Yarm Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Eradicate any remaining variations in the quality of teaching, especially in key stage 1, so that pupils make consistently good and better progress by ensuring that:
  • all staff have the highest expectations of what pupils can, and should, achieve, including in the presentation of their work
  • the good practice that is evident in most of the teaching at the school continues to be systematically shared across all years so that pupils make even better progress.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher leads the school with a clear moral purpose. She knows the school and the community it serves well. She leads by example and expects the best from herself, staff and pupils. She is accurate in her view of how the school is doing. She is clear about what needs to be done to improve it even further.
• The headteacher has put in place a range of effective measures to ensure that teaching is continually improving. As a result, pupils make generally strong progress. Leaders use the information they gather about staff performance to identify needs and inform their planning. There are regular discussions across the school about what constitutes effective teaching and learning. Staff said that they appreciated this process and the opportunities it gave them to improve their practice.
• Leaders have developed strong systems to check how well the school is doing. These are supported by the work of the trust. Information about pupils’ progress is gathered regularly. Staff use this information to focus teaching on what pupils need to do next to make good progress.
• Middle leadership is a strength of the school. Working with the trust and the local governing body, the headteacher has systematically supported and developed middle leaders. Increasingly, middle leaders play an important role in monitoring the quality of teaching through learning walks. They are beginning to play an important role in the sharing of good practice. They also lead regular training for teachers and support staff. They contribute very effectively to school-wide initiatives such the whole-school approach to reading.
• The curriculum at the school is very carefully and effectively planned. It offers pupils a wide range of interesting opportunities, both in and out of the classroom, to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need. The curriculum is well balanced and helps ensure that pupils not only develop and deepen their knowledge and skills in English, mathematics and science but also in a wide range of other subjects. Art and music, for example, are important elements of the curriculum. Pupils spoke animatedly about how much they gained from the study of these important subjects.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, cultural and social development lies at the heart of the curriculum. Leaders at the school ensure that all pupils have a wide range of opportunities to develop as thoughtful, engaged and reflective young citizens, keenly aware of the needs of others. For example, pupils at the school have been fully involved in the Yarm 1914 centenary events that culminated in the laying of blessed wreaths on 11 November 2018.
• Disadvantaged pupils make generally strong progress, similar to that of their peers. This is because the headteacher, supported by the local governing body, is determined that no pupil is disadvantaged by their circumstances. The school works hard and imaginatively to remove barriers to these pupils’ access to learning and success. Pupil premium funding is well used.
• The additional funding the school receives to support pupils with SEND is used effectively. The leader for this aspect of the school’s work has been successful in ensuring that carefully thought out actions are put in place to meet these pupils’ needs. He has also, through careful monitoring, assured the positive effect of these actions. As a result, these pupils make good progress from their starting points. The parents of pupils with SEND who spoke to inspectors said that they were very satisfied with the provision and support the school offers them and their children.
• The physical education and sport premium is used well. This aspect of the school’s work is well led. The school offers many activities through which pupils can explore and understand the importance of healthy life styles. The additional funding is also used effectively to provide professional development for staff.
• The vast majority of parents with whom inspectors spoke said that they were very satisfied with the service the school offers them and their children. As one parent said of the early years team, ‘Staff are just like parents here. They know the children so well.’

Governance of the school

• The local governing body knows the school and the community it serves well. It is well supported by the trust. As a result, it is effective in holding the school and its leaders to account for the quality of the provision at the school.
• Local governors visit the school regularly to monitor its work. They have increasingly detailed and effective links with subject and phase leaders. As a result, they are very well informed and able, working with the trust, to make a positive contribution to the continued progress of the school.
• The trust’s officers visit the school regularly to check on performance and hold leaders to account for their work. They use the information they gather during these visits to plan training and support for individual members and groups of staff.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Procedures and systems for checking the suitability of visitors and staff are strong. There are rigorous checks in place to assure staff’s suitability to work with children.
• The headteacher ensures that there is a culture in the school where staff have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and of the procedures that keep pupils safe. As a result, staff promptly identify and appropriately support potentially vulnerable pupils. They also engage tenaciously with outside agencies to ensure that pupils and their families get the support that they require and deserve.
• The headteacher, working with the trust, ensures that all staff and governors are well trained and skilled in safeguarding matters. There are regular training sessions to keep staff informed and up to date.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe because of the school’s actions. They have many opportunities to learn and understand how to stay safe through the subjects they study, class time and during assemblies. Pupils told the inspectors that they regularly learn about how to stay safe online.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Although there are some inconsistencies in the quality of teaching, particularly in key stage 1, overall, teaching, learning and assessment are good.
• Staff show good levels of subject knowledge, skill and enthusiasm. Year teams plan and monitor the effect of their teaching together. They use the detailed information that they gather about pupils’ progress to focus their teaching. As a result, pupils are engaged and can see where their learning is going. They take real pleasure in finding out. They rise to the high expectations of the majority of staff.
• The school’s classrooms are attractive places to learn in. There are well-maintained displays that celebrate pupils’ work. There are also, in each classroom, displays that support the topic currently being studied. Pupils use these well to support their learning. Pupils take pride in their classrooms.
• Positive routines are evident in almost all classrooms and around the school. This is because relationships among pupils and between adults and pupils are strong. They are relaxed yet purposeful. In this climate of trust and understanding it is alright to get things wrong. Pupils know that trying out a range of ways to address, for example, a knotty mathematics problem leads to better learning.
• Staff, including both teachers and teaching assistants, use questioning effectively to deepen and extend pupils’ knowledge and skills. Inspectors saw examples of staff using persistent yet kindly questioning to elicit detailed and well-illustrated answers from pupils. Pupils said that they liked being challenged. As one pupil said to the lead inspector, ‘We are very ambitious. But in a good way!’
• Teaching assistants are carefully and well deployed. They are skilled. They receive regular training to develop these skills and have the same access to support from senior staff as teachers have. Their performance is carefully monitored. Teaching assistants told inspectors that they appreciated this inclusive approach.
• The teaching of subjects such as music and art is a strength of the school. Pupils spoke with real pleasure about the versions of Van Gogh’s self-portrait that they had painted. One pupil was particularly taken with the way the mood of the sitter, the artist himself, was evident in the uneven upturn of his mouth. The pupil said that he had tried to capture this in his version.
• Pupils who are most able generally have opportunities both in English and in other subjects to write at length to develop their ideas and deepen their knowledge and understanding. Inspectors saw examples of written work of high quality. However, they also saw examples where opportunities were missed to deepen these pupils’ learning through writing at greater length.
• Phonics is effectively taught across the school. Children and pupils are engaged by skilled staff, who develop pupils’ reading skills carefully and regularly check progress to help ensure that no one is left behind.
• Overall, reading is a developing strength of the school. Pupils have increasingly more opportunities to develop their skills to read and explore the language of books. The leader for reading has carefully monitored the effect of the whole-school approach to reading. Working with senior staff, she has made positive changes that further enhance this aspect of the school’s work.
• The vast majority of staff have high expectations of what pupils can and should do. Sometimes, when these expectations are not of the highest order, pupils do not make the progress that they should. Nor do they take sufficient care with the presentation of their work. Inspectors saw examples of poor, untidy presentation in some pupils’ books which was going unchallenged by staff.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• The school creates a secure environment where pupils take pleasure in learning. Pupils are encouraged to explore ideas and challenge stereotypes. They are open, friendly and kind. The school provides careful, sensitive support for pupils who need additional care to keep them on the right track.
• Pupils who need additional support are very well cared for and supported by the school. Leaders have put in place very rigorous systems to help ensure that any barriers to the learning and well-being of pupils are identified and systematically overcome. Parents with whom inspectors spoke gave a wide range of examples where staff at the school had worked very well with them to support their children. This was often by acting tenaciously on parents’ behalf with outside agencies to ensure that the children and families get the support they need.
• Pupils are extremely well informed about how to keep themselves safe at school and when out and about in the community. They also know how to keep safe online. This is because the school runs regular sessions, often including outside speakers, to help ensure that pupils know about risk and how to reduce it.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves healthy and adopt healthy life styles. School meals are nutritious and well balanced. Pupils are aware of what constitutes a healthy life style. There are many opportunities for pupils to engage in sport and similar physical activities. The take-up of these opportunities is high. It is carefully monitored to ensure that all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, can take advantage of this important aspect of the school’s work.
• Pupils report that there is no bullying at the school. Pupils are very clear about the forms that bullying can take. They said that if they felt unhappy, or concerned, they would tell an adult at the school. Pupils reported that they were very confident that staff would deal with it promptly and effectively. Pupils said that the listening spider was always available as a route to staff.
• Pupils have a range of opportunities to understand key aspects of what it is to be a citizen. For example, Year 6 pupils, in preparation for meeting with the local Member of Parliament, put together a number of questions to ask him. One of these was, ‘Would you trust the defence secretary with your life?’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Pupils are appropriately confident, self-assured and sensitive to the needs of others. They are very proud of their school and wear their uniform smartly. There is no litter.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school. Attendance is consistently above the national average for all groups of pupils at the school.
• Pupils have many opportunities, both in and out of school to develop the skills they need to engage with, empathise and understand other people and the wider world. For example, they collect money and other items, such as food, as acts of charity for the benefit of local, national and international communities. The school emphasises and celebrates the importance of this work. As one display in the school states: ‘Our children are philanthropists.’
• Pupils have excellent attitudes to learning. Pupils want to learn and improve because of the teaching, care and challenge they receive from the vast majority of staff at the school. They are increasingly taking more control of, and responsibility for, their own learning.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Children make good progress in the early years. In 2018, the proportion of children reaching a good level of development was above the average achieved nationally. This has been the case for the past three years.
• Provisional information for 2018 shows that the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check was above the national average. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard by end of Year 2 was just above the national average.
• By the end of Year 2, most pupils make good progress from their starting points. Provisional information for 2018 indicates that the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 was above that found nationally. Across all three subjects, more boys than girls achieved at the higher standard.
• Provisional information for 2018 shows that the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 was above that found nationally. In reading and writing, more girls than boys achieved at the higher standard. In mathematics, more boys than girls achieved at the higher standard.
• Across the school, disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points. The differences between the outcomes of these pupils and those of their peers are negligible. This is because staff are fully aware of the barriers to learning and needs of the disadvantaged pupils in their care. Teaching is carefully focused on supporting them so that they make good progress.
• Pupils with SEND make generally good progress because of the staff’s detailed knowledge of their needs and teaching which breaks down tasks into manageable steps.
• A scrutiny of current pupils’ books and folders in a range of subjects and years across the school shows that pupils, particularly the most able, make surer progress in key stage 2 than in key stage 1. However, across the school, but particularly in key stage 1, there is variability in the presentation of pupils’ work. Staff expectations of what is acceptable are too variable. Inspectors saw examples, particularly in mathematics, where poor presentation hampered learning.

Early years provision Good

• The leadership of the early years is good. The leader has established an effective team of teachers and teaching assistants who have a wide range of skills that they are keen to improve further. Staff feel valued. They contribute fully to the planning and the monitoring of children’s progress.
• Most children enter the early years provision with skills and knowledge typical for their age. They settle well because of the staff’s care, knowledge and planning. Parents told inspectors that the provision’s open communication is a real strength. Parents said that they are kept fully informed and feel able to speak to staff about their children at any time. They also welcomed the many opportunities that they have to stay and play with their children.
• Ensuring that children have many opportunities to use and develop language is a high priority in the provision. Inspectors saw staff carefully modelling language when they spoke with children. They used questioning expertly to encourage and extend children’s vocabulary and confidence with words. For example, in a Nursery activity, an inspector saw adults expertly drawing on children’s prior knowledge about shapes to talk about cones and rockets. Activities like this are having a very positive impact on children’s confidence and facility with language.
• The learning areas in the early years, both inside and out, are interesting and full of things to do that help children explore language and numbers together. Children are safe and feel safe. Relationships among children and between adults and children are marked by fun, care and taking turns. Classroom routines of give and take and enquiry are carefully established and developed in the early years.
• Phonics is well taught. Inspectors saw children taking real pleasure in learning and exploring new sounds. Staff worked expertly to encourage children. They intervened promptly where children were unsure. As a result, children make good progress in their reading.
• Children behave well. They enjoy talking to visitors and explaining what they are doing. They were particularly pleased to talk about the books they were reading.
• Support for children with SEND is well targeted so that they make good progress both in their learning and in their ability to work with others. Progress is carefully monitored and parents are kept regularly informed about how their children are doing.
• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year is consistently above the national average. Early years staff work with the trust and with other schools to assure the accuracy of their judgements. Children are well prepared for Year 1.

School details

Unique reference number 140599 Local authority Stockton-on-Tees Inspection number 10012453 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 Academy sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 408 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Jack Harrison Jill Wood 01642 782731 yarmprimaryschool.net/ yarmpri.school@stockton.gov.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Yarm Primary school is a larger than the average-sized primary school.
• Most pupils are White British. 
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND is above average.
• The school offers a breakfast club and a range of other sessions before school. The school also offers a range of clubs and activities after school.
• The school has a Nursery provision that offers both morning and afternoon sessions.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in all classes across the school. A proportion of these lessons were jointly observed with the headteacher. Inspectors listened to pupils from Years 5 and 3 read. They also talked with pupils across the school about their experience of reading, both in and out of school.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, the SENCo, middle leaders and staff responsible for managing attendance. The lead inspector met with officers of the Enquire Learning Trust and with a member of the local governing body.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of the school’s documentation, including that related to safeguarding, achievement and the quality of teaching, attendance and behaviour.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour and conduct at breaktimes and lunchtimes. They spoke informally with pupils about their experience and attitudes to school during these times. Inspectors also spoke more formally with pupils from Year 6 and from the school council about the range of opportunities the school offered them to explore and enjoy learning.
• Inspectors scrutinised a sample of pupils’ work from all year groups and in a range of subjects.
• Inspectors also spoke with parents and carers at the start and end of the school day to seek their opinions of the school’s work and care for their children. They also reviewed the 59 responses to Parent View. The lead inspector also reviewed responses from 21 parents received via the free-text facility.

Inspection team

Mark Evans, lead inspector Gillian Nimer Susan Waugh Kathryn McDonald

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector