Skelton Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 13(4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Work proactively and in partnership with parents to ensure that a greater proportion of disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and pupils in Years 3 and 6 attend school more often.
• Further improve the impact of teaching, learning and assessment on pupils’ outcomes, by ensuring that all teachers and teaching assistants have the very highest expectations of the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils.
• Ensure that teachers in the early years use individual children’s assessment information incisively to plan work that enables a greater proportion of boys, the most able and the most able disadvantaged children to make more rapid progress from their starting points.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher is extremely ambitious for the pupils, staff and school. Devastated by the overall outcome of the previous inspection, she showed great resilience and strength while leading immediate and rapid improvements in the school. As a testament to the headteacher’s skills and leadership, staff morale stayed high during the six-month period in which the school was deemed to require special measures.
• Senior, middle and subject leadership is strong. All are deeply aware of the school’s strengths and areas for development. They gather pupils’ opinions regularly, undertake supportive observations of teaching and learning, and evaluate the impact of initiatives insightfully. For example, middle leaders are reviewing the implementation of the school’s new spelling scheme because pupils’ spelling is not improving as rapidly as anticipated. Leaders support each other well in their efforts to make further improvements for the good of the pupils.
• Systems to improve the performance of teachers are rigorous. Teachers’ performance management targets are linked closely to leaders’ analyses of pupils’ assessment information. For example, all teachers currently have a target related to the performance of the most able and most able disadvantaged pupils.
• The school’s curriculum offer has been strengthened since the previous inspection. Time is dedicated to learning about British values, in both key stages 1 and 2, on a weekly basis. Pupils now have a strong understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The impressive ‘diverse-a-tree’ in Year 2 is an example of this work, as is the impact of a recent visitor from Togo. He increased pupils’ knowledge of a culture very different from their own and made them, together with the adults in school, question their own views on tolerance and diversity.
• Similarly, leaders have taken effective action to ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is growing in strength. The content of the discussions between members of the school’s debating society exemplifies this aspect of the school’s work well. During the week of this inspection, members debated whether the leaders of political parties should take part in televised debates prior to the general election.
• The formal curriculum is underpinned well by relevant homework and an exciting array of extra-curricular opportunities. Inspectors were stopped in their tracks by the school choir singing a phenomenally uplifting adaptation of a prayer during lunchtime on the second day of the inspection.
• The local authority supported the school well by carrying out an in-depth and timely audit of safeguarding practices and procedures following the previous inspection.
• The physical education and sport funding for primary schools is spent judiciously to improve the expertise of both staff and pupils. The recruitment and deployment of two specialist sports apprentices has led to an increase in playtime, lunchtime and after-school sports clubs. The increased opportunities to participate have encouraged previously inactive pupils to take up a sporting activity.
• Leaders have ensured that the additional government funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used well to ensure they make strong progress from their individual starting points. However, not enough of these pupils attend school every day.
• As identified in the school’s improvement plans, leaders’ use of the government’s additional funding for disadvantaged pupils requires further development because the proportion of disadvantaged pupils who attend school every day is not high enough. Similarly, not enough of the most able disadvantaged pupils achieve the outcomes of which they are capable.

Governance of the school

• The quality of governance is improving rapidly.
• Three governors, including the chair of the governing body, resigned following the previous inspection. An audit of governors’ skills was undertaken and three highly skilled individuals were appointed. One is a local authority safeguarding adviser and two are local primary headteachers. Governors have ambitious plans to fill the last vacancy on the governing body with a volunteer who has skills in social care.
• A national leader of governance (NLG), working on behalf of the National Governors’ Association, undertook an external review of governance in January 2017. The governing body wisely acted on the NLG’s verbal feedback in January immediately. They did not wait for the official written report that was received at the end of March 2017.
• Since the NLG’s verbal feedback, governors have: become more conversant with their statutory responsibilities; included their strategic function in the school’s improvement planning; carried out formal monitoring visits to support and challenge the work of the school; revamped and published the governors’ newsletter to parents, and contracted with an experienced clerk to the governing body.
• Governors took prompt action following the previous inspection to ensure the school’s website is compliant with the Department for Education’s guidance and the stipulations of the school’s funding agreement.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school’s record of employment checks is compliant with requirements.
• The school now has one overall designated safeguarding lead and four deputy designated safeguarding leads. All have attended refresher training since the last inspection and all are fully aware of their specific roles and responsibilities.
• All of the school’s safeguarding records are now stored on one central electronic system. Leaders review the systems and procedures to monitor safeguarding incidents and patterns regularly. They are now strong.
• High-quality training has ensured that all staff are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities. They self-assess their own expertise after each training session. Leaders deliver extra coaching and mentoring to those staff whose knowledge or understanding are found wanting.
• Governors have reviewed and ratified all safeguarding policies since the previous inspection. All staff have a deep knowledge of the reviewed policies and their contents. Teachers and support staff understand reporting protocols, including those concerning whistleblowing.
• There is a strong safeguarding culture on the school’s website. Parents have ready access to all safeguarding policies and a plethora of helpful advice.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers ask very effective questions of their pupils in lessons. Pupils, in return, give full and reasoned responses that deepen their learning and understanding.
• The teaching assistant workforce is strong. Teaching assistants support pupils proactively within lessons and guide intervention groups with some expertise.
• Lessons are usually structured well, with a logical sequence of interesting tasks that methodically address the lesson’s learning objectives. Pupils understand what they are learning and know how to judge their success.
• Pupils enjoy completing ‘using the four operations’ (UFOs) mathematics questions in the morning on entry to school. These questions enable pupils to apply their basic skills to reason and solve mathematical problems. UFOs are non-negotiables. They happen in every classroom at the beginning of every day. Pupils like the routine and understand the process.
• The homework set by teachers underpins the taught curriculum well.
• Pupils’ progress is assessed regularly in the core subjects of English, mathematics and science as well as in the foundation subjects. There is some variability in how well assessments are used by teachers to plan learning activities, especially for the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils. Teachers’ expectations are not high enough for these pupils. In subjects such as mathematics, these pupils get too much work correct straight away. They do not have to grapple hard to apply their knowledge to solve more complex problems.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• The school’s safeguarding systems and procedures have been reviewed since the previous inspection. Staff have received high-quality training in all aspects of child protection. There is a palpable culture of safeguarding and safety throughout the school.
• Staff go the extra mile for pupils in this caring school. The nurture lead and her team monitor the well-being of a large number of vulnerable pupils on a daily basis. They keep accurate records and deliver a host of successful interventions. Parents are delighted with the bespoke provision that enables their children to thrive and succeed.
• Pupils are very self-confident learners. They respond eagerly to teachers’ questions and give very full and reasoned answers as a matter of course.
• ‘Pupil voice’ is very strong. Pupils’ views are valued and they undertake important work on behalf of their peers and teachers. For example, the active Eco-team worked hard to renew the green flag Eco-schools award.
• Pupils benefit from high-quality physical education in the school. They take part eagerly in sporting activities in lessons, during lunchtimes and at the end of the school day. Pupils see the link between a healthy body and a healthy mind.
• Pupils also benefit hugely from the nurturing ethos of the school at which every pupil, irrespective of their individual differences, is included. Adults’ support for pupils’ emotional welfare is robust and caring.
• Inspectors noted that pupils work and play well together. They enjoy cooperating with each other and developing their own and each other’s learning.
• Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe at school, at home and online. They told inspectors about the different forms that bullying can take. Pupils were adamant that bullying occurs very infrequently at Skelton Primary School.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils behave well in lessons and during the more unstructured times of the school day.
• Pupils are polite to each other, to their teachers and to visitors. For example, during the inspection one pupil asked an inspector if he was lost. The pupil offered to show the inspector the quickest route to his destination.
• Skelton pupils enjoy learning. They like their teachers and want to please them. As one child put it, ‘Our teachers are not too strict and not too soft, they are just right.’
• Leaders analyse the number and nature of behavioural issues in this very large school. The frequency of incidents of poor behaviour has reduced over time and is low.
• Leaders give pupils’ attendance very high priority. They have implemented a range of successful initiatives to encourage pupils to attend regularly. As a result, pupils’ attendance overall improved to above the national average in 2016. This improvement trend has continued in the current academic year. However, leaders are aware that small proportions of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, together with small proportions of Year 3 and Year 6 pupils, do not attend school often enough.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The 2016 cohort of Year 6 pupils made significant progress in reading, writing and mathematics during key stage 2. They reached standards well above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of the key stage to be very well prepared for the demands of secondary schooling.
• Overall, the Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils are making good progress currently in reading, writing and mathematics. The rate of progress in Year 3 is slower than that seen elsewhere in the key stage.
• The 2016 cohort of Year 2 pupils made strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics during key stage 1 to reach standards above the national average.
• Currently in key stage 1, pupils are making good progress overall. Their progress is stronger in reading and writing than it is in mathematics.
• Pupils acquire phonic knowledge rapidly to make good progress in developing their reading skills. Reading is a strength of the school. The most able pupils in key stage 2 enjoy attending ‘classics club’ and reading classic literature for pleasure.
• Overall, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making pleasing progress because additional government funding is used well to provide interventions that are tailored closely to pupils’ individual needs. However, the most able disadvantaged pupils are making stronger progress in key stage 1 than in key stage 2.
• The pattern of slower progress in Year 3 in English and mathematics is replicated in science and the foundation subjects.

Early years provision Good

• Leaders have established an exciting, stimulating, safe and language-rich learning environment, both indoors and outdoors. They have ensured that the welfare requirements of the early years are met.
• Children are ready and willing to learn throughout their time in the early years. Rules and routines are established quickly so that children settle promptly, rise to their teachers’ expectations of behaviour and feel safe. Children do not flit from one activity to another. They sustain their concentration for extended periods of time. As a result, children make strong progress from their individual starting points. A larger proportion are ready for the increased demands of the Year 1 curriculum.
• Teaching is strong across the early years. All adults ask insightful questions and give children time to reply. Teaching assistants model the effective use of language. As a result, children speak in whole sentences, which are increasingly grammatically correct. For example, during the inspection, one of the youngest children gave a full description of the joy of eating and tasting strawberries while fully involved in the act.
• Parents are very happy with the provision in the early years. They value the care and attention given to their children and like to see them skipping happily into school.
• Children are kind to each other in the early years. They socialise well together in the hubbub of the dining hall during lunchtimes.
• Leaders identified correctly that boys, the most able and the most able disadvantaged children did not make the progress of which they were capable in 2016. This is a key area in the school’s improvement planning for the early years. Teachers do not use assessment information incisively enough to plan learning opportunities for these groups of children.

School details

Unique reference number 140319 Local authority Redcar and Cleveland Inspection number 10033717 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 Academy converter Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 633 Appropriate authority Academy trust Chair Emma McLeod Headteacher Sarah Walker Telephone number 01287 650689 Website www.skeltonprimaryschool.co.uk/ Email address headteacher@skeltonprimaryschool.co.uk Date of previous inspection 11–12 October 2016

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The school is much larger than the average primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals is higher than that found nationally.
• Nearly all pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receiving support is well above the national average, as is the proportion who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.
• The school is part of the East Cleveland Cooperative Learning Trust (ECCLT). The ECCLT is an education trust of 14 primary schools and academies, three secondary schools and academies and one specialist academy.
• The school is an integral member of the North East Schools Teaching Alliance (NESTA).

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors visited 26 part-lessons, seven of which were observed jointly with the acting deputy headteacher.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, three governors, including the chair of the governing body, and other senior, middle and subject leaders. The inspectors held discussions with a group of teachers and a group of teaching assistants.
• The inspectors spoke informally to pupils in lessons and at various times during each day. They also spoke formally with a group of pupils from Years 2, 4 and 6 on the first day of the inspection, and a group of pupils from Years 1, 3 and 5 on the second day.
• Children from the Reception Year and pupils in Years 1, 2 and 3 read with inspectors.
• The inspectors scrutinised a range of pupils’ workbooks and information about pupils’ current progress in lessons. They also reviewed a number of documents including the school’s improvement plan, attendance records, information relating to the work the staff do to keep pupils safe, the headteacher’s reports to governors, minutes of meetings of the governing body and the external review of governance.
• Ninety-five parental responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, submitted during the 2016/17 academic year to date, were taken into account. The inspectors also spoke to parents in the playground at the beginning of both days of the inspection.

Inspection team

Belita Scott, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Gillian Nimer Ofsted Inspector Sharon Stelling Ofsted Inspector Malcolm Kirtley Her Majesty’s Inspector Debbie Redshaw Her Majesty’s Inspector