Hollickwood Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of teaching further by:
  • providing more opportunities for pupils to work at greater depth in reading in key stage 2
  • making sure that all teachers deliver lessons which challenge all pupils and meet the needs of the most able pupils.
• Continue to work with pupils, parents and external agencies to ensure that the school’s disadvantaged pupils attend school regularly and on time.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the last inspection, the school has improved systems for keeping a check on the quality of teaching in all year groups. Together with accessible methods for tracking pupil progress, this has enabled senior leaders to hold teachers to account for progress made in their classes. The headteacher and deputy headteacher make an effective partnership and are well supported by a very capable governing body. These changes have brought about a consistent focus on raising standards of learning across the school, which has resulted in accelerated progress being made.
• Senior leaders lead the school with care and sensitivity. Alongside this, they have created a vision to improve teaching and outcomes for all pupils and the current assessment information and work in pupils’ books show that this is proving successful.
• Middle leaders are similarly ambitious for the school. They are passionate about their work and hold a clear view of how the work they do links directly with improved outcomes for pupils. A good example of this is the successful work to develop an innovative approach to the teaching of mathematics. This has led to increased expertise in this subject, which has led to significant improvements in teaching and rates of progress in key stage 1 and 2.
• Pupil premium funding is used to support disadvantaged pupils through a range of activities in their learning across the curriculum. Funds support pupils more intensively through the work of the school’s inclusion leader and a wealth of resources to improve standards in reading. Additionally, the money is used to develop these pupils’ personal development through the work of the school’s learning mentor and providing access to a counselling service.
• The school has a good awareness of the social issues, which may prevent disadvantaged pupils from making good progress; this is well used to target interventions where they are most needed. For instance, leaders have been very quick to address last year’s drop in key stage 2 reading standards for these pupils. They have wasted no time in putting in place a range of measures that is already showing that pupils are starting to make better progress this year and differences are starting to diminish.
• The primary physical education (PE) and sports premium is carefully spent. A specialist PE teacher supports the teaching of PE and additional equipment is being purchased to enhance outdoor sports participation at lunchtimes. It has also helped to provide access to competitions. Pupils benefit from a good range of clubs and opportunities and take part in sports events with other local schools.
• The school makes good provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This is helping pupils gain a thorough understanding of life in modern Britain through a clear set of deeply held school values which places mutual respect at its core.
• Hollickwood’s curriculum is broad and diverse. As well as focusing on developing pupils’ key literacy and numeracy skills, pupils have experienced studying an appropriate range of other subjects. This includes your decision to include a topic-based approach to work in history and geography. Pupils find their work interesting, particularly when these themes are brought into the core subjects of English and mathematics.
• The school has received useful support from Barnet local authority. They have a good understanding of the school and have provided advice and consultancy to support leaders’ strategies. This included providing two detailed reviews of school performance.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly effective and thorough in carrying out their duties, particularly in both supporting and challenging the headteacher and other leaders. They have acted conscientiously on the recommendations of a review of governance following the previous inspection. Because of this, they have been a driving force in ensuring that the school retains a strong focus on driving up academic standards. Governors pay frequent visits to the school and consequently know the school very well. They are determined to ensure that the school continues to improve and become renowned for excellence.
• Governor committees provide a focus on pupils’ progress and curriculum provision. They communicate their work very well to parents and publish minutes of all their meetings on the school’s website. Governors question the progress of groups of pupils and the impact of additional funding, such as the school’s use of special needs funding and the pupil premium. Consequently, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress and progress rates for disadvantaged pupils have shown recent improvement.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• School leaders have ensured that all members of staff are trained in child protection procedures. The school’s policies and practice are thorough. A strong culture of safety exists in the school, where key staff engage with parents, carers and other stakeholders to ensure that all pupils are supported and safe.
• Pupils are very confident that the school is a safe place and both parents and staff at the school who responded to Ofsted’s surveys or spoke with an inspector agree this view. Governors are thorough in their checking of safeguarding procedures and place the safety of pupils uppermost in their work. School leaders work very effectively with external agencies, such as social services, to ensure that when concerns are raised, they are always followed up quickly and with due care. Key staff have ensured that safer recruitment training and practice is up to date.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching at Hollickwood is good and teachers use their time well to ensure that all groups of pupils do well. Most teachers have high expectations of the quality of work they expect in lessons and pupils know how to improve their work.
• The school has worked well to develop an approach to the way in which work is assessed so that pupils can see easily how well they have done and how they can improve their work. This has been a helpful development since the last inspection, but some inconsistency remains in some year groups, even though the school policy is clear.
• Teaching in mathematics is good because teachers make the lessons challenging and interesting for the pupils. For example, in a mathematics lesson, pupils worked at different tasks to gain a better understanding of place value to help them solve simple addition problems. The teachers had developed the lesson by noticing which pupils in the previous lesson needed additional support and which needed additional challenge.
• In some lessons in key stage 2, pupils, particularly those who are most able, are not challenged enough. Consequently, this group of pupils sometimes spend too long on work that they can already do. This affects pupils’ behaviour during these lessons, as they lose concentration, and can lead to them becoming distracted more easily.
• Teaching staff have very strong relationships with the pupils and make effective use of additional adults in their lessons, who are used to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This strong work ethos supports pupils well as they know that the staff want them to do well. In turn, this has developed pupils’ positive attitudes towards school, which they clearly hold in high regard.
• The teaching of phonics and early reading is good. The school has recognised that this good start in reading needs to be developed further and has set aside funds to develop pupils’ use of the school library. They are also using a range of intervention groups and whole-school resources to ensure that standards continue to rise as pupils move through the school.
• Pupils in key stage 2 are all now reaching at least average standards in mathematics and writing. However, not enough pupils achieve national and higher standards in reading by the time they leave key stage 2. This is also true of pupils that are more able.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. Leaders have ensured that the school motto of ‘Respect, take care and try your best’ is acted upon on a daily basis. Pupils live harmoniously because they are taught to show tolerance of diversity and awareness of how to be successful learners.
• Positive messages about how to tackle and respond to bullying have been helpful to pupils. Pupils are particularly aware of how to keep safe while working on the internet. Pupils say that bullying is very rare at the school, though were it to occur, they know that the systems that exist are robust and easily accessible. The school’s records of behaviour incidents demonstrated this to be the case over time.
• Leaders have instilled a sense of pride in the school, which is evident in how the pupils care about the presentation of their work. They are taught how to show respect for one another, even if they hold very different beliefs or points of view.
• Pupils show kindness and understanding in their attitudes towards one another and diverse groups of people in society. The school is developing pupils’ awareness of different faiths, races and cultures. This includes the school’s work with pupils to help them understand the different types of families and sexual orientation in modern Britain.
• The school works very harmoniously with a wide variety of parents who are almost unanimous in their praise for the school’s work. One parent told inspectors that, ‘…transition into the school was handled with great sensitivity and I see how my child is learning academically whilst being happy and well cared for.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. They are confident, friendly and polite. They hold good attitudes to school life, take their work seriously and are respectful of the adults who teach them. Pupils help each other and hold positions of responsibility, which add to the productive culture of the school.
• Since the last inspection, the school has worked effectively to create sensitive and respectful approaches to behaviour management. Teachers ensure that positive messages about good behaviour are consistently applied throughout lessons. This results in pupils behaving well. However, in a small number of lessons, their attention wanders and they occasionally lose concentration.
• The school is a happy and calm place. Pupils want to come to school every day and demonstrate a serious attitude to their work.
• Attendance rates have improved and are now at the average level for primary schools in England for all groups of pupils. However, this is not yet true for the school’s disadvantaged pupils, where the school recognises the need for further improvement.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Current pupils are making very good progress in mathematics and writing and improving rates of progress in reading. This is reflected in their progress over time, in their books and their learning in lessons. Pupils’ work reflects the diligent way in which they approach their studies.
• From their different starting points, pupils make good progress. This is seen in writing and mathematics, and in a range of subjects including science and art. Outcomes have improved continuously for pupils over the past two years in key stages 1 and 2.
• The proportion of Year 1 pupils achieving the expected standards in the phonics screening check was slightly above that seen nationally last year. Standards of reading are good in key stage 1 and pupils read with clarity and understanding. They clearly enjoy reading and told inspectors about their favourite authors with great zeal.
• In 2016, standards of attainment in key stage 2 were in line with the national average in mathematics, reading and writing. Indicative results for 2017 suggest that there was further progress in mathematics, where the school’s attainment was much higher than the previous year. Disappointingly, this rapid improvement is not evident in reading standards. Leaders have a good understanding of the reasons why and have put in place teaching strategies that aim to redress this shortfall.
• School assessment information indicates that current pupils are on track to match at least the progress made in the previous two years. This is the result of improved teaching over time.
• Pupils who have special educational needs or disability are making better progress because the leadership of this area has improved since the last inspection. Their needs are now better identified and are given precise support by teachers and support staff.
• Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education when they leave the school at the end of Year 6. This is because of the good foundation they receive at Hollickwood Primary School. Pupils are confident and positive about their future because they have learned to be successful.
• Disadvantaged pupils are making improved rates of progress. Leaders are tracking their progress closer and differences in progress and attainment are diminishing. Leaders recognise this difference and are committed to developing this area further through targeting additional support where it is most needed.

Early years provision Good

• Staff plan carefully to ensure that children learn well and make substantial progress from their starting points to achieve improving levels of development that are now above those seen nationally.
• Teachers in the Reception and Nursery classes create a welcoming and fascinating learning environment that enthralls children in activities that they find enjoyable and interesting. Teaching assistants work well to support children in developing effective learning behaviours. Children are excited by the topics that they study. They settle swiftly to work and are well behaved and respectful towards one another.
• Classrooms are very well resourced and staffed so that children can learn independently or with adults as they choose. The adults place themselves carefully so they are they are always the focus of any of the main teaching activities taking place. Children are enthusiastic and work well together, enjoying the activities which take place, both indoors and outside.
• This strength of provision is typified in the outside area, where themes under study are made larger than in the classrooms, allowing children to explore with greater freedom, a good example being the Reception class’s investigation into gravity, as they rolled balls down gutters placed at different heights to see its effect. Across both classes, children are very well cared for and their well-being is of paramount importance.
• The early years leader is rightly proud of the strong provision available at the school. She, together with other senior leaders, keeps a close eye on the children’s progress. This allows them to identify any gaps in children’s understanding and act swiftly to address them. As such, leadership and management of the early years provision is good. The early years leader takes her role seriously and is ambitious to improve provision further.
• Since the last inspection, the school has worked successfully to eradicate the difference in the standards achieved by the school’s disadvantaged children so that they now achieve as well as their peers
• Children develop a very positive attitude to school life in the early years and are well prepared for moving into Year 1. Children in the Reception class are already showing increased skill in writing and all children clearly enjoy reading, as evidenced in the busy book areas.
• The school is developing effective partnerships working with parents, who give the school valuable information about the children as they begin their school journey. As a result, the school builds on the interests of the children and parents are kept aware of the work that their children are doing.
• A computer-based assessment system charts children’s progress over the Nursery and Reception Years and contains a range of work, observations and photographs of children working independently. This information is then summarised and reported to parents as a formal record of their graduation from the early years into key stage 1 and of what the children already know.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 101285 Barnet 10036365 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 Foundation 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 217 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Ed Tytherleigh Hugh Vivian 020 8883 6880 www.hollickwood.barnet.sch.uk office@hollickwood.barnet.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 22–23 September 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website
• The school is slightly smaller than most primary schools. The largest ethnic groups represented at the school are from White British and Any other White backgrounds. The proportion speaking English as an additional language is above average. The proportion of pupils that join or leave the school during term time is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is above average. The pupil premium is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching in samples of lessons in all year groups throughout the inspection, several of which were visited jointly with the headteacher.
• The inspection team heard some of the school’s pupils read in Year 2, and looked at samples of work throughout the inspection.
• Inspectors looked at a range of documents, including the school improvement plan and records of pupils’ behaviour, safety, safeguarding and attendance. They also scrutinised information on individual pupils’ progress, anonymised records of teachers’ performance, and records of meetings of the governing body.
• Inspectors met with teachers and spoke with pupils. A meeting was held with three members of the governing body. A meeting was also held with a representative from the local authority.
• The views of parents were obtained through 48 responses to the online Ofsted Parent View survey, as well as informal discussions, which were held with parents on the first day of the inspection.

Inspection team

Tim McLoughlin, lead inspector Roger Easthope

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector