Denbigh Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to strengthen leadership capacity by developing middle leaders’ skills and knowledge through appropriate support and training.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Leaders have developed a dedicated, hardworking staff team. Leaders, governors and staff share a vision for excellence in all aspects of the school’s provision. The impact of their work over recent years is seen in pupils’ rapidly improved, outstanding outcomes.
• In September 2018, the former deputy headteacher was appointed as headteacher. He demonstrates a relentless determination towards improvement. His strong strategic direction, along with precise and rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems of the quality of teaching and learning, is ensuring that pupils are provided with an outstanding education.
• A large proportion of pupils attain the higher standards and make exceptional progress from their starting points. However, leaders are not complacent and have a clear vision and firm plans to raise standards further.
• Leaders have designed a curriculum that successfully meets the many needs of the pupils at Denbigh. The curriculum is well considered and carefully planned. With a high intake of pupils who speak English as an additional language, leaders have ensured that developing pupils’ language and communication skills is a feature of all aspects of teaching and learning. Pupils quickly become very articulate and demonstrate a strong grasp of the English language.
• The primary sport premium is used very effectively to provide pupils with a wide range of physical education (PE) activities. The PE sports leader is dedicated to ensuring that pupils’ physical needs are fully met, and successfully supports teaching staff to deliver high-quality PE. In addition, he is committed to ensuring that pupils experience a wide range of sporting events, which include women’s cricket and visits to Wembley stadium. Funding is used to provide pupils with additional experiences such as kayaking and canoeing. The school’s trophy cabinet bears testament to the many awards won by pupils in a variety of competitions.
• Funding for pupils with SEND is used to ensure that they can access all teaching and learning successfully. Leaders ensure that pupils’ needs are carefully considered by staff in all aspects of school life. One example is through the school’s ‘active learning’ programme. This inspires pupils to make good progress by providing a range of physical activities that support their individual physical and academic development needs. Pupils in Year 4 told inspectors that they enjoy revisiting their times tables and developing their number skills while bouncing balls and using apparatus. They commented on how these activities also make them fitter and stronger.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils get the precise support they need to thrive at Denbigh Primary School. They experience a wide range of enrichment activities that support them socially and academically. Leaders routinely review the impact of the spending against the progress pupils are making in all areas of learning. Disadvantaged pupils develop strong social skills and make good and better progress academically from their different starting points.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted through many trips, visits and activities. For example, in the term leading up to the Luton International Carnival, pupils take part in one of many workshops hosted by the Luton Carnival Arts Centre to prepare them for participating in the procession. Pupils thoroughly enjoy this experience where they learn how to make costumes and gain a true sense of belonging in their local community.
• Pupils take part in dance festivals, sing at music events at the O2 arena and learn about a range of different cultures and religions. Trips are carefully planned to help pupils develop confidence and spark their imagination ready to apply their experiences to their learning back in school. Representatives from different religions and pupils from other countries visit the school to share their beliefs and cultures.
• Subject leaders are specialists in their different areas. They all have a passion for their subject. The curriculum leader works with teachers to ensure that coverage of national curriculum objectives is strong across all subjects and that pupils are making good and better progress in individual subjects. Pupils therefore get a rich and varied diet that enables them to excel in a range of curriculum areas.
• Leaders’ investment in staff development and training is greatly valued by all staff. The headteacher is perceptive and quickly identifies staff who demonstrate the willingness, passion and aptitude to develop their skills further. Many staff move into teaching and leadership positions and become specialists in their own areas. The ‘home-grown’ approach has ensured a strongly united staffing community that has grown together through the journey to outstanding. The many staff who responded to Ofsted’s staff survey say that they are proud to be a member of the school.
• Leaders are ambitious in their drive towards excellence and have made a firm start to develop the knowledge and skills of middle leaders new to role so that leadership is strengthened further across the school.
• Leaders have successfully worked with parents to share pupils’ learning and show parents how they can best support their children. Homework projects and a wide range of workshops have encouraged parents to become increasingly involved each year. An improved understanding from parents and staff of the local needs has built confidence, mutual respect and trust so that Denbigh Primary School sits firmly in the heart of the community. One parent responding to Ofsted’s online parental questionnaire, Parent View commented: ‘I love the fact they do school projects every term, allowing the children to work towards an assignment. My child feels safe and supported at Denbigh.’
• Parents highly praise the leadership of the school. One parent whose comment was echoed by many stated: ‘This is a very inclusive school, where the primary focus is on the children and how they can attain their full potential both educationally and socially.’ .

Governance of the school

• Governors share school leaders’ vision to drive improvement further. Governors bring a wide range of skills and experience from inside and outside of the community to support and challenge school leaders. They are passionate and highly effective at carrying out their duties strategically.
• Governors know the school community very well. They have a secure understanding of the distinct needs of the pupils at Denbigh. Governors receive detailed and regular reports from the headteacher and visit the school routinely to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of school leaders’ work.
• They work closely with leaders to ensure that pupils experience a wide range of events and opportunities and develop into strong learners who are prepared exceptionally well for life in modern Britain.
• Governing body minutes demonstrate that governors provide precise challenge to leaders about pupils’ achievement. Governors ensure that their statutory duties in relation to safeguarding are met. They keep their own safeguarding training under review and work well with school leaders to ensure that they are well informed of current safeguarding issues.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders, including governors, have established a strong culture of safeguarding within the school. They have ensured that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. This includes reducing the potential risks pupils face of being exposed to extremism, exploitation, discrimination or victimisation.
• The safeguarding team and supervision team, made up of school staff, designated leaders for child protection and family workers meet regularly to discuss concerns and review pupils’ support. Staff know pupils well and are quick to intervene and provide appropriate support for pupils and families.
• Staff are vigilant and mindful of the needs of pupils, particularly the most vulnerable pupils. Staff are well trained and understand and follow the clear school systems for reporting concerns.
• The school’s single central record of recruitment checks of staff is fully compliant with current requirements. All staff have received up-to-date safeguarding training and receive regular updates throughout the year.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Classrooms at Denbigh are exciting places to learn. Teachers demonstrate excellent subject knowledge, passion and enthusiasm. They plan activities to engage and motivate pupils so that they make the best progress they can. Across the school, pupils make very strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics, significantly exceeding national averages at the end of key stage 2.
• There is a consistent approach in all teaching. In mathematics, for example, pupils revisit number facts so that they become proficient at number recall with speed. Teachers provide many opportunities for reasoning and problem-solving using a variety of methods and resources that ensures that pupils learn at a deep and meaningful level.
• Teachers use their precise knowledge of pupils’ starting points to provide effective challenge to all pupils. Teachers plan activities that meet individual needs appropriately. For example, Year 1 pupils’ mathematics work books show that pupils receive support from an adult in a specific task that then leads to them completing the task independently later on.
• Lessons observed and pupils’ work in mathematics and English demonstrated that the most able pupils are challenged to make the good and in many cases outstanding progress. Teachers’ specific guidance ensures that pupils are able to make strong and rapid progress across the school.
• Teachers and additional adults support pupils with SEND to make good and, in many cases, exceptional progress from their starting points. Adults provide pupils with the support and resources they need to access learning confidently and safely in the classroom.
• Adults’ consistent approach to teaching phonics is ensuring that a high proportion of pupils can decode early on and read fluently when they leave key stage 1. The school’s chosen method for teaching reading supports pupils writing well. For example, teachers weave integrated reading and writing activities into their phonics lessons.
• Reading is a much-loved activity at Denbigh. Inspectors observed pupils enjoying choosing their next reading book from the well-resourced library, ‘the hive’. Year 2 pupils were excited to show inspectors how well they read and pointed out the text that they aspired to read one day, such as books by JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett and Roald Dahl. Year 2 pupils know that reading is important and told inspectors that it ‘builds knowledge, increases the size of the brain and helps us to learn new words’.
• Teachers plan tasks that encourage pupils to build their vocabulary and comprehension skills. Teachers were observed carefully modelling high-level vocabulary in science, maths and English. In English, key stage 2 pupils fluently read high-quality texts such as ‘The Odyssey’ with expression during their study of Alexander the Great. Pupils learn Shakespeare texts and this term they performed Twelfth Night. Teachers encourage pupils to communicate with each other through discussion with their classmates before a task or by asking pupils to demonstrate to their peers, such as during a PE warm-up session. Pupils become confident and articulate communicators.
• Leaders’ focus on communication and language is helping to improve pupils’ writing skills. Pupils apply grammar accurately in their writing. The school’s curriculum is providing a wide range of experiences to improve pupils’ writing content. Pupils’ writing books are well presented and show that they write for a range of purposes. They write well for different audiences, for example showing empathy and humour when appropriate.
• Pupils enjoy writing across a range of subjects. For example, in their history work they learn about key events such as the Second World War. In one lesson, pupils were writing a story about children in the Second World War who were not evacuated but remained in the town. Pupils went on a local bomb walk later that day to explore the area and to gain an understanding of what it would have been like being a child during the war.
• Teachers continually look to provide pupils with opportunities to apply skills learned in reading, writing and mathematics across other curriculum subjects. Pupils routinely make use of mathematics and science skills in design and technology. For example, pupils planned, evaluated and adapted their design for a lamp. They needed to use accurate measuring skills, specific tools and to understand electric circuits.
• The teaching of creative subjects is strong. The school has achieved the Art and Science quality marks. Art, music, PE and dance are particular areas in which pupils excel. Pupils’ understanding of music notation, including when using music technology, participating in singing events and learning and playing instruments, is strong throughout the school.
• PE and sport provision is a considerable strength at the school. It is a testament to the quality of the PE provision at Denbigh Primary that pupils engage willingly and sensibly in activities together in times other than when being taught. Inspectors observed pupils in Years 3 and 4 playing hockey and football during morning break. Pupils play together harmoniously. They have a clear understanding of rules and a high expectation of sportsmanship. Pupils have much success in sports competitions.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding
• Pupils are polite, courteous and well mannered. There is a deep mutual respect between adults and pupils, and pupils and their peers. Pupils say that they are safe, as do all staff and parents who responded to Ofsted’s staff survey and to Parent View.
• Pupils relish the opportunities to take on responsibilities such as school council, prefects and head boy and head girl. Pupils understand that these roles enable them to be helpful towards each other.
• Pupils who spoke with inspectors discussed their class charters and said that fundamental British values include being kind, respectful and stopping crime. They recognise the school values as ‘good things to live by’.
• Pupils take pride in their work. Presentation is of a high standard across all subjects.
• Visitors from inside and outside of the community frequently visit the school to talk about different religions, their occupations and places of work. Pupils that inspectors spoke with have high aspirations for their future, some saying that they would like to be surgeons, authors and paramedics.
• Pupils are fully aware of the potential dangers while using the internet. They are taught online safety and understand how to stay safe. Last year pupils took part in and won the Childnet film competition about keeping safe.
• Teachers involve pupils in projects that enable them to meet and spend time with children from other countries. Some pupils have an opportunity to visit countries such as Poland, Latvia, Slovakia and Portugal.
• Denbigh Primary hosts pupils from Romania, Germany, Sicily, sharing dance and music and learning about each other’s cultures. Pupils spoke enthusiastically of their visits and how they experienced the different foods and particularly how the school set-up and day were different. Pupils leave Denbigh as confident, sociable and resilient individuals who have high aspirations for the future.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Strong values of mutual respect are implicit throughout the school. Adults successfully convey extremely high expectations that pupils adopt in all that they do.
• Pupils are impeccably well behaved in and outside of lessons. Pupils are exceptionally self-regulated, highly motivated and keen to learn. They are extremely engaged in their learning and work well with each other, and independently, when appropriate.
• Pupils are happy and delightful individuals. Their manners are exemplary. They are kind to each other and politely greet adults with a ‘good morning’ while holding open doors.
• Pupils told inspectors that there is no bullying at the school and say that they are confident that adults will deal with any concerns if they arise.
• Attendance is in line with national the national average. No groups of pupils are disadvantaged through their absence; however, leaders are continually and successfully working with parents to improve attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Children generally enter the school with skills and knowledge below what is typical for their age. By the time they leave Reception, the majority of children achieve in line with national averages. Pupils then continue to make outstanding progress as they move through the school.
• Progress and attainment are improving year on year. In 2018, attainment for pupils in key stage 1 was well above national averages in reading and mathematics.
• In 2018, key stage 2 pupils’ attainment was well above national averages in reading, writing and mathematics, as was their progress in reading and mathematics.
• The most able pupils are supported through well-matched tasks to reach the higher standards. In 2018, the proportion of pupils who achieved at the higher standards was above national averages at the end of Year 6. Outcomes for current pupils are on track to improve again this year. This would represent outstanding progress from pupils’ starting points.
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve very well. In 2018, at the end of key stage 2, they made strong progress that was above that of other pupils nationally. In addition, disadvantaged pupils attained higher than other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics at the expected and higher standards. Disadvantaged pupils’ attainment in reading and mathematics in key stage 1 was above national averages in each subject.
• Strong teaching of phonics ensures that pupils make exceptional progress. A high proportion of pupils meet the expected standards at the end of Years 1 and 2, from typically low starting points.
• Leaders’ continued focus on communication and language is ensuring that pupils’ attainment is significantly above the national average at key stages 1 and 2 in writing. In 2018, progress for pupils was slightly above the national average at the end of key stage 2 and continues to improve for current pupils.
• Precise support for pupils with SEND ensures that they make exceptionally strong progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics. This is also the case for other subjects such as PE.
• Pupils achieve very well in subjects other than English and mathematics. This is because lessons provide pupils with opportunities to develop skills fully and build on prior learning and knowledge across a range of subjects. ,

Early years provision Outstanding

• The early years leader is committed to ensuring that children get the best start they possibly can to their full-time education. Careful assessment of children’s starting points and strong transition arrangements into the school mean that children and families get the appropriate support that meets their needs from the outset.
• Children make strong progress from their often low starting points so that the proportion of children who reach a good level of development is in line with the national average.
• The early years environment is vibrant, exciting and well organised. Children’s good-quality work on display shows that they take care and have pride in their learning. Children flourish and thrive in well-resourced classrooms that motivate and inspire them to learn in all areas of learning. Teachers plan learning that ensures that tasks are carefully matched to children’s abilities. Children sustain interest for long periods of time at a range of activities that develop their confidence and social skills well.
• The early years provision is language-rich. Children talk and socialise with each other, calmly and purposefully. Adults effectively speak with children, model language and skilfully question children to extend learning.
• Children were observed working very well together. For example, they were measuring and pouring water from one container to another and using brooms to sweep the outside area. In other areas children were building, evaluating and modifying a pirate ship from a range of materials in the construction area.
• Children form letters with care and want to do well. Children have opportunities to apply their phonics knowledge to writing routinely. Teachers use high expectations to challenge children appropriately. Inspectors listened to children pronounce their sounds correctly and form the corresponding letters with care and accuracy when writing.
• The outside area has been well thought through to promote children’s growth and independence. Resources to develop children’s physical development have been carefully designed into fun learning activities that meet the immediate needs of the children. For example, activities such as working the water pump require strength, as do climbing the man-made mounds and the large steps. Children become confident explorers and inquisitive learners.
• Adults acknowledge the important role that parents play in children’s early education. Staff engage parents through a number of workshops and open days that help them understand how their children learn so that they can help support them at home.
• Children are safe, happy and well looked after in Reception. They are successfully prepared for Year 1.

For Y1.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 109534 Luton 10052899 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 Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 660 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Kaleem Shafi Alan Hodges 01582 571597 www.denbighprimary.co.uk head@denbigh.primaryluton.co.uk Date of previous inspection 21–22 November 2013

Information about this school

• The school is much larger than most primary schools.
• The vast majority of pupils are from minority ethnic groups, predominantly Bangladeshi and Pakistani.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium is much higher than average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is higher than average.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed teaching and learning across all year groups.
• The lead inspector held meetings with the headteacher, governors and school staff, including senior and middle leaders, and met with a representative from the local authority.
• The inspection team observed the school’s work and looked at pupils’ written work, information on pupils’ attainment and progress, curriculum planning, and records of behaviour and safety. Inspectors also looked at the minutes of governing body meetings, safeguarding documents, including mandatory checks made on the recruitment of new staff, and the school’s website.
• Discussions were held with pupils in key stages 1 and 2 and informal conversations took place during lessons.
• The inspection team listened to pupils read and talked to them about the books they enjoy.
• Inspectors took account of the 27 responses to Ofsted’s online parental questionnaire, Parent View, and the 16 free-text responses. In addition, inspectors spoke with parents informally at the start of the school day.

Inspection team

Cindy Impey, lead inspector Mike Capper Jacqueline Treacy John Constable Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector