St Michael and All Angels Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to accelerate pupils’ progress in all areas of the curriculum, but particularly in reading, writing and mathematics, by ensuring that:
  • assessment information is used effectively by teachers to plan learning activities that are closely matched to pupils’ skills and abilities
  • differences in performance between groups of pupils, in particular disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, are diminished
  • teachers inspire the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, to excel by insisting on higher expectations and greater challenge.
• Improve the impact and effectiveness of leaders at all levels by:
  • developing leaders’ skills so that they can more rigorously monitor the quality of teaching and learning and more effectively contribute to securing improvements in the quality of teaching
  • evaluating the specific needs of disadvantaged pupils to fully inform spending plans
  • measuring thoroughly the effectiveness of teaching and its impact on progress, in particular for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, so that they can make more rapid progress.
• Improve the provision and outcomes in the early years for all children, including those who are disadvantaged and the most able, by:
  • ensuring that all staff have the knowledge and skills to secure children’s rapid progress, particularly in speaking, reading, writing and mathematics
  • carrying out accurate assessments that clearly identify what children can do and what the next steps are in their learning
  • ensuring that all activities, both indoors and outdoors, are planned and resources are provided with a clear focus on learning and encouraging children to develop independence in learning. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium funding 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

• The executive headteacher has demonstrated strong leadership and taken robust action to improve effectively the quality of teaching. However, it is not yet consistently good enough to ensure that pupils make rapid progress in reading, writing and mathematics across the whole school.
• Checking of the school’s work overall is not detailed or sufficiently rigorous because the role of middle leaders is underdeveloped. Therefore, the regular challenge and support needed to ensure that all groups of pupils make rapid progress in all subjects have been lacking.
• Owing to the recent appointment of many leaders, assessment systems are in development and are not yet fully effective. This has led to delays in the use of up-to-date assessment to inform teachers’ planning. As a result, teaching is not fine-tuned to ensure that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and the most able make accelerated progress.
• Pupil premium funding has been spent on providing additional resources and staffing to support disadvantaged pupils. However, disadvantaged pupils continue to make less progress than other pupils nationally. Leaders are aware of the need to make sure that all resources improve the learning of disadvantaged pupils but as yet, no evaluation of the impact of pupil premium funding has taken place.
• The leadership of teaching, including arrangements to manage staff performance, is now better focused on the progress that pupils need to make. Leaders have made clear their expectations of good-quality teaching and individuals are being supported to ensure that their practice meets those high expectations.
• Teachers are beginning to exploit opportunities to make links between subject areas to make learning more meaningful for pupils. A new curriculum has been introduced and provides an interesting and wide range of learning. The teaching of science in upper key stage 2 is particularly effective in helping pupils to develop practical scientific skills.
• Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is well supported through daily acts of worship, class lessons and through the school’s daily routines. As a result, older pupils demonstrate well-developed levels of understanding of global issues. Pupils say that British values are promoted throughout as part of daily school life.
• Pupils’ sporting skills and confidence in participating in competitive sports have increased due to the carefully planned use of the primary physical education and school sport funding. Older pupils spoke enthusiastically about their experiences of successfully tackling adventurous outdoor activities through attendance at a residential camp.
• Pupils enjoy attending the breakfast club and after-school clubs. These clubs have come about following a governor consultation with parents about the kind of provision they would like to see in their child’s school.
• Leaders are working effectively with Barnsley local authority and with other schools in the Corpus Christi Catholic Federation of Schools to improve teaching across the three schools.

Governance of the school

• The governing body shows great determination to get the school back on track. It is chaired strongly by a national leader of governance who took on the role last year.
• Governors know that teaching over time has been too variable for progress to be good and that the most able pupils need to perform better.
• Governors use performance management of the executive headteacher as a tool to improve teaching. They have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in teaching and check that teachers who need support receive it.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• A strong safeguarding culture prevails. All staff have received appropriate training in safeguarding and designated safeguarding staff have attended higher level courses. All staff are trained to recognise the signs of radicalisation of pupils.
• The commitment of the whole staff to the happiness and security of pupils is a strength. All safeguarding policies meet the statutory requirements and very good procedures ensure that pupils are safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Too few pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics because the quality of teaching over time has been variable across classes and subjects.
• Inconsistencies in the quality of pupils’ learning are mainly due to teachers’ lack of attention to assessment information, leading to work that is not well matched to the skills and abilities of all groups of pupils. Disadvantaged pupils do not make progress at the same rate as their peers.
• Teachers sometimes plan activities that lack challenge. This is particularly the case for the most able, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, who are not being consistently supported to develop their knowledge and mastery of reading and mathematics at a higher level.
• Teachers’ recent improvements to marking and feedback are beginning to have a positive impact on pupils’ learning. However, some inconsistency still exists and not all pupils are following their teacher’s advice and guidance. As a consequence, while some work is completed to a high standard, the quality of work and presentation is variable across the school.
• Teaching is improving. There are emerging strengths in the quality of teaching over time, particularly in key stage 2. Teaching successfully captures pupils’ interest so they are keen to learn. For example, a series of practical science experiments helped Year 4 and Year 5 pupils to gain a good knowledge of how forces work. In Year 6, imaginative teaching methods supported pupils to understand relative clauses and appropriate punctuation in more complex sentences.
• Pupils read regularly and enjoy reading because of a good range of books available to them. Most parents support their child’s reading at home, making regular comments in the home–school organiser. As a result, pupils of all abilities are reading appropriate texts with fluency, expression and understanding.
• Teachers ensure that pupils receive regular homework and parents are kept informed about homework and other school events through the organiser. Homework is effectively supporting the learning of basic knowledge and pupils are benefiting from the additional practice in key skills.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. The vast majority of pupils take responsibility for their learning, demonstrating good attitudes in class.
• Pupils play and learn together harmoniously, regardless of ethnic background. Pupils said, ’There is no racism and everyone treats you with respect.’ One Year 6 pupil told the inspector, ‘Bullying may happen but I have never seen it in my time here.’ This view was corroborated by several other pupils.
• Leaders and teachers help pupils to understand and respect the customs and practices of others. Pupils’ understanding is enhanced through trips and visitors to school and through studies of Brazil, for example, or fund-raising activities for Africa.
• Pupils are helped to learn about healthy lifestyles and making good choices about diet and exercise through regular lessons and through assemblies. Older pupils successfully learn how to manage more complex choices through participation in the ‘Crucial Crew’ programme, which teaches them about drugs, internet safety and personal well-being.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Parents agree that this is the case.
• Pupils like coming to school and love being with their friends. Pupils spoken to by the inspector said, ‘It’s easy to make friends here.’ Recent arrivals to the school agreed that this is the case and that they have been made to feel welcome.
• Pupils concentrate well in lessons and rarely disturb others. A few lose concentration if work is too easy for them. Staff manage behaviour well. A new behaviour code is well understood and consistently used by all, so that incidents of poor behaviour are very infrequent.
• Pupils’ attendance is broadly in line with national averages. The attendance of a few pupils has not been regular enough in the past. Leaders have worked closely with families and with external agencies to support the regular attendance of pupils of White Romany or Gypsy heritage and some pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, so their attendance is much improved.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2015, the attainment of Year 6 pupils was above national averages, but in 2016 pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics dipped to below the national average. Disadvantaged pupils did not do as well as other pupils nationally. At the end of key stage 1, pupils’ attainment was below national averages for reading, writing and mathematics in both 2015 and 2016.
• There is an improving trend in pupils’ progress as they move up through the school. Pupils’ progress is strongest in Year 5 and Year 6. Assessment information in 2016 shows that pupils made progress broadly in line with that seen nationally in reading and mathematics, but below that expected in writing. This was also the pattern in 2015.
• Assessment information for subjects other than English and mathematics is underdeveloped. However, it is possible to deduce from work in pupils’ books that the teaching of science is most effective in upper key stage 2, contributing well to preparing pupils for the science curriculum in high school. In 2016, Year 6 pupils’ attainment in science was above the average seen nationally for all groups of pupils, except those who were disadvantaged.
• Pupils’ work in books shows that current pupils are making at least expected progress across most year groups in reading, writing and mathematics. Boys and girls make progress at similar rates. There are some exceptions to this, particularly in key stage 1, where the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, are not achieving the greater depth in learning required to help them go on to achieve well in key stage 2.
• The teaching of phonics is effective, leading to improvements in the proportion of pupils attaining the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics check over the last three years. Attainment in phonics was above the national figure in 2016.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Significant numbers of children enter school with levels of development below those typically seen for their age. In 2015, only 30% of children arrived at school with skills and knowledge typical for their age, and growing proportions had difficulties with speech and language. In 2016, well below average proportions of children achieved a good level of development when compared with national figures. Disadvantaged children did not do as well as other children.
• Leaders have a clear view of the strengths, weaknesses and overall effectiveness of the early years provision. However, they do not evaluate the impact of provision and teaching on children’s learning and progress with enough precision to identify the things that are making a positive difference to children and those that have less impact.
• Not enough care is taken to use assessment information gathered about children to plan the next steps in their learning. Teaching activities are not consistently planned to take account of children’s abilities, starting from what they know, in order to help them learn new concepts in a logical order.
• Children behave well, play energetically and learn cooperatively. However, teachers do not consistently plan activities in the indoor and outdoor areas to capture and hold children’s interest and support their learning and development. At times, learning activities do not challenge some of the most able children and are too difficult for those children who have special needs and/or disabilities to access independently. As a consequence, children do not make the rapid progress needed to prepare them well for Year 1.
• Leaders have ensured that the setting is safe, that account is taken to ensure that all equipment is well maintained, and that safe levels of supervision are maintained.
• Additional adults play an important role in effectively enhancing play and provision for children. Adults were observed questioning children well to develop their understanding and effectively modelling language for children to copy.
• Children settle quickly into school life, aided by good communication with parents and with pre-school providers. Parents have the opportunity to visit school with their children and to attend meetings to help them and their children assimilate into school life.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106641 Barnsley 10023909 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 Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 132 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Executive headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mark Janvier Damien Thorpe 01226 752120 www.federationcc.org.uk d.thorpe@federationcc.org.uk Date of previous inspection 11 April 2013

Information about this school

• St Michael and All Angels is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium is broadly in line with the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average.
• 70% of pupils are from White British backgrounds, and 30% of pupils are from other minority ethnic groups, the largest of which is White Romany or Gypsy at 13%.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment in English and mathematics.
• Children in the Reception class attend full time. There is no nursery at the school.
• The school is part of the Corpus Christi Catholic Federation of Schools. The executive headteacher is responsible for all three schools in the federation.
• At the time of the inspection, three out of five class teachers were newly qualified.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Together with the executive headteacher and head of school, the inspector looked at pupils’ progress data, information about the performance of teachers, documents relating to behaviour and safety, and documents relating to safeguarding.
• The inspector observed pupils’ learning in parts of 10 lessons, some alongside the head of school.
• The inspector listened to Year 2 and Year 6 pupils read, and observed pupils learning in small groups. They spoke with pupils in lessons, at lunchtime and at playtimes.
• Meetings were held with the executive headteacher and head of school and members of the governing body. A meeting was also held with the local authority school improvement partner.
• The inspector considered the opinion of 17 parents through Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents).
• The inspectors took account of nine online responses returned by members of staff and 14 responses from pupils.

Inspection team

Lesley Butcher, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector