Beit Shvidler Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• In history, geography and design and technology, ensure that the curriculum incorporates carefully sequenced opportunities for pupils to acquire and retain subject-specific skills and knowledge.
• Improve the early years provision by ensuring that:
  • children have sufficiently high-quality and exciting opportunities to develop their writing skills
  • the quality of children’s learning outdoors matches that found indoors, including strengthening the effectiveness of support provided by additional adults.
• Strengthen leadership and management by:
  • increasing the rigour with which leaders monitor and evaluate information on pupils’ behaviour, so that they can secure further improvements where necessary
  • enhancing the strategies leaders use to communicate with parents, so that they feel well informed about the school’s work.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher leads with purpose and passion. Since taking up post, he has forged a strong and skilled team of leaders, who radiate a tangible commitment to providing high-quality learning for every pupil. Throughout the school, staff have been energised by the direction and positivity of the new leadership team.
• Through well-focused and ambitious plans for improvement, leaders have addressed the recommendations from the previous inspection. Actions have been prioritised appropriately, so that leaders and staff focus their efforts on the areas in need of most attention.
• Leaders know exactly what they need to do to secure further improvements in how well pupils learn, including in subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics. For instance, they were quick to make changes to the new science curriculum, so that it caters equally well for the development of both pupils’ scientific knowledge and their enquiry skills. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement in the curriculum for history, geography and design and technology.
• Leading by example, senior leaders provide teachers with excellent levels of support and guidance, including opportunities to learn from strong practice that exists within the school. Leaders combine professional development programmes skilfully with effective systems to monitor the quality of teaching. This ensures that staff are in no doubt about what leaders expect of them. At the same time, staff value how leaders consider their well-being and workload, when they make changes to policies and the curriculum.
• Leadership of the provision for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND is much improved since the time of the previous inspection. Most parents commented positively on this. Leaders have acted decisively to address shortcomings in how additional funding is used, drawing on advice from the local authority and external professionals. Extra help is tailored more effectively to pupils’ individuals needs and circumstances than was the case in the past. This includes those pupils supported by an education, health and care plan.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, cultural and social development is promoted strongly. Respect and consideration for others are at the core of the curriculum. This includes plentiful opportunities for pupils to develop their understanding of different cultures and faiths. For instance, Year 6 pupils spoke enthusiastically about a recent event at the Emirates stadium, during which they worked with other schools to learn about different religions. Pupils said that such experiences help to remind them that ‘we all have a right to be ourselves’ and ‘to always treat others how you would want to be treated’. These respectful attitudes mean that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• In their work to improve pupils’ attitudes to learning, leaders ensure that pupils take part in a rich range of extra-curricular clubs and outings. For example, during the inspection, Year 3 pupils enjoyed dressing up as ancient Egyptians, as part of an outing linked to their history topic. Effective use of the primary sports funding means that high-quality opportunities for sport, including competitions with other schools, are a regular feature of school life. Pupils told inspectors how much they enjoy the range of clubs on offer and how this enhances their enjoyment of the school.
• Most parents are highly complimentary about the school’s work. They particularly appreciate the positive changes brought about by the new leadership team. Comments such as ‘this is a wonderful, caring school’ and ‘the school is going from strength to strength’ were typical of parents’ views. Nevertheless, a few parents remain dissatisfied with the school’s work and how leaders respond to any concerns they raise. Leaders and governors could do more to strengthen the way in which they communicate with parents, especially regarding the school’s work to promote high standards of behaviour and safety.
• Typically, leaders evaluate the impact of their work thoroughly. This enables them to make sure that their actions bring about the improvements they expect. The introduction of a new behaviour policy has led to clear improvements in pupils’ behaviour and attitudes. Nonetheless, leaders’ records and analysis of behaviour information lack sharpness. This reduces leaders’ capacity to identify where further improvements could be made, for instance in pupils’ conduct in corridors and in the lunch hall.

Governance of the school

• Governors have provided the headteacher with strong levels of support, including with the recruitment and retention of a suitably skilled team of senior leaders and teaching staff. This has been crucial in helping the headteacher to restore a sense of stability and purpose to the school’s work, following a period of high turnover in staffing.
• The skilled and committed governing body holds leaders to account effectively. They have made sure that leaders provide them with detailed and reliable information on the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes. This, together with regular visits to the school, means governors know the key priorities for improvement and whether leaders’ actions are making a difference to pupils’ outcomes.
• Governors maintain effective oversight of the safety and suitability of the premises. They identify potential risks promptly, including those related to fire safety, and make sure that any remedial work necessary is completed without delay.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Pupils are acutely aware of potential risks to their safety, both online and in the wider community. For instance, pupils said they had learned about the consequences of cyber bullying and why it is important ‘to never be mean behind a screen’. Pupils learn age-appropriate strategies to protect their personal safety, including when using public transport and crossing the road. Partnerships with the local police and fire service enhance the curriculum well in this area.
• Pupils are taught the importance of speaking out if they feel unsafe. They know the trusted adults they can to turn when they need help, including those in the school. Pupils said that staff take any worries they raise seriously and find ways to resolve any issues.
• Visits and outings are planned thoroughly. Due consideration is given to factors which may place pupils’ welfare at risk and what measures are needed to avoid them, including suitable staffing ratios.
• Leaders ensure that staff understand their duties to safeguard pupils’ welfare, including the procedures for responding to safeguarding concerns. Staff know about different risks and the signs associated with these risks, such as changes in a pupil’s behaviour or attendance. Records show that safeguarding concerns are managed well by leaders, with effective partnerships with external agencies.
• Leaders carry out pre-employment checks on new staff in accordance with statutory guidance. The single central record of these check is maintained accurately. Governors check records regularly to make sure that correct procedures for safer recruitment are followed.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Expectations for what pupils know and can do are much higher than in the past. Pupils of all abilities make good progress, because teaching is purposeful and demands enough of pupils. Well-chosen activities and resources stimulate pupils’ thinking and motivate them to try their best.
• Pupils told inspectors that the new leaders and teachers have made ‘a real difference’ to the quality of their learning. They said that teachers think of ways to ‘challenge’ them but also ‘give lots of help’ if they make mistakes. Inspectors found that pupils were right to be so pleased with how teachers support their learning.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong. This enables them to plan activities that help pupils to develop and retain important knowledge and skills. This is particularly evident in reading, writing and mathematics. For instance, when pupils study different types of writing, teachers sequence the learning carefully to make sure that pupils understand the main features of a genre, before they progress to using these features in their own writing.
• Staff have a detailed picture of pupils’ outcomes and set work that is closely matched to pupils’ abilities, including adapting activities so that pupils do not make repeated errors or develop gaps in their knowledge. Equally, they know when to move pupils, including the most able, on to more demanding content. For instance, in Year 6, the most able pupils were challenged to use their knowledge of fractions, percentages and angles to construct their own pie charts.
• Teaching provides many interesting and meaningful contexts for pupils to write, both in English and other subjects. For example, key stage 2 pupils enjoyed writing about the similarities and differences between Viking warfare and strategies used during the First World War. Teachers provide pupils with clear guidance for the quality of their writing, with suitable emphasis given to the correct use of grammar and punctuation. As a result, the standard of pupils’ writing is high, and pupils usually take care to record their ideas neatly and accurately.
• In mathematics, teachers plan and sequence learning effectively to ensure that pupils acquire a deep understanding of key concepts and knowledge, including calculation methods. Activities make pupils of all abilities think hard. Teachers expect pupils to explain how they worked out an answer and consider whether their method was accurate and efficient. Carefully selected resources, such as pictorial representations, are used well to help pupils, particularly those with lower attainment or SEND, grasp mathematical concepts securely.
• Typically, additional help for pupils with SEND contributes well to the quality of their learning. For instance, well-targeted use of assistive technologies enables pupils to overcome their barriers to producing high-quality writing, including difficulties in spelling words accurately.
• In science, pupils benefit from well-chosen practical tasks which develop and deepen their scientific knowledge as well as their investigative skills. Science teaching also incorporates effective opportunities for pupils to apply their mathematical knowledge, for instance plotting line graphs to record the results of experiments.
• Sometimes, the quality of pupils’ learning in history, geography and design and technology is not as strong as it could be. This is typically the case when teachers are unclear about how the task set will contribute to the development of pupils’ subject-specific skills and knowledge.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils take great pride in their school and their learning. Through regular celebrations of pupils’ achievements, both in and out of the school, leaders and staff nurture pupils’ confidence in their own abilities.
• Pupils strive to improve their learning and make the most of their time in the school. This is evident in their typically well-presented written work as well as their high levels of concentration in classrooms.
• Pupils enjoy working collaboratively with their peers. For instance, during a Year 4 science activity, pupils worked successfully as a group to create a poster on the key features of vertebrates. They listened respectfully to different suggestions and motivated each other to complete the task.
• Through the school’s emphasis on social equality and good deeds, pupils contribute actively to making the school a better place. They told inspectors that the school is a ‘great community’, where everyone cares for each other, ‘especially if someone is feeling sad’. Inspectors saw this for themselves in a whole-school assembly, with Year 6 pupils sitting next to younger pupils to help them feel included.
• Pupils’ kind and thoughtful attitudes are also evident in their extensive involvement in charitable work. Such opportunities mean that pupils know that their actions and choices can make a meaningful difference to the wider community, including those facing difficult circumstances.
• Leaders and staff ensure that pupils know about how to stay healthy, including the importance of physical activity and eating healthy snacks, such as fruit and vegetables. Playtimes are a hive of physical activity. Pupils said that this helps them to ‘keep their body and mind healthy’. At the same time, pupils appreciate how leaders set aside quiet spaces, including a reading garden, so that they have somewhere ‘calm and relaxing to sit and talk to friends’ when they want to.
• Pupils said that there is always an adult available to help them if they feel worried or unhappy. They said that unkind behaviour, including bullying, happens sometimes, but staff are quick to make it stop. Records show that leaders usually manage incidents of bullying effectively. The number of incidents is low.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Attendance levels are above the national average. Leaders and staff follow up absence rigorously. Very few pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, are persistently absent from the school.
• Pupils told inspectors that they behave well and that ‘behaviour is much better now because teaching is much better’. Inspectors agree that pupils’ behaviour is good. Low-level disruption in classrooms is unusual. Sometimes, however, pupils need reminders from staff to conduct themselves sensibly in the lunch hall and in corridors, such as when they return to classrooms after playtime. Occasionally, staff do not set pupils clear enough expectations for this.
• Records show that there are few serious incidents of poor behaviour. When they do occur, leaders deal with them swiftly and proportionately. Pupils particularly like the new behaviour system and how this encourages them to work hard and behave sensibly. However, leaders do not apply the same level of rigour to their records and analysis of behaviour as that found in other areas of their work. Leaders, therefore, lack high-quality information on the impact of their work to promote pupils’ behaviour and identify what could be even better.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Improvements in the quality of teaching have led directly to improvements in pupils’ outcomes. Across the school and in a range of subjects, pupils make strong progress and attain highly, especially in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Previous weaknesses in teaching meant that pupils developed gaps in their basic skills, such as knowing common spelling patterns and simple number bonds. Leaders have responded effectively to this. For each cohort, leaders keep the curriculum for reading, writing and mathematics under constant review to ensure that it is demanding enough but also plugs gaps in pupils’ knowledge that have arisen over time. As a result, pupils with low attainment are catching up quickly. However, some older pupils still find it difficult to spell words at the standard expected for their age.
• Over the last three years, standards in key stage 1 have risen, particularly in writing. In 2018, Year 2 pupils’ attainment was at least similar to those in other schools nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. The proportion of pupils attaining the higher standard has also improved year on year, reflecting the increased level of challenge in teaching.
• The introduction of a new approach to the teaching of phonics has led to clear improvements in pupils’ outcomes in this area of their learning. Younger pupils acquire the knowledge they need to read fluently. They can draw effectively on their phonics knowledge to read unknown words accurately. In 2018, the vast majority of Year 1 pupils attained the age-expected standard in the phonics screening check.
• Across the school, reading is promoted effectively. Pupils enjoy reading regularly, both across the curriculum and for pleasure. Leaders make sure that pupils access high-quality books, including in the outdoor reading garden. Pupils appreciate the range of authors and types of books on offer. By the end of key stage 2, standards in reading are high. In 2018, the proportion of Year 6 pupils attaining both the expected standard and higher standard was well above the national average.
• The attainment of the 2018 Year 6 cohort was equally as strong in writing and mathematics. Over half of these pupils attained the higher levels in mathematics, reflecting the above-average progress made by the cohort during key stage 2. Pupils now leave the school much better prepared for the challenges of the Year 7 curriculum than they have been in the past.
• Pupils with SEND and those who are disadvantaged also make strong progress because of the well-planned and effective additional help they receive.
• Having secured these strengths in pupils’ outcomes, leaders have now turned their attention to other curriculum subjects. This work is paying dividends, particularly in subjects such as art and science. However, more work is needed to strengthen the curriculum in design and technology, history and geography so that pupils attain as highly as they could in these subjects.

Early years provision Good

• The early years provision is led effectively. Leaders ensure that children learn well and are kept safe in the Reception and Nursery classes.
• Staff develop children’s confidence and readiness to take part in activities from an early age. For instance, Nursery children were keen to join in with songs and prayers at the start of the school day.
• During their time in the provision, most children make strong progress and develop the skills and attitudes they need to get off to a successful start in Year 1. The proportion of children attaining a good level of development by the end of Reception is above the national average.
• Leaders and staff keep a close eye on children’s progress. They use assessment information to adapt learning to children’s needs and interests, particularly for those children who are not developing the knowledge and understanding that are typical for their age.
• Children’s achievements are regularly celebrated. Children’s ‘learning journals’ show that staff involve parents closely in this work. Children behave well, because staff provide lots of guidance and encouragement. For example, children enjoyed taking part in a special party to reward them for their positive attitudes to the school.
• The curriculum provides many opportunities for children to learn about the wider world, including different cultures and faiths. For instance, staff provide exciting activities for children to learn about important festivals, such as Diwali and the Chinese New Year.
• The bright and interesting learning environment encourages children to express themselves creatively, particularly through art-based activities. Outside, children have plenty of experiences to support their physical development, including riding trikes and balancing on wooden blocks. However, in other curriculum areas, the quality of children’s learning outdoors is not as strong as it could be. Sometimes, additional adults are not clear about how best to develop or extend children’s learning.
• Effective phonics teaching provides children with a secure foundation in their early reading and writing skills. Teaching is carefully planned to cater for children’s different abilities. Staff make sure that children’s knowledge is embedded, before they are introduced to new sounds. This ensures that children do not develop gaps in their phonological awareness at an early age. However, the provision lacks high-quality opportunities which motivate children to apply their phonics knowledge and write independently. In turn, this hinders children from attaining the standard of which they are capable in writing.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 136402 Barnet 10088882 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 218 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Daniel Wynne Headteacher/Principal/Teacher in charge Rabbi Jonathan Spector Telephone number 0208 238 2746 Website Email address www.beitshvidler.org.uk head@beitshvidler.org.uk Date of previous inspection 1–2 February 2017

Information about this school

• Beit Shvidler is smaller than the average-sized primary school. It has a Jewish ethos and primarily caters for pupils from the Jewish Orthodox community.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium funding is low in comparison to other schools nationally.
• The school has an above-average proportion of pupils with SEND, including those who are supported through an education, health and care plan.
• The school does not make use of any alternative or off-site provision.
• A section 48 inspection of the religious education provided by the school took place in June 2017.
• The majority of staff, including the leadership team, took up post in September 2017.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with leaders to discuss their evaluation of the school’s effectiveness and plans for improvement. Information on pupils’ outcomes was reviewed, and inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work in different subjects.
• Inspectors visited all year groups to observe pupils’ learning. Most visits were made together with the senior leadership team.
• Inspectors met with groups of pupils from Year 2, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. They listened to pupils read from Year 1, Year 3, Year 5 and Year 6. Inspectors also spoke to a large number of pupils informally, during visits to classrooms and the playground. No responses were received to Ofsted’s survey for pupils.
• Inspectors met with governors and scrutinised records of their work. They also met with an adviser from the local authority.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in classrooms, at playtimes and in the lunch hall. They also visited a whole-school assembly.
• Inspectors considered a range of evidence related to parents’ views on the school, including speaking to parents informally before the school day on both days of the inspection. The 108 responses to Parent View were taken into account, including written comments. The school’s own information on parents’ views was also reviewed.
• Inspectors met with a group of staff and spoke to staff informally during the inspection. Inspectors also considered the 29 responses to Ofsted’s survey for staff.

Inspection team

Sarah Murphy-Dutton, lead inspector Karen Jaeggi Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector