Holden Clough Community Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that pupils with SEND, the most able pupils and those who are disadvantaged are taught well and make good progress from their starting points, by:
  • designing activities across all subjects that are challenging and enable pupils to extend their learning
  • providing reading activities are more closely matched to pupils’ level of reading
  • sharply measuring the impact of teaching on reducing barriers to learning.
• Improve teaching and learning in the early years foundation stage, by:
  • providing the most able children with the challenging activities that they need to make gains in their knowledge and understanding
  • increasing the proportion of children attaining the higher level of development by the end of Nursery and Reception
  • making sure that no time in the day is wasted
  • checking that all children make gains in their learning in both adult-led and child-led activities.
• Improve equality and diversity across the school, by:
  • writing, and then publishing to parents, equality objectives
  • embedding into the curriculum study of a more diverse range of people who better reflect British society
  • checking that the curriculum enables pupils to learn about a better balance of male and female people.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• In the three years immediately after the previous inspection the school declined in quality. Between 2015 and 2017 there was a three-year decline in standards and in the progress that pupils made. Over the last year, the headteacher has transformed many aspects of the school. The school’s new leadership team have all taken an important role in reversing the school’s fortunes in the last 15 months.
• The headteacher has identified the areas in the school that need to be improved and has already started resolving any weaknesses. There is a new comprehensive system in place for performance management, for checking on the quality of teaching, and for assessing pupils’ attainment across the full range of subjects. Importantly, in 2018, because of the headteacher’s effective work, standards rose and pupils’ progress improved across the whole school.
• The headteacher, staff and governors have re-shaped the ethos and culture of the school to focus more on pupils’ progress than on attainment. Leaders motivate and inspire staff. They use training and frequent monitoring positively to improve the quality of teaching. However, leaders’ evaluation of the quality of teaching is slightly overgenerous.
• Parents are very complimentary about the new headteacher. They told inspectors that he is highly visible around the school. A typical comment was that ‘The new headteacher is fantastic. He is always available, greeting parents.’ Parents described communication as very good. They are well-informed about their children’s progress.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) provides high-quality leadership. She has overseen the introduction of a new comprehensive system to identify pupils who are in need of support. Parents commented that she has identified specific special educational needs, which had been hitherto undiagnosed. She has made sure that the external funds for this group of pupils are used effectively. She has trained teaching assistants and teachers and, importantly, has started to reverse the decline in pupils’ progress and attainment.
• Leaders prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. They provide good opportunities to develop pupils’ cultural awareness through musical events, theatre performances and studying different artists. They have created a curriculum that has an effective impact on pupils’ spiritual and moral development through exciting trips and learning about different world religions, beliefs and philosophies.
• Leaders have improved the mathematics and English curricula. As a result, standards in these subjects are rising and pupils’ progress is increasing. In subjects such as history, geography, science and RE the curriculum in key stage 1 is less challenging and less well developed. This is because no sequence or progression of skills or content is set out. Year 1 pupils study the same ideas as Year 2 pupils. There are some examples of diversity in the curriculum such as studying Barbara Hepworth in art and Nelson Mandela in history. However, the curriculum does not reflect the very full range of diversity found in modern Britain.
• Leaders in the past have not spent the pupil premium grant well. In fact, in the period following the previous inspection up to 2017 there has been well-below average progress for this group of pupils and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers nationally did not close. The new leadership team has identified this as an issue and started putting measures in place to improve attainment and progress for this group.
• Leaders have used the sport and physical education premium well. There is a strong system to check on the impact of the funding on increasing competitive sport. Leaders are passionate about sport and the role it plays in pupils’ personal development. They have identified a relative weakness in the teaching of dance and gymnastics and have identified a coach to provide specialised training for staff. There is a wide range of physical activities supplementing the curriculum, such as Russian dancing and cookery.
• After the last inspection, the local authority had only limited involvement with the school. This has changed in the last year. The local authority provides good support and challenge to the school. It has helped to train teachers who lead subjects and middle leaders. The impact of the local authority’s support is also evident in improved provision for pupils with SEND.

Governance of the school

• The governing body provides good support and challenge. Since the arrival of the new headteacher, governors have greater access to information about pupils’ attainment and progress. They have used this to check on the impact of the school’s work and to challenge leaders about the weak progress that different groups of pupils make.
• The governing body is knowledgeable and committed. It now has a greater focus on making sure that the pupil premium, sport premium and funding for pupils with SEND are used efficiently.
• The governing body, at the start of the inspection, had not made sure that all of the statutory information for parents had been published. For example, there were no equality objectives or review of the impact of the school’s work to meet the requirements of the public sector equality duty. By the end of the inspection, almost all of the issues had been fully resolved.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders ensure that staff are trained to the correct level and that new staff, through their induction, are knowledgeable about the school’s safeguarding systems. Staff receive frequent updates about local and national changes.
• There is a good focus on making sure that the site is safe. Leaders check that staff know what to do to protect pupils in a range of situations such as through fire drills and risk assessments. Leaders make sure that there are enough staff who are first-aid trained.
• The school works well with other agencies such as the police, social services, educational welfare and the local authority to make sure that pupils are protected. The school’s documentation is fit for purpose and thorough.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching and learning for three groups of pupils require improvement: the most able pupils, the disadvantaged and pupils with SEND. Teachers do not challenge these groups of pupils as much as they could across the different subjects. Pupils in Year 1, for example, complete the same activities as pupils in Year 2, with mostly the same worksheets in science, history, geography and RE. This means that the most able pupils and those with SEND complete the same work. Consequently, the work is sometimes too easy or too difficult and pupils make no, or only limited, gains in their knowledge or understanding. The standard of pupils’ work in Years 1 and 2 in English is much better than in science, geography, history and RE.
• In some classes, adults select passages for pupils to read in small groups but the texts are sometimes too easy or far too difficult, so this hinders learning. In the past, there has been very slow progress in key stage 1. Pupils’ work shows that this trend has been reversed: pupils are picking up new skills and learning each week in writing and mathematics.
• Phonics teaching is good, as is the teaching of spelling and early writing. This is because the school follows a progressive, sequenced set of tasks and activities that build up pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding of how to write. Pupils’ handwriting and presentation of work are good.
• The SENCo has recently set up targeted teaching for pupils with SEND. This teaching is showing improved impact on pupils’ learning and progress.
• Assessment was a point for improvement at the previous inspection. In most lessons, teachers moved skilfully around the classroom, checking on pupils’ work and their understanding, correcting any errors or providing personal or group support. This was particularly effective in most key stage 2 classes, where the teachers continually re-shaped the lesson, activities and their teaching based on what the pupils could or could not do.
• Teaching in Spanish and computing is strong. In these subjects pupils make good gains in their learning because specialist teachers have a high level of subject knowledge. There is some highly effective teaching in some key stage 2 classes. Teachers explain and demonstrate new ideas clearly and create high-quality activities that build pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Parents and pupils agreed that pupils feel safe and that different forms of bullying are rare. The staff identify, log and track any incidents of racism or homophobia. Pupils said that name-calling occasionally happens, particularly around games of football and when the most able pupils get questions wrong.
• ‘School feels like a little home,’ was a typical sentiment expressed by pupils. They have a good understanding of how to stay safe and talk at length about how to be safe when working or playing games online. They also had a good understanding of other forms of safety such as how to be careful around fireworks. They confirmed that when anyone is injured or upset they are immediately enveloped by support from other pupils, saying, ‘If you get hurt, children run over to help.’
• Pupils have a good attitude to work and to learning. They take pride in their work and in their school. They are fully active in the life of their school and participate in fundraising, taking roles and positions of responsibility, and representing their school at events. They are keen to improve and respond well to teachers’ feedback. They agreed, in the Ofsted survey, that the staff do all they can to improve their physical and emotional health.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. In their responses to inspectors, parents and pupils agree that the school ensures that pupils are well behaved. There have been no exclusions in recent years for poor behaviour. Pupils with challenging behaviours linked to their SEND receive good support and, as a result, their behaviour improves over time.
• Pupils attend well. Overall attendance is above the national average and this year the proportion of pupils absent for more than 10% of their schooling is low.
• In almost all lessons, pupils are responsive to adults, sit quietly and listen, cooperate well with others and are ready to learn. Pupils themselves said that they could concentrate on their work without being disturbed and only a very few classmates are silly.
• The school is a calm, friendly and welcoming environment. Pupils are very friendly, warmly greet adults, hold doors open and show a good level of respect for others. Most pupils cooperate well in group- and paired-work and friendships are strong across differences in age, gender and ethnic heritage.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils who are disadvantaged, most able or with SEND do not achieve well. Assessment information shows that in the past these groups made well-below average progress. Currently, these groups of pupils are making better progress, particularly in key stage 2. This is because of improved teaching but also due to the very effective leadership of the temporary SENCo.
• The SENCo has set up new small-group and individual teaching programmes for pupils with SEND. However, there is a way to go before this group makes up for the learning lost between 2014 and 2017. She has also overseen effective changes to provision for disadvantaged pupils. This, and better teaching in key stage 2, means that this group and the most able pupils are making better progress, particularly in English and mathematics.
• Pupils’ ability to read by breaking up words phonetically is good. By the end of Year 1, most pupils attain the expected standard in the national phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) check, and by the end of Year 2 almost every child reaches this standard. The quality of pupils’ reading in key stage 1 is mixed. They do not make good progress in key stage 1 from their starting points at the end of Reception. This is partially because adults do not make sure that the reading books used in small-group teaching are matched closely to pupils’ reading ability. These are sometimes so difficult that the group of pupils cannot read the text or so simple that pupils do not develop their reading skills.
• In mathematics, pupils’ progress and attainment have been weak. The headteacher and senior leaders have turned this around. Standards are rising. Current pupils are more fluent in their use of numbers in a variety of calculations. They solve problems confidently and, importantly, do not move on too quickly before mastering a key mathematical idea.
• In writing, past pupils have underachieved in key stage 2. Current pupils make good progress in both key stages: handwriting and spelling have improved as has their use of good grammar and punctuation. Writing in other subjects such as geography, history, RE and science does not match the quality that pupils produce in English. In these subjects in key stage 1, pupils in Year 1 complete the same activities as they do in Year 2. As a result, pupils are not challenged as much as they should be.
• There are some strengths in other subjects. In Spanish, computing and in sport there is evidence that pupils make good progress and standards are good.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The main area for improvement in early years is the quality of teaching and learning and the use of assessment, particularly for the most able children. Some of the activities are too easy and too low level. This means children already have the necessary skills and the activities do not build on what they already know and can do. For example, a group of children who could already count beyond 20, according to the school’s assessment, and could calculate accurately, were given activities that involved numbers less than 10.
• In the Nursery and in Reception adults do not make full use of all teaching time to advance children’s learning. Too much teaching time is wasted on, for example, tidying up, waiting around for an adult, and getting changed in and out of outdoor clothing.
• Since the last inspection, very few children have exceeded a good level of development. The standards that children attain by the end of Reception declined each year until 2017. The school took action and in 2018 a higher proportion of children attained a good level of development. A majority of children enter Nursery and then Reception with skills and development that are typical for three- and four-year-olds. Overall, the large majority of children are ready, by the end of Reception, for learning in Year 1.
• There are some good features of the early years foundation stage. The partnership with parents is a strength and has improved since the previous inspection. Staff use an online system to communicate with parents. This means there is an efficient two-way flow of information. Parents comment on the activities that their children have been doing when at school and they tell staff about what children have been learning at home. Parents come in to school each morning to ‘stay and play’ and to read with their children.
• Leaders have made sure that the environment is well resourced, organised and conducive to good learning. It is a safe place in which to learn. Most children behave well, respond well to adults and sit quietly listening in adult-led sessions. Pupils are happy, enthusiastic and confident. They access equipment and resources themselves safely. They have the chance to explore, create, find out new things and to lead their own learning. Children make good gains in their physical development because of schemes including a company that teaches them how to balance and ride on bikes.
• The early years foundation stage leader has an accurate analysis of the quality of teaching. Importantly, she also knows what to do to improve teaching. She has established useful links with other early years providers to make sure that the transition into Nursery and Reception is smooth and that children make a confident start.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106216 Tameside 10082071 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 Maintained 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 345 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Stephen Longley Faik Kordemir 0161 330 5248 www.holdenclough.tameside.sch.uk mail@holdenclough.tameside.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 2 October 2014

Information about this school

• Holden Clough is larger than the average-sized primary school. It has grown since the previous inspection. In Years 5 and 6 there is one class in each year group but from Reception through to Year 4 there are two classes in each year group.
• The headteacher took up post in September 2017.
• The proportion of pupils who have been identified as eligible for free school meals in the last six years is below average. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is similar to the national average but has fallen in each of the last three years.
• The proportion of pupils identified as having SEND is low compared to the national average.
• A before- and after-school club uses the school’s facilities and is managed by a private company which has been inspected separately.

Information about this inspection

• To gauge how parents felt about the school and their children’s education, the team met with parents at the start of the day and took account of the 72 completed Parent View questionnaires, Ofsted’s online survey.
• Inspectors also took account of 68 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey. In addition, they met formally with three groups of pupils and spoke to pupils in class and around the school.
• Inspectors observed teaching in every class, looked at pupils’ work and visited an assembly.
• Inspectors met with three representatives of the governing body, a representative of the local authority and a range of staff, including newly qualified teachers.
• The school provided documentation for inspectors to look at which included records of the most recent assessment of pupils’ attainment and progress.

Inspection team

Allan Torr, lead inspector Joan Williamson Mandy Dodd Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector