St Joseph's RC Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in key stages 1 and 2 in order to raise pupils’ achievement in English and mathematics by:
  • matching learning tasks more accurately to pupils’ needs and accelerating the pace of learning so that all pupils are challenged effectively in lessons, in particular the most able, disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities
  • providing effective opportunities for pupils to explain their reasoning when problem solving in mathematics
  • in reading, developing pupils’ comprehension skills in key stage 1 and inference skills across key stage 2
  • providing more opportunities for pupils to write at length to enable them to practise and develop their grammar, punctuation and spelling skills.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, including governance, by:
  • ensuring that leaders have a deeper understanding of assessment information and use it effectively to provide more ambitious targets for pupils, particularly the most able, and to analyse pupils’ progress from their starting points
  • ensuring that plans to improve the school set high expectations by providing clear, specific and demanding targets against which to measure the impact of actions
  • ensuring that governors hold leaders to account fully for actions taken to improve pupils’ achievements
  • ensuring that subject leaders take more effective action to improve the quality of teaching and learning within their areas of responsibility. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders understand the urgent need to raise pupils’ achievement. The priorities that they have identified for improvement are accurate. However, improvement plans are not focused sharply enough on clear, measurable targets to ensure that pupils make strong progress and reach at least the standards expected for their age in English and mathematics. Leaders and governors do not measure the impact of the actions taken on improving pupils’ outcomes. As a result, pupils’ outcomes in English and mathematics are inconsistent and leaders’ targets do not challenge the most able pupils sufficiently.
• Pupils’ attainment is now tracked with greater accuracy. Leaders know pupils’ current standards in English and mathematics across the school. However, leaders do not routinely track the progress of pupils from their starting points in all year groups. As a result, they do not have a clear enough understanding of the progress pupils make over time. This restricts the quality, depth and usefulness of leaders’ self-evaluation.
• Leaders’ and governors’ evaluation of the impact of the strategies used to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities is not sharp enough. Consequently, too many of these pupils have underachieved in English and mathematics since the last inspection. However, differences in the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities compared to other pupils nationally are now diminishing at a steady rate. Nonetheless, raising the attainment of these pupils remains a priority for the school.
• Subject leaders are at an early stage of monitoring the effectiveness of their subjects. English and mathematics leaders have engaged in a range of helpful professional development activities, including moderation of work across a cluster of schools. As a result, they have made many recent changes that are beginning to improve classroom practice. As yet, this has not had time to make a measurable impact on pupils’ attainment.
• Leaders use the pupil premium funding to provide a range of suitable learning support for disadvantaged pupils. For example, the funding provides for children’s vocabulary extension and speech development within the early years, as well as providing a mental health programme to help older pupils combat low self-esteem. However, the impact targets for the funding are too vague and lack clear measures of success. This means that leaders and governors do not have sufficient relevant information to evaluate the overall effectiveness of how the funding is used and so inform future plans.
• Physical education (PE) and sport premium funding is used appropriately to provide a wide and exciting range of additional fitness clubs for pupils. An external sports coach promotes lunchtime exercise and encourages the engagement of pupils in competitive and non-competitive events.
• Pupils follow a broad and balanced curriculum. They learn through topics of topical and local interest. Visits to places of interest and visitors to school supplement the curriculum well. This enables pupils to understand and develop the fundamental British values required for life in modern Britain.
• Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. The vast majority who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, agreed that their children are happy and safe, and that they would recommend the school to other parents. A view typical of many parents is that ‘The school is inclusive and feels like one big family.’

Governance of the school

• Since the previous inspection, governance has not been fully effective in evaluating the impact of the strategies used to raise pupils’ achievement, including that of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. As a result, governors’ challenge to school leaders has not been sharp enough to ensure that these pupils achieve as well as they could.
• Although governors ask challenging questions of leaders, leaders do not always respond comprehensively to the issues raised. Given the lack of clear measurable targets in the school improvement plans, governors are sometimes over-reliant on the information the headteacher or school leaders present them with. This limits the ability of governors to hold school leaders to account fully, particularly in relation to pupils’ achievement.
• Governors are clear about their safeguarding responsibilities. They check the statutory requirements for employing staff and undertake safeguarding training to maintain their knowledge.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• A secure culture of safeguarding runs through all aspects of school life. Regular training is undertaken by all staff to ensure that they have an up-to-date knowledge of their roles and responsibilities for keeping children safe.
• Leaders ensure that appropriate checks are undertaken to ensure that staff and volunteers are suitable people to work with children. Record-keeping is robust and suitably detailed.
• Pupils feel safe in school. They have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe when using the internet and social media. They also know how to keep themselves safe outside school. Supervision in the playground is good and makes sure that pupils are safe. Parents agree that pupils are safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching is not consistently good across the school. Pupils’ workbooks and the latest school performance information show that the quality of teaching varies between year groups.
• Teachers do not routinely set demanding tasks that deepen pupils’ learning. This is especially so for the most able, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. As a result, too few pupils are challenged to enable them to reach the expected or higher standards in English and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2.
• There are indications that recent improvements in provision of support for pupils in danger of falling behind are having a positive impact. Work in pupils’ books, and school assessment information, show that some of those pupils who are disadvantaged or who have SEN and/or disabilities are now beginning to catch up quicker.
• The teaching of comprehension and, in particular, inference skills to boost standards in reading, and the development of reasoning skills to raise achievement in mathematics, are high priorities across the school. However, these skills are not taught consistently well. Sometimes, when reading, teachers do not explain or model reading skills well enough using the text provided. Opportunities for pupils to explain their reasoning behind the solving of problems in mathematics are not always challenging enough. As a consequence, many pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.
• The teaching of grammar and punctuation is effective, and the proportion of pupils who reach the expected standard in the key stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test is broadly average. However, pupils are not then presented with frequent enough opportunities to apply these skills to their written work. Therefore, fewer pupils than expected achieve the standard expected for their age in writing at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2.
• Where teaching is having the most positive impact on pupils’ learning, teachers use questioning to good effect to probe pupils’ understanding and deepen their knowledge. In these classes, pupils make more consistent progress in English and mathematics.
• The teaching of phonics is regular and effective. It enables pupils to attempt, often successfully, to read unfamiliar words. Pupils also make sensible predictions at how to spell words in their writing. For those pupils who find learning phonics more challenging and who did not reach the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check, good support ensures that they reach that level by the end of Year 2.

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 confident and understand what it is to be a successful learner. They demonstrate a strong desire to learn.
• Pupils say that they feel safe in school and know who to go to if anything is upsetting or worrying them. They say that bullying and racist incidents are rare and inspectors confirmed this through school records. If an incident occurs, pupils have confidence that an adult will deal with it effectively.
• Pupils are well cared for. Leaders and staff provide effectively for those who arrive at school requiring additional support for their social and emotional well-being.
• The breakfast club provides pupils with a range of activities. Pupils choose what to eat and drink from a healthy selection of food. As a result, pupils’ awareness of healthy eating is good. Positive relationships exist between adults and pupils. Consequently, pupils are happy and make a good start to the day.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are generally polite, friendly and well-mannered towards each other and to adults, including visitors to the school. They move in and around the school building sensibly and safely. As a result, the school is a calm and orderly place to learn.
• The systems for checking absence are rigorous and conscientiously applied. Pupils receive rewards for good attendance and this has a high profile in school. As a result, pupils’ attendance has improved and is now broadly in line with the national average. Pupils who are persistently absent receive close monitoring. The leadership team has worked hard with this group of pupils and their parents, and has had some notable success.
• Pupils said that behaviour in lessons is good and that there are few interruptions to their learning. Most pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and work cooperatively in lessons. They sustain concentration when working independently and help one another with their work.
• Although behaviour is good overall, a small number of pupils do not take sufficient care with the presentation and organisation of their written work in all subjects. Similarly, very occasionally, some pupils drift off task, notably where the work is insufficiently challenging.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2016 and 2017, too many pupils underachieved in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. Pupils’ attainment was below average. A high proportion of disadvantaged pupils did not achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics. In addition, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities did not make sufficient progress in English and mathematics by the end of key stage 2.
• Currently, the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, are not sufficiently challenged in lessons across all year groups to make consistently good progress. Consequently, too few pupils are working at the higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics in key stage 1 and key stage 2.
• In key stage 1 in 2017, attainment in reading and mathematics was broadly similar to that found in other schools nationally, but was slightly lower in writing. This represented a similar picture to key stage 1 outcomes in 2016.
• As they move through the school, many pupils do not build on their well-developed early reading skills by developing their skills in comprehension and drawing inferences from text. Similarly, pupils do not consistently apply their reasoning skills in mathematics. As a result, pupils’ progress in reading and mathematics is not as rapid as it could be.
• Inspection evidence confirms that, since the start of this academic year, leaders have been addressing these issues. Leaders have refocused the teaching and learning of reading and mathematics. The school’s own tracking of current pupils’ outcomes, confirmed by work in pupils’ books, shows that pupils are now making better progress in English and mathematics than previously.
• There are encouraging signs that improved support for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is having a positive impact on the progress that these pupils make from their individual starting points.
• Pupils’ outcomes in grammar, punctuation and spelling are stronger than in other areas of English. However, there are too few opportunities for pupils to apply their newly acquired knowledge to the writing process. This slows pupils’ overall progress in writing.
• Pupils use their phonics skills well to read and decode new words. The proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in the phonics screening check dipped in 2017 to below the national average. However, for the past three years, all pupils have achieved the expected standard by the end of Year 2. This is as a result of effective phonics teaching.
• Pupils’ progress other than in English and mathematics varies across subjects and year groups. Inspectors saw examples of some good-quality work which showed that pupils are making secure progress overall.

Early years provision Good

• Children in the early years get off to a good start.
• Leadership of the early years is good. Consequently, children, who typically join the school with knowledge and skills that are below those expected for their age, particularly in communication and language, make good progress in their learning.
• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception was broadly average in 2016 and 2017. Analysis of performance information shows that, from their different starting points, children make good progress and are well prepared for learning in Year 1.
• The early years staff use assessment information well in order to plan for the next steps in children’s learning. They have high expectations for children, and ensure that they provide children with an interesting range of learning opportunities. The learning environments, both indoors and outdoors, are well organised, and the curriculum is well organised and engaging.
• Teaching successfully supports children to develop their knowledge and understanding of number and their use of language. Adults support children well by sensitively asking questions to move their learning forward and to check on progress. They intervene quickly to support those children whose skills are not as well developed. For example, a speech and language therapist works regularly with children, supporting them from an early stage in developing their communication skills. As a result, those children make good progress from their individual starting points.
• Children behave well because the experienced adults working in the early years have high expectations, and this helps the children to learn to control their own behaviour. Children play and learn happily with each other and share resources willingly. Children display resilience and sustained concentration when accessing the different learning activities.
• Relationships with parents are strong. Parents who spoke to inspectors are very positive about the early years setting and feel welcomed when they bring their children to school.
• Arrangements for safeguarding in the early years are effective and all statutory welfare requirements are met. Risk assessments are in place and the site is safe and well maintained.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority 105965 Salford Inspection number 10046066 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils Gender of pupils 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 189 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Paula Howe Anthony Schilling Telephone number 0161 921 1890 Website Email address www.stjosephsordsall.co.uk stjosephsordsall.rcprimaryschool@salford.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 27–28 April 2016

Information about this school

• This is a smaller than average-sized primary school.
• Approximately half of the pupils are disadvantaged and entitled to support through the pupil premium. This proportion is much higher than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average. The proportion who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is above the national average. So too is the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The school provides a breakfast club and after-school provision managed by the governing body.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors gathered a range of evidence to judge the quality of teaching, learning and assessment over time. They looked at pupils’ books and observed teaching in lessons, including undertaking joint observations with the headteacher.
• Inspectors talked to parents as they brought their children to school.
• Inspectors considered eight responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, Parent View. Inspectors also considered the seventeen free-text messages sent by parents.
• Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders, three governors, including the chair of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read and held discussions with groups of pupils. Inspectors talked informally with pupils around the school and on the playground.
• 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 learning, and improvement plans. Inspectors also examined safeguarding documentation, minutes of governing body meetings, and various records of pupils’ attendance and behaviour.

Inspection team

Gaynor Rennie, lead inspector Martin Bell

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector