing assessments through moderation internally and externally with cluster schools. There was a dip in progress in reading in 2018, although middle-attaining pupils, who comprised the very large majority of pupils in the cohort, did well. The very small numbers of pupils in other pupil groups did not do as well in reading compared to all pupils nationally. Work seen in current pupils’ books in English, mathematics and other subjects in key stages 1 and 2 shows that pupils are making rapid progress in their learning. This includes most-able pupils, pupils with SEND and those eligible for pupil premium funding. This evidence is supported by the assessment information held by the school for each year group and each pupil group. Leaders have made reading their top priority for this academic year, following the 2018 outcomes in key stage 2. There is a strong emphasis on reading for pleasure to extend reading beyond the school’s structured reading scheme. Each class has a reading corner with a range of books suitable for the age of the pupils. Volunteers are deployed widely to support targeted pupils with their reading. Parents are involved through, for example, information evenings, so that they know how to support their children at home. Leaders monitor the teaching closely to ensure that teachers promote reading effectively across other subjects as well as in English lessons. Teachers have high expectations for behaviour and learning. As a result, lessons are largely free of any low-level disruptive behaviour. Pupils show an eagerness to participate. In a lesson on the Christmas truce during the First World War, pupils were able to reflect in silence on what life was like in the trenches, supported by the sights and sounds provided through multimedia. Teachers’ skilled questioning draws out those pupils who are gaining in confidence to participate. Pupils work well together in groups or pairs. For the most part, work is set appropriately, based on pupils’ different starting points. However, there were a few instances where activities were pitched to the middle, holding back most-able pupils and preventing low-attainers from understanding the work. You identified that there is more to do to focus the role of additional adults on supporting learning as well as behaviour. Leaders have accurately identified the barriers to learning for those eligible for the pupil premium. Teachers clearly target pupils in their planning to ensure that they are fully included in class discussions through specific questioning. Leaders have focused most of their strategies on pastoral support, including weekly friendship and nurture groups, in order to raise pupils’ confidence and selfesteem. They have also funded additional enrichment activities such as learning musical instruments. Few of the measures for success on the school’s plans are linked to measurable outcomes. As a result, it is more difficult for governors to evaluate the impact of specific activities on improving achievement. The small number of disadvantaged pupils in each year group means it is not possible to report on their outcomes in national tests and assessments. Leaders track the progress of pupils with SEND rigorously through lesson observations, work scrutinies and assessment information. The proportion of pupils identified for SEN support is low due to the school’s high threshold and success in moving pupils off the register. Leaders hold regular pupil progress meetings with each teacher to review the progress of all pupils, including those with SEND and those who are eligible for pupil premium funding. A scrutiny of pupils’ books during the inspection indicated that current pupils in school with SEND and who are disadvantaged have made strong progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils in the school’s resource base for pupils with autistic spectrum disorder and other pupils who have an education health care plan have also made strong progress as a result of well-planned individualised activities for them. Pupils I spoke to said that standards of behaviour are very high in the school and that bullying is exceptionally rare. Pupils show a high level of awareness of the needs of pupils with SEND who are integrated into mainstream lessons from the specialist resource base. Pupils reported that behaviour is not as consistently good in French and music lessons as it is in other subjects, but it was not possible to verify this during the inspection. All behaviour seen in other lessons and at lunchtime was of the very highest order. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: leaders and governors are fully up to date with safeguarding training requirements for safer recruitment and the ‘Prevent’ duty outcomes in reading at the end of key stage 2 are as strong as they are in writing and mathematics, including for low- and high-attaining pupils teachers’ planning consistently takes account of pupils’ different starting points and makes more effective use of additional adults plans for the expenditure of the additional funding for SEND and the pupil premium set clear measures of success linked to outcomes, so that governors can evaluate the impact of funding more effectively. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Herefordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Mark Sims Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you, other senior and middle leaders, and other members of the teaching staff. I also met with two members of the governing body, including the chair. I spoke by telephone to a representative from the local authority and also to the school’s external improvement partner. I carried out a learning walk of lessons jointly with you, which included scrutinising pupils’ books and talking to pupils. We also observed part of a lesson from the school’s specialist resource base for pupils with speech and language needs. I observed pupils’ behaviour around the school, including in the dining hall at lunchtime. I spoke to a group of pupils from key stages 1 and 2. I took account of 84 responses to Parent View free text. I also reviewed 119 responses to the Parent View survey and 24 responses to the staff survey. There were no responses to the pupil survey. I scrutinised the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plan, pupil performance information, behaviour information, and school policy documents as well as safeguarding and child protection records. I also checked the school’s website.