Brampton Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

• Strengthen leadership and management by:
  • developing communication and joint-working between leaders to build on the good progress established at the end of the Reception Year
  • ensuring the school’s improvement plans are sharply focused and leaders clearly evaluate the impact of their actions on pupils’ achievement.
• Ensure that pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, make more rapid progress across a wide range of subjects and across most year groups by:
  • consistently providing the most able pupils with work that stretches them
  • planning lessons that build on the knowledge, skills and understanding pupils already have, so they make the most of their learning time.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • providing opportunities for teachers to observe and learn from outstanding practice. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium funding should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of the leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The published assessment information about pupils’ performance shows that their achievement has been declining over the past three years and took a sharp downturn in 2016. Consequently, the Department for Education has categorised the school as ‘coasting’. Leaders have been quick to respond to being placed in this category and have begun to take action to make the necessary improvements.
• Recently published assessment information indicates that the pupil premium funding has not been used as effectively as it might to support the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. Leaders are now alert to this fact and they have focused the pupil premium on supporting this group with one-to-one tuition and extra support for small groups of pupils, especially in writing. While some pupils, such as those in Year 6, are progressing well, leaders have not yet ensured that disadvantaged pupils make more rapid progress across most year groups.
• School leaders have a good understanding of the issues that they need to address. The headteacher appointed a new English subject leader in September 2016, who has introduced an additional scheme to support the teaching of writing. There is evidence that the quality of writing is improving, particularly in Year 6.
• Senior leaders have also rightly focused on improving achievement in English and mathematics in key stage 1. The English subject leader is also the key stage 1 leader, and has a good overview of the areas for development. In recent years, there has been a dip in achievement in key stage 1 compared to the progress pupils made in the early years. This situation, however, is improving. Leaders carry out more regular checks on the quality of pupils’ work in English and mathematics and have introduced more frequent assessments in mathematics to ensure that pupils are acquiring the correct knowledge, skills and understanding.
• Leaders appreciate the areas they need to improve. They have developed action plans to tackle the current issues, which contain appropriate strategies, but their evaluation of their actions is not precise enough and does not focus sharply on the impact on pupils’ achievement. As a result, their evaluation of the school’s work is overly positive.
• The quality of teaching is improving. Senior leaders check on the performance of teachers effectively. They set targets for teachers that relate to the achievement of pupils, and these targets are the main foci of the school’s improvement plan. Leaders carry out lesson observations, and feed back strengths and areas for development to teachers. They plan training for staff, based on the needs identified in the school’s improvement plan and on their own areas for development. Leaders provide opportunities for teachers to observe good practice within the school, but they do not get the chance to observe outstanding practice in other schools.
• In conversations with inspectors, members of staff talked passionately about their work with pupils. They felt that they benefited from the training that leaders provided, and that the staff worked well as a team.
• In the online staff survey, staff were not wholly positive about the relationships between them and leaders. However, the members of staff who responded in this way represented a minority of the whole staff, and these opinions were not substantiated by the bulk of inspection evidence.
• The school provides a broad and rich curriculum, which contributes well to pupils’ development. Leaders enhance pupils’ learning with themed weeks, such as ‘enterprise week’, and with a variety of extra-curricular activities. These include residential visits and after-school clubs, such as football, cross-country running, crafts and cookery. Staff promote pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values well through lessons in religious education and personal, social and health education, along with planned programmes of assemblies. They organise visits, for example to a Buddhist temple, and pupils contribute to the local community by visiting senior citizens in a local residential home.
• Leaders make effective use of the primary school physical education and sports funding. They spend part of the money on joining the local high school sports cluster. This gives pupils access to competitions and to sessions in a variety of sports, such as dance, gymnastics and golf, which develop pupils’ skills well. Staff also increase their own confidence in teaching physical education by learning from the expert coaches who provide the activities.
• Leaders use funding well to provide support to pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. A new special educational needs coordinator is in place, and she has improved the quality of the provision. The school makes effective use of external support, such as speech therapy, and staff better understand the needs of their pupils because of improved planning. As a result, the majority of current pupils make good progress from their starting points.
• The adviser from the local authority has provided effective support for school leaders, especially governors, who are improving their effectiveness. He has an accurate view of the challenges the school faces, and has made a valuable contribution to the improvements that leaders have put in place.
• Most parents who spoke with inspectors or completed the online survey, Parent View, were positive about the school. They said the school communicated well with parents, responding to concerns effectively. They found teachers and leaders to be approachable and professional, and appreciated the support given to pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Governance of the school

• Governors understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school, and are familiar with the strategies that leaders have introduced to bring about improvements.
• They are well trained and have a good knowledge of safeguarding procedures.
• Governors report that they challenge senior leaders robustly. However, the records of their work, such as minutes of governing body meetings, do not accurately reflect this.
• Governors receive reports about the spending of the pupil premium funding, but have only recently become clear about how effectively it is used.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff have warm and supportive relationships with pupils, and this leads to a climate of trust and a strong culture of safeguarding. This is underpinned by staff members’ secure knowledge of safeguarding procedures and a good understanding of how to keep children safe. They know how to protect their pupils from radicalisation, and they know about the risks presented by issues, such as child sexual exploitation.
• Safeguarding records are thorough. The designated safeguarding lead follows up reports and referrals promptly.
• The school’s single central record of the checks that are carried out on all staff and volunteers at the school is thorough and compliant.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Senior leaders have started to improve the overall quality of teaching. There is effective teaching in some year groups and subjects, but this is still not evident throughout the school. There are some occasions when teaching does not sustain pupils’ interest. Consequently, pupils show a lack of attention and there is some loss of learning time. Some teachers do not build sufficiently well on pupils’ prior knowledge, understanding and skills.
• Teachers ask good questions, sometimes stretching pupils’ understanding and encouraging them to think more deeply. This is particularly noticeable in Years 1 and 2 and in Year 6, but is less obvious in other year groups. Teachers have high expectations of behaviour and there are warm and positive relationships between adults and pupils and between pupils.
• Class teachers deploy their teaching assistants well when they are providing support to pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities or to groups of less-able pupils. However, there are times when teaching assistants miss opportunities to assess pupils’ progress within the lesson.
• In English in Year 6, pupils demonstrate good levels of concentration. They show accuracy in their responses to comprehension questions and can explain the reasons for their answers. The teacher challenges the most able pupils. These pupils use accurate, advanced punctuation, for example colons and semi-colons. They use adventurous vocabulary, such as ‘even if you are considering…’ and well-structured sentences that interest the reader.
• Teachers are inconsistent in the provision of challenging work to the most able. For example, in mathematics in Year 3, pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, are acquiring appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding. They can, for example, use formal methods for multiplying and dividing two-digit numbers by one-digit numbers. However, across the school, the most able do not receive enough opportunities to deepen their learning through work that stretches them sufficiently.
• Teachers provide regular homework in English and mathematics, which pupils enjoy and are motivated to complete. The work is well matched to pupils’ abilities. Some of the work is designed to support pupils’ understanding of grammar and is completed online. The programme allows teachers to analyse which questions pupils have found difficult, so they can support them and tell them how to improve.
• Teachers have secure subject knowledge and, for the majority of pupils, they build well on what pupils already know. They encourage positive attitudes and a determination to succeed, particularly among less-able pupils.
• Teachers give pupils opportunities to apply their English and mathematical knowledge across the curriculum. For example, pupils write about volcanoes, using some technical vocabulary in physical geography, and they use mathematics to record temperatures in science.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school and they feel safe. They have a good awareness of different forms of bullying, including racist issues. Pupils say bullying is infrequent, but that adults effectively deal with any aggressive incidents if they should occur. They also say that all children are welcome in their school, regardless of race, gender or background.
• Pupils benefit from a varied range of out-of-school activities and educational visits, but they say that they would like more visits. These all contribute well to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• Pupils know about the risks posed by the internet and have a good knowledge of how to keep safe. They know that the school’s computer systems have an efficient firewall and they understand that, for example, they should never reveal their password to anyone.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils typically show positive attitudes in class and behave well. They show strong social skills when they work collaboratively in lessons. There are a few occasions when small numbers may misbehave, but their teachers have good behaviour-management skills, and pupils respond quickly to reminders about the expectations of behaviour.
• Pupils play well together on the playground, and they know that there is always an adult nearby if they have a concern of any kind. They behave well as they move about the school and are polite and willing to greet trusted adults. Attendance is above average and is improving for disadvantaged pupils. This is because leaders have encouraged better attendance through regular communications from school to parents.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils’ achievement by the end of key stage 2 has not been good enough for three years. As a result, the school meets the definition of a coasting school. Leaders acknowledge that they have shown a lack of attention to maintaining a good standard of achievement for pupils, but the notification letter on coasting from the Department for Education has concentrated their minds.
• The most recently published assessment information indicates several weaknesses, notably in writing in key stage 2, and in reading, writing and mathematics in key stage 1. School leaders have recognised the areas for concern and have put strategies in place to secure improvements. Although there is evidence of accelerated progress in some of the current year groups, such as in Year 6 and in some Year 1 and Year 2 mixed classes, pupils do not make rapid progress across most year groups, especially in writing and mathematics.
• The most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, do not make rapid progress across most year groups. This is because the work that teachers set for them is inconsistent in its level of challenge. For example, in mathematics in Year 6, pupils tackle difficult questions on rotating and translating shapes and they must give explanations for their answers. In mathematics in Year 3, however, although pupils are acquiring the appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding, the most able do not do work that is more challenging than that given to other pupils.
• Leaders do not currently make the most effective use of the pupil premium funding. They recognise that published assessment information showed many unfavourable differences in achievement between disadvantaged pupils and others nationally. Consequently, they have revised the support they provide to this group to include more one-to-one tuition and more group sessions, where staff ‘pre-teach’ a concept before the pupils meet it in class. There is evidence of good progress in writing and mathematics in Year 6 and in writing in key stage 1 for these pupils, but it is not consistent across the school.
• Currently, most of the pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. This is because the new special educational needs coordinator has improved the processes for identifying needs, and leaders have introduced new resources to provide support to pupils, such as an online reading programme.
• In key stage 1, the recently published assessment information showed that the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in phonics in Year 1 has been close to, or better than, the national average for three years.
• The published assessment information for key stage 2 for 2016, showed that pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, had higher average attainment than expected for their age in reading and in mathematics. Girls’ average attainment was also higher than the national average for girls in reading and mathematics.
• Pupils currently in the school read well for their age and ability. Most-able pupils read with a high degree of fluency and show that they understand what they are reading, inferring meaning from the text when needed. Less-able pupils use their knowledge of phonics well to help them read unfamiliar words.

Early years provision Good

• Children come into the early years with knowledge and skills that are below those typical for their age. They make good progress in their time in the setting, and the proportion of children who achieve a good level of development has been improving over time. The proportion of children who achieved a good level of development in 2016 was above the national average. This means a large majority of children are well prepared for Year 1 by the end of the Reception Year.
• The quality of teaching in the early years is good, which leads to good progress for most children, including those who are disadvantaged. Teachers question children well and plan activities that stimulate them and keep their attention. For example, children enjoy mathematics work, in which they eagerly count in sequence to 10 and beyond, and complete simple additions, explaining how they have worked them out. Others use dice to create their own number sentences and calculate their answers using practical resources.
• Teachers are inconsistent in challenging the most able. In phonics in the Reception class, for example, teachers deliver appropriate lessons for the majority of children and they confidently segment and blend words and form letters correctly. However, most-able children finish their group work quickly, but teachers do not find ways of stretching them and deepening their understanding.
• The early years leader has a secure overview of the current issues facing the early years provision, such as further improving writing and speech and language. She has effective plans to meet children’s needs and she makes good use of resources, including the pupil premium funding, to ensure good progress for disadvantaged children.
• Adults are kind, calm and caring and attend to the needs of children well. For their part, children show that they are safe by their good behaviour and positive relationships with staff. Safeguarding is effective because staff are knowledgeable about procedures and watch carefully for signs of issues that may be of concern. Children’s social skills develop well, and they cooperate well and conversation flows freely as they play.
• There are positive relationships with parents, which help to promote security and consistency in children’s lives. Parents contribute to initial assessments and attend workshops in phonics to help to develop an awareness of how to help their children learn to read. Transition arrangements into Nursery and Reception are effective and personalised to the needs of the children.
• The indoor environment is bright and well organised, with some attractive areas for children to take part in role play or to play in sand or water. However, staff do not promote reading well, because the book corner and library area are not set up in a way that effectively stimulate children’s interest in books.
• At the time of the inspection there were no breaches to the welfare requirements.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112405 Cumbria 10024385 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 Foundation 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 305 Appropriate authority The governing body Co-chairs Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Rose Logie and Gillian Hodgson Sally Geary 01697 742158 www.bramptonprimaryschool.co.uk sally.geary@brampton.cumbria.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 19–20 September 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is a larger than average size primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support in school for their special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan or a statement of special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who are supported through pupil premium funding is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The Department for Education has recently sent a letter to the co-chairs of the governing body to inform them that this is a coasting school.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors carried out observations of learning in all classes. The lead inspector carried out a series of short visits to classes jointly with the headteacher on the first day of the inspection. In addition, the headteacher was present at inspector team meetings.
• A range of documentation was scrutinised, including the school’s self-evaluation summary, action plans for school improvement, records of the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning, minutes of meetings of the governing body, behaviour logs and records connected with the safeguarding of children.
• Inspectors had discussions with various stakeholders, including the headteacher and other senior leaders, other members of staff, governors, a representative from the local authority and pupils. They also had informal conversations with parents.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and analysed pupils’ writing and mathematics, as well as their work in other subjects. They also looked at the work of children in the early years.
• Inspectors evaluated 26 responses received through Parent View (Ofsted’s online survey), 18 responses to the online staff survey and 44 responses to the pupils’ online survey.

Inspection team

Mark Quinn, lead inspector Stephen Rigby Jane Austin Sheila Iwaskow Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector