The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Over recent years there have been changes in where pupils attending the school come from, with pupils travelling from further away and from the local town. You have dealt with a period of high staff turnover and recruitment, but you believe that staffing is now stable. Staff are proud to be part of Langtoft Primary School. They say that they work well together and are always striving to do their best for the pupils. New staff say that they have been welcomed to the school and they are well supported. Pupils say that they feel safe at school and know who to talk to if they have a worry. Pupils told me that they try hard at school and teachers set work for them that challenges them. They know how to ask for help if they get stuck, and there are many ways to get ‘unstuck’ before asking ‘the boss’. Pupils enjoy challenging themselves in sport and physical education, and value the many clubs provided, such as volleyball, yoga and mindfulness. During my visit, pupils demonstrated good manners and respect for each other and visitors. They are keen to be awarded a values badge, one for each of the ‘Five Cs’, caring, conscientious, considerate, cooperative and courteous. Pupils strive to produce a piece of work worthy of having their name listed in the ‘Golden Book of Greatness’. Pupils were seen demonstrating these values throughout the school, holding doors, welcoming visitors and working diligently. Year 6 pupils act as peer mediators to resolve problems on the playground. You and your staff are passionate about providing pupils with a range of experiences to enhance their education. Your vision for pupils to develop a sense of self has led to your commitment to become a ‘Rights Respecting School’. Pupils learn about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. You have made links with schools in contrasting localities and are helping your pupils to understand different cultures. Parents are very positive about the school. Almost every parent who responded to the online survey, Parent View, or who spoke with me during the inspection believes that the school is well led, and that staff listen and act upon concerns parents may have. Several parents commented how helpful the parent workshops are for mathematics calculations and reading. Following the last inspection, you were asked to increase the amount of good and outstanding teaching to enable the most able pupils to achieve at the higher standard. You have successfully restructured the assessment system to enable teachers to track pupils’ progress accurately. Teachers are using this information to make sure that they are challenging pupils to achieve more and targeting individual needs. You have supported new teachers by pairing them up with more experienced teachers to share good practice. During our tour of the classrooms, we saw teachers assessing what pupils have learned in the lesson, and providing more support or challenge as necessary. In the early years, the proportion of children reaching the expected standard is above the national average. However, this has been falling for the last three years, and in 2017 remained the same as in 2016. Standards in reading and phonics in key stage 1 have also fallen in recent years. You are beginning to address this by reviewing how you assess reading, together with recent staff training. Governors take an active role in monitoring the school’s plan for improvement and understand the current strengths and areas for development. They actively challenge you and other leaders, and regularly ask for evidence to show how well pupils are doing. Governors have a broad range of skills and knowledge, and these are utilised well to provide support and challenge. Governors monitor the spending of additional funding for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and for disadvantaged pupils. Safeguarding is effective. You ensure that all the necessary checks are in place before an adult starts working or volunteering at the school. You are particularly vigilant in tracking how regularly volunteers visit the school, carrying out another check on anyone who has not worked for four weeks. You and the bursar have a clear understanding of saferrecruitment procedures. Records are well organised, clear and fit for purpose. As the designated safeguarding lead, you are diligent in monitoring referrals and concerns made to you. Your safeguarding records for pupils who have been referred to other agencies are thorough and clearly record events. You ensure that all staff, governors and volunteers receive child protection and safeguarding training, and, as a result, all adults I spoke with were aware of how to pass on any concerns they may have about a child. This year you are providing additional training to further raise the awareness of child sexual exploitation and the ‘Prevent’ duty. Inspection findings The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard and the higher standard at the end of key stage 2 is above the national average. Phase leaders use effectively internal assessments to track the progress pupils make. Pupils who begin to fall behind are identified quickly and support is put in place. Teachers use assessment information to plan for the individual needs of pupils. In mathematics, pupils complete pre-assessments before a new topic to find out what they already know and understand. In writing, pupils are set targets to develop their writing skills. Pupils know their targets and understand how they can apply them to their writing across the curriculum. You monitor the attendance of pupils carefully and take action quickly when attendance falls below 90%. You meet regularly with parents of pupils who are persistently absent, putting in place support to encourage regular attendance. You are particularly vigilant in monitoring the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils. You have identified that some year groups have a lot more boys than girls and have considered this when structuring the curriculum. During our tour of the school, we saw activities targeted to engage all learners, including the boys, for example writing newspaper reports of a gruesome find on a beach in Year 6 and describing ‘knickers’ in Year 1. You have identified that standards in reading and phonics at key stage 1 have fallen. You have looked carefully at the reasons for this decline and, as a result, staff who teach phonics have recently received training to refresh their skills. During our tour of the school, we saw phonics being taught in the early years. Children were rehearsing the many sounds they had already learned since the beginning of term. They were practising how to form letters correctly, using a range of resources such as chalk and playdough. Progress made by the end of the early years is not built upon quickly because phonics teaching is slow to begin in Year 1. In the early years, the phase one leader uses learning journals and baseline assessments to track and monitor children’s progress. Adults in the early years respond well to children’s interests, for example children playing in the water tray were interested in how bubbles were made. The teacher fetched soap to give them an opportunity to explore this further. Children make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. However, other areas of the early years curriculum are not targeted carefully enough to ensure that a greater proportion of children achieve a good level of development by the end of the early years. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: children’s progress in the early years is checked regularly to ensure that more reach a good level of development by the end of the early years teachers and teaching assistants fully apply the agreed approaches to the teaching of phonics to ensure that more pupils reach the expected standard by the end of Year 1. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Lincolnshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Helen Williams Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you and four governors, including the chair of the governing body and the safeguarding governor. I spoke with three phase leaders, the deputy headteacher and the bursar. Six pupils gave me a tour of the school. We toured the school together and observed learning taking place during the morning; this included phonics, writing and mathematics lessons. I observed lunchtime and spoke with four lunchtime supervisors. I scrutinised a selection of pupils’ workbooks. I examined a range of the school’s documentation, including the self-evaluation document, improvement plan and documents relating to safeguarding.