Beeston Fields Primary School and Nursery Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure greater consistency in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in early years by:
  • ensuring that adults have high expectations about what children can achieve, and are precise in their planning, so that activities support children to achieve the progress of which they are capable
  • securing greater consistency in the quality of phonics teaching.
  • Improve the effectiveness of leaders, particularly those new to their roles, by:
    • ensuring that leaders have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities
    • ensuring that leaders are effective in evaluating the impact of their work
    • implementing actions to improve the outcomes for the most able pupils.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher, senior leaders, governors and the trust have successfully improved standards over the last two years. They have created a highly ambitious vision for every pupil in the school. Staff and pupils work together to create a positive learning culture, focused on ensuring that pupils achieve the best they are capable of.
• Leaders hold teachers rigorously to account for pupils’ progress, and this is closely aligned to the formal management of their performance. Staff, including teaching assistants and teachers who are at an early stage of their careers, are confident in asking for support and advice. High-quality training is a feature of the school and empowers staff to improve their practice. This has led to significant improvements in the overall quality of teaching.
• The headteacher has rightly focused her attention on raising the achievement of all pupils in English and mathematics, including pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils. As a result, pupils’ outcomes in these subjects climbed significantly between 2016 and 2017 and remain broadly in line with the national average.
• Leaders are using pupils’ assessment information effectively to improve pupils’ outcomes. Staff set ambitious targets for pupils’ achievement, and assess pupils’ progress in all subjects routinely. Leaders successfully use the outcomes of assessments to identify those who require additional support to achieve what they are capable of, especially disadvantaged pupils. Teachers ensure that their judgements about pupils’ attainment are accurate by moderating their work with each other, other trust schools and the local authority.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced and is made more interesting through a range of visits and visitors. There is good coverage of all national curriculum subjects. All pupils access equality and breadth in their curriculum. Extra-curricular activities, largely in sport, further enhance pupils’ learning. Consequently, pupils enjoy a varied curriculum.
• There are strong and effective inclusion practices in the school that provide excellent support for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. The SEN leader checks regularly on pupils’ progress, identifies where pupils need more support, and ensures that the funding is being allocated purposefully and appropriately. For example, the nurture class provides effective support for pupils who have considerable behavioural needs and ensures that they can return to their class as soon as possible.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding successfully to support disadvantaged pupils. Leaders’ comprehensive pupil premium strategy shows clearly how the additional funding is spent. The funding has a positive impact on disadvantaged pupils’ pastoral and academic progress. Disadvantaged pupils currently make similar progress to other pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. The use of funding to support pupils’ emotional well-being has also resulted in an improvement in the attendance of disadvantaged pupils. This has also helped them develop positive attitudes to learning.
• The primary physical education (PE) and sport funding is spent effectively. For example, the clubs available have been extended, and pupils contribute regularly to give their views on the extra-curricular opportunities they would enjoy. Increasing numbers of pupils are taking part in sporting activities, contributing to their healthier lifestyles.
• Pupils are well educated about the importance of British values. The school uses key themes and school values to promote qualities such as democracy, kindness and respect. These values are woven through regular assemblies and pupils are encouraged to apply their learning to everyday life both within and beyond school. Pupils respect different cultures and traditions, but there is room to develop a wider range of curriculum opportunities to broaden pupils’ cultural understanding. They also understand the value of democracy and can explain how their views contribute to the improvement of the school.
• Leaders have taken on board the effective input and support from the trust. Visits from specialist leaders of education and strategic secondments of senior staff to cover posts that have been hard to recruit to, have helped the school to develop newer leaders, for example for reading, and developing phase leaders and the disadvantaged pupil strategy. While this has contributed to the improvements that have been achieved in the last two years in reading and the quality of teaching overall, there is further work to be done in early years.
• Teachers who lead subjects, phases and other aspects of the school’s provision are enthusiastic and appreciate the confidence placed in them by school leaders. They provide support to their colleagues, and help to check on standards. However, some are newer to their roles and are unclear of their strategic responsibilities. As a result, some less experienced leaders are not yet fully able to articulate how their role will strategically make a difference to the school’s improvement work.
• The large majority of parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about the rapid improvements that are being made in the school. Parents say, for example, that the school is ‘doing an amazing job’ and that it is ‘well managed’.
• While the majority of parents are positive about the school’s work, a small minority have concerns about behaviour and support for pupils who need more help and the school’s response to these concerns. Leaders and governors have already identified that some of their communications are not as effective as they could be with a few parents. Leaders are working rapidly to improve relationships and communications with parents.

Governance of the school

• Governors, well supported by the trust, provide good support for leaders. They are not afraid of challenging school leaders’ actions or seeking more information to assist them in their role of holding the school to account. They use their individual skills and experiences well to support the school to continue to improve.
• Governors are focused on school improvement and know the school’s strengths and areas for development. They have an accurate understanding of the quality of education at the school as a result of their monitoring activities.
• Governors ensure that their statutory responsibilities are fully met, especially in safeguarding pupils’ welfare and monitoring the provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils. They analyse national and school performance data and hold leaders to account for the quality of teaching and the impact this has on academic standards. On rare occasions, over-reliance on the information provided by the school has led to an over-generous view of children’s progress, especially in early years.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff benefit from regular training that complies with present safeguarding guidance. Systems are in place to ensure that concerns are identified early and responded to rapidly. Staff work well with families, enabling them to benefit from a family worker as well as other agencies in social care and in the community, to ensure that pupils are safe and well cared for.
• The school business manager maintains the single central record and ensures that it is detailed and thorough. Leaders and governors ensure that safer recruitment practices are followed, such as checking gaps in employment and following up references.
• Leaders are effective in identifying pupils who may be vulnerable and quickly take appropriate action to support them. The overwhelming majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s questionnaire or spoke to inspectors recognised and appreciated that the school places a high priority on ensuring pupils’ safety and care.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Senior leaders have worked successfully to improve the quality of teaching over recent years. Learning is characterised by very strong relationships between pupils and adults in the classroom. Most teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve in most lessons. They give clear explanations of what pupils will be learning and explain precisely what they expect, especially when introducing new topics. A feature of teachers’ planning is checking what pupils know already so that new learning builds on this foundation.
• Work in lessons is usually set at different levels of difficulty and pupils can choose to work on different tasks, as appropriate to their understanding. This enables pupils to gain confidence by starting with something they can do before moving on to something more challenging. Teachers check that pupils are appropriately challenged and therefore, most pupils deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding. Where this is not the case, opportunities are missed to achieve deeper learning for the most able pupils.
• Both teachers and teaching assistants are skilled at asking questions that enable pupils to think for themselves. Pupils are encouraged to use resources and try and work things out for themselves before asking for help.
• Teachers have raised the quality of reading provision in the school over the past two years. The school environment, including the classrooms, promotes reading as a life skill and something to enjoy. By the end of key stage 1, pupils are able to use their phonics knowledge well to read unfamiliar words using a variety of strategies they have learned. Older pupils proficiently apply their comprehension skills with good knowledge of inference when reading and responding to questions about texts. Pupils have access to high-quality books and are encouraged to read at home as well as at school.
• The teaching of mathematics is improving as a result of effective training and support from leaders and the trust. Teachers are including more problem-solving activities in lessons and encouraging pupils to explain why they are using particular equipment or methods and how they have reached their answer. This is at an early stage of development.
• Pupils’ achievements in writing are improving in each year group. This is because the expectations of the quantity and quality of what pupils write have increased. The broad curriculum lends itself to many more opportunities for pupils to write at length in other subjects.
• Teachers meet regularly with leaders to check assessments of pupils’ work to ensure that these are accurate. At these meetings, adjustments are made to the planned teaching for individual pupils if there is a chance that they will fall behind. Intervention and support are provided quickly to help pupils who are at risk of not making good progress. This is particularly true for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities who receive personalised programmes of academic and personal support. This is leading to improvements over time for disadvantaged pupils from their various starting points.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are very positive about their school. One pupil said, ‘Teachers help you and teach you a lot.’ Pupils say that there used to be some bullying and some bad behaviour and ‘occasionally people get angry but teachers deal with this quickly and fairly’. Most pupils say that they feel safe at school and can concentrate in their lessons. All those that spoke with inspectors said that they are confident to talk to ‘any adult’ if they have a problem.
• Pupils take pride in their work. Consequently, handwriting and presentation in books have improved over this year. Pupils concentrate well in lessons because they want to please their teachers and they value learning.
• Through a well-planned programme of personal, social and health education, pupils develop a good understanding of how to stay safe in a variety of situations, including when using the internet. Pupils are aware of online dangers, such as accessing age-restricted smartphone apps.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• When involved in discussions, pupils are polite in their responses. They give each other time to speak and they listen carefully to what each person has to say. This results in little disruption to learning because pupils respect each other and the adults they work with.
• There has been an improvement in the proportion of pupils who attend school regularly over time. High levels of attendance are rewarded. Improvements in teaching, and in particular the more exciting curriculum, mean that pupils are keen to attend lessons. This, alongside the leaders’ close monitoring of attendance and persistent absence, is ensuring that the attendance of all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, is improving.
• Leaders have undertaken regular analysis of behaviour over time. This is used to identify where individual support is required. This is implemented and later reviewed to help pupils make appropriate choices about their behaviour. This has helped to reduce considerably the number of serious incidents of poor behaviour that, in the past, may have led to temporary exclusion.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In the last two years, effective teaching and a school culture, ‘determined to raise standards’, have led to rapid improvements in pupils’ outcomes, in all areas.
• In 2017, the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in phonics in Year 1 was equivalent to the national average. The proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard at the end of Year 2 was below the national average, but the school has evidence to suggest that most Year 2 pupils are making good progress and are on track to reach the nationally expected standard in phonics at least this year.
• In key stage 2, attainment in reading, writing and mathematics combined was slightly below average in 2017. Current pupils are receiving high-quality additional support to ensure that they are making rapid progress towards reaching the nationally expected standards at the end of Year 6
• The school’s assessment information for current pupils, observations in lessons and evidence from pupils’ books show that pupils are making strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics for most year groups. Current progress, especially in Years 2 and 6, is accelerating in all subjects due to more effective teaching.
• Disadvantaged pupils, including the small numbers of the most able disadvantaged pupils, perform similarly to their peers in school. The additional funding is used effectively and, consequently, disadvantaged pupils’ progress is good.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress across the school. High-quality plans provide staff with clear guidance about how pupils’ needs are best met. Support staff skilfully implement them in group work in classes or the nurture group and are held to account for pupils’ progress.
• Pupils’ achievements across a range of curriculum subjects, and their positive attitudes towards their learning, prepare them well for the next stage of their education.

Early years provision

Requires improvement

• Although the early years provision is benefiting from the trust’s support and is improving, the outcomes are not yet securely good. The early years leader is enthusiastic and knowledgeable and has a good understanding of the children’s interests, strengths and needs. She has identified the strengths and weaknesses in the provision and is beginning to bring about improvements. However, changes are not yet embedded or bringing about rapid improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment necessary to improve children’s outcomes.
• Staff do not yet have consistently high expectations of what children can achieve from their various starting points. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development has been below average for the past two years, and is expected to remain so in 2018. Teaching does not consistently provide children with activities that allow them to make the progress of which they are capable. Too often, children undertake activities that do not challenge them as effectively as they could. Consequently, the inquisitive nature of children is not being fully used to deepen their knowledge or understanding of the topics that they are learning about.
• Although phonics teaching is good in key stage 1, this is not as well developed in early years. Children are not consistently and accurately challenged to develop their phonic knowledge when they are ready to move on. As a result, children do not make progress quickly enough and are not fully prepared for starting key stage 1.
• Staff use appropriate systems to check on children’s progress throughout the year. These include making detailed records of learning in the children’s learning journeys. These assessments provide information for parents about their child’s progress, but the information is not used effectively to plan children’s next steps of learning.
• Behaviour in Nursery and Reception is good. Classroom routines are well established and children learn and play happily alongside each other. Inspectors observed children exhibiting resilience and perseverance. For example, children were painstaking in completing their artwork, sensibly using the resources and making appropriate colour choices with effective help from staff.
• All staff who work with children in early years take good care of them and keep them safe. The training and development that staff receive have ensured that children are well cared for, behaviour is good and safeguarding is effective.

School details

Unique reference number 142070 Local authority Nottinghamshire County Council Inspection number 10048110 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 Academy sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 362 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jeff McColl Claire Lindsay 0115 844 0100

www.beestonfields.notts.sch.uk officeteam@beestonfields.notts.sch.uk

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Beeston Fields Primary and Nursery School is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged and receive support from the pupil premium is above the national average.
• Just under half of the pupils are of White British heritage. The school has 14 out of the 17 ethnic groups recognised nationally, and one third of the pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is broadly in line with the national average. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care (EHC) plan is below the national average.
• In 2017, the school met the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for the attainment and progress of pupils by the end of Year 6.
• The school is part of The Flying High Academy Trust. There is a local governing body that reports to the trust board.

Inspection report: Beeston Fields Primary School and Nursery, 16–17 May 2018 Page 10 of 12

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited a number of classrooms, many with the headteacher and other leaders, to observe teaching and learning and to talk to pupils about their work.
• Inspectors met formally with the headteacher and other leaders, including the SEN coordinator and the leader of early years. Meetings were held with eight members of the local governing body and trust, including the chair and the chief executive officer of the trust, and with a group of eight pupils.
• Along with pupils, inspectors looked at a wide range of pupils’ work from this academic year. Pupils’ work on walls was also viewed.
• An inspector listened to small groups of pupils reading aloud and spoke with children about their reading lessons.
• The inspection team checked the school’s documentation on safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and the quality of teaching. The lead inspector also considered the school’s evaluation of its own work, its plans for improvement, information about pupils’ progress and minutes of governing body meetings.
• Inspectors took into consideration 81 responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 19 free-text comments. There were no responses to the staff or pupil questionnaires.

Inspection team

Philip Garnham, lead inspector Donna Moulds Fiona Riley

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector