Egerton Church of England Primary School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Prior to you taking up your post in September 2017, the school had experienced a period of instability and significant changes to leadership. Since your appointment, you have provided strong leadership and taken decisive action to ensure that there is a clear focus on school improvement. The governing body and local authority value your commitment and determination. The school has a highly positive ethos, which is embodied in ‘the Egerton values’ of compassion, humility, inspiration, love and determination. You have enhanced the use of these so that they underpin the work of the school. Pupils, parents and carers recognise the importance of these values and are highly supportive of the school. One parent summarised the views of many when saying: ‘This wonderful village school provides a nurturing and caring learning environment where every child is important.’ Some parents were concerned about previous changes to staffing and the impact that this had on the quality of teaching but recognise that recent staffing changes have brought much-needed stability to the school. Governors are highly ambitious for the school and provide an appropriate level of challenge and support. The governing body has a broad range of skills and expertise, which they are keen to develop further. Governors have a very clear understanding of the school’s strengths and those areas that need developing. At the time of the last inspection, leaders were asked to continue to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. You have responded well to these challenges, despite significant changes to the teaching staff and leadership structure. Teaching is good, because teachers know their pupils well. Pupils achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics, because teachers plan lessons that are interesting and engaging. Nevertheless, the differences in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and others are not diminishing quickly enough in all year groups. School leaders and governors are acutely aware of this and are taking action to address it. Leaders also recognise that teachers do not always insist that pupils produce written work that is of a good standard in subjects other than English. For example, in their history books some pupils did not remember to use capital letters and full stops accurately, but they did in their English books. Pupils enjoy school and value the opportunities they receive. They recognise the positive impact you have had on improving the school. One pupil said: ‘Mrs Walker has brought new ideas to the school and I really like them.’ Pupils’ behaviour is good, and they receive carefully planned support. Pupils value rewards such as your ‘headteacher’s tea party’, which motivates pupils to do their best and take pride in themselves and their school. Links between the school values, the religious education curriculum and other subject areas are strong. For example, pupils learned about the story of ‘The Good Samaritan’ and identified how this related to the school value of compassion, linking their learning about how the emergency services help us. Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Governors recently commissioned an external review of safeguarding, implementing all the recommendations quickly and effectively. There are strong and efficient systems in place to ensure that the right checks are carried out on people before they start work in the school. Staff listen carefully to pupils and are diligent in following the systems and processes for recording concerns. The school works well with external agencies and accesses support for pupils and families when it is required. Pupils feel safe at school and are aware of how the adults in the school look after them. They feel well cared for, and are confident that there is someone they trust that they could talk to if they had a concern. Inspection findings The first area that we agreed I would look at during the inspection was the progress disadvantaged pupils make in key stage 2, where their progress has been slower than that of other pupils nationally. Leaders and governors have rightly identified this as an area for improvement. You have used additional funding effectively to provide carefully targeted support for disadvantaged pupils, and this is having a positive impact on their progress. In class, pupils receive a good level of support. One child spoke very positively about the extra help he received, which helped him to ‘keep up’ with his classmates. Pupils’ workbooks in Years 5 and 6 show that disadvantaged pupils are making strong, and at times rapid, progress. In Years 3 and 4, disadvantaged pupils are making slower progress, which prevents them from catching up with their peers. The newly introduced nurture provision ensures that pupils’ social and academic needs are being addressed. Our second focus for the inspection was to look at the progress pupils, particularly boys and disadvantaged pupils, make in mathematics. Leaders have taken effective action to address historical weaknesses in pupils’ understanding of mathematics. Leaders have ensured that pupils develop a solid understanding of mathematical concepts before moving on to more challenging learning. In all the classes we visited, pupils were making successful use of a wide range of resources to support their learning. Teachers plan carefully to ensure that learning is at the right level for pupils. As one pupil said, ‘It’s not too hard or too easy but there’s always a challenge.’ The final area we looked at was how effectively the curriculum meets the needs and interests of all pupils. Pupils at Egerton benefit from a wide-ranging curriculum that is planned around topics that are interesting to them. However, some tasks in geography and history lessons are not designed well enough to motivate pupils consistently well. Leaders are working to make all activities interesting and purposeful, so that pupils consistently try their best. Pupils value their opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, the many sporting activities in physical education lessons, after-school clubs and the competitions the school enters. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the rate of progress of disadvantaged pupils in Years 3 and 4 is further increased, to eliminate any gaps in their learning there is greater consistency in the quality of pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar across the curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Canterbury, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Kent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely James Freeston Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you and senior leaders and governors, and spoke with a representative from the local authority. I visited lessons in the early years and key stages 1 and 2 to observe learning and talk to pupils about their learning. I met with a group of key stage 2 pupils to talk about their experience of the school. I scrutinised pupils’ work in their books. I analysed 64 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents. I examined a range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school’s improvement plan, documentation relating to safeguarding and the school’s assessment information.