The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Following the previous inspection, you were asked to improve the level of challenge for the most able pupils, extend pupils’ thinking and develop their reading skills. You were also asked to provide activities to motivate and interest pupils and develop subject leaders’ monitoring of teaching. You have successfully addressed these recommendations. You now use your incisive knowledge of school improvement to support several other local schools. You are a dedicated and well-respected leader who is valued by pupils, staff and parents. Typical comments from parents include: ‘This is an absolutely fantastic school,’ and ‘The school is nurturing, loving and inclusive.’ You and other leaders have high expectations of what pupils can achieve and are committed to helping them to succeed. As a result, all leaders regularly evaluate pupils’ learning and adapt teaching so that it precisely meets pupils’ needs and interests. Governors have a clear understanding of the school’s main priorities and are committed to supporting the school. They undertake visits to monitor your work and ask questions to assure themselves that your actions are having a positive impact. Effective teaching generally helps pupils to make strong progress. Consequently, the proportion of pupils in all key stages achieving expected and higher standards at the end of each year is close to or above the national average. Last year, outcomes in several subjects were well above that of pupils nationally. Pupils’ achievement in phonics at the end of Year 1 is consistently strong. However, over time, boys do not achieve as well as girls. In addition to this, progress for some disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is not consistently strong. You have rightly identified that some pupils have complex needs which affect how well they achieve. Consequently, you and other leaders work diligently to provide pupils with bespoke support. This is helping several pupils to make better progress. You acknowledge that it will take time for this support to become fully embedded so that pupils make more consistent progress. All adults in the school develop warm, caring relationships with pupils. They listen to pupils and value their contributions. This inspires pupils to share their ideas and, as a result, they engage extremely positively in their learning. Pupils know what the school expects of them and, as a result, their behaviour in and out of lessons is impeccable. They enjoy learning and are keen to do well. Consequently, they listen carefully to instructions and settle to work with the minimum of fuss. Pupils are welcoming and polite and they are excited to chat about their learning. They enjoy explaining how they tackle their work like a lion, tortoise or an ant, which they link to the school’s values of courage, perseverance and hard work. Safeguarding is effective. You forge effective partnerships with pupils and their families. You are fully aware of pupils’ specific needs and do not hesitate to involve outside agencies when pupils need additional support. You provide all staff with relevant training to ensure that they understand the need to be vigilant. You maintain detailed safeguarding records and routinely follow up referrals to ensure that pupils get help when it is needed. You undertake thorough checks to ensure that all adults are safe to work with children and record all details on the school’s single central record. Adults plan trips carefully and assess risks so that pupils are kept safe on trips. The school has clear fire evacuation and lockdown procedures so that everyone knows what to do in the event of an emergency. You follow up absence rigorously and reward pupils to encourage them to attend more regularly. However, a minority of pupils, some of whom have SEN and/or disabilities, have higher rates of absence. You make effective use of additional staff to support pupils in the ‘Busy Beehive’. Pupils are encouraged to talk about their feelings and learn how to manage their behaviour. Pupils comment that the additional help allows them to understand how their actions affect others. Consequently, they are developing more positive approaches to their learning. Inspection findings We agreed that my first line of enquiry would be to find out how well teaching, particularly in mathematics and writing, supports boys, as well as lower- and middle-attaining pupils, to make strong progress. This is because, historically, these pupils do not achieve as well as others. Your school development plan accurately identifies these pupils as a focus and you are determined to ensure that teaching inspires pupils to achieve well. As a result, teachers plan learning to follow pupils’ interests and meet their specific learning needs. A parent commented favourably stating: ‘Children are treated as individuals... care is taken to consider their different abilities, personalities and interests.’ During the inspection, we observed boys and girls in the early years sustaining high levels of concentration when ‘mixing potions’ and creating robots and cars with egg boxes and card. Teachers provide pupils with regular opportunities to write. They give pupils clear and consistent feedback, which gives pupils the confidence to persevere and improve their work. Pupils use their increasing vocabulary effectively in their writing and are making good progress with their spelling and handwriting. Pupils’ fluency in mathematics is improving, because they have regular opportunities to develop, practise and embed a range of skills. Problem-solving tasks help pupils to develop their reasoning and apply the skills they have learned. For instance, in Year 2, pupils were engrossed in finding out the answer to the question: ‘If you add two odd numbers do you get an even number? Always, sometimes or never?’ Teachers use highly effective questioning to probe pupils’ thinking and deepen their understanding. For example, in the early years, adults ask questions such as: ‘What number is that? What is one more? How can you check?’ My second line of enquiry was to determine how effectively the school supports disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. You are unrelenting in your quest to ensure that teaching precisely meets pupils’ specific needs and helps them to succeed. You make effective use of additional adults to provide focused support for pupils who need it. In lessons, adults routinely intervene in learning to assess pupils’ understanding and to model learning, which helps pupils to understand what to do. Pupils value this support and typically comment: ‘If you don’t understand something, the teacher will explain it again.’ Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the focused support their children receive, and one parent stated: ‘I couldn’t have asked for more support for my child who has special educational needs.’ Your most recent assessment information and pupils’ work in books confirms that most pupils across the school are making effective progress in all subjects. Many pupils are making consistently strong progress. However, some disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are making slower progress. This is because they need further support to meet their complex needs. Finally, I wanted to check how effectively leaders are improving attendance and how well you communicate with parents. You liaise closely with parents and award certificates to pupils to promote regular attendance. However, despite your efforts, a minority of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities have higher rates of absence. The vast majority of parents who responded to the Parent View survey agree that communication from the school is effective. Parents appreciate the fact that teachers are regularly available to help them resolve any problems. The school website provides a wealth of valuable information to support parents to find out about the work of the school. There are some minor omissions which need updating to ensure that the website is compliant. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: they further improve teaching so that pupils who need to catch up, including some disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, make consistently strong progress they continue to improve the attendance of the minority of pupils who have higher rates of absence, so that pupils can benefit from all that the school has to offer some minor omissions on the school website are rectified, so that parents are kept fully informed of the work of the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Gloucestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Catherine Beeks Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During the inspection, I met with you and several other leaders. I had two phone conversations with governors and met with the local authority adviser. I checked the school’s single central record and reviewed your safeguarding procedures. We discussed the school’s latest assessment information and I read the school’s selfevaluation summary and development plan. Together we observed pupils’ learning in the early years, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6. I spoke with pupils in lessons and at breaktime and lunchtime. I also held a formal meeting with 10 pupils from Year 1 to Year 6. I talked to several parents at the beginning of the school day and considered 45 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, along with 23 additional free-text comments. I reviewed 15 responses to the online staff questionnaire and 57 responses to the online pupil survey.