by Alan Quick

THE 100-plus pupil Morchard Bishop Church of England Primary School is again celebrating after being judged “good” during a recent Ofsted inspection.

The Inspector, Iain Freeland, visited the school on January 10 and said: “This school continues to be good.”

He praised the leadership team saying it has: “…maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have made significant staffing changes, appointing staff who bring with them specific skills and expertise to address the areas you, and governors, identified as priorities for improvement. The decision to incorporate the pre-school into the primary school’s management structure has been well considered. As a result, the school is achieving higher standards than previously.”

He said one of the marked features of the school is the involvement of a large number of villagers in the life of the school.

He reported: “You have ensured the school is at the heart of the community. You have involved many villagers who have particular skills and expertise to support and enhance the school’s work, some of whom are now governors.

“The Two Moors Learning Partnership, a partnership of five local primary schools, provides useful support and challenge to Morchard Bishop and allows you to support and challenge the other school leaders. Added to this, governors have commissioned support in specific areas. As a result, you, governors and staff are clear about the school’s strengths and weaknesses.

“You have successfully addressed the areas for improvement raised at the last inspection. You recognise, however, that there is scope to improve even further and have plans in place to bring this about. The work to develop pupils’ cultural knowledge and understanding is now well embedded into the curriculum.

“Pupils enjoy the experiences staff provide, particularly those which involve your partner school in Uganda. Younger pupils also follow, with interest, the journeys of Digit Bear and learn about the various countries and parts of the United Kingdom which he visits.”

He added that safeguarding at Morchard Bishop C of E School is “effective”.

He said staff have prepared pupils well to face risks in society. He said that in discussions with pupils during the inspection, they explained how to stay safe, including when using the internet and social media.

He said pupils’ attendance was good and appropriate use was made of the education welfare officer, when necessary, to check pupils are safe.

The Inspector particularly praised the fresh approach the head teacher, Christopher Sargeant, had introduced a few years ago to the teaching of writing and said it was “paying dividends”.

In this regard, he added: “The investment governors have made, and continue to make, to improve the quality of writing through the appointment of a literacy co-ordinator, staff training, moderation and monitoring by a specialist adviser is resulting in improved outcomes.”

However, he said some pupils continue to make grammatical errors and misuse punctuation because they are not clear about exactly which aspects of their writing need to be improved. Consequently, he added, too few are writing at the highest level.

In mathematics, there was praised for teachers and pupils.

He said that in most year groups, disadvantaged pupils were making at least as good and often better progress than their peers and he said he observed teaching assistants working well with disadvantaged pupils to ensure they make more rapid progress.

In the past, he said, few of the most able pupils made the progress they should to achieve the highest standards but explained that current progress information showed that more of the most able pupils in Years three and four are working at greater depth.

More widely, across the school, he said pupils are not aware of the skills they need to develop to achieve the higher scores and teachers do not insist on the very highest standards.

He praised the governors for taking responsibility for the previously committee-led pre-school in April 2016 but said that while staff know what children know, understand and can do on an individual basis, the systems to allow the Head Teacher and other staff to monitor and track the progress of children in the early years are not sufficiently well developed.

He said the next steps for the school were that leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

• pupils’ outcomes continue to improve, especially for the most able pupils, so they achieve the highest standards

• the assessment system is fully developed and embedded for all years, including in the pre-school, to allow the effective tracking and monitoring of pupils’ attainment and identify precisely where intervention is needed.

Mr Sergeant, said, following publication of the report: “The school is very pleased with the report as it recognises the progress we have made since the last inspection in 2013, which is testament to the hard work of Governors and staff. 

“The report identifies the main strengths of the school, particularly the fact that the school is an integral part of the village and is supported by the wider community.

“It also made positive comments on the changes to early years education at the school and how both school and pre-school work effectively together, which is having a positive effect on the outcomes for the children.

“Our challenge now is to address the next steps as laid out in the report to ensure the children of Morchard Bishop continue to have a first class education.”