Holme Hall Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the impact of leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that leaders are fully held to account by governors for the performance of all groups of pupils, but particularly those who receive extra funding, such as pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged
  • developing the role of leaders responsible for subjects and key stages so that they play a fuller role in checking on and improving teaching
  • ensuring that leaders check records about safeguarding and pupils’ behaviour to make sure that these are completed correctly
  • ensuring that parents are provided with more regular information about the life of the school and how they can support their child’s learning at home.
• Improve the quality of learning and assessment and accelerate pupils’ progress by:
  • raising expectations of what pupils can achieve and planning sequences of learning so that the most able pupils and those of middle ability make better progress
  • ensuring that disadvantaged pupils and those pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are supported more effectively so that they achieve well
  • improving the standard of handwriting and presentation of pupils’ work
  • developing a clear programme for the teaching of phonics so that a greater proportion of pupils achieve the expected standard by the end of Year 1.
• Improve the personal development and behaviour of pupils by ensuring that adults have higher expectations of pupils’ behaviour during lessons and apply the school’s behaviour policy consistently.
• Improve the effectiveness of early years by ensuring that adults use assessment information more precisely to ensure that children are challenged to make a flying start to their education. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the use of pupil premium funding should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The school has been through a very difficult period of turbulence and transition. Senior teachers have done their best to manage the school during this period. However, the pace of improvement has not been quick enough.
• The focus on raising standards has not been sharp enough. School improvement priorities have been too narrow, and change in some areas has not been rapid enough.
• Middle leaders do not have a clear mandate to bring about change. Roles and responsibilities of middle leaders are not well defined. Senior leaders have not ensured that middle leaders receive the time or support to drive school improvement.
• Leaders have not ensured that there is a defined accountability structure in place to carefully evaluate school improvement actions and their impact on raising standards.
• While leaders have provided professional development for teaching staff, this has not always focused sharply enough on the areas for development. Leaders have not implemented change consistently and some teachers have not received the support they need.
• The leader for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is committed and determined that pupils receive the support they require. However, until very recently, she has not received the support or time needed to ensure that provision for these pupils is effective and that they make good progress.
• Senior leaders have not ensured that the provision for disadvantaged pupils is focused sharply enough on providing support for all these pupils. Senior leaders have not always ensured that funding targets pupils’ individual needs.
• Until very recently, parents have not received regular information about the life of the school, how well their children are performing, or how they can best support their children. The new headteacher has taken steps to open lines of communication with parents and is a visible face on the playground.
• The local authority has carried out regular monitoring and support visits. Its analysis has been accurate in identifying the areas to improve. Sometimes, recommended actions have not been targeted sharply enough to help leaders make improvements. In some cases, senior leaders have not put in place recommended actions quickly, which has also hindered the rate of improvement.
• The new headteacher has been in post for a very short time. She is committed to making the necessary changes required to improve the school and raise standards. She has quickly galvanised the support of parents, staff and pupils.
• Despite difficult circumstances, middle leaders have demonstrated some capacity to drive change through the improvements to the teaching of writing and grammar, and so increasing the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in key stage 2.
• Since the last inspection, the leader for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education has been diligent in providing pupils with a wide range of opportunities to develop in these areas. She has ensured that pupils receive a wide range of enrichment activities, including visits to religious centres, Māori and Bollywood dancing, tasting food from other cultures and appreciating art from across the world.
• Leaders have ensured that pupils have a secure understanding of British values, which are woven into the school reward system.
• Leaders have targeted the use of the physical education and sport premium funding to ensure that all pupils in the school have taken part in additional sporting activities. This includes learning to play games and sports they would not typically participate in, such as boccia and archery.
• Leaders have redesigned the curriculum this term with a topic-based approach that provides broad and balanced curriculum coverage.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has gone through a period of turmoil and change. Until recently, governors have been unable to provide effective challenge to the school’s leaders. They have accepted information about pupils’ outcomes and the impact of school improvement actions without effective challenge.
• Until recently, the skills of governors have not been developed well enough to ensure that they can effectively monitor the work of the school. Governors have begun to take part in further training to ensure that they can monitor the work of the school more effectively.
• Governors have recently begun to take a more active role in monitoring the school’s effectiveness through carrying out visits to the school. This has included monitoring the provision for teaching religious education.
• Governors have identified that parents were unhappy about the effectiveness of communication between the school and home. Recently, governors have been more active in seeking the views of parents and listening to their views about the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The new headteacher has provided all staff with training to safeguard pupils. This has included ensuring that staff understand their obligation to report concerns. Staff have received additional training to develop their understanding of specific forms of abuse, including child sexual exploitation and police updates regarding local concerns, such as recent ‘county lines’ advice.
• Adults at the school, including lunchtime staff, are diligent in ensuring that pupils are safe. They are aware of the different signs of abuse and know that concerns must be passed to the designated safeguarding leaders.
• Sometimes, senior leaders have not ensured that the school’s records for monitoring vulnerable pupils are detailed enough. Occasionally, senior leaders have not recorded incidents in the correct place. Record keeping is not always robust enough to track and monitor vulnerable pupils carefully.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Sometimes, assessment information for pupils does not accurately reflect their actual attainment. Moderation of pupils’ work against their assessed attainment has not been accurate enough.
• Owing to inaccuracies in assessment information, sometimes teachers are unable to plan activities that carefully match pupils’ needs. Therefore, work can be too hard or too easy for pupils.
• Teachers’ expectations of the presentation of pupils’ written work are too low. Some pupils’ workbooks contain scribbling and graffiti. Teachers do not routinely encourage pupils to use their best handwriting or to take pride in their work.
• Teachers do not apply the school’s feedback policy consistently. Pupils are not always clear about how to improve their work.
• Occasionally, in foundation subjects, teaching lacks challenge. Tasks set do not support the development of pupils’ skills well enough.
• Sometimes in mathematics, teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough. Teachers use a systematic approach to develop pupils’ mathematical skills. However, sometimes middle- and high-ability pupils are not challenged to achieve more.
• The development of pupils’ early reading skills is inconsistent. Sometimes, adults do not give pupils enough time to learn and practise new sounds. Some pupils struggle to decode unfamiliar words. The teaching of pure phonics sounds is not consistent, and pupils mishear the sounds in words.
• The support provided for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities does not meet their needs consistently well. Teaching assistants support pupils to manage their behaviour well. However, work is not always at the right level for these pupils.
• Teachers have revised their approach to the teaching of writing and grammar skills. Teachers provide pupils with high-quality examples of different genres of writing to help them understand the differences between them.
• Teachers develop pupils’ writing by encouraging them to evaluate what they have written and to improve their work. For example, in a Year 3/4 lesson describing characters from Greek myths, one pupil wrote, ‘The god of war is aggressive. He has powerful fists, the man with burning eyes.’
• In some classes, teachers use questioning well to develop pupils’ learning and encourage pupils to justify their thinking. They use their knowledge of pupils to plan tasks that match their needs. Teaching assistants work closely with teachers to support pupils. Pupils use resources well to support their learning. For example, in an English lesson, information technology was used well to support a pupil who speaks English as an additional language.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Adults do not always establish high enough expectations of pupils. As a result, some pupils become distracted and do not complete tasks in a timely fashion.
• Pupils are confident and articulate. They are welcoming of visitors and are proud to talk about their school and their learning.
• Pupils have a good understanding of the different types of bullying, including online bullying. They say that there are very few incidents in school, but that if there were any, they would report these to an adult.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations. They know what to do if there is a fire alarm at school, or what to do if a stranger approaches them outside school. They know that should they have a problem, adults in the school will help them.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Occasionally, a very small proportion of pupils do not behave themselves well and their conduct falls below the school’s expectations of behaviour.
• Senior leaders have not ensured that records for recording behaviour incidents are effective. They have been unable to carefully monitor and evaluate incidents of unacceptable behaviour.
• School staff do not consistently apply the school’s behaviour policy. Some adults do not use the school’s rewards and sanctions when managing pupils’ behaviour.
• Sometimes around the school, pupils’ conduct is not of the highest standard. Pupils do not always respond in a timely manner when adults check this behaviour.
• Pupils play well together on the playground. They enjoy playing with the equipment available to them, including the outside gym equipment, and playing basketball.
• Leaders have ensured that the systems for monitoring pupils’ attendance are effective. Pupils enjoy attending school, and their attendance is consistently above the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 was below the national average in 2017. The school’s provisional results suggest that while the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard has risen in 2018, it is likely to remain slightly below the national average in reading and mathematics.
• Pupils in key stage 2 are not making enough progress when compared with pupils nationally. This has been the case for the last three years.
• In mathematics, pupils are making better progress when compared with previous years. While teachers are setting tasks in the right broad areas, these are not challenging enough to ensure that all pupils make consistently good progress in this subject.
• Standards in writing are improving. Pupils make better progress in writing than in reading. Pupils’ workbooks show that there are opportunities for pupils to apply their grammatical skills to their writing.
• In key stage 1, the proportion of pupils achieving at the expected standard has been below the national average in reading and writing. The school’s own assessment information shows that this is likely to be so again in 2018. The proportion of key stage 1 pupils achieving the expected standard in mathematics was above the national average in 2017. However, provisional results for 2018 are lower.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check has been erratic, rising and falling each year. In 2017, the proportion of pupils was similar to the national average. However, provisional information suggests that this has not been maintained.
• While there are small numbers of disadvantaged pupils in each year group, many are not making as much progress as other pupils nationally.
• Some pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are not making as much progress as they should, when compared with other pupils in the school.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Senior leaders have not provided the leader of early years with support to ensure that the self-evaluation and action planning for early years are robust. While they have identified some areas for development, they have not taken a wider view of early years as a whole to inform how they intend to improve teaching.
• The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of early years has been similar to that of children nationally. Most children enter early years with skills typical for their age. However, adults are not building upon skills rapidly enough and some children do not make as much progress as they are capable of.
• Children settle well and are ready to learn. However, as the expectations of what children could achieve are not high enough, learning is not rapid enough to give children a flying start in Reception.
• Sometimes, adults do not explain activities well enough to children and they do not know what they need to do to complete tasks. Opportunities for children to practise their number and writing skills are limited, or badly explained and therefore do not help to develop children’s skills.
• Leaders have not ensured that transition for all children to Reception is well planned. While the school has strong links with the nearby nursery, adults do not routinely meet children from other settings before they start school.
• While there are very few children who are eligible for pupil premium funding, leaders have not ensured that funding for disadvantaged children is targeted well enough to meet their needs.
• Adults provide children with a wide variety of activities that meet the requirements of the early years curriculum, including a role-play doctors’ surgery, graffiti wall and mud kitchen. Inspectors observed children enjoying themselves making clay faces using materials they found in the environment.
• Leaders have accessed support for children who have SEN and/or disabilities, enabling them to settle well into the school.
• Children are polite and well behaved. They are enthusiastic to talk about and share their learning. They play well together, and regularly discuss with each other what they are doing.
• Parents are positive about the transition to Reception. They contribute to children’s next steps in learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112772 Derbyshire 10047992 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 143 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Ben Chalkley Jacqueline Littlechilds Telephone number 01246 237075 Website Email address www.holmehallprimaryschool.co.uk headteacher@holmehall.derbyshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 24 May 2016

Information about this school

• The school has experienced very recent changes to leadership. The headteacher has been seconded to the school since September 2018. She is employed by the local authority but is working for the Learners’ Trust.
• The school has received support from the local authority and more recently the Learners’ Trust.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is slightly above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed learning in a number of lessons, some of which were observed jointly with the headteacher. They observed the teaching of early reading skills and listened to pupils read. The inspectors also talked with pupils about their school and looked at examples of pupils’ work to gain a view of the impact of teaching over time.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, middle leaders and representatives of the governing body. The inspectors also spoke with the local authority adviser.
• The inspectors spoke with parents informally and considered the 33 responses to Ofsted’s online parent questionnaire, Parent View, and the seven responses to the staff survey.
• The inspectors looked at a range of documents, including: the school’s self-evaluation and plans for improvement; the most recent information on the achievement and progress of pupils; information relating to the health, safety and safeguarding of pupils; and the most recent data relating to the attendance of pupils.
• The inspectors considered the range and quality of information provided on the school’s website.

Inspection team

Helen Williams, lead inspector Peter Stonier

Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector