Ofsted Report 2007

Age group Inspection date(s) Inspection no.

Minchinhampton School

Inspection report

Unique Reference Number 115747

Local Authority Gloucestershire

Inspection number 290327

Inspection dates 23-24 January 2007

Reporting inspector Tom Simpson

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

Type of school Primary School address

School category Foundation

Age range of pupils 4 - 11

School Road

Minchinhampton

Stroud

Gloucestershire

GL6 9BP

Gender of pupils Mixed Telephone number 01453 883273

Number on roll (school) 286 Fax number 01453 884829

Appropriate authority The governing body Chair of governors Mrs Alison Blundell

Headteacher Mr R J Harris

Date of previous school

inspection

22-23 April 2002

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290327

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007

© Crown copyright 2007

Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational

purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the

source and date of publication are stated.

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005 the

school must provide a copy of this report, free of charge or in prescribed cases on payment of

such fee as they think fit (not exceeding the cost of supply), to any person who asks for one.

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 1

Document reference number: HMI 2507 01 September 2006

Introduction

The inspection was carried out by three Additional Inspectors.

Description of the school

This is an above average sized primary school serving a socially mixed

community. Nearly all the pupils are White British and none are at an early

stage of learning English as an additional language. A below average number of

pupils have learning difficulties or disabilities. The number of pupils entitled to

free school meals is also below average. Attainment on entry varies from year

to year but overall is a little higher than for most schools.

Key for inspection grades

Grade 1 Outstanding

Grade 2 Good

Grade 3 Satisfactory

Grade 4 Inadequate

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 2

Document reference number: HMI 2507 01 September 2006

Overall effectiveness of the school Grade: 2

This is a good school which has many strengths and few weaknesses. Its

leadership and management are good. The headteacher and other senior staff

are not complacent and continually strive to raise standards and improve the

quality of pupils’ learning even further. They are proactive in introducing new

strategies when these are necessary, a recent example being a more effective

system for assessing and tracking pupils’ academic progress. Self-evaluation

procedures are strong and the outcomes of self-evaluation are effectively used

to promote improvements. For example, the school recognised that the quality

of boys’ writing was not good enough and successfully introduced a number of

strategies to improve this. The school’s own assessment of its effectiveness is

close to that of the inspection team. Teaching is carefully monitored and the

overall quality of teaching and learning is good. One parent commented: ‘I am

proud to say my child goes to Minchinhampton School’. Another wrote: ‘The

education provided is excellent. I am completely satisfied with all that the

school does’.

Although provision for children in the Reception Year is satisfactory and most

parents are happy with it, there are a number of ways in which it could be

improved further. Some tasks could be made more challenging, particularly for

the more able children, and more activities could be provided to develop their

creative and decision-making skills.

Throughout the school, pupils are very well known to staff, and their support,

care and guidance is good. Consequently, their personal development, including

their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, is good. The pupils

behave well and have positive attitudes toward the school and their work. Most

enjoy being in school. There are consistently good relationships at all levels.

Although it appropriately focuses on raising basic skills, the curriculum provided

by the school is rich and varied and successfully engages the pupils’ interest.

There is a good number of out-of-lesson activities, and information and

communication technology is used well to support work in other subjects.

Standards are consistently above average and pupils’ overall achievement is

good. The school has successfully addressed the small number of concerns

raised by the last inspection team and it has a good capacity to improve even

further in the future.

What the school should do to improve further

• ensure children in the Foundation Stage have more opportunities to

develop their creative and decision-making skills and are given tasks that

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 3

Document reference number: HMI 2507 01 September 2006

Achievement and standards Grade: 2

Pupils’ achievement is good and standards are above average overall. Children

make satisfactory progress in the Foundation Stage and nearly all reach the

expected standards by the end of the Reception Year. However, children’s

creative development is relatively weaker than the other areas of learning.

In the 2006 assessment of pupils at the end of Year 2, the results were

significantly above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics. In

the tests for pupils in Year 6, the results were also significantly above average

in English, mathematics and science. Overall national assessment results have

been above average in both Year 2 and Year 6 for a number of years.

Although pupils make good overall progress in Years 1 to 6, this has not been

consistent in all areas. For example, in the 2006 Year 6 assessments, there

were weaknesses in the standards being reached by boys in writing, particularly

at the higher levels. The school’s system for tracking the progress made by

pupils indicates that, as a result of positive action by the school’s senior

management and good teaching, boys’ standards in writing have now risen.

The achievement of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities is good and

most are making good progress in relation to their individual targets.

Personal development and well-being Grade: 2

Pupils’ personal development and well-being are good. They behave well in

lessons and around the school and have positive attitudes towards their work.

They enjoy school and appreciate the out-of-lesson activities that are provided

for them. They feel safe in school and say that they ‘learn a lot’. They are kind

to one another at play and supportive in lessons. Attendance is satisfactory and

the pupils are punctual. However, a number of absences are the result of

holidays being taken during term time. The school does what it can to counter

this.

The pupils have a good understanding of the need to stay healthy and enjoy

the regular opportunities they have to take responsibility. For example, they see

membership of the school council as a real chance to have a say in the working

of the school and consider that their views are listened to by the school’s

management. The pupils appreciate the regular opportunities they have to

contribute to the local and wider communities by, for example, supporting a

wide range of charities. They are prepared effectively for their future well-being

through gaining good standards in their basic skills. All elements of their

spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are good and the pupils

empathise well with those less fortunate than themselves.

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 4

Document reference number: HMI 2507 01 September 2006

Quality of provision

Teaching and learning Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good and enables pupils to make good

overall progress in Years 1 to 6. Teachers’ enthusiasm and professionalism

shine through in lessons. Across the school, teachers capture and maintain

pupils’ interest, and relationships between teachers and pupils are consistently

good. Teachers know what they expect pupils to learn and their explanations

are clear. Consequently, pupils are confident about tackling their work. ‘You

know teachers will help if you get stuck,’ commented one pupil. Teachers

usually know when to provide guidance and when to let pupils work things out

for themselves. Nevertheless, there is still scope for improvement. At present,

teaching in the Foundation Stage is satisfactory overall and means that children

make sound, rather than better, progress in Reception. This is largely because

tasks are sometimes too prescribed to allow children to make decisions about

their work and opportunities are sometimes missed to use structured play to

fully benefit their learning.

Assessment procedures are good in Years 1 to 6 and ensure that tasks are

generally well matched to pupils’ needs. Pupils’ progress is carefully tracked and

any pupils who may be slipping behind are quickly identified and benefit from

extra help. In the Foundation Stage, assessment procedures are satisfactory

and improving. However, they are not always used effectively to ensure that

the most capable children are given sufficiently challenging work.

Curriculum and other activities Grade: 2

The curriculum is good overall. Provision in the Foundation Stage is satisfactory

and all areas of learning are covered. However, opportunities are sometimes

missed to set tasks which stretch the capabilities of the most able, and to

promote children’s creative and decision-making skills. In Years 1 to 6, the

curriculum is rich and caters for all pupils well. Whilst an effective emphasis is

given to the development of pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills, care is also

taken to provide a broad range of learning experiences. Good use is made of

information and communication technology to support work across the

curriculum, pupils’ personal development is fostered strongly and all pupils

benefit from specialist music teaching.

Care, guidance and support Grade: 2

Care, guidance and support are good overall and support pupils’ personal

development well. A strength of the provision is the way that the pupils are well

known to staff as individuals and have good pastoral care and guidance.

Rigorous procedures for child protection, health and safety and safe staff

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 5

Document reference number: HMI 2507 01 September 2006

recruitment are in place. There are close links with outside agencies, such as

the educational psychology service and social services, which provide specialist

support and guidance for pupils.

Marking of pupils’ work regularly guides them successfully on what they need to

do next in order to improve their work. Academic target setting is also in place

but this is not always used consistently as a tool for self-assessment.

Leadership and management Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good and are having a strong impact on the

quality of education at the school and on the standards being reached by the

pupils. The headteacher and the other members of the senior leadership team

are very committed to maintaining good academic standards while still giving a

high level of priority to the care and welfare of the pupils. All senior members of

staff have a clear idea of where the school needs to develop further and are

proactive in adopting new procedures to achieve this.

The monitoring of the school’s work by senior staff is effective in improving

provision and there is a rolling programme of review by other staff with

management responsibilities, which includes data analyses, the examination of

planning and the observation of teaching. Largely as a result of recent changes

to individual responsibilities, some subject coordinators have not had time to

fully impact on the work of the school.

Governance is good. The governing body is supportive but also committed to

maintaining and further raising standards. Individual governors are well

involved in the life of the school at all levels and have significant roles in the

strategic monitoring of the school’s work. Procedures for school self-evaluation

are good and involve all relevant parties at appropriate stages.

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 6

Any complaints about the inspection or the report should be made following the

procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available

from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 7

Annex A

Inspection judgements

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3

satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate.

School

Overall

Overall effectiveness

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education,

integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of

learners?

2

How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote

learners’ well-being?

2

The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 3

The effectiveness of the school’s self-evaluation 2

The capacity to make any necessary improvements 2

Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last

inspection

Yes

Achievement and standards

How well do learners achieve? 2

The standards1 reached by learners 2

How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations

between groups of learners

2

How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress 2

Personal development and well-being

How good is the overall personal development and well-being of the

learners?

2

The extent of learners’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 2

The behaviour of learners 2

The attendance of learners 3

How well learners enjoy their education 2

The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2

The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2

The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community 2

How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to

their future economic well-being

2

1 Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly

below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 8

The quality of provision

How effective are teaching and learning in meeting the full range of

learners’ needs?

2

How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of

needs and interests of learners?

2

How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? 2

Leadership and management

How effective are leadership and management in raising

achievement and supporting all learners?

2

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading

to improvement and promote high quality of care and education

2

How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet

challenging targets

2

How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so

that all learners achieve as well as they can

2

How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to

achieve value for money

2

The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their

responsibilities

2

Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government

requirements?

Yes

Does this school require special measures? No

Does this school require a notice to improve? No

Inspection report: Minchinhampton School, 23-24 January 2007 9

Annex B

24 January 2007

Dear Pupils

Minchinhampton School, School Road, Minchinhampton, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6 9BP

Thank you for making us so welcome at your school. We enjoyed meeting you and hearing

about your work. You told us how much you like your school. We enjoyed our visit and now

want to share with you what we thought about your school. We found that your school is

providing you with an education that is good.

Here are some of the things that we found to be particularly good:

• you are well behaved and your personal development is good

• most of you make good progress and reach good standards in your work

• most teaching is good

• you are provided with good quality and interesting work

• you are well cared for, supported and guided by the adults at the school

• the headteacher and other senior staff lead the school well and are working hard to

make the school even better.

• although the work provided for the youngest children is satisfactory, there are a number

of ways in which it could be made even better.