St Luke and St Philips Church of England Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to improve pupils’ achievement, particularly in reading and mathematics, so that by the end of Year 6 all groups of pupils have progressed well and are adequately prepared for secondary school. The school should do this by:
  • embedding good-quality teaching and learning across the school
  • maintaining the rigorous focus on addressing any gaps in older pupils’ learning
  • ensuring accurate assessments of pupils’ achievements in science
  • enhancing the school’s information about pupils’ achievement in the subjects where formal assessments are not currently undertaken.
• Sustain the effective improvements to attendance and further reduce persistent absence. In particular, ensure that parents of children in the Reception Year understand the importance of regular attendance in the early years.
• Strengthen leadership further by:
  • fine tuning the school’s strategy for the use of the pupil premium so that it provides sharper criteria against which leaders can measure the impact of the school’s spending on disadvantaged pupils’ achievement and personal development
  • ensuring more robust arrangements with alternative providers for communicating information about pupils’ absences.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• In the last 15 months, the headteacher has brought much-needed stability to the leadership of the school. With good support from the multi-academy trust sponsor, the headteacher and the new leadership team have halted the significant deterioration in the school’s effectiveness, staff morale and pupils’ achievement. The school has turned a corner and is now improving well.
• Leaders have ensured that recommendations made by the Department for Education in January 2016 have been addressed. Early years provision is now effective. Better teaching is improving pupils’ progress and diminishing gaps between disadvantaged pupils and others. Attendance has improved and persistent absence has reduced.
• The headteacher cares deeply about pupils. She leads the school with a strong conviction that they deserve the best possible chance to succeed. Her fervour is tangible and respected, and shared by the school’s staff.
• On assuming the leadership of the school, the headteacher undertook a critical evaluation of its effectiveness. Different rates of progress between groups of pupils and gaps in older pupils’ learning from past underachievement came under scrutiny. In the same way, the insufficient impact on disadvantaged pupils’ progress of some aspects of the school’s pupil premium spending was identified. These issues were robustly tackled.
• Significant changes were made to the organisation of teaching. Bespoke training for teachers and support staff was provided, including visits to observe effective practice in other schools. Regular checks were made on the effectiveness of teaching and some weak performance was dealt with speedily. The clear message was given that all teaching staff are accountable for pupils’ achievement and behaviour.
• The headteacher’s reorganisation of the senior leadership team and distribution of roles and responsibilities have strengthened the school’s capacity to improve. The deputy headteacher supports the headteacher well. This leader also provides strong support for the leadership of English and is ensuring more accurate assessments of pupils’ achievements in science. The leadership of English and mathematics is strong. Both the English and mathematics leaders are highly effective practitioners. They lead by example and provide valuable advisory and practical support to colleagues.
• The new inclusion manager has a good understanding of the needs and circumstances of potentially vulnerable pupils, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. There is now frequent tracking of the progress of this group and a clear focus on improving their achievement, particularly in mathematics.
• Leaders’ evaluation of the school’s work is accurate. A wide and appropriate range of information is considered when evaluating the impact of teaching in improving pupils’ learning. This includes detailed analyses of teachers’ assessments to track pupils’ progress and the progress of specific groups, such as disadvantaged pupils and the most able. Leaders use this information to direct their half-termly progress meetings with teaching staff. These inform decisions about staff support and training and feed into the school’s appraisal system.
• Leaders are committed to ensuring that pupils have a wide range of educational experiences. A designated leader has been appointed to oversee the development of the school’s creative, skills-based curriculum. In addition to daily lessons in reading, writing and mathematics, pupils study science, physical education (PE) and computing throughout the year. Other subjects are studied half-termly.
• In addition to assessments in reading, writing and mathematics, pupils’ achievements in science, music and PE are regularly assessed. Assessment is at an early stage of development in most other subjects. However, subject leaders are now starting to evaluate the impact of teaching on learning in their subjects.
• Leaders are focused on improving pupils’ basic skills, but are also keen to address limitations in pupils’ experience of music, art and competitive sport.
• The additional sport and PE funding has been used very effectively to this end. Expert teachers and coaches work alongside staff in all year groups, increasing teachers’ confidence and skill. The same is happening in music, where key stage 2 pupils are learning to play the ukulele.
• Visits from poets, artists and drama workshops enhance pupils’ learning and enjoyment of school. So do the trips to places of interest, which are linked to the topics pupils are studying. A varied and changing range of extra-curricular activities, including sport, dance, science, cookery, eco-club and homework is provided for pupils in key stages 1 and 2.
• The curriculum makes a very positive contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their understanding of fundamental British values. Pupils study French and learn about the music, art, dance and customs of their own and other cultures. In personal, social and health education lessons, they consider issues such as race and equality, discrimination and gender stereotypes.

Governance of the school

• There has been good improvement to governance. The governors are a dedicated team and bring a range of expertise to support the school’s improvement. They are frequent visitors to the school and undertake regular training to improve their effectiveness.
• Governors have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Their good understanding of performance data enables them to question and challenge school leaders about pupils’ progress and how well different groups of pupils are achieving. A dedicated governor oversees the effectiveness of the school’s pupil premium spending and the additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• In committee meetings, governors ask pertinent questions about the use and impact of both of these types of funding. However, while these systems are appropriate and the school’s pupil premium strategy is detailed, its success criteria are focused more on processes than pupils’ outcomes. Where outcomes are referenced, these are not sufficiently sharp or measurable. Consequently, other sources of information have to be consulted to determine how well this funding is improving pupils’ outcomes. Inspectors were able to do this and confirm that the pupil premium is being used effectively. However, the published pupil premium strategy does not give enough detail on the impact of the school’s spending on pupils’ outcomes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders are committed to keeping pupils safe. Staff recruitment includes rigorous checks on individuals’ suitability to work with children. Once appointed, regular child protection training ensures staff understand their responsibilities and know what to do if they have concerns about a pupil’s safety or well-being. Rigorous systems ensure that any child protection concerns that are reported are followed up diligently. Records of communication with various professional agencies, pupils and their parents are comprehensive.
• The designated leaders for safeguarding work effectively to establish productive links with parents of potentially vulnerable pupils and offer them support. The school’s website provides useful information for parents, for example about e-safety, to help them keep their children safe. The vast majority of parents who responded to the school’s recent survey agreed that their children are well looked after and feel safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching has improved significantly over the last 15 months. The impact is evident in lessons, pupils’ books and the school’s assessment information showing current pupils’ improved progress.
• The school has invested significantly in the training of support staff to a strong level of competence. This has worked well. There are now many more adults who make a real difference to pupils’ learning, thereby bringing about the rapid improvement needed.
• This increased teaching resource is being used very effectively to meet the needs of specific groups, including pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Pupils who are learning English also benefit significantly from small-group teaching, which is tailored to their developing language needs.
• Assessment information is used effectively to organise teaching groups. Consequently, the needs of pupils who require additional challenge or support, for example to fill gaps in learning from earlier underachievement, are met well, albeit not yet to the extent that pupils’ overall achievement can be judged good.
• Teachers and support staff are a committed group and have risen well to leaders’ high and uncompromising expectations of their performance. They have secure subject knowledge. Most are skilled in explaining new ideas clearly and use questioning well to check pupils’ understanding. In mathematics, for example, teachers require pupils to explain the strategies they have used for calculations and to solve problems.
• From the early years upwards, the teaching of phonics is a strength. The teaching of reading comprehension and higher-order reading skills, such as inference and deduction, is currently receiving significant attention from teachers and support staff in daily reading sessions. Similarly, pupils’ vocabulary and stamina in reading is being developed well. This is enabling all groups of pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, to achieve better reading skills.
• While there are no marked variations in the quality of teaching across the school, there is evidence of consistently strong teaching in some year groups in both key stages. In a minority of year groups, consistently good teaching is still being embedded.
• The teaching of mathematics has improved. The books of pupils with middle prior attainment, including disadvantaged pupils, show that they are being challenged well to reach higher standards. Scrutiny of the most able pupils’ books shows that they are generally given work that builds well on what they know to deepen their understanding. In the small number of instances where this is not happening consistently, the mathematics leader is providing teachers with good support to ensure these pupils reach their potential.
• Writing is taught well. Teachers exploit opportunities for pupils to practise writing skills across the curriculum. They expect pupils to use well-constructed sentences, with good spelling and punctuation. In particular, pupils’ work in history and geography demonstrates their application of what they have learned in literacy lessons. Overall, all groups of pupils are progressing well in writing.
• Teachers provide pupils with useful feedback to help them improve their work. They plan interesting homework tasks that support and extend what pupils have learned in class.
• Teachers have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and application to work. The warm but firm relationships they engender with pupils enable them to realise these expectations and contribute well to the good learning that is now occurring.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The pupils who spoke with inspectors said they feel safe in school. They were able to talk about different types of bullying and knew what to do if they experienced this or saw it happening to others. Pupils said that this type of behaviour occurs at times, but that there is much less than there used to be. They considered that any concerns they share with staff are always taken seriously and they expressed confidence in the school’s systems for dealing with bullying.
• The pupils are very clear about the need to respect and value people’s differences. They demonstrate a respectful insight into diversity. One pupil said ‘Learning about different religions helps you understand what people believe so you can respect what they think even if you don’t agree.’
• Pupils said that they occasionally hear racist and homophobic remarks. However, pupils were fully aware of the derogatory nature of this behaviour and the impact it has on people’s emotional well-being. In explaining their views, the pupils referred to work they had done about the British values of individual liberty and respect.
• Pupils have an informed understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They explained the dangers of sharing personal information on the internet. They also have a good insight into how to stay healthy. Pupils cited eating a balanced diet, drinking water, getting plenty of exercise and sleep, having a good attitude and not getting stressed.
• Most pupils said that they enjoy school. They consider that their learning is improving and have noticed the differences in teaching. Some of the most able pupils consider that they are now getting more interesting work and are pleased that they do not have to wait for everyone to finish before doing the harder challenges. Others felt that they are still repeating some work unnecessarily. Middle-attaining pupils felt that their work is challenging and at the right level.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils consider that the majority of behaviour is good most of the time. They explained that behaviour at lunchtime is not as good as it is in lessons, but is better when lunchtime supervisors organise games to keep pupils occupied.
• Prefects in Year 6 are conscientious about setting a good role model for behaviour. Typically, pupils are polite and show respect for staff and visitors. In lessons, pupils are well behaved and pay good attention to teachers. They start work quickly and apply themselves well to tasks. Pupils take pride in their work and present it neatly.
• Attendance has improved considerably in response to leaders’ concerted focus on this aspect of pupils’ personal development and safeguarding. Calls home on the first day of a pupil’s absence mean that the school can keep track of any pupils who might be at risk or who may have gone missing.
• The well-being officer’s work with parents and pupils has been particularly beneficial in helping to reduce persistent absence. Incentives for pupils to attend well, and penalty notices for parents where attendance remains a concern, have also contributed to the improved picture.
• While the attendance of current pupils in most year groups now matches or is close to the national average, the attendance of children in the Reception Year is much lower. Some of this absence is due to illness. However, some reflects parents’ view that learning is not as important in the early years as it is in later year groups.
• Communication between the school and alternative providers about pupils’ academic progress and behaviour is good. However, the arrangements for sharing information about pupils’ absence are not sufficiently robust.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2015, the school did not meet the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6. Many groups of pupils underachieved, including disadvantaged pupils and the most able. The standards reached by pupils at the end of Year 2 were also significantly below average.
• The school’s 2016 national test and assessment results were better, particularly for Year 2 pupils where pupils had fewer gaps in their learning to overcome. Weaknesses were still evident, however, in key stage 2 pupils’ progress in reading and mathematics. Disadvantaged pupils, who had attained average standards at the end of key stage 1, made less progress than most other groups. In mathematics, this was also the case for pupils who had special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• A thorough analysis of the 2016 key stage 2 reading results enabled leaders to identify weaknesses in pupils’ understanding of texts, reading stamina and use of vocabulary. In response, radical changes have been made to the teaching of these aspects of reading this year, which are paying off.
• The school’s assessment information for reading shows that the majority of key stage 2 pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, and the most able disadvantaged pupils, are making at least the progress expected by the school’s ambitious targets. There are also pockets of accelerated progress in reading, notably so for the most able pupils. Listening to pupils read in lessons and individually to inspectors, it is clear that they are enjoying more challenging texts and improving comprehension and higher-order reading skills.
• In mathematics, an additional daily session focused on developing basic numeracy skills and applying them to solve problems, is proving beneficial. This initiative, and the adaptations that have been made to the overall organisation of teaching, is having a positive impact on boosting progress. As with reading, the majority of current pupils are making at least the progress expected by the school and a significant minority are doing better than this. The school’s assessment information and pupils’ work does not reflect any notable differences between the progress of disadvantaged pupils and others.
• The most recent statutory assessments of key stage 2 pupils’ writing showed that all groups made at least expected progress from their starting points at the end of key stage 1. Current pupils’ progress is similarly consistent across different groups.
• School leaders are rightly proud of the continuing success of pupils’ achievement in the Year 1 phonics check. In particular, disadvantaged pupils’ attainment in this aspect of reading has regularly been above the national average. Year 2 pupils achieved well in the 2016 statutory assessments. Standards in reading, writing and mathematics were similar to pupils nationally with the same starting points. Disadvantaged pupils achieved particularly well in all of these subjects.
• While pupils’ outcomes are not yet good, the improvements in progress for current pupils, many of whom are disadvantaged, show that the school is making effective use of the pupil premium funding.
• The school’s assessment information shows that the year group progress data of current pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is more variable than that of other groups. However, because of the small number of pupils in this group compared to larger groups, such as disadvantaged pupils, the data has to be treated with caution. The school’s assessment information for individual pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities reflects that there are no major concerns about the progress of the group as a whole.
• The rate of progress of pupils who speak English as an additional language is at least in line with other pupils and at times more rapid.
• Pupils’ books and the school’s curriculum plans show that pupils develop knowledge and skills in a wide range of subjects. However, in most subjects assessment is only just beginning. Consequently, it is not possible to determine the strength of progress across year groups or for particular groups of pupils in all the subjects pupils study.

Early years provision Good

• Children’s skills and knowledge on beginning the Reception Year are generally below those typical for their age. Historically, few children have made accelerated progress and only just over half reached the expected standards by the end of the year. However, early years provision has improved considerably in the last year.
• Effective leadership has secured good-quality teaching and a suitable environment for children to learn and develop. As a result, children are making much better progress than in the past. Currently, almost 70% are on track to achieve the good level of development needed by the end of the year to be ready for work in Year 1. This proportion is currently just above the 2016 national average.
• The new early years setting now gives children opportunities to learn outdoors. The leader has organised and resourced this area very well. It excites and stimulates the children’s curiosity and develops all aspects of their learning through purposeful play.
• Teaching is very effective. Staff are well trained and understand how young children learn. In adult-led activities, they explain and demonstrate new ideas in ways that children understand. They introduce new vocabulary and give the children lots of opportunities to talk about their work and practise new skills in fun and meaningful ways. For example, children’s counting skills and understanding of addition were developed well as children counted and combined sets of different coloured dinosaurs.
• Adults are also skilful in intervening in children’s play to extend their learning. They make regular assessments of children’s achievements and meet frequently to determine the next steps in their learning.
• The children behave well and grow in confidence because they like and trust the adults. The well-established routines help them feel safe. Children listen carefully to the adults and try hard to please them. They often sustain interest for lengthy periods in activities, showing developing concentration and perseverance.
• Home visits before the children start school help to establish good relationships with parents. Day-to-day communication with parents is good. Useful workshops and practical homework tasks enable parents to support their children’s learning at home.

School details

Unique reference number 140559 Local authority Blackburn with Darwen Inspection number 10022807 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 Academy sponsor-led 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 199 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Michael Philipson Samantha O’Connell Telephone number 01254 54866 Website Email address www.stlukesblackburn.uk office@slsp.blackburn.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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 opened as a sponsored academy on 1 May 2015. It is part of the Cidari Multi-Academy Trust. When its predecessor school was last inspected in 2013 it was judged to require improvement.
• The school is smaller than the average primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is high.
• Around a third of the pupils are White British. Other pupils come from a variety of minority ethnic groups, with most being of Pakistani heritage.
• A high proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language. Few are at an early stage of learning to speak English.
• A high proportion of pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The proportion with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who leave and join the school other than at the usual times of admission and transfer is above average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• A breakfast and after-school club is provided.
• Changes to the school’s early years provision have occurred in the last year. The provision is no longer housed in the children’s centre, but in a separate building on the school’s site. The provision now caters only for children in the Reception Year.
• The school has experienced significant disruption at leadership level. The current headteacher has been leading the school since September 2015.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in each class. They checked pupils’ work, listened to them read and reviewed the school’s assessment information about their progress and attainment.
• Inspectors held two formal discussions with pupils and spoke with others informally in lessons and at playtime and lunchtime.
• A range of school documentation was reviewed. This included the school’s evaluation of its effectiveness, school improvement plans and information about teachers’ performance. Safeguarding information and records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance were scrutinised.
• Inspectors held discussions with senior leaders, governors and the chief executive of Cidari Multi-Academy Trust.
• There were too few responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, to provide an overview of parents’ responses to the 12 survey questions. However, a written response by one parent was considered. Inspectors took account of 37 parental responses to a recent school survey of parents’ views. The lead inspector spoke to a small number of parents as they brought their children to school.
• Inspectors considered nine responses to the online pupil survey and six responses to the online staff survey.

Inspection team

Margot D’Arcy, lead inspector Jean Robinson

Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector