SS Peter and Paul Catholic Primary Academy & Nursery Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Rapidly eliminate the remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching to improve learning in reading, writing and mathematics by:
  • increasing the accuracy of teacher assessment so that learning activities are closely matched to pupils’ learning needs
  • widening pupils’ understanding of vocabulary for use in their wider learning
  • providing greater challenge for most-able pupils
  • making sure that more opportunities are provided for pupils to explain their reasoning across the wider curriculum.
• Increase the proportion of children who are well prepared for their education in Year 1 on leaving early years by:
  • improving the understanding of early years leaders of how well children are progressing towards meeting their early learning goals so that children can be challenged more robustly in their learning
  • expanding children’s spoken vocabulary.
• Increase the impact leaders and managers, including governors, are having on pupils’ achievement by:
  • fully embedding the recently introduced initiatives to improve learning
  • effectively using a system which enables leaders to more precisely track how well pupils are learning so that underachievement is tackled more robustly
  • improving the monitoring undertaken by governors so that they understand school performance better
  • acting speedily to address weaknesses when they are identified. An external review of governance should be undertaken to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Those responsible for the governance of the school have acted too slowly to tackle weaknesses in leadership and management since the school was previously inspected. This, together with staff absence, has slowed the pace of improvement. Consequently, inconsistencies remain in the quality of teaching, resulting in pupils’ variable achievement.
• School leaders and managers, including governors, do not have a robust system for checking on how well pupils are progressing in their learning. This reduces the impact they are having on school improvement.
• Senior leaders have a shared ambition to ensure that pupils are receiving the highest quality of teaching in every year group. This vision is shared by colleagues, who are working collaboratively with leaders to embed a culture of exceptionally high expectation.
• Much has been put in place to improve teaching since September 2016. Senior leaders are taking the correct actions to bring about improvement. These actions are based on a secure understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. So far, these actions are not sufficiently embedded. They have had too little time to improve teaching and pupils’ achievement sufficiently.
• Those responsible for leading English and mathematics clearly understand where the weaknesses still lie. They are tackling these weaknesses robustly and improvements can be seen.
• British values are effectively taught. Pupils learn to be tolerant of those of other faiths and beliefs. This is important in this school, where 16 different languages are spoken and pupils come from a wide range of minority ethnic groups. This is a harmonious and welcoming community, where pupils’ culture and heritage are celebrated.
• The provision of education for those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is effectively managed by the diligent leader. Pupils’ work shows that those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making effective progress in their learning because of the well-managed support they receive.
• The curriculum is providing pupils with many opportunities to study exciting topics across a wide range of subjects. It is well designed, rich and diverse. The curriculum is impacting positively on pupils’ achievement. Pupils enjoy attending the wide range of clubs, which enhance the curriculum well.
• Additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils and to extend pupils’ sporting opportunities is spent effectively by school leaders. Disadvantaged pupils currently in school are progressing faster in their learning than other pupils.
• New senior leaders have been well supported by the local authority and the support which is bought in to help to ease them into their roles.

Governance of the school

• Monitoring activities undertaken by governors are lacking a precise enough focus on bringing about rapid improvement. Weaknesses identified are not pursued rapidly enough on subsequent governor visits. Governors are now asking more challenging questions of school leaders about pupils’ achievement in order to check on improvement.
• Members of the multi-academy company acted successfully to strengthen the school’s leadership, with key senior leader appointments made this academic year, although such appointments should have taken place earlier.
• Processes for the management of teachers’ performance are robust and rigorous. Weaker teachers are provided with support to help them improve their teaching.
• Governors are providing a wide range of opportunities for staff to gain experience and benefit from additional support across the wider multi-academy company.

Safeguarding

• Arrangements for safeguarding are effective. A strong culture of safeguarding permeates school life. Adults in school are prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that pupils are kept safe.
• The management of pre-employment checks and the systems used to record these are exceptionally robust. Regular training is undertaken, ensuring that those responsible for keeping pupils safe are fully aware of the threats which pupils may face in the wider world. Staff have a secure understanding of what to do if any safeguarding concerns arise.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching remains inconsistent in key stage 1 and key stage 2. Pupils’ books and discussions show that rates of progress remain too variable in a few year groups because of these inconsistencies.
• Many initiatives put in place recently to secure improvement are not yet sufficiently embedded. Consequently, the inconsistencies in the quality of teaching have not yet been eliminated.
• Assessments made by a few teachers are insufficiently accurate. Assessment information provided by teachers during the inspection does not fully reflect what inspectors observed in pupils’ books. Inaccurate assessment is leading to learning tasks being insufficiently well matched to pupils’ learning needs in a few year groups.
• Most-able pupils are not given sufficiently challenging learning tasks in enough year groups. This is slowing pupils’ progress.
• Pupils have a limited understanding of vocabulary. When questioned by inspectors, they could not articulate the meaning of a few words they had just read in their reading books.
• In mathematics, and across the wider curriculum, pupils are given too few opportunities to explain their reasoning on how they approach solving problems. This is hindering their opportunities to reach higher standards.
• Teaching is improving well. Weaker teachers are being effectively supported by highly skilled colleagues. Rates of pupils’ progress are accelerating in many year groups.
• Exciting and challenging learning tasks are used to motivate pupils well in lessons. One group of pupils enthusiastically took part in a mathematics challenge to budget for making a film. They identified which mathematical operations to use to help them arrive at a total costing which was below their budget of £650. Next, they carried out many complex calculations.
• Many teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Learning proceeds at a fast pace in many lessons. Teachers are using questioning effectively to check on how well pupils are learning so that they can increase the amount of challenge when they judge that pupils are ready.
• Pupils are becoming adept at using a wide range of resources in classrooms to support their learning. An older year group were observed skilfully using dictionaries and thesauruses to help them create dynamic sentence openers to diary entries written in the character of Macbeth after his meeting with the witches.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• In lessons, the respect shown by teachers for pupils is mirrored by the pupils. This contributes effectively to pupils’ purposeful learning. Pupils are respectful and tolerant of each other around school.
• Pupils are fully involved in the life of the school. They take on many responsibilities. Recently, members of the school council interviewed teachers as part of the school appointment process.
• Pupils have a secure knowledge and understanding of how to keep themselves safe. Pupils report that they are taught well about how to stay safe when using the internet. This is an area which teachers focus on relentlessly to help keep pupils safe.
• Pupils clearly understand what constitutes bullying. They report bullying occurs rarely. Occasionally, when incidents do occur, pupils report that they are dealt with quickly and to their satisfaction by their teachers.
• Pupils are well prepared socially for the next stage in their education when they move to their secondary schools. Academically, though, pupils are still not as well prepared as they could be.
• The effectively run breakfast club is well attended. It gives pupils a good start to the day and helps prepare them well for the day ahead.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are polite and well mannered. They socialise well on the playground during breaktimes. Lunchtimes are calm and well ordered. Pupils wait patiently in orderly lines until it is their turn to be served lunch.
• Pupils’ attendance is in line with the national average. Groups of pupils who were previously absent regularly are now attending school more regularly because of the work carried out jointly by school leaders and the educational welfare officer employed across the multi-academy company.
• Senior leaders have zero tolerance of poor behaviour. A very small number of exclusions have been used successfully, and wisely, to strengthen pupils’ behaviour.
• Very occasionally, in a small minority of lessons, pupils’ attitudes to learning are a little less strong.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The latest school performance information tells very little about pupils’ current progress because it is lacking sufficient accuracy. It confirms that pupils’ achievement remains variable. This is mirrored in pupils’ books scrutinised by inspectors.
• School performance information and pupils’ books confirm that most-able pupils are currently making too little progress in their learning. Variable rates of progress are being made by pupils across year groups in a range of subjects.
• In 2016, standards at the end of Year 2 were well below average in writing, below average in mathematics and slightly below average in reading.
• At the end of Year 6 in 2016, attainment was below average in reading and mathematics but above average in writing. Pupils’ progress at the end of key stage 2 was about expected in reading, slightly below expected in mathematics and well above expected in writing. Rates of progress were variable for groups of pupils, such as boys compared to girls.
• In 2016, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check in Year 1 was slightly below average. This was an improvement on 2015. By the end of Year 2, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check was about average.
• Disadvantaged pupils are progressing well in their learning. In reading, writing and mathematics, disadvantaged pupils’ books show that they are currently making faster progress in their learning than other pupils in many year groups because of the efficient use of pupil premium funding.
• Those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are currently making effective progress in their learning because of the well-structured support they are receiving in lessons and from working with skilled teaching assistants in small focus groups.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Too few children are leaving early years well enough prepared for learning in Year 1. In 2016, around two fifths of children reached a good level of development from their individual starting points.
• From starting school with knowledge and skills which are typically below those expected for their age, particularly in their communication and use of language, children begin to catch up rapidly. They make fast progress in their learning and development, although too few meet the early learning goals.
• Robust predictions about how many children should reach a good level of development are made difficult because a new system used to assess the progress children are making is in the early stage of development. This hampers progress because children cannot be fully challenged if leaders are not fully secure in their understanding of how well children are progressing.
• Children are given too few opportunities to regularly develop and extend their grasp of vocabulary. This slows the pace of learning and development for children.
• In early years, children are well supported by adults in developing their basic skills and, particularly, their early acquisition of language. This is because the educational research carried out by the early years leader into early language acquisition teaching is used effectively so that the needs of children can be met.
• Teaching throughout early years helps young children to make generally strong progress in their learning. Behaviour in the early years is effective and children socialise and engage well with each other.
• Safeguarding processes are robust. Parents are regularly reminded by staff about the school policy of zero tolerance of the use of mobile phones in early years to ensure that there are no transgressions and children are kept safe. Safeguarding responsibilities are rightly taken very seriously by early years staff.
• Children throughout early years behave well. They are polite and well mannered and socialise with each other well.
• The latest school performance information shows that children are now making more rapid progress in their learning and development. This is fully supported by the inspectors’ observations.
• Strong partnerships exist with parents. Established links with home effectively support children to learn well in the early years.
• The proportion of children reaching a good level of development at the end of early years is increasing well.

School details

Unique reference number 139894 Local authority Wolverhampton Inspection number 10025183 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Primary School category Academy converter Age range of pupils Gender of pupils 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 216 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Principal Ann Shorthouse Jenny Byrne Telephone number 01902 556 447 Website Email address www.sspeterandpaul.co.uk sspeterandpaulacademy@wolverhampton.gov.uk Date of previous inspection 26–27 February 2015

Information about this school

• This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• An above-average proportion of pupils come from a wide range of minority ethnic groups. The largest groups are those from other White backgrounds and White British. More than half of the pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium funding is above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is about average.
• The proportion of pupils who have statements of special educational needs or education, health and care plans is below average.
• Early years provision is part-time in the Nursery and full-time in the Reception class.
• The school met the government’s floor standards in 2016, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• 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.
• An on-site breakfast club is run by the school.
• A new headteacher took up post on 20 October 2016 after acting in the role since 1 September 2016. An acting deputy headteacher took up post on 1 January 2017.
• The school is part of Bishop Cleary Catholic Multi-Academy Company.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in lessons and parts of lessons. Many of these were observed jointly with the headteacher or acting deputy headteacher.
• Meetings were held with senior leaders, school staff, seven members of the multi- academy company and the chair of the governing body. The inspectors also spoke with a representative of the local authority and the school improvement partner.
• Discussions took place with parents and groups of pupils. The inspectors spoke informally to pupils in lessons and during breaks and lunchtimes.
• Pupils’ work was scrutinised during lessons, as was work produced over time in a wide range of their books. An inspector listened to a small number of pupils from Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6 reading.
• Inspectors closely observed the work of the school. They looked at the latest school performance information showing the progress current pupils in school are making.
• Other documentation scrutinised included plans for school improvement, safeguarding information, behaviour logs, attendance records and minutes of governing body meetings.
• There were too few responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) to provide a statistically relevant summary, so inspectors considered the 54 responses to the parental questionnaire circulated by the school in the autumn term of 2016. Inspectors also considered 23 responses to the staff questionnaire and 13 responses to the pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Declan McCauley, lead inspector Peter Box Susan Blackburn Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector