Woodgate Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that attainment rises rapidly in all key stages, including in the early years, and that progress improves for all groups across school by:
  • using assessment information effectively to set challenging targets that accelerate pupils’ progress, especially for disadvantaged pupils, those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and the most able
  • ensuring that teachers set work that is well matched to pupils’ needs
  • raising the expectations of all staff with respect to the capabilities of their pupils.
• Improve pupils’ attendance by:
  • making it clear to pupils and their families the link between attendance and achievement, especially disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities
  • carefully tracking the attendance of the pupils more vulnerable to poor attendance and sharing information and action more readily with staff.
• Improve leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that responsibilities for key aspects of the school’s work are clearly attributed to leaders
  • holding leaders fully to account for success in improving outcomes for pupils by comparing the school’s performance with that of other schools nationally
  • ensuring that all leaders and governors fully understand their responsibilities for the effective spending of the pupil premium and the impact this has on improving pupils’ outcomes. 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 governors do not analyse information about the achievement and attendance of pupils in sufficient detail to fully evaluate the impact of the school’s work. As a result, leaders’ evaluation of the school’s effectiveness is overgenerous.
• The school development plan does not address the key priorities that are needed to drive school improvement.
• Leaders and teachers are not providing enough opportunities for the most able pupils to reach their potential.
• Pupil premium funding is used to provide additional support for disadvantaged pupils. However, the monitoring of this by leaders and governors is not rigorous enough to ensure that these pupils make sufficiently accelerated progress.
• Additional resources for pupils with complex needs are used well. However, the impact that additional funding has on the progress and outcomes for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is not monitored strategically.
• Primary sports funding is being used to broaden pupils’ sporting opportunities and to build teachers’ competence in delivering physical education lessons effectively. However, the school needs to evaluate the impact of this funding more thoroughly.
• Some middle and senior leaders are newly appointed to their roles and are yet to have a full impact on improving standards in their areas of responsibility. The division of key responsibilities between leaders is not clear in all areas so leaders are not fully accountable for the success of their work. However, leaders are working with some success with a local teaching school and Birmingham Education Partnership to ensure that their effectiveness improves.
• The recently appointed headteacher has too many responsibilities and, due to this, her role remains too operational. As a result of this, there is not enough evaluation of the performance of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils.
• The school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain. For example, pupils celebrated the multicultural nature of Birmingham in an assembly, and left feeling ‘proud to be a Brummy’.
• Leaders’ promotion of pupil’s personal development and welfare is a strength of the school. Nonetheless, persistent absence is still too high. The drive to improve attendance has been highly successful in individual cases, but has shortcomings as leaders do not rigorously analyse patterns of poor attendance.
• Procedures for managing teachers’ performance are in place. There is a culture of coaching and support in school and teachers appreciate the opportunities they have for professional development. However, teachers’ targets are not closely linked to raising attainment and the progress of key groups which would improve pupils’ outcomes.
• The headteacher has a good understanding of the school community. She has made some changes to the middle leadership team which has the potential to drive improvement, and she has ensured that inadequate teaching has been eradicated.
• Leaders have created a culture of respect, tolerance and responsibility. The development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is woven through the curriculum.
• The curriculum is enriched by an extensive range of after-school clubs, including a residential experience which is highly valued and aims to foster confidence and team-building skills. Boys and girls have equal access to these activities and participation rates are high.
• Woodgate Primary School is at the heart of the community. Parents, staff and pupils are proud of their school and feel they are listened to under the leadership of the recently appointed headteacher. The school works closely with parents to help them support their child’s learning at home.

Governance

• Governance requires improvement. Governors have not checked carefully enough on the spending of additional funding and do not understand the impact of spending decisions.
• Governors bring a range of skills and have an understanding of the school’s strengths. They take their responsibilities seriously and are keen to work with the new headteacher to improve outcomes for pupils.
• The governors are not challenging school leaders enough on key aspects of the school’s performance. They would benefit from an external review of governance in order to highlight the knowledge and skills needed to perform their role more effectively.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• All staff understand their responsibility to protect pupils from harm and are confident to raise any concerns with leaders.
• Pupils say they feel safe in school and know whom they should talk to if they feel worried about anything. Staff have been well trained and have a clear reporting system to track any concerns.
• The school employs a number of specialist members of staff to support the most vulnerable families. Staff are all extremely caring towards each other and the children. For example, the school contributes to a regular food bank run by the neighbouring church to support families in their school that may need extra food during the holidays and during difficult times.
• The school site is well looked after and is secure.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching and learning is variable across year groups and all subjects. Therefore, some pupils are not making the progress needed to reach the expected standard for their age.
• Teachers’ questioning does not promote deeper thinking and require pupils to apply their knowledge, especially in mathematics.
• Some teachers quickly adapt activities so that they accurately suit the learning stage of the pupil. However, others are not so adept at this and miss opportunities to challenge the most able or to pick up on misunderstandings.
• Better teaching of phonics is improving pupils’ reading skills in Reception and Year 1. However, as phonics teaching has not been good enough in the past, some older pupils struggle to break down and decode words found in more complex texts.
• In a few classes, learning tasks are not matched to the pupils’ needs. When this happens, learning is slowed down because the work is too easy and the most able pupils are not challenged.
• Subject-specific vocabulary is used well in some lessons. This was observed in a Year 6 class where pupils were able to talk about their learning using complex mathematical language.
• Where additional adults are deployed effectively, it is evident that pupils make progress. However, a large number of teaching assistants are employed across school but progress is still not good enough. In too many instances, teaching assistants are not actively engaged in supporting pupils with their learning.
• Pupils present their work neatly and take pride in their books.
• Where it is identified that teachers need extra support, internal and external support has been provided to ensure that these teachers continually improve their subject knowledge and classroom management. These interventions are having a positive impact on staff confidence and the teaching of the new curriculum.
• Fewer disadvantaged pupils made the same progress as their classmates and other pupils nationally last year. A range of assessments is now being introduced in order for class teachers to identify differences more quickly and ensure that these differences are narrowed.
• Pupils enjoy their homework. It is open-ended and provides choice. This is often celebrated in ‘celebration assembly’ where pupils talk about their homework with pride in front of their peers.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• All pupils spoken to during the inspection said that they love coming to school and are proud to attend Woodgate School. Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe online and whom they would go to if they needed help or advice. They said they trust all adults in school and that they feel safe.
• Pupils said that bullying is rare and if it did ever happen adults deal with it quickly and fairly. This is confirmed by the school’s records.
• Pupils’ welfare is of vital importance to the school. The school employs a number of specialist staff who are highly qualified to support the pupils with complex needs. Pupils who are eligible for this support then return to class ‘work ready’ and make good progress.
• Most of the parents spoken to stated that they feel their child is happy at school and they are safe and well looked after. This was also confirmed in Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.
• Pupils have many opportunities to take responsibility and develop their leadership skills. Pupils act as librarians and peer readers and operate the sound system in the assemblies.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Attendance is not good enough. Last year a high number of pupils were persistently absent and this led to some pupils not making enough progress. The school has now appointed an attendance officer who is working with parents who are hard to reach to try and emphasise the importance of regular attendance at school. Recent attendance data shows that this is having a positive impact.
• Leaders do not track attendance over time sufficiently well in order to have a greater understanding of where school resources need to be focused.
• In lessons, pupils sit and listen attentively to their teachers. They work cooperatively with each other on their learning tasks with little interruption. Pupils display positive attitudes to their learning.
• The school has a clear reward system which everyone understands. Pupils are extremely polite and well mannered in and out of the classroom.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils are not making consistently strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils make faster progress in some year groups than others. For example, progress in lower key stage 2 is not as strong as in upper key stage 2. However, leaders have recognised this and put in place additional support.
• Disadvantaged pupils make slower progress than the non-disadvantaged pupils, resulting in standards that are below what is expected for their age. However, there is evidence in books to show that this difference is narrowing across most year groups.
• By the end of key stage 2, the most able pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable. This is because teachers do not consistently refine their questioning and activities in lessons to provide these pupils with the challenge they need.Leaders are not using assessment information well enough to ensure that extra support focuses on the specific needs of pupils. This means that the progress of pupils receiving extra support is not as rapid as it should be.Phonics results in national assessments in Year 1 and Year 2 are below national figures. However, the phonics leader has introduced a more systematic programme of teaching phonics and this has started to improve outcomes.
• Attainment in key stage 1 and key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics is below national figures. However, current pupils’ books show that standards are improving and work completed is closer to national expectations.
• Older pupils are keen to read, motivated by the accelerated reading scheme and the rewards they receive as a result. However, due to previously poor phonics teaching, many of the older pupils find it hard to decode more complex words.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported well emotionally. However, some adults do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve so pupils often fall further behind.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The number of children leaving the early years at a good level of development is below the national proportion, especially for boys and disadvantaged pupils. However, leaders have worked with a specialist leader of education to improve their practice in order to improve outcomes.
• Children’s starting points are typically low on entry. However, information about their progress indicates that the children are not making rapid enough progress to catch up on what is expected for their age.
• Assessment information is not used robustly enough to ensure that children get the correct level of support or challenge. This has resulted in some boys and disadvantaged children falling behind and not reaching a good level of development by the time they leave the early years. However, due to the strong relationships in the early years and effective personal and emotional development, these children move into Year 1 with confidence.
• Learning journeys are used by adults to portray a child’s progression through the early years and assess how well that child is developing. However, the school does not compare these with other schools, in order to be able to benchmark standards and set strong, well-informed, ambitious targets.
• The leader has a clear understanding of the emotional needs of children which results in children being confident and happy.
• The use of pupil premium funding is not always focused directly on improving outcomes. Although some disadvantaged children make good progress from their starting points, the proportion who attain a good level of development is smaller than others.
• Children are motivated and clearly enjoy coming to school. They behave well and listen to adults. They clearly understand expectations and some concentrate for long periods of time on tasks they plan for themselves, especially in the role play area.
• Children with additional needs are well supported in the early years. Parents are very supportive and feel they are ‘part of the family’.
• The newly formed teaching team is working closely to develop a number of new strategies to support the children and their parents. For example, ‘parent bags’ support the children with their learning at home and use different toys and resources to target various areas of development.
• Children work and play in a safe and secure environment. Arrival and departure times are closely supervised by the staff, and the outdoor area is secure and well maintained. Indoors, children have access to a wide range of good-quality English and maths resources. They play happily and interact with each other in a friendly and independent manner.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 103310 Birmingham 10025219 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 school 4–11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 405 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Ms Sue Houghton Mrs Deborah Colley Telephone number 0121 464 2315 Website Email address www.woodgateprimary.co.uk enquiry@woodgate.bham.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 13–14 February 2013

Information about this school

• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• More than half of the pupils are known to be disadvantaged. This is well above average.
• Around a third of pupils are from minority ethnic groups. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is much smaller than average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress of pupils by the end of Year 6.
• The school receives support from a local teaching school alliance and Birmingham Education Partnership.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well above the national average.
• The headteacher had been in post for three weeks at the time of this inspection. Prior to that she had held the post in an acting capacity.
• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about special educational needs and/or disabilities and pupil premium spending on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons across the school.
• The headteacher and other senior leaders observed some lessons jointly with members of the inspection team.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior leaders, middle leaders, governors and representatives from Birmingham Education Partnership.
• The inspectors took into account 81 responses to Parent View and staff questionnaires. They also talked to pupils informally in lessons and around the school and held formal meetings with groups of children.
• Inspectors listened to a range of pupils read and checked pupils’ work in books across the curriculum.
• Other documents scrutinised included attendance records, staff files, safeguarding files, minutes of meetings, case files, policies, and information on pupils’ current progress and attainment.

Inspection team

Kate Brunt, lead inspector Abigail Rourke Catherine Draper Nicola Harwood Mark Hinton

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector