Hannah More Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that governors have an accurate understanding of the school so that they can hold leaders to account for pupils’ achievement, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and the most able
  • ensuring that the curriculum effectively supports the most able, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities to make good progress
  • monitoring and improving teaching so that it is consistently good across the school and leads to improved outcomes for pupils
  • supporting middle leaders to ensure that their actions have a positive impact on improving pupils’ outcomes.
• Improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress by ensuring that teachers:
  • accurately use assessments to plan work that challenges pupils sufficiently
  • check pupils’ learning and address misconceptions earlier to ensure that rapid progress is made
  • understand the individual needs of disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities to improve their progress
  • challenge the most able to achieve the standards of which they are capable. .

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders have not improved outcomes for pupils consistently across the school since the previous inspection, particularly for the most able pupils.
• Leaders have recently begun to take action to deal with the dip in outcomes in 2017 for pupils in Year 6. It is not clear that these actions are improving standards quickly enough for the current Year 6 pupils.
• Leaders are aware that further work is needed to improve the quality of teaching across the school. However, leaders do not hold teachers to account rigorously enough for pupils’ progress. As a result, outcomes for pupils have not always been as high as they should be.
• Senior leaders, including governors, do not act on the analysis of outcomes for different groups of pupils rigorously enough. This has resulted in variable progress as pupils move through school, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities .
• The school prides itself on developing future leaders who subsequently move onto new posts in other schools. Since September 2017, many leaders are new to their posts and to the school. These new leaders have a good understanding about their subject areas and have already introduced initiatives to improve teaching. For example, the new leader for mathematics has recently worked with teachers to provide more challenge for pupils by developing pupils’ reasoning skills. This work is beginning to have a positive impact on pupils’ learning. However, pupils’ outcomes overall are not improving at a rapid enough rate.
• Teachers who are new to the profession appreciate the support they have received to improve their teaching, and this is beginning to have a positive impact on the quality of teaching across key stage 2.
• The curriculum is generally broad and balanced, but leaders are aware that there is still much to do to ensure that curriculum experiences consistently contribute to raising standards for all pupils. There are many rich opportunities for pupils to learn across a wide range of topics. Leaders are keen to develop more writing opportunities across the curriculum. Pupils enjoy the many trips on offer that the school provides, and they appreciate how this enhances their learning. They also enjoy the many visitors that come into school to support them in a wide range of activities.
• The school successfully promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Leaders work hard to promote the school’s core values of ‘Nurturing self, inspiring success’ to develop pupils’ self-esteem and confidence.
• Additional funding is used very effectively to get parents, families and the wider community involved in the school. The school uses the primary sport premium well to develop pupils’ sporting skills. There is a wide range of sporting opportunities, which pupils enjoy.

Governance of the school

• Governors receive a range of information from leaders and visit the school regularly. However, they do not challenge leaders with sufficient rigour. Nor do they hold leaders to account strongly enough to ensure that pupils’ outcomes are improving, and that different groups of pupils are achieving as well as they might. For example, governors do not have a clear enough understanding of the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. Governors accept the views of leaders too readily without holding them to account for improving standards.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders with responsibility for safeguarding have ensured that policies, practices and procedures are in place to ensure that adults who work in school are appropriately vetted and are safe to work with children. Robust checks ensure that volunteers are suitable to work in school and are regularly checked by senior leaders.
• Staff recruitment is well organised and all necessary checks are carried out.
• Staff and governors have a good understanding of what to do if they have a concern about pupils’ welfare. All staff have been appropriately trained in the types of potential risks to pupils, including radicalisation and extremism, female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation. The school has a clear strategy to support its work in these areas of pupils’ welfare and works with the local community to support families.
• Referrals to other agencies are timely and the school’s well-organised system helps staff to record incidents quickly. Leaders then check and monitor pupils’ support.
• The headteacher knows the pupils, their families and the local community well and ensures that support is provided when needed. These effective relationships ensure that pupils are kept safe and that their welfare needs are met.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching has not had a consistently strong impact on pupils’ learning and progress. Progress in different year groups and in different subjects has been, and remains, too variable.
• Expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough for the most able pupils. Pupils are not challenged sufficiently in lessons.
• Feedback and marking generally follow the school’s marking policy. However, teachers and teaching assistants do not regularly pick up on pupils’ misconceptions and mistakes. For example, in key stage 2, teachers do not always support pupils to eliminate simple spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, which slows pupils’ progress in writing. Consequently, in some classes pupils carry on making the same mistakes.
• Pupils do not have enough opportunities to reinforce and improve basic writing skills in subjects other than English, which hinders their progress overall. As a result of this, the standard of pupils’ written work is not as high as it might be.
• Teachers do not always use the information they have on what pupils can do, know and understand to plan work which is matched well enough to pupils’ different learning needs. Consequently, pupils’ tasks are sometimes either too hard or too easy. As a result, progress is too variable across classes and subjects. There is no obvious difference between the work in books of girls and boys. Where teachers plan work that is well matched to pupils’ learning needs, pupils’ progress accelerates, and standards rise.
• In some classes, the most able pupils are beginning to be challenged through thought-provoking questions, which they enjoy. For example, during a Year 6 lesson on writing, the teacher used skilful questioning to challenge the most able pupils to change the style and tone of a newspaper report. Pupils responded well to this level of challenge.
• Teaching assistants work closely with teachers and provide helpful support to individuals or small groups. They are particularly diligent in providing close and effective support for those pupils who have emotional and/or behavioural needs.
• Parents are pleased with the amount of homework and the information they get from school about their child’s learning. Parents of younger pupils really appreciate the information they receive about their child’s early reading development.
• The teaching of phonics is a strength. Teachers support pupils to learn the sounds well and help pupils blend these together to read words very effectively. Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Staff know the pupils and their circumstances well. They work closely with parents, the local community and other agencies to make sure that the pupils’ emotional needs are at the centre of all the work that they do.
• The curriculum supports the school’s strong culture of promoting mutual respect. There is a strong tolerance of different faiths and cultures. For example, pupils know how to behave in different places of worship and to be respectful of others’ views.
• Leaders and staff work effectively to support pupils’ emotional and behavioural needs. An accurate assessment of pupils’ emotional needs, using the school’s nurture programme, ensures that effective interventions are put in place to support pupils well. A strong focus on developing pupils’ confidence and resilience supports their emotional well-being effectively. In addition, family mentors work with vulnerable families. All of this has brought about some improvements in pupils’ outcomes. Parents appreciate the support given to pupils and families during times of difficulty or stress.
• Pupils feel safe in school. They said that if they have any concerns, adults would listen to them. They appreciate the school’s anti-bullying week as they said it helps them to understand how to keep safe online.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils’ behaviour during playtimes, and around the school, is good and there is a positive atmosphere. Pupils are polite and respectful to each other and to the adults who help them.
• Pupils get on well together and the vast majority of pupils are ready to learn and demonstrate positive attitudes. During lessons in which work is challenging, pupils respond to the teachers’ high expectations and work hard. Pupils know the school rules and the consequences of not following them. Leaders are aware that the presentation and neatness of pupils’ books could be improved.
• Current attendance figures are broadly in line with national averages. Pupils generally attend school regularly. Where this is not the case, leaders have effective systems to monitor and support pupils to improve their attendance. As a result, attendance for many pupils who previously had high absence rates is improving.
• Pupils told inspectors that bullying is dealt with well by staff and that they know what to do if it occurs. Pupils said that name-calling is very rare. Pupils know about different types of bullying.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Outcomes require improvement because pupils’ progress is too variable across the school.
• Outcomes were significantly below national results in Year 6 in 2017. Leaders are now beginning to tackle this for the current Year 6 pupils, and teaching is improving in key stage 2. However, standards are still too low for those in the current Year 6.
• Pupils’ progress remains variable across the school, particularly in key stage 2. Some groups of pupils do not do as well as they should. For example, the most able pupils have not been sufficiently challenged to achieve well, and outcomes at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2 are well below where they could be.
• Disadvantaged pupils make inconsistent progress across the school. Leaders do not analyse their outcomes effectively or rigorously enough.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make varying rates of progress across the school, and the school’s leaders do not have a clear enough picture of the progress they make. The SEN leader is new to the role and has begun to tackle this weakness.
• The progress of learners across key stage 1 is beginning to improve. More pupils are now working at the expected standard. However, progress in writing is not improving quickly enough because pupils are not given enough help to eliminate basic errors.
• Outcomes in phonics are good in response to good teaching and support for those who need to catch up. Phonic skills are well embedded, and this supports pupils’ ability to read fluently.
• Pupils enjoy reading and many older readers choose their own books, often from the school library. Leaders have recognised the need to improve pupils’ reading comprehension skills and have set about improving teaching to do this.

Early years provision Good

• Children make good progress across the early years as a result of good teaching that matches learners’ needs and interests well.
• Children start school with attainment that is below that which is typical for their age. Teachers use accurate assessments to find out what children can and cannot do. From this, they identify what children’s interests are and plan the children’s next steps in learning. As a result, children make good progress, and outcomes at the end of the early years are close to what is expected for children of this age.
• Leaders have an accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the early years provision. From this, the curriculum is carefully planned and structured to support children’s learning. Leaders are constantly striving to improve. For example, they are aware of the gap in outcomes between boys and girls in reading and are making changes to the curriculum to improve boys’ reading ability.
• Teachers and teaching assistants use effective questions to reshape learning activities and help children make good progress.
• Teaching assistants are deployed very effectively to support children’s learning. They are highly skilled and work seamlessly with teachers.
• Relationships between children and adults are strong and children feel safe.
• The early years classrooms support learning in all areas of the curriculum. There is a wide range of exciting learning activities. For example, children were encouraged to make their own books using storytelling and writing techniques learned in previous lessons.
• Phonics teaching is a strength of the school. Leaders recognise the importance of developing pupils’ early reading strategies. As a result of highly effective support from the teachers, children are blending words well, using the sounds they have learned in class.
• Children’s behaviour is good as a result of a calm and orderly environment and adults’ high expectations. Any challenging behaviour is very effectively dealt with by staff.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 109110 Bristol, City of 10037033 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 Maintained 5 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 371 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Amy Creech Susan Ramsay 0117 903 9936 www.hannahmore.org.uk hannahmorep@bristol-schools.uk Date of previous inspection 11–12 July 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets the requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Hannah More is a larger-than-average primary school. There are two classes per year group.
• A very large majority of pupils are from a minority ethnic group, and a significant proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The number of pupils supported by the additional pupil premium funding is significantly higher than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Pupils’ learning was observed in 28 lessons or part lessons, including some jointly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher. The work of pupils in all classes was scrutinised from the current and the 2016/17 academic years. Inspectors spoke to many pupils about their work during lessons and informally around school. The inspectors listened to pupils from different year groups read and gathered views about their experiences in school.
• Discussions were held with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, other leaders, a school adviser who knows the school well, governors and members of the teaching and support staff.
• The inspectors took into account 45 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Discussions were held with parents as they dropped their children off at school.
• A range of documentation was considered, including information on pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s improvement planning, the management of teachers’ performance and governor minutes. Procedures for safeguarding pupils, including information relating to attendance, behaviour and referrals to social services, were examined.

Inspection team

Richard Lucas, lead inspector Tracy French Martin Bragg Helen Davies

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector