Bozeat Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and increase the proportion of pupils who reach the higher standards at key stage 2, by ensuring that teachers:
  • use assessment information to plan activities that match pupils’ needs
  • adapt plans to meet pupils’ abilities and needs
  • provide the most able pupils with challenging activities
  • move pupils on to demanding work more quickly
  • fully involve low-prior-attaining pupils in all activities
  • make sure that pupils know how to improve their work.
• Ensure that teaching assistants are consistently effective in supporting pupils’ progress.
• Improve pupils’ progress and attainment, particularly in mathematics.
• Further develop strategies already in place to improve pupils’ attendance.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Following a period of instability and decline, leaders have put in place appropriate measures to bring about the necessary improvements. Their plans to improve the school are working well and are having a positive impact on the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes.
• Newly appointed subject leaders of reading, writing and mathematics are bringing about improvements to their subject areas. In a short space of time, the new approaches they have brought in have improved teachers’ classroom practice. Teaching, though not yet consistently good, is now improving.
• In response to the decline in the quality of teaching, the headteacher has brought in additional support. For example, teachers have visited other schools to learn from good practice. An external consultant has supported the mathematics leader to carry out monitoring activities, identifying clear action points to improve pupils’ outcomes. Staff value the professional development they receive, which is leading to improvements in teaching.
• The curriculum is rich and provides interesting activities and exciting opportunities to develop pupils’ experiences. The curriculum incorporates a wide breadth of subjects, including history, literature, politics and the arts. Pupils enjoy participating in practical workshops, such as African drumming and cooking. The curriculum is supplemented well by additional after-school activities, including sport and music.
• Leaders promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development across the school well, particularly through the cross-curricular topic work and additional off-site visits. Leaders have ensured that pupils develop their understanding of British values. For example, pupils took part in hustings and elections to select house captains and vice-captains.
• The local authority has provided effective support, particularly to subject leaders. For example, advisers have carried out reviews of the quality of teaching. They have supported leaders to identify areas in need of development and how to bring about the necessary improvements. An adviser has also worked with key stage 1 teachers to plan programmes of work. Plans now address pupils’ learning needs more effectively than in the past.
• Leaders have ensured that the pupil premium and the primary physical education (PE) and sport funding are used effectively. Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are improving.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides additional support to help pupils with SEND make progress in specific aspects of their learning. Effective support is in place to improve these pupils’ personal development, including their mental health. However, the teaching for these pupils is not consistently secure to ensure that they make good progress.

Governance of the school

• There is a wide range of experience and expertise among the governing body. Governors use this well in their challenge and support of leaders.
• Governors are well informed. They check the information that leaders provide, seeking corroboration and verification from experts. They use their skills, knowledge and understanding to hold leaders to account effectively.
• Governors fulfil their statutory duties in relation to safeguarding. For example, they audit the school’s safeguarding arrangements and check the implementation of the school’s safeguarding policy.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff understand their responsibilities to safeguard pupils. They are well trained. Staff have an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding issues, including those that are pertinent to the local area. They know how to recognise signs that a pupil may be at risk.
• Procedures to safeguard pupils are straightforward and understood by all staff.
• Leaders involve external agencies when necessary and are tenacious in following up concerns. They ensure that pupils get the support they need quickly and monitor its effect on pupils’ well-being.
• Leaders keep detailed records. Pupils at risk are closely monitored.
• Pupils are well cared for. They feel safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Following a decline in the quality of teaching since the previous inspection, teaching is now improving. However, it is not consistently good across the school.
• Not all teachers have high enough expectations of what pupils are able to achieve. Teachers do not routinely use information about what pupils already know and can do to plan activities that meet their needs. Too often, pupils repeat work unnecessarily, without developing or deepening their understanding. The most able pupils do not receive sufficient challenge. Equally, the least able pupils are not expected to participate in all activities because teachers do not set work at the right level for them.
• Teachers do not move pupils on to more demanding work quickly enough. Too often, pupils are expected to wait for others before they can move on in their learning.
• Not all teachers ensure that pupils know how to improve their work.
• Teaching assistants are not consistently effective. There is some good practice where they help pupils to make progress, but sometimes teaching assistants prevent the development of pupils’ independence in learning. For example, they tell pupils the answers to problems rather than supporting them to work them out for themselves.
• Leaders have introduced a new approach to teaching spelling and grammar. Pupils now have discrete spelling and grammar lessons and homework tasks to practise their skills. This is beginning to have a positive impact.
• There is some stronger teaching practice in the school. When teaching is most effective, teachers use questioning to challenge pupils and extend their understanding. Activities build on prior learning and pupils are moved on to more demanding work quickly.
• The teaching of phonics is good. Activities consolidate pupils’ understanding and enable them to apply their knowledge in their learning across the school.
• The teaching of reading is a strength. Staff promote reading for pleasure. Pupils enjoy selecting their own texts to read. Pupils are expected to read at home, and those who find it difficult to do so are supported to practise their reading in school.
• Teachers plan activities around interesting topics that excite and motivate pupils. Teachers use the curriculum so that pupils write creatively, for a variety of purposes. For example, pupils have written persuasive letters as part of their ‘Out of Africa’ topic, and poetry in the style of Tennyson as part of their ‘A Knight’s Tale’ topic. The quality of pupils’ writing is improving.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development is good. Positive relationships between pupils and staff, and between pupils, help pupils to develop as confident individuals.
• Pupils are happy. They enjoy and are interested in their learning, particularly their topic work.
• Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations. For example, they recognise the potential dangers of the internet and know how to safeguard themselves against risks. Pupils said that they feel safe in school. They know whom to speak to if they have any concerns.
• Pupils say that bullying is extremely rare. They are confident that staff would deal with any incidents that occur, swiftly and effectively.
• Pupils are encouraged to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. For example, pupils act as house captains and vice-captains. They also sit on an anti-bullying committee.
• Pupils have well-developed social skills. They help and collaborate with each other well.
• The curriculum encourages pupils to become responsible citizens and consider their role in the wider world. For example, pupils have explored the global problem of plastic pollution as part of their topic work.
• Pupils are encouraged to be physically and mentally healthy. For example, they learn about healthy eating. A qualified emotional literacy support assistant (ELSA) provides assistance to pupils in need.
• Pupils understand diversity. They recognise that others may have views and beliefs that differ from their own and they respect them. They learn about different faiths and religions as part of their topic work and visit different places of worship. Pupils enjoy these different experiences and recognise that it helps prepare them for life in modern Britain.
• Pupils are independent and able to work without teachers’ direction, but teachers’ low expectations sometimes prevent pupils from taking responsibility for their own learning. Activities sometimes restrict pupils’ development as they must wait for others before moving on.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. They conduct themselves well around school and in lessons.
• Attendance, though now improving, has been too low over recent years. In 2017 and 2018, it was below the national average for all pupils, disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. Since September 2018, leaders have begun to take more decisive action to challenge poor attendance. These strategies are proving effective.
• The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school is below the national average.
• Pupils sometimes lose concentration when teaching does not meet their needs. Occasionally, they participate in low-level disruption.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils do not make enough progress. In recent years, pupils have made less progress in reading, writing and mathematics, by the end of key stage 2, than other pupils nationally.
• In 2017, pupils’ progress in mathematics, by the end of key stage 2, was in the lowest 10% of all schools nationally. In 2018, outcomes improved, but progress remained well below the national average. The proportion of pupils who reached the expected standards in mathematics was below the national average. No pupils achieved the higher standard in this subject.
• The most able pupils do not make enough progress in writing. The proportion of pupils who reached the higher standards at key stage 2 in 2018 was considerably below the national average.
• Pupils’ outcomes in the English grammar, punctuation and spelling test were below the national average in 2018. No pupils achieved the higher standard.
• Pupils with SEND do not make enough progress. They make less progress than other pupils nationally. In 2018, their progress in writing, by the end of key stage 2, was particularly low.
• Pupils do not achieve consistently well by the end of key stage 1. In 2017, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics was above the national average. In 2018, outcomes declined considerably. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics combined was well below the national average. No pupils reached a greater depth.
• New approaches to developing pupils’ fluency in mathematics, such as a programme to practise multiplication tables, are beginning to improve pupils’ progress.
• Current pupils, although making better progress than in the past, are not making enough progress to meet the standards of which they are capable.
• Pupils’ progress in reading is similar to the national average. The proportions of pupils who reached the expected and higher standards, by the end of key stage 2, in 2018, were above the national averages.
• Attainment in phonics has improved and been at least similar to the national average in recent years. In 2018, the proportion of pupils who passed the phonics screening check was above the national average.
• Pupils achieve well in science. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards by the end of key stages 1 and 2 is consistently above the national average.
• Pupils make good progress in art and produce work of a high standard, particularly as part of their topic work. For example, inspectors saw high-quality pencil sketches of horses and shells, and African-style painting.

Early years provision Good

• Children make a good start to their life at school in the mixed Nursery and Reception class. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming. Relationships between children and staff are very positive.
• Leadership of the early years setting is provided by the headteacher. She works closely with the early years teacher to ensure that the setting provides a good quality of education. They know the setting’s strengths and have correctly identified areas in need of further improvement.
• Most children enter the setting with skills, knowledge and understanding that are typical for their age. Children who need additional help are well supported to catch up with their peers.
• Adults promote children’s personal development and welfare effectively. Children develop good social skills. Children share and collaborate well. They respond well to adult direction and requests. Children are happy and enjoy their learning and experiences.
• Teaching, including the teaching of phonics, is good. The class teacher knows each child very well and ensures that their individual needs are met. She uses questioning effectively to develop children’s learning. However, sometimes children, particularly the most able, are not moved on to more challenging work quickly enough.
• The curriculum is planned around a story book. Activities use the story to interest and motivate children. For example, at the time of the inspection, children had been looking at ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Inspectors observed children practising their writing by copying parts of the text during independent learning time. This helped them to consolidate their learning.
• Teachers help children to develop their extended writing through prompts and guidance. Children understand these prompts and use them to create cohesive, well-structured texts. Children practise their writing independently. For example, children were observed making greetings cards.
• Children apply their learning when participating in independent activities. For example, children were observed creating their own tally chart of people’s names following their learning about tallies in a mathematics session.
• Children make good progress. The proportion of children who reach a good level of development has been consistently above the national average in recent years. Children are well prepared to start Year 1 by the time they leave the setting.
• Safeguarding is effective. Staff are appropriately trained. Children are well supervised when participating in independent activities in the outdoor area.

School details

Unique reference number 121796 Local authority Northamptonshire Inspection number 10053130 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 172 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address David Snape Gurjit Virk 01933 663840 www.bozeat.northants.sch.uk head@bozeat.northants-ecl.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 22 February 2018

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is lower than average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is lower than the national average.
• The majority of pupils are White British.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in all classes, some jointly with leaders.
• Inspectors held discussions with senior and middle leaders, other staff, members of the governing body and a local authority adviser.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in lessons and a sample of pupils’ books and other work.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons, around school, at breaktime and at lunchtime.
• An inspector visited the morning and after-school clubs.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils in discussion groups, in lessons and informally around the school. An inspector listened to a group of pupils reading.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, its improvement plans, minutes of meetings of the governing body, information about the attainment and progress of all pupils, records relating to behaviour and safeguarding, and information on the school’s website.
• Inspectors considered the 101 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 22 free-text responses. They also spoke to a number of parents before school to ascertain their views.
• Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s questionnaires from 31 pupils and 17 staff.

Inspection team

Deborah Mosley, lead inspector Jane Ferguson Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector