Hillbourne Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the impact of leadership and management, including governance, by:
  • ensuring that the school’s strategic plan has clear, short-term milestones for improvement so that governors can track its impact on raising pupils’ outcomes
  • making sure that checks on teaching are rigorous and so improve the progress of specific groups of pupils, including middle-attaining, disadvantaged, boys and the most able pupils so that it is good
  • providing clear guidance to middle leaders about their roles and responsibilities in raising pupils’ achievement and eradicating underperformance
  • governors holding school leaders robustly to account for ensuring that pupils’ achievement is consistently good
  • improving the achievement of disadvantaged pupils in writing.
• Improving teaching, learning and assessment so that they are consistently good, by:
  • insisting that teachers routinely check spelling errors and provide pupils with the support and guidance they need to make improvements to their writing
  • ensuring that pupils’ writing across the curriculum is high quality and a greater proportion of pupils meet and exceed national expectations
  • ensuring that teaching builds on what pupils can already do and understand so that middle-attaining and the most able pupils make consistently good progress in writing
  • ensuring that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are provided with work that meets their needs.
• Improve personal development, behaviour and welfare by ensuring that:
  • teaching consistently motivates and interests pupils so that off-task behaviour in lessons is eradicated
  • pupils, particularly boys, take pride in their work so pupils’ presentation in books is consistently good.
• Improve the strategic leadership of the early years by ensuring that:
  • leaders check on provision across the school day so that they have an accurate view of children’s learning and achievement across all areas of learning
  • assessment is used to plan activities that are closely matched to children’s needs, and teachers have consistently high expectations so that children make good progress. External reviews of governance and of the school’s use of pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how these aspects of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Leaders have not maintained the good standard of education since the last inspection. Leaders have secured staffing arrangements after a period of considerable staff change and absence. However, this has limited leaders’ capacity to improve the school rapidly. Current leaders are working hard to turn the school’s weaknesses around; some improvement is evident. However, leaders’ actions are not yet bringing about the required improvement in teaching and pupils’ outcomes. Therefore, leadership and management require improvement overall.
• Leaders’ strategic planning is not appropriately focused on improving pupils’ progress. Actions are identified to improve teaching strategies and address key weaknesses in the school’s performance. However, limited emphasis on leaders’ impact on raising pupils’ outcomes means that some underperformance is yet to be successfully addressed.
• Leaders do not check up on pupils’ learning effectively enough. Their checks are not sufficiently focused on improving pupils’ outcomes from their different starting points. As a result, middle-attaining and the most able pupils do not make enough progress.
• Middle leaders carry out the actions identified on their subject action plans and work successfully with staff to improve their subject knowledge. Consequently, improvement is evident, for example in pupils’ fluency in multiplication tables in mathematics and improved teachers’ subject knowledge in the teaching of reading. However, they do not have a full enough picture of pupils’ performance across the school and therefore their impact on pupils’ outcomes is too limited.
• The additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is used increasingly well to support additional interventions. However, its impact is variable and results in pupils making inconsistent progress across the school, particularly in writing.
• Leaders use additional funding to support pupils who have special educational needs/and or disabilities increasingly effectively. Targeted support is in place and this is strengthening the progress pupils make. However, as a result of previously weak teaching, pupils make inconsistent progress.
• Leaders have not checked that the quality of the wider curriculum is good. Levels of challenge and the breadth of the curriculum on offer across some year groups are inconsistent. This hinders the progress that pupils make.
• Additional physical education and sport funding is used effectively and as such has improved pupils’ engagement in sport across the school. There are wide ranging extra-curricular activities on offer after school, for example, ukulele, karate, modelling bricks, football and art. Pupils’ take-up for these activities is good.
• Parents spoken to on inspection had mixed views of the school. Of the parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, just over half would recommend the school. While some parents reported that they were happy with the school, others expressed concerns relating to communication, leadership of the school and the progress their children make.
• The local authority has funded a comprehensive menu of external support to improve teaching, learning and assessment. However, coaching and support for teachers are not yet effective in securing good teaching and outcomes.

Governance of the school

• Until recently, governors have been too caught up in planning the replenishment of the building and this has hindered their focus on holding leaders to account to improve pupils’ outcomes. As a result, they have not halted the decline in the school’s performance quickly enough.
• Governors do not receive all the information they need to hold the school to account. The school’s plan and self-evaluation documents report on the progress of action taken rather than its impact on raising pupils’ achievement so this does not support them in getting a robust and accurate picture of whole-school performance. Increasingly, governors are asking the challenging questions but they do not consistently receive answers that help them develop their understanding of school performance.
• Most recently they are working in unison with the headteacher to drive up standards. However, it is too early to see significant impact of their work. Governors know that more needs to be done.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders with responsibility for safeguarding make timely referrals and work closely with a range of external agencies to minimise children’s risk of harm. They follow up referrals to check that all is being done to support children and families. There is a strong coordinated response to safeguarding children.
• In response to the local authority annual safeguarding audit, systems and record keeping have strengthened this year. Additional training has taken place so that it is up to date and in line with current legislation. Staff vetting checks to establish staff suitability to work with children meet requirements. Leaders also updated the safeguarding policy but further amendments are required to ensure that it takes account of all current guidance.
• Staff spoken to on inspection were able to recount the training they had received; however, some aspects need to become further embedded because a few staff were less secure in articulating how specific training affects their daily work. All staff were clear on how to report a concern to designated safeguarding leaders. Statutory safeguarding requirements are met.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching, learning and assessment are too variable to be good. Teachers’ expectations are not high enough. Inconsistent teaching and continual staff change have resulted in some pupils underachieving. Current teaching is not ensuring that these pupils catch up quickly enough. Therefore, pupils’ progress is not yet good, particularly for boys, and in writing.
• Teachers’ checks on learning do not identify errors quickly enough. This slows pupils’ learning. Work is not routinely set at the right level. Too often, middle-attaining and most-able pupils have to sit through work that is too easy for them. Equally, for low-attaining pupils, they can find it difficult to access learning because it is not well matched to their needs.
• Teaching assistant support is inconsistent across the school. In some classes, this support is impressive and helps pupils make swift progress in their learning. In other classes, its impact is limited or pupils are dependent on adult support to help them maintain concentration and this restricts pupils’ progress over time.
• Workbooks in subjects other than English and mathematics show that teaching in the wider curriculum is too variable in some year groups. Pupils told an inspector that learning was better in the mornings than in the afternoons. Consequently, pupils’ progress in subjects such as science and topic work is too variable to be good.
• Teaching has not secured basic skills in spelling and grammar across the school. Historically weak teaching results in spelling being underdeveloped. Current work to address this is only partially effective. Errors are not routinely picked up in all classes and this impacts on pupils’ ability to write with accuracy and fluency and at length. Writing at length across the curriculum is underdeveloped.
• As a result of effective staff training, the teaching of mathematics is improving. Pupils’ ability to recall their multiplication tables and fluency in mathematics are considerably strengthened this year. In some classes, reasoning and problem solving are taught regularly. However, teachers’ expectations in this respect are not uniformly high and therefore some inconsistencies in teaching remain, particularly in Years 1 and 4.
• The school’s recent focus on developing comprehension skills in reading is paying off. As a result, pupils read with understanding and can talk about themes and events in the texts they read.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. The curriculum on offer is not demanding enough. Teaching has not ensured that pupils routinely show determination in their learning. Too often pupils wait for an adult to help them when they are stuck because they do not have the skills or motivation to grapple with new learning. This is not supporting them well to make good progress in their work.
• Pupils say that bullying is happening at the school. Leaders follow this up when they are informed. However, leaders do not have a full picture. As such, the personal, social and health education programme requires development in this respect.
• Whole-school initiatives are planned with good intentions, for instance, ‘the daily mile’ to promote health and fitness. However, these are not used consistently well. Some classes take this time for daily exercise earnestly but for other classes it becomes a distraction to learning time and valuable curriculum time is wasted because teachers’ expectations and rigor are not good.
• Breakfast club is safe and provides a healthy start to the day. Supervision is adequate.
• Lunchtime sports provision is a highlight of the day. Pupils are motivated and engaged by these activities. Consequently, many pupils are keen to become sports leaders. Others take on board the many activities led by adults at lunchtimes. Inspectors saw a multitude of lunchtime play equipment. Pupils used this respectfully and showed real enjoyment.
• Transition from playtimes is swift in key stage 2 but it is too slow at key stage 1. Some learning time between lessons or parts of lessons is also slow and over time this limits the progress that pupils make.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. When learning does not motivate and excite pupils, they sometimes become easily distracted. Low-level disruption is evident in a few classes. This is because teachers’ expectations are too low.
• Some pupils are compliant. They work through tasks provided but do not apply their best effort. Overall, pupils meet the expectation set for them but too often work is not demanding enough and teachers do not notice quickly enough when pupils go off task. Therefore, this limits the progress that pupils make.
• Attendance is tracked carefully. Attendance overall is above the national average; however, some disadvantaged pupils do not attend well enough. The parent welfare adviser provides timely and effective support. As a result, disadvantaged pupils’ attendance is rising gradually.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The most able pupils do not make sufficient progress at the school. Work is sometimes too easy and this limits the proportion of pupils that are exposed to work at the highest standards. Teaching for these pupils in Year 6 is stronger but it does not fully make amends for the legacy of underachievement for this group of pupils further down the school.
• Boys make inconsistent progress across the school. Teaching does not consistently motivate them and so their learning falters. This hinders the progress they make over time.
• Outcomes in early years have been above national averages for the last three years; however, the proportion of boys achieving a good level of development, the expected standard at the end of Reception, has been consistently lower. For current children, their progress is variable because teaching is not consistently built on what children can do, know and understand.
• The proportion of pupils meeting the required standard for the phonics screening check in Year 1 has been above the national average for the last three years. While pupils can decode words successfully, they are not well equipped to use phonics to help them spell accurately in some classes.
• At key stage 1, middle-attaining and high-attaining pupils do not achieve as well as they could in writing. Spelling is weak and errors are not routinely picked up. Pupils do not fully develop their ability to write at length and this hinders their progress overall. In mathematics, pupils have too limited an opportunity to reason and problem solve and so pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.
• Published outcomes in 2016 in key stage 2 show that a smaller proportion of pupils reached the expected standard in reading than was achieved in schools nationally. For current pupils, the recent focus on teaching comprehension strategies is paying dividends. Inspection evidence indicates that a greater proportion of pupils are meeting expected standards in reading this year. However, pupils’ achievement in writing is too variable. This results in too few pupils working securely within expected standards, particularly in lower key stage 2.
• Over time, disadvantaged pupils make variable progress in writing. They are catching up more quickly in reading in upper key stage 2. However, too few pupils are meeting expected standards as a result of inconsistent teaching across key stage 2. Outcomes in reading are stronger. However, the impact of pupil premium funding is too variable.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make inconsistent progress. Some pupils are making swift progress because interventions and classwork are planned specifically to meet pupils’ needs. However, in a number of classes, pupils find it hard to access the work on offer because it is not closely matched to their needs and teachers’ feedback does not focus on the right aspects for improvement. This limits pupils’ progress over time.
• Pupils’ achievement across the curriculum is not good enough. Leaders’ focus on improving pupils’ achievement in the core subjects has limited the breadth of learning on offer, which has in turn hindered pupils’ outcomes.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Leaders’ checks on the quality of provision in early years are too limited. They do not take full account of the breadth of learning on offer. Leaders do not effectively communicate to adults how to improve the provision further. As a result, children’s learning falters and some children underachieve.
• Safeguarding requirements are met. However, the current arrangement of learning spaces creates unnecessary vulnerability in supervision. Children are often so spread out it is difficult for adults to assess what children can do, know and understand. Adults do not consistently deepen children’s understanding or build on their learning, particularly when they are exploring independently. This limits the progress that children make.
• Adults’ assessment of children’s learning for some groups of children is too variable to be good. Children who enter the school with skills and knowledge above those typical for their age make strong progress. However, some children who enter with skills and knowledge in line with or below those typical for their age do not make enough progress. This is not picked up quickly enough by adults.
• Strategic leaders have not ensured that assessment and record keeping in Reception are good. Adults do not check children’s understanding or develop their learning regularly enough and so for some children, their learning wanes. Some children have plenty of assessment in their books and are recorded on the school’s online assessment tool. For other children, records are scant. Record keeping in Reception is haphazard and does not provide a full picture of what children can do, know and understand.
• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development in 2016 was just above that achieved nationally and was reflective of a dip in performance from the previous year. A smaller proportion of boys reach expected standards. As a result, these children are not as well prepared for Year 1 as they could be.
• Children with low starting points are not making sufficient progress in their writing skills.
• Clear routines are in place and children build good relationships with their peers and adults alike. They are keen to share their achievements and communicate with each other.
• The breadth of curriculum is appropriate. Children enjoy the activities on offer. Children enjoy visiting the woodland and taking benefit from the wide-ranging resources outside. For example, children made shelters in the rain and incorporated learning about ‘one more than’ in number into this activity well. However, all too often, children’s achievements are missed because children are so spread out in the classrooms that adults cannot take note of their experimentation and learning.
• Additional funding through the pupil premium is used increasingly effectively to support children’s needs, particularly for speech and language development.
• Children enjoy cutting and sticking as part of routine early morning work.

School details

Unique reference number 134892 Local authority Poole Inspection number 10025122 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 Community Age range of pupils 4 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 330 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Leon Yeats Headteacher Helen Roderick Telephone number 01202 692604 Website www.hillbourne.poole.sch.uk Email address office@hillbourne.poole.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 18–19 September 2012

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about pupil premium funding and pupils’ performance information on its website.
• This school is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The headteacher has been in post since September 2015. There is currently a temporary deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher.
• There have been 12 new teaching staff since September 2016.
• There has been considerable change to the governing body since the last inspection.
• The school has three buildings, for Reception, key stage 1 and key stage 2. They are all on the same site.
• The proportion of pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• There is a breakfast club that is managed by the school.
• Children in Reception attend full time.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed pupils’ learning across the school. Some learning was observed jointly with the headteacher.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ books to establish the quality of their current work and their progress over time. They listened to pupils read.
• Inspectors scrutinised a variety of school documents to ascertain the school’s evaluation of its performance. Records relating to behaviour and safety, attendance and safeguarding were also reviewed.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, acting assistant headteacher and middle leaders. Meetings also took place with a representative of the local authority and with three governors.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during their learning and at lunchtimes and breaktimes.
• Inspectors met with some pupils to seek their views of the school and to discuss how they feel about their learning and development.
• An inspector visited the breakfast club.
• Inspectors considered 24 responses to the online survey, Parent View. Inspectors also considered comments provided in parents’ text messages and spoke to parents during the inspection. An inspector considered staff and pupil views during the inspection.

Inspection team

Julie Carrington, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Stewart Gale Her Majesty’s Inspector Heather Barraclough Ofsted Inspector