Radstock Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve the quality of teaching and assessment so that it enables all groups of pupils to make good progress, particularly in writing, by ensuring that:
  • teachers demonstrate consistently high expectations for pupils’ progress
  • teachers have a more accurate understanding both of the needs of all groups of pupils, and of what pupils already know, including those who have SEN and/or disabilities, disadvantaged pupils and White British pupils
  • teaching and the curriculum enable all groups of pupils to make good progress in other subjects as well as in English and mathematics
  • additional adults provide consistently effective support to boost pupils’ progress.
• Strengthen the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • consolidating the early impact of middle leaders’ current work, to improve the curriculum and teaching in their subject areas further.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• After joining the school in April 2017 the headteacher promptly established and acted upon her clear, ambitious vision for the school. Ably supported by the deputy headteacher, her positive and determined leadership is successfully bringing about many improvements, particularly in teaching and current pupils’ progress. Senior leaders’ passion to keep pupils’ well-being at the heart of all developments is palpable.
• Leaders have an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. This enables them to prioritise successfully the actions needed to improve the school and to lead these forward urgently and effectively.
• Senior leaders’ clearly stated expectations are improving teaching across the school. Through their regular checks, leaders challenge weaker teaching effectively and ensure that staff receive useful training. Senior leaders carefully track individual pupils’ progress. They successfully challenge and support staff to take action where improvement is needed.
• Senior leaders are successfully supporting subject leaders to improve the quality of teaching and assessment in their subjects through helpful training and individual support. As a result, pupils’ progress in mathematics is improving, for example, although improvements in the teaching of writing are slower. The teaching of phonics is also improving, clearly linked to leaders’ work. Although still in the early stages, work under way to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the wider curriculum looks promising.
• Senior leaders’ accurate analysis of provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is informing developments in this area well. Their support for teachers is helpfully focused on understanding the precise needs of these pupils in order to improve the provision that teachers make. This work is in the early stages but is already showing positive results in many pupils’ progress.
• Senior leaders meticulously track pupils’ progress in phonics, reading, writing and mathematics and quickly identify anyone who may be falling behind. This is supporting teachers well to target their teaching and any additional support.
• Leaders make effective use of the sports premium funding to increase successfully pupils’ participation in sport and physical activities. The highly motivated sports leader is successfully encouraging more pupils to be active. Pupils are introduced to an exciting range of sport and physical activities. Pupils enjoy opportunities to set up their own sports clubs and take on roles as school ‘sports ambassador’. As a result, more pupils are participating in sport, and many spoke to inspectors enthusiastically about these activities.
• Many helpful opportunities promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well as their emotional well-being. Pupils are encouraged to work together and value each other’s differences. Pupils are proud of the ‘Radstock Values’ that promote a sense of respect and cooperation. A parent commented, ‘The school is a nurturing and welcoming environment for my children.’
• Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain, for example by understanding democracy through taking part in elections for various roles within the school. Pupils are rightly proud of their responsibilities and can explain how they make a positive contribution to school life.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils. Leaders’ sound understanding of pupils’ needs enables leaders to make sensible use of the additional money. For example, well-planned support to build pupils’ self-confidence is successfully developing their positive attitudes to learning. However, the positive impact of this approach is not yet seen substantially in the outcomes that these pupils achieve.

Governance of the school

• Governance is effective.
• Governors know the school well. They have an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and know where improvements are needed. They use this knowledge well to challenge and support leaders and to evaluate their own effectiveness. Their strong ambition for pupils to succeed motivates their work.
• Governors are forward-thinking and understand the importance of their leadership role. Following a recent governor skills audit, they responsibly addressed gaps that they identified, resulting in establishing a skilled and capable group of governors.
• Governors judiciously check what leaders tell them by regularly visiting the school to meet with teachers and talk to pupils. This thorough approach enables governors to successfully hold school leaders to account as well as providing valuable support. This rigorous approach is helping to raise standards.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that the required recruitment checks are carried out for all staff, and record these accurately. The governor with responsibility for safeguarding regularly checks that these records are fully compliant.
• Staff receive helpful training and regular weekly safeguarding updates. Safeguarding is considered ‘everyone’s responsibility’. As a result, staff are vigilant and report any concerns appropriately.
• Pupils say that they feel safe. They talk knowledgeably about how to keep themselves safe when using the internet. They can confidently explain why they should not share personal information online.
• Staff work closely with parents and other agencies. Timely referrals for outside help are appropriately made when needed.
• The vast majority of parents agree that their children are happy and feel safe at school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Although improving rapidly, the quality of teaching across the school is not yet consistently good. As a result, pupils’ progress over time is uneven, particularly in writing.
• Sometimes expectations are not high enough for what pupils can achieve, or teaching does not reliably take account of what pupils have already learned or missed. In these instances, tasks are not adapted well to meet pupils’ different abilities and needs. This includes disadvantaged pupils, White British pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. At times work set for pupils is too easy and sometimes it is too hard. As a result, some pupils have gaps in their knowledge and this slows progress.
• Sometimes teaching is strong. When this is the case, teachers demonstrate high expectations for what pupils can achieve. They use secure subject knowledge to plan interesting activities that successfully build on pupils’ previous learning. When teaching is effective pupils produce work of a high standard and their progress accelerates.
• Phonics skills are taught effectively. Pupils enjoy reading, and confidently use their phonics skills to tackle unfamiliar words. Teachers match pupils’ reading books well to pupils’ abilities and pupils make good progress as a result.
• Additional adults are not deployed to consistently good effect. When additional adults are deployed well, they use skilful questioning and adeptly support pupils to make progress in their learning. At other times, additional adults simply supervise activities rather than promoting pupils’ learning effectively.
• Teachers make increasingly good use of their much-improved mathematics subject knowledge. As a result, most teaching involves the effective use of questions to explore and extend pupils’ knowledge and skills. Occasionally, when teaching is less effective, pupils’ misconceptions are not reliably identified or corrected promptly.
• While spelling, grammar and punctuation skills are taught systematically and progressively, teachers’ expectations for how well pupils use these skills in their wider writing are highly variable. As a result, the quality of pupils’ writing fluctuates and this hampers pupils’ progress in developing their writing.
• Teachers provide many exciting activities linked to a range of subjects, including visits to places of interest, such as the recent Year 4 expedition to the Isle of Wight. However, teaching and the curriculum are not yet fully and systematically developed across different subjects other than English and mathematics.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are friendly and polite. They are proud of their school and their personal achievements. For example, they enthusiastically look forward to taking part in drama productions in key stage 2.
• Pupils say that bullying and racism are extremely rare because there are clear rules and expectations about how to treat other people. Pupils described how teachers help them to feel confident to report any behaviour that causes them concern.
• Pupils are kind and helpful. For example, older pupils like the opportunities they have to support younger pupils at lunchtime. These positive attitudes help to create a caring community ethos.
• Staff successfully enable pupils to feel positive about themselves. For example, a ‘nurture assistant’ provides effective support to a few pupils with additional needs. This sensitive help enables pupils to develop their self-confidence.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The atmosphere in and around the school is calm and orderly. Pupils show respect for staff and respond promptly to their instructions or requests. Classroom routines are well established and this means that no time is lost moving from one activity to another.
• Leaders promote positive behaviour effectively. Pupils understand the school’s clear behaviour policy. They like the reward system and say that it motivates them to behave well. Low-level disruption is rare, but when it does occur it is due to learning tasks not being well matched to pupils’ needs.
• Breaktimes are happy, sociable occasions. Adults supervise pupils well at break and lunchtimes. Leaders ensure that all adults are well informed about individual children’s needs and any events that might affect their behaviour. As a result of this proactive approach, incidents of poor behaviour are rare.
• Pupils attend school regularly. Leaders keep a close eye on attendance figures and take swift effective action if they notice that a pupil’s attendance has dropped. As a result, pupils’ attendance rates are above the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The proportion of pupils in key stage 2 achieving the expected and higher standard in reading and mathematics was above the national average in 2017, reflecting typical achievement in these subjects. However, pupils’ progress in writing was weaker than that seen nationally. Current pupils’ progress in writing is variable throughout the school.
• Although pupils achieve well in national English, grammar, punctuation and spelling assessments, they do not consistently use these skills well in their general writing, including when they write in subjects other than English.
• Most pupils in key stage 1, including the most able, achieve well. In 2017, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected and higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics was above the national average. Nevertheless the progress of current pupils in key stage 1 varies significantly, particularly in writing.
• The proportion of pupils who meet the required standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check is the same as that seen nationally.
• Most disadvantaged pupils do not achieve well. Despite recent improvements, overall these pupils are not yet catching up rapidly from their low starting points.
• Rates of progress for different groups of pupils, including pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and White British pupils, are uneven across the school. Apparent gaps in the achievement between these groups of pupils and others are not yet closing quickly enough.
• Pupils’ skills and knowledge in subjects other than English and mathematics are not well developed because of the legacy of weaknesses in teaching and the wider curriculum over time. Pupils’ work is beginning to show greater depth and interest, but this success is in the early stages of development.

Early years provision Good

• Children make a happy and successful start to school. Children achieve well by the end of the early years foundation stage. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development is above the national average. As a result, children are well prepared for their move to Year 1.
• Children are safe and confident. Adults support children well to make good use of the well-resourced indoor and outdoor environment. The children play purposefully with each other and enjoy their learning. Most adults skilfully interact with children to guide and extend their learning.
• The early years is well led. The leader works closely with other members of the early years team to develop a consistent approach across the classes. She meticulously tracks children’s progress and carefully plans the next steps in their learning. The progress of groups of children is rigorously analysed and provision adapted if needed. For example, successful work has been done to encourage a group of boys to write. As a result, children in the early years are overall making faster progress than in the past.
• Children are successfully developing their reading and writing skills both indoors and outside. Children competently use their phonics skills in their early reading and writing because they have been taught well. Well-planned activities motivate children to use their mathematics skills in their play. For example, children enthusiastically measured ‘superhero’ figures with bricks, and accurately compared sizes.
• Early years staff work effectively with parents and carers to support children’s learning. Positive relationships develop with parents before children start at school. Staff regularly share information with parents to keep them well informed about their children’s learning and progress.
• Adults have consistently high expectations for children’s behaviour. As a result, children understand the routines and listen carefully to adults’ instructions. Children flourish in this happy, safe and secure environment.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 109927 Wokingham 10048965 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 Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 480 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Andrew Charlton-Perez Lou Slocombe 01189 869050 www.radstockprimary.org.uk admin@radstock.wokingham.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 12–13 December 2012

Information about this school

• The school is a larger-than-average-sized primary school.
• Most pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is broadly average.
• There is a breakfast club that is managed by the school.
• The school met the government’s floor standards in 2017, which are the minimum expectations for standards and progress for pupils in Year 6.
• The headteacher was not in post at the previous section 5 inspection.

Information about this inspection

• This section 5 inspection was conducted as a result of the short inspection on 6 February 2018, when inspectors identified a possible decline in the school’s performance.
• Inspectors observed teaching and learning throughout the school. Some observations were carried out with the headteacher. A sample of pupils’ workbooks was also examined.
• Inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, subject leaders and with a group of teachers.
• Inspectors met with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors.
• Inspectors met with pupils to discuss their views about the school, and heard some of them read. The views of 82 pupils who responded to Ofsted’s online pupil survey were also analysed.
• The lead inspector met with a representative of the local authority.
• The views of parents were taken into account by analysing 117 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 20 additional free-text comments. Inspectors also spoke informally with parents at the start of the second day of the inspection.
• Inspectors considered the views of staff by analysing 39 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.
• Inspectors scrutinised documentation, including leaders’ evaluation of the school’s effectiveness, minutes of governing body meetings, and notes of local authority visits.
• Safeguarding procedures were also reviewed.

Inspection team

Claire Prince, lead inspector Mary Ellen McCarthy Jon Hills

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector