Allenton Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve teaching, learning and assessment and the progress pupils make by:
  • ensuring that teachers have consistently high expectations of the most able pupils so that more achieve the higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics
  • identifying any variations in the progress made by pupils in different classes and working with teachers to reduce them
  • working with staff to sharpen the ways in which teachers deal with pupils’ misconceptions and teaching assistants develop pupils’ understanding
  • making sure that teachers use a consistent approach to managing pupils’ behaviour, especially in those classes where pupils’ off-task behaviour hinders their progress.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by:
  • working with parents and members of the local community to improve pupils’ attendance
  • helping pupils to manage their behaviour effectively during lunchtimes.
• Improve standards in reading by ensuring that teachers consistently provide all pupils with appropriately challenging texts.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher leads with determination and clarity. Staff understand leaders’ expectations and do their best to fulfil them.
• Leaders have brought rapid improvement to teaching and learning since the school became an academy. Skilled leaders, including some from the trust, have provided intensive coaching and mentoring to teaching staff. Staff have had many opportunities to develop their practice and contribute to whole-school improvement. Leaders have built these into teachers’ personal targets for development.
• Leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of the school well. Trust leaders robustly challenge and refine these judgements. This means that leaders and the school’s development plan are well focused on the most important priorities.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has a very good understanding of how well pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities learn. She has worked effectively with parents to ensure that education, health and care plans are in place. The SENCo is working with officers of the local authority to agree how funding can be better distributed for pupils who need more than general school support.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced. It is enhanced with a programme of enrichment visits. For example, pupils in Year 4 were excited to be visiting a chocolate factory and linked it with a story by Roald Dahl they had read. An element of the pupil premium funding is used to ensure that all disadvantaged pupils are able to go on school trips.
• Leaders’ support for newly qualified teachers is a strength of the school. Newly qualified teachers feel very positive about the impact that this support has had on their practice.
• Staff enjoy working at the school and are proud to do so. They confirmed that leaders take workload into account when developing and implementing policies. For example, they were particularly positive about changes made since a review of the marking policy.
• The school places pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development at the heart of the curriculum. For example, teachers use music effectively to instil calm and focus pupils on their learning. A well-thought-out approach to behaviour management supports pupils’ social and moral development effectively. The school’s reward system encourages pupils to develop ‘resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity’.
• Most pupils have a good knowledge and understanding of British values. They value the role of the school council highly and the fact that they can choose their representatives. The council plays an active role in the school’s development. It recently made a successful bid for funding for a sensory garden. Pupils understand the role of the rules in the school.

Governance of the school

• The academy trust monitors all aspects of the school’s work well. The trust board, which is the executive level of governance, is very effective in holding leaders to account. Its ambition and high expectations have been instrumental in raising standards throughout the school.
• Trustees evaluate the impact of their support rigorously. They work in close partnership with the headteacher to raise standards.
• The local governors understand their roles well. They support and challenge school leaders to continue to raise standards. The local governing body is well informed about the school’s priorities and successes.
• The pupil premium and primary physical education and sport premium are used well. Extra teaching in all year groups funded by the pupil premium is exceptionally well researched and focused. Outcomes expected from the interventions are clear and measurable. The school has learned much from its detailed evaluations of the use of the pupil premium in 2016/17. The primary physical education and sport premium is well targeted and evaluated. The headteacher has plans for sports specialists to focus on helping class teachers improve their practice.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school takes care to ensure that all staff follow its arrangements for safeguarding pupils. Records are of good quality and fit for purpose. All statutory requirements are met.
• The school staff are vigilant and well trained in checking and reporting any concerns they may have about pupils. The lead safeguarding staff form a very effective team. They work in close contact with a range of outside agencies and with families. Parents are confident in the school’s ability to support them when they request help.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers’ subject knowledge is good. More experienced teachers demonstrate very effective behaviour management skills.
• Teachers plan tasks for pupils carefully to link curriculum areas together. This enables pupils to develop a broad set of skills. Many teachers use thoughtful questions to ensure that pupils develop their reasoning skills. They promote discussion and reflection sensitively.
• The school’s marking policy is well implemented by teachers and well understood by pupils. Pupils enjoy tackling the challenges set by teachers and communicating with teachers through their responses.
• Many teachers review pupils’ understanding during lessons and deal with misconceptions rapidly. Using appropriate resources and approaches, teachers help pupils make rapid progress. Sometimes, when teachers identify misconceptions, however, they do not deal with them fully, and pupils do not make the progress they should.
• In many lessons, teaching assistants support pupils well in their learning and help them make good progress. In some lessons, however, teaching assistants do not help pupils to understand why they are making mistakes. As a result, these pupils do not grasp the concepts being taught.
• Teachers generally manage pupils’ behaviour well. Pupils who spoke with inspectors praised the positive impact of calming music, which helps them to settle quickly and focus on their work. The school’s approach, however, is not consistently used in all classes.
• Expectations of the most able pupils are not consistently high. For example, the most able pupils in key stage 1 are not sufficiently challenged to choose more demanding texts to read. This limits their progress. The most able pupils in Years 5 and 6 are not given timely opportunities to develop the skill of working independently.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils have a positive attitude to learning, especially where teaching is most effective. They are confident when discussing their work.
• Pupils take pride in the presentation of their books in all subjects and in topic work. They do not lower their standard of presentation or attitudes to work across any area of the curriculum.
• Teachers’ feedback helps pupils to take an active part in their learning by providing additional challenges. The ‘learning challenge box’ is used well by pupils throughout the school.
• Pupils are well motivated by the school’s rewards programme. This rewards them for demonstrating the school’s core values and allows parents to be informed about how well their children are doing.
• Pupils believe that bullying does happen but that teachers deal with it effectively. A very high proportion of staff also feel that bullying is dealt with effectively.
• The school promotes the well-being of the whole community, within and outside school. Various displays show where people can go to for help, for example for bereavement counselling, support for problems related to domestic abuse, and support for mental well-being.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils value the improvements in behaviour and their role through the school council in supporting this. The school’s data supports the pupils’ views of substantial improvements.
• School leaders have introduced a ‘hub’ where pupils can be allowed to regain control of their behaviour and settle down before returning to their class. The hub has proved to be effective in de-escalating incidents. The number of exclusions has reduced substantially.
• There has been a reduction in inappropriate behaviour this year, with only one fixed-term exclusion. This is a significant reduction on the previous year’s figure.
• A number of pupils described to inspectors the changes they had made to their behaviour since last year, when it was more challenging. They had a sense of pride in their work this year and in the improvements they had made.
• Parents reported an improvement in behaviour too. All would recommend the school to another parent.
• The school promotes respect for others and tackles poor behaviour robustly. The school’s approach helps pupils to understand the impact of their behaviour.
• Teaching assistants play an important role in behaviour management throughout the school. The interventions of teaching assistants and teachers in pupils’ behaviour are treated with respect by the pupils.
• Pupils say that behaviour at lunchtime is not as good as it is at breaktime. School leaders agree, and are working with the school council to improve lunchtime behaviour.
• Attendance has fallen and is now below national levels. Leaders have implemented a thorough range of strategies to bring about improvements. These have had some success. Leaders have identified attendance as a continuing concern and plan to continue to work with the community to improve it. They are doing their utmost to ensure that pupils value attending their school highly and to ensure that attendance improves again.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In 2017, pupils in Year 6, including disadvantaged pupils, made significantly more progress than other pupils nationally in writing and mathematics by the end of key stage 2. Their progress in reading was not as strong, but was broadly in line with that of pupils nationally.
• Unconfirmed figures suggest that the proportion who achieved the expected standard is likely to be in line with the national average in mathematics and writing, but below average in reading. Too few pupils achieved the higher standard in these subjects.
• The school’s information shows that the overall progress of current pupils throughout the school is good. There are inconsistencies, however, in the progress made by different year groups and in different subjects.
• The progress of the most able pupils is inconsistent. This is because not all teachers have high enough expectations of what these pupils can achieve.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well and make good progress.

Early years provision Good

• Standards in the early years have increased over the past three years, but are still below the national average. Children enter the Reception Year with skills that are below those typical for children of their age, particularly in literacy and numeracy. More are now reaching the national expectations when they begin key stage 1.
• Teaching is good because of the effective questioning and targeted support given to the children. This applies especially to children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Children make good progress in their communication and reading skills. Teaching enables them to develop their phonic awareness by repeating and consolidating sounds and blends. Outdoor learning is used well to reinforce learning in the classroom and to encourage children’s personal, social, emotional and physical development.
• Behaviour and safety are good. Effective strategies are in place to enable children to learn calmly. Adults support children well, encourage the correct behaviour and motivate them. Children are eager and want to learn.
• Safeguarding arrangements in the early years are effective. Staff are knowledgeable and appropriate checks are carried out when staff are recruited.
• The early years leader works with the staff team to ensure that planning and tracking are effective. This means that adults identify children who are falling behind and plan teaching that will help them catch up. The leader works with the SENCo to identify new children who need extra help and put into place effective support.
• The early years team has strong home–school links. Home visits help create a smooth start for children. Parents told inspectors that they felt well informed about their child’s progress, though some would like to meet with the teacher earlier in the year.
• Staff have created a strong sense of community, in which children follow the rules and play together well. Children learn about a variety of cultures around them and in Britain today.

School details

Unique reference number 141324 Local authority Derby Inspection number 10035947 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 5 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 389 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Peter Munro Headteacher Jon Fordham Telephone number 01332 701144 Website www.allentonprimaryschool.co.uk Email address admin@allenton.derby.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school converted to become an academy on 1 January 2015. It is sponsored by Transform Trust.
• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in 17 lessons. Many of these were visited jointly with a senior leader. During visits to lessons, inspectors sampled pupils’ books and talked with pupils to evaluate the quality of their learning. Inspectors also made short, informal visits to lessons throughout the school.
• Inspectors observed the behaviour of pupils at breaktime and lunchtime and as pupils moved around the school.
• Inspectors held a number of meetings with the headteacher, other senior leaders, middle leaders and newly qualified teachers. They met members of the local governing body, including the chair and vice-chair. The lead inspector met with the chief executive officer of Transform Trust. The lead inspector also held a telephone conversation with the chair of the trust.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils from all year groups in meetings, in lessons, around the school at and lunchtime.
• The inspection team looked at a wide range of the school’s documentation. This included the school’s evaluation of its own performance, its development plan, safeguarding procedures and records, and minutes of meetings of the governing body. Inspectors also considered data on pupils’ attainment and progress, attendance, bullying and behaviour.
• Inspectors took account of 12 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, and responses from parents to the Ofsted free-text service. The 34 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and 30 responses to the pupil questionnaire were also considered.

Inspection team

Clive Worrall, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Jay Virk Ofsted Inspector Jane Moore Ofsted Inspector