The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Your strong, effective leadership has ensured that the school has continued to improve since joining the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust, in March 2015. As the executive headteacher of Tilney All Saints and its partnership school, you have developed a strong leadership team that plays a full part in securing improvement. Morale is high and staff say that they are proud to be members of this school. Your aspirations for this small village school are shared by everyone. You, your senior leaders, staff and governors have created an environment in which every child feels valued. Parents speak highly of the work of the school and indicate that they would recommend it to others. Typical comments from parents include, ‘This is a fantastic school’ and ‘Wonderful dedicated staff who really care about each individual child.’ Pupils are happy in school. They enjoy their learning and work with diligence and enthusiasm. They show respect and tolerance to one another. Pupils behave very well in lessons and around school because of the positive relationships that they have with staff and the school’s high expectations of behaviour. You ensure that pupils have valuable academic and personal experiences to develop their learning. Pupils especially enjoy their themed homework, which can involve parents and children learning together. The current homework displays based on autumn are of a high quality and show a wide range of pupils’ competencies. In recent years, you have improved the skills of leaders, teachers and teaching assistants through quality training and sharing best practice from the partnership school and multi-academy trust. You have provided pupils with relevant links across the curriculum to deepen their understanding and knowledge. Evidence from lessons and pupils’ books, including those from the previous year, shows that most pupils make at least good progress across the curriculum. Your staff quickly identify any issues which are making learning difficult for pupils and act swiftly to fill in gaps in their knowledge and skills. Additional, flexible support responds to pupils’ behavioural, social and emotional needs. These approaches are underpinning the school’s improvement in teaching and learning and pupils’ outcomes, even when small numbers in the year group can affect end-of-year results. However, you acknowledge that there is more work to be done to ensure that standards in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6 rise above national figures. Safeguarding is effective. You have created a culture of effective safeguarding at the school. Comprehensive staff training ensures that staff know what to do if they have any concerns. All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. You make certain that all checks are made on staff to ensure that they can work with children. Staff work tirelessly to keep vulnerable pupils safe from harm, liaising closely with other professionals so that pupils receive timely and effective support. This is a reflection of the school’s focus on ensuring that every pupil can achieve well. The caring and attentive culture which runs through the school and the trust that pupils have in all staff ensure that pupils are safe and always feel secure. Parents are confident that their children are safe and well looked after. Pupils told me that bullying hardly ever happens, but if they have any concerns then adults will deal with them effectively. Exclusions are very rare. Your staff work closely with parents to improve their child’s attendance and punctuality. Pupil premium funding is used effectively to support some pupils’ attendance. Pupils understand the importance of attendance for their learning. Currently, 65% have full attendance. Inspection findings My first line of enquiry was teaching and learning in the early years and Years 1 and 2, to see if it is strong enough to maintain and improve the standards in reading, writing and mathematics, which were above national figures in 2016 and 2017. We saw that the teacher and the teaching assistants work closely together to address the needs of individual pupils in these three small year groups, in one mixed-age class. The work in books, for the current year groups and previous year, shows that most pupils make good progress from their starting points in English and mathematics. Adults ask pertinent questions during stimulating activities to develop children’s and pupils’ learning. I observed children in the early years developing their mathematical skills when they collaborated to build rockets and funfair rides from plastic bricks. They were encouraged to estimate and count the number of plastic bricks, while discussing the tallest and shortest constructions. Effective teaching and learning support your view that the high proportion of pupils achieving a good level of development at the end of the Reception Year will continue. Together, we observed early years children and pupils from Years 1 and 2 complete appropriate phonics tasks in different ability groups to meet their individual needs. Reception pupils correctly pronounced the sounds of letters to build up simple words. Year 1 and Year 2 pupils used their knowledge of phonics to support their reading and writing of sentences while concentrating on descriptive vocabulary. Pupils then built on this work during a science activity where they recorded descriptions of plants and conkers that they found within the school grounds. Evidence of teaching and learning and work in books indicates that the above national standards in the Year 1 phonics screening check and the reading, writing and mathematics results at the end of key stage 1 can be sustained. My second key line of enquiry was teaching and learning in key stage 2. This is because, even though achievement at the end of Year 6 shows an improving picture, attainment in reading, writing and mathematics remains below national figures. Progress is broadly in line with the national average. Leaders, including the English and mathematics coordinators, know the strengths and areas for development within their subjects, and have devised action plans to help bring about improvement in teaching and learning. Sharing best practice, quality professional development and appropriate leader support are developing teachers’ skills. Leaders check pupils’ achievement closely to ensure that pupils make good progress from their different starting points. Teachers and trained teaching assistants provide effective support to fill in the gaps in pupils’ learning, which is improving their progress and standards across key stage 2. Improving pupils’ basic mathematical skills supported improvements in results at the end of Year 6 in 2017. This approach is building up pupils’ confidence in tackling difficult mathematical calculations. I saw a good example of this with your deputy headteacher, when pupils from Years 5 and 6 confidently explained how they would order fractions after working out the common denominator and corresponding numerators. Teachers’ questioning challenged pupils’ thinking and improved their depth of understanding. Additionally, leaders are currently updating the calculation policy to ensure consistency in teaching strategies across the school to further improve pupils’ learning. A focus on spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting in pupils’ writing is helping to raise pupils’ skills and presentation. Moderation across a range of schools is enabling teachers to be more accurate in their assessment of pupils’ writing to support sharper analysis of their progress and attainment. Pupils across the school say that they enjoy reading. The Year 6 pupils I listened to spoke enthusiastically about their books and read with fluency and understanding. A focus on comprehension skills is improving pupils’ understanding of difficult texts. Any underachievement in reading is quickly identified and effective support is provided by trained teaching assistants. The school’s variety of teaching approaches together with quality professional development are improving teachers’ skills and pupils’ learning in key stage 2. This is enabling pupils to make better progress to support improvements in standards in English and mathematics. My third line of enquiry was to see if the school’s self-evaluation and school improvement plan were driving school improvement. This was due to comments in the regional schools commissioner’s letter earlier in the year. I found that you, your leaders and the governing body evaluate the school’s effectiveness accurately and concisely. You then use this information to produce appropriate priorities to improve teaching and learning and provision across the school, which in turn is improving pupils’ outcomes. These strategic documents, alongside effective succession planning, are helping to drive forward sustainable school development, giving the school good capacity for further improvement. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the new approaches in reading, writing and mathematics are further developed so that they continue to improve pupils’ attainment and progress throughout the school, especially by the end of key stage 2. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the executive board of the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust and the regional schools commissioner. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Julie Harrison Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you, other leaders, governors and representatives of the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust. I listened to some Year 6 pupils read, and spoke with a group of pupils. I looked at a range of documentation, including information about the school’s self-evaluation, plans for future improvement and a letter from the regional schools commissioner (January 2017). I examined policies and procedures for the safeguarding of pupils, including the school’s single central record of pre-employment checks. I visited all classrooms to observe pupils’ learning and scrutinised the work in pupils’ books with either yourself or other senior leaders. The views of eight staff, 30 pupils and 20 parents who responded to Ofsted’s online surveys were taken into account, as well as parental views from the freetext service, and parents I spoke to before school.