Buglawton Primary School
External Review of School Effectiveness
25 April 2014
External Reviewer
Mitch Moore
Executive Headteacher and School
Improvement Consultant, Coventry
Report on the review of Buglawton Primary School on 25 April
2014
Information about the school
Buglawton Primary School currently caters for 182 pupils and this number is expected to
increase to 197 in September 2014. The children are aged between 4 and 11 and live in
Buglawton and Congleton. Over recent years the pupil numbers have grown and the school
is now a 1 form entry school, with a Planned Admission Number of 30. The children are
taught in seven single-aged classes in pleasant, spacious, well-equipped classrooms. The
school has a privately run pre-school group located in a de-mountable on the school site and
most of these children enter the reception class at the start of the year in which they have
their fifth birthday. Most pupils come from a White British background. The number from
minority ethnic backgrounds is low and few pupils speak English as an additional language.
The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for Free School Meal has decreased and is now
just below the national average, although in the past five years it has been above or in-line
with the national average. Pupil Premium entitlement applies to 25% of the children. The
proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is currently below the
national average, with 35 pupils on the SEN register, including 2 children with an SEN
statement. The housing that serves the school is a mixture of privately owned and from
Dane Housing Association. The headteacher has been in school since 2007 and is a Local
Leader of Education. The school is part of the Congleton Education Community Partnership
(CeCP), which is a registered charity.
In its last Ofsted report in July 2007, the school's overall effectiveness was
judged to be outstanding, with no recommendations for further improvement.
In 2010, the school received an interim assessment from Ofsted confirming
its overall effectiveness as outstanding.
The school commissioned an external review in September 2012 which judged overall
effectiveness as outstanding. The areas for further improvement identified in that report
were:
 Increase the effectiveness of the governing body by ensuring it holds
the school to account with even more rigour.
 Ensure the high quality marking seen in most classes is consistent
across the school.
 Develop further the information and communication technology (ICT)
provision.
Information about this review
The reviewer undertook a learning walk across all classes with the Headteacher and also
observed a ‘celebration’ assembly.
Meetings were held with pupils, the headteacher, other staff with particular responsibilities
and four governors including the Chair.
Pupils’ books and records of their progress were examined.
The reviewer listened to pupils reading and discussed their reading experiences with them.
A range of documentation was examined, including the school’s strategic development plan
and analysis of its strengths and weaknesses, Raiseonline and the school’s analysis of 2013 data
across school, current assessment information, governor documentation and records of checks
made by leaders on the quality of teaching.
2
Buglawton Primary School Review April 2014
Key Findings
Overall effectiveness
Achievement of pupils at the school
Quality of teaching in the school
The behaviour and safety of pupils at the school
Quality of leadership in, and management of, the school
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
Buglawton Primary School is an outstanding school. The children have excellent educational
experiences in a highly inclusive and cohesive learning environment. This results in children
achieving very well and developing excellent attitudes to learning. The Headteacher provides
outstanding leadership and her vision and aspirations for the children permeate every aspect of
school life. Leadership across the school is very well developed and provides an exemplary
model of distributed leadership and governance.
Areas for further development


Ensure even greater consistency in pupils’ responses to feedback marking
Further develop children's understanding of lesson objectives and success criteria and
support them in developing appropriate language to talk about them
Achievement of pupils at the school: Outstanding
Pupils generally arrive at the school below the average age-related expectations. By the time
they leave school at age 11 the standards achieved are well above those found nationally. The
proportions of pupils making expected progress between Key Stages 1 and 2 (ages 7 to 11) is
very high compared to national figures and more children at the school make better than
expected progress than across the country. This has been a consistent pattern for three years.
Pupils for whom the Pupil Premium provides support do very well at the school. Their rate of
progress is even better than that of other pupils and therefore the school has been successful in
closing this gap. The school has a very effective system of collecting and analysing pupil
achievement information and this is acted on swiftly and effectively. These records show that
the picture of achievement seen in Raiseonline is consistent across all year groups. A
representative group of pupils were listened to reading and this confirmed that standards of
reading in the school are above average overall. Pupils use an appropriate range of strategies
when faced with unknown words and display an enthusiasm for, and love of, reading.
The school has developed innovative and highly effective systems for assessing achievement in
all curriculum subjects and these assessments are well moderated and used to inform planning
for future learning as well as providing valuable information that the school uses as part of its
self-evaluation.
Quality of teaching in the school: Outstanding
This is a school that is truly focused on learning. This is evident in the discussions that go on in
classes between pupils, pupils and their teachers, and the whole school environment. Working
walls in classrooms provide good evidence of learning over time and pupils talk in detail about
how these have helped them with their learning. Displays around the school celebrate the high
standards of achievement of pupils and also the breadth and richness of the curriculum. In the
celebration assembly every teacher had identified a number of pupils who had excelled in the
previous week and both teachers and pupils were able to talk in detail about their learning.
3
Buglawton Primary School Review April 2014
There is now a much greater consistency in marking across the school. A marking code has
been developed for each key stage and it is evident from the books and discussion with pupils
that this is effective in showing pupils what they need to do to improve and providing them
opportunities to respond to the marking. The school’s well developed system for sharing lesson
objectives and success criteria is very successful in supporting children in making progress in
lessons.
The behaviour and safety of pupils at the school: Outstanding
As noted above, pupils at Buglawton have a true love of learning and show excellent attitudes
and dispositions to learning in classes. There are high levels of engagement in lessons and this
is reflected in the high standards achieved by all groups of pupils. Pupils talk consistently about
how safe and secure they feel in school. There are good systems in place to promote and
reward attendance and punctuality and these have been effective in improving attendance which
is now higher than the national average.
Quality of leadership in, and management of, the school:
Outstanding
This was the major focus of this review.
The Headteacher provides outstanding leadership in the school. Her unrelenting focus on
improving provision and outcomes for pupils underpins all that happens in the school. She has
created a high level of consistency across the school while retaining space for the individuality of
teachers and pupils to flourish. Through a very clear focus on learning, high levels of
achievement and personal development for pupils have been sustained in the school. This work
has been complemented by the Deputy Headteacher who also provides excellent leadership.
The school has been very successful in developing a distributed model of leadership. All
teachers produce an annual ‘statement’ on their area of responsibility which is well informed and
evaluative. These form the basis of future developments and are built on a comprehensive
evaluation of pupil outcomes, informed by the innovative system for assessing pupils
achievement in all subjects.
There is a very strong focus in the school on continuing to improve the quality of teaching and
learning. In discussions with teachers, they all identified how performance management
processes have been used to provide them with feedback to improve their performance, backed
up by the strong systems for professional development.
Governance was identified as an area for further improvement in the review commissioned in
September 2012. The school has addressed this issue with rigour and governance is now
outstanding; indeed an exemplary model. Governors have a very clear and accurate
understanding of the strengths of the school. They are familiar with the data and other selfevaluation information about the school and use this information to challenge school leaders
very effectively. There is a well-developed system of ‘link governors’ with subject leader having
a named governor contact. Through this system governors have developed a good first hand
understanding of the school and have been able to offer challenge and support to all leaders.
The school is part of a very active local network of schools and this has resulted in many
tangible improvements within the school as well as contributing to ‘system leadership’ across the
group of schools. Governors and staff have benefitted from this partnership.
Despite the evidence strengths across the school there is no sense of complacency. The school
has excellent systems of self-review in place and these inform the ambitious plans for further
improvement that leaders and governors have developed.
4
Buglawton Primary School Review April 2014
5
Buglawton Primary School Review April 2014