St Teresa's Catholic Primary School, Preston Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning in order to accelerate the pace of pupils’ learning across the school by ensuring that:
  • teachers have secure subject knowledge, particularly in English and mathematics, so that they can identify and address pupils’ misconceptions and explain new concepts clearly
  • teachers provide pupils with more opportunities to practise and develop their skills in reading, writing and mathematics in a wide range of subjects
  • teachers consistently provide the most able pupils with the challenge that they need to reach the high standards of which they are capable.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • developing the skills and knowledge of middle leaders so that they can be more effective in driving improvements in the quality of teaching and learning within their areas of responsibility
  • ensuring that teachers consistently apply the agreed marking policy so that marking and feedback have greater impact on the pace of pupils’ learning.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders and governors have been slow to arrest a clear decline in pupils’ achievement and in the effectiveness of teaching and learning since the previous inspection. Warning signs in the school’s published attainment data were not recognised early enough. Consequently, the school’s overall effectiveness has dipped.
• Not all of the middle leaders responsible for particular subjects, including English and mathematics, have the skills and confidence needed to secure improvements in the quality of teaching and learning within their areas of responsibility. They have not consistently helped teachers to develop their subject knowledge in line with the demands of changes to the curriculum. As a result, the impact of middle leaders on raising standards has been limited.
• The headteacher has an accurate and realistic view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. She has successfully ensured that other leaders, including governors, also recognise the challenges facing the school and share her aspirations for pupils’ success. Together, leaders are beginning to tackle the improvements that are needed.
• Results in the end of key stage assessments in 2016 show that leaders’ efforts are starting to have a positive impact in some areas, such as in key stage 1 phonics and writing in key stage 2, but that there is still much work to be done to secure good outcomes overall. Work in pupils’ books, and the school’s own detailed assessments, show that the standards being achieved by pupils are continuing to improve, but there are still inconsistencies between different year groups.
• The school provides pupils with a curriculum that is broad and well balanced, and which is enhanced by trips to local places of interest, such as Liverpool Museum, and through additional extra-curricular clubs. However, maximum use is not made of the curriculum and opportunities are missed for pupils to develop their skills in mathematics and English, while also deepening learning in other subjects.
• The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well and ensures that they develop an appreciation of fundamental British values, which are closely linked with the school’s core values. Pupils are respectful of the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds of many of their classmates. They say that they like spending time in the quiet prayer garden in the central courtyard, and also show enthusiasm for environmental issues.
• There is strong leadership of provision for potentially vulnerable pupils, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The leader responsible carefully tracks pupils’ academic and pastoral needs and ensures that support is put in place. This includes help for pupils to catch up in English and mathematics, support to meet social and behavioural needs, and support for families. This work has a positive impact on these pupils’ school experience and represents good use of the school’s special educational needs funding.
• Leaders ensure that pupil premium funding is being used increasingly effectively. In school, disadvantaged pupils currently often achieve more highly than other pupils in their class. Leaders use information about pupils’ achievement to identify areas where disadvantaged pupils would benefit from additional support, and additional sessions are run before and during school time to provide this extra help.
• The primary physical education and sport funding is used effectively to ensure that pupils can experience a range of sporting activities, both in school and through extra-curricular clubs. Pupils say that they enjoy different sports, such as football and tag-rugby, and understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
• The local authority has provided effective support for the school. Its representatives have provided support to develop teachers’ skills and knowledge through work in school and access to training opportunities. They have also supported the improvements being made by the governing body and have also provided practical support for school leaders.

Governance of the school

• Governors recognise that they have not always been rigorous enough in holding school leaders to account or in challenging a decline in the school’s published performance data. This is not now the case, and governors have a clear and realistic view of the quality of teaching and learning, and pupils’ achievement across the school, and appreciate that improvements are needed.
• Governors have recruited wisely new members to the governing body, ensuring that there is a range of skills and experience across the group. They have rearranged the structure of their committees so as to ensure that there is a clearer focus on school effectiveness and outcomes for pupils. Governors are now more proactive in visiting school to see the quality of teaching and learning for themselves. Governing body minutes confirm that governors are now more effective in holding school leaders to account.
• Governors make sure that school leaders administer teachers’ performance management effectively so that decisions about teachers’ pay are appropriately linked to their performance. They also ensure that other spending decisions take account of the school’s priorities for improvement, and that additional funding, such as the pupil premium and primary school sport funding, is well used.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• School leaders have successfully ensured that safeguarding is given a high priority in school. Staff and governors all receive regular training to ensure that their knowledge is up to date. School policies and procedures reflect the latest guidance on safeguarding.
• Staff understand clearly what to do if they have any concerns about a child’s well-being. Members of staff with responsibility for safeguarding ensure that any concerns raised by staff are followed up diligently, and keep extensive records of any safeguarding issues.
• The school has developed strong links with a wide range of external agencies and works closely with them to ensure that the most vulnerable families receive the help and support that they need.
• Thorough checks are made on staff, governors and volunteers to ensure that they are suitable people to work with children and the school maintains detailed records of these checks.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• In recent years, teaching has not moved pupils’ learning on at a quick enough pace. As a result, typically, too few pupils across the school make accelerated progress, and not enough of the most able pupils reach the high standards of which they are capable. Teachers do not consistently provide the most able pupils with sufficient challenge in their learning, and this limits the speed at which their learning progresses.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge, particularly in English and mathematics, is not consistently secure. Consequently, on some occasions their explanations are not as clear as they could be, which leave pupils uncertain about new ideas and concepts. At other times, teachers do not pick up quickly enough on pupils’ mistakes or misconceptions, either in lessons or when marking pupils’ work. When this happens, pupils’ learning slows.
• In mathematics, teachers develop pupils’ calculation skills effectively and consequently pupils typically are working at a level that is appropriate for their age on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tasks. Pupils are then increasingly being encouraged to use their skills and knowledge to solve mathematical problems, although they are only seldom asked to use their mathematical skills in other subjects.
• Teachers develop pupils’ writing skills effectively, ensuring that pupils’ understanding of grammar and punctuation are in line with expectations for their age. However, pupils are not then given sufficient opportunities to practise and develop the skills that they have learnt by writing at greater length, either in their work in English or in other areas of the curriculum.
• Teachers successfully ensure that pupils develop a secure understanding of phonics and, as a result, pupils in key stage 1 typically use phonics well when tackling unfamiliar words. However, this good start is not consistently well built upon and while pupils in key stage 2 show positive attitudes towards reading, their reading comprehension and fluency could be stronger. This issue has been recognised and a more focused approach to developing pupils’ reading skills and their confidence in tackling more complex texts is now in place.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are catered for well. Teachers and teaching assistants ensure that they have appropriate, individualised learning targets which they are well supported to meet, both in class and in additional, small-group sessions.

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 that they feel safe in school, and that staff in school take good care of them. They have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe in different situations, such as knowing not to talk to strangers. They confidently talk about lessons that they have learned about staying safe when they use the internet, such as taking care when using social media and not giving out personal information.
• Pupils are aware that there are different types of bullying, including racist and homophobic bullying and cyber bullying. They know that any type of bullying is unacceptable, and say that bullying in their school happens infrequently. Pupils say that teachers have dealt with any problems quickly and effectively.
• The school successfully promotes its set of core values, which are linked to fundamental British values. As a result, pupils have a good understanding of values such as tolerance, respect and friendship, and say that their school is a friendly place where new pupils are helped to settle in quickly. In school, they show respect for their classmates’ different backgrounds and pupils mix well together.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are friendly and welcoming to visitors and display good manners. In class, pupils’ attitudes to learning are almost always positive. They settle to work quickly and sensibly and show the resilience needed to keep trying with their work even when they are finding it difficult. Sometimes, particularly in subjects other than English and mathematics, pupils do not take as much care with their work as they could do and, as a result, some work is not as neat as it could be.
• Leaders have recognised that there are a small number of pupils who need additional support to help them to manage their own behaviour. Effective support has been put in place to help these pupils and to ensure that learning for all pupils is not disrupted.
• Attendance rates, although currently still below the national average, are improving and the number of pupils affected by regular absences from school is reducing. This is because leaders ensure that absences are followed up rigorously, and the school works closely with other agencies to support and challenge those families for whom regular attendance is an issue.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2016, by the end of Year 6, pupils’ attainment was in line with the national average in writing, but below that level in reading and mathematics. Pupils’ progress in writing was also stronger than in the other two areas, where it was significantly below average. These results represented the continuation of a downward trend in pupils’ achievement over recent years.
• In key stage 1, pupils’ attainment was stronger in reading but was well below the national average in writing and mathematics. In reading, this represented solid progress from pupils’ different starting points. However, progress in writing and mathematics was markedly less secure. Year 1 pupils’ attainment in the phonics screening check was much more positive and rose to be broadly in line with the national average.
• Only a small proportion of pupils throughout the school make better than the expected amount of progress. As a result, not enough pupils, including those who are most-able, go on to reach the higher levels. This is confirmed by the school’s own tracking and work in pupils’ books, which both show that an increasing number of pupils currently in the school are working at the expected standard for their age, but few are exceeding that level.
• There are variations in the achievement of disadvantaged pupils between year groups and in different subjects. However, typically most disadvantaged pupils make progress from their starting points that is at least similar to others in the school, and in some cases better. Their progress is not as strong as that of other pupils nationally, but there are positive signs of the difference in rates of progress diminishing, as was the case in the Year 1 phonics check in 2016.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress from their varied starting points. Well-planned additional support helps these pupils learn well and to regularly achieve their individual targets.
• Pupils for whom English is an additional language, including those who enter school at a very early stage of learning English, progress well from their different starting points. By the time they leave key stage 2, they are typically achieving at least as well, and often more highly, than other pupils in the school.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The majority of children start in the Nursery class with skills and knowledge that are below those that are typical for their age, and a number of these children have particularly less well developed skills in language and personal and social development. An increasing number of children coming into the early years are at an early stage of learning English.
• Children typically make steady progress during their time in the early years, but too few make accelerated progress. The proportion of children achieving the good level of development by the time they leave the early years has dropped in recent years and is now below the national average. As a result, too few children are fully prepared for the move into Year 1.
• Teaching in the early years is largely effective. Staff work hard to help children to develop their skills and knowledge across all areas of the early years curriculum, paying particular attention to developing their skills in speaking and listening. Children who are at an early stage of learning English progress well. However, the most able children do not consistently make the rapid progress of which they are capable.
• The early years provides children with a safe and attractive environment in which to play and learn. Good use is made of indoor and outdoor areas to ensure that children have access to a range of different activities.
• The recently appointed early years leader has a clear overview of the effectiveness of the provision and has begun to develop systems to improve the impact of teaching on children’s progress. These are beginning to have a positive impact. One example is in the use of information about children’s learning. Regular observations are made of children’s learning, and these are then being used increasingly well to identify the next steps in children’s learning.
• The early years leader is keen to improve further, and recognises that there is scope for further development in using data in order to raise achievement, particularly for the most able children.
• Behaviour in the early years is good and relationships between adults and children are warm and positive. Staff ensure that children are well looked after and that all statutory welfare requirements are met.
• There are good partnerships between the early years provision and external agencies, such as the speech and language therapy team, which ensure that additional, specialist support is available for those children who may need it. Strong partnerships have also been established with home. One parent said that her child ‘runs to school every day’, and a number of other parents of children in the early years made similar comments.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 119700 Lancashire 10024193 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 179 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mary Thackeray Marie Hughes 01772 797397 www.st-teresas-pri.lancs.sch.uk head@st-teresas-pri.lancs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 13 February 2013

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• In the early years, children in the Nursery class attend five morning sessions each week. Those in the Reception class attend on a full-time basis.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is broadly average.
• The proportions of pupils from minority ethnic groups and of pupils who speak English as an additional language are well above the national averages.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for achievement in Year 6.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school operates a breakfast club every morning.
• There have been a number of staffing changes since the previous inspection. The headteacher started at the school in January 2015.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in a range of lessons, year groups and subjects. They also looked at pupils’ work in books, records of children’s learning in the early years and other information about pupils’ attainment and progress.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and held discussions with two groups of pupils. Inspectors also talked informally with pupils around the school and in the playground.
• There were too few responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, for inspectors to access. Inspectors did talk with a number of parents before the start of the school day.
• Meetings were held with four governors, including the chair of the governing body. Meetings were also held with leaders responsible for mathematics, reading and writing, provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, for children in the early years and the designated lead for safeguarding.
• Inspectors met with a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors examined a range of documents. These included information about pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s reviews of its own performance, checks on the quality of teaching, and development plans. Inspectors also examined safeguarding documentation and various records of pupils’ attendance and behaviour.
• Pupils in Years 5 and 6 were not in school on the second day of the inspection because they were on a school trip.

Inspection team

Neil Dixon, lead inspector Kevin Ward Lorna Rushton

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector