Leyland St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that leaders make regular checks on the quality of teaching
  • ensuring that all leaders rigorously hold teachers to account for the progress pupils make.
• Improve teaching and learning to raise pupils’ achievement by:
  • increasing teachers’ expectations so that pupils make the progress of which they are capable
  • ensuring that activities are challenging enough for the most able
  • giving pupils more opportunities to read widely and often, and to practise their comprehension skills.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The headteacher was rightly disappointed with the achievement of pupils in 2016. She quickly set about improving the quality of teaching to raise pupils’ progress, but these improvements are not yet rapid enough. The quality of teaching is still too variable across the school.
• Leaders make checks on the quality of teaching, but these checks do not focus closely enough on ensuring that teachers have high expectations of what pupils, particularly the most able, can achieve.
• Arrangements for the management of staff performance are in place. Staff have valued the effective professional development provided by the deputy headteacher. This has led to improvements in teaching. Nonetheless, the training that teachers have received to help them to teach reading has not been effective enough. Consequently, pupils’ achievement in reading requires improvement.
• The use of funding to support disadvantaged pupils is not yet fully effective. Disadvantaged pupils’ progress is not yet rapid enough across all subjects. The use of the funding to support pupils’ emotional well-being, however, has resulted in an improvement in the attendance of disadvantaged pupils. Consequently, they are now beginning to make better progress, particularly in writing and mathematics.
• Leaders use funding well to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Consequently, these pupils now make better progress from their starting points than previously, albeit inconsistently so in reading.
• The government’s sport premium funding is spent well. For example, specialist coaches deliver physical education lessons and, increasingly, more pupils take part in sporting activities. This contributes to pupils developing healthy lifestyles.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced, and pupils enjoy studying a range of topics, which contribute to their understanding of the world in which they live. Pupils’ learning is enhanced by a range of visits and visitors, for example pupils in Year 5 visit the local museum and pupils in Year 6 experience a residential visit. Pupils are given opportunities to develop their art and musical skills, for instance Year 5 pupils studied the work of Picasso and produced their own successful interpretations of his work.
• Pupils have an understanding of British values. A different value is celebrated each month and pupils receive awards in assembly for demonstrating that value. They have gained an understanding of democracy through a topic on the Ancient Greeks. They have also learned about other faiths and cultures through assemblies and circle time. This allows them to develop an understanding of tolerance.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Pupils have opportunities to be involved in a range of experiences, for example the school choir, which performed in the local community. Other pupils have visited local theatres and different places of worship. Pupils regularly contribute to a range of charities, including collecting food for vulnerable families in their own community.
• The adviser from the local authority has provided effective support for leaders, particularly governors, many of whom are new to their role. He has an accurate view of the school’s position and has made a value contribution to improvements in the school. For example, governors now have a better understanding of the data used to help measure the school’s effectiveness.

Governance of the school

• Some governors are new to their role and are keen to help improve the school, but currently they do not hold leaders closely enough to account for the quality of teaching and the progress that pupils make.
• Recently, because of effective support from the local authority, governors have a better understanding of the assessment information they are given. As a result, they are more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the school.
• Governors have a good understanding of the way in which the pupil premium funding is spent. They know that the appointment of a family support worker has improved disadvantaged pupils’ attendance. Governors know, however, that funding needs to have a more positive effect on disadvantaged pupils’ progress.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• One of the strengths of the school is the relationships between pupils and adults. There is a climate of trust, and this helps to ensure a strong culture of safeguarding. The family support worker has very good relationships with disadvantaged families to ensure that they receive appropriate support.
• Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding procedures; they are well trained and know how to keep pupils safe.
• The school’s single central record of the checks that are carried out on all staff are thorough and compliant.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not consistently good across the school. Senior leaders have started to improve the quality of teaching, and there is effective teaching in some subjects and in some year groups. However, teachers do not always have high-enough expectations about what pupils can achieve, and, consequently, their progress is not rapid enough, particularly in reading.
• The most able pupils do not always reach the standards of which they are capable, because sometimes teachers do not stretch these pupils’ understanding and encourage them to think more deeply.
• The teaching of reading is inconsistent. Not enough pupils read often enough to improve their reading skills, and there are insufficient opportunities for pupils to practise their comprehension skills and deepen their understanding of the books they are reading.
• When teaching is most effective, teachers ask searching questions, match the work to the abilities of the pupils and make it crystal clear what they intend pupils to learn. When the teaching is less effective, pupils are not always clear what they are learning and how best to improve.
• The teaching of mathematics is effective. Pupils have opportunities to use practical equipment to solve problems and use their reasoning skills. As a result, the progress pupils are making in mathematics is improving.
• The teaching of writing is improving. Leaders recognise that pupils would benefit from opportunities to write even more regularly to help pupils to progress more rapidly.
• The teaching of phonics has improved recently, and younger pupils better use their phonics skills to help them read unfamiliar words.
• Teachers provide regular homework in English and mathematics, which most pupils enjoy completing. Homework helps to consolidate pupils’ skills, particularly in writing and mathematics.
• Teaching in science and history allows pupils to gain a range of knowledge about a variety of topics. For example, pupils in Year 2 had a good understanding of the events that occurred during the Great Fire of London. Year 4 pupils were able to recount how people lived in the Stone Age.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils say everyone gets along together well. They have a good understanding of the different forms of bullying, including prejudiced-based bullying. They say on the very rare occasion that bullying does occur, it is dealt with swiftly and effectively by teachers.
• Pupils say they feel safe in school and the vast majority of parents agree. Pupils know how to keep themselves safe on the internet. Even the youngest pupils could tell inspectors ‘you need to check before you click’.
• Pupils are proud of their school and they say that all children are welcome in their school regardless of race, gender or background.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils and staff say that behaviour has improved in recent months. This is because behaviour is very well managed. Pupils who sometimes have difficulty controlling their actions are very well supported and do not disturb the work of others.
• Pupils are polite and well-mannered and they move around school in an orderly fashion. Many pupils were observed by inspectors holding doors open and saying please and thank you.
• There has recently been an improvement in the proportion of disadvantaged pupils who attend school regularly. The school has robust procedures to chase up absentees and ensure that they attend school regularly. Overall attendance is improving less rapidly, but this is mainly due to an outbreak of illness in the autumn term.
• There has also been a significant improvement in pupils’ punctuality. Most pupils are now on time for school because they are keen to get the day off to a good start.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Outcomes in the national assessments and tests in 2016 showed a below average proportion of pupils attained the expected standard, particularly in reading and writing in both key stages 1 and 2. Leaders recognised the areas of concern, and put strategies in place to secure improvements. Although there is evidence of better progress for all pupils, this is not yet rapid enough, particularly in reading.
• Current assessment information and work in pupils’ books indicate that pupils now make better progress in writing and mathematics than previously.
• The number of pupils who achieved the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check improved in 2016. Currently, pupils in Year 1 are making better progress in phonics, and more are working at the level expected for their age. This is because there is a clear focus on the use of phonics to read unfamiliar words.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the higher standards was well below the national average in 2016. In reading, for example, pupils are not always able to precisely deduce information from a text, or clearly discuss why an author chooses the words they use.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported in their learning, but the progress that they make is not always consistently high enough, particularly in reading. This is because they are not always given enough opportunities to talk about what they are reading.
• Disadvantaged pupils’ progress is too variable. In some year groups, leaders’ work to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils is successful, and the difference between the school’s disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally is diminishing. However, the progress of these pupils is not consistently high across the school. The progress of the most able disadvantaged pupils is also inconsistent because teachers do not always have high enough expectations of these pupils.
• The school’s current assessment information, coupled with pupils’ work, highlights that achievement in reading is not as good as it could be. This is predominantly because there are not enough opportunities for developing reading comprehension skills across the school.
• Achievement in mathematics is improving. Pupils are more confident at problem solving and reasoning mathematically. More pupils now work at the level expected for their age.
• Pupils now make better progress in writing. Pupils have more opportunities to develop the skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling, but leaders acknowledge that pupils would benefit from writing even more frequently so that they have opportunities to apply these skills.

Early years provision Good

• The new leadership in the early years has ensured that teaching has rapidly improved. As a result, children make much better progress. More children are now on track to achieve a good level of development at the end of Reception.
• Overall, children enter the Nursery with skills and knowledge that are typically below those expected for their age. Good teaching and an early emphasis on language acquisition and development in the first few months mean children make rapid progress and attain well.
• Teachers and teaching assistants know the children extremely well and there are excellent relationships. Adults probe, question and engage with children to develop their learning across all areas of the curriculum. For example, a group of children acted out rowing a pirate ship to Australia. Skilful, adult-led discussion allowed the children to demonstrate their knowledge of telescopes and sea creatures. Other children worked independently to make puppets and then produced a show about princesses.
• Children are extremely keen to learn and are very inquisitive and resilient in their learning. A group of children in the Reception class built boats for the gingerbread man. One child commented, ‘this will float because it is made of plastic’.
• Children enjoy learning outdoors; one group of children were busy working together to build a bridge. They demonstrated sustained concentration and an ability to listen to each other’s opinions.
• Behaviour is good. Adults are calm, kind and caring and they attend to the needs of children very well.
• The procedures for assessing the children are robust. Teachers and other adults observe and talk with children about their learning. They then move the children on in their learning or create activities to match their interests.
• Relationships with parents are good, and parents say they value the chance to talk with staff each morning. Parents are asked to a play a part in their children’s learning in a variety of ways, including by telling the school about ‘wow’ moments at home. This involvement contributes to the good progress children make.
• Children are extremely safe and staff ensure that rigorous safeguarding policies are kept up to date and implemented. At the time of the inspection, there were no breaches to welfare requirements.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 119677 Lancashire 10024243 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 Voluntary aided 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 316 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Susan Mills Louise O’Mahony 01772 422431 www.st-marys-leyland.lancs.sch.uk bursar@st-marys-leyland.lancs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 6–7 December 2012

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about the pupil premium on its website.
• This is a larger than average-sized primary school.
• The majority of pupils are of White British backgrounds.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average.
• There have been a number of changes to the leadership team since the last inspection, including a new headteacher and new chair of the governing body. There have also been a number of changes to the teaching staff.
• The local authority has supported the school since the previous inspection.
• 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.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching in lessons.
• Inspectors listened to pupils reading. They looked at examples of pupils’ work and observed pupils at lunchtime and break times.
• Inspectors held meetings with pupils, staff, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority. They spoke with parents as they brought their children to school.
• There were 62 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. There were 23 responses to staff questionnaires.
• Inspectors looked at a range of documents, including data on pupils’ current progress across the school, the school’s view of its own effectiveness, and how the school checks on the quality of teaching and learning.
• Inspectors checked the arrangements for safeguarding pupils and looked at records relating to behaviour and attendance.

Inspection team

Emma Jackson, lead inspector Ann Dimeck David Blackburne Gary Bevin Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector