Broadmead Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, so that it is consistently good by ensuring that teachers:
  • match tasks to pupils’ starting points to ensure challenge for all groups
  • consistently follow senior leaders’ advice on how to improve their practice, including using the successful classroom strategies that leaders have recently introduced.
• Accelerate progress, so that standards rise in all phases by continuing to promote positive attitudes to learning, so that more pupils are focused on their work without having to be reminded continually.
• Strengthen leadership further by:
  • continuing to improve attendance and reduce persistent absence, so that these are in line with national averages for all groups
  • developing middle leaders, so that they are as effective as senior leaders in working to ensure rapid improvements across the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Over time, leaders have not been successful in improving teaching and learning and raising standards, particularly in early years and key stage 1. The turbulence caused by having a series of different headteachers under the previous trust left a legacy of weak teaching and failed to address issues with behaviour and attendance.
• Despite early signs of positive change, outcomes, teaching, behaviour and early years currently still require improvement.
• There are a number of skilled, committed middle leaders in place. However, they are either too new to the school, or too new to leadership, to have yet had a significant impact on school improvement in the way senior leaders have.
• The new leadership team commissioned a comprehensive review of how the school was performing before it took over. This allowed leaders to hit the ground running and ensured that their plans were tightly focused on well-prioritised, necessary improvements. Their actions are beginning to bear fruit, but it is still too early to predict with any accuracy the impact on pupils’ outcomes.
• Leaders have overhauled the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The funding is now earmarked well to ensure that they receive any specialist support they need to make strong progress.
• The physical education and sport premium has been well used to develop the quality of teaching in the subject. Strong links with a local sports club provide expert coaching for a range of sports. There are now high expectations in lessons and pupils develop key skills well.
• There is now a strong focus on ensuring that disadvantaged pupils make the progress required to attain as well as other pupils nationally. Governors challenge the effectiveness of the pupil premium spending. Within school, there is no discernible difference between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that of others. Standards need to rise for all pupils. Leaders are now ensuring that the grant is deployed to eradicate any gaps in knowledge and skills for those eligible.
• Staff at the early stage of their careers, including newly qualified teachers, speak highly of the support they receive. The provision for professional development is strong. Leaders are providing a comprehensive range of training to support teachers and teaching assistants to develop their skills so that improvement is rapid. Staff have embraced this training positively and morale is buoyant.
• Since taking over the school, senior leaders have met with teachers to set performance targets. This is a key element of improving teaching. Bespoke training is designed to ensure that teachers develop the skills necessary to be successful. There is comprehensive support for anyone in danger of not meeting their targets.
• The current leadership has introduced a broad, exciting curriculum, with strong links across subjects and trips of interest which help cement learning. For example, Year 4 pupils visited The Chocolate Museum as part of a cross-curricular topic which covered geography, history, science, English and design and technology. In this way, pupils have the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills. Extra-curricular clubs at lunchtime and after school, ranging from athletics to computing, add to this.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is well promoted. Pupils are presented with opportunities to think about moral dilemmas in assemblies. They respond thoughtfully, showing respect and empathy. Many of the newly introduced books that English work is based on contain a strong moral message. The values that underpin the trust’s work are displayed throughout the school and referred to regularly. Fundamental British values, such as tolerance and respect for the rule of law, are also strongly promoted. For example, the roles and remit of the newly formed school council help pupils to grasp democracy at a local level.

Governance of the school

• The new chair of governors has a very clear view of what the school needs to do to improve. He is working closely with other governors to strengthen their skills and ensure that they can provide a high level of challenge as the school forges ahead with a comprehensive package of improvements. The link role, where governors are responsible for an aspect of the school’s work such as safeguarding, is particularly effective.
• Governors and trustees are highly ambitious for the school. They are confident of the trust’s track record of rapidly improving weak or failing schools. Governors and trustees are supporting the headteacher to implement tried and tested models of improvement, such as providing high-quality training to teachers and establishing a clear, consistently implemented behaviour policy. They regularly check how effective these are proving to be because they know that Broadmead must improve as a matter of urgency.
• Governors now question the use of additional funding such as the pupil premium, the funding for special educational needs and the physical education (PE) and sport premium effectively. They are clear that impact needs to be demonstrated and challenge leaders on this. They know, for example, that the PE and sport premium has helped improve the school’s participation in inter-borough championships as well as develop teachers’ subject knowledge in physical education.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The checks made on the suitability of staff, governors and volunteers are thorough and well recorded. Staff have received appropriate training and consequently understand the procedures for spotting and reporting concerns. Information about how best to safeguard children is readily available to staff and parents. Knowledge about how to stay safe permeates the curriculum. Parents are very positive about how safe their children feel.
• The new leadership team commissioned an independent safeguarding audit before it took over the school. This identified some concerns, all of which have been dealt with effectively. Parents, pupils and staff recognise how much safer the environment is now. Knowing how to recognise risks and stay safe features strongly in the curriculum. For example, the dangers of drug and alcohol misuse are covered in a Year 6 science unit. Regular assemblies and notices around the school ensure that pupils know how to keep themselves safe. They are particularly knowledgeable about the risks associated with using the internet.
• Leaders work well with other agencies to ensure that pupils are kept safe. School staff chase up referrals to make sure that they are responded to in a timely manner and keep very detailed notes. Staff report safeguarding issues to the governing body on a regular basis. The link governor for safeguarding is proactive and visits the school regularly to ensure that safeguarding remains a priority.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• There is too much variability in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment overall. As a result, rates of progress vary across and within year groups, so pupils do not always make the progress of which they are capable.
• Not enough teaching is well matched to pupils’ needs. Teachers are beginning to use assessment information more effectively, but pupils are still being given tasks that do not take into account their starting points. Tasks are therefore occasionally too hard, and more often too easy, presenting pupils with little or no challenge. This hinders progress.
• Leaders have introduced a range of strategies to support teaching that have proven highly effective in other schools. Where teachers have adopted them, there has been a notable impact on how well lessons proceed. However, the use of these strategies is still inconsistent and so the effect on pupils’ outcomes remains limited.
• It is clear, through looking at work in pupils’ books, that progress for many has improved considerably since the new leadership took over. This is because expectations of what pupils can achieve are higher and stronger links between subjects support pupils’ understanding. Work in English is now often based on a high-quality book which gives pupils a focus and something concrete to write about.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities now receive effective support to make good progress. This is resulting in pupils catching up lost ground, in some cases to reach national standards, particularly in Years 5 and 6.
• Reading is promoted effectively for the most able pupils, including most-able disadvantaged pupils, particularly in Years 5 and 6. They read with fluency and use a range of strategies to make sense of unfamiliar words, for example ‘constellation’. They understand the importance of reading regularly and are grateful for the opportunities they get to read at school every day. These most able pupils are self-motivated and so also read at home.

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 do not have a solid understanding of what helps them learn. Many are still not self-motivated learners, relying heavily on adults helping them even with basic tasks. For example, in some lessons, pupils just gave up and waited for the teacher rather than trying to use prompts or written instructions to help them complete tasks.
• As with other areas of the school’s work, the new leadership team is making sweeping changes to how it promotes pupils’ personal development and welfare. For example, the recently introduced ‘worry boxes’ in key stage 2 and ‘worry monsters’ in key stage 1, which allow pupils to report any concerns in confidence, are proving very popular. Pupils say that they think these are a really good idea as they help them feel safe.
• Leaders have also introduced counselling for pupils who experience emotional difficulties. They plan to extend this for those who have significant needs. A specialist ‘nurture’ unit where pupils will be supported to develop their emotional well-being, confidence and inter-personal skills, as well as manage negative feelings, is in place to open very shortly after this inspection.
• Pupils report that bullying has reduced dramatically. One pupil went so far as to say that Broadmead is now a ‘bully-free zone’. Pupils have a good understanding of different types of bullying and are very clear that actions have to be persistent to be classed as bullying. They say that incidents are now dealt with promptly and effectively. Some parents still have concerns about bullying, but many recognise the positive changes that the new leadership has brought about.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe. They appreciate the lessons and assemblies on ‘stranger danger’, road safety and what to do in the event of a fire. They are particularly knowledgeable in how to stay safe in the virtual world. They are absolutely clear that you must never give out your personal details nor click on or open any unknown sites or programmes. They are also aware that you must take heed of how age appropriate site content is.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Pupils are not responding fully to the new system designed to encourage positive attitudes to learning, despite it being used consistently by all staff. Consequently, pupils do not always apply themselves to their work with focus. At times, their behaviour in lessons can distract others. This hampers progress. During the inspection, there were pupils off task in every year group, although not in every class.
• Absence figures are higher than average, and some groups have high rates of persistent absence. Leaders acknowledge this and have begun work to improve attendance rates, which has met with a measure of success. However, they know that there is more to do.
• Pupils report that behaviour in the playground has improved. They say that there is very little rough play and that adults deal with any issues far more appropriately. They perceive this to be fairer and say that, because flouting rules of conduct is now taken more seriously, this acts as a deterrent and incidents have decreased. Behaviour logs support this assertion. Previous high rates of exclusion have reduced significantly.
• In their conduct around the school, pupils are considerate and respectful. They regularly open doors for adults and walk quietly when others are working. This is because staff are more vigilant and have higher expectations of conduct and there is a strong emphasis on values and good manners.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Progress is variable across the school, resulting in variable attainment. Some pupils make the progress needed to reach national standards whereas others do not. For example, not enough pupils made the necessary progress to convert from their early years scores to the expected standard or greater depth across key stage 1 last year, especially in mathematics.
• Progress across the course of this academic year in books is also inconsistent, with some pupils making good progress and others making far less than that.
• Despite improving at a faster rate than the national average, standards in phonics remain low, especially by the end of Year 2. One of the inspectors read with some of the pupils who had failed to reach the expected standard. She found that they do not have sufficiently good skills to read with fluency. In other words, their lack of phonic awareness is preventing them from becoming accomplished readers.
• The pupil premium funding is used effectively to ensure that there is little in-school variation between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. Leaders recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that disadvantaged pupils catch up with other pupils nationally. This is a key focus in their improvement plans. Initiatives that have a proven track record are already in place to accelerate progress for this key group.
• The progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has improved considerably in the last few months. This is because the new leadership team has evaluated these pupils’ needs and starting points and put in place more focused support.
• Progress in reading improved across key stage 2 so that, by the end of Year 6 in 2016, it matched national averages. The previous year, progress had been significantly below the national figure. Progress in mathematics also improved and was significantly above average. Progress in writing was in line with national figures in both 2015 and 2016. However, pupils’ starting points into key stage 2 were significantly lower than average. Consequently, too few pupils reached the academic levels needed to be fully prepared for secondary school.
• There are clear signs, in books and from leaders’ evaluations, that progress is improving rapidly for many pupils since the arrival of the new headteacher and her team. This is enabling more pupils to catch up with national standards. Leaders’ assessment information indicates that standards will be higher this year than in 2016 across the school. However, there has not been enough time to ensure that they rise sufficiently to meet national averages.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception has been well below average since the academy opened. Any rises seen did not keep pace with the rising national picture. Although children’s starting points are low, this still did not represent sufficient progress for many.
• The quality of teaching has not been good enough over time to secure strong outcomes for children. Work in books shows that for the first two terms of this year, many children were being asked to complete very mundane, repetitive tasks that did not usually match their needs.
• All children, including the most able and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, were often given the same tasks. There was therefore no challenge for the most able. Lower ability children did not have the necessary skills and knowledge to complete tasks. This was indicated with a neutral or sad face drawn in their books time after time.
• The trust benefits from highly skilled early years specialists who visit regularly to share their expertise. This is helping to rapidly improve the quality of teaching in the early years at Broadmead.
• Staff are responding very positively to the guidance these experts provide. Early signs show that many staff now interact effectively with children to move their learning on by asking relevant questions and providing judicious prompts. These developments are at an early stage, but are showing clear signs of accelerating children’s progress.
• During observations, inspectors saw some effective activities on offer that engaged children’s interest and helped them sustain learning for extended periods of time. Both the indoor and outdoor learning environments were being used well.
• Work in books shows that progress, which was often very slow at the start of the year, is now improving significantly because children are being given more meaningful work. For example, children were keen to practise their phonic skills when writing about ‘The Gruffalo’ after having read the book in depth.
• Leadership of early years is currently being developed. Leaders have an accurate view of what is working well across the phase. Plans for further development are coherent and tightly focused. Leaders have checked that all statutory welfare requirements are being met.
• Safeguarding is equally effective in early years as in the rest of the school. Children have particularly benefited from the recent improvements to the school site, such as higher fencing and electronic gates which make access far more secure.
• Children are responding really well to the new behaviour system. They are excited about moving up the ‘green triangle’ and receiving awards for their efforts. Staff are skilled at giving specific praise so that children know what they are good at.
• The vast majority of children in the early years respond well to teachers’ instructions, so that learning time is used well. For example, they tidy up quickly and wait sensibly for their parents to collect them at home time.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140840 Croydon 10031679 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 532 Appropriate authority The Pioneer Academy Trust Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Doug Robinson (chair of governors and trustee) Sarah Hunter 020 8684 4003 https://thepioneeracademy.co.uk/croydon/primary/broadmead Email address sbasu@broadmead.croydon.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Broadmead is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• Having opened as an academy in 2014, the school was transferred by the Department for Education to the sponsorship of another academy trust, The Pioneer Academy Trust, in April 2017. In the period preceding the transfer, there was significant staff turbulence, with a series of different headteachers and a rapid turnover of teaching staff.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is nearly twice the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than average, although fewer pupils have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan than is the case nationally.
• Nearly nine out of 10 pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. This is much higher than the national average. The largest groups are those of Black Caribbean and Black African descent.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is double the national average. A number of these pupils are at an early stage of learning English.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress by the end of Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about governors on its website.
• The school does not comply with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish about local governance.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in all classes. A number of these observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, the trust’s chief executive officer, the chair of governors and senior and middle leaders, both from the school and from across the trust, as well as members of staff including teachers at the early stages of their career.
• The inspection team looked carefully at work in books from each phase, including early years.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide selection of documents including those relating to safeguarding and child protection, the school’s self-evaluation and improvement planning, information about pupils’ achievement, attendance figures and logs of behavioural incidents and exclusions.
• Inspectors listened to a range of pupils read and had both formal and informal discussions with pupils about learning, behaviour and safety.
• The inspection team took account of the 26 responses to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, as well as the comments left on the free-text facility. Inspectors also spoke to parents informally at the beginning and end of the school day.

Inspection team

Jeanie Jovanova, lead inspector Roger Easthope Chris Birtles Lisa Farrow

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector