Springhill Primary Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently good across key stages 1 and 2 by:
  • ensuring that learning for the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, is sufficiently challenging to enable more to achieve higher outcomes
  • ensuring that the teaching of reading provides more opportunities for pupils to deepen their understanding of what they are reading
  • providing more opportunities for pupils to develop their use of information and communication technology as part of their learning
  • ensuring teachers provide pupils with opportunities to accurately apply their spelling, grammar and punctuation knowledge within extended pieces of independent writing.
• Further improve leadership and management in school by:
  • ensuring actions and interventions provided to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are regularly and accurately monitored and evaluated to measure the impact on these pupils’ learning and outcomes
  • ensuring that effective communication provides parents with clear information about the work of the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the school opened as an academy in January 2014, the multi-academy trust has been instrumental in putting in place a strong and effective leadership structure that is now firmly established. This has led to ongoing improvements in the quality of teaching and improving outcomes for pupils. The legacy of inadequate teaching from the predecessor school has now been removed.
• The headteacher and executive headteacher have a clear and realistic view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They recognise that teaching is not yet consistently good across the school and, as a result, not all pupils make the progress that they are capable of. Their vision that pupils should experience an exciting and relevant curriculum, that supports them in their learning, is shared by all the staff. All the staff who responded to the online questionnaire were positive about the impact that leaders are having on improving teaching and learning.
• There are good and effective systems in place for evaluating most areas of the school’s work. Leaders undertake a wide range of monitoring, including observations of teaching, analysis of pupil progress information and scrutiny of teachers’ planning to develop well thought-out plans for improvement. Subject and phase leaders are held accountable for the quality of teaching within their areas of responsibility. They have been successful in making improvements to aspects of the school’s work, for example in developing the quality of teaching of mathematics across the school.
• Where teaching is less effective, leaders provide support and challenge. Teachers are able to observe and learn from outstanding teaching in other schools within the multi-academy trust. Opportunities for teachers’ professional development are strong. Rigorous management of teachers’ performance is used to hold them to account for the outcomes of the pupils in their classes.
• Leaders place a high emphasis on pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. They have high expectations of how pupils behave and, as a result, behaviour across school is consistently good. Leaders have also introduced an engaging and relevant set of values to the school that are understood and appreciated by the pupils. These values, based around a set of imaginary super-heroes, led by ‘Captain Reach’ and his team of ‘Determinator’, ‘Questioner’, ‘Collaborator’, ‘Explainer’ and ‘Reflectortron’, help pupils develop positive attitudes to learning, which support them in their preparation for life as citizens in modern Britain.
• The relevant and well-planned curriculum that leaders have established in school provides pupils with exciting opportunities to develop their learning across subjects through a series of mini-adventure topics. Subjects, such as science, geography and history, are linked together within a theme, such as the ‘Great Fire of London’ or ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’. Pupils are able to apply their mathematics and writing learning in these themes. Visits to places such as Warwick Castle and Chasewater Country Park are used well to support and enhance pupils’ learning. During their time at Springhill Primary Academy, all pupils are provided with the chance to experience a series of ‘11 before 11’ activities, including a visit to London, a meal in a restaurant and a trip to a theatre. These experiences are effective in enriching pupils’ social and cultural development and providing them with valuable life skills.
• Leaders promote equality of opportunity well. They ensure that the additional pupil premium grant is used appropriately to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in school. Small group work, led by teachers and trained teaching assistants, helps these pupils to make progress that compares well with other pupils nationally.
• Additional sport premium funding is used effectively by leaders to widen the sporting opportunities for pupils and to promote their physical well-being. External sports coaches have worked alongside teachers to develop their confidence and abilities to teach physical education to higher standards. Additional activities, such as dance and tag-rugby, have been introduced and this has increased the number of pupils participating in extra-curricular activities. Leaders are also ensuring that pupils have more chances to take part in competitive sports against other schools, with a steadily improving rate of success.
• The leader for provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has implemented a number of changes to how these pupils are supported in school. However, she has not, as yet, effectively monitored or evaluated the impact that these actions are having on pupils’ outcomes and is consequently not in a strong enough position to determine the effectiveness of the measures taken. School leaders are aware that this is an aspect of leadership that needs to improve.
• While the majority of parents who responded to the online questionnaire, Parent View, were positive about most aspects of the school’s work, a minority expressed concerns about communication from school leaders about changes in staffing and their children’s progress. These views were also echoed by some of the parents spoken to by inspectors, including some parents of children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Governance of the school

• Governors have a thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They use a range of information to analyse school performance, and work effectively with leaders to set ambitious targets to further improve the school.
• Governors robustly hold leaders to account. For example, a recently introduced governors’ visits policy ensures that all governors understand their roles and how they can check that leaders are bringing about the necessary improvements to the school. Link governors visit the school regularly and meet with leaders to discuss how their actions are impacting upon the development of the school. Leaders provide ‘impact reports’ to governors to further inform them of how the school is improving.
• Although the chair of governors has only recently been elected to the role, she already has a deep understanding of the school’s performance and recognises the need for further improvements in teaching and pupils’ outcomes.
• Governors know how additional funding is used to support disadvantaged pupils. They ask challenging questions to check that the funding is improving the progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors are knowledgeable about their statutory responsibilities, particularly those related to keeping pupils safe. Governors have received up-to-date training on safeguarding and regularly visit school to check that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure the safety of pupils.

Safeguarding

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• There is a lack of consistently good teaching across subjects in key stages 1 and 2. While there is good teaching in school, this lack of consistency means that pupils in some classes do not achieve the outcomes of which they are capable.
• Expectations from teachers of what pupils are capable of achieving are not high enough, particularly for the most able pupils. As a result, too few pupils reach the higher standards or work at greater depth as they move through the school. The work set for these pupils is too often undemanding and easily within their capabilities. There are too many occasions when all pupils undertake the same task and as a result some find the work too difficult and some find it too easy. Over a third of pupils who responded to the online questionnaire said they felt that work was sometimes too easy.
• There is a whole-school, systematic approach to the teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make in words) as an essential and integral part of the teaching of reading. This means that pupils develop a secure knowledge of how to read unfamiliar words and make good progress in this aspect of their reading development. However, opportunities for pupils to develop their reading comprehension skills are not well established or taught. Too often, teachers set the same task for all pupils in a class and, as a result, pupils do not develop a sufficient depth of understanding of what they are reading.
• School leaders have ensured that there is a strong focus on teaching pupils age-appropriate punctuation, spelling and grammar skills. However, they do not provide enough opportunities for pupils to apply these skills in longer, independent pieces of work. As a result, teachers are sometimes inaccurate in assessing whether the pupil is working at age-appropriate levels and pupils do not make enough, rapid progress in their writing.
• Pupils spoken to during the inspection commented on the fact that they do not get regular opportunities to use computers as part of their learning. This was born out by further evidence gathered during the inspection. Consequently, pupils’ information and communication technology skills are not sufficiently well developed. While leaders recognise that this is an aspect of teaching that needs to be addressed and have plans to employ a specialist teacher to work with each class, this has not yet been put in place.
• An increasing proportion of teaching in school is good and meets the needs of pupils. Where teaching is good, teachers adapt their questioning to the specific needs of the pupils and ask questions that are challenging and matched accurately to different abilities.
• The teaching of mathematics within school is effective. This is because teachers generally set pupils work that is matched to their abilities. They systematically teach core skills, such as addition and subtraction, and then provide good opportunities for pupils to apply these skills in problem-solving activities that require the pupils to use reasoning.
• Pupils particularly enjoy their learning in subjects such as history, geography and science. This is because teachers provide them with good opportunities to undertake investigative work and make good links between the subjects. Teaching is also effective in developing pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values, such as democracy and tolerance, through the mini-adventures. For example, older pupils had recently undertaken work on the two world wars that Britain had been involved in. As part of this work, they had gained a depth of understanding of, and empathy with, the British Legion annual remembrance activities that take place in this country and understood the reasons for the commemorations.
• A music specialist is employed by the school to teach each class, each week. This results in pupils making good progress in this subject and gaining real enjoyment from their participation in music making. During the inspection, all pupils in a key stage 2 class were seen accurately playing a range of instruments and producing a pleasing and melodic performance of a piece of contemporary music.
• Teaching assistants are used well to work alongside teachers and to support specific pupils, either individually or in small groups. They are well trained and understand the need, when necessary, to break learning down into small steps to support pupils who need to catch up in an area of their learning.
• Classrooms are lively, bright and inviting places for learning. Pupils use the prompts and reminders that are displayed on the walls to help them in their learning. Learning is celebrated and promoted well through examples of pupils’ work, both in classrooms and elsewhere in school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

Behaviour

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

Early years provision Good

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140402 Staffordshire 10019987 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 Academy sponsor-led 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Amanda Gandolfo Andrew How 01543 225620 www.springhillacademy.co.uk headteacher@springhillacademy.co.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• Springhill Primary Academy is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils, those who are supported by the pupil premium funding, is above average.
• Most pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is below that in most schools.
• 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 are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics for pupils by the end of Year 6.
• The school runs a breakfast club and an after-school club for its pupils.
• The school provides part-time education for a small number of two-year-old children.
• The headteacher took up his post in September 2016. An executive headteacher works alongside the headteacher and is part of the day-to-day leadership of the school.
• The school is part of the Raising Educational Achievement for Children (REAch2) Trust which is the main governing body with legal and strategic responsibilities for all REAch2 schools. The local governing body focuses on the day-to-day responsibilities of the school. The school opened as an academy on 1 January 2014.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed pupils’ learning in 21 lessons or parts of lesson. A number of these observations were undertaken with members of the school’s leadership team.
• The inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books and listened to pupils read. They met with a group of pupils to gain their views of the school. The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktime, lunchtime and at the end of the school day, as well as in lessons.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher, the executive headteacher, the deputy headteacher and three middle leaders. An inspector met with two members of the local governing body, including the chair of the local governing body. The lead inspector met with a representative from the REAch2 multi-academy trust.
• The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including assessments and records of pupils’ progress, the school’s checks and records relating to safeguarding, child protection and attendance, records of how teaching is managed and the school improvement plans.
• The inspectors took account of the 21 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, and considered the 17 free text responses from parents. They also talked to parents at the start and end of the school day. They also considered the 16 responses to the staff questionnaire and the 29 responses to the pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Adam Hewett, lead inspector Ann Pritchard Lindsay Nash Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector