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BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SERVICE Northern Area Team Report of the review of Grendon Underwood School
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Description of the school
Grendon Underwood is an average sized primary school situated in a large village in a rural area. Most pupils are drawn from the surrounding area which is generally economically favourable. Most pupils are White British and there are a very few who have minority ethnic backgrounds. Very few pupils are eligible for free school meals and below average numbers of pupils have additional learning needs or statements of special educational needs. The school is relatively stable but has a second intake of pupils Year 5 from other schools.
Key for inspection grades
Grade 1 Outstanding
Grade 2 Good
Grade 3 Satisfactory
Grade 4 Inadequate
Overall effectiveness of the school Grade: 2
Grendon Underwood School is a good school that enables its pupils to achieve well and leave as confident and well rounded children. The appropriately focused leadership team is now concentrating on the outcomes for all pupils. This has successfully supported good standards, particularly in English, and evidence seen indicates that most pupils are now beginning to make good progress in mathematics and science.
The school commands a respected position in the community and works hard to provide a broad range of activities that benefit the pupils and their families. In particular, pupils benefit from a wide range of visits and visitors to enliven their learning and positive partnerships with sporting clubs.
From starting points that are broadly average, children make satisfactory progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and make sufficient gains in their personal and emotional development to build successfully on their learning in Years 1 and 2 where they make good progress owing to good teaching. The same high quality of teaching is maintained in Key Stage 2, especially in Year 4, to enable pupils to make at least good progress in most subjects despite a number of challenges. Standards however have not risen fast enough in mathematics since the last inspection but this year pupils are on course to attain standards in line with national averages.
The school is very successful in responding to pupils’ personal development and well-being which are outstanding. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is similarly outstanding with pupils showing a keen awareness of right and wrong and respect for the views of others. Their enjoyment is reflected in their outstanding behaviour and good attendance. They demonstrate an excellent understanding of how to keep fit and healthy. Pupils feel free from bullying and racism but safeguarding concerns in the Early Years Foundation Stage outdoor learning area mean that welfare outcomes in this area are only satisfactory. They make important contributions to the community in the school, at a local level and to the wider community in its global dimension.
The satisfactory curriculum is suitably planned to meet the needs of the majority of pupils and enriched by a wide range of clubs and educational visits, as well as sport and music tuition for pupils across the school. The curriculum is suitably varied but greater scope exists for links between subjects and a wider cultural range of activities would add to the enrichment of learning. Good partnerships with parents and external agencies ensure good provision for pupils who need additional help and they receive appropriate support and make progress in line with other pupils.
Safeguarding arrangements do not meet all statutory requirements.
The current leadership and management team underpins the recent improvements in the school. The senior leadership team has greatly benefited from a review of the data the school holds and a more rigorous analysis of assessment outcomes to identify individual pupils who are not making progress. The staff at all levels work very well as a cohesive team focused on securing improvements. The school recognizes that the role of subject leaders needs to develop further to distribute the leadership responsibilities more evenly and raise standards further. The tracking of pupils’ progress is used appropriately so that teachers know how well they are doing but targets, whilst set and acknowledged by pupils, are not prominent in the marking or feedback to pupils to help them judge their next steps in learning. Governors are closely involved in evaluating the provision and recent appointments have improved the governing body’s understanding of the school and its need to develop further. The school’s performance reflects its good capacity for further improvement.
Effectiveness of the Early Years Foundation Stage Grade: 3
Children enjoy a satisfactory balance of activities across the 6 areas of learning in the Reception class. Staff give children’s well-being a high priority; they are very attentive to children’s needs and form good relationships with them. Consequently, children settle quickly into school life and make appropriate progress in their personal and social development, which enables them to flourish in Years 1 and 2. They are not yet sufficiently encouraged to develop independence as pupils are not always able to select from a broad enough range of resources and this inhibits a good balance of child-initiated learning. There is also an over-reliance on adult directed learning. For example, pupils do not independently explore butterfly shapes and decoration but work with a template. This does not help to value children’s ideas or to extend the level of child-initiated activity which should form the basis for assessments.
Children from all backgrounds play happily together. Their behaviour is good and they are keen to learn. They learn to adopt healthy lifestyles effectively because they are taught well and encouraged to eat a balanced diet and take frequent exercise.
When they join the school children’s communication, physical and personal and social skills are average. Reception staff work to plan activities that help children develop skills in the six areas of learning with a good emphasis on communication, language and numeracy skills. They develop pupils’ speaking, listening and thinking skills well by engaging them in conversations that extend their understanding and by making use of role play, for example around the ‘Life Cycles’ theme. However, despite some good teaching and some creative use of the indoor and outdoor areas, children enter Year 1 with skills that are still satisfactory. Assessment activities are carried out rigorously and identify children’s next steps. The Early Years E-Profile successfully records children’s learning journeys and development in all areas. The leadership of this stage of education is satisfactory and has a clear understanding of the needs for the development of this phase of the school.
The Reception classroom space restricts the development of large scale learning activities and restricted access to the outdoor area does not encourage the free flow of learning between these spaces. The current level of adults in the setting matches statutory requirements but the geography of the space means that occasionally children are out of sight and supervision levels are compromised. There are unaddressed security issues in relation to possible child access to the pond area and un-gated access to the wider school site leading to the car park. These need to be tackled with the utmost speed.
What the school should do to improve further
In Teaching and Learning
- Ensure lesson planning provides levels of challenge in terms of the national expectations and clearly challenging work for pupils of different abilities in the class.
- Monitor the amount of work pupils do across year groups and ensure that worksheet materials do not substitute for effective learning activities.
- Develop defined rates of accepted progress with clearly communicated expectations for all levels of ability.
- Use the knowledge of pupils’ outcomes to ensure that all the work planned is challenging and does not limit pupils’ achievement.
- Increase levels of child-initiated and independent learning in the Foundation Stage so that assessments met statutory requirements.
In Care Guidance and Support
- Further develop assessment procedures and pupil tracking to inform teachers about the NC levels needed to challenge all pupils and raise achievement levels.
- Challenge all pupils by informing them about what they need to know or be able to do (success criteria), to improve the percentages achieving Level 5+ in Year 6.
- Reinforce the need for good attendance though work with the school’s linked Educational Welfare Officer.
In Leadership and Management
- Continue to improve the roles within the leadership team to ensure that they monitor and can account for pupils’ achievement and teaching and learning across the school.
- Take steps to ensure that the range of evidence for monitoring is sufficiently broad and allows more substantial judgements to be evidenced in the SEF.
- Review the learning environment for the youngest children to ensure that learning flows freely across the inside and outside spaces and levels of supervision remain constant.
- Address the security and safeguarding issues raised during the review with the senior leadership team.
Achievement and standards Grade: 2
Pupils achieve well to reach standards that are generally above average by the end of Year 6 from an average starting point. The trend in attainment for pupils in Years 1 and 2 is a concern and review evidence indicates that standards in the current Year 2 are only average. This limits the overall judgement for standards. Overall standards attained in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6 are above average and evidence from lessons and books indicates that the current Year 6 pupils will attain similarly in 2009. Previous concerns over the standards attained by above average pupils in English and Maths are not borne out by evidence seen on the review, where these pupils attain well and should reach L5 in the core subjects. However the school should not lose focus on the needs of above average pupils who need consistent challenge to reach the higher levels. Progress for pupils generally is good given the average starting point in the school. Science attainment is appropriate and pupils generally achieve satisfactorily. Overall provision for gifted and talented pupils is satisfactory across the whole school but better in Years 3 to 6 due to focussed teaching. Pupils who need additional support make good progress and this results in them attaining expected outcomes when tested.
Raising standards in mathematics remains an urgent priority throughout the school.
Personal development and well-being Grade: 1
Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is excellent and this is reflected in a happy, calm and very well ordered school community where pupils are encouraged to mix and work closely together. Pupils are very friendly, polite and relate very well to others. They talk enthusiastically about school life and when asked what they like best about the school, several noted “making friends” and the clubs the school runs. Their behaviour is exemplary in and out of lessons and this is reflected in the absence of bullying, racial incidents and need for exclusions. Pupils’ attendance however has not improved since the last inspection and is now only satisfactory. When compared to similar schools this is well below expectations and a concern. Pupils all say that they feel safe in school because staff 'look after us well.'
Pupils adopt healthy lifestyles and have a very clear understanding of the importance of healthy eating and taking regular exercise. They take on responsibilities willingly in the classroom and around the school and participate in a wide range of events in the local community. Those on the School Council represent their fellow pupils well and, to help protect the environment, some pupils have formed an eco-committee that works to help the school work towards its ‘Green Flag’ status. Pupils’ understanding of environmental issues is reinforced practically through a popular gardening club. P upils’ awareness of global issues is enhanced by a range of opportunities to study and support international charities and a range of external visitors who bring the wider context into the school. Pupils are prepared appropriately for their future through the development of a broad range of skills in literacy, numeracy, and ICT. I ndependent learning and teamwork is satisfactorily supported in lessons through the use of talk partners but less teacher directed learning would help support this valuable outcome.
Quality of provision
Teaching and learning Grade: 2
Teaching is underpinned by good relationships and a growing awareness of pupils’ prior attainment and the need to be clear about the progress needed. Lessons are well planned and most match the needs of pupils. However in some the match of activity to the levels expected is not tight enough, leading to a lack of challenge for more able groups. Staff share clear learning objectives with pupils and most contain specific success criteria against which pupils of varying ability can evaluate their successes. In the best lessons, planning is adventurous and expectations high when, for example pupils in Y2 use high level language skills to discuss reference books. The use of open-ended questioning in most lessons helps pupils to think, refine their understanding and keeps them actively engaged. Most marking is of satisfactory quality and acknowledges pupils’ efforts. In the best, in Years 1 and 2, it shows pupils how to improve. However, generally few examples were seen where deliberate comments were made about individual targets or where more than the basic was seen in self-assessment routines. Where teaching was less successful, pupils spend too much time on the teacher-led introductory part of the lesson. This restricts the time children have to work on the main task. In some lessons this means pupils do not have time to reach the stated lesson objective or consolidate their learning through a plenary at the end of the lesson.
Curriculum and other activities Grade: (3)
The school’s curriculum was not a focus for this review; however evidence seen suggests most elements of the school’s curriculum are satisfactory. It serves learners well and enables them to make suitable progress in the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT. The work pupils do is well planned and activities are varied with enough time given to all subjects. The school is beginning to work to establish links between different subjects and provide pupils with increasing opportunities to write across several subjects. Staff provide support for pupils who need it, whether they have specific learning or other needs. However evidence suggests that these pupils do miss out on statutory elements of the curriculum. This means that equality of opportunity cannot be outstanding. Pupils enjoy a wide range of popular clubs and a good programme of activities and visits that enrich the curriculum well. The school appropriately promotes pupils’ personal, social and health education through the elected School Council.
Care, guidance and support Grade: 2
Pupils are strong in their view that their teachers take good care of them. Staff know their pupils well and establish good and trusting relationships with them. Provision to support pupils with learning difficulties is good and the school has beneficial links with other agencies, which enables these pupils to be fully included in the life of the school and to attain well. The school does not have satisfactory arrangements for safeguarding children as its checks on adults who work in the school do not completely match the statutory requirements. Attendance and punctuality is satisfactorily monitored but levels of absence have risen since the last inspection and more needs to be done to address this trend. Induction arrangements have improved recently and this enables pupils to settle quickly into school life. Academic progress is now tracked well, although in mathematics this is still developing. Teachers use the information they have about pupils to set suitably challenging personal, literacy and numeracy targets. Pupils know and understand their targets satisfactorily and are clear that these 'help to remind you of what you need to do to get better'. However, the use of these targets by teachers in marking or in feedback is less well developed and not all pupils could talk about how their work is marked using the school’s marking strategies. Pupils experience a smooth transition to their next stage of education because of good links with other schools.
Leadership and management Grade: 2
The headteacher’s leadership is very well supported by the senior leaders and the coordinator for children who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Leaders are now making appropriate use of targets to raise standards, both at school and pupil level. Subject leaders have not yet developed their roles fully, particularly in foundation subjects. The headteacher monitors the quality of teaching appropriately but this method of evaluating the school is not yet well developed across the whole of the leadership team. The school’s evaluation of its performance is satisfactory and leads to identification of fitting priorities for the school. The school’s development plan has improved in clarity since the last inspection and governors use it well to support and challenge the school. Governors demonstrate good commitment to their roles and the influx of new members to the board has helped to focus the school’s work on the outcomes for pupils which have been an issue for a number of years.
Review judgements
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Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate. |
School Overall |
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Overall effectiveness |
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How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? |
2 |
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Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection |
Yes |
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How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners’ well-being? |
2 |
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The capacity to make any necessary improvements |
2 |
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Effectiveness of the Early Years Foundation Stage |
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How effective is the provision in meeting the needs of children in the EYFS? |
3 |
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How well do children in the EYFS achieve? |
3 |
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How good is the overall personal development and well-being of the children in the EYFS? |
2 |
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How effectively are children in the EYFS helped to learn and develop? |
3 |
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How effectively is the welfare of children in the EYFS promoted? |
3 |
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How effectively is provision in the EYFS led and managed? |
3 |
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Achievement and standards |
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How well do learners achieve? |
2 |
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The standards [1] reached by learners |
2 |
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How well learners make progress , taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners |
2 |
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How well learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities make progress |
2 |
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Personal development and well-being |
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How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the learners? |
1 |
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The extent of learners’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development |
1 |
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The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles |
1 |
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The extent to which learners adopt safe practices |
3 |
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How well learners enjoy their education |
1 |
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The attendance of learners |
3 |
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The behaviour of learners |
1 |
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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community |
1 |
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How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being |
2 |
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The quality of provision |
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How effective are teaching and learning in meeting the full range of learners’ needs? |
2 |
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How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? |
3 |
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How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? |
2 |
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Leadership and management |
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How effective are leadership and management in raising achievement and supporting all learners? |
2 |
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How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education |
2 |
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How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards |
2 |
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The effectiveness of the school’s self-evaluation |
3 |
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How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated |
3 |
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How well does the school contribute to community cohesion? |
2 |
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How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money |
2 |
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The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities |
2 |
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Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? |
No |
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Does this school require special measures? |
No |
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Does this school require a notice to improve? |
No |
[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 .
