Drybrook Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Urgently improve leadership and management, including governance, by:
  • ensuring that leaders develop precisely targeted plans which focus on rapidly improving teaching and raising pupils’ achievement
  • improving the accuracy of assessment so that leaders are better able to set challenging targets for pupils’ learning
  • embedding robust monitoring systems which enable leaders to swiftly identify when teaching needs to improve, so that pupils make stronger progress
  • developing more effective use of additional funding so that disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities consistently achieve well
  • developing a broad, rich curriculum that enables pupils to develop secure knowledge and skills in a wide range of subjects
  • providing subject leaders with targeted support and training so that they can accurately monitor the effectiveness of teaching and support teachers to improve
  • ensuring that governors receive appropriate training to be able to evaluate the work of the school and hold leaders to account
  • further developing leaders’ communication with parents and carers by ensuring that the website is regularly updated.
• Rapidly improve teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • providing teachers with high-quality and precisely targeted professional development to improve their subject knowledge, so that pupils are consistently taught appropriate skills
  • developing the precision of assessment so that teachers plan work for all pupils that takes account of their starting points and challenges them to achieve well
  • ensuring that targeted interventions for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities help them to catch up
  • improving teachers’ intervention in learning, so that they can accurately assess pupils’ progress and move their learning on
  • routinely providing pupils with a range of opportunities to practise and apply cross-curricular literacy and numeracy skills.
• Improve personal development, behaviour and welfare by:
  • continuing to improve pupils’ attendance, including that of those who have SEN and/or disabilities, and reduce persistent absence
  • ensuring that pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education as a result of teaching which consistently helps pupils to achieve what they are capable of.
• Improve teaching and provision in the early years by ensuring that:
  • leaders develop precise action plans that are rigorously evaluated, so that they can accurately check the effectiveness of their actions
  • teaching builds on recent improvements, so that all children, including disadvantaged children, achieve well and are fully prepared to make the transition into Year 1
  • leaders create a stimulating learning environment, so that children are routinely provided with a wide range of exciting opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding across all areas of learning. It is recommended that the school undertakes an external review of the use of pupil premium funding to determine how this aspect of the school may be improved. It is also recommended that the school undertakes an external review of governance to determine how this aspect of the school may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Leaders have not acted with enough rigour or speed to halt and reverse the decline in the quality of teaching. As a result, outcomes for pupils over time, particularly at key stage 2, are weak. The school is therefore failing to provide an acceptable standard of education to its pupils.
• Leaders have low expectations of what pupils are capable of and consequently set targets that are not suitably challenging. As a result, pupils are hindered from achieving well.
• The systems in place for managing teachers’ performance are ineffective. Leaders are too accepting of teachers’ assessments of pupils’ learning, and do not robustly check these. This means that leaders fail to identify inaccuracies in assessment and do not sufficiently hold teachers to account when teaching needs to improve. Consequently, pupils are not making the progress of which they are capable.
• Subject leadership is weak because senior leaders do not provide the targeted support needed to help subject leaders to carry out their roles effectively. Subject leaders are over-reliant on information being provided for them. This means that they are restricted in the degree to which they can improve teaching and help pupils to make better progress.
• The headteacher has taken responsibility for special educational needs provision for the last three years but does not hold an appropriate qualification to do so. This has limited the specialist support the school is able to offer the high number of pupils who have SEN. Nevertheless, leaders have a clear understanding of some of the pupils’ specific needs, which helps them to plan appropriate pastoral provision. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ confidence and willingness to engage in their learning and many pupils are benefiting from this. However, leaders’ evaluations of pupils’ learning are not always timely enough to identify when targets need reviewing. This hinders how well leaders can intervene to ensure that pupils achieve well.
• The pupil premium is used to fund additional teaching and provide opportunities for pupils to participate in different activities, such as residential trips. Leaders have identified that the funding has been partially effective and helped some pupils to make better progress. However, leaders have failed to note that some structured interventions have been slow to take hold and are not diminishing the differences in progress between boys and girls.
• The school does not routinely monitor the progress of the most able pupils. Consequently, leaders have not identified that learning does not routinely challenge pupils and too few reach the higher standards.
• The curriculum is poorly planned and narrow. It does not provide a deep range of experiences to enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Neither does it help pupils to gain skills, knowledge and understanding in all subjects.
• Leaders’ monitoring of the curriculum lacks rigour and leaders base their evaluations on conversations and assumptions, rather than secure evidence. As a result, leaders are unaware of the inconsistent approach to curriculum planning.
• The sport premium is used effectively to provide opportunities for pupils to learn gymnastics skills and improve the teaching of physical education. There are plans to use current funds to create an all-weather track at the school, so that pupils can improve their health and fitness when they participate in the ‘daily mile’. However, leaders confirm that this needs further development and evaluation, in order to ensure that it is effective.
• Leaders have provided teachers with professional development opportunities in the form of support from other schools and training. However, this has not been specifically well focused or evaluated. As a result, this has made little difference to improving standards of teaching.
• Leaders have utilised the support of the local authority, which has enabled them to identify the key priorities for the school. However, leaders’ development plans are not fit for purpose because they do not specifically outline how they intend to improve teaching rapidly. This means that leaders are not in a position to check the effectiveness of their actions. Leaders’ evaluations of their work are limited and do not sufficiently demonstrate impact.
• Leaders have not actively checked the alternative provision attended by pupils who are still on the school’s register. Instead, they have relied on advice from the local authority. This means that leaders have not been able to assure themselves that pupils attend regularly or check on their progress.
• The majority of parents are happy with the school. They welcome the chance to talk to teachers if they have concerns and say that their children enjoy some of the fun learning experiences, such as trips to the gym. However, a minority of parents commented that the school is disorganised and that children are underachieving. Some parents feel that they do not receive enough communication from the school about their children’s progress.
• The headteacher cares about the pupils and staff in her school and wants to improve outcomes for pupils. However, a lack of secure understanding of how to do this, coupled with the constraints of a narrow leadership structure, hinders the extent to which this can be achieved. Staff who responded to the survey commented that they enjoy working at the school, feel respected and believe that the headteacher supports them well.
• Leaders have improved teaching for younger pupils. This has resulted in much better outcomes at the end of the early years and the end of key stage 1. However, current teaching does not ensure that continued progress from these secure outcomes is being maintained. This means pupils are at risk of falling behind in their learning.
• The systematic teaching of phonics has improved in the last two years, which has resulted in pupils developing secure early reading skills. However, some older pupils are still catching up from previous weak teaching and current teaching is not suitably focused on accelerating their progress. This means that some readers struggle to read with fluency and accuracy.
• The headteacher makes effective use of an experienced early years teacher who is improving the quality of teaching and children’s outcomes in the early years.
• The school may not seek to appoint newly qualified teachers.

Governance of the school

• Governance is weak because governors do not have a precise understanding of the information that they need to evaluate the school’s effectiveness. This means that they are unable to challenge leaders and hold them to account. For example, they have not been able to determine if pupil premium funding has had sufficient impact.
• Many governors are new to their role and, although they are very committed to supporting the work of the school, they do not yet have the skills or knowledge to check the impact of leaders’ actions.
• Governors do not meet their statutory duties for keeping the website updated. This means that the website does not provide the range of information for parents that it is required to.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders have provided staff with relevant updates to training and staff can recognise the signs that might indicate a child is at risk. Staff can clearly explain how to refer concerns to the relevant safeguarding leader in the school.
• The school keeps detailed and secure records of all referrals to outside agencies and these are routinely followed up to check that they are making a difference. This helps leaders to assure themselves that pupils and their families are given the help that they need.
• The school makes sure that staff are given relevant information to support pupils’ specific medical needs. Staff are appropriately trained and there are clear procedures for administering first aid and contacting parents, when necessary.
• Leaders carry out all necessary checks to ensure that adults in the school are safe to work with pupils. They record this information on the school’s single central register.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low and this means that learning is not generally pitched appropriately to meet pupils’ needs. Pupils of all abilities are not suitably supported or challenged to learn effectively. As a result, many pupils, including the most able pupils, fail to achieve well.
• Teaching does not consistently ensure that pupils are gaining the knowledge and learning skills appropriate for their age. This means that too few pupils achieve the standards expected of them. Only a minority of pupils achieve higher standards. Several pupils confirm that work is sometimes too easy for them and some parents comment that learning does not suitably challenge their children.
• Assessment is over-generous and, as a result, the information teachers provide for leaders gives an inflated picture of progress. Because leaders do not rigorously check or challenge this information, teachers do not accurately establish pupils’ starting points. As a result, they plan work for pupils that is not consistently matched to their needs and does not consistently enable them to make strong progress.
• Additional teaching support for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is not sharply focused. Consequently, some pupils are not making the accelerated progress needed to catch up. Some pupils have received guidance and counselling to help them to manage their emotions and this is improving their readiness to engage in their learning. This support is helping them to make better academic progress.
• Teaching of spelling and grammar is sporadic and inconsistent across the school. This hinders how well pupils are able to apply and consolidate these skills in their written work.
• Learning objectives are often unclear and teachers do not model tasks consistently well. This means that pupils often find it hard to explain what they are learning. Teachers’ intervention in pupils’ learning does not adequately help them to check pupils’ understanding or identify misconceptions and mistakes. This leads to slower progress.
• Teachers’ feedback to pupils is inconsistent because they do not routinely follow the school’s policy. Therefore, pupils do not always know precisely what to do to improve. There is no clear homework policy and several pupils confirm that homework is rarely given. The few examples of homework seen during the inspection were occasional tasks that did not sufficiently help pupils to build on prior learning.
• Pupils cannot consistently apply the skills they have previously learned to help them with their current learning. For instance, during the inspection, pupils were unable to use their phonic skills to read instructions in mathematics.
• Teachers provide a limited range of opportunities for pupils to practise their reading, writing and mathematics skills across the curriculum. This prevents pupils from developing and securing these skills. The organisation, quality and teaching of the curriculum are poor. Consequently, pupils are held back from developing their full potential or acquiring a love of learning across different subjects.
• Teachers are beginning to help pupils to improve their fluency in mathematics. For instance, teaching helps pupils to practise and apply the skills they are learning to solve problems. However, these are not consistently well embedded and, as a result, there is little clear evidence that pupils are building on these skills and making effective progress.
• Teaching assistants provide effective support to pupils who need help to stay focused. They model learning and this helps pupils to learn. However, the impact of their work is restricted by weak planning of teaching.
• Adults form supportive partnerships with pupils and generally expect them to demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Pupils appreciate and respect their teachers. Pupils know that they can turn to their teachers if they need help.

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 are not well prepared for their next steps in education because the teaching they receive is inadequate and prevents them from achieving their potential.
• Pastoral support for pupils who are going through difficulties or who need help to manage their behaviour enables them to learn strategies so that they can cope when they feel angry or upset. However, pastoral support is not having a positive impact on their academic achievement.
• Staff develop caring and trusting relationships with pupils. This means that pupils feel safe and know who they can turn to if they are worried or unhappy.
• The additional pastoral support that the school provides for pupils who need extra help is having a demonstrable impact on their willingness to learn and improving their confidence and self-esteem. The school’s pupil mentor provides valuable and well-targeted support to pupils who need help to manage their feelings and emotions appropriately. For example, pupils enjoyed designing posters to illustrate ways of keeping calm with slogans such as ‘have a cup of tea and relax’.
• Pupils enjoy taking an active role in school life so that they can gain an understanding of British values such as democracy and the rule of law. Peer mentors, who formally apply for their positions, are proud to be elected to represent the school. They act as valuable role models, taking assemblies and offering guidance and advice to pupils who seek their help. Peer mentors work effectively with the pupil mentor to develop pupils’ social skills and friendship groups.
• Pupils have opportunities to learn about online bullying and know how to stay safe when using the internet. They discuss the appropriate age for children to use social media and explain that they must not give out personal information when online. Most pupils confirm that bullying does not happen at school and are confident that adults would quickly sort out any problems if they did occur.
• Pupils’ spiritual and cultural development is enhanced by opportunities to reflect on their own experience and a range of cultures and faiths. For example, they learned about places of worship when they visited a mosque. They have opportunities to gain an awareness of human rights, for instance when hearing about the achievements of Malala Yousafzai. Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Over time, the attendance of boys, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities has been lower than that of others in the school and nationally. Overall attendance has now improved, but absence continues to be higher for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. Some issues relating to absence are beyond leaders’ control and, despite their efforts, a number of pupils continue to be persistently absent from school.
• Pupils enjoy school and are keen to learn, but teachers do not fully take advantage of this enthusiasm. Therefore, the learning opportunities teachers provide do not consistently allow pupils to achieve what they are capable of. Teachers do not urge pupils to have pride in their work and, consequently, it is often scruffy and handwriting is poor.
• Over the last two years a small minority of pupils, some with complex needs, have been excluded several times. The school has enlisted the support of the pupil mentor and external agencies, which is ensuring that pupils have the bespoke support that they need to manage their behaviour more appropriately. This support is helping to reduce exclusions from school.
• Pupils know what the school expects of them and, as a result, they listen carefully to instructions and persevere with their learning, even when teaching does not help them as well as it should.
• During lessons, pupils work cooperatively and sensibly, which helps them to share their ideas. Transitions between activities are smooth and pupils’ conduct around the school is calm and orderly.
• Most parents, pupils and staff confirm that behaviour is well managed. However, a few parents have concerns about the way that the school deals with incidents of unacceptable behaviour.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Over time, pupils in the school are underachieving and too few pupils achieve the standards expected of them. Very few pupils achieve higher standards in all key stages. At key stage 2, reading, writing and mathematics progress has been in the bottom 20% of schools for the last two years. Writing and mathematics attainment has been in the bottom 20% for at least two years. In 2017, progress in reading and mathematics was in the lowest 10% of schools and pupils failed to meet the government’s floor standards.
• Current pupils’ achievement is too low because leaders have failed to act with the degree of urgency required to reverse a legacy of weak teaching. Actions leaders have taken have been slow to take hold, because they are not suitably planned to help pupils make strong progress. For example, in recent years leaders have chosen a new way of teaching mathematics, but this is not having a positive enough impact. This is because pupils are not routinely provided with opportunities to practise and apply the skills they have learned. For instance, younger key stage 2 pupils can order objects into groups of 3 and 5 but are not able to use their times-table knowledge to explain how to calculate the total of the objects.
• Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are not consistently strong, because additional teaching support is not consistently well matched to pupils’ needs. As a result, many pupils are not making the accelerated progress needed to catch up.
• Outcomes in writing are weak, because learning objectives are not always clear and limit pupils’ understanding of what is required of them. An inconsistent approach to teaching spelling and grammar rules means that pupils are not able to systematically apply the rules they are learning to develop and extend their writing.
• The teaching of reading is inconsistent and does not always enable pupils to develop fluency and secure comprehension skills. Older pupils who have failed to secure a basic phonic knowledge are not given appropriate help to catch up. As a result, some pupils lack confidence and read hesitantly. Where the teaching of reading is better, pupils consistently apply their phonic knowledge to read accurately and have a good understanding of what they read.
• There is little evidence that pupils are supported to develop a depth of knowledge, skills and understanding in a range of curricular subjects. There are some examples of work which are ‘one-off’ activities but there is no evidence of further follow-up work to promote pupils’ curiosity and build on previous learning. The narrow curriculum provides few opportunities for pupils to apply and embed their reading, writing and mathematics skills, which further restricts the progress they are able to make.
• Pupils are not encouraged to have sufficient pride in their work, which is often arranged in a disorganised fashion. The overall presentation of pupils’ work is often poor and there is little evidence that pupils have been encouraged to improve this. This often results in handwriting and presentation deteriorating over time.
• The systematic teaching of phonics has improved and is now more consistent for younger pupils. This helps them to acquire the necessary skills to become confident, accurate readers. Key stage 1 outcomes improved considerably last year, but it is too soon to determine if this can be sustained.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Outcomes at the end of the early years have improved to a position where they have been in line with the achievement of children nationally for the last two years. However, few disadvantaged children achieve a good level of development.
• From their different starting points, most children make typical progress across the early years. A few children with lower starting points make stronger progress because they are provided with appropriate additional support.
• Most children enter the Reception class with skills and knowledge broadly in line with those expected for their age. Teaching generally supports children to make typical progress and they are well prepared to make the transition into Year 1. However, few children make stronger progress to exceed the standards expected of them.
• Teachers do not consistently provide a wide choice of activities. This restricts how well adults are able to help children develop their skills across a wide range of areas of learning. Activities are not always sufficiently well planned to spark children’s enthusiasm or promote their curiosity. Therefore, teachers are limited in how well they can support children to explore their environment and sustain high levels of concentration. However, the school grounds provide some valuable opportunities for children to develop their social skills and learn to take risks. For example, they enjoy taking part in forest school activities, such climbing trees and learning about the safety rules when near fires.
• Since the previous inspection, the school has taken on the management of the pre-school nursery. Learning experiences and the effective care, guidance and support in the early years help children to be well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Adults in the early years develop warm and caring relationships with children. Children know what is expected of them and listen carefully to instructions.
• Adults in the early years observe children carefully and listen to their responses. This helps them to assess children’s learning and track their progress. Adults maintain detailed records of children’s learning and children’s books confirm that they are practising the skills they learn in phonics to help them to write.

• The early years leader uses her good understanding of the children in the early years to support teachers to plan children’s learning. She regularly tracks children’s progress, which helps her to identify when children need additional support. However, leaders’ improvement plans do not have a sharp enough focus on the specific aspects of early years teaching that need to improve. As a result, leaders are hindered from robustly evaluating the effectiveness of teaching.
• Early years staff work closely with parents to share information about how well their children are doing. Parents appreciate the communication from adults at school, which is helping them to understand how to support their children at home.
• Staff in the early years provide children with a safe, secure environment in which to learn and play. Adults have a good understanding of how to keep children safe and know how to assess when children might be at risk. They know who to talk to if they have concerns.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115518 Gloucestershire 10047940 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 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 163 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Richard Norris (acting chair) Sara Albon 01594 542448

www.drybrookschool.co.uk head@drybrookschool.co.uk

Date of previous inspection 5–6 February 2015

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about the curriculum, the phonics scheme, the special educational needs report and the accessibility plan.
• Drybrook Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The majority of pupils are White British. There are a minority of pupils for whom English is an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is in line with pupils nationally.
• The proportion of pupils receiving support for special educational needs is slightly higher than the national figure. Several pupils have an education, health and care plan.
• The school provides an after-school club for pupils which is managed by the school.
• The school does not meet the government’s floor standards at the end of key stage 2.
• The school is receiving support from the local authority and is a member of the West Gloucestershire Support Partnership of primary schools.

Information about this inspection

• Pupils’ learning was observed jointly with the headteacher in several classes across the school. The inspector spoke with several pupils about their work during lessons. Pupils’ work was scrutinised in all lessons and also during a focused work scrutiny. The inspector listened to pupils read.
• Pupils were observed around the school and during break and lunchtime. The inspector had several informal discussions with pupils during the course of the inspection to gather their views of the school.
• Discussions were held with the headteacher and other leaders, including governors. The inspector held a telephone conversation with the local authority adviser. A separate telephone conversation was held with a leader of the alternative provision used by the school.
• The inspector took account of 24 responses to the online survey, Parent View, including nine additional comments. The inspector also held informal discussions with several parents at the start of the inspection. The inspector reviewed 57 responses to the online pupil survey and 18 responses to the online staff survey.
• A range of documentation was reviewed, including the school’s development plans and evaluation of its work. The inspector discussed the school’s latest assessment information with the deputy headteacher and headteacher. Safeguarding records, behaviour logs and attendance information were examined. The inspector reviewed the information recorded on the school’s single central register, to confirm that leaders carry out all the necessary checks to ensure that staff are safe to work with children.

Inspection team

Catherine Beeks, lead inspector

Ofsted Inspector