Yeo Moor Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Make use of the developing leadership capacity of the school to consolidate and further improve outcomes for pupils, particularly in reading in key stage 2.
• Continue to give high priority to improving pupils’ attendance so that no groups of pupils are disadvantaged by their low attendance.
• Refine the teaching of fundamental British values so that pupils are fully aware of the significance of democracy and the rights of individuals.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Senior leaders, supported by the trust board and local governing body, have ensured that pupils benefit from high standards of teaching, learning and assessment. An unwavering focus on providing the best possible opportunities for pupils follows the core values of the school, ‘care, cherish and excel’.
• Leaders have an accurate understanding of the key priorities for school improvement. They ensure that everyone follows a consistent approach to improving the school.
• The drive of the headteacher, supported by other school leaders, has successfully fostered a strong culture of ambition. As a result, staff and pupils have high aspirations, which support pupils’ positive outcomes and progress.
• School leaders know the school well. Their self-evaluation is accurate because it is based on regular, planned reviews of the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress. Leaders identify pupils’ learning needs quickly, and put in place appropriate support to help them make strong progress.
• Leaders hold teachers to account for the outcomes achieved by their pupils. Where necessary, leaders provide teachers with the right support to ensure that they can make improvements in their professional roles. They benefit from highly effective professional development opportunities. Middle leaders have used information from research to improve teaching across the school and to provide wider opportunities for pupils.
• The school’s leadership responsibilities are spread effectively through the involvement of middle leaders who are clear about their roles and about how they can contribute to school improvement. As a result, the leadership capacity of the school is now strong and the school is well placed to secure further rapid improvement.
• Parents recognise the impact that school leaders have had in creating a caring and supportive environment. In the words of one parent, ‘Yeo Moor is a lovely vibrant school which cares greatly about every child.’ The overwhelming majority of parents who spoke with inspectors or completed the online survey have positive views of the school’s many strengths.
• School leaders have been successful in designing a rich, broad and balanced curriculum that provides pupils with opportunities to pursue their learning in a range of subjects in engaging and meaningful ways. High-quality displays throughout the school provide an insight into this work, creating interest and further stimulating the aspirations of pupils. Extra-curricular opportunities such as trips, after-school clubs and specialist visitors further enhance this approach.
• Effective provision for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development supports the pupils in becoming motivated and caring young citizens who are generally well prepared for life in modern Britain. However, pupils in key stage 2 sometimes lack depth in their understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy and of the rights of individuals.
• The school uses additional funding, such as the pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils and the sports premium, effectively to target and support the needs of vulnerable pupils. As a result, pupils benefiting from this funding make strong progress.

Governance of the school

• The highly effective governing body plays an active role in guiding the planning for school development. Governors receive regular and accurate information from school leaders and use this to hold them to account for its performance. This ensures that they take the right actions to meet the school’s development priorities.
• The governors take their duty of care seriously and provide appropriate support to school leaders and other staff.
• The school has also benefited from the support of the executive headteacher and director of education of the Clevedon Learning Trust (CLT). Collaboration with the CLT family of schools has helped the school to focus more clearly on its priorities for improvement. As a result, the school has addressed historical underachievement and is now well placed to make further advances.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Comprehensive safeguarding procedures ensure that this aspect of the school’s work receives high priority at all levels and a strong culture of safeguarding prevails.
• An annual safeguarding audit, conducted by senior leaders and governors, informs the development of an action plan and ensures that staff do not become complacent. Regular appropriate training, including ‘Prevent’ duty training, ensures that all staff are well equipped to perform their roles. All staff sign an annual declaration to confirm that they have read and understood the key safeguarding documents. A helpful weekly update from the learning mentor ensures that staff are aware of the needs of vulnerable pupils. Staff show a good awareness of child protection procedures and the steps they need to follow to keep children safe.
• Leaders engage actively with parents and other stakeholders to ensure that pupils are supported and safe. They make good use of the support from external agencies, wherever appropriate, and ensure that any actions agreed in multi-agency meetings are followed up and implemented.
• Pupils said that they feel safe and recognise the actions that the school takes to achieve this. This includes the physical measures put in place to ensure that the building and grounds are safe, the arrangements made for school trips and the range of activities that help pupils keep themselves safe when online.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers make learning accessible to pupils with carefully planned and engaging topics. Through skilful assessment, teachers quickly identify pupils’ learning needs. Appropriate levels of support and challenge then ensure that all groups of learners make strong progress.
• Verbal and written feedback during lessons helps pupils to reflect well on their learning and to recognise the next steps they need to take to make further progress. This feedback is in line with the school’s policy.
• Pupils’ writing conveys a sense of purpose and interest, thanks to the imaginative ways in which the school helps pupils to use their writing skills across a range of subjects. For example, in Year 6, pupils wrote powerful, persuasive letters, in role play, to the headteacher to appeal against his decision to exclude a Jewish girl. This brought to life a topic on the Second World War, supporting the development of empathy and an understanding of the effects of racism and extremism.
• Pupils take great pride in their work and apply themselves diligently during lessons. The standards of handwriting and presentation of work across the school are high as a result of teachers’ concerted and sustained efforts to raise expectations.
• Pupils have access to a wide range of strategies in mathematics, which supports them to develop fluency in this subject. Teachers encourage them to explain their reasoning, which is helping the most able pupils achieve greater depth in their learning.
• The selection of core reading texts in each year group and the well-stocked school library provide resources which stimulate pupils’ interest in reading. Following good early teaching of phonics, pupils’ reading skills are well supported by strong home-school links. However, pupils’ understanding of the meaning of text is not always well developed, particularly in Years 5 and 6. Opportunities for pupils to read in a range of contexts are limited and, so, pupils do not deepen their learning in reading.
• Pupils are supported well in developing a strong sense of responsibility for their own learning. They identify the key characteristics of effective learning and use this appropriately to become more resilient, reflective learners.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils feel safe. The high priority given to safeguarding and pastoral care promotes a strong culture of safety backed up by effective safeguarding procedures.
• Leaders ensure that pupils know how to keep themselves safe in a range of contexts, including when online, and pupils benefit from regular guidance on e-safety.
• Staff respond quickly and effectively to ensure that the well-being of pupils is catered for well. Staff and pupils share positive relationships.
• Leaders have introduced anti-bullying ambassadors to help promote the strong stance that the school takes against bullying. When bullying incidents have been reported, leaders have taken timely and appropriate action to address them. Pupils recognise that incidents of bullying are rare, and they have confidence that the school would deal with such incidents effectively.
• Leaders are successful in encouraging parents to support their child’s learning and progress. The school also takes active steps to reach out and support the families of vulnerable pupils. As a result, these pupils engage successfully in school life and make good progress.
• The school makes good use of before- and after-school childcare provision to offer support to parents and to provide pupils with worthwhile and supportive extra-curricular opportunities.
• Leaders provide rich opportunities to support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils are knowledgeable and at times passionate about celebrating diversity. In the words of one pupil, ‘We all respect one another – it doesn’t matter if anyone is different.’ Pupils are generally well prepared for life in modern Britain and understand how they can be thoughtful, caring and active citizens in school and in wider society. However, some key stage 2 pupils lack a depth of understanding about the fundamental British values of democracy and the rights of individuals.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils enthusiastically embrace learning opportunities and apply themselves diligently to their work. They respond well to clear classroom routines and the high expectations of the school to ensure that learning is not disrupted or time lost.
• The high standards of behaviour create a calm, purposeful environment in which pupils demonstrate respect and care for others.
• The overwhelming majority of parents recognise the positive steps that the school has taken to secure high standards of behaviour.
• Pupils behave well outside lessons and play well together on the playground, supported effectively by supervising adults and pupil play leaders.
• Pupils are confident that bullying is rare, and they are motivated to challenge unfair or discriminatory behaviour.
• Pupils’ attendance is below the national average. This is largely a result of poor attendance by pupils from specific groups, particularly boys, disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. Leaders have effective procedures to monitor the attendance of pupils and have taken a strong stance to actively promote good attendance. They challenge and support parents when attendance concerns have been identified. This approach has resulted in some improvement in attendance rates, particularly by those pupils that have previously been persistently absent.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Current pupils make strong progress and achieve standards overall at least in line with the standard expected for their age in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2017, progress by the end of key stage 2 was in line with national levels. This represents a significant improvement on recent years. Consequently, they are better prepared to move on to secondary school.
• Children make strong progress in the early years and most leave the early years foundation stage with a good level of development.
• Effective teaching of phonics in the early years and across key stage 1 provides a strong foundation for reading and helps pupils achieve standards similar to pupils nationally. Leaders are aware of the need to continue to prioritise improving pupils’ reading skills further, particularly their comprehension skills.
• Leaders have successfully addressed a legacy of underachievement in key stage 1 so that pupils now achieve standards above national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Leaders’ early identification of needs and skilful intervention and support helps pupils in a range of specific groups to make good progress and achieve strong outcomes. This includes pupils who speak English as an additional language, pupils receiving support for S and disadvantaged pupils.
• Leaders have ensured that writing skills are promoted effectively and used in a range of subjects. This is leading to improved outcomes in both key stages 1 and 2.
• Successful teaching of fluency in mathematics and support for the development of reasoning skills ensure that standards in mathematics in both key stage 1 and key stage 2 are above those typically seen nationally.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Leaders ensure that children are provided with the right support. As a result, children make strong progress overall from their starting points to leave Reception well prepared to start Year 1.
• A stimulating and well-organised learning environment supports the needs of the children and helps them develop the skills necessary to make strong progress in their learning.
• Skilful teaching and highly effective use of assessment ensure that the learning needs of individual children are identified and addressed quickly. This means that the children, especially those who have SEN and/or disabilities, are supported effectively to help them make strong progress. Additional funding is used well to facilitate this.
• An imaginative and varied curriculum supports children in developing a broad range of skills. Staff ensure that their dynamic and flexible approach responds to the needs of the children.
• Strong teaching of phonics provides children with good foundations for their early reading skills and, so, they make rapid progress in reading.
• Children behave exceptionally well and show care and regard for others. They respond well to the learning opportunities available and are able to sustain their concentration to make rapid progress.
• Highly effective leadership and management ensure that children make good progress and achieve the outcomes they are capable of. This is particularly seen in the provision for pupils who have SEN who immerse themselves in learning activities as a result of skilful planning, timely intervention and support from adults.
• Adults use prompts and questions to support children to develop a wider vocabulary, which, combined with growing confidence, leads to rapid progress in learning. Accurate assessment, clear planning and targeted support contribute to the strong outcomes for children.
• Staff provide high standards of care so that children feel safe and well cared for. Staff follow comprehensive safeguarding procedures to ensure that the children are safe at all times.
• Effective induction procedures and well-planned transition arrangements at the end of the Reception Year ensure smooth continuity and progression in learning, particularly for vulnerable children and others who need support.
• A positive partnership with parents is quickly established. Parents are given clear information on their child’s progress as well as guidance on how to support their learning.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141361 North Somerset 10036957 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 Academy converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 366 Appropriate authority The board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Geoff Blakeman Roland Lovatt 01275 875607 www.yeomoorprimaryschool.org.uk office@yeomoorprimaryschool.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The school converted to an academy in January 2015 and is a member of the Clevedon Learning Trust.
• Overall responsibility for the school rests with the trust board of the Clevedon Learning Trust. Responsibility for certain functions is delegated to a local governing body. The distribution of responsibilities is clearly set out in the scheme of delegation of the Clevedon Learning Trust.
• The school is larger than the average primary school.
• Most of the pupils are of White British heritage. In 2016, 18% of pupils came from minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals is broadly in line with that of other schools nationally.
• The number of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is lower than that of other schools nationally.
• The number of pupils who move in and out of the school during the school year is less than that of other schools nationally.
• The school runs a breakfast and after-school club to support parents with childcare.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress at the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in lessons.
• Inspectors looked at the work in books of both current and past pupils.
• Meetings were held with governors, middle and senior leaders, representatives from the Clevedon Learning Trust and groups of pupils. Individual conversations were also held with parents, pupils and staff.
• Inspectors took account of 59 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and 13 responses to the staff questionnaire.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of school documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plan and the school’s own assessment information and monitoring records.
• Inspectors also reviewed a wide range of safeguarding evidence, including the school’s single central record, and behaviour and incident logs.

Inspection team

Martin Bragg, lead inspector Malcolm Willis Mark Lees Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector