Ark Dickens Primary Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching and learning in order to improve outcomes for pupils by:
  • ensuring that teachers have consistently high expectations of pupils’ learning and achievement
  • ensuring that teachers plan tasks that challenge the most able pupils to enable them to achieve well
  • ensuring that teachers have an accurate understanding of pupils’ prior learning, and adapt tasks to meet pupils’ needs
  • ensuring that teachers plan opportunities for pupils to learn well in subjects across the wider curriculum.
• Improve pupils’ behaviour by:
  • ensuring that teachers have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and consistently apply the school’s behaviour policy
  • improving pupils’ attendance and continuing to reduce the number of pupils who are persistently absent.
• Improve leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that the school’s website meets the statutory requirements for the publication of details about the curriculum and the impact of the additional funding the school receives for disadvantaged pupils
  • implementing a curriculum that enables pupils to learn effectively and achieve well across a wide range of subjects and which promotes pupils’ personal development and understanding of social and moral values
  • developing the role of middle leaders to enable them to play a role in improving outcomes for pupils
  • strengthening the school’s record-keeping of pupils’ behaviour, including details of actions taken following incidents of poor behaviour, and ensuring that leaders keep a closer strategic oversight of behaviour.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• The principal’s arrival has been pivotal in halting the decline of the school and enabling the school to embark on its journey of improvement. She has a clear vision for improvement, underpinned by a strong moral purpose and high aspirations for pupils’ lifelong learning and success. The principal has worked with determination, tenacity and energy to rapidly improve the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, although teaching is not yet securely good, it has improved significantly and standards are improving.
• Leaders’ actions to address the legacy of underachievement and improve pupils’ learning are already bearing positive fruits. They have tackled this with urgency and vigour. Standards are rising, as demonstrated by pupils’ good outcomes in the 2016 key stage 1 assessment tests and improvements in pupils’ progress across the school. However, while there are improvements in pupils’ learning across the school, there remain inconsistencies. Pupils are not yet making enough progress, especially in the lower part of key stage 2.
• Leaders have taken positive steps to improve the behaviour of pupils. While it is improving, in parts of the school it is still fragile. Too often, pupils are unable to learn well because of the poor behaviour of some pupils. Leaders are aware of this and are taking further action to support teachers in managing pupils’ behaviour more effectively. Leaders also acknowledge that their record-keeping of incidents of poor behaviour could be tightened to enable them to keep a sharper strategic oversight of this aspect of the school’s work.
• Leaders’ evaluation of the school is accurate. They have a very good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and use this information well to plan further improvements. They keep a rigorous check on the progress pupils are making. They use assessment information very well to enable them to target support where it is most needed.
• The curriculum does not currently meet pupils’ needs and does not enable pupils to learn well across a range of different subjects. Strategic plans do not set out the key skills, knowledge and understanding that pupils will learn and acquire as they progress through the school. As a consequence, pupils’ learning in subjects other than English, mathematics and science is not developed well and is superficial. Leaders acknowledge this shortcoming and have clear plans in place to address this from September. The school is implementing a new leadership structure in September. This will help to strengthen the leadership of teaching and learning throughout the school and the leadership of subjects.
• The school’s work to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is at present underdeveloped. There are some opportunities for pupils to develop their understanding of important social and moral issues. For example, when learning about the Second World War, older pupils learn about the Holocaust. Pupils’ learning about different cultures is enhanced through their learning about different religions and religious festivals. However, learning about important values and social and moral issues is at present not planned in the curriculum and occurs haphazardly. This means that pupils’ understanding of these issues is shallow and most pupils do not reflect on how these values influence their own behaviour.
• The school provides a suitable range of visits to enhance pupils’ learning and widen their horizons. For example, visits to the local park enable pupils to learn more about the local area beyond their immediate home. Older pupils also have the opportunity to take part in a weekend residential visit to the Isle of Wight. Pupils’ learning in music in lower key stage 2 is enhanced by their weekly drumming lessons. Reading is also promoted well through the fortnightly visits pupils make to the public library.
• Leaders make effective use of the additional funds they receive to support disadvantaged pupils. A range of small-group work and individual support builds pupils’ confidence and helps most of these pupils to learn well. Targeted support is matched well to pupils’ learning and emotional needs. A breakfast club enables pupils to get off to a good start to the day and be ready to learn. However, leaders acknowledge that last year the school did not publish the required evaluation of the impact of the additional funding they received.
• Sports funding is used well and more pupils are participating in sports clubs and sporting competitions. Additional resources have enabled pupils to play different sports, such as table tennis. The school makes good use of expertise from within the local area, for example the Portsmouth community football programme. This has enabled pupils to play for different teams and take part in tournaments.
• Funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used appropriately to provide specific support for individual pupils. For example, speech and language support is enlisted to help pupils’ speaking and listening skills. The school also uses outside agencies to assess pupils’ needs and provide expert advice.
• The principal and other school leaders have worked hard to help build positive relationships with families. They have provided opportunities for parents to come into school and do activities with their children. For example, parents of children in Year 1 joined their children to take part in a marble-run competition. The school’s reading afternoon was also enjoyed by many parents who came along to read with their children on the school field. As one parent commented, ‘As a family we look forward to and enjoy afternoons when parents are invited in to join in activities with the children.’

Governance of the school

• The governors have a good understanding of the work of the school through the principal’s detailed reports and their focused visits to the school. They hold leaders to account for pupils’ progress and all aspects of the work of the school. In meetings they also ask appropriate, challenging questions. However, the visits that governors currently make to check on specific aspects of the school’s work are more often focused on checking compliance. For example, the governors’ safeguarding audit is limited to checking that systems and policies are in place.
• The trust holds the principal robustly to account for the standards and progress pupils make at the school. The open and transparent cross-academy assessment system enables the trust and school leaders to compare the school’s performance with other schools in the trust. This high-quality information has enabled leaders to have a very good understanding of strengths and weaknesses in the school’s performance in order to plan for further improvement.
• Arrangements for managing the performance of staff, including the principal, are now established. Governors and the trust acknowledge that this was not the case in the previous school year. This is because plans and targets for individual teachers were not sufficiently robust to enable current leaders to hold these teachers to account.
• The trust has provided a significant amount of training and support to the school to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Network leaders provide high-quality, inspiring mentoring and coaching for individual teachers. They also lead by example in their own practice. They monitor and track the quality of teaching very thoroughly and this enables them to target specific support for teachers to improve. This has had a demonstrable, positive impact and has helped to raise teachers’ expectations, knowledge and skills.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. All statutory checks are completed diligently, including the recruitment checks for new staff. Effective training enables all staff to have a good understanding of their responsibilities and to be confident in spotting any concerns and referring them on.
• The designated leaders for safeguarding are very ably supported in their work by the learning mentors. They are highly knowledgeable about safeguarding procedures and they know pupils and their families very well. Their effective work with other agencies has ensured that pupils’ needs are championed and that pupils receive the right support. They have a flexible and responsive approach to enable them to quickly respond to and support any pupils who are experiencing difficulties. They also keep in regular contact with families and work effectively with them to help keep pupils safe.
• Pupils feel safe and are confident that they know who to speak to if they have a concern or a worry. Pupils talk with confidence about being able to speak to their teachers or members of the ‘pastoral’ team if they have anything that is upsetting them.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching is variable and not yet consistently good across the school. While there are some pockets of very strong practice in the school, the quality of teaching is uneven. In classes where teaching is strong, pupils are making good progress and achieving well. This is in sharp contrast to some other classes where teaching is not enabling pupils to learn effectively.
• In some classrooms, a positive learning climate has not been established. In these classes, teachers do not have high enough expectations of pupils’ learning or behaviour. As a consequence, some pupils often produce little work, do not take pride in the quality of their work and do not make enough progress. In these classes, pupils’ attitudes to learning are not good and many pupils demonstrate a lack of interest.
• Some teachers do not have a secure enough understanding of pupils’ previous learning. Tasks are not consistently well matched to pupils’ abilities. This often results in the most able pupils not being challenged sufficiently while some low-attaining pupils struggle to learn. In addition, some teachers do not have a clear enough understanding of what they want pupils to learn. When this happens, tasks and activities lack drive and clarity, pupils’ attention wanes and progress is slowed.
• Where teaching is strong, classrooms are purposeful environments for learning. In these classes, teachers have high expectations of pupils and relationships are positive. Teachers’ animated, lively approach captures pupils’ interest and motivates them to learn. These teachers use their good subject knowledge to ask skilful questions that challenge pupils and build on their learning. Teachers check pupils’ learning during lessons, addressing any errors or misunderstandings straight away. This effective practice contributes well to pupils’ good learning. Pupils like the way teachers let them know how well they are doing by highlighting their work in pink, green or blue. Some older pupils also look forward to getting ‘wows’ from their teacher.
• In mathematics, teachers use regular short assessments to check pupils’ understanding. This not only helps teachers to understand how well pupils are learning, it is also helping to develop teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the mathematics curriculum. Visual images are used well to support pupils’ learning. For example, when learning to multiply, pupils use arrays to develop their understanding of multiplication. Teachers provide regular opportunities for pupils to improve their confidence, fluency and flexibility with number and develop their reasoning skills.
• Phonics is well taught well at the school. Effective, systematic teaching of phonics is enabling pupils to learn well. This is reflected in the good proportion of pupils who meet the required standard in the phonics screening check. Pupils make good use of the newly refurbished and well-stocked library and this helps encourage pupils to read for pleasure. However, on occasion, the most able readers are not sufficiently challenged in their reading activities in class.
• Pupils are given many opportunities to write for different purposes and in different genres such as stories and play scripts. Where teaching is most successful, pupils’ learning about different grammatical elements is woven into their writing lessons. For example, in Year 6, pupils learn about how to add a relative clause to include additional information in a sentence and thus improve their writing.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. Pupils feel safe and feel confident that there is always someone they can speak to in school if they have a concern. One pupil commented, ‘There are lots of people you can talk to if you are worried.’ Pupils have some understanding of how to stay safe when using the internet. However, their understanding of how to stay safe in other ways is limited. School leaders recognise that there is more work to be done to ensure that the curriculum includes planned opportunities for pupils to learn more about this.
• There are some pupils in the school who find it difficult to manage their own emotions and behaviour. School staff manage these pupils well and the learning mentors provide very good support, care and guidance for these pupils. However, incidents of very poor behaviour can lead to an unsettled atmosphere in some classrooms.
• Pupils proudly wear their school uniform and many take pride in their work and achievements. However, this is not yet consistent across the school, as reflected by the poor presentation of some pupils’ work.
• The school has worked hard to raise pupils’ individual aspirations. The trust’s vision of enabling pupils to be successful and have future university or career choices is beginning to take root. Some pupils have already thought about what they might like to do as adults. They value the fact that their teachers encourage them to make their own choices and have ambition for the future. As one pupil commented ‘My teacher says, I have the potential to do anything I would like. The world is my oyster.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. In many classes pupils’ behaviour and attitudes are positive. However, this is not consistent across the school. Where teaching is weaker, pupils do not settle to learning easily or listen well to each other or to their teachers. This is particularly the case in the afternoons, when pupils’ focus declines. Where teaching is strong, behaviour is good and pupils display positive attitudes to their learning. However, this is not consistent across the school. In some classes, teachers do not manage pupils’ behaviour well and their expectations are not high enough.
• Around the school, pupils are polite and friendly. Many pupils welcome the opportunity to talk to visitors about their learning and show examples of work in their books. In the playground, most pupils play well together and enjoy the opportunity to play with their friends.
• Older pupils help younger pupils play and act as ‘buddies’. Many pupils show kindness to each other and value and respect each other’s individual differences. As one pupil commented, ‘We’re all special.’

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2016, pupils in key stage 2 achieved well below the standards expected for their age. Weak teaching had resulted in pupils making inadequate progress through key stage 2. Leaders have taken effective action to address previous underachievement and, as a result, current pupils are now making much better progress. However, there remain inconsistencies in pupils’ progress, particularly in lower key stage 2. In addition, in some classes, pupils’ progress has been hampered because of high staff turnover.
• Pupils in key stage 1 achieved well in the 2016 Year 2 assessment tests. Standards in reading and maths were above average and broadly average in writing. However, no pupils achieved a greater depth of learning in their writing.
• Most pupils in key stage 1 are continuing to make good progress. Leaders have taken effective action to address the differences in the achievements of boys and girls in last year’s key stage 1 assessments. The school’s detailed assessment information shows that boys and girls are now making similar progress. Pupils achieve well in phonics and apply their skills well when reading and writing. Opportunities to read and retell familiar stories are helping pupils to develop their sentence-writing and widen their vocabulary choices. For example, after reading ‘The Rainbow Fish’, pupils wrote their own versions of this story. One pupil wrote, ‘A long way out in the deep, blue sea there lived a fish.’
• Pupils enjoy reading and many older pupils can name their favourite authors and different books that they enjoy reading. The refurbished, well-stocked library and reading areas are used well and enjoyed by pupils. These improvements to the learning environment and the promotion of reading have been successful in encouraging pupils to read for pleasure.
• Overall, disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points and some make rapid gains in their learning. Targeted support for individual pupils helps pupils focus, learn well and gain in confidence. However, there remains some unevenness in the progress these pupils make due to variations in the quality of teaching in some classes in the school. There is a similar variation in the progress of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. In some year groups, these pupils are making good progress while in others their progress is held back because of weaker teaching.
• Many of the most able pupils do not make enough progress or achieve the high standards they are capable of. In the 2016 key stage 2 assessment tests, no pupils achieved the higher standard in reading and writing and very few pupils achieved a high score in maths. The most able pupils are not sufficiently or consistently challenged to enable them to achieve well.
• Pupils’ progress in mathematics is stronger than it is in English. Most pupils are making appropriate gains in their fluency, calculation skills and mathematical reasoning. Daily opportunities to apply their skills to solve problems are helping pupils to make connections between number facts. In science, through investigative work, pupils are beginning to reason and hypothesise. For example, when learning about chromatography one pupil wrote, ‘I wonder if the colours would be different if the original colour of the leaf was different.’ However, some pupils’ learning in science is more superficial due to the limitations of the tasks set by some teachers.
• Pupils’ achievement in subjects across the wider curriculum is not good because the curriculum is currently too narrow. Leaders are aware of this and are redesigning the curriculum to ensure that this is addressed.

Early years provision Good

• Children get off to a good start in the early years. The learning environment is attractive and well resourced, and promotes children’s learning well. Established routines help children to develop personal confidence and feel secure in knowing what to expect each day. Positive, happy relationships are evident and, as a result, children feel safe, settle quickly and enjoy learning.
• Teachers have high expectations of children’s behaviour and learning. Across the Nursery and Reception classes children’s behaviour is consistently good. Children share and take turns, and respond very well to adults. Children maintain attention well. However, sometimes teaching sessions are a little too long and overly structured for some children. During these times, a few children lose focus. Children are keen to help, for example by tidying away equipment. They listen well to adults, and are curious about any visitors to their school asking, ‘What’s your name?’ During the week of the inspection, children in the role-play area delighted in pretending to be Ofsted inspectors and write notes on their clipboards.
• Teachers plan interesting activities which promote learning well and which capture children’s interest. For example, children in the Reception classes enjoyed watching a time-lapse video of their class caterpillars which eventually transformed into beautiful butterflies. This ignited children’s enthusiasm and provided a meaningful and interesting context for pupils’ writing.
• Teachers carry out regular, well-judged observations of children’s learning and record these carefully on the school’s learning journeys. Teachers use these observations effectively to plan children’s next learning steps. The learning journeys are also shared electronically with parents, who are able to see very readily what their children have been learning in school.
• During learning activities, teachers ask questions to check children’s understanding, help them learn and keep them focused and interested. However, sometimes adults do not use these opportunities to extend children’s learning further, especially for the most able pupils. In addition, some children are not encouraged to be as independent as they could be in daily routines.
• Children’s early reading and writing skills are developed well. Phonics is taught very well and children have many opportunities to apply these skills when reading new words. Teachers use picture story-maps to help children develop a sense of a story. These also guide children during their independent play and when children enjoy retelling stories using their own words. Children have many opportunities to develop their writing and as a result they make rapid progress. Many children write well-constructed sentences, with accurate spelling. For example, one child wrote ‘After eating some food, the ladybird was very tired.’
• Quality texts are used well to extend children’s vocabulary and develop their language. For example, when retelling the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, children spoke of the ‘the big oozy mud’. Children’s imagination was sparked by this story, with many children suggesting different animals they could go hunting for. One child suggested a piranha and went on to exclaim to her teacher, ‘That’s a fabulous drawing of a piranha.’
• Teachers provide many opportunities for children to develop their early number skills through play as well as through the teacher-led class lessons. Children enjoy the challenge of counting the cones when collecting them up and trying to find numbers on the number line. Learning across all areas of the early years curriculum is promoted well.
• Most children enter Nursery with skills that are well below those typical for their age. As a result of strong teaching throughout the early years, children make rapid progress and achieve well by the end of Reception. In 2016, the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was in line with the national average. Children who are currently in Reception are on track to achieve slightly higher. This represents very strong progress and enables children to be very well prepared for Year 1.
• Leadership of the early years is good. Leaders have continued to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the early years. Leaders provide effective guidance and training to develop teachers’ expertise and knowledge. They carefully check assessments of children’s learning and hold weekly meetings to review these. This helps to ensure that teachers’ assessments are consistent across the setting. Leaders have an accurate understanding of the strengths in the early years and where they would like to make further improvements.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141020 Portsmouth 10032511 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 Academy sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 432 Appropriate authority Academy trust Chair of the governing body Peter Leonard Principal Telephone number Website Email address Joy Waelend 023 9282 6514 www.arkdickensprimary.org/ info@arkdickensprimary.org Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Ark Dickens Primary Academy is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is significantly higher than that found nationally.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is similar to the national average.
• The majority of pupils are of White British heritage.
• The school is one of 35 schools in the Ark Academy Trust.
• The previous headteacher left the school in December 2015. The current principal joined the school in January 2016, initially as interim principal and then as substantive principal from April 2016. She is also the executive principal at Ayrton Academy. The trust and governing body are seeking to appoint a new principal from 2018. At this time the current principal will remain executive principal over the two schools.
• There have been many changes of staff and governing body since the school became an academy. The chair of governors has been in post since April 2017. From September 2017, the governance arrangements will change as there will be one governing body across Ark Dickens Academy and Ark Ayrton Academy.
• The school meets the floor standards which set out the government’s minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.
• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information on its website about the curriculum and the evaluation of the additional funding the school receives for disadvantaged pupils.
• The school does not comply with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish on their websites about the curriculum and the required evaluation of the additional funding the school receives for disadvantaged pupils.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited all classes. Most of these visits were carried out jointly with the principal, other senior leaders or an academy network leader.
• Inspectors conducted a learning walk with the principal and a learning walk with pupils from the school.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read, looked at work in books and discussed pupils’ learning and progress with leaders.
• Inspectors met with a group of pupils from across the school. Inspectors also spoke to pupils at break- and lunchtime, and informally during lessons.
• The lead inspector met with the chair of governors and a representative from the academy trust.
• Parents’ views were taken into account through discussions with parents before school and the 25 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.
• Inspectors took account of the 33 survey responses submitted by staff.
• Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documentation including the school’s self-evaluation, information about pupils’ learning and progress, the academy improvement plan, minutes of meetings and other monitoring reports.
• Inspectors reviewed the checks made on staff about their suitability to work with children. Inspectors also checked records and documentation relating to safeguarding and behaviour.

Inspection team

Sue Cox, lead inspector Deirdre Crutchley Paul Shaughnessy Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector