Oasis Academy Aspinal Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ outcomes by:
  • providing more challenge for the most able pupils so they are able to attain a greater depth in their learning
  • helping pupils in key stage 1 make swifter progress to reach national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Further develop the curriculum, especially in science, so that pupils gain subject-specific skills and knowledge in subjects other than English and mathematics.
• Continue to improve attendance rate of all groups of pupils, especially those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils.

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Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• This good school has improved considerably since the previous inspection. This is due to strong leadership at all levels and improved teaching. As a result, pupils’ outcomes and teaching are much stronger than in the past.
• The headteacher has been instrumental in setting a culture of high expectations. She has supported staff, harnessing their willingness to change through quality professional development. This has instilled confidence and a ‘can do’ attitude.
• Leaders and governors set high standards and are ambitious for all groups of pupils. They expect positive outcomes both academically and socially for all pupils.
• Leaders and governors have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They are able to say which areas do well and which areas need improvement. Consequently, the priorities for future improvement are appropriate.
• Leaders use information on pupils’ attainment and progress to plan the next steps for the school’s improvement. The results of the phonics screening check last summer were below national expectations. As a result, this was an area for development, so teachers and teaching assistants attended phonics training to improve their skills. Current progress shows that the training is beginning to have an impact on pupils’ learning.
• Leaders adapt plans to cater for changing contexts. The school has had a recent increase in the number of pupils who speak English as an additional language. As a result, the headteacher plans to work with a school within the multi-academy trust to ensure that she can implement best practice at Oasis Aspinal.
• Leaders manage teachers’ performance well by setting and reviewing targets, which have ensured that the quality of teaching has improved convincingly over time.
• Leaders have implemented a pilot study to provide a nurture area to help pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and pupils with social and emotional difficulties. Analysis of pupils’ outcomes, behaviour and emotional well-being has shown that this provision is effective.
• Subject leaders are effective at improving teaching, learning and assessment in their area. They complete regular lesson observations and book scrutiny to ensure that pupils are learning well. They access training programmes to support their own leadership development. They offer clear guidance to staff and set high expectations. They provide workshops for parents to enable them to support their children’s learning at home. Recent workshops include spelling, reading, phonics and mathematics.
• The special educational needs leader uses additional funding wisely. He liaises with a variety of different agencies and providers to ensure the best support for pupils. He ensures that staff are well trained. Recent training on autism has made a massive difference to staff recognising and understanding the needs of this group of pupils.
• The leader for behaviour is thorough in her analysis of behaviour incidents. This has led to changes in provision for all pupils and for specific individuals. Provision at lunchtime has been reorganised and refreshed with a wide range of resources and activities for pupils. Consequently, behaviour incidents have decreased at lunchtime.
• The curriculum gives pupils opportunities to study a broad range of subjects. The learning programmes for English and mathematics are especially strong because they engage and motivate pupils, particularly boys, to do their best. However, some pupils’ books indicate that insufficient attention is given to developing pupils’ subject-specific skills and knowledge, especially in science. Leaders are well aware of this relative weakness and have already taken steps to improve the quality of learning in subjects other than English and mathematics. However, this development is still in the early stages and currently is not showing enough impact.
• Leaders enrich the curriculum using the local community and resources, for example visiting the theatre and art gallery. The curriculum includes a global aspect, which enables pupils to find out about the world and consider the challenges that others less fortunate than themselves face daily. This underpins pupils’ generous and frequent fundraising for specific causes. For example, they have recently raised money to support a new pre-school in Mozambique.
• Leaders nurture pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through the Oasis nine habits of being hopeful, joyful, patient, compassionate, forgiving, considerate, self-controlled, humble and honest. The monthly focus on these habits helps pupils understand and manage their emotions. This prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.
• The pupil premium champion uses additional funding to provide targeted support for individuals and groups of pupils. This funding has been spent effectively on a wide range of strategies, including access to breakfast and after-school clubs. As a result, disadvantaged pupils currently attending school are making strong progress.
• The additional physical education (PE) and sport premium is used to make a difference to teachers’ confidence when delivering PE sessions. It provides a range of clubs to develop pupils’ physical skills. It increases their knowledge about the importance of exercise in healthy lifestyles.
• Parents have a high opinion of the school and value it. In the school’s recent parental questionnaire, almost all parents stated they would recommend the school to others.

Governance of the school

• The governance of the school provides effective support and challenge for leaders.
• Governors who are members of the local governing body, known as the ‘academy council’, are regular visitors in the school. They visit classrooms and talk to children, teachers and leaders. They know the school well.
• The national governance team, through its regional directors, supports new leaders through training, coaching and regular meetings. Governors manage the headteacher’s performance and have an overview of the performance of other teachers. They provide appropriate challenge to leaders in order to achieve the best outcomes for pupils. For example, a challenge relating to outcomes for disadvantaged pupils resulted in the headteacher appointing a pupil premium champion. This has led to improved outcomes for this group of pupils, ensuring good value for money.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The safeguarding lead diligently puts pupils at the centre of her work. She is the face of safeguarding and well known to pupils and parents through good communication. She is relentless in her approach to keeping pupils safe, challenging decisions if she is not happy with the outcome.
• Well-trained staff keep up to date with any issues that could negatively affect pupils’ well-being. Case files of vulnerable pupils show the school responds to any concerns in a timely manner. Good links with multi-agencies mean that individual pupils and their families receive the support they need.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers plan detailed lessons that motivate pupils and recognise what they already know. Teachers’ assessment of pupils is effective and makes a difference to learning. Teachers use assessment information to plan the next steps in learning for different groups of pupils. This helps pupils to make the progress they should while identifying those individuals who need extra support to catch up.
• Teachers maximise learning opportunities through good questioning to check pupils’ understanding. They highlight and correct common errors so that pupils can learn from their mistakes.
• Teachers effectively support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who need to catch up. These pupils make good progress in class from their starting points. Some pupils attend short-term focused sessions in English and mathematics in the nurture room. These are helping them to make good progress.
• All pupils to whom inspectors spoke are very positive about reading. Younger pupils understand the reading record system. They develop word attack skills to decode unfamiliar words. There is a clear progression across school.
• Older children develop comprehension skills and can guess what might happen next in stories. Each class has a focused author, enabling younger pupils to name their favourite storyteller. Class books are age-appropriate and interesting. Older pupils are able to explain the reasons for reading, ‘for pleasure, finding facts and fiction’.
• In writing, there is a clear development of grammatical structures and punctuation skills throughout school. Teachers choose motivating topics to encourage pupils to write. Younger pupils are keen to write about dinosaurs. One teacher prepared older pupils well to use speech marks by asking them to think about interesting dialogue prior to writing: ‘Imagine you are a seagull and see Iron Man walk off a cliff. What would you say to the seagull next to you?’
• In mathematics teachers make the lessons fun by playing games. In one lesson, pupils learned how to count forwards and backwards in tens while throwing a bean bag to each other. In another lesson, the teacher asked skilful questions to enable younger pupils to develop reasoning skills. The problem of ‘Twenty butterflies on a bush, eight fly away. How many would be left?’ allowed younger pupils to explain their reasoning prior to completing the calculation: ‘They need 20 in their head and to count down.’ The teacher reinforced learning by modelling mathematical language, such as ‘take away’ and ‘subtract’. Inspectors saw teachers demonstrating secure subject knowledge in mathematics.
• Since the last inspection, staff have had training in phonics. This has meant there has been a big improvement in subject knowledge, pace and the use of a multi-sensory approach. Both teachers and teaching assistants present sessions using the same format. This familiarity enables pupils to learn new sounds quickly.
• Leaders have included teaching assistants in training opportunities. As a result, teaching assistants are well trained and make a valuable contribution to pupils’ learning. They are proactive in supporting pupils who need help. They ask questions to develop pupils’ understanding. They deliver phonics sessions to small groups. In the nurture group, they build up pupils’ confidence to enable them to decode words using their phonics skills.
• Some of the most able pupils are working at the same level as other pupils in class. Teachers do not offer enough challenge to this group to move them on in their learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Teachers work hard to promote pupils’ confidence and self-belief. They model celebrating other pupils’ achievements in class so all pupils grow in confidence. This can take the form of a reward, clap, cheer or a ‘whoop’. Teachers are beginning to use vocabulary to encourage pupils to have a positive attitude to learning: ‘I can’t do this…yet’ rather than ‘I can’t do this.’
• Pupils are confident in asking for help if they are unsure or do not understand their tasks. Teachers encourage pupils to use a range of methods to help them during lessons, including asking each other for help. Pupils do this well.
• When asked, pupils said they enjoy their school and feel safe. The few incidents of bullying are dealt with quickly and effectively.
• Pupils know how to keep themselves safe on the internet. They spoke to inspectors knowledgeably about healthy eating and its link to a healthy lifestyle and physical activity.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Teachers have established consistent behaviour strategies in classrooms. They have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and challenge pupils that do not conform, while still being flexible towards pupils who have differing needs. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are very positive. They take pride in their work and listen attentively to their teachers so that little learning time is wasted.
• Pupils’ behaviour towards one another is very good. They listen and show respect towards one another.
• Pupils feel that adults deal with any incident of poor behaviour effectively. Pupils show tolerance towards other pupils who find it difficult to manage their own behaviour.
• Attendance has been broadly in line with the national average for the last three years. Leaders adopt a number of incentives and deterrents to encourage good attendance, including meeting parents of pupils who are persistently absent. Case files show the school has had a positive effect on the attendance of vulnerable pupils. Current attendance figures show an improvement overall. However, the absence rates of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils remain above the national average. The school is aware that this is an ongoing priority.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• In 2016, pupils exceeded national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2. They made excellent progress in all three areas. Pupils of middle ability and those who find learning more difficult did exceptionally well. These pupils were well prepared for the level of work in secondary school.
• Disadvantaged pupils also did really well. Overall, disadvantaged pupils made rates of progress in reading, writing and mathematics that were among the best in the country. Current disadvantaged pupils make good progress. This is the result of changes made to engage and motivate these pupils.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) made strong progress by the end of key stage 2 from their starting points in English and mathematics. Teachers monitor their progress carefully. All current SEND pupils in school make good progress and, for some, differences between them and other pupils nationally are diminishing.
• If pupils are not making progress, teachers change the provision. The alternative provision in the nurture room has enabled pupils to access small-group sessions. Evidence shows that the majority of this group make good progress and are catching up with their learning.
• The school uses its new tracking system to identify groups of pupils who are not making enough progress and have fallen behind. Lower-ability pupils in key stage 2 have a phonics session each day to enable them to catch up on their reading skills.
• In 2016, outcomes at the end of key stage 1 were not as good as those achieved by older pupils. They did not meet national expectations in reading, writing, mathematics or science. These pupils had very low attainment when they left early years two years ago. Leaders have worked hard to address this. They have provided training and restructured staffing so that current pupils in key stage 1 are making good progress.
• Some pupils did not meet the standard of the phonics screening check. Leaders have quickly addressed this through high-quality training for all staff. Current pupils are making progress in phonics and in their reading.
• The school is working hard to ensure that pupils who speak English as an additional language make the progress they should. Often pupils arrive at school with little or no English. The school has identified this as an improvement priority. The school supports these pupils well to develop language skills to enable them to make progress.
• The school provides additional activities for the most able pupils in school. However, scrutiny of pupils’ books show that in some classes these pupils regularly complete the same work as others in their class. This lack of challenge for the most able means that they are not achieving greater depth in their learning.

Early years provision Outstanding

• The early years judgement is different from that of the rest of the school because of the excellent progress the children make and the challenge for the most able children.
• Almost all children who enter Nursery have skills and knowledge below those typical for their age. They have particular weaknesses in reading, writing and communicating. Children make strong progress during their time in Nursery and are well prepared for their Reception Year. They continue in this positive vein until the end of their time in early years. School data shows that the children who benefit from two years at this school make exceptional progress.
• At the start of Reception almost one third of the cohort have not attended Oasis Aspinal’s nursery. These children also make strong gains in their learning and do well across all of the early learning goals. However, not as many gain a good level of development. Consequently, the proportion of children who gain a good level of development remains slightly below the national average. Nonetheless, children are well prepared for Year 1 in their reading, writing and personal skills.
• The early years leader and her team carefully track children’s progress. They adjust plans to ensure that children develop the necessary skills. They make certain that effective learning takes place for individuals and groups. All staff take ownership of the work and are involved in all aspects of planning, teaching and assessing. This ensures that children benefit from exceptionally strong teaching from all of the adults they come across during each day.
• Good-quality professional development means that all adults are well equipped and confident that they can fulfil their responsibilities. They pride themselves on being able to carry out any role successfully. Relationships between adults are seamless and harmonious. The positive impact of this work is evident in the skilled teaching of phonics, as all adults make a strong contribution to the development of early reading.
• Very good use is made of the early years pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils. This is helping these children to make a smooth and successful start to Year 1.
• Provision across the early years is outstanding. Children make strong progress, whether they are working with an adult or choosing their own activities. This is because activities and resources meet children’s needs and interests. Children play and cooperate very well. They are willing to share, take turns and talk about their ideas and efforts. They behave very well and their personal development is strong.
• Children choose from a range of activities and maintain their concentration exceptionally well. The large outdoor provision is interesting for children and stimulates their imagination. The high-quality support from all adults, who ask open and inquisitive questions, underpins children’s ability to think for themselves.
• Teachers challenge children of all abilities. In a mathematics target session, the teacher encouraged children to write out simple addition sums for each other. One child said to his friend, ‘I’m going to challenge you.’ Another child included a subtraction to make it harder.
• Parents value their child’s well-annotated ‘learning journeys’, which show their child’s achievements. Teachers welcome parents at ‘stay and play’ and use these sessions as an opportunity to share information. Parents feel that their child is safe and their welfare needs well met. Inspection evidence confirms that this is true. Teachers lead very well-attended workshops for parents to support their child’s learning. For example, phonics sessions help parents to support their child’s reading by sounding out words.
• The leadership and management of the setting is outstanding. There has been a dramatic improvement in provision since the last inspection. The early years leader shows vision and determination to do what is best for the children in her care. Such is her reputation, she is now sharing her expertise with other colleagues from Oasis Community Learning.

School details

Unique reference number 140052 Local authority Manchester Inspection number 10024104 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 238 Appropriate authority Oasis Community Learning Chair Philip Beaumont Headteacher Angela Sweeting Telephone number 0161 223 0053 Website www.oasisacademyaspinal.org Email address admin@oasisaspinal.org Date of previous inspection 3–4 March 2015

Information about this school

• Oasis Academy Aspinal is an average-sized primary school that is part of Oasis Community Learning, which is a large national multi-academy sponsor.
• Governance is in two parts. The local academy council is operational and supports the school from a community perspective. The national team provides strategic direction.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding is double the national average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is slightly above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is broadly average.
• The proportion of pupils who have support for special educational needs and/or disabilities and those that have a statement of special educational needs and/or disabilities or an education, health and care plan is slightly above the national average.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress at the end of Year 6.
• 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.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed teaching and learning in all classes accompanied by senior leaders. They scrutinised pupils’ books. They considered pupils’ behaviour and how their safeguarding and welfare needs are met.
• Inspectors met with six pupils formally, received 16 responses from the Ofsted pupils’ online questionnaire and spoke with many pupils informally during the inspection. Inspectors heard four pupils read.
• Inspectors spoke with some parents at the start of the school day and considered four written comments. Inspectors considered the school’s own survey completed by parents in November 2016.
• Inspectors received 15 responses to the staff questionnaire and spoke with teachers in the school.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documentation relating to all aspects of the school’s work, including governance minutes, self-evaluation, improvement planning, leaders’ monitoring of teaching and learning and documents relating to safeguarding.
• Inspectors met with the executive headteacher, the headteacher and her leadership team, middle leaders, the academy chair and the regional academy director.

Inspection team

Jean Robinson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Stephen Rigby Ofsted Inspector