The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. East Worlington Primary School is a happy, welcoming school that instils a love of learning. Parents typically describe the school as ‘a lovely school in a safe and nurturing environment’. As one parent explained, ‘The school gives pupils the building blocks to be a good person as well as a bright one.’ Your partnership work with other schools in the trust has been instrumental in strengthening the school’s assessment procedures in light of curriculum changes. Senior and middle leaders have developed an effective means of ensuring that pupils know what they need to do to get better. The board of directors know the school’s strengths and weaknesses well. Minutes of directors’ meetings reflect directors’ challenge and ambition for further improvement. Significant staff absence in your two-class school has proved challenging this year. Despite this setback, you have worked determinedly to ensure that pupils continue to make good progress. Senior leaders across the trust have ensured that you have been able to tap into expertise across the trust to ensure that supply teachers follow trust-wide expectations. Consequently, pupils’ progress remains good. At the time of the previous inspection, you were asked to move pupils on more quickly to harder work when they demonstrate that they understand what they are doing. You have successfully improved pupils’ achievements. Outcomes at the end of key stages 1 and 2 show that many pupils are working above national expectations. Outcomes across all year groups in the school reflect a similar picture. More pupils are achieving the highest standards in reading, writing and mathematics because of the increased challenge that teachers provide. You were also asked to provide more opportunities for pupils to apply their calculation skills in mathematics to problem-solving activities. 2016 saw a dip in pupils’ outcomes. For the first time, fewer pupils achieved expected standards in mathematics compared with those nationally. This year sees the return of muchimproved outcomes. Middle leaders have successfully supported teachers in their planning so that pupils receive work that requires them to think deeply in mathematics. Teachers have successfully tackled gaps in pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills. As a result, pupils are making good progress in mathematics. Outcomes at the end of key stages 1 and 2 show that more pupils are achieving at the higher standards. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Records are detailed and of high quality. Staff know what to do in any instance to protect children from harm. You also work effectively, as appropriate, with the full range of external agencies in keeping children safe. Together with other senior leaders, you have ensured that effective training and induction are in place so that all staff, directors and volunteers maintain the highest levels of vigilance and awareness. Directors visit the school to make regular checks, speaking to pupils and staff to be sure that policies are being put into practice. Pupils’ attendance has improved and is now in line with national averages. Pupils report that they feel safe, including knowing how to stay safe online and in the countryside. They know what bullying is and were adamant that it does not happen at East Worlington. Pupils have confidence in staff that any concerns or worries are dealt with quickly and efficiently. Records reflect this. Every parent who responded to the online questionnaire Parent View would recommend the school. They reported that their children feel safe. Pupils take on a wide range of responsibilities and commit themselves to routines, for example in feeding and caring for the school chickens, which help them develop into dependable young people. Inspection findings My first line of enquiry concerned the effectiveness of all leaders, including directors, in meeting their statutory duties. There are few disadvantaged pupils in the school. Outcomes at the end of 2016 suggested that disadvantaged pupils did not make good progress. The pupil premium report published on the school’s website, although clearly costed, lacked any evaluation. However, leaders make good use of additional funds. Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their different starting points, including the most able disadvantaged. You keep clear records of the support that pupils receive and the impact it has. Teachers know pupils well and make good use of what pupils know, understand and can do to plug any gaps in their learning. Other aspects of the school’s website are also non-compliant. For example, information about the school’s curriculum is scant. However, conversations with pupils and a book scrutiny showed that the curriculum is rich. It is the administration of the information on the school’s website that is lacking and not the school’s work. I also looked at the effectiveness of the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The special educational needs report provides helpful information for parents. It provides useful contacts and clearly maps out the school’s approach to supporting individual needs. However, it does not evaluate the impact of additional spending. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress during their time at East Worlington. You make good use of additional funds to support pupils’ development. Highly skilled staff provide effective one-to-one and small group support which helps pupils to overcome barriers to their learning. You act swiftly to engage external support and advice when necessary. Pupils understand where they struggle but are confident to ‘have a go’ in improving their work. They say that adults support them in finding strategies to overcome any barriers. Consequently, they make good progress. My third line of enquiry focused on the effectiveness of the school’s provision and teaching to raise standards in writing. In 2016, fewer pupils achieved the expected standard in writing compared with reading and mathematics. At key stage 2, less than half of the pupils achieved the expected standard. Historically, fewer pupils achieved at the highest standard in writing. You had rightly identified writing as an area for improvement in your school improvement plan. In particular, you had identified that it was pupils’ weak grammar, punctuation and spelling that were holding pupils back. The trust’s appointment of a highly effective leader of literacy has had a significant impact on standards in writing. It is clear from the work in pupils’ books that their stamina for writing has greatly improved. They write at length and over time, their writing reflects muchimproved accuracy in pupils’ use of grammar and punctuation. There are still some weaknesses in pupils’ spelling in key stage 2. Teachers lack vigilance in ensuring that pupils apply their spelling knowledge correctly. Finally, I focused on leaders’ checks on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Leaders’ expectations are high. A scrutiny of staff records showed that leaders provide teachers with challenging targets. Leaders hold teachers to account through high-quality professional dialogue. The trust provides a tight network of support for teachers. Highly skilled middle leaders work alongside teachers and make regular checks to ensure that expectations are met. This can be seen in the improved standards in writing and mathematics. Where there is underperformance, leaders act swiftly and do not shy away from difficult decisions. However, leaders’ plans are not specific enough to enable rapid progress for pupils. Improvement plans lack aspirational timescales and measurable outcomes. Consequently, if something is not working effectively, it takes too long to recognise this and make the necessary adjustments. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: leaders’ plans for improvement are sufficiently detailed to include different pupil groups with timescales and measurable outcomes so that directors can respond quickly to challenge or redirect resources to maintain high standards teachers have high expectations of standards in spelling to improve outcomes for pupils, particularly in key stage 2 the school’s website is compliant. I am copying this letter to the chair of the executive board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Devon. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Tracy Hannon Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I held meetings with you and several senior leaders from the Chumleigh Academy Trust. I also spoke to pupils and a representative of the board of directors. I also undertook a learning walk with the primary assistant executive headteacher. I considered a range of documentary evidence, including the school’s selfevaluation, current progress and attainment information, the executive headteacher’s and directors’ reports, as well as attendance information. I also considered staff safeguarding referrals, information about the suitability of staff to work with children and child protection records. In addition, I took account of 24 parental responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as parents’ comments on free text.