Doxey Primary and Nursery School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • ensuring that learning closely matches the needs of pupils and provides challenge for all pupils in reading and writing
  • ensuring that teacher assessment is accurate and used effectively to inform pupils’ next steps and improve their rates of progress and outcomes
  • developing a systematic approach to the teaching of reading to improve outcomes for all pupils and enhance their enjoyment of reading.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:
  • implementing an effective tracking system to ensure that leaders have a clear understanding of the progress and attainment for all pupils and groups of pupils
  • regularly monitoring the quality and accuracy of assessments for all pupils
  • analysing data and teacher assessments to identify individual pupils and groups of pupils who are falling behind or who need more challenge
  • using the pupil premium funding effectively to accelerate the progress of those pupils known to be eligible for this additional support.
• Improve the quality of governance by:
  • presenting assessment information to governors so that they can support the strategic direction of the school and hold leaders to account
  • ensuring that the website meets all statutory requirements. 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

• At the time of the inspection, the newly appointed headteacher had been at the school for 11 days. During this short period, she has already made significant changes which are welcomed by staff, pupils and parents. This includes improved communication. Parents are now allowed onto the playground with their children. This has meant that any issues are dealt with as they arise and parents feel listened to.
• Leaders’ understanding of the strengths and weakness of the school is inaccurate. However, the new headteacher has a clear vision and understanding of the improvements needed to ensure that all pupils and staff thrive in her care. A member of staff commented, ‘I feel supported and informed of her vision for our fantastic children.’
• Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. Displays around the school show that pupils have opportunities to learn about other faiths and cultures. They have the opportunity to raise funds for a variety of different charities, including the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, the Midlands Air Ambulance Service and a local hospice.
• Leaders ensure that pupils have access to a range of extra-curricular activities, including sports and music, to further develop pupils’ skills and increase participation. The school follows a published curriculum which is adapted and changed to meet the needs of all pupils. The curriculum is further enhanced with music and art specialist teaching. This has enabled pupils to produce high-quality artwork and to perform concerts for parents and carers. Pupils say that they enjoy learning about the different topics. For example, Year 6 pupils showed enthusiasm for being an archaeologist of Mayan times, describing the artefacts they had discovered.
• Since the introduction of the new national curriculum in 2014, leaders have introduced a number of different systems to record pupils’ attainment and progress. As a result of the changes, current leaders in the school do not have an accurate understanding of the progress and attainment of pupils and groups of pupils in reading, writing and mathematics as the assessment information does not reflect the progress in pupils’ books.
• Leaders monitor the quality of teaching and learning through learning walks, lesson observations and by looking at pupils’ work. The quality of this work does not sufficiently focus on pupils’ learning, including a focus on different groups of pupils, such as pupils who exceeded the expectations at the end of early years or pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. This means that teachers are not focused enough on individual pupils’ or groups of pupils’ needs and progress.
• The school has a high number of disadvantaged pupils. The majority of the pupil premium funding is used to provide additional teaching support assistants to ensure that pupils are taught in small groups for phonics, spelling and other interventions. However, it is not targeted sharply enough on improving the rates of progress and attainment of the pupils known to be eligible for additional support.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are identified quickly and support is put in place. They are supported well in lessons and work closely matches their abilities and needs. The progress of these pupils is monitored and reviewed regularly to evaluate the progress made from their different starting points.
• Leaders make good use of the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium. It has ensured that pupils have more opportunities to take part in sporting activities. Sports coaches are employed and work alongside staff to develop teaching skills during PE lessons. During the inspection, a sports coach worked skilfully with Nursery children linking physical activity to counting and further developing their vocabulary. Children enjoyed the session and were able to follow instructions and join in with the counting to 10.
• The local authority has provided effective support for the school to further improve the teaching of mathematics and increase the opportunities for pupils to develop and apply their reasoning skills. This support has been effective, with pupils having more opportunities to apply their reasoning skills in mathematics lessons with confidence and accuracy.

Governance of the school

• Governors are proactive and involve themselves fully in the life of the school. They regularly attend events at the school and make themselves available to speak to parents as required.
• Governors acknowledge that leadership capacity needs to be further strengthened. They have requested a review of governance to ensure that they fulfil their statutory duties and develop a more strategic role in school improvement. They are keen to support the newly appointed headteacher and ensure that key leadership roles are undertaken and further developed to improve the educational outcomes for all pupils.
• Governors were unaware that the statutory information had not been published on the school’s website. This aspect of the school’s work is not regularly checked by leaders or governors. Important information is currently unavailable to parents, including a link to the ‘local offer’ for those parents who have children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and an up-to-date accessibility plan. Governors were also unsure of the impact of funding for disadvantaged pupils and limited information is available on the website.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a strong culture of safeguarding at Doxey Primary and Nursery School. The newly appointed headteacher has attended relevant training as designated safeguarding lead and fully understands that keeping children safe is of paramount importance and everyone’s responsibility.
• All staff and governors receive regular and relevant training. Staff are vigilant and swiftly report any concerns about pupils to a designated safeguarding lead. Detailed records of concerns are kept, as well as details of any actions taken.
• Governors have an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding and fully understand their responsibilities. They regularly monitor this aspect of the school’s work to ensure that procedures are being followed and that pupils are safe.
• Procedures for vetting new employees and volunteers are thorough. Rigorous checks are carried out by the leaders before a member of staff is employed. Several governors have completed training in safer recruitment. This has been essential due to the number of new staff, both permanent and temporary, employed at the school in recent months.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching is not sufficiently strong across the school. For various reasons, there have been numerous changes of staff in recent times. Two new teachers have recently started at the school in key stage 2. In all classes, staff work hard and do their best but, inevitably, all these changes have disrupted the consistency of teaching. The impact of this on standards is most evident in key stage 2, and more so in reading than in other subjects.
• The quality of teaching varies from subject to subject. For example, the teaching of mathematics is strong as a result of highly effective training by the leader for mathematics. This has ensured that learning meets the needs of all pupils and provides sufficient challenge for pupils to apply their skills and develop their reasoning.
• In mathematics, pupils are encouraged to choose their own learning at a level to challenge their thinking and build upon their prior learning. Pupils can choose from four differentiated tasks, at bronze, silver, gold and platinum levels. Adults closely watch their choice and, where necessary, challenge their choice of task to ensure that it moves their learning forward. However, this differentiated approach is less evident in pupils’ writing books or reading tasks.
• Owing to the consistent quality in teaching phonics, pupils are developing a good knowledge of letters and sounds to help with their reading and writing. Pupils are expected to apply their phonic knowledge at every opportunity in both their reading and writing. Pupils are confident to ‘have a go’ at spelling unfamiliar words. For example, during a religious education lesson, Year 1 pupils confidently had a go at writing a sentence about the foods they plan to take to church for their Harvest celebration.
• Teachers do not consistently challenge or monitor pupils sufficiently in reading. The school uses a commercial assessment programme to assess pupils’ understanding and comprehension when they have finished a reading book. This is not monitored as effectively as it should be. As a result, pupils move quickly through the different reading levels or may even move backwards in their reading. This has meant that some pupils, boys in particular, do not always enjoy reading or are motivated to read widely. In key stage 2, teachers show pupils how to answer comprehension questions. However, during these lessons, the reading passages do not match pupils’ capabilities and so learning is not planned to meet the needs of pupils of different abilities. As a result, pupils are not sufficiently challenged to make rapid progress.
• Writing assessments are generally over generous and in particular for pupils who are attaining at the higher standard at the end of key stage 2. Work in pupils’ books shows that most pupils make progress in writing but this is not always as rapid as it could be. Grammatical errors are not always identified, which means that pupils continue to make the same mistakes. This means that pupils do not make the rapid progress of which they are capable. Handwriting is of a good standard across the school and pupils present their work to a high standard due to teachers’ high expectations.
• Relationships between pupils and adults are strong. Pupils are well supported in lessons by both teachers and teaching assistants. Staff use effective questioning to check understanding and address pupils’ misconceptions. However, questioning is not always used well to deepen pupils’ understanding so that they continuously improve their skills.
• The school’s marking policy is consistently followed across the school. Teachers use highlighting pens to identify what has been done well and what needs to be improved. Pupils understand that they need to improve their work, but the highlighting does not help them to know how to improve their work and they rely on adults to tell them.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils fully understand the different learning characteristics needed to be a successful learner. This is due to ‘Doxey’s Learning Friends’. Each of the ‘learning friends’ represents one of several different learning characteristics, which include perseverance, checking work and the ability to tackle challenges. This approach is used consistently throughout the school and supports pupils’ good attitudes to learning.
• Pupils report that bullying is rare. Parents and pupils are confident that when bullying does happen, it is swiftly dealt with by leaders and class teachers. Pupils understand the different types of bullying, including name-calling, physical harm, cyber bullying and racism.
• The school’s values are at the heart of the school and are known by everyone. Pupils speak confidently about the values of self-belief, curiosity, respect, pride and perseverance and why it is important to hold such values both in school and outside school. However, pupils who spoke to the inspectors during the inspection had a more limited understanding of fundamental British values.
• The school employs sports coaches to work with pupils after school. This is having a positive impact on pupils’ physical well-being. Pupils also have the opportunity to play a musical instrument. Some pupils have recently completed examinations with the Royal School of Music. Pupils are proud to represent the school at events such as Young Voices.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are welcoming and respectful and show good manners to adults and each other. This helps to ensure that pupils new to the school immediately feel part of the Doxey family. They display a strong sense of pride in their schoolwork, their uniforms and their school buildings.
• Pupils’ work in books is neat and well presented, demonstrating the pride that pupils take in their work. They are keen to learn. During the inspection, low-level disruption was rare.
• Pupils’ attendance is broadly in line with the national average. Leaders and other staff have worked hard at finding ways to improve attendance and this is now improving, especially for pupils who are persistently absent.
• ‘Sparkles’, the school’s before- and after-school club, offers a welcoming, calm and relaxing environment for pupils who attend. As one pupil said, ‘I like coming as it is a calm start to the school day.’ Pupils enjoy attending and access a variety of activities both indoors and outside. Pupils show respect for the adults, each other and the equipment.
• A very small number of pupils do present some challenging behaviours and school staff manage these very well. Leaders work with families and other agencies to ensure that they get the support needed.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In the national tests in 2016, Year 6 pupils achieved well in reading but were below that expected nationally in both writing and mathematics. Early indications, shared by the school, show that in 2017, Year 6 pupils’ performance in reading dipped significantly and no pupils achieved the higher standard. This is due to reading not being systematically taught in key stage 2 or accurately matching the needs and abilities of all pupils.
• Work in pupils’ books indicates that many pupils are making good progress. However, the school’s assessment information does not always show that this is the case. In the past two years, the school has implemented different systems to track pupils’ attainment and progress. This and the numerous changes in staffing have inevitably disrupted the consistency of teaching and the accuracy of assessment in reading, writing and mathematics.
• In key stage 1, in recent years, standards have remained fairly static but broadly in line or just above the standards expected nationally. However, some pupils have not made the expected progress from the end of early years in attaining the higher standard by the end of key stage 1, and more so in mathematics than in reading and writing.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the standard required in the Year 1 phonics check is above that expected nationally, and has been so in recent years. This is due to the structured approach the school uses when teaching phonics, with a clear emphasis on developing pupils’ early reading skills. Pupils in Year 1 are already able to apply their phonic knowledge effectively in their writing and are prepared to tackle relatively challenging words. For example, during the inspection, pupils used their phonic knowledge to write the word ‘chocolate’ with some success.
• Most-able pupils do not always achieve at the higher levels or make the expected progress. This is due to teaching not being sufficiently strong in all classes. At times, work is over structured, which inhibits pupils’ ability to move their learning on at a rapid pace.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their starting points. Funding for these pupils is used effectively.
• The progress made by disadvantaged pupils at the end key stage 2 presents something of a mixed picture. This group of pupils are making increasingly better progress in writing but, like other pupils in the school, their progress in reading is much weaker. Overall, disadvantaged pupils do not achieve as well as other pupils in reading, writing or mathematics.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Leaders analyse the data for pupils across the early years foundation stage. This is not in sufficient detail to identify gaps in provision or learning for individual children or groups of children. Assessment information from each of the classes is not used effectively at the beginning of the year to inform the next steps for children who have already attended the school. As a result, valuable learning time for some children is lost.
• Children’s achievements are recorded in learning journals and include both children’s work and adults’ observations of individual children. Learning journals seen during the inspection show that adults do not always correctly identify the next steps for children. Therefore, assessment information is not always accurate and children cannot consistently build upon what they can already do.
• Most children enter the Nursery or Reception classes with skills that are below those typical for their age. In recent years, the proportion of children achieving the expected standard has exceeded the national figure. However, in Year 1, a number of children were unable to recognise the numbers 1 to 20, which demonstrates that the end-of-year assessments are over generous.
• Adults model language well. As a result, children’s communication skills develop well and most children in early years are articulate and are able to speak in sentences. In addition, questioning is used effectively to support and check children’s understanding of new words.
• Children are well cared for and kept safe. They are supervised carefully by all adults. Their curiosity and willingness to play and work with others contribute well to their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. An example of how the adults support and develop children’s curiosity and excitement was seen in ‘Sparkles’, the Nursery provision for two-year-olds, where children were searching for spiders’ webs using binoculars. The spiders’ webs were clear to see due to the dew which had settled on them over night.
• A wide range of resources and good-quality activities are planned in the indoors and outdoors for children to access throughout the day. Children engage fully when exploring their own ideas as well as those which are supported by an adult. In the Nursery class, boys and girls worked well together to create a ‘party’ using a variety of different large construction materials. However, during the inspection, very few activities were led by adults to ensure that key skills were learned which could then be used in children’s own explorations.
• Safeguarding is effective in early years, and welfare requirements are met. Staff are well trained and understand how to keep children safe.

School details

Unique reference number 124200 Local authority Staffordshire Inspection number 10025345 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 Maintained Age range of pupils 3 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 202 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Charles Soutar Headteacher Tracey Wynn Telephone number 01785 450120 Website www.doxeyprimary.co.uk Email address headteacher@doxeyprimary.co.uk Date of previous inspection 30 April 2013

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information on its website about special educational needs and the local offer for parents. The school has not published the content of the curriculum that the school follows for each academic year and for every subject. Also, there is no evaluation of the impact of pupil premium funding.
• The school is smaller than the averaged-sized primary school.
• The early years consists of provision for two-year-olds, part-time Nursery and a Reception class.
• The proportion of pupils from a minority ethnic background is well below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is lower than the national average.
• The school meets the government’s floor targets, which are the minimum standards expected nationally for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school runs a before- and after-school care club.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited classrooms to observe teaching and learning in all year groups. They looked at work in pupils’ books and spoke to pupils about their work. On some of these visits, inspectors were accompanied by senior leaders.
• Inspectors met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, other leaders and staff, and the chair and vice-chair of the governing body. A telephone conversation was held with a member of the local authority. Inspectors also considered the views of staff through 12 online questionnaire responses.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around school at social times. They discussed school records about behaviour and exclusions. Inspectors met informally with groups of pupils.
• Inspectors took account of the 15 recent responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View) and comments made by parents.
• Inspectors looked at a wide range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation and plans for improvement, records about pupils’ progress and attainment, and information about attendance. They also evaluated documents related to protecting pupils and keeping them safe.

Inspection team

Michelle Johnstone, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Amarjit Cheema Ofsted Inspector Kate Hanson Ofsted Inspector