Tyndale Primary School Ofsted Report

Full inspection result: Inadequate

Report Inspection Date: 31 Jan 2018
Report Publication Date: 8 Mar 2018
Report ID: 2759471

Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

Quickly improve outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics by ensuring that:
- a higher proportion of pupils at the end of each key stage reach expected and higher standards
- teaching consistently accelerates progress for all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, so that they catch up
- teachers set challenging work for all pupils, particularly the most able pupils, so that they are supported to reach the highest possible standards.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

The school has undergone a period of considerable instability in recent years, with several changes of leadership and teaching staff. Current leaders and governors have worked hard to eliminate weak teaching but their actions have not been swift enough to ensure that pupils make strong progress in all subjects. As a result, standards have declined significantly since the last inspection and too many pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of their education.
Leaders’ self-evaluation is overgenerous. Although leaders at all levels are fully aware that they urgently need to raise standards, their monitoring of teaching does not sharply identify which specific aspects need to improve. Therefore, their actions lack the precision needed to ensure that teaching improves rapidly.
Leaders have not acted with sufficient urgency to address gaps in pupils’ learning, particularly that of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. Leaders’ and teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not aspirational enough, which means that pupils’ targets are not sufficiently high. This leads to many pupils making weak progress.
Leaders have identified some barriers to pupils’ learning, such as poor behaviour and emotional and social issues. Leaders’ actions have improved some pupils’ attitudes to learning, as well as itheir confidence.
Leaders have improved the teaching of early reading so that the proportion of pupils who reach expected standards at the end of Year 1 is in line with that of pupils nationally. However, teachers do not consistently build on these skills to secure pupils’ fluency and comprehension. As a result, pupils across the school do not make consistently good progress in reading.
The most able pupils are not identified soon enough, and work provided for them is not suitably challenging. As a result, they are not supported to achieve the highest possible standards.
Leaders are working with local authority officers to help secure improvements in teaching and learning. However, this support has not been timely enough, in part due to the overgenerous evaluation of school leaders and the local authority. This has meant that the support provided has not focused well enough on urgently reversing the legacy of weak teaching.
Much teaching is not well matched to pupils’ needs because leaders have not robustly held teachers to account to address this. Consequently, pupils continue to labour over work that is too easy, and this impedes their progress.
SEN funding is not being used effectively. While leaders have a good awareness of pupils’ specific vulnerabilities and care for them well, the school’s own assessment information and pupils’ books show that these pupils do not make enough progress from their starting points.
The school has reviewed its use of pupil premium funding. However, the findings were not incisive enough or tackled with sufficient rigour. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes are not rising rapidly.
The physical education and sport premium is not used effectively. There is no strategic plan that outlines how it will be allocated, and leaders do not measure its impact. They are, therefore, unable to determine its effectiveness in improving pupils’ skills and their enjoyment of physical education.
Most staff who completed the online survey are proud to be part of the school and are motivated by leaders. This helps them to work together well.
Leaders at all levels, including subject leaders who are relatively new to their roles, know that teaching urgently needs to improve. As a result of their intervention, teaching is slowly improving pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics. For example, pupils are gaining an understanding of spelling and grammar rules but are not yet consistently able to apply what they have learned to their writing.
Leaders provide a range of activities and experiences which enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils learn to develop an awareness of fundamental British values such as democracy, tolerance and respect through, for example, voting for house captains, learning about different cultures and caring for others. This helps them to value and embrace differences between themselves and others.
Leaders have worked with determination to tackle poor behaviour and provide nurture support for vulnerable pupils. Pupils’ attendance has improved and exclusions have reduced. Parents and carers mostly agree that the school supports their children well.

Governance of the school

Governors are very committed to supporting the school. However, they do not have the necessary skills to check the impact of leaders’ actions. They have not ensured that the school’s action plans are precisely focused on improving pupils’ outcomes rapidly enough.
Governors are over-reliant on information being provided for them. They do not seek out important information for themselves. This considerably restricts how well they can evaluate the school’s effectiveness.
Governors have undertaken an external review of governance but have not used the findings incisively enough to check that leaders are making a difference. Consequently, they have not held the school to account for expenditure and have failed to identify that additional funding is having insufficient impact on pupils’ outcomes.
Governors do not ensure that they meet their statutory responsibilities for ensuring that the school’s website is up to date. Consequently, some key aspects of information for parents are missing.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
Keeping pupils safe is a priority for leaders. Leaders take appropriate and decisive action to protect pupils in their care. Leaders provide staff with regular updates to training, which ensure that adults working in the school know that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility. Adults working in the school know the signs to look for which might indicate that a pupil is at risk and can consistently explain what to do if they have concerns.
Leaders seek the advice and support of external agencies when necessary and pursue this if they feel that action is not quick enough. Leaders have regular meetings to check what difference their actions are making and revise their support when necessary. This ensures that there is a clear safeguarding culture at the school.
Leaders ensure that recruitment checks on staff are thorough. This means that leaders can assure themselves that staff are suitable to work with children.
Leaders take their responsibility for pupils’ welfare seriously. They quickly recognise and take action when pupils are vulnerable and support them well.
Pupils said that they feel safe at school and can explain how to keep safe in a range of situations, including when using the internet. Pupils trust adults and know whom to go to if they are upset or worried.
Parents feel that the school supports their children well. Typical comments include, ‘My child is gaining in confidence’, and ‘Teachers take on board all worries and concerns’.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

Teachers’ assessment is frequently inaccurate because it does not take account of what pupils already know and can do. This means that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are too low and teaching is poorly planned. As a result, pupils are not supported to achieve what they are capable of.

Learning objectives are not always clear. This means that pupils do not have a secure understanding of the skills and knowledge that they are learning or what is required of them. This is further compounded by the fact that teachers’ advice to pupils is often imprecise, so pupils are unsure how to move their learning on.

Teaching does not sufficiently challenge pupils, particularly the most able pupils. As a result, pupils are frequently expected to complete tasks that are too easy before moving on to more difficult activities. This hinders pupils reaching the highest possible standards.
The impact of adults’ questioning of pupils is inconsistent. This prevents teachers from evaluating how well pupils are learning and limits their ability to pick up and correct pupils’ misconceptions. As a result, pupils’ progress stalls.
Many pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and pupils who speak English as an additional language, have considerable gaps in their learning. Teaching does not routinely help these pupils to make the rapid progress needed to catch up quickly with other pupils.
The quality of phonics teaching is inconsistent. Some adults do not accurately model how to pronounce the sounds in words or intervene soon enough when pupils make mistakes. This limits how well pupils achieve secure early reading skills. Teachers do not habitually build on pupils’ phonic skills to help them become fluent and confident readers or develop secure comprehension. Consequently, pupils’ achievement in reading is not strong enough.
Teachers provide pupils with too few opportunities to develop their reading, writing and mathematics in other subjects. This inhibits their ability to practise and consolidate the skills they have learned.
The curriculum is poorly developed and restrictive, as it does not allow pupils to develop strong skills in a variety of different subjects. For example, pupils learn facts or undertake single tasks in science or geography without building on their knowledge and understanding. As a result, pupils in a variety of year groups make insufficient progress in these subjects.
Teaching assistants provide some helpful support for pupils who need additional teaching. This helps pupils to understand how to tackle their work. However, because teachers’ planning is often not well matched to pupils’ needs, teaching assistants are limited in the degree to which they can help pupils to catch up swiftly.
Leaders have worked hard to eliminate weak teaching. Pupils in some year groups are now being taught appropriate skills and knowledge for their age, However, they are not given enough opportunities to practise and further develop these skills. For instance, pupils learn relevant spelling and grammar rules but cannot consistently apply these skills in their writing.
Teachers form caring and trusting relationships with pupils. Most pupils respect teachers and are keen to learn. For instance, in mathematics, pupils enjoy timing themselves running around the playground and apply their understanding of place value by rounding and ordering decimals.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. Pupils do not take enough pride in their work, especially when teachers do not give them work that is suitably challenging.
Teachers do not have consistently high expectations of the content and presentation of pupils’ written work and do not routinely intervene when the quality of pupils’ handwriting is poor. As a result, the quality of some pupils’ work deteriorates over time.

Pupils are confident to talk about their work and keen to share what they know. For example, where teaching is stronger, effective questions such as ‘How do you know if that is right?’ and ‘Can you explain your reasoning?’ help pupils explain how to calculate fractions.

All adults at the school encourage pupils to care for others. For example, pupils enjoy collecting pennies in a jar and selling cakes to raise funds for local families and to sponsor children in Africa. Pupils enjoy taking part in various projects, such as ‘We are Tyndale’, which help them to appreciate similarities and differences between cultures in their school community and those further afield.
Pupils are polite and welcoming. Pupils enjoy voting for and taking on positions of responsibility, such as that of house captain. Leaders encourage pupils to develop resilience so that they are better able to persevere when learning becomes difficult.
Attendance has improved because leaders have taken concerted action to reduce absence, especially for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. The attendance of all groups of pupils is now good. 

Behaviour

The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Most pupils know how to behave and are keen to learn, but when teaching does not meet pupils’ needs, they become distracted and low-level disruption, such as chatting and rocking on chairs, ensues.
The school has provided targeted help for individual pupils who need to improve their social skills and behaviour. This has had some success. However, some pupils still find it difficult to manage their emotions.
Leaders’ efforts to improve behaviour are appreciated by most parents who responded to the online survey or spoke to inspectors. Pupils mostly respect the school’s behaviour rules and, as a result, incidents of poor behaviour and exclusions are reducing. A pupil commented, ‘My behaviour is better because I have changed my ways.’ However, a minority of parents and staff have concerns about inconsistent behaviour management.
Pupils are beginning to recognise when to make the right choices and can explain the consequences when their behaviour falls short of the school’s expectations. Pupils understand the need to think of others’ feelings and have enjoyed sharing their ideas about ways to make playtime better.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

Outcomes have declined significantly since the last inspection due to weak teaching. Achievement in reading, writing and mathematics has not been good enough, and too few pupils reach expected standards at the end of each key stage, particularly key stage 2. Very few pupils, including the most able pupils, reach higher standards at the end of every year and key stage.
The achievement of pupils currently in the school continues to be low because leaders do not ensure that teachers consistently set work that is well matched to pupils’ needs. Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities, do not make strong progress. Consequently, many pupils are working below standards expected for their age.
The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in phonics at the end of Year 1 is increasing. However, outcomes overall in reading are fragile because teaching does not build on pupils’ skills consistently well. For example, teaching does not routinely help pupils to apply their decoding skills to blend sounds correctly and read fluently. Furthermore, teaching does not sufficiently develop pupils’ comprehension, inference and deduction. This limits the progress that pupils can make to become confident and skilful readers.
Pupils’ achievement in writing is inconsistent because, although pupils are developing an understanding of spelling and grammar rules, teachers do not routinely support pupils to incorporate this in their writing. Consequently, pupils’ application of these skills is insecure and their writing is not sufficiently well developed.
Pupils are beginning to use reasoning skills in mathematics and can apply their calculation skills to solve problems. However, the problems set are not challenging enough for many pupils and, as a result, they do not achieve their full potential.
Outcomes in subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics are weak. This is because the curriculum does not enable pupils to develop a range of skills, knowledge and understanding in subjects such as history, science and geography. Pupils do not consolidate their reading, writing and mathematics in other subjects, which hinders their achievement.
As a result of pupils not making strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics, too many pupils are inadequately prepared for the next stage of their education.

Early years provision Requires improvement

Leadership and teaching in the early years require improvement. This is because, over time, children generally make typical, but not strong progress. Consequently, fewer children than nationally achieve expected and higher standards. This means that they are not fully prepared for Year 1.
Leaders regularly assess children’s learning, which helps them to evaluate how well children are achieving. When children need additional help, leaders ensure that interventions are put in place to support them. However, leaders do not use the information from their assessments sharply enough to make swift improvements to specific aspects of teaching. This limits the degree of difference they can make. 
The school’s own assessment information and children’s work reveal that teachers do not consistently provide work for pupils that matches their needs. As a result, children, including the most able children, do not make consistently strong progress or achieve as well as they might. 
Adults in the early years develop caring and supportive relationships with children. They make good use of praise and explain tasks well. As a result, children listen carefully and gain the independence to be confident, enthusiastic learners.
The early years is a vibrant and welcoming environment in which children can develop a range of skills, knowledge and understanding. Adults provide exciting activities to encourage children to explore and find things out for themselves. For example, large outdoor blackboards motivate children to practise writing, and searching for words on ‘bones’ buried in the sand helps them to construct sentences.
Safeguarding is robust and all adults know how to keep children safe from harm. The learning environment is secure and adults help children recognise how to avoid accidents. For instance, children help leaders to carry out risk assessments and identify when to sweep up sand so that they do not slip.
Parents of children in the early years spoke highly of the support that the adults provide.

School details

Unique reference number 135783 Local authority South Gloucestershire Inspection number 10037862 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 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 186 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Deborah Williams Headteacher Angie Ritchie Telephone number 01454 867180 Website www.tyndaleprimaryschool.com Email address office@tyndaleprimaryschool.com Date of previous inspection 9–10 October 2012

Information about this school

The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about the school’s latest results and the allocation and impact of the primary sports funding.
Tyndale Primary School is a smaller-than-average primary school.
The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is much higher than the national average.
The majority of pupils are White British. The number of pupils whose first language is not, or believed not to be, English is much lower than nationally.
The proportion of pupils receiving support for SEN is higher than nationally. The number of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is higher than the national average.

Information about this inspection

Inspectors observed learning in all classes across the school. Several of these observations were carried out jointly with the headteacher or the deputy headteacher, who also joined inspectors for a focused work scrutiny.
The inspection team had several discussions with the headteacher, deputy headteacher and special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) during the course of the inspection. The lead inspector held two meetings, one with governors and another with two representatives from the local authority.
The inspection team took account of the school’s latest assessment information and reviewed a range of documents, including the school’s evaluation of its work and school improvement plans. Inspectors spoke with leaders and other staff about safeguarding and reviewed attendance information, behaviour logs and safeguarding records.
An inspector observed a teaching assistant listening to pupils read and held a meeting with a group of pupils to listen to their views about the school.
During the inspection, the inspection team met with several parents to gauge their views of the school. They reviewed 34 responses to the online survey, Parent View, and 19 additional free text comments. Inspectors also took account of 19 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and one response to the pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Catherine Beeks, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Steph Matthews Ofsted Inspector