Queen Margaret Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Increase the effectiveness of leadership and management by ensuring that all leaders:
  • judge the school’s performance rigorously and accurately evaluate precisely the impact of teaching on pupils’ achievement, to identify and resolve any weaknesses promptly.
• Improve teaching so that all groups of pupils make consistently good progress by ensuring that teachers:
  • use assessment information astutely to inform teaching which challenges all pupils, especially the most able in mathematics teach comprehension skills systematically to develop pupils’ greater understanding of challenging texts embed the basic skills of sentence construction, grammar and spelling thoroughly, so that pupils become accomplished writers.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Leaders have not secured effective enough teaching to ensure that all groups of pupils make consistently good progress.
• Since the previous inspection, there have been considerable changes in staffing, and a decline in standards of pupils’ achievement. Following the appointment of the current headteacher and the establishment of a new leadership team, the pace of improvement has increased.
• Previously, the assessment of pupils’ achievement was too generous and did not give leaders an accurate view of the school’s performance. The revised assessment system enables leaders to identify exactly where learning needs to improve and helps them judge the impact of their work more accurately.
• When checking the quality of teaching, senior and subject leaders do not measure its impact precisely in terms of pupils’ achievement. Consequently, their feedback to teachers after reviewing pupils’ work does not identify sharply enough where teaching needs to improve.
• The headteacher has the complete confidence of staff. All are committed to making the necessary improvements to increase their effectiveness, as verified by the highly positive responses to the staff questionnaire.
• New teaching approaches to meet the higher demands of the national curriculum are improving progress rates. Leaders provide staff with a wide range of training opportunities to help develop their practice and speed up the pace of improvement.
• The leadership of special education needs is effective and the leader uses additional funding to provide carefully targeted teaching. This has led to better rates of progress for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.
• Leaders demonstrate a clear commitment to promoting equality and overcoming any discrimination. They support disadvantaged pupils, who comprise almost half of the school’s roll, well both academically and in their personal development. The appointment of the ‘nurture practitioner’ has been a positive step in helping these pupils to be fully included in all aspects of school life.
• The curriculum is designed to stimulate pupils’ interests and increasingly motivates them to try hard and to be successful in their work. This, together with educational visits, after-school clubs and enrichment activities such as ‘mini marines’, has a positive impact on broadening pupils’ horizons and developing their personal skills.
• The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and personal skills strongly. Pupils demonstrate a good understanding of the school’s values, which reflect fundamental British values. For example, in assembly, pupils lead the school in prayers showing empathy and kindness in their thoughts. This prepares them well to be responsible citizens of the future.
• Leaders use the sport premium to good effect. Pupils’ participation rates are high across a variety of competitions and sports clubs, such as street dance and ‘free running’. Staff work alongside the specialist teacher to increase their skills in order to sustain these developments.
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school’s work. They appreciate the approachability of the headteacher and her staff. They have responded positively to the increased opportunities to become involved in their children’s learning.
• Support from the local authority advisers and external consultants has helped leaders to introduce strategies to improve teaching and secure accuracy of assessment.

Governance of the school

• Governors are well organised in their work. They have undertaken relevant training provided by the local authority to help them evaluate how well pupils are achieving compared with national figures. They ask senior leaders challenging questions about why achievement is not better and hold them to account well for the quality of teaching. However, previously, governors did not have an accurate view of pupils’ progress because the assessment information leaders presented to them was over generous. This has now been rectified. Governors keep themselves well informed about all aspects of the school’s work with frequent monitoring visits and discussions with subject leaders.
• Governors manage the school’s finances well. They know how the school uses additional funds to support disadvantaged pupils and develop physical education and sport in school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders, including governors, place a high priority on pupils’ safety and well-being. They manage safeguarding procedures well and review them regularly. Recruitment and vetting procedures for appointing staff are thorough and follow statutory guidance. Leaders make regular checks to ensure that staff understand and follow policies and procedures. They are diligent in making sure that staff training is up to date, including about recognising the dangers of extremism and radicalisation. This work ensures that staff are confident in reporting any concerns about pupils. Risk assessments are comprehensive and updated annually.
• Leaders know the families of pupils who attend the school extremely well. They are vigilant about pupils’ welfare, especially those whose circumstances make them vulnerable. They have built up effective professional relationships with other agencies to ensure that families get the support they need. They make good use of specialist help and advice, for example in reducing any unnecessary absence from school. Parents recognise the lengths to which the headteacher and staff go to make this a welcoming and inclusive school where their children are safe and happy.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teachers do not use assessment information well enough when planning learning for all groups of pupils. They make regular assessments of pupils’ achievements and discuss with leaders how progress can improve. However, they do not always use this knowledge sufficiently well to ensure that all pupils’ learning moves on quickly in lessons.
• Although newly introduced approaches have improved teaching this year, teachers do not use these new strategies to challenge pupils effectively. On occasions, in mathematics, the most able pupils do not reach the challenging tasks quickly enough. For example, pupils who had already demonstrated they understood how to construct a pictogram were stopped from working on the next challenge and made to draw another similar chart. Such actions limit pupils’ progress as they do not extend their understanding further.
• Teachers help pupils develop ideas of what to write about and how to add interest to their work with imaginative vocabulary choices. However, they do not teach the basic writing skills of sentence construction, grammar and spelling systematically enough throughout the school. This prevents pupils from becoming accomplished writers.
• Reading is promoted well. A renewed emphasis on phonics teaching ensures that pupils build up confidence and fluency in reading. Special events help parents to understand how reading is taught and to practise reading purposefully at home. These approaches have been successful in supporting disadvantaged pupils with progress in reading. However, teachers do not teach comprehension skills systematically enough across the school to develop pupils’ understanding at a deeper level.
• Teachers and teaching assistants work together effectively to enable pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities to be successful in their learning. The ‘scoop’ sessions provide valuable support for any pupils in need of extra teaching or additional practice, enabling them to catch up quickly.
• Disadvantaged pupils benefit from carefully tailored support that ensures that their emotional needs and, increasingly, their academic needs are met.
• Teachers enjoy working at this school. They are keen to improve their practice and readily engage in training activities. Recent training in teaching calculation in mathematics is having a clear impact on pupils’ number skills.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Leaders have introduced a consistent approach to promoting the school’s core values. These help pupils to become positive learners and considerate members of the school community. Older pupils carry out their roles, such as those of prefects, very responsibly.
• Pupils confirm that they feel safe in school. Parents who completed the online questionnaire, wrote comments or spoke to the inspectors agree that their children are well looked after.
• Pupils are clear about what constitutes bullying and the forms this can take, such as online bullying. They report that there is very little bullying and it is always dealt with well.
• Online safety has a high priority and staff teach pupils how to keep themselves safe when on the computer. They know not to give out personal information and to report any online bullying should it occur.
• The relationships between staff and pupils are warm and effective. These contribute greatly to pupils’ enjoyment of school. They say there is always someone to help with any problems or if ‘you’re stuck with your work’. Staff are trained well and are effective in helping pupils talk through and resolve any friendship problems.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Typically, they are welcoming, courteous and keen to talk about their learning to visitors.
• In classrooms, pupils settle to work quickly, concentrate hard and persevere with their tasks. They are increasingly productive in lessons. These positive attitudes contribute to the faster progress being made this year.
• Pupils are cooperative with staff and conduct themselves well in and around school. They are clear about systems for acknowledging good behaviour, such as house points and ‘values vouchers’. School records show that the very few incidents of poor behaviour are managed well.
• Occasionally, a few pupils are inattentive in lessons when teaching is less effective, which slows down their learning. Most pupils enjoy coming to school, which is reflected in their regular attendance and punctuality.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils do not consistently make the progress of which they are capable. Over the past two years, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard has been below the national figures at the end of key stage 1 and key stage 2. This has not prepared them well for the next stage in their education.
• Current standards of work show that more pupils are on track to achieve the expected standard for their age, particularly by the end of key stage 2. However, few achieve beyond this.
• Some unevenness in achievement between year groups remains, and progress is not yet fast enough for the most able pupils. They are not always extended to the full in their work to make the progress of which they are capable.
• Achievement in mathematics shows improvement this year, and pupils demonstrate competency in calculation skills. The ‘ready, steady, maths’ initiative helps to promote pupils’ rapid recall of number bonds and multiplication tables effectively. However, the most able pupils are not always stretched in their thinking, because they spend too long on tasks that do not challenge them to the full.
• Pupils use adventurous word choices when writing and produce work of increasing complexity. Nevertheless, they do not demonstrate consistently the necessary skills of grammar and sentence construction to become good writers. Too many common spelling errors let down their work.
• Pupils are acquiring better skills in phonics than previously. A greater number of Year 1 pupils are on track to achieve the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check this year. This helps them to become fluent readers.
• Older pupils read confidently and with obvious enjoyment. Staff encourage them to read from the new range of challenging books. However, their comprehension skills are not always developed well enough for them to understand harder texts. Nonetheless, a greater number of pupils than previously are on track to reach the expected standard by the end of key stage 2 this year.
• Staff provide pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities with well-targeted support that is matched carefully to their individual needs. Teachers check their progress closely and quickly make any necessary changes to enable them to make good progress from their starting points.
• Disadvantaged pupils, including those who are most able, achieve as well as others in school with similar starting points. Extra help to improve attitudes to learning and build self-confidence is speeding up academic progress.

Early years provision Good

• Children settle into the Reception class quickly and happily because their transition into school is managed well. Staff soon establish routines and expectations. Children quickly become self-assured and ready to learn, demonstrating good behaviour.
• Parents are appreciative of the way staff ‘make a real effort’ to get to know their children as individuals and they value the daily contact with leaders. They are increasingly involved in supporting their children’s learning through workshops and regular ‘learning together’ sessions.
• From starting points that are below those typically seen for their age, children make good progress. They catch up quickly, particularly in their personal skills and their speaking and listening skills. As they leave Reception, the number of children who have achieved a good level of development, meaning that they are well prepared for Year 1, is in line with national figures.
• The early years leader has created a cohesive staff team. She ensures that staff are well trained, for example in developing language skills. She monitors their work closely, making the necessary improvements to maximise the impact of teaching on children’s achievement. Staff pay good attention to safeguarding and children’s welfare.
• Teaching is effective, because staff design learning activities carefully to promote good progress for all groups of children. There is ready access to an attractive range of resources, both indoors and out. Children particularly love ‘welly Wednesday’ when they spend the day outdoors learning in the ‘forest school’.
• Learning journeys track children’s progress closely across the year. Children who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged children are supported well according to their needs.
• Careful assessment of progress enables staff to adjust teaching to provide suitable challenge for the most able children. For example, during a mathematics activity, children worked successfully on number bonds to 10, and were then further challenged to work up to 20. This ensured that they were fully stretched in their thinking.
• Phonics skills are taught routinely and provide the foundation for effective development of early reading and writing skills. Occasionally, a lack of focus in the activities that children chose for themselves hampers some from learning as well as they could.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 115560 Gloucestershire 10037847 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 172 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Vanessa Aris Sara Bennion 01684292198 www.queenmargaretschool.org/ admin@queenmargaret.gloucs.sch.uk Date of previous inspection January February 2013

Information about this school

• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school. The majority of pupils are of White British heritage. Pupils are organised in seven classes, all of which are single-age. The school operates a daily breakfast club.
• The school met the government’s current floor standards in 2017. These set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium is much higher than the national average.
• The school no longer manages the Children’s Centre and this did not form part of the inspection.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed pupils’ learning across the school. Most observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher and the deputy headteacher. In addition, they made visits to classrooms, the dining hall and the playground, as well as attending two assemblies.
• Meetings were held with pupils, governors and school leaders. The lead inspector also spoke with an adviser from the local authority, who supports the school.
• Inspectors spoke with parents at the start of the school day and took account of the 15 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. They also took account of the 21 responses to the Ofsted staff questionnaire and the 34 responses to the pupils’ questionnaire.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including the school’s improvement plans. They examined information on current pupils’ progress, minutes of the governing body meetings, safeguarding procedures and the plans for the use of the sport premium.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read, talked with them in classrooms and evaluated samples of their work.

Inspection team

Sandra Woodman, lead inspector Maddy Kent Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector