Keyham Barton Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ progress in mathematics and particularly in writing, so that it is at least as strong as their progress in reading in all year groups, including the early years, by:
  • ensuring that teachers have consistently high expectations of what the pupils can achieve
  • increasing teachers’ knowledge of effective teaching strategies in mathematics and especially in writing, and providing more opportunities for teachers to observe good practice
  • developing teachers’ skills in assessing precisely what individuals and groups of pupils need to do to improve their work and achieve well
  • ensuring that the level of academic challenge is matched well to pupils’ various starting points, including for the most able pupils, the disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities
  • enabling pupils to extend and develop their writing skills and apply them confidently across the curriculum.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management in raising standards, by:
  • developing the skills of middle leaders in evaluating information about pupils’ progress to identify specific areas for improvement in the quality of teaching and learning
  • ensuring that these leaders challenge and support teachers to meet the needs of all pupils from their different starting points
  • making sure that all governors, including the new chair of the governing body, quickly gain an in-depth understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement
  • ensuring that governors hold senior leaders to account robustly for improving the progress of all pupils, including the most able, disadvantaged pupils, and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
  • ensuring that governors challenge senior leaders to use the additional funding more effectively so that disadvantaged pupils are able to make good progress. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Leaders and managers at all levels, including governors, have not ensured that the uneven quality of teaching and learning across the school has been addressed to secure consistently good progress for pupils across subjects and year groups.
• Too many teachers have low expectations of what pupils can achieve. The good practice in teaching and learning in some year groups, and in the teaching of reading throughout the school, has not been shared to secure consistently effective practice.
• The acting headteacher evaluates pupils’ progress rigorously through analysis of the robust tracking system, pupils’ books and their learning in lessons. From this evaluation, she has identified accurately the areas in need of improvement in teaching and learning.
• The acting headteacher is rightly developing the monitoring and evaluation skills of middle leaders. These leaders are beginning to hold teachers to account for their pupils’ progress. Together with the teachers, they identify appropriate support to help pupils who have fallen behind to catch up with their peers. However, this development is at an early stage and the impact of the work of the middle leaders is currently too variable across subjects, year groups and pupil groups.
• Leadership of the enhanced provision for pupils with autistic spectrum disorder is ensuring that the pupils’ needs are increasingly better identified and supported in lessons. The funding is used appropriately to provide additional support from teaching assistants. However, the needs of all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are not systematically identified by all teachers. This hampers the progress made by this group of pupils across the school.
• The pupil premium has been used effectively to provide additional support in English and mathematics for some disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2. However, the funding is not being used effectively to support improved achievement for disadvantaged pupils in other key stages.
• The broad and balanced curriculum provides a wide range of opportunities for pupils to learn. Pupils enjoy the trips that are linked to their topics and which help them to gain a better understanding of their lessons. Pupils also learn from the many clubs on offer, including singing and a variety of sport. The school council engages in fundraising. This and links with a school in Uganda promote pupils’ consideration for others. The many and varied experiences provided enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• The primary physical education and sport premium is used well to extend the range of sport on offer, which now includes hockey, cross-country, basketball, indoor athletics, indoor rowing, cycling and dance. As a result, an increasing number of pupils participate in sport. The funding is also used effectively to develop teachers’ skills.
• The acting headteacher, governors and staff have developed successfully a culture of care and support for pupils’ personal development and well-being. This includes pupils who have come from other schools and have social, emotional and mental health needs. These pupils have quickly settled into the school and grown in self-esteem.
• Pupils who arrive at school speaking little English, and with limited knowledge of British and local culture, receive effective advice and support.
• The acting headteacher has involved pupils and parents in reviewing the school’s mission statement, which is based on respect for one another. She has linked this well with developing pupils’ understanding of the British values of tolerance of other faiths and cultures, democracy and the rule of law.
• Pupils and staff challenge any discriminatory behaviour. Relationships between pupils and with staff are positive and support pupils’ engagement in learning.
• Despite reservations expressed by a small minority of parents via Parent View, the majority of pupils and staff who completed online questionnaires felt that the school deals with bullying effectively. Parents bringing their children to school spoke positively to inspectors about the work of the school, especially the support for children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The pupils’ view is that bullying is reducing because staff deal with it well. The school’s records support this view.
• External support provided by Plymouth CAST (the trust) has been patchy and limited in its effectiveness. It has worked best in developing the leadership skills of the acting headteacher and in the improved systems for monitoring and evaluating pupils’ progress, attendance and behaviour. However, the trust has had little impact in improving the quality of teaching, particularly in writing, where pupils’ progress remains too uneven throughout the school.
• The trust has been too slow to develop the role of governors in challenging the school to improve and in supporting the school to train and develop the skills of new governors to take on the responsibilities of those who step down. Currently, the school has a high proportion of new governors who have limited knowledge of the school’s performance.

Governance of the school

• Governors do not hold senior leaders to account robustly for the weaknesses in pupils’ progress or challenge school leaders to bring about more rapid improvement.
• Recent changes in the governing body have resulted in governors not having an in-depth knowledge of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, or of the impact of the additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors are over-reliant on the headteacher’s reports. Visits to the school are not systematically planned and governors do not survey and consider parents’ views.
• The new chair of the governing body is determined to gain an in-depth understanding of the school’s performance as quickly as possible and to review the roles and responsibilities of the governing body. She has a good overview of the school’s finances.
• The new chair of the governing body has a good understanding of the governing body’s statutory duty regarding safeguarding pupils. She has checked that all staff are aware of the school’s policies and procedures and that the reporting of incidents is secure.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The acting headteacher has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed. All staff have received training that is up to date with the latest guidance for safeguarding pupils, including the dangers posed by those who hold extreme views. Teachers, support staff and mealtime assistants demonstrate a good understanding of the school’s policies and procedures for safeguarding children. Appropriate action is taken to address any issues, including working with external agencies when necessary. Incidents are recorded thoroughly on an online system and followed up robustly. Pupils’ behaviour and attendance are also monitored carefully and followed up effectively.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, and particularly teachers’ use of assessment, is too uneven to promote consistently good progress for pupils in mathematics and writing.
• Teachers use of the school’s feedback and marking policy is inconsistent and its effect on the progress that pupils make is too variable. At times, pupils are not clear about what they need to do to improve their work.
• Too many pupils, including the most able, do not make enough progress in writing given their starting points. Some teachers do not have high enough expectations of what the pupils can achieve and their knowledge in teaching writing is not secure. In such cases, teachers do not use assessment precisely to identify what pupils need to do to develop and extend their writing in order to achieve as well as they can.
• Teachers have raised their expectations of what pupils can achieve in mathematics. Teachers now make more effective use of resources and the level of academic challenge is better matched to pupils’ different starting points. This is helping to speed up the progress made by different groups of pupils. However, these improved strategies are not being used systematically by all teachers and the teaching of mathematics is not yet consistently strong.
• The teaching of reading is consistently good across the school and pupils’ skills are extended and reinforced through homework. Effective phonics teaching is enabling younger pupils to tackle unfamiliar words and to become fluent readers. Throughout the school, pupils are exposed to a wide range of interesting books that are matched carefully to their reading ability.
• There is evidence of stronger teaching. Pupils learn best where teachers set clear expectations for what they can achieve, building well on what they already know, understand and can do. Teachers use their precise understanding of the progress that pupils are making to intervene with additional help or to deepen the understanding of those who are ready for more challenge.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. The school’s caring, open culture promotes all aspects of pupils’ welfare. Parents praise the support that the staff give to their children to help them overcome difficulties in their social, emotional and mental health, for example following changes in family circumstances. Pupils grow in confidence and learn to respect others’ ideas and views. They are keen to learn.
• Pupils say they feel safe in school. They learn how to keep safe, for example when using the internet. They say that bullying tends to relate to calling people names and that incidents are reducing this year because assemblies are helping pupils to reflect on how inappropriate comments make other people feel.
• The school’s strong contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development encourages pupils to be reflective about, and responsible for, their actions towards others.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good and the school is an orderly environment. Due to the consistent management of pupils’ behaviour by all staff, pupils conduct themselves well throughout the day, including at play. Older pupils act as play leaders, supporting others very effectively in playing games together at lunchtimes.
• Pupils respond quickly to requests from staff, so lessons are rarely disrupted. Effective support for pupils with particular behavioural needs results in clear improvement in their behaviour.
• The number of pupils who are persistently absent is reducing and pupils’ attendance is in line with the national average.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• From their different starting points, pupils do not make good progress in mathematics and particularly in writing. In some year groups, their limited progress in writing is a barrier to learning across other subjects, such as history.
• Progress in writing is not consistently good across year groups for disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, those who need to catch up and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This is because their limited vocabulary and simple sentence structure are not addressed systematically throughout the school in speaking and in writing.
• The school’s information indicates that additional support for some disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2 has enabled them to make good progress. However, the funding is not being used to support all eligible pupils throughout the school to build their skills year on year so that they can reach their full potential.
• Pupils, particularly the most able, make better progress in mathematics across year groups because teachers increasingly are setting work at more appropriate levels of challenge. However, some unevenness remains.
• Pupils develop a love of reading and make good progress in reading given their starting points. Pupils talk enthusiastically about their favourite books and authors. Those who start with limited skills and understanding gain a good grasp of phonics. This gives them the confidence to tackle new books of increasing difficulty. A large majority of pupils in Year 1 achieved the expected standard in the national phonics check in 2016.
• The most able readers, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, draw on a range of strategies to tackle challenging texts. They read very fluently, with good expression and comprehension.
• Pupils’ proficiency in reading and in mathematics by the end of key stage 2 ensures that they are suitably prepared to tackle the secondary school curriculum. Proficiency in writing for current pupils who are nearing the end of this key stage is improving.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Outcomes for children in the early years are too variable. The strong outcomes achieved by the most able children, particularly girls, are not being secured for all. The progress and attainment of particular groups such as disadvantaged children or boys does not compare favourably with girls’ achievement.
• The quality of teaching requires improvement. For example, teachers and other staff in the early years do not use assessment effectively to identify precisely the next steps in learning for children who start with limited skills and understanding. Consequently, progress for these children is too slow to enable them to catch up with the others.
• While leaders have an accurate understanding of the overall strengths and weaknesses in the early years, over time they have not taken effective actions to maximise children’s progress. This is because systems for tracking progress are not established well enough to identify precisely the gaps in learning and development for individuals and groups of children.
• Through observation of lessons and examination of children’s books, leaders have recently identified the need for staff training to ensure that children apply their use of phonics better to support more rapid development in their writing.
• A broad range of activities both within the classroom and in the outside area ensure that children learn and develop a range of skills and knowledge. Children are motivated by the activities, and they are keen to learn.
• Children’s personal development, behaviour and welfare needs are identified effectively. The support provided for the children, including from external agencies when necessary, develops their confidence, social skills and readiness to learn.
• Children’s behaviour is good. They listen attentively to each other and to the staff, showing respect for others. In working and playing together, children learn to value each other’s differences.
• Safeguarding is effective. Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding procedures and apply them well. All welfare requirements are met. Children are safe and happy in the setting.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140730 Plymouth 10021134

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

School category

Age range of pupils

Gender of pupils

a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

Number of pupils on the school roll Voluntary aided academy converter Primary 4 to 11 Mixed 197 Appropriate authority academy trust Chair Alison Thornton Acting Headteacher Finola Gill Telephone number 01752 567684 Website Email address www.keyhambarton.plymouth.sch.uk admin@keyhambarton.plymouth.sch.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• Keyham Barton Catholic Primary School is smaller than the average-sized primary school and is part of the Plymouth CAST. The Trust was formed in April 2014. The work of the Trust is overseen by a board of directors. The Trust is responsible for: one nursery; one first school; 32 primary schools and two secondary schools across seven local authorities in the south west region.
• The school joined the Trust and became an academy on 1 April 2014.
• At the time the school was notified of the inspection the school did meet the requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school does not comply with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish about the impact of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils.
• The acting headteacher took up the post in January 2016, following the retirement of the substantive headteacher. The chair of the governing body took up the position three weeks prior to this inspection, when the previous chair stepped down.
• The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.
• Pupils in the enhanced provision for autistic spectrum disorder are taught in mainstream lessons. They are supported by teaching assistants.
• Children in the Reception Year attend full time.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average, as is the number of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average. The proportion of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is above average.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed 14 lessons taught by seven teachers, all of which were observed jointly with the acting headteacher or special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator. Inspectors looked extensively at pupils’ work in books and listened to small groups of pupils reading.
• Meetings were held with the acting headteacher, senior and middle leaders, groups of pupils, the chair and another member of the governing body, and the area adviser for the trust.
• Inspectors met informally with 25 parents and spoke on the telephone to one other. They spoke to pupils during lessons and at play and lunchtimes.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and examined a range of documents, including those relating to the school’s evaluation of its own performance, plans for development, the safeguarding of pupils, and information on the monitoring and evaluation of pupils’ progress, attendance and behaviour.
• Inspectors took account of 42 responses to Ofsted’s online Parent View survey and comments posted online by parents, together with questionnaires completed by 19 members of staff and four pupils.

Inspection team

Sue Frater, lead inspector Karen Gannon Anthony Epps

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector