Fishbourne CofE Primary School
Fishbourne CofE Primary School
Headteacher: Mr Nick Sharp
School holidays for Fishbourne CofE Primary School via West Sussex council
210 pupils capacity: 96% full
100 boys 50%
105 girls 52%
Last updated: June 20, 2014
Primary — Voluntary Controlled School
- Education phase
- Religious character
- Church of England
- Establishment type
- Voluntary Controlled School
- Establishment #
- OSGB coordinates
- Easting: 483727, Northing: 104966
- GPS coordinates
- Latitude: 50.838, Longitude: -0.81231
- Accepting pupils
- 4—11 years old
- Census date
- Jan. 16, 2014
- Ofsted last inspection
- Oct. 8, 2009
- Diocese of Chichester
- Region › Const. › Ward
- South East › Chichester › Fishbourne
- Urban > 10k - less sparse
- Free school meals %
- 0.6 miles Bishop Luffa Church of England School, Chichester PO193LT
- 0.6 miles Bishop Luffa Church of England School, Chichester PO193LT (1416 pupils)
- 0.9 miles Parklands Community Primary School PO193AG (263 pupils)
- 1.1 mile Chichester College PO191SB
- 1.3 mile Lancastrian Infants' School PO191DG (119 pupils)
- 1.3 mile Central CofE Junior School PO191DQ (317 pupils)
- 1.3 mile Oakwood School PO189AN (230 pupils)
- 1.3 mile The Prebendal School PO191RT (202 pupils)
- 1.4 mile Jessie Younghusband Primary School PO195PA (211 pupils)
- 1.4 mile St Anthony's School PO195PA (201 pupils)
- 1.5 mile Northgate House School PO191LX
- 1.6 mile Bosham Primary School PO188QF (194 pupils)
- 1.6 mile St Richard's Catholic Primary School PO191XB (229 pupils)
- 1.7 mile Chichester High School for Boys PO198AE
- 1.7 mile Chichester High School for Girls PO198EB
- 1.7 mile Chichester High Schools Sixth Form PO198AE
- 1.7 mile University of Chichester PO196PE
- 1.7 mile Chichester High School for Girls PO198EB (1014 pupils)
- 1.7 mile Chichester High School for Boys PO198AE (860 pupils)
- 1.9 mile Kingsham Primary School PO198BN (267 pupils)
- 1.9 mile Fordwater School, Chichester PO196PP (120 pupils)
- 1.9 mile Kingsham Primary School PO198BN
- 2.1 miles Chichester Nursery School PO197AB (143 pupils)
- 2.1 miles Portfield Community Primary School PO197HA
Ofsted report: latest issued Oct. 8, 2009.
Fishbourne C of E Primary School
|Unique Reference Number||125983|
|Local Authority||West Sussex|
|Inspection dates||8–9 October 2009|
|Reporting inspector||Gavin Jones|
This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.
|Type of school||Primary|
|School category||Voluntary controlled|
|Age range of pupils||4–11|
|Gender of pupils||Mixed|
|Number of pupils on the school roll||198|
|Appropriate authority||The governing body|
|Date of previous school inspection||13 February 2007|
|School address||Roman Way|
|Chichester PO19 3QS|
|Telephone number||01243 785974|
|Fax number||01243 785974|
|Inspection dates||8–9 October 2009|
© Crown copyright 2009
This inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors. The inspectors visited 15 lessons and held meetings with senior managers, a group of governors, members of staff and groups of pupils. They observed the school's work and looked at the school improvement plan and policies, including those relating to safeguarding and equal opportunities. They received completed questionnaires from 90 parents, 29 pupils and 25 members of staff.
The inspection team reviewed many aspects of the school's work. It looked in detail at:
- the level of challenge for the more able pupils
- standards and progress in English
- the school's systems of assessment and their use
- the performance of leaders at all levels in promoting improvement.
Information about the school
This is an average-sized primary school, in which almost all pupils are of White British origin. Of the very small number of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds, only one pupil is at the very early stages of speaking English. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities remains below the national average. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is low compared to the national average. Children start Reception in the year in which they become five. Some attend part time initially. The proportion of pupils starting school other than in the Reception Year is broadly average. The school has the Healthy School award.
|Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate|
|Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms|
Overall effectiveness: how good is the school?
The school's capacity for sustained improvement
Fishbourne is a good school, with several notable strengths in the way the school cares for its pupils, their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, their behaviour and the way they feel safe in school. It continues to improve. The standards reached by pupils have been above average in recent years, with science being significantly above average for two out of the last three years. Mathematics was also significantly above average, while results in English have remained broadly average for the last three years. Unvalidated results for 2009 and work seen during the inspection show that standards are significantly above average for science and mathematics, while they are now above average in English. Improvements have been due to a number of strategies and interventions put in place by the school, although not all of them have had time to embed throughout and result in universal success thus far. All groups make good progress in their learning and achieve well.
A key strength of the school is its outstanding pastoral care. This is exemplified in the way all adults work together to ensure that all pupils, whatever their difficulties, are well supported. The use of family support and external agencies effectively add to the school's own systems. The result of this quality of care is that all pupils feel extremely safe and are developing into considerate and thoughtful young people. They show outstanding spiritual, social and moral development. Their overall personal development is aided by a rich and varied curriculum, supported well by the school's own and additional specialist teachers and extended through good extra-curricular clubs and events. One pupil noted: 'All our outside-school activities are great fun and well chosen.' One area that is not as well developed is the pupils' understanding of other children in a range of settings in the British Isles or further afield. Links had previously been established abroad but have not been used for some time.
Lessons are typified by enthusiasm and excellent behaviour. This is partly due to the way pupils are well motivated through good-quality teaching. Teachers provide a wide range of tasks to cater for groups of pupils of different ability . However, more exact use of individual tracking would help teachers to plan even more accurately for individual needs. In the same way, learning targets do not always allow pupils to have complete understanding of what they are striving to learn.
The secret of the school's success is the drive and ambition of the headteacher channelled through the good leadership team. There is a corporate desire to move 'from good to outstanding', as reflected in the title of recent in-service training. The quality of subject leaders is invariably good and they too play their part in checking on the quality of their subjects and suggesting ways to improve. With the ever growing understanding and knowledge gained by governors, the school has good capacity to continue to improve and to provide further evidence of good value for money.
What does the school need to do to improve further?
- Enhance the good teaching in English, in order to promote excellence in learning by:
- developing pupils' individual targets so that they are more easily understood and used by pupils to improve their work
- ensuring that teachers use clear measures of pupils' individual progress in English to enable them to plan lessons even more closely matched to individual learning needs.
- Help pupils to gain a clearer picture of what life is like for children in different communities, both in the British Isles and further afield by:
- pursuing links with schools in different settings, for example within the local authority
- providing meaningful links with a school abroad, for example, by revitalising previous links with Nigeria or pursuing links with Fishbourne's twinned town in France.
Outcomes for individuals and groups of pupils
Pupils make good progress across the school. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, where children's communication and language skills are a little lower than other skills on entry, progress in this area of learning has still been good by the time these children enter Year 1. In Reception children were seen learning sounds and words, using music and song to support their phonic understanding. Older pupils in Year 6 were seen working on the use of commas, brought to life by the brisk pace of the lesson and good use of the interactive whiteboard, coupled with the teacher's enthusiastic approach.
The small numbers of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds are supported well, as are pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, including those who are deemed gifted or talented. These groups make good progress in their learning.
Elements of pupils' personal development are outstanding. For example, pupils feel exceedingly safe in school and show excellent behaviour overall. One pupil said, 'There is nothing we couldn't talk about to adults in the school, so I feel I will be helped wherever I go and at any time. It's a nice feeling.' Behaviour was exemplary in nearly all lessons. This quality of behaviour helps keep the pace of learning moving quickly and supports pupils' progress. As a result of pupils' enjoyment in school, attendance is well above the national average. There are strong links with the local community, often involving pupils directly with other local groups. While pupils have well-developed English and mathematical skills and often work in groups in lessons, their understanding of enterprise and business still remains to be developed further in order to improve their readiness for future life. Pupils are given opportunities to reflect on and consider how best they might understand the society in which they live, with the school rapidly pursuing issues of local and world interest through its 'Eco' programmes, as noted in the school improvement plan.
These are the grades for pupils' outcomes
|Pupils' achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning|
Taking into account:
The quality of pupils' learning and their progress
The quality of learning for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their progress
|The extent to which pupils feel safe||1|
|The extent to which pupils adopt healthy lifestyles||2|
|The extent to which pupils contribute to the school and wider community||2|
|The extent to which pupils develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being|
Taking into account:
|The extent of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development||1|
1 The grades for attainment and attendance are: 1 is high; 2 is above average; 3 is broadly average; and 4 is low
How effective is the provision?
Several recent school initiatives have provided a successful backdrop for the consistently good teaching and learning. Almost all lessons had a number of strong features. In most lessons, good use was made of the interactive whiteboard as a focus for learning and a tool to motivate learners. A strong emphasis is placed on practical activities, with pupils in a literacy lesson in Year 4 looking at slides they had produced on computers linked with their topic on Egypt. They discussed the slides and discussed how they felt, in advance of writing. Teachers question carefully and some use this well to make ongoing assessments of how well pupils are progressing, getting pupils to sign their understanding with hand signals. Key skills in literacy and numeracy are taught well. The teaching of science is very effective, resulting in standards that are regularly well above the national average. Skills in information and communication technology are also promoted well and, in Year 6, these are supported even further during the residential visit. Here, the oldest pupils have extended opportunities to explore and improve their skills to high standards, using software not available at the school. Pupils' enjoyment is enhanced by the broad and rich curriculum. Out-of-school club activities are good and support the further development of a range of skills. The curriculum is supported well by specialist teachers for music, French, art and physical education, for example.
The school has good systems to check on pupils' progress. These are used well to note pupils who are in danger of falling behind. However, they have not yet been sufficiently refined so that teachers can use them to set more individually tailored work in lessons, instead of simply relating to three main ability groups regularly.
Parents very much appreciate the outstanding caring ethos of the school. 'Every child does matter' is a phrase used regularly in the school. This is clearly seen in the work of learning assistants and the learning mentor and the care taken to support pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable. 'Learning assistants provide excellent support' is a view of one parent, which sums up that of many. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well cared for, with the work coordinated effectively by the special needs manager. Pupils' needs are established carefully, their work is well planned and their progress is accurately charted. As a result, they make the same good progress as other pupils.
These are the grades for the quality of provision
|The quality of teaching|
Taking into account:
The use of assessment to support learning
|The extent to which the curriculum meets pupils' needs, including, where relevant, through partnerships||2|
|The effectiveness of care, guidance and support||1|
How effective are leadership and management?
There is a strong, shared, sense of responsibility and commitment among all staff, which derives from the extremely effective leadership of the headteacher, who is well supported by his leadership team. In their questionnaires all the teachers noted that they felt part of a closely knit and successful team. Monitoring and development of teaching are thorough and have resulted in solidly good teaching across the school, with some outstanding elements noted. Governors share in all aspects of leadership and management and provide good support. They are fully involved in evaluating the school and, through monitoring, are gaining a good knowledge of the school's strengths and areas for development, in order to be in an even stronger position to challenge the school and take a full part in shaping its direction.
The school has made a satisfactory start in promoting community cohesion. It provides pupils with a growing awareness of their place and role in their own school and in the local community. In this, it is particularly successful. The school demonstrates a commitment to equal opportunities, as is reflected in the way that the small number of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities make similar progress as their classmates and are very well integrated with other pupils. It has provided pupils with some understanding of life in the world beyond our shores, but has not given them a clear picture of the lives of children in other areas of the British Isles that are very different from Fishbourne.
At the time of the inspection, safeguarding procedures were thorough and well managed. Staff have regular training for child protection issues. Risk assessments, together with health and safety procedures, are in good order.
These are the grades for leadership and management
|The effectiveness of leadership and management in embedding ambition and driving improvement|
Taking into account:
The leadership and management of teaching and learning
|The effectiveness of the governing body in challenging and supporting the|
school so that weaknesses are tackled decisively and statutory responsibilities met
|The effectiveness of the school's engagement with parents and carers||2|
|The effectiveness of partnerships in promoting learning and well-being||2|
|The effectiveness with which the school promotes equality of opportunity and tackles discrimination||2|
|The effectiveness of safeguarding procedures||2|
|The effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion||3|
|The effectiveness with which the school deploys resources to achieve value for money||2|
Early Years Foundation Stage
The Early Years Foundation Stage promotes the development of young children well. Children make good progress as a result of the range of opportunities provided for them and put into practice by a small but effective team of practitioners. The accommodation is bright and welcoming and benefits from a covered outside area, which allows children to move both in and out safely without being restrictive. At this early stage of the term, children are confident, articulate and very happy to explain to inspectors what they are doing. They cooperate well in activities and share equipment.
Children enter Reception with skills that are expected for their age, although there are some weaknesses in aspects of language, literacy and personal development. However, their mathematical skills on entry are of a much higher order. Almost all children move to Year 1 ready to start on the National Curriculum, with a minority a little further ahead in their development. This illustrates the good progress they have made during the year. The setting is managed well. The new leader has established good systems for assessment which enable adults to guide children to the next steps in their learning. Development planning shows that the school is now beginning to analyse the strengths and areas for development within the areas of learning, as indicated by assessment data. Parents and carers are very pleased with the smooth transition into school and children leave their parents readily at the door and go happily into lessons. Ongoing links with parents and carers are strong
These are the grades for the Early Years Foundation Stage
|Overall effectiveness of the Early Years Foundation Stage|
Taking into account:
Outcomes for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage
The quality of provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage
The effectiveness of leadership and management of the Early Years Foundation
Views of parents and carers
In the high return of questionnaires from parents and carers, views were very positive about the provision the school makes for their children. Around 99% of replies showed positive responses for enjoyment, teaching leadership and healthy lifestyles. A very few concerns were expressed about unacceptable behaviour, but this was not borne out by pupils when they spoke to inspectors. They said they felt very confident that staff deal with any issues of this sort very quickly, often using the 'Going for green' to support behaviour management. Parents are very supportive and appreciative of the school and feel they are kept well informed of their children's progress and of school events. In the same way, the school has strong links with other schools locally. They join together on a wide range of training enterprises and exchange teachers and skills to the benefit of the pupils, especially in improving the curriculum.
Responses from parents and carers to Ofsted's questionnaire
Ofsted invited all the registered parents and carers of pupils registered at Fishbourne Primary School to complete a questionnaire about their views of the school.
In the questionnaire, parents and carers were asked to record how strongly they agreed with 13 statements about the school.
The inspection team received 90 completed questionnaires by the end of the on-site inspection. In total, there are 198 pupils registered at the school.
|My child enjoys school||55||61||33||37||2||2||0||0|
|The school keeps my child safe||58||64||22||24||5||6||2||2|
|My school informs me about my child's progress||32||36||52||58||6||7||1||1|
|My child is making enough progress at this school||32||36||47||52||11||12||0||0|
|The teaching is good at this school||41||46||48||53||1||1||0||0|
|The school helps me to support my child's learning||39||43||47||52||4||4||0||0|
|The school helps my child to have a healthy lifestyle||50||56||38||42||2||2||0||0|
|The school makes sure that my child is well prepared for the future (for example changing year group, changing school, and for children who are finishing school, entering further or higher education, or entering employment)||40||44||40||44||1||1||1||1|
|The school meets my child's particular needs||33||37||40||44||9||10||0||0|
|The school deals effectively with unacceptable behaviour||31||34||46||51||6||7||3||3|
|The school takes account of my suggestions and concerns||20||22||56||62||11||12||1||1|
|The school is led and managed effectively||48||53||39||43||1||1||0||0|
|Overall, I am happy with my child's experience at this school||48||53||39||43||0||0||0||0|
The table above summarises the responses that parents and carers made to each statement. The percentages indicate the proportion of parents and carers giving that response out of the total number of completed questionnaires. Where one or more parents and carers chose not to answer a particular question, the percentages will not add up to 100%.
What inspection judgements mean
|Grade 1||Outstanding||These features are highly effective. An oustanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils' needs.|
|Grade 2||Good||These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well.|
|Grade 3||Satisfactory||These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils.|
|Grade 4||Inadequate||These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.|
Overall effectiveness of schools inspected between September 2007 and July 2008
|Overall effectiveness judgement (percentage of schools)|
|Type of school||Outstanding||Good||Satisfactory||Inadequate|
|Pupil referral |
The data in the table above were reported in the Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills 2007/08.
Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100. Secondary school figures include those that have sixth forms, and sixth form figures include only the data specifically for sixth form inspection judgements.
Common terminology used by inspectors
the progress and success of a pupil in their learning, development or training.
the standard of the pupils' work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.
|Capacity to improve:|
the proven ability of the school to continue improving. Inspectors base this judgement on what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.
|Leadership and management:|
the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.
how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.
inspectors form a judgement on a school's overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school. The following judgements, in particular, influence what the overall effectiveness judgement will be.
the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils' attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.
This letter is provided for the school, parents and
carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted's
main findings from the inspection of their school.
11 October 2009
Inspection of Fishbourne C of E Primary School, Fishbourne, Chichester, PO19 3QS
Thank you for the warm welcome you gave us when we inspected your school the other day. We really enjoyed meeting you and talking to you. We were impressed by how polite and well behaved you were and how much you enjoy school. This was not surprising, as your headteacher, teachers and helpers all work very hard to ensure you do well and have lots of interesting activities. We think your school is good and is still improving. Here are some of the things we found out.
- Children have a good start in the Reception class and make good progress while they are there.
- Standards are particularly good in science, and sometimes in mathematics, and you all try hard and make good progress.
- You feel very safe in school because the school cares for you exceptionally well.
- Your behaviour is excellent, as are your relationships with others.
- You are taught well in lessons.
- Your school community is strong and you take part in events and activities around Fishbourne and Chichester.
- All the staff and governors are working hard to make sure you do well. Your headteacher provides excellent leadership and, together with his senior leadership team, they have a clear vision of where the school is going.
There are some things that your school can do to make it even better. We have asked the staff and governors to:
- raise standards in English, so that they are as good as those in mathematics and science
- help you understand what life is like for children in other parts of Britain and in other parts of the world.
Thank you again for helping us. We hope that you all do your best to keep up the good levels of work we have seen and continue to work and play well together.
Best wishes for the future.
|Any complaints about the inspection or the report should be made following the procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted's website: ofsted.gov.uk. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 08456 404045, or email firstname.lastname@example.org.|