Ivydale Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and learning so that pupils make faster progress to achieve higher academic standards in reading, writing and mathematics by:
  • ensuring that teaching is of high quality and teachers demand more of pupils
  • ensuring that planning takes full account of pupils’ starting points and learning activities reflect the abilities and needs of individuals and groups of pupils.
• Build on the strategies introduced to increase academic standards further by:
  • ensuring that systems for assessing and checking pupils’ work are robust
  • using findings from reviews to inform and improve teaching and learning.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The leadership team, staff and governors have skilfully moved the school forward following results in 2016 that they agree were disappointing. They have achieved this by implementing the strategies set out in the five-year school development plan.
• Since the last inspection, standards have been affected by high staff turnover and changes in the local children’s needs. For instance, more pupils require considerable pastoral support. In spite of these changes, leaders and governors have not wavered from maintaining a continuous focus on raising standards. These causes, and the lower than expected standards in 2016, led leaders to recognise that previous ways of working had to change: the new curriculum is more demanding.
• Senior leaders and the governors have taken swift and pre-emptive action to arrest any further decline in outcomes. For example, leaders use the additional funding effectively to provide mentoring support for pupils with specific learning and pastoral needs. Recent changes in teaching and in monitoring have led to pupils making much better progress.
• The leadership of teaching is more precise in ensuring that pupils use grammatical and technical features accurately. The school acknowledges that these weaknesses affected pupils’ outcomes in grammar, punctuation and spelling in 2016.
• Current assessment data in all year groups confirms that pupils are on track to meet the demands of the more challenging curriculum. For example, the school made good use of the 2016 papers to assess the progress pupils make towards meeting the demands of the new tests. The majority of the Year 6 pupils met the standards expected in reading, writing and mathematics with a minority reaching the higher standards. An experienced and external marker validated the writing test papers.
• Leaders have used commissioned reviews of the school’s work to highlight improvements made and identify next steps. For example, findings on teaching and learning, and provision for disadvantaged pupils, confirmed the accuracy of their evaluation.
• Senior leaders now focus more on raising standards and not solely on the new building work. A senior leader is responsible for leading on the building project, while other senior leaders devote their time and energy to school improvement. The reorganisation of the senior team has led to middle leaders having more delegated responsibilities. These key leaders make a large contribution to the school’s development. They provide good support to enable teachers to improve their teaching.
• Senior leaders are mindful that pupils’ backgrounds or starting points should not hinder their progress. Leaders use the additional funding well to tackle identified barriers to pupils achieving well. For example, gaps in pupils’ life experiences are addressed through enrichment activities and there is good attention to using external services to support pupils’ learning. Current reliable assessment of pupils’ rates of progress shows that pupils are now making better progress in reading, writing and mathematics compared with previous academic years. The difference between their performance and that of other pupils is diminishing at a much faster rate.
• The monitoring of teaching and learning, linked to staff appraisal and key priorities in the school development plan, is more rigorous. Senior and middle leaders check regularly on the quality of teaching and learning and provide developmental points on how teachers can improve. Feedback, however, is not well focused on pupils’ learning.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced and provides pupils with many opportunities to develop their basic skills in literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Pupils access a range of work to develop wider skills in mathematics through chess or learning a second language such as Mandarin. The strong emphasis on developing pupils’ knowledge of science, technology and engineering and mathematics, leads to pupils enjoying science as their favourite subject. In science, pupils demonstrate inquisitiveness during investigative work. Similarly, pupils spoke with enthusiasm about learning art and music, which provide them with openings to show their creative skills. Educational visits, enrichment activities and pupils’ interest in performances and art contribute very well to their personal development.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral social and cultural development is a strength of the school’s work, as is pupils’ understanding of British values. These are intertwined with the school’s values and ethos and lead to pupils demonstrating tolerance and respect for others, and readily distinguishing right from wrong. The diversity of the school population, combined with work covered on other cultures, gives pupils a very good foundation for understanding and enjoying life in modern Britain.
• The special educational needs funding is spent effectively to ensure pupils have the right resources and interventions to support their learning. Current information on the progress of these pupils shows that they are making good progress from low starting points.
• The school offers effective support to the very few children who are looked after and pupils in the alternative provision. Regular meetings with external services and professionals ensure that these pupils attend regularly and make at least expected progress.
• The additional funding for physical education and sport premium is used effectively to engage pupils in a range of sporting activities.
• The local authority’s light touch approach and challenging discussions with leaders provide additional evidence that the school is moving forward quickly.

Governance of the school

• The governors have a good understanding of what school effectiveness involves and bring strong sets of skills and expertise to their work. They have been instrumental in questioning senior leaders about the impact of their work. Consequently, they have focused on teaching and outcomes, and the progress of different groups of pupils such as those who are disadvantaged.
• Governors are astute in their planning. For example, they have used the restructuring of the senior leadership team to appoint an additional manager to oversee the school’s expansion programme.
• Governors have worked with the senior leaders to set out a detailed and well-considered school improvement plan. Measurable targets mean that governors have a detailed understanding of what the school should achieve over the next few academic years. Records of governors’ meetings, particularly over the last two terms, reveal a greater sense of urgency for outcomes to improve further.
• Members with specific responsibilities visit the school regularly and carry out focused information gathering so they are well informed about the quality of provision.
• Governors ensure that all committees are strongly led and safeguarding requirements are given a high priority.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The school is thorough in the way in which it secures the well-being of pupils in all phases. Leaders give the highest priority to child protection and ensure that they build mandatory practices into all aspects of safeguarding. Robust systems for checking employees are in place and ensure that pupils are free from harm.
• Regular training and refresher courses ensure that staff are up to date with the latest statutory guidance. They are confident about the actions they would take if a concern is passed on to them. Training is wide-ranging and covers regional and national priorities such as the ‘Prevent’ duty, child sexual exploitation and e-safety. Records show that leaders demonstrate a quick and highly responsive approach when dealing with safeguarding matters. They maintain very good links with the local authority safeguarding services and are attentive to advice on protecting pupils from harm.
• Established links with external services, including early help, mean that the attendance and welfare of pupils who attend the alternative provision is monitored regularly.
• The school makes sure that pupils know how to stay safe. Pupils can, should they wish, readily access support and help. Information about who to contact is prominently on display. In addition, the school curriculum provides pupils with insights about staying safe in and out of school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Over the last two years, high turnover in staffing has affected the quality of teaching, particularly at key stage 2. As a result, pupils in Years 5 and 6 had gaps in their learning. This has meant that their progress has not been as rapid as it should be. This prevents them from achieving more than the standard expected, based on their starting points.
• Pupils have tended to make slower progress because teachers do not move their learning on quickly to build on skills. Rather, pupils spend time practising the same skills repeatedly.
• Teachers set challenging work for pupils. However, they do not consistently provide pupils with sufficient support initially to work through the task. When this happens, pupils begin to flounder and lose interest. In these instances, answers are given and there is not a systematic approach to checking pupils’ grasp of their learning.
• Not all pupils have the understanding and appropriate strategy to deal with set challenges. When this happens pupils do not think deeply enough about their learning.
• Staff are effective in managing pupils’ behaviour and convey high expectations in class. Disruptions are rare.
• Pupils enter classrooms with stimulating displays that support their good working habits and love for learning. Pupils want to learn; they make good use of the inviting presentations and wide range of resources, such as word banks.
• The deployment of teaching assistants to work with a range of pupils is leading to pupils receiving relevant support. Pupils are not over-reliant on staff to do the work for them. Occasionally, not all teaching assistants keep to the school’s new approach for working with pupils.
• Typically, teachers’ good subject knowledge is a strength. They use their expertise well to work through and reinforce key skills. They also clarify misconceptions by probing pupils’ understanding. Teaching assistants use a similar approach as seen in their work with small groups of pupils. In all instances seen, pupils’ triumph at being successful was tangible when they understood and applied specific skills.
• In writing, teachers’ understanding of grammar means that they are more thorough in their approach to ensuring that pupils use technical features accurately. The teaching of phonics is very good, and leads to pupils becoming skilful readers. In Year 1, pupils use the taught skills accurately to spell compound words. Pupils say that their writing has improved because they are reading more.
• Structured and guided reading deepens pupils’ insight into understanding the writer’s purpose. However, pupils bemoan the loss of the school library to accommodate additional classes because they do not have a quiet space to read or the opportunity to access a wide range of books.
• Leaders’ actions to develop pupils’ understanding of problem solving and reasoning in mathematics is leading to pupils making better progress. Specialist teaching and the splitting of two classes into three means that pupils’ needs are better targeted. This enables pupils to master specific skills at a faster pace. This was evident in a Year 6 lesson in mathematics where pupils quickly moved on to grapple with work that was more complex and challenging.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The school’s inclusive ethos and values, and leaders’ investment in giving a high priority to pupils’ welfare, are strengths. These reflect the very positive views of most parents who reported to inspectors that pupils enjoy attending the school and are safe and happy. Parents say that the ‘school prepares pupils well for life and they demonstrate good social skills and can distinguish right from wrong’. Pupils show these skills daily in their trusting relationships with each other and with adults in the school.
• Pupils feel safe and well looked after in their school. They say that the visibility of staff and the high walls that enclose the school building give them an assured sense of security. Pupils use the strong pastoral systems extremely well. The ease of turning to staff who provide a quick response reassures pupils that they can trust and turn to an adult at any time. For example, they speak highly about the ‘listening post’, which they use to alert adults about their worries. Pupils say that this helps to solve their problems.
• Pupils of all abilities and stages are able to talk about staying safe. They take part in assemblies on e-safety and gain even more information about safeguarding matters. They have a good understanding of how to keep safe. This is because the school provides many opportunities for them to listen to expert advice in personal, social, health and citizenship education (PSHCE).
• Pupils very much enjoy their responsibilities as ambassadors and school councillors. These roles have helped them to learn about democratic voting and duties they have to fulfil when representing others and influencing decisions. For example, the school councillors were influential in determining the school rules and developing the playground. Pupils acquit themselves well as ambassadors and greeters when ‘meeting and greeting’ visitors.
• Most pupils attend school regularly and attendance is in line with the national average and improving, albeit slowly for known groups who are persistently absent. This includes groups such as disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The medical needs of this group often affect their attendance.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The well-established school ethos means that the vast majority of pupils behave well in lessons and as they move around the school. A strong sense of self-regulation means that pupils keep to the rules. The school’s high expectations of behaviour and the reward system is a contributory factor to known persistent absentees making every effort to attend regularly, as they enjoy the ‘green team treat’. This helps them to behave well and stay on task. However, a few parents wish to banish the traffic light system as they feel that it stereotypes pupils who are unsettled. The school is aware of this concern and seeks to work with parents.
• Disruptions in lessons are infrequent and if they occur it is because work set does not stimulate pupils. On the odd occasion when distraction occurs, pupils respond quickly to instructions. Pupils are keen to learn and concentrate well for long periods. Exclusions are rare.
• Across the different phases, pupils have a good awareness of different forms of bullying and know that being different can lead to vulnerability. For example, they can articulate their understanding of cyber, verbal, physical, racist and religious bullying. The most able went even further to talk to inspectors about bullying linked to sexism and misogynistic behaviour. Evidence shows that a small number of homophobic bullying incidents have been dealt with quickly and decisively. Pupils insist that bullying is rare in their harmonious school and when it occurs, staff deal with it quickly and decisively.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Standards achieved at the end of key stages 1 and 2 in 2016 were average. Outcomes indicate that pupils did not make good progress based on their starting points. The proportion of pupils exceeding the standards expected nationally fell short of expectations overall.
• The school’s analysis of the test papers identified that pupils did not use technical literacy skills accurately. In mathematics, pupils lacked the necessary skills to tackle problem-solving questions. The majority of pupils now make good progress in literacy and mathematics. Teachers are attentive to making sure pupils use grammatical features accurately. The appointment of a specialist mathematician in key stage 2 has led to smaller classes and increased expert teaching.
• Standards in the Year 1 phonics screening indicate that pupils did very well. The proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard was above average. Standards have improved each year. The 2016 outcomes were the best over the last three years.
• The emphasis on developing early reading skill leads to low-attaining pupils mastering the basic skills quickly. Pupils use decoding skills well to make sense of unknown words. In contrast, the most able pupils read fluently with good intonation and understanding of the books they are reading.
• The most able disadvantaged pupils achieved and exceeded the standard expected nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. In contrast, middle-attaining pupils attained average outcomes. The school has accurately identified barriers to their learning and early indications suggest that they are making better progress, particularly in mathematics. The school is now more thorough in using targeted support and strategies to accelerate the progress of these pupils.
• Outcomes for the most able pupils are good in reading and writing but average in mathematics. The school has addressed the shortcomings in mathematics through a specialist teacher providing Year 6 pupils with better mathematical skills to increase the proportion of pupils achieving a high standard in the subject. Emerging evidence shows that these pupils are responding very well to the specialist and focused teaching in mathematics on problem solving and reasoning.
• Pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan make average progress overall. Currently, assessment information on these pupils’ progress shows that all are making expected progress. Over half of these pupils are exceeding expected progress.
• In each year group, there is little variation in the progress made by minority ethnic groups.

Early years provision Good

• The early years provision is good and improving. Parents rightly describe the early years setting as ‘creative and lively’. Children arrive with skills that are typical for their age, and are stimulated to develop a wide range of skills throughout their time in the setting.
• By the end of Reception, most children achieve a good level of development. This good progress has been sustained over the last two years. The good achievement overall masks the significantly lower progress that disadvantaged children make in reading, writing and mathematics. Senior leaders have identified barriers to these children’s learning. They currently use the pupil premium funding to develop children’s early language skills and increase the learning mentor’s time to work with them. Explicit provision means that support is targeted and expectations are higher for this group of children.
• Children’s good and improving achievement provides them with a solid foundation to start Year 1. Staff make sure that transition arrangements work well to help children make a smooth transfer either from their home or from the private sector to this early years setting.
• Similarly, transition into Year 1 is well planned. Strong links between the early years coordinator and the key stage 1 phase leader and teachers support children’s learning well. For example, the teaching of phonics and basic writing skills means that children are ready to begin making sense of basic texts and writing simple sentences.
• Assessment systems are used very well to evaluate children’s skills on entry. Established tracking systems ensure that staff provide suitable challenge and support when planning to meet the different needs of children.
• Children experience a broad curriculum that reflects all areas of the early years provision. In particular, children attend music sessions, taught by a specialist. Sessions invite full participation and allow pupils to shine as they learn to sing and develop a range of communication skills. For example, children identified opposite words to describe the rhythm of different songs.
• The outdoor space provides children with many challenges to tackle difficult climbing structures and courses. Children gravitate towards the most complex challenges, particularly the climbing wall. They show resilience and rarely give up until they have conquered the task.
• Children are confident learners whose behaviour and relationships with each other show that they are safe and secure in the early years environment.
• The pupil premium funding for children in the early years is used well to increase the capacity of staff to support children’s learning and development. This wise level of investment has led to a year-on-year increase in the proportion of children achieving a good level of development, as the additional staff have responsibility to focus on early language development.
• Partnership work with parents is very good. They are involved in their children’s assessment and use opportunities provided to attend workshops that show them how to support their children’s learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 100796 Southwark 10023751 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 530 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jeremy Hayward Helen Ingham 020 7639 2702 www.ivydale.southwark.sch.uk office@ivydale.southwark.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 17–18 October 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is much larger than the average primary school. The school is currently undergoing expansion and will operate on two sites. The second site is under construction and is located a very short distance from the main school on the same road. Senior leaders expect the new site to open at the start of the new academic year in September 2017 when a four-form entry will begin in Reception.
• The two sites expect to have 840 pupils on roll when full to capacity. The school currently has a two-form entry in most year groups but operates a three-form entry in Reception and Years 3 and 4.
• The school makes part-time provision for 50 children in the Nursery.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above average.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is well above average.
• The school works with Summer House, Southwark PRU, an alternative provision that provides part-time support for a few pupils.
• The school runs a breakfast club and after-school clubs.
• More pupils than usual join the school at different times throughout the academic year.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics for pupils by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team visited a range of lessons in all classes including the early years. Short visits were made to lessons across each phase with the senior leaders. Inspectors also looked at work produced by pupils in each phase.
• Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders to evaluate the impact of their work. Meetings were also held with the chair of the governing body and three other members and four groups of pupils.
• The lead inspector met with a representative of the local authority.
• The inspectors took into account the views of 190 parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and to the 198 free text responses that parents submitted online.
• The inspection team observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documentation provided by the school including: leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance and plans for development; minutes of meetings of the governing body; external reviews of the school’s work; case studies; records of pupils’ attendance and behaviour; assessment information on pupils’ attainment and progress; and systems for protecting and safeguarding pupils.

Inspection team

Carmen Rodney, lead inspector Milan Stevanovic Janice Howkins Ogugua Okolo-Angus Chris Ashley-Jones Ellie Whilby Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector