Moorside Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Accelerate the progress of the most able pupils, by:
  • setting work that challenges and stretches these pupils
  • building swiftly upon prior understanding to accelerate learning
  • ensuring that questioning probes and helps to deepen their knowledge and understanding.
• Enhance the new assessment practices to inform teacher’s planning and improve outcomes, by:
  • providing teachers with a clearer picture of pupils’ starting points
  • making sure that all teachers follow the agreed marking and feedback policy by taking time to check any inaccuracies in pupils’ responses.
• Improve teaching and provision in the early years to ensure more children are ready for the next stage of their learning, by:
  • ensuring that adults have the same high expectations of children in mathematics and other areas of learning as was seen in reading, writing and communication; take time to assess these areas as effectively; and make sure that all adults have the knowledge and skills to use questioning effectively to probe and deepen children’s understanding
  • managing the learning environment more effectively to meet the differing needs of playgroup, Nursery and Reception children.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders place the individual needs of pupils at the heart of the school and have established a positive ethos that increasingly promotes the personal, social and academic progress of all children in the school. Children feel happy and supported. This enables them to develop effective personal and social skills and make improving progress.
• Senior leaders have grown leadership capacity with the appointment of a new deputy and assistant headteacher and a reorganisation of middle leaders. This cohesive team works collaboratively to monitor standards and pupils’ progress and ensures that teachers maintain a focus on key school priorities. This has led to improvements in the quality of teaching at key stage 1 and 2 but not in the early years.
• Leaders’ self-evaluation of the school’s overall strengths and areas for improvement is accurate. Cross moderation with consultants and the local authority is leading to increasing accuracy in the assessment of standards.
• Senior leaders and middle leaders carry out regular monitoring of the quality of teaching and the standard of work in books. This is leading to a sharper focus on areas for improvement. Staff are more open and responsive to challenge. Leaders review pupils’ progress in a timely manner, ensuring that underperformance is addressed swiftly. This is leading to improvements in the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.
• Performance management arrangements are robust. Teachers have targets that address whole-school priorities and link closely to the progress that pupils make. Teachers’ progression towards these targets is reviewed at different times of the year. Professional development opportunities support teachers in meeting these targets and improving their practice, particularly in key stages 1 and 2.
• Changes to the leadership of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities have improved the focus on this area of provision. Teachers now plan for these pupils’ needs more assiduously and this has ensured better progress than previously seen.
• School leaders have effectively used pupil premium funding to improve provision and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils over time. This has contributed to the disadvantaged pupils making better progress by the end of key stage 2 and differences diminishing in many other year groups.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced, combining a strong focus on English and mathematics with thematic approaches that extend knowledge and understanding in subjects such as science, history and geography. Topics such as gravity and electric circuits are covered in some depth in science lessons. A wide range of extra-curricular provision enhances pupils’ personal and social development.
• The provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. In this diverse school community, pupils develop a close understanding of different religions and cultures that helps to prepare them well for life in modern Britain.
• Funding from the government to promote sport and increase physical activity is being used successfully to improve school facilities and provide appropriate kit for all pupils. Specialist coaches have extended the range of sports available to pupils within the curriculum and at pre-school, lunchtime and after-school clubs.
• The local authority provides effective support for the school through a school improvement partner and a monitoring and support group which provides an ongoing review of the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress. The school also works alongside consultants to strengthen provision in English, mathematics and the early years.

Governance of the school

• The governance of the school is good
• The governing body of the school knows the school well and has an improving understanding of its strengths and areas for improvement. Over the past year, governors have developed a more robust approach to performance management, declining pay progression in 2015 for those teachers whose pupils had not made sufficient progress.
• Governor committees provide a regular focus on pupils’ progress and curriculum provision and they closely scrutinise the impact of additional funding, such as the school’s use of the pupil premium.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Pupil welfare is of the utmost importance and leaders take their responsibilities to keep pupils safe very seriously indeed. School policies and procedures are clear and rigorous, staff training is up to date and leaders act decisively to address any concerns.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers plan and model tasks effectively, enabling pupils to engage confidently in learning as they know what is expected of them. Resources are well-prepared with teachers often using real objects to provide physical and visual cues that support language development and wider learning.
• Teachers employ effective strategies to develop pupils’ reading skills. Inspectors listened to a range of pupils read and were impressed by the clarity of their reading. Less-able pupils used decoding strategies to help them pronounce unfamiliar words. The most able read with fluency and showed perceptive textual understanding.
• Much teaching is lively and engaging and pupils receive opportunities to learn concepts and apply them in practical contexts. In year 6, pupils listened attentively to their teacher’s presentation on electric circuits before applying these to their own circuits. In year 5, pupils were able to bring their stories to life by acting out key scenes in the school yard.
• Teachers use assessment to develop a good understanding of pupils’ needs and work closely with external consultants to develop an accurate understanding of standards. Verbal feedback is often strong and comments in books often highlight areas for improvement.
• New assessment tracking systems are enabling leaders and teachers to track pupils’ progress over the year although they do not always give clear indications of starting points.
• The quality of teaching across key stages 1 and 2 is good with no significant variation between the stages. Writing is taught consistently well and there is evidence of good standards of writing in exercise books across the key stages. Pupils show confidence in their application of mathematical methods. There is evidence of challenge in the teaching of topics such as gravity and electric circuitry in science, although the good challenge in lessons is not always reflected in the quality of work in science topic books.
• Teachers work effectively with teaching assistants and other adults to support learning, understanding and language development. Teaching assistants know the pupils well and provide support and prompts that develop pupils’ learning. However, on occasions at key stage 1, the quality of phonics teaching varies as teaching assistants are not as effective on aspects of phonics teaching.
• On occasions, work set does not provide a level of challenge to stretch the most able pupils. Opportunities to extend and deepen their learning are not always taken.
• Improving support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and for pupils for whom English is an additional language is improving and enabling these pupils to make better progress as they move through the school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. In this diverse community, the school’s work to promote understanding and respect leads to a positive environment where pupils feel valued. Pupils are encouraged to participate in lessons and contribute to class discussions, although on occasions they can lack a degree of independence.
• When asked to identify a key strength of the school, a typical response from student council members was ‘us’. Pupils have pride in their school and its diversity and also feel valued as individuals.
• Pupils’ physical well-being is promoted through encouragement to participate in a wide range of sporting activities and through increasing engagement with the school’s outdoor spaces. During the inspection, Nursery children explored the garden area, key stage 1 pupils engaged in outdoor phonics exercises and key stage 2 pupils acted out excerpts from the text they had studied. Pupils were provided with fruit and vegetables at morning and lunchtime break and the school shows a commitment to healthy eating.
• Pupils are able to discuss personal safety and the actions that the school has taken to help them keep safe. They demonstrated a good awareness of how to keep safe online.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. They conduct themselves in a calm and orderly manner and show respect and consideration for one another and adults. Pupils work conscientiously and incidents of low-level disruption are rare. Teachers and teaching assistants know their pupils well and provide effective help for pupils who require support with their behaviour.
• Pupils demonstrate a pride in themselves and in their school. This is reflected in the good standards of presentation of work in books. They value the school environment and have worked with adults to improve the grounds, such as their work to develop the meadow area. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the orderly and supportive atmosphere that characterises the school.
• The school is reinforcing its actions to improve attendance among its diverse and increasingly mobile community through stronger home communication and the use of its family support workers. Support for families is balanced alongside firmer approaches, including the use of fines. As a result, absence rates are slowly falling.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Children enter the early years with knowledge, skills and abilities that are below those typically expected for their age, particularly in communication and language. As pupils move through key stages 1 and 2 they make good progress. This is evident from the work in pupils’ books, and the standards they achieve by the end of each key stage.
• From their low starting points, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards in the phonics screening test has been improving over a three year period, although it dipped slightly in 2016. Standards of reading in lessons are good with pupils reading with clarity and understanding, reflecting positive progress from low starting points.
• Most pupils are making good progress in science, history and geography lessons through challenging tasks and effective questioning. There is, however, scope to provide greater challenge for the most able. This progress is not fully reflected in science topic books although effective extended writing in history and geography is evident.
• The majority of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress by the end of key stage 2. The dip in their progress in 2015 has been addressed by better planning and more effectively tailored support.
• Disadvantaged pupils made better progress than their peers in 2016 in key stage 2 and across many other years the differences are diminishing.
• The most able pupils do not make consistently good progress across all years as teachers do not always take sufficient account of what these pupils know and can do in order to accelerate their progress.
• Improvements in standards of attainment are evident in books over time, particularly in English and mathematics, but these have not yet been reflected in emerging outcomes from the new national curriculum tests. The school is likely to meet the 2016 floor standards as a result of the good progress that pupils make.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Children enter the early years with knowledge, skills and abilities that are below those typically expected for their age. A majority of children enter Nursery without being able to speak English fluently. Improvements in planning and the use of a speech and language therapist helped a greater proportion of pupils achieve a good level of development in 2016, but this remains well below the national average.
• Children do gain access to a wide range of topics, tasks and activities that motivate and engage their interest. Adults provide tasks that develop children’s knowledge, skills and understanding but they do not always use questioning to deepen children’s understanding. This prevents them from making good progress.
• Outdoor spaces have been developed with different zones to promote counting, measuring, nature study and phonics activities. However, the use of this space is not coordinated effectively. Playgroup, Nursery and Reception children can often interrupt one another’s play and disrupt each other’s focus on learning activities.
• The leadership team are aware that planning of effective learning activities for children and the use of resources require improvement. They have begun to introduce changes but these have not yet resulted in a quality of teaching that is good.
• Children’s learning journals revealed that they had made progress in English, for example from writing random letters in autumn to phonetically plausible spelling in June. However, progress was less evident in mathematics and journals did not consistently show progress in the full range of early learning goals.
• Adults have high expectations of children in their reading, writing and communication work where they use assessment information to plan effectively. However, this does not occur with sufficient consistency in other areas. This unevenness in the assessment of early learning goals hinders overall progress.
• School leaders are aware of the actions needed to secure improvements in the early years provision and are directly leading improvement strategies. The headteacher has implemented a series of changes but they have not yet led to consistent improvements in the quality of teaching or effective use of the learning environment.
• Safeguarding practices in the early years are effective and there are no material breaches of statutory welfare requirements.

School details

Unique reference number 108492 Local authority Newcastle upon Tyne Inspection number 10019385 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 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 490 Appropriate authority Local authority Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr M Read Ms Linda Hall 0191 272 0239 www.arthurshillprimaryschools.co.uk linda.hall@moorside.newcastle.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 29–30 January 2014

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about the school’s pupil premium grant allocation for 2015/16 and how the money would be spent to address barriers to educational achievement.
• Moorside is a larger than average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is well above average, as is that of pupils who speak English as an additional language. There are more than 27 different languages spoken by pupils in the school.
• The number of pupils who enter or leave the school during the year is well above average.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations of pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.
• The school is in a federation with Westgate Hill.
• The school provides full time Nursery provision and operates its own playgroup.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed a wide range of lessons or part lessons, covering all classes in the school. The executive headteacher and head of school accompanied inspectors on three separate occasions.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and talked to them about how much reading they do and the books they read.
• Pupils’ behaviour was observed during lessons, lunchtimes and at playtimes.
• Inspectors examined the quality of work in books, in folders and in displays around the school. They discussed pupils’ work and their learning with them in lessons.
• Meetings were held with the executive headteacher, headteacher, senior leaders, and middle leaders. Inspectors also met two groups of governors and talked to the school’s team of family support workers. Meetings were also held with a local authority adviser and telephone conversations held with the school improvement partner and an external moderator. The lead inspector talked to the pupil council and inspectors talked to a large number of parents at the beginning and end of the school day.
• Inspectors looked at the school’s work and considered documents including the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plan, curriculum plans and information relating to pupil achievement and safeguarding.
• Due to technical difficulties, parents were unable to share their thoughts on the school through Parent View. Inspectors compensated for this by talking to large numbers of parents in the yard and at the school gates at the start and end of day two of the inspection in order to gain their views.

Inspection team

Malcolm Kirtley, lead inspector Alison Aitchison Olie Flitcroft Rob Lakin Chris Campbell

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