Beech Green Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ outcomes by: embedding changes to the teaching of reading so that pupils’ progress continues to increase and standards continue to rise making sure that in mathematics more pupils, in particular more of the most able pupils, can access the tasks that help them extend their reasoning skills.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment further by: developing the assessment of pupils’ learning in other curriculum subjects so that it matches more closely assessment practice in English and mathematics.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Current leaders and governors have ensured that the improvement in pupils’ standards seen in 2017, particularly in writing and mathematics, is continuing. Pupils’ progress is accelerating further this year. The progress of current pupils, including boys, the most able pupils, disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, is continuing to improve.
• The school is ably led by the two acting co-headteachers. As the school’s deputy headteachers, they have been instrumental in leading actions to address the school’s development priorities. For example, changes they put in place to the teaching of writing, including handwriting and spelling, and the introduction of the parent support ‘Impact’ meetings for all parents, which focused first on writing, have led to a marked increase in the progress and attainment of pupils in writing across the school. Now, at the end of each key stage, more pupils reach the expected level in writing than pupils nationally. By the end of Year 6, many more pupils reach a greater depth in writing than pupils do nationally.
• In 2017, the school’s reading results at the end of Year 6 were below those in writing and mathematics, and slightly below the national average. Leaders have responded swiftly. Leaders have made changes to the way that staff teach guided reading sessions, increasing the number of high-quality texts pupils use, redeveloping the school library and focusing each class’s parent workshop sessions on reading. As a result of their actions, the progress of current pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, is quickly improving in reading.
• Leaders, including middle leaders, lead by example and provide clear role models for staff, inspiring respect from them and from pupils and parents. As a result, there is a consistency of practice across the school. For example, the school’s feedback policy is implemented well across classes and changes in the school’s approach to the teaching of mathematics are being consistently applied in all classrooms. Because of this consistency, pupils understand the routines and expectations of their teachers well. This helps their transition to new classes and helps them to improve their work.
• The actions of leaders, including middle leaders, have resulted in improvement in pupils’ outcomes. For example, in response to fewer pupils in Year 1 reaching the threshold of the national phonics screening check in 2015, the school appointed a leader to focus specifically on this issue. In 12 months, the changes the school made to the teaching of phonics resulted in a 30% rise in the number of pupils reaching the threshold, so that the vast majority of pupils did so. This improvement has been maintained in 2017. As a result, pupils use their phonic skills well when reading and writing.
• Leaders’ and teachers’ focus on writing and mathematics in 2017 has seen the progress in these subjects rise rapidly so that outcomes are at or above national averages. Staff are fully involved in new initiatives, and can see the positive impact of these changes. Consequently, they are eager to take on new developments which help pupils make faster progress, such as current changes to the way that they teach guided reading.
• Teachers value the professional development opportunities they have and receive feedback from school leaders which helps them improve their practice. Systems for their appraisal are very closely linked to the school’s development priorities. For example, this year they are closely focused on improving pupils’ progress in reading.
• The curriculum is interesting and wide-ranging. Leaders ensure that the activities within the curriculum, such as visits, visitors and many practical activities, motivate pupils and encourage them to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they will need in the future. Because it interests pupils, the curriculum also helps to promote their good behaviour.
• While leaders and teachers use assessment systems well to identify pupils who may be falling behind, this practice is better developed in the core subjects of English and mathematics than it is in wider curriculum subjects. Leaders and governors have correctly identified this as an area for development.
• Leaders ensure that the additional funds for disadvantaged pupils are well spent. A comprehensive range of pastoral and learning interventions, such as the Early Bird breakfast club, external mentoring, pastoral support programmes and support for learning mean that the attendance, well-being and readiness to learn of disadvantaged pupils have all improved. As a result, the progress they make has significantly improved, notably in writing and mathematics, and is now equal to or above that of other pupils nationally. The number of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standards for their age jointly in reading, writing and mathematics has increased rapidly so that it is now very close to the national average.
• Leaders responsible for the progress of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities ensure that these pupils make good progress from their starting points. Pupils’ progress is carefully tracked. The impact of additional interventions to meet pupils’ needs, and of the work of teaching assistants, is well monitored. Parents speak highly of the support their children are given.
• The sport premium additional funding is used effectively. The school offers pupils many sporting activities including a range of extra-curricular clubs, such as before-school running and a gym club, and opportunities to represent the school in competitive sporting events. As a result, more pupils participate in sport activities.

Governance of the school

• Governors are ambitious for the school and its pupils. They have a clear understanding of the school’s priorities for development. They challenge school leaders about the standards pupils reach and carefully monitor the school’s work. However, governors recognise that they need to further improve their monitoring, particularly in relation to the wider curriculum.
• Governors pay particular attention to the spending of funds for disadvantaged pupils. They have accurately identified the barriers to learning these pupils face. They hold school leaders to account and have ensured that the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is well spent.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff have a clear understanding of what to do if they are concerned about a pupil. The training they receive means that staff are clear about their responsibilities. The school works effectively with outside agencies, and with parents, to support pupils and their families.
• The school’s safeguarding systems make sure that staff are recruited safely and that the school’s induction process places emphasis on the culture of safeguarding which the school promotes.
• Staff and governors have taken part in training to help them protect pupils from the risk of radical or extreme influences, and so understand their responsibilities well.
• The vast majority of parents support the view that their children are safe, happy and well looked after at school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers plan work that interests pupils and extends their learning. Teachers have high expectations of all pupils. They almost always match pupils’ learning to their needs and abilities very well. Consequently, there are few occasions where pupils are distracted from their learning.
• Teachers carefully monitor and assess the progress pupils make in lessons, and adapt their teaching in the light of their findings. Teachers use assessment effectively so that pupils at risk of falling behind are identified swiftly and strategies are put in place which help them to catch up quickly.
• Teachers carefully track the progress of disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils. Teachers, and teaching assistants, talk specifically with these pupils about their work and learning, and provide additional support to help them. As a result, these pupils are making good progress, especially in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Additional adults in the school are skilled in providing support for learners of all abilities. They strike a delicate balance between supporting pupils and fostering their independence.
• Teachers give pupils feedback in line with the school’s policy. There is very consistent practice across the school. Pupils receive advice that helps them improve their work. Importantly, pupils get time to reflect on and implement the feedback they are given, particularly in key stage 2.
• Teachers use their good subject knowledge well to develop lessons that challenge pupils’ thinking. Teachers skilfully adapt their questioning skills to help pupils develop as resilient, reflective and inquisitive learners. Teachers briskly tackle misconceptions for example, during a writing session in Year 6, about the use of tenses in speech.
• Changes to the teaching of mathematics have led to marked improvements in the progress pupils of all abilities are making in mathematics. However, sometimes higher-ability pupils do not move on as quickly as they could to tasks that challenge their thinking and reasoning.
• Teaching enables pupils to use their reading, writing and mathematics skills across the curriculum. For example, in science, pupils in Year 5 use their mathematical skills when investigating forces such as gravity and air resistance. However, there are occasions when teachers’ expectations of aspects of some most able pupils’ curriculum work are not as high as their expectations in English and mathematics.
• Strong teaching in phonics means that most pupils spell well and successfully use their phonics knowledge when reading unfamiliar words. Steps taken to improve spelling and handwriting have been successful in ensuring that handwriting, presentation and spelling have all improved, particularly at key stage 1 and early key stage 2.
• Teachers are eager to improve their practice. They have embraced changes to the teaching of writing and mathematics that have resulted in improved progress for pupils across the school in these subjects.
• Teachers are working effectively to quickly improve the end of key stage 2 results in reading in the same way that they have done in writing and mathematics. Teachers across the school know that they all have a part to play, and they have briskly adopted the changes to guided reading and other changes to the school’s approach. Pupils are motivated by the quality texts they use in guided reading and in the classroom, which are often closely linked to the curriculum. For example, pupils in Year 5 working on the book FArTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith were able to use their skills of inference and deduction to reason correctly that the boy’s father had been killed in the First World War and what impact this had had on him.
• The school’s system of regular teacher-led sessions for parents, where they focus together with their children on key aspects of learning, such as reading and comprehension, means that parents are helped effectively to support their children’s learning. A large number of parents attend these ‘Impact’ sessions and state how valuable they find them.
• Parents are of the view that their children make good progress and are well taught at the school.

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 confident and self-assured learners. Pupils take pride in themselves, their work and their school.
• Pupils across the school and of all abilities demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They speak accurately and with enthusiasm about their work, particularly in English and mathematics, but also in other subjects such as science. They are committed to improving their work and older pupils understand why their learning is important to help them fulfil their aspirations for the future.
• Pupils feel safe, happy and well looked after at school. Parents and staff also support this view. The school provides a range of interventions, such as mentoring and dedicated programmes, which help pupils’ emotional well-being. These interventions are successful in improving pupils’ attendance, resilience and readiness to learn, enabling them to make better progress in their learning.
• The strong relationships between pupils and adults, and between pupils themselves, mean that pupils are confident that staff will listen to their views. They know whom to talk to if they have a concern. They say that bullying is unusual and will be dealt with by the adults at school. The vast majority of parents agree.
• Pupils have a clear understanding of how to stay safe online and what to do if they were to experience cyber bullying.
• Parents receive effective advice and guidance from the school’s staff about how to help and support their children, both pastorally and with their learning.
• The school’s provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good and is threaded through the curriculum. A strength of the provision is the many visits pupils make and the range of visitors to the school, which particularly enhance pupils’ spiritual and cultural development.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Throughout the school, pupils live up to the high expectations placed on them by staff. The school is a calm and orderly environment. Pupils behave well in lessons and when moving around the school, for example at breaktimes, lunchtimes and in assembly.
• During lessons, pupils respond quickly to the instructions of adults. This is because the work their teachers give them is interesting and is mostly very well matched to their learning needs. On a few isolated occasions, one or two pupils may become distracted if their learning is not so clearly matched to their needs.
• Pupils take their responsibilities around the school seriously, for example as members of the school council, as learning ambassadors and as role models for younger pupils. Pupils say that adults and children care for each other at this school. Pupils and parents who have joined the school from other places say how welcome they have been made to feel at the school.
• Adults carefully and effectively support pupils’ behaviour. Pupils who, in the past, have found it more difficult to behave well are now encouraged to do so by the many reward systems the school has in place. These are clearly understood by pupils themselves and have a positive impact.
• Pupils enjoy their school life. The attendance of current pupils is in line with national figures. Interventions to support the attendance of disadvantaged pupils, such as the Early Birds breakfast club, is improving their attendance so that it is close to national figures. Leaders’ work to improve the attendance of those pupils absent most often is improving their attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils currently at the school are making good progress from their different starting points. Pupils’ work demonstrates that progress is continuing to improve in reading, writing and mathematics and in other curriculum subjects such as, for example, science, history, French and religious education.
• Pupils’ progress has increased. At the end of Year 6, pupils’ progress in 2017 was at or above that of pupils nationally in writing and mathematics. The progress made by disadvantaged pupils and the most able pupils has improved so that it is in line with, or better than, national figures. For example, the progress of disadvantaged pupils in mathematics has jumped in 2017 from within the bottom 10% of pupils in 2016 up to the top 30%. This represents a significant rise in standards. Scrutiny of pupils’ work shows that disadvantaged pupils currently in the school, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, are making good progress from a range of starting points.
• The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standards for their age jointly in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 has increased notably from 2016 to 2017 and is now in line with the national average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard for their age in reading, writing and mathematics together has increased rapidly in 2017 so that it is now close to the national average.
• The progress of the most able pupils has improved. For example, in 2017, the most able pupils were in the top 17% of all pupils nationally for their progress in writing. Scrutiny of their work shows that most-able pupils across the school are continuing to make good progress.
• Pupils currently in the school, including disadvantaged pupils, read well and fluently at a level relative to their age and development. They enjoy reading and have access to quality texts across a range of genres which help them develop their comprehension skills well. Pupils use their knowledge of phonics well to help them when reading and spelling. The vast majority of pupils are reaching the threshold of the national phonics screening check in Year 1.
• At key stage 1, pupils’ attainment has been rising over time. In 2017, pupils reached the expected level for their age in reading, writing and mathematics in line with or above the national averages. The number of pupils working at greater depth at the end of key stage 1 is increasing. In reading, the number of pupils working at greater depth is above the national average, and in mathematics it is in line with pupils nationally.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress from their different starting points. This is because teaching is well matched to their needs. The additional interventions they often receive are timely and their impact is carefully monitored.
• Over time, the percentage of children who reach a good level of development at the end of the early years is above the national average. Boys and girls usually do as well as each other. Disadvantaged children achieve well and more of them reach a good level of development at the end of the early years than children do nationally.

Early years provision Good

• Children enter the early years with a wide range of skills and attributes, generally broadly typical for their age. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception is consistently above the national average and is continuing to improve over time. The experiences they receive in Reception mean that children are well prepared for the learning they will meet in Year 1 due to the experiences they receive in Reception.
• Children in the early years show positive attitudes to learning. They behave very well such as when demonstrating independence selecting from a range of learning activities. Children know the routines and follow them. For example, children know that the five-minute ‘tidy up’ bell means that they need to start to draw their activity to a close. Consequently, transition times are brisk and learning time is not lost. They are keen to learn, and to share their enjoyment with one another and with the adults who help them.
• Teachers’ careful planning creates interesting starting points for children to explore their learning. The many indoor and outdoor learning opportunities they receive enthuse them, and enable them to develop their language, coordination, cooperation and collaboration skills very well.
• The leader of the early years has built a strong teaching team, where teachers and additional adults contribute effectively together to improve children’s learning. For example, accurate observation and assessment mean that they know and understand children’s needs well, and this allows them to match activities strongly to children’s learning needs. Teaching is good across the early years.
• Strong teaching of phonics means that children use their phonic skills well in their early reading and writing tasks, for example when writing simple sentences. The good teaching they receive in phonics contributes significantly to the above-average number of pupils reaching the threshold of the national phonics screening check at the end of Year 1.
• Children who have SEN and/or disabilities are well supported, so that they make good progress from their different starting points. Teachers’ and other adults’ skilful questioning and support mean that these children are encouraged to develop their knowledge and apply the skills they are learning.
• Adults support disadvantaged children well so that they make similar progress towards the early learning goals to that of their peers. Current disadvantaged children are making good progress. Over time, the proportion of disadvantaged children reaching a good level of development at the end of Reception has risen so that it is above the national average.
• Boys and girls generally reach a good level of development at the end of Reception in similar proportions. However, in 2017, fewer boys than girls achieved well. In response to this, the early years leader worked closely with Year 1 teachers to develop a transitional provision for these pupils which has been effective in enabling them to catch up quickly and access the learning they need in Year 1.
• The positive behaviour of children and their strong relationships with the adults around them demonstrate the confidence and safety they feel at school. Their parents agree, feeling strongly that their children are safe, happy and well looked after at school. Safeguarding is effective.
• Parents contribute to the assessment of their child’s learning through regular meetings with staff and opportunities to contribute online. Parents speak highly of the warm, welcoming and inclusive transition their children make into Reception, and the close communication they have with the early years staff about their child’s learning. This includes the well-attended regular learning workshops for parents.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115600 Gloucestershire 10037852 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 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 418 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Sarah Costello-Byrne Sharon Weeks and Hayley Earl Telephone number 01452 722 363 Website Email address www.beechgreenprimary.co.uk admin@beechgreen.gloucs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 30 April 1 May 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Beech Green Primary School is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is lower than the national average.
• The number of pupils supported by pupil premium funding is in line with the national average. The proportion of pupils receiving support for their SEN and/or disabilities is in line with the national average.
• The school is above the government’s floor standards for schools and is not defined as a school where standards are coasting.
• The previous headteacher left the school in July 2017. A new headteacher will join the school in January 2018.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed pupils’ learning across the school often jointly with leaders. The work of pupils in all year groups was scrutinised. Many pupils were spoken with about their work, during lessons and informally at breaktimes. Pupils’ behaviour was observed during lessons, at breaktimes and lunchtimes, during assembly and around the school. Inspectors listened to a large number of pupils from different year groups and of different abilities read, and talked to them about their reading. Inspectors also met with pupils to gather their views about their experiences of school.
• Inspectors met with the headteachers and other leaders, governors and a representative of the local education authority. Inspectors also met with members of the school staff to gather their views.
• Inspectors took account of the 97 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and to 96 comments received. Inspectors also met with parents on both days of the inspection.
• Inspectors considered a range of documentation, including information on pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s improvement planning, records of the monitoring of teaching and information on the management of teachers’ performance. Inspectors also considered the procedures for the safeguarding of pupils, including information relating to attendance, behaviour and the exclusion of pupils.

Inspection team

Sarah O’Donnell, lead inspector Bill Jerman Emma Jelley Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector