The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. The school has started its planned expansion, with the number of pupils on roll rising, and you are fully prepared for your imminent move to the new school building on the other side of the village. Your leadership team is strong and provides clear direction for the school, sharing your vision and enthusiasm effectively with staff and governors. You have a detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school through your monitoring and evaluation, and use this information well to prioritise actions to bring about change. As a result, you have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Pupils now have frequent access to computing and other technologies to support their learning. During the inspection, I saw pupils engaged in a range of writing tasks and their books show an impressive amount of writing for different purposes. This breadth and quality of work clearly show that most pupils in all year groups are making at least good progress in writing from their various starting points. You have made mathematics more purposeful and often linked to real-life situations. The school has a clear culture of caring for every pupil and providing good opportunities for their academic, personal and spiritual development. Parents speak highly of the school’s ethos and how well their children are cared for. The breakfast and after-school clubs are available to all pupils and provide a calm, caring environment to play and socialise. The strong commitment to Christian values is a palpable feature of the school’s ethos and culture, and strong links are established with the teaching and understanding of British values. Pupils have a secure appreciation of these values. Pupils are very proud of their school and of their work that they present to a high standard. They behave well and know that there is a time for learning and a time for playing. Pupils are confident with and trustful of adults. Pupils are clear that they feel safe in school and consider that bullying is rare. Pupils say that they particularly enjoy the regular opportunities to learn outdoors. The learning environment inside and outside is bright and stimulating, and encourages pupils to take pride in their learning. The early years team provides an extensive range of exciting and challenging activities to move children forward in all areas of learning. As a result, children get off to a positive start in Reception. Outdoor learning areas are particularly inviting and well used. Adults support the children well, skilfully knowing when to show them how to do something, as well as when to step back and let them find out for themselves. Only a few weeks into the new school year, I saw children in the Reception classes completely absorbed and happy. Where pupils have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, you make sure that staff know how to support them well as individuals. For example, the parent of a pupil who has SEN said, ‘I have been so impressed with how the school have dealt with my daughter’s needs [and] I’m delighted with her progress.’ Systems for monitoring the school’s work are effective and self-evaluation is accurate. For example, you have identified that more can be done to challenge the most able key stage 2 pupils. Several of your subject leaders are relatively new to their roles. They have secure knowledge in their subjects to draw upon. However, their skills in monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching and learning are underdeveloped. In response to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, almost all parents expressed very positive views about the school. Many used words such as, ‘brilliant’, ‘fantastic’, ‘nurturing’, and ‘amazing’ to describe it, and 97% said that they would recommend the school to another parent. Several parents who had recently moved their children to the school talked about the tremendous difference this had made to their children’s confidence and happiness. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and governors promote a strong culture of shared responsibility for safeguarding, ensuring that safeguarding arrangements are secure and are followed diligently. Statutory checks are carried out on the suitability of staff to work with children. Appropriate training ensures that staff have up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding and are vigilant about the potential risks that pupils may face. Leaders keep detailed records and share information with appropriate authorities to ensure pupils’ safety. Pupils are taught how to be safe online. The personal, social, health and economic education programme teaches them to be aware of issues such as bullying and what to do if they feel worried or anxious. Good relationships between pupils and staff help pupils to have confidence to talk about any concerns. Inspection findings During this visit, as well as evaluating safeguarding arrangements, I focused on specific aspects of the school’s provision, including: – whether the dip in the 2017 key stage 2 results is indicative of current pupils’ progress – whether leaders use funding effectively to ensure the best outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities – the breadth and balance of the curriculum – the effectiveness of governance. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception Year has risen over the past three years and is consistently above the national average. The high-quality teaching of phonics underpins the good progress that pupils make in reading in Reception and Year 1. The proportion of pupils that achieve the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 has significantly risen. You recognise that some staff need to refresh their phonic skills to eliminate any instances of mispronunciation of letter sounds and names. Historically, the proportions of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2 were in line with national figures. Leaders are acutely aware that the 2017 key stage 1 outcomes dipped, particularly in reading and mathematics. Detailed analysis reveals that this is not a trend and leaders have taken decisive action to restructure teaching and learning to ensure that these pupils are supported to catch up. Recent purchases of resources to support the teaching of mathematics in key stage 1 are already starting to have a good impact on pupils’ understanding. Historically, the majority of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, made good progress in reading, writing and mathematics across all years within key stage 2. Leaders have responded well to the dip in pupils’ achievement at the end of Year 6 in 2017, particularly in mathematics. As a result of professional development and training, the teaching of mathematics in key stage 2 is improving, with a particular focus on improving pupils’ reasoning skills. Teachers are also focused on rapidly improving pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar. Pupils’ books provide evidence that standards in mathematics and writing are improving this year. In 2017, the most able key stage 2 pupils made slower rates of progress by the end of Year 6 than other pupils nationally with similar starting points, particularly in mathematics. Current pupils are making better progress. As a result of further training, teachers are now providing additional challenges for the most able pupils. You have identified that there is more work to be done to ensure that a greater proportion of pupils achieve a higher standard at the end of key stage 2. Leaders ensure the high quality of additional help for disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. Teachers and teaching assistants work well together to support any pupils who are falling behind. Effective assessment and tracking systems, together with timely interventions and support, ensure that the differences continue to diminish between these pupils and their peers. The curriculum is broad and balanced. Parents and pupils value the wide range of extra-curricular and enrichment opportunities that the school provides, including sporting and cultural activities. However, middle leaders do not yet have a clear idea about the progress that pupils are making in all subjects. Governors effectively monitor the work of the school and often ask searching questions. Governors have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school, based on your comprehensive reports to them. They frequently visit the school to see pupils and staff at work and use these visits well to check on the accuracy of the information they receive. Governors ensure that a wide range of helpful information for parents is readily available in school. However, they have not rigorously checked that this information is published online. They recognise that further work is needed to ensure that the school’s website is kept up to date. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: the level of challenge for the most able pupils is well targeted and planned in all classes to improve the proportion of pupils who achieve higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics there is further support for the development of middle leaders to enable them to check on and monitor pupils’ achievement more effectively across the whole curriculum. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner, the director of education for the Diocese of Rochester and the director of children’s services for Kent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Marcia Goodwin Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection During this inspection, I met with you, the assistant headteacher and the leaders of English, mathematics and computing to discuss the school’s effectiveness. I also met with a group of governors and a representative of the local authority. I met with a group of pupils and talked with others around the school, during lessons and at breaktime. You, or the assistant headteacher, accompanied me to observe teaching and learning in seven classes across the school. I scrutinised a sample of pupils’ books. I examined documents, including the school’s information about safeguarding pupils, the school’s evaluation of its work and its development plans. I considered 113 responses to Parent View. No responses to Ofsted’s survey were received from members of staff or pupils.