Gloucester Road Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that teachers build on newly raised outcomes from the Nursery to provide further stretch and challenge for children in Reception.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The inspirational leadership of the headteacher has brought about rapid improvements in the school since her appointment. She has enabled leaders at all levels to develop the very best practice in their areas. Staff have strongly welcomed this approach and feel empowered to bring about exceptional outcomes for the pupils.
• The headteacher’s vision of a strongly inclusive school where every pupil ‘can do it’ and all will be their ‘BEST’ has been embraced by pupils and staff. This has led to an excellent, caring school in which all pupils, regardless of need or starting point, feel safe and achieve outstanding results. Progress of all pupils is high in English and in mathematics, and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are above those of other pupils nationally.
• The leadership team has a very strong understanding of the strengths of the school and acts extremely quickly to address any potential weaknesses. They monitor the quality of teaching carefully and set targets for improvement if needed. Subject leaders have an extensive knowledge of effective teaching approaches in their areas and have supported all staff to develop and improve their practice.
• A strong feature of the school is the investment in the training of teaching assistants, known as teaching partners, and the emphasis on focused and very regular discussion about learning. As a result, teaching partners are very effective in both conducting interventions with groups of pupils and supporting in class.
• Leaders track the progress of all pupils, working together very effectively with teachers and teaching partners to adjust the support and teaching. The support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is woven seamlessly into the classroom provision. Leaders target the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils extremely effectively, as part of a comprehensive plan to meet the needs of all pupils who face a barrier to learning. As a result of these very effective approaches, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, disadvantaged pupils, those who speak English as an additional language and those who have recently arrived at the school all achieve well.
• Pupils benefit from a very broad curriculum that is based around providing real experiences and is enhanced by a wide range of trips and visits. By rooting learning in exciting and relevant experiences, pupils are able to understand better and produce higher-quality work. The current theme of ‘walls and bridges’ has enabled pupils to consider how we build societies and what happens when we create barriers. The visit of a graffiti artist has led to the creation of playground graffiti and raised the question ‘When is wall art a crime?’ This is a good example of the work that goes on to develop pupils’ moral education and consider the role of law in society. Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is excellent.
• The curriculum is further enhanced by an extremely wide range of clubs, societies and sports, including construction, coding, Mini-Marines, observational drawing, dance and a host of others. The physical education and sport premium has been used well to develop teachers’ skills and provide additional resources to improve provision and clubs. Pupils act as pupil governors, attendance ambassadors and play leaders. They bring knowledge and experience from a wide range of cultures, religions and countries, and this is all celebrated within school. Together with the large range of opportunities for pupils to participate and vote, pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• Leaders ensure that there is no discrimination at the school. All groups achieve well and there are no racist incidents. As such, the school meets the equality duty.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has a strong vision and has taken key strategic decisions to improve the school. Governors have very high aspirations for pupils’ achievements and are rigorous in holding school leaders to account for the welfare and outcomes of pupils.
• Through yearly skills audits, the governing body identifies any training needs and gaps in the knowledge and experience of members in order to recruit additional governors and provide appropriate development. Because of this training, the governing body has all of the necessary skills and experience to be able to carry out its functions very effectively.
• School performance is monitored rigorously by the governing body through regular meetings and visits to the school. Governors show a strong understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the school, and are particularly well aware of the progress of groups of pupils. Governors carry out safeguarding audits and rigorously hold the headteacher to account to ensure that the pupil premium, funding for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and the sport premium are well used.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The headteacher has ensured that leaders and staff are well trained and have up-to-date knowledge so that they can ensure that pupils are kept safe. Leaders are extremely vigilant and tenacious in following up any concerns. They work extremely closely with external agencies to safeguard children and are not afraid to challenge if they have any concerns. The record of safeguarding checks is kept meticulously and updated on a very regular basis. It shows all of the necessary checks and is regularly audited by governors and the headteacher. The school has strong procedures to ensure that the recruitment of new staff is carried out rigorously, and then ensures that these new staff are carefully inducted in the policies and practice in the school.
• All staff are very clear about potential risks in the local community. They are particularly vigilant about ensuring that no child or family is at risk of radicalisation or extremism. Equally, they are alert to signs of neglect, deprivation and abuse.
• Parents, staff and pupils are all confident that pupils are safe. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe and could give a range of examples of this. Parents have also been given clear guidance about how to keep their children safe, for example e-safety training.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers and teaching partners have extremely high aspirations for pupils and expertly plan lessons that engage pupils’ interests and develop their skills. They ensure that pupils are fully involved in their own learning from the moment they enter the school. Consequently, pupils display excellent attitudes to learning. Pupils commented that ‘lessons are really well organised’ and that they ‘don’t get bored’, as ‘teachers set good challenges.’
• Literacy is a very strong focus of the work of the school. In the younger classes, phonics knowledge is expertly taught and matched to pupils’ needs. For pupils whose language skills are low, teaching partners teach the key vocabulary for a topic before the main teaching starts. In all classes, pupils are required to explain their work orally and then in writing. This helps pupils to develop and explain their reasoning in all subjects, especially in mathematics. Topic work includes many opportunities for pupils to apply their English and mathematical skills in a wide range of thought-provoking and ‘real’ learning activities. This contributes to the very strong progress that pupils make in foundation subjects.
• Teachers and teaching partners have very strong subject knowledge due to the well- targeted and widespread professional development that they receive. They use this deep knowledge to precisely target questions that will develop pupils’ understanding and to use misconceptions and mistakes to further increase learning. Teachers use oral and written feedback to guide pupils’ learning. Pupils respond promptly to improve their work so that any gaps in understanding are addressed.
• Pupils take responsibility for their own learning and love the challenges that they are set by the teachers. Homework, such as multiplication tables, phonics, spelling and topic work, is well used to consolidate learning. Parents receive useful and regular information about how well their children are learning and are helped to support their children through parent briefing evenings and information packs.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• The inclusive and caring culture of the school is evident from the moment one enters the door. All members of the school community place the highest aspirations for all pupils at the heart of their work every day. As a result, pupils are kept safe, have their welfare and health promoted strongly and develop care and respect for themselves and others.
• Pupils are rightly proud of their school and they show this in their responses to questions and in their behaviour. Pupils take great care of each other. They are kind, polite and welcome new pupils and visitors to the school. One commented that ‘I love that everyone has discipline and respect, and that no one is rude.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils’ conduct in lessons and around the school is exemplary. They take a very active part in their learning through well-embedded activities such as self- and peer assessment and presenting their work at parents’ evenings.
• There are very few instances of low-level disruption because pupils are enthused by their learning. The number of serious behaviour incidents has fallen significantly over time and they are now very rare. There are virtually no instances of bullying. Pupils understand what bullying is, including hate-based bullying such as racism, and report that such behaviour does not happen in their school.
• Attendance has been rising over the past few years to be in line with national figures. The attendance team, including pupil attendance ambassadors, are very effective in reducing absence, particularly for those pupils whose attendance was quite low in the past. No groups of pupils are affected by low attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils make outstanding progress during their time at this school so that, at the end of key stage 2, attainment is well above national overall. Children in Reception often have lower starting points than is typical, and due to the outstanding teaching and care that they receive they catch up year-on-year.
• Pupils in all year groups are making strong progress in English, mathematics and across a wide range of subjects. The work in pupils’ books shows how well they have developed their understanding. They demonstrate their learning clearly, often in well-presented extended writing, as part of the topic-based curriculum.
• Last year boys did not attain well at the end of Reception Year. Inspectors examined the school’s assessment information for these boys and found that they had made good progress from low starting points. Further examination of their work this year showed that they are catching up. Attainment of all pupils at the end of the Reception Year, including groups of pupils, is higher this year.
• Adults support pupils’ reading development well by hearing pupils read regularly and through the good teaching of phonic skills to pupils in younger year groups. This has resulted in strong improvements over time in the proportion of pupils achieving well in the Year 1 phonics check.
• Attainment at the end of key stage 1 has improved strongly over the past few years so that it is now broadly similar to national results.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make progress that is in line with that of their peers. Teachers and other staff ensure that these pupils are fully involved in learning and supported well so that they can achieve. Disadvantaged pupils achieve very well and often have outcomes that are above those of other pupils. By the end of key stage 2, these pupils achieve above other pupils nationally.
• In recent years there have been few pupils with high starting points, but this is increasing as standards have risen in the younger classes. These pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, achieve very high results. Pupils for whom English is an additional language, many of whom arrive at the school partway through the year, are supported well so that they acquire English skills quickly. These pupils generally go on to make very strong progress.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Leaders are ambitious and have been quick to act to improve provision in the early years. They have taken high-level decisions, such as taking over the management of the Nursery, in order to transform the quality of education that children receive. As a result, outcomes at the end of the Reception Year have risen strongly over time.
• Staff have very high expectations for what pupils can achieve. They carefully assess children’s strengths and the gaps in their knowledge and understanding to plan interesting and challenging learning activities. They meet twice a day to discuss the learning needs of each child and rapidly adjust plans to ensure that all children make strong progress.
• When they arrive at the school, many of the children have starting points which are much lower than those typical for their age, and many have speech, language and communication issues, or are new to speaking English. Because of this, leaders have provided a language-rich learning environment with a wide range of opportunities for children to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. As a result of this, and the excellent teaching of phonics, children’s oracy and literacy develop rapidly.
• Children are excited by a range of engaging activities and so they persevere in their learning. They show curiosity and imagination, and this is further stimulated by skilful questioning by staff. Children are enabled to take control of their own learning through ‘choice and challenge’ time. Staff are now beginning to increase the level of challenge further for children, as they transfer from the Nursery with a higher degree of development than in previous years.
• Parents know that their children are well looked after and kept safe. They are well informed about, and involved in, their children’s learning through a range of methods. These include a ‘New Starter Welcome Pack’ and very well-attended parents’ evenings. Staff ensure that children’s welfare is well promoted and have the highest standards in safeguarding children.
• Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are very well supported and so make excellent progress in their learning. This is also true for other groups, such as those who have English as an additional language, disadvantaged children and the most able. As a result, there are no gaps in the attainment of groups of children.

School details

Unique reference number 115585 Local authority Gloucestershire Inspection number 10033237 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 Maintained Age range of pupils 4 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Kit Perona-Wright Headteacher Gayle Fletcher Telephone number 01242 512792 Website www.gloucesterroadprimary.co.uk/ Email address head@gloucesterroad.gloucs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 June 2013

Information about this school

• The school is a smaller than average-sized, local authority maintained school.
• Two fifths of the pupils are known to be eligible for the pupil premium, which is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is above average. A third of the pupils speak English as an additional language, which is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well above average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is also well above the national average.
• The proportion of children entering or leaving the school at other than the normal times is well above the national average.
• The Nursery is now managed by the governing body.
• The headteacher has joined the school since the last inspection.
• The school met the government’s floor standards in 2016, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning jointly with school leaders in all classes across the two days of the inspection. They also conducted several learning walks. They looked carefully at a sample of pupils’ books as well as examining pupils’ work during lessons.
• Meetings were held with staff, leaders, governors and a representative of the local authority. Staff views were also ascertained through the 22 responses to the staff questionnaire.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read, observed them at playtime and discussed their learning with them in lessons. A group of pupils contributed their views of the school, and account was taken of the pupil questionnaire.
• Parent opinions, including the additional comments, were considered through the 80 responses to Parent View.
• Inspectors examined a range of documentation, including the school’s analysis of how well pupils are learning, self-evaluation reports and development plans, safeguarding records, the minutes of governing body meetings and school policies. The school’s website was also scrutinised.

Inspection team

Tom Morrison, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Ross Newman Ofsted Inspector Linda Rowley Ofsted Inspector