Kingsbury Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve teaching, so that pupils make better progress through key stage 1, by checking that pupils who need to make faster progress than their peers accurately apply their grammar, punctuation and spelling skills in their writing.
• Strengthen leadership and management by ensuring that: senior leaders check that pupils with different starting points are making the progress expected of them middle leaders are rigorous in evaluating how well teaching enables different groups to achieve, most notably those who need to catch up in their learning and those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• School leaders at all levels are more effective than they were at the time of the last inspection. Leadership continues to improve and there is good capacity for further improvement. This is because there are more leaders, each with specific responsibilities for school improvement.
• Senior leaders have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. During the inspection, they talked clearly about how well pupils in each year group, most notably those who are disadvantaged, are making progress. They use this information to inform their discussions about pupils’ achievement with teachers.
• Pupils talk about their enjoyment of a range of subjects and extra-curricular activities. These include science and physical education. Leaders present a clear rationale for the curriculum. They have designed and implemented a curriculum which engages pupils in their learning well. This year, more leaders are involved in evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum.
• Leaders are effective in promoting equality. They ensure that the curriculum celebrates a variety of role models, for example through history, which means that pupils do not form stereotypical views. This helps pupils understand the dangers of discrimination in society.
• Leaders support teachers well to improve their own teaching practice. Leaders facilitate time for staff to discuss strengths and weaknesses with each other and then find ways to enable staff to address weaknesses. This includes visiting other classrooms to observe colleagues’ work and using external consultancy advice.
• Staff morale is good. This is because there is a shared understanding of what the school is focusing on and what it is doing to improve further. Leaders facilitate appropriate training, which is appreciated by staff. Newly appointed staff are having a successful year owing to the support from leaders.
• The local authority representative has worked effectively with school leaders for four years. She understands what the school has done to ensure that it now provides a good-quality education for its pupils.
• The school uses its primary school physical education and sport funding well. Leaders use the funding to encourage and enable more pupils to take part in competitive activities. The school has continued to be successful in a range of sports, including cross-country and gymnastics, with more teams entered in competitions than previously.
• Pupils develop a good understanding of British values. Pupils are expected to demonstrate these values, including tolerance, in their day-to-day activities. Leaders ensure that the school’s own values are promoted well. Pupils form healthy friendships with each other.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral and social understanding is developed particularly well. Pupils talk about how their lessons and extra-curricular activities encourage them to consider the views of others and to collaborate well. Pupils are developing a good understanding of the range of cultures and faiths seen in Britain today.
• Leaders have refined their school improvement plans over the past two years. These plans are used to help leaders evaluate the school’s work. Leaders recognise that the documents do not yet focus on the progress of specific groups of pupils. Plans do not clearly state leaders’ ambition for these groups.
• Middle leaders, including leaders of subjects and those responsible for the provision of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, have contributed well to school improvement over the past two years. However, they do not have a secure grasp of strengths and weaknesses in the areas they are responsible for. This is because they lack rigour in evaluating the impact of teaching on pupils who need to make rapid progress in order to attain age-related expectations.

Governance

• Governance is effective.
• Governance has improved since the previous inspection. Governors have initiated reviews of their own practice. They have reflected on the information gleaned from this work and used it to make changes to the way they work with school leaders. They ensure that all statutory duties are carried out.
• Current ways of engaging with the school enable governors to hold leaders to account well. For example, they work with local authority representatives in school to ensure that they understand the reports which are subsequently received.
• Governors have ensured that pupil premium funding is used well. Funding has been used to provide every disadvantaged pupil and their staff mentor with dedicated time. This time is used to discuss current learning targets and how well pupils are working to achieve them. Disadvantaged pupils are making good progress.
• Governors receive information from school leaders about the performance of teachers. They use this, together with detail about pupils’ achievement, to help them understand leaders’ decisions about teachers’ salary progression.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Staff understand their duties and how to use school protocols to help keep children safe. For example, safeguarding and related policies are understood and adhered to.
• Leaders ensure that all staff receive timely training. They follow this up by checking that staff are vigilant in their observations around school.
• Governors understand the importance of safeguarding. When they visit school, they check that pupils are kept safe by talking to pupils, parents and staff and following up any concerns which might arise.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers and teaching assistants use their secure subject knowledge to ensure that lessons are well planned and delivered. For example, in mathematics lessons, pupils learn well from a range of activities which include reasoning and problem-solving. In phonics lessons, pupils acquire specific skills which enable them to read individual words accurately.
• Most-able readers, writers and mathematicians are taught well. Teachers present them with tasks which make them think hard. As a result, these pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and are making strong progress this year.
• In lessons, classroom staff ensure that disadvantaged pupils secure specific reading, writing and mathematical skills. Each pupil has a staff mentor whose role is to keep track of the pupil’s success against specific targets. Pupils are encouraged to articulate to their mentors both what they find difficult in their learning and their reasoning if they are successful. This provision helps disadvantaged pupils to make good progress.
• Teachers receive effective support from leaders. Teachers refine their own practice by working with colleagues. They share effective practice by visiting each other’s classrooms. As a result, teaching performance has improved since the last inspection and continues to do so. No group of pupils is significantly adversely affected by the quality of teaching.
• Teaching assistants are deployed well. Their work with pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. The teaching of this group of pupils is effective because teaching assistants know what the pupils need to learn. They use their good subject knowledge and their knowledge of the pupils’ strengths and weaknesses to ensure that they make good progress.
• Reading is taught well. Children in the early years and in key stage 1 are taught phonics well. They use strategies to decode words in unfamiliar books accurately. This, coupled with pupils reading more frequently at home as part of their homework, has led to pupils making good progress in their reading this year.
• Pupils are presented with tasks which strengthen their skills in investigating mathematical problems. Workbooks show that pupils are taught a range of skills. They apply these skills well when faced with unfamiliar problems. For example, most-able pupils were challenged well in a Year 5 lesson. They had to work collaboratively in order to solve fraction addition problems.
• Pupils are taught an appropriate range of grammar, punctuation and spelling skills in each year group. In key stage 2, pupils use these skills well. As a result, their independent writing is well controlled, which enables the reader to understand their points of view.
• In key stage 1, teachers do not check frequently that pupils are applying skills accurately in their writing. For example, workbooks show that pupils’ spelling errors are not identified and addressed, which means that subsequent writing contains the same errors. Consequently, pupils who need to make more rapid progress than their peers in order to reach expected standards are not doing so.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The school’s work in promoting pupils’ well-being is effective. School values are evident in how pupils engage with each other and with adults. British values, including democracy and liberty, are taught well. As a result, pupils have a good understanding of tolerance and respect and what it means to live in a democratic society.
• Improved teaching has led to pupils being more confident in their own learning abilities. For example, they tackle mathematical and comprehension problems well, drawing on knowledge from previous lessons.
• The curriculum, together with extra-curricular activities, supports pupils’ physical and emotional well-being effectively. Good use of funding enables an increasing number of pupils to engage in physical activity.
• Leaders and teachers have a good knowledge of local safeguarding issues. They ensure that pupils receive good guidance about a range of aspects so that they can keep themselves safe as they grow up. This includes how to use social networking appropriately. Pupils are clear about how the school keeps them safe in this regard.
• Pupils have a good understanding of what bullying is. They know that when poor behaviour occurs, this is rarely bullying. If bullying is evident, then they are confident that staff deal with it well. Typically, parents expressed positive views about how the school promotes anti-bullying and safety.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils value the opportunities to lead. Learning ambassadors and lunchtime play leaders support other pupils in their learning and play. This promotes good self-discipline around school. As a result, pupils’ conduct is good at all times of the school day.
• Pupils show good attitudes to learning. Pupils collaborate well in lessons and enjoy their learning. As a result, disruption in lessons is rare.
• Pupils understand school systems for rewarding good behaviour and why sanctions are given for poor behaviour. Their views align with those of parents and staff that behaviour continues to improve.
• Overall attendance prior to this academic year was above the national average. Attendance this year has dipped, owing to families taking more holidays in term time and pupils requiring absence for personal circumstances, such as medical appointments.
• Leaders are more rigorous this year than previously in checking that pupils are punctual at the start of the day. They have brought forward the time when pupils are recorded as being late.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Through the course of this year, pupils have made stronger progress in reading, mathematics and writing in all year groups. Provisional school information suggests that the current Year 6 pupils have made better progress in all subjects through key stage 2 than last year’s cohort. Progress in reading is stronger than in writing and mathematics.
• Pupils’ attainment in this year’s mathematics tests is weaker than in reading and writing.
• Pupils are making good progress in mathematics in all year groups. Pupils have secured an appropriate range of skills, including reasoning. These skills enable pupils to successfully tackle unfamiliar problems, which lead to good attainment.
• Pupils’ age-related reading standards in each year group are secure. This enables pupils to access texts at age-appropriate levels well. For the past two years, a greater proportion of pupils than the national average attained the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check.
• This year, pupils are making good progress in writing. Pupils in key stage 2 are making the best progress. Standards are higher in these year groups because pupils are demonstrating their secure grammar, punctuation and spelling skills consistently well in all their writing.
• Better teaching of reading and writing has enabled pupils to attain well in other subjects this year. Pupils talked about their progress in other subjects, such as in history and geography. Their workbooks showed similar standards of writing in different subjects.
• The most able and middle-ability pupils are making strong rates of progress in all subjects and year groups this year. The progress of boys is similar to that of girls. As a result, pupils are better prepared than previously for their next year group or school.
• Disadvantaged pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Specific teaching support for disadvantaged pupils of all abilities enables them to achieve well.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. Leaders and classroom staff know pupils’ barriers to learning. They ensure that work given to these pupils helps them overcome difficulties.
• Pupils in key stage 1, who need to catch up with their peers in order to meet expected standards in writing, are not making sufficient progress.

Early years provision Good

• There is effective leadership in the early years. Senior leaders and the leader responsible for the early years are ambitious for the children in the Reception Year.
• The curriculum is well designed and implemented because it engages children well. Parents contribute to curriculum planning by sharing with staff topics which their children find interesting. A current curriculum strength is communication and the development of early language. Staff use role play and puppets to capture children’s interests. This motivates children to speak, listen, read and write well.
• The indoor and outdoor learning environments promote children’s imagination and curiosity well. Children are encouraged, and enabled, to follow their own interests. The environments help to ensure that children are kept safe, and promote good behaviour and attitudes to learning.
• Teaching is effective. All adults are skilled in engaging children in discussion. They ask questions to ascertain children’s current understanding before presenting new problems. For example, in one session, the teacher spotted an error in a child’s number calculation work. Effective questioning enabled the teacher to understand the reason why the error had occurred. Subsequent tasks helped the child embed the correct process.
• Most children enter the Reception Year with skills that are typical for their age. Children made good progress through the early years last year. This year, children have made similarly good rates of progress. As a result, they are well prepared for their move into Year 1.
• This year, a greater proportion of children than the national average achieved a good level of development in all areas of learning. Leaders are aware that more children are capable of exceeding early learning goals. They are beginning to provide children with more opportunities to demonstrate their higher-order skills, particularly in writing.
• Leaders work with the local community effectively. The close working partnership with the on-site playgroup ensures that information about children’s talents and barriers to learning is used to ensure that children move into Reception keen to learn. This work contributes well to children’s personal development.
• Leaders ensure that funding is used to support children’s learning well. For example, all disadvantaged children have specific learning targets written down. Periodically, progress towards these targets is discussed by staff and changes made as and when necessary. These children have made good progress, particularly in number and phonics work this year.
• Leaders and staff have a good understanding of the needs of all children. They use this knowledge to select external agency support that will support individual children. For example, support was used to inform changes to the physical learning environment.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 134924 Warwickshire 10032582 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 Maintained 4 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 291 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Lee Greatorex Karen Hanson 01827 872 275 www.kingsburyps.co.uk admin3596@welearn365.com Date of previous inspection 10–11 March 2015

Information about this school

• Kingsbury is an average-sized primary school.
• Children are taught in two full-time Reception classes. In key stages 1 and 2, pupils are taught in either single-age or mixed-age classes.
• The senior leadership team is made up of the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and two assistant headteachers.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is well below the national average. Almost all of the pupils are White British.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below the national 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 attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes and visited a number of small-group intervention sessions. They visited 15 lessons, six of which were observed jointly with senior leaders.
• Meetings were held with pupils, staff, governors and a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors talked to pupils about their reading and listened to both higher- and lower- ability pupils read.
• Inspectors examined work in pupils’ books.
• The school’s child protection and safeguarding procedures were scrutinised.
• Inspectors observed the work of the school and looked at a range of documentation written to support school improvement, including minutes from meetings of the governing body.
• Inspectors took account of the 89 replies to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and spoke with parents.
• Staff expressed their views in discussion with inspectors.

Inspection team

Jeremy Bird, lead inspector Tracy Stone Benetia Mounsey Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector