The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since taking up your post in September 2015, you have worked with great determination and effort to develop key areas of the school and to ensure that the quality of education is good. Your drive for continued improvement has led to greater consistency in teaching. You give leaders freedom to develop their subjects, particularly in mathematics and writing. Parents hold you in high regard and recognise the impact that your actions have had. You are not afraid to seek support from others to improve outcomes for pupils. The recent review of how the school uses pupil premium funding provides a good example of this. Following the review, you have established more effective systems and processes for meeting the needs of disadvantaged pupils. As a consequence, their progress has improved. You know the school well. You understand its strengths and are open and honest about what needs to be even better. You have successfully tackled the areas identified at the previous inspection as needing improvement. For example, you ensure that the most able pupils receive regular challenge in mathematics. You also make sure that plans for school improvement are detailed, timely and monitored frequently. Staff share your vision and are passionate about the quality of care and education that pupils receive. Your actions, combined with this very clear vision, have resulted in pupils making better progress over time. The school is a happy place to be. Staff and pupils are welcoming and are clearly proud of their school. Pupils of all ages show extremely high levels of enthusiasm and engagement. Pupils confidently share their learning, particularly when asked to explain how they have solved problems in mathematics. They are not afraid to make mistakes and this has a positive impact on the progress that they are able to make. At the beginning of the inspection, we agreed on the key lines of enquiry to be considered during the day. These key lines of enquiry are considered below under ‘Safeguarding’ and ‘Inspection findings’. Safeguarding is effective. There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff have a clear understanding of safeguarding procedures and use them appropriately. Governors make regular checks to ensure that the single central record is up to date and kept in line with current legislation. Staff training for safeguarding and child protection is also up to date, enabling staff and governors to discharge their duties fully. Senior leaders ensure that staff are competent in using the new systems for recording concerns, and records are well kept. Leaders work closely with external agencies to assure themselves that everything is being done to minimise risk to pupils. Pupils are confident that their concerns are followed up quickly by staff. They say that they feel safe in school and eagerly describe the many ways in which they use their roles and responsibilities to help other children stay safe. Every parent who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, agreed that their child is safe in school. Inspection findings The first key line of enquiry considered how leaders are ensuring that the most able pupils are being challenged in mathematics. In 2017, the proportion of pupils reaching the higher standard in mathematics increased to above the national average. This improvement is being sustained, with the most able pupils currently making consistently good progress across the school, particularly in Year 2. This is because teachers focus meticulously upon challenging the most able pupils and have high expectations of what they can achieve. Teachers also make good use of their subject knowledge to probe and deepen pupils’ understanding. This has a direct impact on the good progress that pupils make. An important ingredient in this improvement is an emphasis on challenging the most able pupils’ mastery of key skills and understanding of mathematics. We saw examples of very effective teaching of mathematics in early years and Year 2 where the most able pupils were able, with confidence, to recall and apply their mathematical understanding to a wide range of more complex problems. Teachers encouraged pupils to explain their mathematical thinking and make good use of the mathematical information they had around them. Pupils were motivated and this accelerated the progress that they were able to make. The mathematics subject leader has benefited from recent training and opportunities to work with other local schools. She has used this training to develop the way that staff use resources in lessons and to plan specific sequences of learning with care. Leaders routinely monitor the quality of work being undertaken in the classrooms. Consequently, the quality of teaching and learning over time is consistently good. You recognise that the next step is for pupils to be given more opportunities to apply their mathematical skills across the curriculum. This will enable them to deepen their understanding better and make even better progress. Secondly, I considered how well governors use additional funding to ensure that current disadvantaged pupils are given the correct support, particularly in phonics. Although numbers are small, leaders and governors have focused sharply on improving the progress of disadvantaged pupils this year. They have benefited from a recent external review into the way pupil premium funding is used. The impact of this review can be seen clearly: action plans have become increasingly focused; staff are more aware of the needs of individual pupils; and leaders are making better use of a wide range of information gathered from monitoring. This is resulting in gaps in learning for disadvantaged pupils closing more quickly. Leaders and governors are aware that they now need to apply the same rigour to other key groups of pupils. They recognise that they must ensure that assessments and systems to track pupils’ progress are monitored to check that all groups of pupils, for example boys as well as girls, are making the best possible progress. In 2017, the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils were below the national figure in the phonics screening check. Teachers make good use of well-planned and targeted interventions with current disadvantaged pupils to support them with their phonics. High-quality phonics takes into consideration the particular needs of individual pupils. Teachers have high expectations of what disadvantaged pupils can achieve, and use these sessions well to build on prior knowledge. Because of this, any gaps in learning are being reduced and the progress that pupils make with early reading and phonics is strong. Finally, I considered how leaders are ensuring that the progress of boys in early years matches that of girls, with a particular focus on mathematics. In 2017, despite being above the national figures, boys did less well than girls. Although new to post, the early years leader has high expectations of what pupils can achieve based on accurate assessment. Teachers in early years make effective use of questioning to encourage boys to develop and begin to explain their mathematical knowledge. Boys are motivated and interested by the work that they do. The attractive learning environments, both inside and outdoors, are also used well to promote mathematical understanding. This enables boys to make good progress which is similar to that of the girls. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: teachers give pupils regular opportunities to use their mathematical and written skills across the curriculum they monitor assessments and systems for tracking pupils’ progress to check that all groups of pupils, for example boys as well as girls, are making the best possible progress. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for South Gloucestershire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Benjamin Jordan Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I spoke to you and other senior leaders. I also met with your early years, English, mathematics, special educational needs and pupil premium leaders. I spoke to representatives of the governing body and a local authority representative from South Gloucestershire Council. I made visits to lessons to observe learning, accompanied by senior leaders. We also scrutinised the work in pupils’ books. I looked at a range of documents, which included the school’s self-evaluation and the current school development plan. I also looked at progress and attendance information. Additionally, I scrutinised various safeguarding records, including those relating to the suitability of staff to work with children. I took account of 43 responses to the Parent View online survey and the 10 responses to the staff survey.