St Paul's Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • ensuring leaders hold teachers to account robustly through their checks on teaching and pupils’ progress
  • governors ensuring they receive accurate information that enables them to hold the school to account effectively for its overall performance
  • embedding clear systems to check on the progress of groups of pupils so that whole-school effectiveness can be measured
  • insisting that expectations of teaching staff are consistently high and result in pupils’ progress that is consistently good.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
  • teaching of reading and writing stretches and challenges middle-attaining pupils and the most able so that they make good progress
  • insisting that regular assessment is used by teachers to plan work to match the needs of pupils and builds on what they already know
  • teachers have consistently high expectations of what all groups of pupils can achieve and their teaching eradicates the legacy of underachievement, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Improve the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils by:
  • ensuring that rates of attendance improve for all groups of pupils so that they are above the national average and pupils’ lateness to school is reduced
  • ensuring that low-level disruption in lessons is eradicated, and, as a result, no learning time is wasted.
• Improve provision in the early years by ensuring that:
  • assessment is used to plan activities that closely match children’s needs
  • the proportion of children reaching the good level of development increases and all groups of children make good progress from their starting points in writing and communication, including those who enter the school with knowledge and skills lower than expected of their age group.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Leaders have not maintained a good standard of education since the last inspection. Their view of the school’s overall performance is overly generous. Leaders’ actions are not bringing about teaching or pupils’ outcomes that are consistently good. They are not working quickly enough to tackle the school’s weaknesses. As a result, leadership and management requires improvement.
• Until recently, leaders have not had a well-coordinated approach to improving teaching, learning and assessment. As a result, whole-school initiatives have only been partially effective and some inconsistencies in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment remain.
• Until this term, leaders have not checked the quality of teaching, learning and assessment rigorously enough. While targets for improvement are set, actions are not followed up in a timely way. Teachers have not consistently received the feedback they need to improve their teaching or accelerate pupils’ outcomes. Consequently, middle-attaining pupils and the most able are not making good progress.
• Leaders have not kept a watchful eye on pupils’ learning attitudes. This means that low-level disruption in some classes continues because teachers do not routinely pick it up. Recent guidance on how to improve pupils’ learning has been put into place. This is making a difference by raising expectations.
• Middle leaders’ roles are beginning to develop. For example, middle leaders’ training for staff has increased teachers’ subject knowledge in mathematics. Subsequently, teachers have raised their expectations and most teach reasoning and problem solving in mathematics effectively.
• The recent appointment of the deputy headteacher has increased the capacity of leaders, and their impact is tangible. Leaders have ensured that assessment is accurate and activities planned tackle pupils’ gaps in learning. They have communicated clearly to staff where weaknesses lie so that teachers are fully aware which subject areas pupils need to prioritise to catch up quickly. Staff are being held to account robustly for accelerating pupils’ progress where they have previously fallen behind. However, interventions planned are not yet making amends for the underachievement caused by previously weak teaching. There is more to do.
• Additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is managed increasingly well. Leaders have ensured that additional support is in place to develop pupils’ academic and emotional development. However, its impact is variable and this results in pupils making uneven progress across the school.
• Leaders have ensured that the sport premium funding is used effectively.
• There is a broad and balanced curriculum planned. Educational visits also support pupils’ learning. For example, Year 2 pupils visited the secondary school during the inspection as part of a wider science project. However, leaders have not checked that the learning on offer is consistently good. Levels of challenge and coverage of the curriculum are uneven and this hinders the progress pupils make. Enrichment clubs are planned every week. In addition, extra-curricular activities are on offer after school; for example, art and football.
• Leaders have ensured that there are planned opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. British values are also promoted through the school council voting systems and links with ‘youth parliament’.
• External support from the local authority has been ‘light touch’ in the past. More recently, additional support brokered by the school has had a positive impact on mathematics outcomes across the school.

Governance of the school

• Governors accurately identify weaknesses in the school’s performance. The chair of governors is forthright and determined to ensure that pupils get the education they deserve. Governors have good capacity to drive the strategic leadership of the school. They hold regular meetings to evaluate school performance information and have raised questions about inconsistencies in pupils’ progress. However, they are short of information and have not yet been successful in holding leaders to account for ensuring that teaching and pupils’ outcomes are consistently good.
• Governors use the information they do have to challenge leaders. For example, they recently identified that the roles and responsibilities of middle leaders needed to be refined and made explicit. Governors acknowledge that there has been insufficient impact on raising pupils’ achievement. However, the governing body has not followed this up with the urgency required.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders with specific responsibility for safeguarding ensure that referrals are followed up swiftly. External agency support is timely and ensures that the risk of harm to children is minimised.
• Training for staff and governors is up to date and follows all the most recent guidance. However, some aspects of training need to become further embedded across the full staff team. For example, records show that all staff have completed a recent review of safeguarding training in line with the latest ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance, but a small number of staff were not confident about making referrals and how to follow up their concerns.
• Staff vetting checks to establish staff suitability to work with children are in place. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in record-keeping.
• Pupils say they feel safe and told inspectors they feel confident to raise concerns should they arise. They talked articulately about how the school’s curriculum provides up-to-date information about risks within and beyond school, including when using mobile phones and the internet.
• Leaders have recently strengthened their procedures for checking the attendance and progress of pupils who attend off-site provision. However, sometimes the coordinated response to pupils’ needs by the school and local authority has not been swift. Strengthened systems are now in place and statutory duties met.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching, learning and assessment are inconsistent across the school. There is some strong teaching but this is not widespread. Overall, teaching is not bringing about strong outcomes and so teaching requires improvement.
• Teachers’ expectations are not high enough. Activities planned do not stretch and challenge pupils. Too often a ‘first go’ is accepted and teaching does not deepen pupils’ understanding. As a result, some pupils underachieve.
• Teaching for the middle-attaining and most able pupils does not challenge pupils to think hard. For example, pupils are keen to read and do so fluently. However, the teaching of reading is not effective in developing comprehension skills and this prevents pupils understanding themes in the text they read. Additionally, teaching does not require pupils to write at length, from specific viewpoints, and to apply their writing skills across the curriculum. As a result, these pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.
• Interventions in place to address the legacy of underachievement are beginning to make a difference. However, this does not fully make amends for previously weak teaching. As a result, too few pupils are on track to meet and exceed expected standards in reading and writing. Pupils are making better progress in mathematics.
• Teaching for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is inconsistent across the school. Sometimes additional support in lessons limits pupils’ independence. Also, work on offer for these pupils is not consistently matched to their needs and so pupils’ learning falters.
• Pupils’ ability to apply their phonic knowledge to their writing is fragile. As a result, spelling is erratic for some pupils. This is not routinely picked up by teachers and, therefore, weak spelling acts as a barrier to learning and achieving the standards that are expected.
• Mathematics teaching across the school is enabling most pupils to make good progress this year. For some pupils in Years 2 and 6, teaching is enabling rapid progress. The school’s focus on improving fluency and reasoning is taking hold well. As a result, pupils talk positively about mathematics and most respond to teachers’ feedback well and know what they need to do next to improve their work. Teachers’ improved subject knowledge in mathematics means that there is good coverage of the national curriculum. Pupils in Years 2 and 6 are expected to justify whether answers are correct and to talk about their mathematical understanding. This remains a key priority so that it becomes an embedded feature across all year groups.

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 become easily distracted or bored in lessons when learning does not capture their interest or fully meet their needs. This is born out of teachers’ low expectations of what pupils can achieve.
• Pupils’ views about how adults support them are mixed. Many pupils report that bullying is followed up by staff. However, some pupils identify underlying issues that ‘go under the radar’ and say they are left to deal with these themselves. Recently, heightened vigilance to follow up concerns is evident but pupils do not yet have widespread confidence in leaders’ ability to sort out issues or concerns.
• Breakfast club provides a safe and supportive start to the day. Pupils benefit from a healthy breakfast. However, the activities on offer are limited.
• Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe in school. They talked articulately about how the personal, social and health education programme helps them to be well informed, for example about the use of mobile phones, road safety and drug education.
• Vulnerable pupils receive caring support. However, there have been occasions when the coordinated response to pupils’ needs by the school has not been fast enough and this has limited these pupils’ access to learning.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Low-level disruption in some classes is evident. This is because teachers’ expectations are too low and off-task behaviour is not dealt with consistently or quickly enough.
• Conversely, behaviour in other classes is good and pupils show good attention to detail in all they do. This is because they respond positively to consistently high expectations set for them.
• Pupils’ rates of attendance are not high enough and many pupils are late to school. A small number of pupils are persistently absent. Leaders’ actions are not dealing with these problems quickly enough.
• There is a relatively new system for recording incidents of bullying or poor behaviour. Pupils value the new system for recording. They identify it as improving behaviour in lessons and across the school day, and this is helping them make better progress in their learning this term. Historically, exclusions have been above the national average. However, these are now falling.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils make inconsistent progress across their time at school. Some pupils have underachieved because of the inconsistent teaching they have received. Current interventions to improve pupils’ achievement are not enabling pupils to catch up quickly enough in reading and writing.
• Disadvantaged pupils make variable progress across the school. Better checking of the impact of additional funding on pupils’ learning is ensuring that progress for this group is quickening this year.
• In 2016, outcomes at the end of key stage 2 were broadly in line with the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics. However, too few low- and middle-attaining pupils made enough progress to meet the standards expected nationally.
• For current pupils, middle-attaining pupils and the most able pupils are not achieving the highest scores, especially in key stage 2. This is because teaching is not challenging enough and does not require pupils to extend their thinking or apply their knowledge and understanding to write at length. Conversely, better teaching in mathematics is resulting in more of these pupils being on track to exceed the expected standards in mathematics.
• In key stage 1, published outcomes are broadly in line with national expectations. Targeted teaching enables pupils who have previously underachieved to catch up quickly. Pupils’ stamina for writing is being strengthened this year. However, pupils do not spell accurately and this hinders the progress they make.
• Over the last three years, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standards in the Year 1 phonics screening test has risen gradually and is now in line with the national average. However, pupils’ ability to apply their phonics knowledge to their writing is too limited and this hinders pupils’ ability to write with fluency and precision in key stage 1.
• The proportion of pupils reaching a good level of development, the standard expected at the end of the early years, has been consistently below the national average but is increasing steadily. Too few children leave Reception with the key skills they need to be ready for Year 1 work. Current children in the early years do not make consistently good progress from their varied starting points.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make variable progress because their access to appropriate learning differs from class to class.
• Pupils’ outcomes across the curriculum are too variable.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The strategic leadership of the early years requires improvement. Senior leaders’ expectations of what children can achieve in Reception are not high enough. They are too quick to accept children’s low starting points as the reason for low levels of achievement and do not hold staff to account sufficiently for raising standards rapidly.
• Teaching staff show determination to improve outcomes. Recent work to use teachers’ assessments of what children can and cannot do to identify and address gaps in children’s current knowledge skills is beginning to pay dividends. This results in a higher proportion of children on track to achieve early learning goals this year. However, from their starting points, children still do not make good rates of progress across their time in Reception.
• Adults make accurate assessments and keep parents informed of the progress their children are making. Parents told inspectors they were generally happy with communication and their children’s start to ‘big school’, stating that transition sessions are particularly beneficial.
• A focus on developing children’s key skills in reading and numbers enables children to make sound progress in these aspects. However, children’s gaps in their learning in personal, social and emotional development, and speech and language development, have not yet been tackled sufficiently. As a result, those children who need support in developing their speaking continue to lack the skills they need. While additional intervention work is in place, adult support in their daily learning, both inside and outside, does not consistently support these children well.
• The most able children in Reception are not sufficiently challenged. Their writing is not as well developed as it could be. Teaching staff plan opportunities for children to develop their writing, but the expectations of what children can achieve in their early sentence writing are too low. As a result, too few children are able to write simple sentences and apply their knowledge and understanding of phonics.
• The classroom environment is inviting and children access wide-ranging activities. Children enjoy the activities on offer and many show high levels of independence, for example in the vegetable shop. However, some pupils find it difficult to maintain concentration, because the work on offer is not fully matched to their needs. This results in children going off-task and some low-level disruption is evident. When this occurs, adults do not pick this up quickly enough.
• Safeguarding in the early years is effective.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 126182 Wiltshire 10033214 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 Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Community 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 217 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Neil Rushowski White Sheridan Upton 01249 653041 http://www.st-pauls.wilts.sch.uk head@st-pauls.wilts.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 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 is an average sized primary school. Numbers on roll are falling.
• The deputy headteacher has been in post since January 2017.
• There has been considerable change to the governing body since the last inspection.
• There are eight classes in the school, some of which are taught by two teachers across the week.
• 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 which 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 either the headteacher or deputy 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, deputy headteacher, and middle leaders. A meeting took place with a representative of the local authority and two meetings were held with 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 discuss how they feel about their learning and development.
• An inspector visited breakfast club.
• Inspector considered 26 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 pupils’ views through the online questionnaires.

Inspection team

Julie Carrington, lead inspector Debbie Marklove Wendy Hanrahan

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector