Delamere School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to develop provision to ensure that the needs of the most able group in the early years and in key stage 1 are well met as these younger pupils move throughout the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Leaders and governors have created a culture of continuous reflection and improvement. They seek views from the wider school community and impartial external professionals to ensure that they are providing an excellent education for pupils. Every aspect of school life is considered, analysed and reviewed to ensure that it is the best it can be to support individual pupils’ learning.
• Leadership is evident at all levels, with staff being accountable for their specific areas of responsibility following the successful restructuring of staff. For example, middle leaders take responsibility for different types of learners, teaching assistants all have an area of responsibility, and subject leaders are accountable for progress in their subject. This ensures that no pupil slips through the net.
• Leaders use their thorough analysis of information about pupils’ progress to inform their next development steps. Leaders’ actions within improvement plans are monitored closely to ensure that they have a positive effect on pupils’ outcomes. For example, leaders identified that pupils were not doing as well as they should in an aspect of mathematics. The subject leader delivered training on statistics to improve teachers’ subject knowledge and monitored the subsequent positive effect on pupils’ outcomes.
• School leaders are always thinking about how to improve the quality of teaching. Leaders manage teachers effectively through a consistent approach to the use of classroom observation and feedback to inform training and support. Leaders provide clear guidelines so that teachers have a good understanding of the expectations at each stage of their career.
• Leaders place great value on developing teachers’ and teaching assistants’ skills and knowledge. Whole-school training underpins school priorities. For example, leaders provide specialist training for staff, which means they tailor provision carefully to meet the needs of pupils. Bespoke training is provided to support specific roles. For example, leaders who are responsible for appraisal have completed coaching courses to enable them to bring out the best in others. Staff value the training opportunities provided which are enhanced further through using the expertise of more experienced staff.
• Pupils benefit enormously from a curriculum that is lively and stimulating. Teachers embed spiritual, moral, social and cultural education into their planned activities to provide relevance for pupils. For example, one group studied the culture of everyone in the class, giving pupils an insight into modern Britain. Pupils enjoy the rich variety of personalised activities provided for them, which motivate them to learn. For example, music therapy, rebound, outdoor learning and donkey therapy.
• Physical education is a strength of the school. The subject leader organises a range of sporting activities with other schools. Representing Manchester in the North West swimming gala improved pupils’ physical development, while wheelchair rugby improved coordination and provided an opportunity for pupils to compete in teams.
• Leaders spend the additional sports premium effectively. Pupils access a range of sporting provision that they would not ordinarily access on a day-to-day basis. Leaders vary the activities from year to year to give pupils a wide experience of sport.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding creatively to provide additional resources and opportunities for disadvantaged pupils. The tablet computer project and ‘splash’ session are targeted to support pupils’ learning. Disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes have improved as a result.
• Leaders use additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively to provide additional staffing and resources to support pupils.
• Restructuring across Trafford schools has meant a change in the school’s population with the majority of the most able pupils being some of the youngest pupils in school. Leaders have provided training to upskill teachers to challenge this small group of most-able pupils, which has been effective. These pupils make rapid progress in school.

Governance of the school

• The governing body takes its responsibilities very seriously and governors are meticulous in carrying out their duties. Governors’ recent audit of their skills, together with additional training where there are gaps, ensures that they are effective. They use these skills well to support the school effectively. For example, key governors supported the school during the staffing restructure.
• Governors are well informed and committed to improving outcomes for pupils. Following meetings with their link teacher to get a ‘picture’ of different aspects of school, they complete reports that they feed back to the full governing body. The recent early years review shows that they have an accurate view of provision.
• Governors are rigorous in their interrogation of leaders at meetings, asking questions for clarification and challenge. They diligently follow up any actions required at subsequent meetings.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective and are led and managed very well. There is a strong culture of safeguarding, supported by effective training and meticulous record-keeping. Five members of the school community are trained in safer recruitment and they make certain that at least one of them is available when new staff are recruited.
• Staff recruitment checks are very thorough in order to protect vulnerable pupils. The school’s recruitment procedures are held up as a model of good practice. Pupils are safeguarded at a whole school and at a personalised level.
• Information from the parent and staff surveys show that the school community is confident that pupils are kept safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers and teaching assistants know pupils exceptionally well. They have a deep understanding of the most effective way for individual pupils to learn and use this knowledge, with accurate assessment information, to plan next steps to move pupils’ learning forward. Teachers engage pupils using a range of effective strategies and different methods, tailored to their learning needs.
• Teachers are innovative, creating ways of making learning accessible and interesting to pupils. Lessons are stimulating and motivate pupils to learn. For example, one pupil who was working on recognising sounds was supported well by their teacher who had made a pattern of sounds, with matching sounds stuck on a xylophone. The pupil had to concentrate hard to copy the pattern and to ‘play’ the sounds.
• Teachers create bespoke learning environments around school. Each classroom reflects the needs of the pupils. Low-stimulation rooms are provided for pupils who have an autistic spectrum disorder and a word-rich environment is available for emerging writers.
• Leaders have developed exciting outdoor spaces for pupils to play and learn. Thoughtful planning ensures that the outside environment encourages creative, imaginative and sensory learning. The outdoor classroom is flexible and teachers can, and do, change its use to suit any context. Sensory learners are exceptionally well engaged through coloured ceiling panels; and transient art frames are provided for potential artists. The raised beds enthuse budding gardeners and the willow area provides an enclosed space for reading stories. These stimulating and vibrant areas help to make learning interesting and fun.
• Teaching to develop pupils’ effective communication skills is exemplary. Pupils access a variety of communication methods to support their learning, which includes signing, symbol support and using objects of reference. There is a strong relationship between staff and the speech therapy team, meaning teachers embed good practice across the school day. It is particularly impressive that when pupils go to the dining hall, outside or into the pool their communication supports are waiting for pupils to use.
• Teachers regularly and accurately assess pupils’ learning. They meet with other professionals to share pupils’ attainment and to plan the next steps. Any barriers or gaps to learning are identified and plans are immediately put into place to overcome these. This analysis enables teachers to target support in order to fill the gaps in pupils’ knowledge. For example, pupils who were finding it difficult to write because of their physical needs are now able to write because they were given access to laptops. This integrated planning is very effective and regular reviews show that it has a positive impact on pupils’ progress.
• Teachers deliver phonics well and this helps pupils to learn to read. Teachers engage pupils using stimulating, multi-sensory materials. Because of the support they receive the pupils are making very good progress.
• Parents enthusiastically contribute to the online assessment system when pupils achieve their learning targets at home. One parent said this system was ‘fantastic’.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. Personal development is central to the school’s approach to personalised learning. The strong relationships between teachers and pupils, together with teachers’ exceptional knowledge of individual pupils, enables pupils to quickly improve their personal skills.
• Engagement with parents and carers is very strong. Pupils have individual targets to improve their personal and social skills. Teachers liaise regularly and often with parents regarding pupils’ targets, which means parents can work on these at home. When pupils succeed, parents upload comments, pictures or videos onto the online assessment system to celebrate and share their children’s achievements with teachers.
• Pupils complete personalised homework as part of a home–school agreement. Teachers collate homework packs, which are highly tailored to suit individual pupils’ needs. For example, one pupil might have a sensory story, while another might have a project involving some art research.
• In class, pupils display strong attitudes to learning. They listen carefully to teachers and focus well on things that interest them. Attitudes to learning are consistently positive. At lunchtime, pupils follow set routines that enable them to behave well. They play confidently and sociably with others with strong adult support helping them to use their interesting outside learning space.
• Pupils’ welfare is at the heart of all transitions. Teachers prepare children and their families well when they first come to school. Teachers respond flexibly to pupils’ individual needs and manage well any changes in pupils’ routines. This ensures that pupils’ learning is not interrupted as they change classes. This flexible approach means transitions are smooth and effective. The information passed to secondary provision is thorough and informative.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Teachers encourage pupils to regulate their own behaviour, which they do well. This underpins the school’s inspired behaviour strategy with the view that the better pupils behave, the more they can learn and the more opportunities they can access in the future.
• Underpinning this philosophy is a clear recording system. Each pupil has an individual learning support plan to help them to manage their own behaviour. Teachers produce these in consultation with other professionals and parents to ensure that there is consistency across settings. Staff follow these plans rigorously. If an incident occurs, staff reflect on what can be learned in order to keep everyone safe. This reflective practice has greatly reduced incidents of inappropriate behaviour.
• Teachers support pupils to behave well by refocusing pupils on their learning. Inspectors saw this done skilfully across the school. For example, the potential for a negative behaviour incident was quickly, and expertly, diffused. A member of staff identified that a pupil would not join the group, so took the learning to the pupil and encouraged them to re-engage by capturing their interest.
• Such is the school’s success in managing challenging behaviour that they provide outreach training to mainstream schools and nurseries to support staff to manage behaviour in their own provision more effectively.
• Leaders’ focus on, and action taken to improve, attendance levels has led to a three-year improving picture. All groups of pupils show improved attendance. Leaders’ responses towards absence is systematic, decisive and effective.
• Leaders have employed a family liaison worker to improve attendance. She works with vulnerable pupils and their families. Leaders organise regular multi-agency meetings to share information about pupils who have complex medical issues. This is helping pupils to get back into school as soon as it is safe to do so.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Leaders carefully measure the progress and outcomes in academic subjects. Personal and social development is meticulously tracked through the positive impact seen on individual pupils’ skills.
• Information from the 2015/2016 academic year shows that all groups of pupils made better than expected progress from their starting points. Pupils currently at the school, regardless of their specific needs, continue to make excellent progress. Pupils who have profound and multiple learning difficulties consistently make strong progress from their starting points. Pupils who have severe learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorder make exceptional progress over time.
• The most able and middle ability pupils make rapid progress from their starting points. This is evident in their writing and mathematics workbooks. Their books showed pupils developing the correct letter formation and pupils composing simple sentences. In their mathematics workbooks, pupils were able to understand comparative vocabulary, such as tall and short, and simple addition and subtraction. However, as leaders recognise, there is more to do to ensure that these younger most-able pupils continue to thrive academically as they move throughout the school.
• Teachers provide motivating activities to capture the interest of pupils to encourage them to develop their writing and mathematics. Every opportunity is taken to support learning with real, practical resources.
• There is no difference between disadvantaged pupils’ progress and the progress of their peers. The small group of children who are looked after make more progress than their peers from their starting points.
• Teachers assess pupils’ achievements in the wider curriculum, showing that pupils make as good progress as in English and mathematics. Pupils’ topic work on the Egyptians is displayed in three-dimensional glory, highlighting the range of opportunities pupils have to study history, geography and art. Tutankhamun was vibrant and eye catching.
• Teachers accurately and methodically record outcomes from pupils’ personal and social education. The holistic achievement record is rigorous and shows each pupil’s personalised learning in detail. Teachers record evidence of skills seen prior to, and after, a series of activities to demonstrate the positive impact of the activity on the individual pupil’s skills. This forms part of a comprehensive system that records all the pupils’ learning and what is important to each individual pupil.
• Teachers review pupils’ individual targets online and upload supporting evidence. The online system enables parents to contribute to this record. This joint working ensures that pupils make the best strides in their learning.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Leadership of the early years is astute and accomplished. Leaders have a thorough and accurate picture of strengths and where there is still further work to do. The early years team are passionate to improve outcomes for children. They are particularly proud of the strong progress all children make from their below-typical starting points. Current progress shows that the most able children make exceptional progress having achieved their early learning goals. They are well prepared for the move into Year 1.
• Teachers plan collaboratively with support service colleagues to ensure effective provision. The focus on speech and language is particularly impressive because teachers use a variety of methods to improve children’s communication. For example, they use symbols to help children to make choices and model language to aid comprehension and to extend children’s vocabulary. The speech therapist complements and extends this provision.
• Teaching is consistently strong and planning to meet the individual learning needs of children is very effective. Teachers provide stimulating activities both inside and outside. Children engage exceptionally well with these activities and demonstrate consistently good attitudes.
• All adults know the children very well. They know what children can do and carefully plan their next steps. They assess children regularly and use this knowledge of the children to move their learning on very effectively. If children are not learning, they put in extra sessions to ensure that the children make better progress.
• Safeguarding is effective and children’s welfare needs are met. Teachers keep children safe in all their activities by appropriate support and supervision. For example, children enjoy climbing on the raised platform. Staff encourage children to ‘have a go’ and develop their confidence, while being vigilant about safety.
• Parents are a valued partner in the learning process. They are welcomed into school. The good communication means there is a continuous dialogue between teachers and parents. When this is at its best, parents contribute to children’s targets, work on these at home and feed into the online assessment system. This joint working ensures that children’s personal development needs are understood and met effectively.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106394 Trafford 10024470 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 special 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 95 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Nick Coulias Mrs Sally Burston 0161 7475893 http://delamere.trafford.sch.uk delamere.admin@trafford.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 13–14 November 2013

Information about this school

• The school provides for pupils who have profound and multiple learning difficulties, severe learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorder.
• All the pupils have an education, health and care plan.
• There are twice as many boys as girls.
• There are eight children looked after.
• A fifth of the pupils are disadvantaged.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is low.
• A third of pupils come from minority ethnic groups.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed teaching and learning in all classes, accompanied by the headteacher or deputy headteacher.
• Inspectors met with four pupils formally and spoke with a number of pupils informally during the inspection. Inspectors listened to pupils read.
• Inspectors scrutinised pupils’ assessment records, their workbooks and their behaviour in and out of lessons.
• Inspectors considered 12 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, spoke with parents as they dropped off their children and received letters from some parents.
• Inspectors received 23 responses to the staff survey and spoke with teachers and teaching assistants in school.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documentation relating to all aspects of the school’s work, including minutes of governing body meetings, self-evaluation, improvement planning, leaders’ monitoring of teaching and learning and documents relating to safeguarding.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, the school business manager and four members of the governing body and spoke with the local authority representative and the virtual headteacher by telephone.

Inspection team

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