Hartley Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ progress and attainment, and their attentiveness in lessons, by increasing the level of challenge in learning activities for all pupils, but most particularly for pupils with high prior attainment and pupils in Year 1.
• Improve leadership and management further by:
  • sharpening school self-evaluation so that it is precise in checking the impact of the school’s work on outcomes
  • putting the information from self-evaluation to use in rigorous planning designed to raise these outcomes
  • embedding the leadership structures recently put in place and evaluating their effectiveness.
• Ensure that the school’s broad curriculum is well designed so that pupils can make sustained progress across each of the subjects and that staff know clearly how well the pupils are achieving.
• Work with parents to improve their engagement and satisfaction. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium funding should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The headteacher – working with senior leaders and the executive headteacher – shows quiet determination and clear moral purpose. The school has been through some rapid changes in leadership. Leaders have now placed it on a firmer and calmer footing. Staff feel trusted and well supported. This stability is enabling clear and gradual improvements.
• Leaders’ evaluation of the school is frank and, in many respects, accurate. For example, they know key strengths and weaknesses in teaching. However, typically, leaders do not check carefully that their actions have had the intended impact on pupils’ learning. They have, in some respects, an overly positive view of the school’s performance. As a consequence, development planning is not as sharp and rigorous as it could be.
• Leaders have recently improved the systems to assess how well pupils are doing in English and mathematics. This information shows that further improvement is needed. Leaders and staff have discussed methods to help bring about these improvements.
• Leaders cannot show clearly how well pupils are learning in subjects other than English and mathematics as the school’s systems to check this are not yet well developed. The school’s expectations for progression of knowledge and skills in each subject are not clearly defined.
• Partly to address this, senior leaders are starting to build effective teamwork and greater accountability among the large staff. Many staff members now hold new positions of responsibility following recent restructuring. While they are carrying out their freshly defined roles thoughtfully and energetically, their work is at an early stage. As they say, ‘This is all new!’
• Leaders ensure that staff receive useful guidance and training to support their professional development. However, their checks on the impact of such training on the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning are not rigorous enough.
• Senior leaders have introduced some effective management systems and the school operates efficiently from day to day.
• Leaders manage the performance of staff correctly – and use external consultancy productively – though not yet to the point where the school is good.
• The mentoring and professional development for newly qualified teachers are well structured and help these staff to make a sound start to their teaching careers.
• Rightly, leaders have recently started some constructive work to improve pupils’ reading. Staff aim increasingly carefully for pupils to be clear in their comprehension, refer correctly to texts and make sensible deductions from what they read.
• Leaders ensure that there is a broad curriculum. Pupils like all the different subjects that they study and the many valuable visits out of school. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of British values are effectively promoted.
• The school offers a popular range of clubs and activities out of school hours, which help to motivate and enthuse pupils.
• The school’s use of pupil premium funding has had some positive influence on pupils’ learning. However, the responsible leaders cannot demonstrate clearly enough that the funding is targeted specifically enough towards the needs of disadvantaged pupils. Overall, leaders overestimate the impact of this expenditure.
• Sports premium funding is well spent. Many pupils participate in sporting activity outside school hours. They also enjoy and benefit from the provision within school time.
• Provision and funding for pupils with SEND and for those who speak English as an additional language are well managed. The pupils concerned often make stronger progress than other pupils in the school.
• Parents have differing views of the school. Some are delighted, while others are less impressed. Many of those who responded during the inspection consider that leaders can seem remote. They feel that they do not receive as much information about the performance of the school – and their children’s learning – as often or as quickly as they would like.

Governance of the school

• The local governing body is active and well organised. It works constructively with senior leaders and supports their work in promoting improvement. Governors know the school closely through regular visits, discussions with staff and reports. They ask challenging questions of senior leaders. They show proper concern about improving the quality, challenge and impact of teaching. Governors are reflective on their own practice and are readily able to analyse and adapt their own work. They see the need to be more robust in analysing the impact of pupil premium expenditure. However, until the inspection, they were not aware of the negative views of the school among some parents.
• Local governors work effectively with academy trust members. Together, they ensure that the school is getting better. They effectively promote the strong values set by the trust. They ensure efficiently that safeguarding and all other requirements are properly met.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Pupils are safeguarded well. The school’s culture of safety is very solid. Pupils explain how to keep themselves safe, including when on the internet. Staff are regularly and well trained in what to do to protect their pupils. Child protection policies and procedures are well established and effectively carried out. The school recruits adults with care, correctly applying processes to ensure that they are suitable to work with children. Risk assessments are made for activities on- and off-site. The school site is suitably secure. Parents comment positively on the school’s safeguarding practice.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching is not challenging enough. Often, the work teachers set for pupils is too easy. This happens because the school’s curriculum plans do not provide enough guidance to staff about what they should expect in the different subjects.
• In Year 1, the tasks set by staff for pupils are often notably less difficult than the activities the same pupils did when they were in Reception. Some parents have noticed this. Across the school, pupils with high prior attainment are too often not well challenged, which means that they do not achieve as well as they might.
• Senior leaders have recently introduced published schemes of work to provide additional structure for what pupils learn in English and mathematics. This has had some positive effect, especially when teachers use these resources carefully to meet the assessed needs of the pupils. At times, however, teachers deploy the resources less well, not setting tasks consistently at the right level of difficulty for pupils.
• Staff do not routinely enough check pupils’ understanding to identify misconceptions and correct errors.
• The teaching also demonstrates some strengths. Teachers’ questioning of pupils is often very effective in helping pupils to think more deeply. They give clear explanations to pupils. Staff often help pupils to develop their vocabulary and spoken English well. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive.
• The school is developing a system where teachers have opportunities to work directly alongside each other. This is beginning to show benefits in helping staff to think about and develop their practice. Particular efforts are being made to provide additional staffing in Year 6, with some positive impact on the teaching and expectations in that year.
• Teaching assistants are skilled and effectively deployed, particularly to support the learning of pupils with SEND, pupils with low attainment and pupils who speak English as an additional language.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils feel well cared for in school. They are confident and happy, showing good levels of well-being.
• Pupils understand key aspects of healthy living and how to stay safe when out and about or online.
• The school provides good pastoral care for pupils who require extra support or who are vulnerable. It works well with external agencies. Parents are usually appropriately and productively involved by staff in these cases, although some feel that the school does not communicate closely enough with them on such matters.
• Bullying is unusual and is well dealt with by staff. Pupils are trained to help with this.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. In lessons in which they are not well challenged or engaged by staff, they become frustrated and lose interest. Pupils – including pupils with high prior attainment – are often kept waiting while others finish work. This is wasteful of time.
• Pupils are generally polite, confident and happy in school. They usually work and play together thoughtfully and safely.
• The incidence of playtime quarrels has reduced in the last year. However, some parents and pupils point to examples where some unkind or boisterous behaviour among pupils has been allowed to persist for too long.
• Pupils usually move around the school sensibly and safely. Just occasionally, however, they make excessive noise, which can make it hard for staff to be heard.
• Attendance is in line with the national average and is notably improving. No particular groups of pupils demonstrate low attendance. The school has developed some productive links with families to reduce absence, including persistent absence. Staff make popular awards to classes and pupils to recognise high attendance.
• The rate of pupil exclusions is low. Any exclusions are correctly managed.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In Years 1 and 2, pupils make less progress than they could. In both year groups, for example, pupils’ writing develops only gradually. Their use of grammar, punctuation and spelling is not as strong as it should be.
• A broadly average proportion of Year 1 pupils reached the expected standard in the 2018 phonics screening check, although fewer than average could answer the more difficult questions.
• In 2018, Year 2 pupils’ national results were notably below average in reading and writing, but broadly average in mathematics. Few pupils achieved greater depth in any subject, and none did so in writing.
• By Years 5 and 6, pupils’ writing is interesting to read, with strong content, but it also contains too many technical errors. In some cases, pupils’ handwriting is weak, with letters incorrectly formed. Pupils’ progress in reading and mathematics also improves in key stage 2, but attainment is below where it should be.
• In Year 6 in 2018, pupils’ attainment was significantly below average in English and mathematics, most particularly in reading. The pupils who read to inspectors showed mixed levels of proficiency. Their attainment requires improvement.
• In some cases, pupils’ knowledge of phonics is not strong enough to enable them to read their books successfully. The reading books they use from class libraries do not always match their needs. Pupils demonstrate varied levels of enjoyment and comprehension in reading.
• Pupils’ achievement across other subjects is mixed. For instance, pupils sang with great enthusiasm in an assembly, but not accurately. Pupils demonstrate some strong understanding of different world religions and their importance. Overall, the school cannot say accurately how well pupils are doing in subjects other than English and mathematics.
• Pupils with high prior attainment typically do not do as well as they should. They often do much the same work as all pupils, without having suitable opportunities to extend their thinking and learning.
• Although some disadvantaged pupils make strong progress, overall, they are not making the progress of which they are capable, as is true for all pupils.
• Pupils who start the school at an early stage of speaking English as an additional language are well supported and usually are quickly able to access lessons with other pupils.
• Pupils with SEND also achieve suitably, with the help of increasingly well-managed provision and support.
• Pupils usually transfer successfully and happily to secondary education.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• From their starting points, children do not make good enough progress. By the end of the Reception Year, a below-average proportion of children reach a good level of development.
• Although adults explain things well and question the children helpfully, they do not make or use assessments well enough to provide focused learning activities for individuals or groups of pupils. This means that children do not consistently and quickly enough make the progress of which they are capable.
• The early years setting is led and managed soundly in many respects. Staff have made valuable use of external advice and the provision has improved recently. However, the weaknesses in assessment – and the need to raise children’s attainment – have not been sufficiently recognised or addressed.
• The Nursery and Reception classes are stimulating and interesting places for children to learn, indoors and out. The children take part in a wide range of activities. They work and play productively together, make choices and develop positive attributes, such as confidence, concentration and perseverance.
• As a result, children have some useful skills to take into Year 1. However, the transition into Year 1 and the sharing of assessment information between staff in the different phases are not well enough managed to ensure that the learning from Reception is well built on in Year 1.
• There is limited evidence of effective engagement with parents. Parents have little opportunity to contribute to the assessments of their children’s progress.
• The teaching and learning of phonics in the early years are strong.
• Children with SEND are provided for suitably. They make sound progress.
• Children are properly safeguarded. They feel safe, secure and confident in early years classes.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 142708 Newham 10058815 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 converter 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 896 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Rev Dr Susan Lucas Leilah McClay 020 8472 2523 www.hartley.newham.sch.uk info@hartley.lihtrust.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Hartley is a very large primary school with a nursery, serving an east London suburb. This is its first inspection since it converted to academy status within the Learning in Harmony Trust in 2016.
• The trust board holds the formal responsibility for the governance of the school. In practice, much of that accountability is taken by the local governing body, which includes trust, parent, staff and community representatives.
• Leaders and staff receive advice and support from an education consultancy, which are procured by the academy trust.
• The school serves an ethnically diverse pupil population. Most pupils are from Asian heritages – Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi.
• Approximately one in every five pupils is considered disadvantaged and entitled to pupil premium funding. This proportion is close to the national average.
• A very high proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language. Many join the school in different year groups at an early stage of learning English.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND – as assessed by the school – is about average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed lessons across all year groups and many subjects, often jointly with senior leaders. They made observations around the school before and after the school day, at break and lunchtimes and during an assembly.
• They evaluated pupils’ work in all year groups. With senior leaders, they carried out extensive scrutiny of samples of work from Years 2 and 6.
• They held discussions with the headteacher, executive headteacher, senior and middle leaders, governors and many members of staff. They met with the chief executive officer and representatives of the academy trust, as well as consultants supporting the school.
• They met with several groups of pupils formally and informally, and heard pupils from Years 1, 2 and 4 read.
• Inspectors evaluated documents, including the school’s strategic plans and evaluations, assessments of pupils, pupil premium information, records of attendance and behaviour, and minutes of governors’ meetings.
• They took account of the views of parents from the 45 responses – including written comments – on Parent View. They also met with parents and took account of a parent questionnaire used by the school. They analysed the opinions of 77 members of staff and a small number of pupils from confidential questionnaires.

Inspection team

Robin Hammerton, lead inspector James Hollinsley Dawn Titus Ellie Whilby

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector