Broadford Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that governors use what they know about the school more skilfully in deciding how effective the school is and challenging leaders, including when checking staff are clear about updates in statutory safeguarding guidance.
• Improve the quality of teaching further by:
  • providing more effective support for pupils as they develop their spelling, grammar and handwriting abilities
  • training teachers so that they possess consistently secure skills to include pupils with emotional and social needs in lessons more effectively
  • using information about pupils better to decide how to organise learning in lessons.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher and her senior colleagues are leading the school effectively during the current absence of the executive headteacher. They are ensuring that staff morale is high and parents are typically confident about the way the school is led.
• Leaders make sure that staff understand agreed approaches to teaching and are consistent in applying these. Subject leaders support this well and demonstrate a secure understanding of current pupils’ achievement. However, leaders have not managed to pick up on and improve some weaknesses in teachers’ work. As a result, these continue to restrict the progress some pupils are making.
• Leaders seek support and inspiration from outside the school to support improvement with good impact. For example, the peer mentoring group of local schools to which the school belongs has helped leaders develop a more consistent approach to ensuring that pupils learn to explain their mathematical reasoning.
• Leaders check on how well additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is being spent. They ensure that these pupils typically sustain progress from their starting points. However, they have not made sure that training for teachers is consistently effective in helping them support pupils who have social and emotional needs.
• The funding leaders and governors receive for disadvantaged pupils is used effectively to promote equality of opportunity. As a result, these pupils are able to participate fully in activities aimed at broadening their horizons. The use leaders make of funding and its positive impact on sustaining the good progress disadvantaged pupils make are well evaluated.
• The sport premium is focused on ensuring that pupils learn the importance of an active lifestyle to sustaining their health. Leaders have made sure that this funding is spent on the most urgent priorities for pupils in this school.
• Staff who spoke to inspectors, including teachers who are new to the profession, are positive about the support leaders give them in their professional development. They also appreciate the consideration which the senior leadership shows towards their welfare.
• The well-organised curriculum sets out clear intentions for learning across a range of subjects, which staff, pupils and parents understand. Leaders of subjects keep these under review so that they reflect the interests and needs of current pupils. For example, those responsible for leading the curriculum for computing make sure that older and most-able pupils are given effective opportunities to apply their skills to ‘debugging’ computer coding programs.
• Leaders ensure that pupils benefit from a well-planned programme of visits and talks aimed at helping them understand British culture and values in more depth. The school presents its own values as the ‘Four R’s’ of reciprocity, resilience, reflectiveness and resourcefulness. These are well understood by pupils and contribute well to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural education.

Governance of the school

• Governors systematically review the way they organise their own work. They seek the views of experts from beyond the school to help them decide how well leaders are doing. They visit the school regularly with a specific focus on their work in mind. However, despite this, they continue to hold an overgenerous opinion of the school’s effectiveness. This limits their ability to hold leaders fully to account and has contributed to the school’s decline since the last inspection.
• Governors work closely with leaders to check on safeguarding. They commit time to being involved with the local authority when they are asked to check on the school’s safeguarding procedures. However, this has not led them to insist that leaders ensure that staff have been promptly updated on recent changes to statutory guidance.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders keep well-organised and helpful records and use them to keep a close eye on how well vulnerable pupils are being supported.
• Staff share a secure understanding of how leaders expect them to be vigilant in noticing any signs of abuse and reporting concerns. They receive regular training and new staff are expected to gain familiarity with procedures as soon as they arrive. However, leaders accept that the timescale set to ensure that staff have understood changes to statutory guidance has been ill considered.
• Leaders have made sure that parents have someone they trust to raise concerns or talk over difficulties with. All parents who responded to the online Parent View survey agreed that pupils are safe at the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers expect pupils to work hard. They clearly explain what they intend pupils to learn in ways which pupils say they find easy to understand.
• Teachers and additional adults share a secure understanding of the ways leaders expect them to plan and organise lessons. However, they do not use assessment to reshape lessons consistently well when pupils need more challenge or support.
• Pupils benefit from teachers’ good knowledge of the way they learn to read and a consistent application of the agreed teaching policy.
• The writing teachers ask pupils to do reflects high expectations for content and progress. However, teachers are less successful in identifying and supporting pupils to improve their spelling, handwriting and grammar.
• In mathematics lessons, pupils are often challenged to explain their thinking, both orally and in writing. Teachers use questioning well to check pupils’ understanding.
• The teaching of other subjects is typically good. For example, older pupils are expected to express opinions for the reasons behind important historical events. In science lessons, teachers insist that the most able pupils use evidence from their investigations to justify their scientific ideas.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are taught well to improve their skills and knowledge. However, at times, teachers respond less effectively when they are upset and not ready to learn.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Parents and pupils are typically positive about welfare arrangements and the work of teachers to help pupils understand their rights and responsibilities.
• Pupils are taught thoroughly how to stay safe online. ‘Digital leaders’ present their ideas about e-safety to other pupils in assemblies. Leaders help parents with advice on how to set controls on electronic media to keep their children safe at home.
• Pupils are expected to take on responsibilities in school and contribute to the local community. However, some younger pupils found it hard to remember their part in some activities.
• Leaders ensure that risk assessments for activities and the premises are routinely carried out, including those related to the extensive building work currently under way on the school site.
• Pupils are well taught about respect and tolerance. They say discriminatory behaviour is very rare in school and leaders’ records confirm this.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Parents and staff typically agree that the school is a calm and friendly environment in which pupils can concentrate on learning.
• Pupils work hard in lessons and typically produce lots of written work. However, some of the work inspectors saw shows limitations in the pride some pupils have in their written work. This is because they are not helped sufficiently well to improve their handwriting.
• Teachers offer a wide range of incentives for pupils to behave positively towards some aspects of their learning. For example, pupils are rewarded for using the school library regularly. This is effective but sometimes limits the opportunities for the most able pupils to demonstrate self-reliance in their behaviour choices.
• Attendance over time is broadly average for similar schools.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The school does a good job of making sure that pupils sustain progress over time, from typically low starting points when they arrive, to reach the standards expected of them by the end of Year 6. Pupils, including those entitled to the pupil premium, are typically well prepared for the next stage of their education. However, pupils’ progress in applying their skills in spelling, grammar and handwriting to their extended writing is notably less consistent. This is also revealed in some pupils’ written work across a range of subjects.
• The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check is above the national average. Older and most-able pupils secure the skills they need to deepen their appreciation of books and to consider authors’ intentions.
• In mathematics, pupils’ work demonstrates that they typically develop confidence in tackling calculations using a range of methods. The most able pupils are typically able to write and talk confidently about their reasoning.
• There is no difference between the overall progress disadvantaged pupils make and that of other pupils. The effective use of additional funding diminishes differences in progress well.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make similar progress to others in subject skills and knowledge.
• Across the whole range of subjects taught, pupils sustain good progress.

Early years provision Good

• Most children arrive at the school at the beginning of the Reception Year. Their skills are much lower than those typical for their age. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development in 2018 was below the national average, although marginally higher than the 2017 outcomes. This still represents typically good progress from starting points.
• Leaders use advice and information well to secure improvement. They have adapted the outdoor area to improve opportunities for children to learn the physical skills they need to write. Regular training to ensure that teachers sustain their skills in helping children to read is effective because leaders monitor its impact well.
• Staff understand and apply assessment consistently to check children’s progress. However, although activities set up for children are well organised, teachers do not use what they know about children well enough when deciding what they intend different groups to learn.
• Children make strong, sustained progress in their personal and social development. This is because they are taught the school’s values and expectations promptly and in a way which they and their parents can understand. This leads to children developing a strong curiosity to try the activities on offer and to consistently good behaviour.
• Safeguarding in the early years is effective. Leaders make sure that staff keep a close eye on any concerns about children’s well-being. However, there is a current lack of confidence in understanding the changes in statutory safeguarding guidance.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 102317 Havering 10056711 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 Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 549 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Chris Kent Mrs Lois Nicholls 01708 342 880 www.broadford.havering.sch.uk/ office@broadford.havering.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 March 2014

Information about this school

• Broadford Primary School is larger than the average primary school. Since the last inspection, the school has entered a federation with Mead Primary School in Havering. The executive headteacher, who was not present in school at this inspection, has responsibility for both schools. The two schools share a governing body.
• The school is currently undergoing building work to accommodate an expansion in pupil numbers. There are currently three classes in most year groups, including Year 6.
• Pupils come from a wide range of ethnic groups. The majority are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils entitled to the pupil premium is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below average.
• The early years comprises a Nursery, where children attend part-time, and three Reception classes.

Information about this inspection

• Throughout the inspection, leaders worked with inspectors to conduct observations in lessons in all parts of the school. A wide range of pupils’ current work was scrutinised alongside the school’s curriculum plans.
• Inspectors held meetings with senior leaders and other leaders responsible for specific aspects of school provision. They met with a group of teachers and support staff.
• Inspectors also spoke to several school governors and two representatives of the local authority.
• A group of pupils from key stage 1 and key stage 2 met with inspectors to discuss the books they are currently reading and to express their views about the school.
• A wide range of documentation was considered, including records related to safeguarding, school improvement planning and the management of pupils’ behaviour.
• Inspectors considered 395 responses to the Parent View online survey, 38 written responses and other communications leaders had received in writing. Inspectors also considered 12 responses to the staff survey and two responses to the pupil survey.

Inspection team

Andrew Wright, lead inspector Simon Knowles Alison Martin

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector