Rounds Green Primary School Ofsted Report

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?

• As a matter of urgency, ensure that all aspects of safeguarding are effective by:
  • adhering closely to the school’s safeguarding policy
  • assessing risks regularly and taking immediate action on potential or identified shortcomings
  • teaching pupils to keep safe from risks such as child exploitation and radicalisation.
• Improve leadership and management by:
  • making sure that middle leaders effectively lead on their subjects or areas so that pupils achieve appropriately for their age
  • monitoring pupils’ progress, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and taking action so that no pupil falls behind
  • ensuring that governors discharge their core statutory functions effectively.
• Improve the quality of teaching by:
  • securing the accuracy of teachers’ assessments to gain a precise view of pupils’ progress
  • ensuring that teachers plan lessons well, meet the needs of different pupils and check their understanding
  • providing opportunities for pupils to apply, develop and refine their reading, writing and mathematical skills.
• Improve personal development, behaviour and welfare, including pupils’ attendance, by:
  • ensuring that pupils attend school regularly and arrive on time at the start of the school day
  • eradicating low-level disruption in lessons, so that pupils are not distracted and their learning is not interrupted
  • dealing with bullying concerns effectively and in a timely manner.
• Improve the provision in early years by:
  • ensuring that leaders have high expectations of what children should know and do so that children systematically develop the skills they need in preparation for their next stage of education
  • assessing all risks and taking the necessary action to ensure that children learn safely
  • planning complementary activities so that children do not interrupt others who need to listen carefully or work quietly
  • ensuring that resources effectively support children’s learning and inspire their interest, for example by choosing appropriate books for reading sessions
  • ensuring that parents contribute to staff’s knowledge about what children know and can do and keeping parents informed so that they know how to support their children at home. An external review of the use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. Newly qualified teachers should not be appointed to the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• The school is rapidly losing staff and has a high rate of staff sickness. As a result, leadership initiatives are hampered and improvements are slow. The school is highly dependent on external support. The interim headteacher lost no time in getting to grips with the wide range of issues faced by the school. Staff report that the interim headteacher is inspiring and refreshing.
• Middle management is weak, which further reduces the capacity of leaders to bring about the necessary improvement in all subject areas. Developments in mathematics are being led by the interim headteacher. She has strong subject knowledge and improvements are evident albeit at an early stage. The English leader is new to the role. In partnership with the interim headteacher and an external consultant, he has identified suitable priorities for improvements. This work is at an early stage of implementation and has yet to have an impact on outcomes for pupils.
• Curriculum provision is inadequate because individual subjects are poorly planned and taught. Leaders have not effectively implemented the required changes to the curriculum introduced two years ago. Pupils do not read, write or apply mathematics across the range of subjects. Teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils know and can do. Pupils quickly lose interest because work is not pitched correctly at their level of ability. As a result, some pupils find the work too easy, others too difficult. Pupils do not make enough progress from their starting points and as a result are not at the standard expected at the end of key stage 2.
• Leaders do not have a strategic overview of the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and do not plan effectively to meet their needs. Leaders have not evaluated the impact of their work with these pupils or analysed the progress that pupils make. Referrals to specialist support agencies take too long, so pupils do not get the support they need quickly enough. Parents raised concerns that not enough attention is being given to children with learning difficulties.
• The management of the pupil premium and early years premium, and that of special educational needs funding, is ineffective. Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities remain below the standard expected for their age.
• Pupils develop a secure understanding of life in modern Britain. Through the curriculum, they learn about different faiths, traditions and cultures, and develop values of tolerance and respect for difference. School leaders are currently revising the curriculum to strengthen this work, and are working towards Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools award.
• Parents do not feel that they are sufficiently involved in the decision-making of the school or informed of changes made. They have welcomed the recent revival of the parent council, and would like to receive more communication about the work of the school. Parents expressed concerns about the impact of classes grouped according to pupils’ abilities and the impact this arrangement had on pupils’ confidence and self-esteem.
• Performance management of staff is now managed effectively and has helped to tackle weaknesses in teaching. Targets have been set with a focus on whole-school improvement priorities, in particular the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils. The interim headteacher has planned a continuing programme of training for staff which draws heavily on external expertise. A programme for monitoring teaching is now in place, and school leaders are being supported by the interim headteacher and external consultants on how to make accurate evaluations of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• The sports premium is spent effectively by the school. A specialist sports coach is employed by the school. A curriculum plan identifies a suitable range of work and provides a framework to assess pupils’ progress. The school achieved the Silver Award School Games Mark in 2015, and is now focused on the gold award. Over half of all pupils in school now access sport activities in addition to physical education lessons. Pupils have access to a wide range of after-school activities, particularly sport, which they enjoy.
• The local authority is aware of the challenges facing school. They have recently worked with the chair of governors to appoint the interim headteacher. The local authority is currently providing support with mathematics and early years.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has not been effective in securing the necessary changes since the last inspection. The governing body has been recently reconstituted. Governors are aware of the changes that need to take place and there is recent evidence of positive working with the interim headteacher. Governor challenge is improving but is hampered by the high staff turnover and limited leadership capacity in the school. As a result, necessary changes are not happening quickly enough for current pupils in school. Governors have not ensured that teachers have the equipment they need to teach well, particularly in reading and phonics.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.
• The safeguarding policy is not effectively followed, and leaders have not contacted the local authority duty officer to seek appropriate advice. The designated safeguarding lead and the safeguarding team do not fully understand the local authority social work threshold of risk, and do not effectively follow up the minutes from multi-agency meetings. Health and safety risk assessments are not conducted regularly. Actions from the fire risk assessment have not been followed up. Pupils and parents are not informed well enough about how to keep pupils safe from harm. Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Teaching overall is inadequate across subjects and year groups, as a result of staff instability and delays in bringing about the necessary improvements.
• The teaching of reading is weak. Teachers do not have high enough expectations of pupils because their knowledge of how to teach reading is insecure. Although pupils enjoy reading to an adult, teachers do not have the necessary resources to methodically build on and develop pupils’ reading skills. Phonics is not taught effectively. Teachers do not provide sufficient opportunities to apply, develop and refine reading skills in lessons. They do not check pupils’ understanding and their assessments of how well pupils are doing are too generous.
• Teachers are not sufficiently precise on what it is they expect pupils to learn in writing lessons. They are unclear about the specific skills which need to be developed. The school’s new system to provide individual pupil targets is now in place, but they are not used consistently in lessons to remind pupils how improve their work. Handwriting across the school is weak. There are too few opportunities for pupils to apply their knowledge of punctuation, spelling and grammar or write at length.
• There is evidence of some improvement in the teaching of mathematics. Pupils’ work is improving, but there are gaps in their knowledge which teachers are beginning to address. The teaching of methods of calculation is inconsistent across the school. Pupils lack confidence in showing or explaining how they work out answers, for example in mathematical problem-solving and reasoning.
• Science is not taught effectively. Pupils are not taught to use the correct vocabulary, for example, the names of bones. There is not enough challenge in science for those pupils who grasp the learning quickly and, as a result, learning for these pupils slows or stops. Pupils do not have enough opportunities for independent research in order to find information for themselves.
• Learning time in lessons is not used well. Extension tasks for those who finish quickly are sometimes not completed and pupils choose to talk instead. Lessons finish early and some do not start on time. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to check their work for accuracy, particularly the most able learners.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate. Safeguarding procedures have not been carried out with sufficient clarity or precision to ensure pupils’ welfare.
• Pupils are not sufficiently aware of how to keep themselves safe, for example when using the internet or mobile telephones. They are not taught how to identify the risk or dangers of child exploitation and radicalisation.
• Parents raise concerns about the time it takes to deal with bullying concerns, and how behaviour or bullying incidents are not always communicated to them. Pupils do not have confidence in the school’s ability to successfully tackle bullying. A new bullying policy has been introduced this term but it is not followed consistently by all staff. Leaders do not effectively follow up incidents, record feedback or check on pupils’ well-being following incidents.
• When pupils are focused on their learning, there is evidence that they share views and opinions with others and work respectfully as a member of a group. They take turns, work cooperatively and respond considerately to peers.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is inadequate.
• Too many pupils do not attend school regularly. Leaders do not monitor attendance effectively. As a result, there are high numbers of pupils who are persistently absent and too many who arrive late.
• Low-level disruption in some lessons means that pupils do not learn as well as they should. The most able pupils reported that they find lessons boring and they do not like it when other pupils misbehave and disrupt their learning. Pupils say that those pupils with short tempers are not dealt with effectively, they are just given time out. As a result, pupils do not learn how to manage their own behaviour or develop techniques to cope with their feelings.
• Pupils appreciate the changes introduced by the new interim headteacher. Pupils know what is expected of them and others since the introduction of the new behaviour policy. Pupils enjoy learning about the rights of the child. Pupils appreciate the newly introduced rewards. However, inspectors were concerned that writing was being used as a punishment and this practice may put pupils off writing in lessons.
• Pupils are polite and courteous around the school site. They appreciate the new split playtimes, reduced pupil numbers on playgrounds and ‘friendship stops’ where pupils can get help and support from their peers when they need it.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Pupils in this school are underachieving. They do not make enough progress from their different starting points, in all subjects and across key stages. As a result, pupils do not meet the standards expected for their age at the end of key stages 1 and 2, and they are not well prepared for the next stage of their education. Very recent improvements led by the interim headteacher are yet to have an impact on pupils’ achievements.
• The school’s assessment information is inaccurate due to teachers’ insecure judgements regarding pupils’ progress and attainment. The interim headteacher has introduced tests so that information about pupils’ knowledge and understanding is more secure. The current autumn term 2016 assessment information presents a more accurate picture of gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills. The interim headteacher is confident that this is a more precise starting point for each year group.
• Recent improvements in writing led by the interim headteacher are not yet consistently applied across the school. Pupils across the school do not have enough opportunities to apply their writing skills independently or at length. Pupils’ books show patchy and inconsistent progress in their writing skills.
• Teachers’ weak assessments and pupils’ poor behaviour in science lessons mean that pupils do not make the progress they should.
• A new approach to teaching mathematics has been recently introduced which places more emphasis on pupils’ progress. Pupils are beginning to complete work which is more closely aligned to the standards expected for their age. However, progress is slow because of the amount of catching up that is required. Pupils are not encouraged to regularly assess their own work or check for accuracy.
• Current pupils show little sign of improvement in reading. Progress is slow and many pupils read books of a standard below that expected for their age. Pupils have too few opportunities to develop their understanding of text or apply and consolidate their phonics skills.
• A large proportion of pupils fail to meet the standard in the Year 1 phonics check and then have to catch up in Year 2, where they then fall behind in the broader reading skills expected for their age. The limited range of books further limits the development of pupils’ reading skills. The library is poorly resourced and disorganised. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to read different types of books for pleasure or information.
• Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not make enough progress from their starting points, in a range of subjects including English and mathematics. Funding to support these pupils has not been effectively used to provide the necessary support to bring about improvements. As a result, the achievement of disadvantaged pupils is below that of other pupils nationally.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are often overlooked in lessons, which means they are not effectively supported and often disengage in learning.
• The most able pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, do not make enough progress across year groups and over time, and as a result they do not do as well as they should. They are not identified quickly enough. As a consequence, work is not provided for them which sufficiently challenges them or gives them the opportunity to work at a deeper level of understanding.

Early years provision Inadequate

• Leadership of the foundation stage is inadequate. At the time of the inspection, the post of early years leader was vacant. Teachers in the Nursery and Reception classes lead their year groups with the help of the deputy headteacher. Leaders do not have a clear and accurate overview of the relative strengths and weaknesses evident in the early years. As a result, staff have been too slow to tackle the areas of concern.
• The early years welfare requirements are not met, particularly in relation to safety and organising the premises. Staff do not ensure that health, safety and welfare are effectively promoted. Risk assessments of provision are not in place, and staff do not assess adequately the potential risks of learning activities. The safeguarding policy does not include the procedures for mobile phones on the premises. This necessity has not been communicated to visitors.
• The Reception class is not organised in a way that meets the needs of children, as some areas are too small and cluttered. The high noise levels of children in some activities hamper learning when other children need to listen carefully, particularly during phonics lessons.
• Teaching is weak in the Reception Year due to poorly planned learning experiences for children. The learning experienced by children is narrow and often dull. Activities do not focus enough on developing children’s early skills across the necessary areas of learning. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are excluded from too many activities.
• Teaching is improving in Nursery following external support. Planned activities effectively secure children’s progress and develop their skills both indoors and outdoors as they explore a variety of materials and resources. Children learn about books, and early phonic knowledge is now taught in the Nursery class. However, books are not always selected well enough to support the main teaching focus.
• Current data indicates that children arrive at Nursery with skills that are broadly typical for their age. The proportion achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception is broadly in line with the national average. Leaders doubt the accuracy of these assessments and new approaches are being introduced. The early years pupil premium is not spent effectively and disadvantaged children do not receive the support they should.
• Parents are not engaged well in their children’s learning and their views about what their child can and cannot do or their likes and dislikes are not captured and developed. Parents do not know what their children are learning, or how they can help at home.
• Children in the early years are attentive and ready to learn. They behave well and enjoy working together. They are confident to explore the resources outside and handle apparatus sensibly.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 103980 Sandwell 10020012 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Number of pupils on the school roll Maintained 3 to 11 Mixed 461 Appropriate authority The governing body/local authority Interim Chair Interim headteacher Telephone number Website Email address George Craig Linda Deeley 0121 552 1910 http://roundsgreen.sandwell.sch.uk/our_school/index.1.html Roundsgreen.admin@roundsgreen.sandwell.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 4–5 November 2014

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This is larger than the average-sized primary school
• The majority of pupils are of White British backgrounds. Almost half of the pupils come from Indian, Pakistani, Caribbean, African and White and Black Caribbean backgrounds. Just above one in three pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is well above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• The school has seen significant changes of staff. Eight teachers left the school last year, and two have been replaced. Five classes are currently being taught by supply teachers. The substantive headteacher was not in school at the time of the inspection. An interim headteacher has been in post since September 2016.

Information about this inspection

• The inspection team observed teaching and learning across the school. Two lessons were jointly observed with the deputy headteacher and one with the interim headteacher.
• Inspectors met with pupils and heard a selection of pupils read. They looked at examples of pupils’ work in books and spoke with pupils about their learning. There were no responses to the pupil online questionnaire.
• The inspectors held meetings with the interim headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the leaders for English, mathematics, behaviour and attendance, the special educational needs coordinator and the school bursar.
• The lead inspector met with the chair of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority.
• The opinions of parents were considered through 123 responses on Parent View and conversations with parents.
• Various school documents were scrutinised, including the school development plans, information about managing teachers’ performance management and minutes of the governing body. Information about pupils’ progress, behaviour, attendance and safety were also analysed.

Inspection team

Lorraine Lord, lead inspector Khalid Din Elizabeth Ellis-Martin Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector