Holbeach Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Build on the existing good practice, by expecting even more of the pupils, so that their achievements become outstanding in a wide range of areas. Examples of this include: 
  • enabling pupils to take their learning in lessons still further, to higher levels, where this is possible
  • broadening and increasing the challenge of the repertoire in singing
  • raising further the profile of computing, the difficulty of tasks, and pupils’ use of computers and technology across the curriculum.
• Improve quickly the teaching, and pupils’ understanding, of phonics in Years 1 and 2.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders are aspirational for the pupils, across all subjects. The executive headteacher and head of school work together adeptly to ensure that pupils achieve high standards, are inspired and excellently cared for.
• The school has improved well since the last inspection. Leaders have ensured that the necessary improvements in mathematics have been securely made, while sustaining and building further the other strengths in the school. Parents are rightly pleased with how well this has been done.
• Leaders evaluate the school accurately. Their clear development plans help to make improvement happen efficiently and quickly.
• Senior leaders ensure that there is a highly engaging curriculum across all subjects. They are determined that all pupils, from whatever background, should achieve success. To this end, subject leaders are very influential. They each proactively set the standard in their subjects. The leader in art, for instance, guides staff so that pupils produce work of a high standard in many media.
• Each class topic helpfully starts with a visit out of school and concludes with a memorable experience. Pupils enjoy some wonderful moments. The school promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development very well. A parent spoke for many: ‘I believe that my children are very fortunate to experience the holistic approach of Holbeach School.’
• The school provides many very popular and inclusive out-of-school-hours activities. These build pupils’ enthusiasm for school and learning and promote high standards.
• The leaders for special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities and English as an additional language are thorough and sharp thinking. They ensure that the pupils’ needs are well met.
• Leaders ensure that the school prepares pupils very well for life in modern Britain. For example, because of well-developed teaching, pupils show real interest in, and good knowledge of, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Judaism.
• The local authority supports the school effectively. Senior leaders also make good use of evaluations and feedback from external consultants that they buy in.
• The school spends its pupil premium funding productively, in a wide range of areas. This meets the different needs of the relevant pupils.
• Sports funding is well spent. Pupils participate in a wide range of sporting activity and competition, in and out of lesson time.
• The school works effectively with parents. There is a very open, friendly culture. Nevertheless, a few parents would like information about school activities or their child’s progress earlier, or say that they have sometimes found it difficult to get enough time with the teachers or governors to discuss any concerns.
• Leaders have not given enough attention to developing phonics teaching in key stage 1.

Governance of the school

• The governing body took on board, thoughtfully, the recommendations of the review carried out after the last inspection. It has carefully improved its work and now does a good job.
• Governors helped ensure that, while the school successfully improved mathematics after the last inspection, it did not lose sight of the other subjects. Governors listen carefully to parents on this and other matters.
• The governing body covers all requirements. It oversees staff performance management thoroughly. Consequently, members of staff feel well supported and challenged by their managers to improve.
• Governors know the school well and, in most respects, properly question and support senior leaders. However, they underestimated the importance of the relatively low outcomes in phonics at key stage 1 and, consequently, have not challenged leaders enough on that point.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Senior leaders are alert to any issues. Staff know the school’s thorough policy well and apply it thoroughly. They are well trained and confident to deal with child protection concerns. When these arise, the school manages them well. Led by the chair, the governing body is meticulous in its oversight of safeguarding.
• Pupils feel safe and protected. The school’s main site is kept secure, as well as welcoming. At the off-site nursery, staff are equally careful to keep children safe.
• Staff assess risks thoroughly. Pupils learn about managing risk and keeping safe in school and when they are on the frequent educational visits, including residential visits.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Senior leaders and staff work together successfully to improve teaching. Staff are very open to ideas to improve or develop their practice. Pupils agree that ‘the teaching is getting better all the time’.
• Lessons are consistently purposeful and well organised, leading to pupils’ good learning. Teachers give clear explanations and show good subject knowledge. The school assesses pupils accurately. Increasingly, the staff use these assessments effectively to provide work which is matched to pupils’ needs.
• Many mathematics lessons now contain a hubbub of worthwhile learning tasks. In one lesson, pupils learned quickly when measuring accurately different classroom objects. Better teaching has improved pupils’ mathematical reasoning. Many parents comment positively on how enthused their children have become in mathematics.
• In a Year 3 art lesson, pupils were enthused by making and glazing high-quality clay models of Victorian houses, from plans in their sketch books. They were fascinated by the kiln and the way that the glaze changes colour when fired.
• The school uses homework well. Pupils do a range of interesting tasks, set flexibly to suit different family circumstances.
• Sometimes, pupils’ learning, while good, is not developed quite as far as it might be. For instance, in a literacy lesson, pupils practised their writing skills very usefully, but were ready to take their learning into greater depth and extend their understanding of more complex language.
• Phonics is less well taught than other aspects of reading in Years 1 and 2. Due to consistently below average outcomes in this, the school has given more lesson time to it. However, the teaching is not precise enough to help pupils to build a good understanding of specific letter sounds and blends, and how words are formed.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school's work to promote pupils' personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils willingly take on significant responsibility, for instance in raising money for charity or as school councillors. The school council makes important suggestions, and pupils know how they can influence it or speak to their class councillors to voice their opinions.
• Attendance is above average. Staff follow any undue pupil absences very quickly.
• Pupils understand very well how to keep themselves healthy and safe, including when online.
• Teaching and support staff go the extra mile to look out for pupils’ wellbeing. When any pupil becomes vulnerable in some way, the school works superbly, with parents and external agencies as needed, to manage the issues.
• The number of exclusions is low. Where these are made, the process is correct, and pupils are effectively re-integrated into the school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are polite, friendly, happy to be in school, suitably confident and keen to learn.
• Pupils work hard and engage well in lessons. They usually concentrate and are keen to help each other. They enjoy playing together and do so safely and thoughtfully.
• The grounds and buildings are excellently maintained. Pupils respect this, keep them tidy, and care for them.
• Pupils enjoy talking about their learning. They appreciate the lovely displays of their work (for instance, in history, design technology and art) which are all around the school. These help them to value what they have done. They present work neatly and with care.
• Bullying is very rare. Pupils and parents are pleased that any misbehaviour is dealt with quickly. Staff, including senior leaders, are keen to ensure that pupils are confident to report anything that concerns them.
• Occasionally, pupils lack some self-discipline when not directly supervised. For instance, in lessons, some may lose interest in the subject matter and start to fidget or chat.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In the 2017 national assessments, Year 6 pupils’ attainment and progress in mathematics, reading and writing were all notably above national and local averages. This represents a considerable improvement from 2016 in mathematics, where results were below average. Mathematics and English work in the current Years 5 and 6 shows that pupils are learning well.
• Pupils’ writing is of a good standard across the school. They write in different styles to suit different purposes and most use punctuation, grammar and spelling rules aptly.
• All groups of pupils, including boys and girls, disadvantaged pupils, those who have SEN and/or disabilities, or who speak English as an additional language, achieve well.
• Pupils attain highly across the curriculum. For instance, in music, they sing and play instruments, such as violins and steel pans, accurately and with control. Their ‘musical ear’ is good. The singing repertoire is mainly pop; this works well, and the pupils love it. They are ready, as leaders recognise, to enjoy singing other genres of music, and more difficult pieces, successfully.
• Pupils achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2. However, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils’ skills in phonics are not as strong as those in other parts of reading, such as comprehension. Pupils in these years who read to inspectors did so with enthusiasm. They enjoy books. They use some reading strategies successfully, such as recognising the shape of words, but some were hindered in reading fluently by not being secure on some letter sounds.
• In the national Year 1 phonics screening, there was some improvement in 2017 but the results were too low, given the good start these pupils had in the early years. Too few pupils could manage the more difficult blends of letter sounds.
• Pupils with high ability, in any subject, achieve well. The school recognises, nevertheless, that occasionally such pupils could do better still. This happens when the teaching, while helping them to make good progress, does not allow them to take their learning to the very highest level possible.
• Pupils willingly use computers. However, computing does not have quite as high a profile as other subjects and the school is rightly working to raise its status and standards further.
• Pupils are well prepared to move on to secondary school. One parent noted, with the agreement of others, that the broad curriculum at Holbeach means pupils are equipped to take good advantage of the secondary subject specialist teaching.

Early years provision Good

• Children thrive in Nursery and Reception. From a wide range of starting points, they quickly settle and make good progress. By age five, they reach above-average standards in all areas of the early years curriculum, including early literacy and numeracy. They are fully ready to learn well in Year 1.
• The early years classes are hives of well-arranged, purposeful activity. Teaching is good. Children enjoy challenging tasks which meet their needs closely. There are lovely learning environments, indoors and out. Pupils use this, and the readily accessible resources, inventively.
• Early phonics is consistently well taught in Nursery and Reception.
• Children quickly learn to concentrate for extended periods, to persevere, channel their enthusiasm, share and pose questions. They behave thoughtfully. In the nursery, for example, a boy and a girl were respectful of each other’s point of view when they both wanted to use a water sprayer.
• The leader for Nursery and Reception provides clear direction, expertise and motivation to the early years team. She is well supported by senior leaders.
• Staff use additional funding to address disadvantage wisely, as elsewhere in the school. The children concerned achieve well.
• Staff engage with parents suitably. One parent said of the early years, ‘I leave my children at school knowing that they will be well looked after and that they will have a positive story to tell about their day.’
• Children are correctly safeguarded in Nursery and Reception. They feel secure and proper arrangements are made to ensure their physical safety. For instance, when Reception children were very willingly tidying up, an adult was quick to ensure that they carried heavy wooden planks carefully.

School details

Unique reference number 100688 Local authority Lewisham Inspection number 10039201 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 489 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Val Edwards Executive headteacher Colleen Boxall Telephone number 020 8690 4713

Website www.holbeach.lewisham.sch.uk

Email address admin@holbeach.lewisham.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 9 December 2016

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This is a large primary school with an off-site part-time nursery. It is growing towards being fully three-form entry. There are three classes in each year from Reception to Year 2, and two classes in each of Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
• In 2016, the school met the floor standards, which are the government’s minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics. It is likely to do so under the new national assessment arrangements for 2017, once these are validated.
• The school’s pupils come from a diverse and rich range of backgrounds. The largest groups are White British, Black African and Black Caribbean.
• A larger than average proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The school works closely in a soft federation with a nearby primary school. The executive headteacher works across both schools.
• About two in every five pupils are entitled to the support of pupil premium funding. This is above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed lessons in all classes, some jointly with senior leaders. They observed around the school during play and lunchtimes, out-of-school-hours activities and during assemblies.
• They looked at samples of pupils’ work, particularly in mathematics.
• They held discussions with the headteacher, senior leaders, governors and many members of staff. They met with a representative of the local authority. They met with pupils formally and informally and heard pupils from Years 1, 2 and 4 read.
• Inspectors evaluated documents, including minutes of meetings, evaluations, the school development plan, assessments of pupils, and records of attendance and behaviour.
• They took close account of the views of parents from the 140 responses on Parent View, which is on Ofsted’s website. They met with parents. They analysed the opinions of staff, pupils and parents from confidential questionnaires.

Inspection team

Robin Hammerton, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Simon Knowles Ofsted Inspector Shaun Dodds Ofsted Inspector