Uphall Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve teaching, learning and assessment so that all pupils receive the highest quality of education, by:
  • ensuring that phase and year group leaders have the skills and expertise to improve the quality of teaching and the accuracy of teacher assessment
  • developing teachers’ subject knowledge so that most-able pupils are routinely challenged
  • making sure that phonics and reading are taught to a high standard systematically and consistently
  • checking pupils’ progress routinely and identifying where improvements are needed.
• Improve communication between the school and pupils and parents so that the whole school community can contribute their views to improve the school.
• Improve children’s outcomes in the early years provision, by:
  • ensuring that learning outdoors interests and challenges children and that adults promote children’s progress
  • ensuring that teaching in all areas of learning is routinely good.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders and governors have been distracted by recent changes to the school. Increased pupil numbers, an extensive building programme and high staff turnover have all contributed to a period of instability. During this time, pupils have not made strong progress. However, since the beginning of this academic year, leaders and governors have taken appropriate actions to reverse this trend.
• Senior leaders expect phase and year group leaders to routinely gather assessment information to help them monitor pupils’ progress. This information is not reliable enough. It does not help to identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding across all subjects.
• Leaders provide a programme of professional development which staff appreciate. Those new to the school receive induction in all relevant areas, including in safeguarding. Leaders set ambitious targets for staff as part of their performance management arrangements; these high expectations are not currently reached.
• Funding for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is used appropriately to support their learning. Leaders make sure that staff who support eligible pupils are well trained. Governors and leaders ensure that the pupil premium funding is used to support the learning of disadvantaged pupils. The funding pays for additional support, including to help pupils settle who join the school part way through the year. This focused approach is starting to have a positive impact on the outcomes for those pupils who are disadvantaged.
• Governors and leaders ensure that the sports premium funding is used appropriately to improve physical education and sport and encourage pupils to adopt healthy lifestyles.
• Leaders provide a curriculum that is broad and relevant to pupils’ interests and has a positive impact on pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to learning. Pupils enjoy learning Spanish and gain confidence in the language. This is because they learn new vocabulary, new grammatical skills and practise the spoken language regularly. Following a review, leaders have increased the time for teaching science and ensured that the science curriculum is wide-ranging.
• Leaders make effective provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils learn about other faiths and beliefs, fostering respect for and an appreciation of different cultures and ways of life.
• Leaders make sure that the curriculum includes exciting trips providing memorable experiences. An exhibition of pupils’ artwork was inspired by a visit to the National Gallery. Other visits enrich pupils’ experience of the wider world, deepening their knowledge and understanding of aspects of science, religious education, history and geography. Leaders make sure that the curriculum includes regular planned opportunities to promote pupils’ understanding of life in modern Britain.

Governance of the school

• In the past, vacancies on the governing body have meant that too much responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of a few governors. Recent recruitment successes have strengthened the governing body.
• Written records of recent meetings show that governors hold leaders to account. They expect phase and subject leaders to attend meetings to discuss their areas of responsibility. This has further sharpened governors’ ability to challenge leaders about teaching, learning, assessment and pupils’ outcomes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders ensure that new staff are trained well and kept up to date with changes in legislation and procedures.
• All recruitment checks are thorough and meet requirements. Leaders follow up individual concerns methodically. They have established good links with other agencies, including the local authority.
• Governors take their safeguarding responsibilities seriously. They keep up to date with their training and receive appropriate information about any matters of a safeguarding nature.
• Pupils feel safe in school. They know how to keep themselves safe. Pupils understand the implications of online bullying and spoke confidently about what to do if they ever encountered any problems. Pupils said that if they were worried about anything, they would speak to a teacher.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching is uneven across the school due, in part, to recent high staff turnover. Teacher subject knowledge varies. Typically, it is not secure enough to broaden and deepen pupils’ understanding of new skills and concepts, particularly for most-able pupils and in science and reading.
• Teachers’ expectations of what the most able pupils can achieve lack ambition. The work teachers set keeps most-able pupils occupied but does not stretch their thinking or deepen their understanding. In writing, teachers use a range of resources, apply stronger subject knowledge and make more effective use of assessment to find out what pupils know, understand and can do than in other subjects. As a result, pupils’ outcomes are stronger in writing than in reading.
• In response to the variability in teaching, leaders have put in place measures designed to improve the quality to typically good. They have set expectations for planning and for assessing how well pupils make progress in lessons. However, this is at an early stage and these changes are not routinely applied across all classes.
• The teaching of phonics lacks coherence. The school uses two different schemes to teach phonics, with a third about to be introduced, leading to a confused approach. Although the library is well stocked with books which interest pupils, texts to whet the appetite of the most fluent and able readers are scarce. Some pupils are given books to read which are too easy for them, slowing their progress. Teachers do, however, ensure that reading has a high profile. They make sure pupils have regular opportunities to practise reading, including, for example, in science and the creative curriculum.
• The teaching of mathematics is better than it is for reading. Pupils’ work in mathematics books and work on display shows that the teaching of mathematics is systematic and enables pupils to make progress in clearly identified steps. However, mathematics teaching does not currently support pupils to gain deeper knowledge and understanding.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils are keen to learn and be part of their school community. Pupils in Year 6 spoke with enthusiasm about the numerous trips and visits they have enjoyed over recent years. Those relatively new to the school spoke about first-day nerves and about how welcome they were made to feel by pupils and staff alike. Pupils show pride in representing their houses at sports day.
• The school’s curriculum provides extensive opportunities for pupils to develop their social and personal skills. Through learning about other faiths, pupils respect the rights of others to hold different views. The extended curriculum, including residential trips, develops pupils’ personal qualities and enables them to work and solve problems together. Pupils respect each other. They are appreciative of the opportunities their school provides.
• Pupils expressed clear views about how, for example, playtimes might be improved. Parents who spoke to inspectors or who responded to the online survey were generally positive about the support provided by staff. The more negative responses were about the frequent changes in teaching staff, and the quality and frequency of communication between school and home.
• School leaders take their responsibilities for pupils’ welfare seriously. In some cases, and where needed, this care and attention extends to the family.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils behave well in class and around the school. They move around the school sensibly and, after breaktimes, they return to class promptly and without disruption.
• Leaders have been effective in improving attendance. They have worked with parents and developed a shared understanding of the importance of coming to school regularly. Attendance overall is now broadly in line with the national average. Leaders work in partnership with other agencies, including the local authority, to reduce absence even further.
• A small number of parents and pupils said that bullying was not dealt with swiftly enough. Inspectors followed up these concerns in conversations with pupils, parents and leaders. Leaders take incidents of poor behaviour and bullying seriously. They keep appropriate records, although they do not analyse the information precisely enough to identify particular patterns or trends. Inspectors noted that each class has a ‘worry box’ where pupils can write about their concerns. The school counsellor is available to talk to pupils. Leaders also ensure that pupils are taught coping strategies, including how to respond to behaviours they do not like. Pupils appreciate these opportunities and make use of them as they see fit.
• Pupils are polite and friendly. Relationships between pupils and staff are warm and respectful. Overall, this creates a friendly, calm and orderly environment. Pupils’ good behaviour around the school is promoted effectively by unobtrusive, but vigilant, supervision from staff.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Inconsistencies in pupils’ progress over the last two years have resulted in low attainment by the end of key stage 2 including for those pupils who are disadvantaged. Provisional outcomes for 2018 suggest that this decline has slowed and is beginning to reverse.
• Over the same period, in key stage 1, most pupils reach age-related expectations and the proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching greater depth has steadily risen.
• In 2017, the proportion of pupils who reached the expected standard in the phonics screening checks for Years 1 and 2 was below the national average. The school’s provisional information about the 2018 Year 1 screening check suggests an improving picture. However, there remain variations between the outcomes reached in different classes.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make progress from their starting points because of appropriate support for individuals and groups.
• Records of pupils’ progress and attainment and work in pupils’ books show that there are significant differences across subjects and between classes in the same year groups.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Children start the Reception Year with skills below those typical for their age. In 2017, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development was just above that found nationally. This followed two years of below-average results. The school’s provisional assessment information for 2018 suggests that the proportion of children who reached a good level of development was slightly below the average for 2017.
• The quality of teacher assessment is not effective enough in finding out what children know and can do. Some activities are too challenging and others too easy. Leaders ensure that teachers plan together, taking turns to lead on specific areas, but the planned activities for the outdoor spaces do not match the quality of those indoors.
• In the Nursery and Reception classes, children develop physical strength and dexterity through creative and physical activities, as well as through reading, writing and mathematics. Visitors to the school and visits to places of interest enrich the education provided.
• As in the main school, phonics is not taught systematically, and varies too much in delivery between classes. Writing, however, is well taught. Children write clearly, forming their letters evenly. Children, who were writing about the sea, wrote freely and at length, reading back their work. They were rightly proud of their writing, aesthetically enhanced by their seashell-themed notepaper.
• The school works in positive partnership with parents in the early years. Parents are involved in reading with their children, and appreciate the information sent home about learning and their children’s well-being.
• Staff are appropriately trained and hold relevant qualifications, such as those required for paediatric first aid.
• Children behave well. They play together, share equipment and resources with one another and tidy up when asked to do so. They use the available space outdoors and engage with the activities on offer.
• The outdoor provision is safe, spacious and well resourced; activities are plentiful. However children’s opportunities to learn new skills and refine established ones are limited because activities are not sufficiently focused or demanding.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 102819 Redbridge 10047614 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 Number of pupils on the school roll Maintained 3 to 11 Mixed 1045 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Hilary Kundu Sherlyn Ramsay 020 8478 2993 www.uphallprimary.co.uk admin@uphallprimary.co.uk Date of previous inspection 8–9 July 2014

Information about this school

• Uphall Primary School is a much larger than average primary school.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is above that found nationally.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below that found nationally.
• Pupil mobility is high. On average, one in four of the current pupils joined the school after the Reception Year.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching, learning and assessment across year groups. They also undertook joint observations with senior leaders.
• They talked to pupils, and children in the early years, during lessons and at breaktimes. They listened to pupils read. They spoke to parents at the beginning of the school day and also during sports day.
• Inspectors spoke to the headteacher, senior leaders, staff, governors and a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors took account of the 23 responses to the staff survey and 27 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View. There were no responses to the Ofsted pupil survey.
• Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documents, including records relating to behaviour and attendance, minutes of governing body meetings, information about pupils’ progress, the school’s own self-evaluation, and externally commissioned reviews.
• Inspectors scrutinised work in pupils’ books from Years 2 to 6. They also reviewed books during visits to classes.

Inspection team

Jane Moon, lead inspector Helen Matthews Jonathan Newby Rekha Bhakoo

Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector