Morville CE Primary School responding to Ofsted inspection
A Shropshire school is responding to an Ofsted inspection which praised some of the teaching and recognised a number of strengths, but concluded that improvements were needed to ensure pupils received a consistent level of education and support.
The Ofsted inspector, who visited Morville CE Primary School in May 2012, has reported that while the school has many strengths – including excellent teaching in the Early Years Foundation Stage – it currently requires special measures.
This is to ensure that the required improvement measures already being put in place by the headteacher and the governors have a good impact on raising standards.
The inspector reported that there was some excellent teaching in Early Years groups and that in some lessons across the school pupils were challenged to work hard and were fully engaged in their learning. However, the Ofsted inspector concluded that teaching was not yet consistent enough, and so progress was not rapid enough as pupils went through Key Stage 1 and 2.
The report notes that parents and carers are happy with how their children are doing at the school. During the inspection parents and carers also commented that their children are kept safe and that the school cares for them well.
The behaviour of the children was also recognised as a strength in the school:
“Pupils are respectful, helpful and polite. All get on well together and older pupils show great care and support for the younger pupils. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage have exceptionally good attitudes to their learning and they behave very maturely.”
The inspector reported that teaching promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils’ keen sense of right and wrong was demonstrated to the inspector when they were debating the pros and cons of Edwardian social mores, with one pupil commenting “I think it is sexist that Edwardian women were not allowed to smoke and men were”. A debate then ensued about society’s ignorance about the dangers of smoking.
Despite there being many areas where the school is doing well, the inspector felt that improvements were needed to the overall quality of teaching, and to how the quality of teaching was assessed. The report concluded that there was not enough good or better teaching to eliminate underachievement.
The inspector commented on the hard work and dedication of the headteacher, the support provided to the school by governors and the eagerness of the staff to drive forward school improvement.
Chair of Governors, Liz Townsley, said:
“We believe we have found ourselves in a situation where the new Ofsted inspection arrangements have resulted in our small class numbers influencing the final report. However, we believe this is a great opportunity to focus on those areas indicated by Ofsted, where we as governors can further support the school.
“Morville schoolchildren are very well behaved, confident and happy, and year 6 Standard Attainment Test (SATs) results this summer are very good. The school has recently been granted additional places each year to satisfy the increased demand from local families, a reflection on the great reputation we have, and we see it as our duty to maintain, and improve even further, the standing of the school in the community and the quality of education we provide to our children.”
Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for education and skills, added:
“We are pleased to see the inspector noted the many positive aspects of the school, and it’s clear that pupils enjoy going to school and parents are happy with the level of support they are receiving. The inspection was conducted under the new inspection arrangements, which are harsher and more demanding than previous inspection frameworks. Whilst feeling the report is quite harsh, the headteacher and governors are already working with us to ensure the required improvements are made.”
