Burton End Primary Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by ensuring that:
  • new subject leaders, particularly for English and mathematics, are given the necessary support to help them raise standards and improve outcomes
  • action is taken to reduce absence, including persistent absence, especially of disadvantaged pupils
  • programmes of support for disadvantaged pupils are thoroughly analysed to provide governors with detailed information about their impact.
  • Improve the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment and, as a result, raise standards by ensuring that:
    • all teachers share the same high expectations about what pupils can achieve, so that work is appropriately challenging, consistently engaging and well matched to pupils’ needs
    • opportunities are taken to share the best teaching practice across the school.
  • Improve personal development, behaviour and welfare by:
    • ensuring that systems for promoting positive behaviour in lessons are applied consistently in every classroom. An external review of the pupil premium 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

• Leadership and management require improvement because the strong, new leadership team has not yet had sufficient time to demonstrate a positive impact on raising standards. Nevertheless, the Samuel Ward Academy Trust has taken swift action to address concerns as soon as these became apparent.
• Over the last two years, leaders had not ensured that teaching or outcomes were consistently good. Leaders had not addressed inconsistencies in challenge to, or expectations of, pupils and had not ensured that lessons were sufficiently well planned to engage pupils at an appropriate level.
• Instability in staffing and some difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers also made it difficult for leaders to ensure consistently high standards. However, the Samuel Ward Academy Trust has appointed new leaders, including a new interim headteacher, and this leadership team is showing a determination to restore continuity to teaching.
• Leaders of English and mathematics are very new to these responsibilities. They are keen to begin work to improve standards. While their work has not had time to have a positive impact yet, their determination to learn their roles quickly and to take every opportunity to support senior leaders is extremely encouraging. Until very recently, however, leaders had not consistently challenged or supported staff sufficiently to address the variations in practice and in pupils’ outcomes across the school.
• The use of the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils includes opportunities for confidence-building, raising self-esteem and improving basic skills. However, the evaluation of these initiatives is too limited and leaders are not clear about the impact of the different programmes. As a result, the progress of disadvantaged pupils is uneven across the school.
• Senior leaders have taken steps to improve the presentation of work in pupils’ books. Nevertheless, the introduction of a new handwriting scheme last year has not been implemented with sufficient rigour or determination. Consequently, the quality of handwriting across the school, particularly in key stage 2, remains too variable.
• Parents have expressed concerns that, over the last couple of years, leaders have not communicated well enough and that they have felt unable to approach senior leaders about their concerns. However, parents now recognise that a new leadership team is in place and they are aware that efforts are being made to improve the situation.
• Leaders’ work to promote pupils’ rights, respect and responsibilities is evident around the school, particularly their promotion of democratic values. For example, leaders ensure that pupils understand the importance of electing a responsible and effective pupil forum to support charities and help raise funds for good causes. The school’s ‘proud values’ are displayed prominently around the school and younger pupils love to see ‘Proud Panda’ joining their lessons to encourage social and moral values.
• The high number of fixed-term exclusions in recent years, combined with evidence from lesson observations and the school’s own behavioural records, demonstrates that leaders have not done enough to ensure that behaviour in lessons is consistently good. The school’s new leadership team is well aware of these inconsistencies and plans are in place to improve training and monitoring of the behaviour management procedures.
• Sports funding has been used effectively to provide specialist teaching and to increase the range of resources available for teaching. This is having a positive effect on pupils’ enjoyment of physical education and the quality of provision. A good range of sports clubs is on offer to pupils and free and subsidised places are also available in order to increase sports participation. The use of this funding is analysed carefully to ensure that it provides good value for money.
• Funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is carefully planned, particularly to support pupils with speech and language difficulties. The nurture group is used well to develop pupils’ social skills, such as sharing and taking turns. Nevertheless, the progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities remains inconsistent, particularly in mathematics.

Governance of the school

• Many governors are new to their roles, including the chair and vice-chair. However, they have rapidly developed a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and they are working in close cooperation with the trust to raise standards. The chair is a highly experienced senior educator and former headteacher, and the vice-chair is also the governance adviser to the Samuel Ward Academy Trust.
• The governing body has improved its own capacity for strong and effective leadership in a very short space of time. New governors have been recruited, with the skills and knowledge to lead the school through a much-needed period of rapid improvement in provision and outcomes.
• Governors quickly recognised the need to appoint an able and effective substantive headteacher, with the aim of securing improvements in teaching and outcomes for pupils. They have appointed a permanent headteacher who will start work in January 2018, and an able and effective interim headteacher, who is already starting to have a positive impact on the school, despite having been in post for only a couple of weeks.
• Governors, together with the new leadership team and the trust, demonstrate their resolute determination to bring about significant and sustained improvements to many aspects of the school. They have correctly prioritised the improvement of school leadership as their starting point.
• Nevertheless, governors’ actions have, understandably, not yet had enough time to show sufficient impact on standards. Middle leadership is not fully developed and the quality of teaching across the school is inconsistent, as is the behaviour in some lessons. The pupil premium grant is not used well enough, and pupils have not made enough progress in English and mathematics in recent years.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• With support and leadership from the trust’s knowledgeable safeguarding officer, school leaders and governors have implemented robust safeguarding policies and procedures which meet statutory requirements. Records are well maintained, securely kept and updated regularly. A rigorous approach is adopted to the recruitment of new staff, including thorough procedures for carrying out background checks and ensuring that appropriate references are always received. Staff are well informed and receive regular training on safeguarding, which follows the most recent national guidance. Staff are fully aware of the procedures to follow should they have any concerns about the safety and care of pupils.
• The school works effectively with local agencies to ensure that vulnerable pupils and their families are identified and well supported. Leaders successfully engage with parents to make sure that pupils are safe and supported in school.
• Leaders ensure that the school’s procedures and policies for keeping children safe on the internet are understood well by pupils. Regular updates and reminders ensure that the important message of keeping safe is revisited and reinforced.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching, learning and assessment are too variable across the school. Inconsistent teaching has resulted in too many pupils underachieving. As a result, not enough pupils are making the progress expected of them. In some lessons, work set by teachers is too hard for too many pupils, while in other lessons, the work is too easy. Too few teachers, especially in key stage 2, apply a detailed knowledge of pupils’ attainment to plan and deliver lessons that meet the needs of the whole class.
• Discussions with pupils and checks in their books from last year show that older pupils, in particular, have an insecure understanding of the breadth of mathematical concepts. The situation is starting to improve because the school’s ‘maths mastery’ approach is giving more pupils opportunities to improve their reasoning across the mathematics curriculum. However, inspection evidence shows that not all teachers are sufficiently adept at delivering these lessons.
• Inspectors noted some exemplary practice in some lessons. However, at other times, teachers were inconsistent in the amount of challenge and in the level of expectation of what pupils can achieve. As a result, the quality of work varies considerably across the school.
• The teaching of history, geography, science and religious education is also inconsistent across the school. Some lessons are thoughtfully planned, engaging and interesting, while others fail to capture the interest of pupils.
• In the majority of lessons, teachers ensure that pupils present their work as tidily as possible so that they take pride in their work. Handwriting has improved, although there is some discrepancy in approaches to joined-up writing because not all teachers give sufficient attention to implementing the new handwriting scheme. Some pupils write very well, while many others still struggle to join their letters.
• Phonics is taught well and teachers in key stage 1 ensure that pupils make good progress by integrating phonics activities into reading and writing lessons.
• Teachers provide pupils with marking and feedback in line with school policy. Pupils are taught to edit and improve their own work in response to the feedback they receive and they state that this encourages them to learn from their mistakes.
• In some lessons, teachers use questioning very effectively to assess pupils’ understanding and deepen thinking. When this happens, pupils respond well and make good progress. At other times, opportunities to deepen understanding are missed because teachers’ questioning is not sharp enough.
• Achievement is higher in lessons where teachers make good use of time, resources are engaging and careful planning ensures that tasks are well matched to pupils’ needs. In other lessons, too much time is spent either practising concepts which pupils have already mastered or moving on to independent activities before pupils understand what to do next.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils exhibit varying degrees of confidence in their capacity to learn during lessons. Where work does not match their needs well enough, they become disheartened and struggle to maintain focus and concentration. At times, teachers are not quick enough to recognise this and, in these lessons, too few pupils make good progress.
• Pupils understand the ‘proud points’ system and believe that it is a good method for encouraging them to do their best. Nevertheless, there are inconsistencies in the way this is used by different teachers and, as a result, not enough pupils take as much pride in their achievements as they should do.
• Many pupils believe that any bullying and poor behaviour will be dealt with quickly and fairly. Others say that there are lessons where pupils do not respect others or allow everyone to learn. Parents have mixed opinions about how well pupils are expected to conduct themselves. Pupils say that they feel safe at school and the majority of parents agree.
• Pupils have opportunities to develop responsibility and to use their initiative. They can be elected to the pupil forum, where they can become involved in helping to improve their school, organising events and raising money for charity. This work also helps to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Although pupils usually walk sensibly in corridors, enter and leave lessons calmly and play together well in the playground, behaviour in lessons is not consistently well managed.
• The school’s own behaviour records show that the number of fixed-term exclusions has been high, mainly for disrupting lessons and hurting others. Leaders recognise that there have been a number of reasons for this, including a lack of consistency among staff responsible for implementing the school’s behaviour policy.
• Incidents of inattention, poor listening and talking at inappropriate times are too common in some lessons. These incidents of low-level misbehaviour generally result either from pupils’ lack of understanding about their work or from an activity that is either insufficiently challenging or too hard. On other occasions, teachers have not applied the agreed behaviour policy properly.
• Strategies to promote good attendance have been only partially successful. Office staff keep a careful record of late arrivals on the school’s information management system, but leaders do not have an effective system for tracking or reducing poor punctuality. Overall absence rates, including persistent absence, are above average. Disadvantaged pupils’ attendance remains in the lowest 10% nationally.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In the national assessments for the last two years, pupils’ progress in English and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 has been below, and sometimes well below, other pupils nationally.
• Outcomes in reading and mathematics at key stage 2 were particularly low in 2017. Only 58% of pupils reached the expected standard in mathematics, compared with 75% nationally, and only 60% in reading, compared with 71% nationally. The achievement of disadvantaged pupils was also low in English and mathematics.
• Outcomes for the current most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, are also inconsistent across different classes and different subjects. This is often because teachers’ expectations vary. In the 2016 key stage 1 assessments, outcomes for pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, were below national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. The situation improved in 2017, where most outcomes were broadly in line with national results.
• Work in pupils’ books from last year shows that current Year 6 pupils are doing better in mathematics and the school’s own tracking information confirms a more optimistic outlook. Nevertheless, work across all year groups, together with the school’s own information, shows that progress is inconsistent. This evidence supports senior leaders’ opinions that many pupils must make accelerated progress in order to catch up.
• Writing is weak because the quality of handwriting is so variable. Leaders are aware of this and are taking steps to improve the situation.
• Younger pupils read confidently and use their phonics skills well to read unknown words. Outcomes in the phonics screening check have been in line with the national average in the last three years.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make variable progress because, while they generally receive good additional support, classwork is not always well matched to their learning needs.
• This year, all pupils in the school have been working on the school’s ‘maths mastery’ curriculum. This means that they are now covering the full mathematics curriculum in more depth across all year groups. They are expected to provide explanations and reasons for their thinking and the resultant deepening of their knowledge and understanding is more evident now.

Early years provision Good

• Children join the Reception and Nursery classes with a broad variety of skills and aptitudes. In 2016 and 2017, the proportion of children who reached a good level of development by the end of the early years was in line with the national average. Most children make good progress from their different starting points.
• Additional support is in place to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. This includes identifying opportunities to promote social skills, as well as academic progress in phonics and writing.
• Leadership of the early years is effective. Leaders have ensured that all staff are appropriately trained to identify and plan for individual children’s needs. Adults use assessment information well to plan ‘in the moment’ learning and development activities which capture children’s imagination. The children are keen to participate in their learning and staff use questioning well to deepen their thinking.
• Leaders have identified opportunities to make further improvements by introducing some new approaches, such as encouraging the children take more responsibility for tidying up and choosing their own area of the classrooms to work in. These changes are designed to further promote children’s independence and develop their maturity.
• Teaching and learning in the early years are well matched to the assessed needs of the majority of children. As a result of the good support they receive, children are well prepared to start Year 1.
• Assessments of children’s development are carefully produced and records are well organised. Adults use agreed criteria to identify the next steps for each child’s development.
• Children’s behaviour is good. A wide range of academic, creative, physical and social opportunities are planned, both indoors and outside, which are well supported by staff. This enables children to become confident learners.
• Children are well looked after. Staff give children’s welfare a high priority and make sure that the statutory safeguarding requirements are met. Relationships between parents and staff are positive. Parents feel welcome and included and they confirm that they receive useful information about how their children are getting on.

School details

Unique reference number 141546 Local authority Suffolk Inspection number 10036115 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Primary School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 432 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Sam Gallacher Head of school Chris Beazeley Telephone number 01440 702 376 Website www.burtonendschool.co.uk Email address head@burtonendschool.co.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• 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 became part of the Samuel Ward Academy Trust in December 2016.
• The current interim headteacher came into post at the beginning of September 2017.
• The school is larger than the average primary school.
• The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium funding is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and who are receiving support is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed learning throughout the school, including joint observations and a joint learning walk with the deputy headteacher.
• The inspectors scrutinised pupils’ work in every subject and every year group and listened to Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6 pupils read.
• The inspectors also met with pupils, formally and informally, to listen to their views.
• Meetings were held with the interim headteacher, deputy headteacher, subject leaders of English, mathematics and science, special educational needs coordinator, early years leaders, representatives of the Samuel Ward Academy Trust, including the chief executive officer, and the chair and vice-chair of the governing body.
• The inspection team scrutinised a wide range of documentation, including information about pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, minutes of meetings and records relating to teaching and learning, pupils’ attendance and behaviour and safeguarding of pupils. The school’s website was also scrutinised.
• The inspectors considered the views expressed by parents through informal meetings and the 37 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as comments received via the free-text facility on Parent View.

Inspection team

Nick Rudman, lead inspector Kate Moore David Milligan Richard Hopkins James Dyke Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector