Hareside Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership and management by:
  • embedding the range of new initiatives to improve the quality and consistency of teaching, especially in reading
  • continuing to diminish the difference in the rates of progress made by disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally who have similar starting points
  • developing the skills of subject leaders in monitoring their subject or area of responsibility, including developing systems for tracking the progress of pupils in subject-specific skills across the curriculum.
• Improve the quality and consistency of teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • ensuring that work is well matched to pupils’ needs and abilities and provides suitable challenge for all, especially for the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils
  • checking that the pace of learning allows pupils to maintain their engagement in tasks and work productively.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The experienced, skilled and inspirational headteacher has been unwavering in her determination to eradicate all remnants of underperformance and ensure an excellent standard of education for pupils in this school. In a short period of time she has led actions which are already transforming and improving the quality of teaching across the school, especially in key stage 1 and the early years.
• The headteacher’s implacable determination that all pupils will achieve their full potential, regardless of any difficulties they face, is reflected in the high expectations teachers have for their pupils and that pupils have for themselves. As a consequence, pupils are now making rapid progress and developing a confident approach to learning. There is an ambition and determination to improve all aspects of school life, including from leaders, teachers and dedicated, knowledgeable governors.
• Leaders and governors have an accurate view of what the school does well, and what it needs to do to be even more successful. Procedures to monitor and evaluate the quality of the school’s performance through checking the quality of teaching are incisive and detailed, especially in English and mathematics. The skills of other subject leaders across the wider curriculum need to be improved further for leaders to be able to rigorously monitor and evaluate the quality of provision. This also includes the assessment and tracking of pupils’ progress in creative and foundation subjects, which is under development.
• Leaders’ plans for further improvements reflect a clear view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, with which inspectors concur. The school improvement plan is very detailed and carefully monitors the effect of planned actions on outcomes for pupils in their learning. Regular evaluation and the tracking of actions ensure that no time is wasted to drive further improvements.
• The school’s curriculum is rich and balanced, and reviewed regularly to ensure that it meets pupils’ needs and interests. The curriculum is designed to make sure that it provides many varied opportunities for pupils to benefit from visitors to school, such as a company to demonstrate a working planetarium, and to make visits out of school to places of historic and cultural importance, as well as a residential experience for older pupils. The curriculum is enhanced by a suitably wide range of after-school clubs such as the cookery club who were icing Christmas cakes during the inspection, ‘proggy’ club and many sports clubs, including multi-sports.
• Leaders are managing pupil premium spending effectively to provide targeted support for disadvantaged pupils. This support is regularly evaluated for its impact on pupils’ learning, and amended or changed as a result. The positive impact of this support is seen through the improving progress made by current disadvantaged pupils across the school. However, differences still exist in their achievement and those of other pupils nationally with the same starting points. The school acknowledges that further work is required to accelerate this group of pupils’ progress, and especially that of the most able disadvantaged pupils.
• The good leadership of the special educational needs (SEN) coordinator has resulted in effective provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Their needs are identified early and their good progress, often in small steps, is tracked accurately. Support programmes such as for speech and language, number, spelling and phonics are reviewed and evaluated for their impact on pupils’ learning. Consequently, the SEN funding is used effectively by leaders.
• The physical education and sport funding for schools has been used well. Pupils benefit from high-quality lessons, including from a specialist teacher one day per week. Pupils engage regularly in competitive sports, as well as participating in a range of after-school clubs such as multi-skills, dance, hula-hooping and skipping. The school has been particularly proactive in ensuring that pupils achieve their swimming target of 25 metres before they leave at the end of Year 6.
• The school receives targeted challenge and support from the local authority representative which has been very effective in driving forward improvements in school.

Governance of the school

• Governors bring a range of appropriate professional skills and experience to the school that enhance their impact on school improvement. Regular audits of their skills and knowledge leads to effective training in order to further enhance their effectiveness. They share the passion and commitment of the headteacher and senior leaders and have effectively managed recent changes in leadership. Governors’ regular steering group meetings allow them to question school leaders and hold them to account for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as for pupils’ outcomes.
• Governors make it their business to know about the work of the school and have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They have ensured, along with the headteacher and senior leaders, that the school’s priorities are intrinsically embedded in the performance management of all adults. Governors participate in monitoring activities alongside senior leaders, such as meeting with their link subject leader and making short visits to classes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding pupils are very effective. The long-established culture of keeping pupils safe remains very evident. Leaders ensure that a culture of safeguarding is embedded among all staff and they leave no stone unturned in their duty to keep pupils safe.
• The school has a tangible ethos that is positive and caring, putting the welfare and well-being of each pupil at the heart of all that it does. This is clearly seen in the friendly and confident manner of the pupils in school. The curriculum supports pupils well in maintaining their own safety and their knowledge about keeping themselves safe online remains outstanding.
• Policies, procedures and records are of extremely high quality. Staff training is thorough and up to date, including training to ensure that pupils are kept safe from the risk of extremism and online dangers. Registers of staff training are completed diligently. Staff have access to well-written policies and guidance and, as a result, have a very secure understanding of their individual responsibilities for safeguarding.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The quality of teaching has improved since the school was previously inspected, and continues to improve. The impact of teaching on learning, including in writing and mathematics, is reflected in the strong progress pupils now make in each year group. The impact of actions introduced to further improve teaching, especially of reading, is yet to be fully seen given the short time that these strategies have been in place.
• Lessons are usually lively and interesting, capturing pupils’ imagination. For example in Year 5, pupils worked enthusiastically to replicate the action of asteroids and meteors in creating moon craters by dropping balls of plasticine into trays of flour.
• Teachers use their good subject knowledge to structure learning effectively. For example, pupils in Year 3 were able to calculate how many rows of four chairs could be made from a pile of 64 chairs because the teacher modelled and expected the pupils to use subject-specific vocabulary, as well as their sound calculation skills.
• Teachers have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour, and stick closely to the school’s behaviour policy. Very occasional low-level disruption is addressed quickly and effectively. This usually results from the occasional slowing of the pace in learning when pupils can lose concentration and complete less work than usual.
• Work is usually pitched well according to pupils’ abilities, and teachers are skilled at adapting and changing plans based on ongoing daily assessments of how well pupils grasp learning. Teachers are not yet adept at assessing subject-specific skills across all curriculum subjects. On some occasions, work does not provide sufficient challenge, especially for most-able and most-able disadvantaged pupils.
• In mathematics, basic skills of number are taught daily and consolidated regularly. For example, Year 2 pupils were able to accurately total sums of money and find change from larger amounts because they could use a number line accurately. Pupils in Year 5 collated data from various sources, using their skills and knowledge of multiples to decide on the intervals on the axes of the resulting line graphs.
• Pupils write with enthusiasm and imagination, most using their increasing skills in grammar and punctuation. Year 1 pupils enjoyed learning how to join sentences, with some pupils able to use a range of different conjunctions other than ‘and’. Pupils in Year 5 read a chapter of the class text ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Morpurgo and were able to list the key points. Using their emerging skills of inference, they then wrote a paragraph to predict the next events based on their understanding of the characters.
• As a result of the systematic teaching of phonics, children are getting off to a fast start in their reading. Beginning in the early years, adults are skilled in teaching well-structured lessons, pitched well according to pupils’ reading skills. The proportion of pupils who met the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check was again well above that found nationally.
• Teaching assistants are deployed well, and are skilled at giving timely help and support to individuals and groups of pupils. They work well as part of the teaching team and play an important part in pupils’ progress in their learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Staff work tirelessly to ensure that all pupils are safe and well cared for. Adults work closely with pupils and families in a supportive and sensitive manner. Pupils said that they feel extremely safe in school. Pupils show high levels of respect and care for each other, valuing their classmates’ opinions and working cooperatively in lessons.
• Pupils’ attitudes to learning are largely exemplary, and most are very keen to succeed and to produce their very best work. They grow in confidence during their time in school, acquiring an assured and resilient approach to developing their own learning. They take their roles of responsibility in the school community very seriously. They are proud to be school councillors, value the ‘shooting star’ awards and are thrilled if chosen to be the star of the week in an assembly attended by the winners’ parents.
• Pupils thrive in the well-ordered and positive school environment. Displays are of good quality, bright and attractive and support learning well. The school works effectively to ensure that pupils’ physical and emotional well-being are valued and developed.
• Pupils report that they feel safe at all times, including when working online following work from the NSPCC in school. Pupils’ knowledge of keeping themselves safe outside school is outstanding. A range of visitors to school such as from the fire brigade to talk about firework safety, talks on railway safety and the school’s participation in the ‘bikeability’ scheme underpin pupils’ knowledge on well-being. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness and development is excellent.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The strong relationships that are nurtured in school ensure that pupils usually conduct themselves well in lessons and around school. Pupils are polite and have good manners. Playtimes are harmonious occasions where pupils play happily together and no one is left out.
• Pupils enjoy their learning and mostly work conscientiously. Incidents of low-level disruption are rare. Behaviour systems encourage positive attitudes to learning and the few incidents of misbehaviour are swiftly and deftly addressed.
• The relationships pupils have with adults and with each other are warm and trusting. Consequently, pupils enjoy coming to school, as can be seen in their attendance. The school has worked very hard to eradicate low rates of attendance, which is now broadly average. A small number of pupils are still persistently absent, with holidays taken in term time accounting for a large proportion of absence.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils’ progress and attainment in key stage 2 have remained strong since the school was previously inspected, and have improved in key stage 1 and the early years.
• Evidence from the provisional 2017 statutory assessment data, work in pupils’ books and the school’s own tracking data shows clearly that current pupils are making consistently strong progress in English and mathematics. However, pupils’ progress and recent attainment in reading lags behind that found in writing and mathematics.
• Pupils are now making consistently strong progress across Years 1 and 2. The proportion of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, who attained the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics in the 2017 provisional Year 2 national data, was above national figures in writing, reading and mathematics. A slightly smaller proportion of disadvantaged pupils to other pupils nationally were working at a greater depth of understanding.
• Pupils make a solid start in their early reading skills, and a very large majority of pupils achieved well in the 2016 and 2017 national phonics screening check at the end of Year 1. The proportion who met the standard in both years was well above that found nationally.
• Progress is continuing to accelerate across key stage 2. In the 2017 national assessments, provisional data shows that the proportion of Year 6 pupils who met the expected standard was in line with that found nationally in mathematics and writing, and just below in reading. Current pupils are making strong progress in their learning from their individual starting points in most year groups, with a much larger proportion working at standards for their age across the school.
• The progress of the current most-able and most-able disadvantaged pupils is improving, and has accelerated since the start of the school year. The proportion of pupils achieving a high score or working at a greater depth of understanding in 2017 is in line with that found nationally, but well below for the most able disadvantaged pupils. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils currently working at such a greater depth is not as high as it could be because the work set is not consistently challenging for those pupils capable of having their understanding stretched further.
• As a result of the effective and strategic use of the pupil premium funding, current disadvantaged pupils in each year group make good progress in English and mathematics. Over time, there has been a difference in the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils compared to other pupils nationally. Although this is now diminishing quickly, varying differences still exist in different year groups in school.
• The school is quick to identify any pupils who are at risk of falling behind. Staff make effective provision for these pupils through activities which are well matched to their individual needs and abilities. This includes pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. Where needed, detailed individual support plans are in place, with challenging targets. As a result, the progress made by these pupils is largely good from their individual starting points.

Early years provision Outstanding

• The majority of children start the early years with skills and knowledge that are broadly typical for their age. As a result of incisive leadership, outstanding teaching and provision, robust assessment, careful observation and good questioning, current children, including disadvantaged children and the most able children, make extremely strong progress and are well prepared to start Year 1, both academically and socially.
• Children are eager to explore and learn. Leaders are highly skilled in developing areas of provision to maximise learning opportunities for all children, based on accurate and ongoing assessments. The learning environment is vibrant and stimulating, providing rich experiences for children such as in the castle, the space ship, Santa’s Christmas sleigh or the opticians, for example.
• Children’s behaviour is consistently of a very high standard. Progress in personal, social and emotional development is excellent and results from the climate of high expectations promoted by all adults. This accounts for the strengths seen in children’s behaviour and in their relationships with adults and each other. They are encouraged to take turns and to consider others, which they do very successfully.
• The indoor and outdoor areas offer a wealth of opportunities for children to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills. Children readily help themselves to resources such as clipboards and, consequently, they develop confident writing skills. A large number of Nursery children were able to count to 20, with some knowing that the next number was 21. There are quiet corners where children happily handle books and develop a love of reading and stories. Most children in the Reception class wrote a simple sentence about Santa’s sack while others used their emerging phonetic knowledge to accurately write a list of presents in a stocking using picture clues.
• Adults are adept at talking with and questioning children, developing children’s understanding and their confidence in speaking and listening. They carefully support children’s learning through prompts and they work alongside children during imaginative and creative play sessions. Children are polite and articulate, some describing the clay used for modelling a figure of Rudolph as ‘squishy’ and hard. Most pupils work with maturity and independence.
• Teachers provide a number of highly stimulating activities for children who consequently are inquisitive and curious. Children were fascinated by the overnight visit of a ‘naughty elf’ that had smashed an egg onto the floor. They worked together to design and make a container for an egg, selecting different materials to protect it, and were delighted if their egg did not break when dropped.
• The experienced and highly skilled early years team, led exceptionally well by the early years leader, understands the learning needs of young children and shares the same passion and drive to see children thrive. The team members have a clear understanding of the strengths in early years and identify key areas for improvement.
• All teachers monitor children’s progress rigorously and record this accurately. Learning journals across Nursery and Reception show that children make excellent progress from their starting points. These online records are shared with parents, who were effusive regarding the high regard with which they hold the setting. Teachers have an accurate picture of children’s abilities and learning needs and adapt teaching and learning opportunities skilfully to further their development.
• Safeguarding practices in the early years are highly effective. Children are taught how to manage risks from an early age and the robust safeguarding culture that permeates the school is equally apparent in the early years. There are no material breaches of statutory welfare requirements, as children are safe and well supported.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority 122268 Northumberland Inspection number 10036546 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 Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 428 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address David Anderson Jacqueline Mowat 01670 712 440 www.haresideprimary.co.uk admin@hareside.school Date of previous inspection 17–18 November 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage and speak English as their first language.
• The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for support from the pupil premium and the proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is in line with the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in English and mathematics at the end of Year 6.
• The school’s part-time nursery operates in the morning and afternoon. Reception children attend on a full-time basis.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in lessons, including lessons observed jointly with the headteacher. In addition, an inspector listened to some pupils from Years 1 and 2 read, and reviewed a sample of pupils’ work alongside the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• Inspectors held meetings with governors, the headteacher, senior leaders and members of the teaching staff. Inspectors also met the school administrative staff, a representative of the local authority and held meetings with a group of pupils from the school.
• Inspectors viewed a range of documents including information relating to pupils’ achievements over time, the school’s data on recent and current progress of pupils, and the school’s view on how well it is doing. Inspectors also reviewed the school improvement plan, documents relating to performance management, safeguarding and records of behaviour and attendance.
• Inspectors took account of the parental responses to the school’s own questionnaire and the 36 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. The school’s website was also scrutinised.

Inspection team

Phil Scott, lead inspector Frances Gowland Richard Knowles

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector