Bridge Hall Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality and consistency of teaching, in order to rapidly raise the achievement of pupils, including the most able, middle-ability and disadvantaged, by ensuring that teachers:
  • raise their expectations regarding what pupils can achieve
  • provide opportunities to extend and challenge pupils to reason and think more deeply about what they are learning
  • provide more opportunities for pupils to apply their learning and develop their skills as independent learners
  • use assessment and feedback more precisely in lessons to challenge and move pupils on in their learning
  • provide more opportunities for pupils to practise their skills in writing and regularly attempt longer pieces of work
  • expect pupils to show pride in their work and through the presentation in their books.
• Improve the impact of leadership and management by making sure that:
  • the pace of improvement is speeded up, so that more pupils achieve what they are capable of more quickly
  • leaders and governors insist on high expectations of achievement for all pupils and challenge more effectively where this is not evident leaders and governors have an accurate understanding of how well the school is doing and use this information to drive sustainable school improvement
  • systems are in place to ensure that there is attention to detail in documentation, so that it truly reflects the practice and ethos of the school
  • systems are in place to check the quality of teaching and learning across the school more regularly and rigorously
  • assessment information is gathered for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and early years children as groups, so that leaders can analyse gaps, trends and strengths
  • the development of middle leaders contributes to wider accountability in school and the drive for school improvement.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders and governors have not ensured that the pace of improvement has been swift enough. As a result, too few pupils make good progress from their starting points.
• Leaders have high expectations of pupils’ conduct and behaviour and pupils rise to this. However, leaders have struggled until recently to have similarly high expectations of pupils’ achievement or recognise what they are capable of. Although measures are now in place to raise expectations and the quality of learning experiences, this has been slow to start.
• Leaders have had an overgenerous view of the school. Self-evaluation is not rigorous enough and does not capture the true picture of where the school is in its development or the speed needed to address issues. However, the majority of priorities identified for improvement are accurate and, where actioned, do impact positively on teaching and learning.
• Occasionally, there is a lack of attention to detail in documentation. For example, some policies are inconsistent, feel ‘off the shelf’ and do not reflect practice in the school. The quality of teaching and learning is monitored but documents are not in one central place and leaders have not established a regular cycle of rigorous and systematic checking of the quality of teaching and learning.
• Leaders have developed an agreed system for regularly collecting assessment information on pupils. This information is used regularly by senior leaders to discuss pupils’ learning with teachers, and to plan opportunities to help pupils who are struggling to catch up, if needed. However, assessments are still not precise enough to support teachers in pinpointing pupils’ exact learning needs or to identify where more challenge is needed. This is particularly the case for the most able and middle-ability pupils who have the potential to make further gains.
• The school has come through a period of challenge and upheaval, which has had an understandably unsettling impact. However, a strong senior leadership team is now in place. School leaders are clear about what needs to be done and lead by example. However, these appointments have left a gap in the middle leadership team. An effective member of staff has taken up responsibility for English, but other middle leadership roles are not yet in place. This is placing a great deal on existing leaders and reducing greater accountability across the school.
• The use of the pupil premium requires improvement. Funding is used in a variety of ways, particularly in supporting pupils’ social and emotional well-being. It is also used to support engagement with families and to ensure that this group of pupils are given equal opportunities to access all that the school has to offer, including school trips. However, it remains that disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, do not achieve as well as they could do, particularly in reading at the end of key stage 2 and writing in key stage 1.
• The leadership and organisation of provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are effective. Identification of their needs is thorough and resources are of a good standard. Staff have a good understanding of pupils’ learning and welfare needs and every effort is made to remove any barriers to learning. This ensures that pupils succeed in their learning and in their personal and social development. There are systems and procedures in place to check on the progress of individual pupils, but leaders do not gather assessment information across the group to allow for the analysis of gaps, trends and strengths.
• Leaders and staff have worked very hard, and with great effect, to establish a caring, respectful ethos throughout school. Leaders have promoted equality and diversity very well. Pupils are considerate, friendly and kind to each other and the wider community and, as a result, the school is a calm, orderly and welcoming place.
• Leaders have the respect of staff, parents, pupils and the local community. Staff are very proud to work at Bridge Hall. Relationships between staff are positive; they feel well supported and that the school is led and managed well.
• The school offers a broad and balanced curriculum that engages pupils and contributes to their enjoyment of learning. It covers all subjects but is particularly strong in developing personal, social, health and citizenship skills. Pupils also talk excitedly about how much they enjoy music. The curriculum is further enriched by providing real-life experiences to stimulate and excite pupils, such as school trips and visitors to the school. The school grounds are a source of great pride to pupils, who talk enthusiastically about the ‘trim trail’ and the soon-to-open forest school. Reading, writing and mathematics are woven across this curriculum where possible. Pupils’ learning is further enhanced by a broad range of popular clubs that are varied and often instigated by pupils themselves, such as dodgeball, radio and ‘superhero’ clubs.
• The primary school physical education and sports funding is used well. Pupils benefit from a commitment to good-quality teaching and say how much they enjoy sport and find lessons fun. Pupils of all ages recognise the value of physical activity as a part of being healthy.
• The school promotes much of its moral and social development through its personal, social, health and citizenship curriculum and through assemblies where pupils learn about the wider community, raise funds for charities and learn about tolerance and respect for differences. There are fewer visual examples of cultural and spiritual development around school, but this has been held back, to some degree, by the move into the new school building.
• The school is supported by the local authority and has had particularly beneficial support from a local teaching school. This has been very valuable in helping the school identify the priorities to pursue in early years and teaching and learning elsewhere in school. The school is actively involved in local school networks, which has been particularly beneficial in supporting the checking and accuracy of assessment and pupils’ work.

Governance of the school

• Over time, governors have not been as effective as they could be.
• Governors initially ask good-quality, challenging questions of school leaders. However, they do not follow up the responses with more searching questions. The information they are given is not always accurate, precise or detailed enough for them to gain a thorough understanding of the progress pupils are expected to and can make. As a result, school governors have colluded in an overgenerous view of the school and have not insisted on the highest academic expectations.
• The governing body has made sure that primary physical education and sports funding is spent effectively and makes a difference for pupils. However, because disadvantaged pupils do not achieve as well as they could, they have not been effective in monitoring the use and impact of pupil premium funding.
• Governors are knowledgeable about the school and offer a good range of expertise to the governing body. They are conscientious in their responsibilities and enjoy taking part and contributing to the life of the school.
• The governing body has a good understanding of performance management procedures and supports the headteacher effectively in ensuring the management of teachers’ pay.
• The governing body is diligent in carrying out its responsibilities to safeguard pupils and, to this end, has appointed a safeguarding governor to oversee and monitor safeguarding and welfare-related matters.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safeguarding is a high priority in school, as is the care and welfare of vulnerable pupils and families who benefit from additional support. There is a clear message that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.
• Effective safeguarding and child protection systems are in place and are understood by staff. Appropriate training for staff and governors is undertaken and up to date, including that related to keeping pupils safe from radicalisation and extremism and female genital mutilation.
• There is vigilance around the care and support of vulnerable pupils. Leaders have cultivated effective relationships with parents and other agencies, which are instrumental in contributing to the safeguarding of the vulnerable pupils in their care.
• Pupils say that they feel very safe and well cared for in school. As a result, pupils feel very confident that adults will help them if needed. Pupils, particularly those in key stage 2, talk about the ways they can stay safe in a range of situations, including personally and online. The overwhelming majority of parents feel that the school keeps their children safe and well looked after.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching over time has not been effective enough to enable pupils to make rapid progress. As a result, by the end of key stage 2, many do not reach the standards that are expected for their age.
• Expectations regarding what pupils can achieve are often too low, especially for those pupils who are most able and of middle ability. As a result, none are making more-than-expected progress for their age or reaching higher standards.
• Teachers do not always do enough to check whether pupils are being sufficiently challenged, particularly the most able. Consequently, in some lessons, pupils rarely get anything wrong, so miss out on being stretched further or extended in their learning.
• Teachers’ systems for assessing progress on a day-to-day basis or within a lesson are not precise enough to pick up who needs further challenge. As a result, teachers do not always provide work that meets pupils’ needs. The work that is completed in pupils’ books could be neater. Some teachers have not tackled this adequately.
• In too many classes pupils are not sufficiently encouraged to apply their learning and try out independently some of the skills and knowledge they have. The feedback offered to pupils to help them do this lacks the detail to support them to learn from their mistakes.
• The pace of improving teachers’ skills and knowledge in areas of the curriculum has been too slow. Teachers have benefited from the training offered for teaching phonics, grammar, punctuation and spelling and mathematics. In these subjects, improvements are beginning to show through teaching and in the way pupils are catching up in their learning. However, good-quality training in reading and writing is only recent and is yet to impact on pupils’ learning sufficiently.
• Pupils’ progress in writing across the school is variable. Teachers often do not provide enough opportunities for pupils to practise their writing skills and attempt longer pieces of work. Consequently, pupils are not well enough prepared for moving into the next key stage.
• The quality of teaching and learning is strongest in key stage 2, where subject knowledge is more secure and questioning is more consistent. However, teachers’ questioning does not always deepen and develop pupils’ thinking.
• The teaching of phonics is improving. Pupils are benefiting enormously from having phonics taught earlier, in Nursery and Reception.
• Relationships between staff and pupils in the school are a strength. Leaders have spent time fostering trusting and respectful relationships in school. This has been a success and the foundations for good learning have been laid. There is a strong sense of nurture, where pupils feel safe and secure to learn.
• The vast majority of pupils have a very positive attitude to learning and are ready and eager. They are regularly offered opportunities to develop good learning skills such as resilience, being able to go out of their ‘comfort zone’ and having a ‘can do’ attitude. As one pupil explained, ‘it is good to grow your brain’.
• For those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, the support they are offered is broad, targeted and of a good quality. Additional support is planned well, resulting in these pupils making good progress. Teaching assistants make a good contribution to the progress of these pupils. This is particularly evident in their support of pupils who have challenging behaviour. In these instances, they play an important role in ensuring that the teacher’s and other pupils’ attention are not diverted from the focus on learning.
• Where pupils particularly struggle with their learning, they are identified well and an effective range of learning opportunities helps them to catch up. For example, pupils who struggle with reading have good support to practise their skills and are proud of the progress they make.
• The vast majority of parents who responded to Parent View or spoke to inspectors in the playground feel that their children are taught well and their child makes good progress in school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The importance placed on pupils’ personal development and welfare is central and very visible in school. Staff and governors are conscientious in their responsibility to ensure that the school provides a safe, nurturing environment in which pupils can flourish and grow in confidence.
• The school offers a strong personal, social, health and citizenship curriculum that is woven into all that the school does. The high profile given to equipping pupils with valuable life skills promotes the value and importance of staying safe, making good choices and being responsible and well-balanced citizens. This is coupled with increasing pupils’ aspirations and developing skills to avoid and resolve conflicts. As a result, pupils are developing as respectful, thoughtful and considerate citizens.
• Staff treat pupils with the utmost consideration and ensure that the school makes everyone feel respected and valued. A real strength of the school are the mentor groups that all pupils are members of. Each group is led by an adult and consists of eight to 10 pupils. The group meets regularly to discuss their day and problems or successes that may arise. There is a mutually appreciative and close bond between the mentor and the pupils. The mentor also checks on their group individually and is the first to congratulate them if they do well or encourage them if needed.
• The very large majority of parents who spoke to inspectors and those that responded to Parent View expressed praise for the school and the work of the staff. They feel that their children are happy and well looked after.
• Pupils throughout school, but particularly in key stage 2, are confident learners and are happy to talk about their learning. Pupils told inspectors how proud they are of the new school building. They also talked with pride about helping each other in the playground and around school. For example, they spoke of the ‘restorative leaders’ in Year 5 who ensure that pupils who struggle to resolve a playground problem are helped to sort the incident out. Pupils were clear that, if they had a problem, they could ask for help from ‘a friend, a restorative leader or an adult’.
• Pupils were confident that teachers dealt with any unkind or negative language towards pupils quickly. They were very clear about what bullying was and said that incidents were extremely rare. Parents who responded to Parent View agreed.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Leaders have been very successful in significantly improving pupils’ conduct and attitude to learning over the last couple of years. As a result, low-level disruption, although occasionally occurring in key stage 1, has substantially reduced and rarely gets in the way of pupils’ learning.
• Pupils conduct themselves very well around school. They are polite and well mannered, open doors for each other and adults and are keen to ask how visitors are ‘enjoying their day’. As a result, the school is a calm, orderly and purposeful place to learn.
• Leaders have been particularly successful in managing and improving the behaviour of pupils who have significant anger or self-control issues. Pupils now have helpful coping strategies to deal with their feelings. They feel much happier and calmer in school. As a result, exclusions and incidents of poor behaviour have reduced significantly.
• Attendance is a high priority for the school and is steadily improving, but is still below the national average. The systems for checking absence are rigorous and conscientiously applied. Good attendance is rewarded and has a high profile in school. Persistent absence is monitored closely, as is lateness. The leadership team has worked hard with this group of pupils and their parents and has had some notable successes. The pastoral manager is very successful at supporting pupils and families who might be struggling. Leaders’ commitment and insistence on good attendance, from evidence seen at the time of the inspection, suggest that the school will continue to make solid improvements in attendance over time.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Outcomes require improvement because, despite some improvements in mathematics and grammar, spelling and punctuation, too few pupils make fast enough progress, especially in reading and writing.
• The progress of the most able and middle-ability pupils is not good enough. At both key stages, these pupils do not achieve highly enough in any subject. This is because leaders and teachers have given little attention to the possibility of pupils achieving at greater depth or higher standards. Teachers have not used assessment information well enough to provide pupils with sufficient challenge.
• At the end of key stage 2 in 2016, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in mathematics was close to that found nationally. However, in reading, writing and grammar, spelling and punctuation, it was well below the national picture. In no subject did pupils achieve at a higher standard.
• Achievement at the end of key stage 1 was similarly low in 2016, with a below-average proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics and, again, no pupils achieving higher than the expected standards under the new national curriculum.
• There is a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils in the school and the pupil premium funding is used well to remove barriers for these pupils and give them access to all aspects of the curriculum. However, similarly to all pupils, disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, make inconsistent progress.
• The proportion of pupils who reach the expected standard in the national screening check for phonics at the end of Year 1 has improved slightly year on year, but is still below the national average. However, the school is now giving considerable focus to phonics development and the impact is clear. Adults are teaching phonics from the Nursery class. This is built on in Reception and continues to be prominent through to key stage 1. Pupils are hearing and using phonics sounds, reading words and building sentences regularly and with enthusiasm. As a result, there is strong evidence to suggest that there will be a big increase in the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in 2017.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. The support offered by teachers and teaching assistants is effective and ensures that pupils succeed in their learning.
• Current school assessment information suggests that progress is improving. However, it is too soon to say whether this will have sufficient impact on outcomes for pupils by the end of the year.

Early years provision Good

• Many children start school with skills and knowledge below those typical for their age. The good-quality provision offered to children ensures that they catch up quickly and make good progress from their starting points.
• By the end of the Reception Year, children historically have not been in line with children of a similar age nationally. However, the changes in provision, including the heightened and constant focus on phonics, writing and number, are having a noticeable effect on learning. As a result, for the first year in the history of the school, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development is predicted to be close to other children nationally.
• Provision is well organised to provide children with a stimulating range of activities, both indoors and outside, which allows them to practise their skills. Many activities are based on the theme of a story book they may be focusing on or as a result of ideas and suggestions from children. Adults have high expectations, and are actively involved in the children’s activities and play. They encourage learning at every opportunity. For example, an adult joined in with a small group of children playing doctors and nurses. Encouraged by her, children role-played speaking to the emergency services and then talking to the patient to find out what the matter was. Later, children practised these skills by independently speaking to imaginary people on a play telephone.
• The early years leader is new to the role. She does not have specialist knowledge of early years and has other important commitments in the school. However, there has been a recent audit of early years and an action plan has been devised with the support of a local teaching school. This action plan is being addressed conscientiously and, where actions have been taken to tackle issues, these have been successful.
• Safeguarding is effective and risk assessments for activities and events are thorough.
• Additional funding is used to provide resources and support for disadvantaged children. Leaders have a good understanding of the impact this has on children’s learning and have taken steps to ensure that these children achieve well. As a result, given their starting points, disadvantaged children make similarly good progress to that made by other children.
• The quality of teaching is consistently good. Adults demonstrate good subject knowledge and there is a consistency of approach and manner across the two classes. Routines are well established and children’s behaviour is good. Adults are quick to provide support to children to help them understand the importance of being polite and treating one another with respect. Children play together well and are motivated to learn. Adults cultivate this through their approach to holding children’s attention and establishing expectations. For example, while sitting on the carpet, pupils were captivated when ‘Little Red Hen’, a character from the class story book, rang them on the telephone to ask how they were and if they were sitting and listening to their teacher sensibly.
• The importance placed on reading, writing and mathematical skills is evident, with regular chances for children to write, practise their letters and sounds and use number. The development of language and speaking is also a high priority, along with building self-confidence. Adults engage with children well and ask questions to draw out children’s understanding, encourage them to talk and feel self-assured.
• The assessment information teachers gather on a day-to-day basis is used effectively to plan a curriculum for children that is both interesting and relevant. Teachers’ assessment and the tracking of children’s learning are of a good quality. Adults are keen to develop their assessment further, so that at a leadership level, gaps and trends in learning can be considered and planned for in more depth.
• The strong emphasis on creating a caring and nurturing environment is evident from the very positive relationships adults have with children, and children have with each other. Staff consider strong relationships with parents as being crucial in establishing future positive attitudes to school life and encouraging parents to take an interest in their child’s learning. To this end, staff are keen to explore further ways of communicating with parents electronically and through texts. Parents describe the adults in early years as ‘amazing’ and say how they have ‘helped my child come on so much’.
• Adults have links with the local provision for nought to three-year-olds to ensure a smooth transition to the Nursery class and they seek to liaise with other providers and parents of prospective new children. The transition from Nursery to Reception is well organised.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106032 Stockport 10032394 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 Community 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 173 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address David Trafford Martyn Spray 0161 480 7889 www.bridgehall.stockport.sch.uk headteacher@bridgehall.stockport.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 20 February 2013

Information about this school

• This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school, with one-form entry throughout.
• The very large majority of pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• The school does meet 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.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Bridge Hall has recently moved into a new school building on the same site as the original.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in all classes. They observed pupils’ behaviour in classrooms and assessed the school’s promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Inspectors also observed pupils in the playground and during lunchtimes.
• Inspectors looked at the work in pupils’ books and in the learning journals of children in the early years.
• An inspector listened to a number of pupils read.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, both of the assistant headteachers, the special educational needs coordinator, the person responsible for safeguarding and attendance, the early years leader and a middle leader.
• An inspector met with three members of the governing body, including the chair. A meeting was also held with a representative of the local authority.
• A group of pupils discussed their opinions about the school and their learning with an inspector, and inspectors also spoke informally with pupils in the playground and around school.
• Inspectors took account of 22 responses to a staff questionnaire.
• They also took account of 13 responses to the online Ofsted questionnaire, Parent View. An inspector talked briefly with a number of parents before school.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including minutes from meetings of the governing body, information on pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s evaluation of its own performance and its development plan. Behaviour and attendance records and information relating to safeguarding were also scrutinised.

Inspection team

Sue Eastwood, lead inspector Stephen Rigby Maureen Hints

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector