Crowcroft Park Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the outcomes for pupils by enhancing the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • increasing the opportunities for pupils to deepen their understanding and apply their knowledge in a wide range of subjects and particularly in science
  • enhancing adults’ consistent use of high-quality questioning to promote learning at times when children can choose activities in the early years
  • sharpening teachers’ evaluations of subject knowledge in pupils’ work in subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics to ensure that pupils receive the best guidance on how to improve.
• Improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that leaders of subjects other than English and mathematics sharpen their evaluative skills
  • enhancing the rigour by which governors evaluate pupils’ achievement in subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development because of their frequent and rigorous monitoring. They work closely as a team and make good use of links with other local schools to share effective practice. Leaders and governors work in partnership and have a clear vision for improvement, which they share with staff. The determination and commitment of leaders and staff have led to sustained improvement in the quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils, particularly in English and mathematics.
• School improvement planning is clear and effective. It includes appropriate priorities based on leaders’ evaluations and is contributed to by governors and school councillors. Regular reviews of the impact of actions undertaken by leaders and governors ensure the quick pace of improvement.
• Leaders’ good use of the pupil premium grant ensures that disadvantaged pupils, including those who are most able, achieve well. The differences in outcomes between these pupils and other pupils nationally are diminishing quickly.
• Leaders’ good use of the additional sports funding has resulted in pupils’ greater participation in sports and their adoption of healthier lifestyles. Additional sporting clubs, which run before the start of the school day, have boosted pupils’ punctuality and attendance at school. New training opportunities for girls’ football, introduced following requests by the school council, are popular and well attended. Leaders’ constructive negotiations with the local council and careful management of the school’s grounds mean that pupils now have safe access to a high-quality sports pitch on which to develop their skills.
• Leaders’ regular and effective communication with parents, including online, ensures that parents are well informed about their children’s learning and school lives. Nearly all parents overwhelmingly support the school and appreciate the opportunities provided for their children through the wide range of cultural, social and academic events that all pupils are able to engage with during their time at the school.
• This is a caring school where pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is developed well, through the promotion of the United Nations charter of the rights of the child. Many children enter the school speaking little or no English. They are welcomed equally and helped to quickly develop effective English language skills that unlock their access to wider learning.
• The school’s curriculum is broad and balanced and equips pupils well for their next stages of education. The curriculum is enriched through a series of well-planned experiences which ensure that all pupils visit a variety of different places of worship, go to a theatre production, visit a restaurant, attend a residential trip and travel beyond their local community. Leaders strongly encourage pupils to adopt positive values as future citizens of Britain, and Manchester in particular.
• The leadership of early years, reading, writing and mathematics is well developed and is a strength of the school. These subject leaders are clear about their roles and responsibilities and use their detailed knowledge of strengths and weaknesses in their subjects to bring about rapid improvement. A minority of middle leaders, some of whom are new to their roles, have more limited analytical skills and consequently do not evaluate their subjects effectively.

Governance of the school

• The governance of the school is effective. Governors share the vision and commitment to improvement held by leaders and staff. They know their school well because of the quality of the information they receive. They visit the school regularly and attend many events, including the recent mathematics fair. Consequently, they understand how teachers are going about raising standards.
• Governors closely monitor the school’s finances, including the pupil premium funding and sports funding, to ensure that they get best value.
• Governors are involved in planning development priorities. They monitor and evaluate the impact of actions rigorously through their committees, particularly those actions that have focused on improving pupils’ outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics. However, they recognise that other subjects are not evaluated as fully.
• Governors ensure that the school’s performance management policy is robustly applied. Their secure understanding of how the associated procedures relate to teachers’ pay allows them to evaluate carefully any proposals for increases in staff salary against clear criteria.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The governing body ensures that the school meets all the statutory requirements for safeguarding. This includes the robust checking of the suitability of adults to work with children in school and the provision of appropriate filtering and monitoring of the school’s internet connection.
• All staff are vigilant and well trained to protect pupils from potential safeguarding risks, including those from radicalisation and extremism, because leaders ensure that their skills and knowledge are kept up to date.
• The school’s ethos of safeguarding pervades all aspects of school life. Consequently, pupils feel safe and are confident that staff will respond quickly and effectively to any concerns they might have.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers’ high expectations and good subject knowledge, particularly in English and mathematics, brought about by the quality training they receive and the correctly focused priorities, have raised pupils’ achievement.
• Reading and writing are taught systematically across the school using consistent strategies that develop pupils’ skills and confidence. Consequently, pupils build upon their prior learning and make strong progress in these subjects. Pupils make good progress in improving their technical skills in writing. They also develop a broad and rich vocabulary, often from a starting point of no English, because of the effective teaching they receive.
• The quality of mathematics teaching has improved greatly due to an increased focus on the subject by leaders. Appropriate training of staff by a resident expert ensures that teachers possess the skills to plan and deliver effective sequences of lessons that quickly develop pupils’ knowledge. Most-able pupils, particularly in upper key stage 2, are appropriately challenged to master their mathematical skills through experience of more complex problems, including the use of algebra. On occasions, however, some teaching does not allow pupils to deepen their understanding of concepts fully and apply their skills, including in other subjects such as science and geography.
• Teachers use questioning well to probe and develop pupils’ understanding, particularly in more formal teaching situations. As a result, pupils, many of whom speak English as an additional language, quickly develop their knowledge and respond to questions with confidence and a broadening vocabulary.
• Teachers use homework effectively to practise and embed skills and understanding taught in lessons. Pupils read at home frequently and regularly complete tasks in writing and mathematics. Teachers effectively promote learning in other subjects using longer-term projects. For example, a recent visit to Manchester Airport resulted in design and technology homework to design and create models of aircraft.
• Skilled and committed teaching assistants have a positive impact on learning, particularly in more formal learning in the early years and in the leadership of computing.
• The quality of teaching in subjects other than the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics is effective and pupils make good progress. However, the development of pupils’ skills and knowledge in other subjects is weaker. This is because teaching does not systematically develop and evaluate pupils’ subject-specific skills and knowledge. Consequently, pupils do not receive the same high-quality, subject-specific guidance as they do in English and mathematics. Pupils’ opportunities to consolidate their knowledge and deepen their understanding of more complex aspects of subjects are sometimes limited, particularly in the development of scientific enquiry.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are proud of their school. They say that teachers help them to learn and that they feel safe. Parents share this view and are overwhelmingly supportive.
• Pupils know how to stay safe in and out of school, including online, because of the guidance they receive. Focused work on online safety ensures that pupils are confident and able to explain what they would do if they were worried by something on screen. Pupils maturely carry out roles of responsibility, including as playtime buddies and sports mentors. The school council represents its electorate well and shares the impact of its actions on the ‘You said. We did.’ noticeboard.
• Pupils are well supported to become good citizens. They have a secure understanding of the rule of law and modern British institutions, including the differences between the role of the monarch and Parliament.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are polite and well mannered to adults and each other. They welcome visitors and are eager to talk about their work and school life.
• Pupils know that bullying and name-calling, including the use of homophobic terms, are wrong. They say that incidents are rare; indeed, they struggled to recollect any recent examples. They are confident that teachers and other adults would deal quickly and effectively with any instances should they arise.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school. Consequently, attendance has improved and is now at least in line with that seen nationally for all groups, including those who are disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. A small number of pupils do not attend school as regularly as they should, particularly girls. Most long-term absences are for well-founded reasons such as medical needs. Leaders, however, ensure that all absences are quickly checked and that parents are challenged appropriately if their children miss too much school.
• Pupils are eager, attentive learners and are quick to respond to instructions. However, a small minority of boys occasionally disengage from their learning where work is too easy or too difficult for them. A small minority of pupils sometimes do not give the necessary attention and respect to others by talking over them in some lessons. Teachers, however, are quick and effective in their response.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Outcomes for pupils have improved since the last inspection, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics. The work in pupils’ books shows that this improvement is being sustained and enhanced.
• Pupils make good progress in their understanding of phonics because of the good teaching they receive. As a result, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the Year 1 screening check has improved rapidly and is in line with the national average.
• In 2015, the proportions of pupils leaving the school having achieved the standards expected for their age were generally in line with national averages in reading, writing, mathematics and English grammar, punctuation and spelling. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the standards expected for their age was in line with that of other pupils nationally.
• In 2015, pupils made good progress in reading, writing and particularly in mathematics in all key stages, especially in key stage 2 where progress was strong. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who made expected progress from their starting points in reading was in line with that of other pupils nationally, while the progress they made in writing and mathematics was higher than that of other pupils nationally.
• Disadvantaged pupils of all groups make good progress from their starting points because of the support they receive, particularly in key stage 2. This is diminishing the differences between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally.
• There were too few pupils identified as most able in the 2015 assessment tests to undertake any statistical evaluation about their progress and attainment. However, school-based tracking and the work seen in pupils’ books show that most-able pupils across the school, including those who are disadvantaged, make good progress from their starting points because of the challenge and support they receive.
• Work in books shows that pupils’ progress in other subjects, particularly in the development of pupils’ knowledge and skills in scientific enquiry, is not developing as strongly as in English and mathematics.

Early years provision Good

• The leadership and management of the early years are good. Leaders have a clear understanding of strengths and weaknesses because of their effective monitoring. They use this knowledge well to inform improvement planning.
• Children are helped to settle into the early years by high-quality transition arrangements and good relationships and links with the settings that children attend before starting the school.
• Effective partnerships with external agencies, including health visitors and children’s centre workers, ensure that staff are well trained and that children receive appropriate provision for their needs.
• Most children enter the Nursery with levels of development below those typical for their age. Approximately a quarter of pupils enter Reception with skills below those which are typical. Many children enter with little or no English. All groups of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, most able and those who speak little English, make good progress from their starting points. In 2015, the proportions of children achieving a good level of development were in line with those seen nationally. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils achieving a good level of development has rapidly improved to diminish the difference seen with that of other children nationally. School-based information shows that in 2016 this improvement is being sustained.
• Children are polite and courteous. They are keen to learn and play and collaborate well together. Consequently, children swiftly develop their inquisitiveness and social skills.
• Children are kept safe because well-trained and vigilant staff implement the school’s safeguarding policies with rigour and act quickly to respond to and deal with any concerns.
• Leaders ensure that welfare requirements are met.
• The quality of teaching is good, particularly during more formal learning activities. Here, teachers and teaching assistants frequently use questioning well to probe and develop children’s understanding. However, when children are engaged in choosing their own activities, adults do not consistently use questioning well to guide children and ensure that learning is purposeful.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 105413 Manchester 10012159 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 Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 240 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Suzanne Richards Lizzie Wray 0161 224 5914 www.crowcroftpark.net/ head@crowcroftpark.manchester.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 20 May 2014

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Crowcroft Park Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Nearly all pupils are from minority ethnic groups. Over three quarters of pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average.
• The school provides a breakfast club that is available to all pupils.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress at the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed a range of lessons or parts of lessons and looked at pupils’ work. They listened to pupils reading and talked with pupils about their lessons and school life.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, representatives of the governing body and the local authority’s school improvement adviser who works with the school.
• The inspectors observed the school’s work and scrutinised documentation relating to pupils’ progress and to school management, including the arrangements to ensure that pupils are kept safe.
• The inspectors spoke with parents and staff and took account of the written responses to the online parent questionnaire, Parent View. There were too few responses to Parent View to undertake any statistical analysis.
• Inspectors took account of the 12 responses to the staff questionnaire. There were no responses to the pupil online questionnaire.

Inspection team

John Nixon, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Pamela Potter Ofsted Inspector