Marshfield Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve the quality of teaching by:
  • embedding the teaching sequence for reading comprehension and vocabulary
  • developing pupils’ reading skills so that they read accurately and fluently
  • further developing pupils’ independent learning attitudes.
• Further improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • continuing to develop the skills of subject leaders to enable them to evaluate the quality of provision in their area of responsibility
  • continuing to develop the roles and responsibility of governors.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher, senior leaders and governors are ambitious and aspirational for the pupils. Since her appointment two years ago, the headteacher has led a series of strategies to improve the quality of teaching across the curriculum. An uncompromising approach to ensure that teaching is consistently good across the school has led to a trend of improving achievement.
• Parents are appreciative of the work of the school. They say that their children enjoy coming to school, are taught well and make good progress. One parent said, ‘I feel my son is stretched and challenged in all subjects. He enjoys telling us about his school life and what he learns and has many positive stories to tell.’ On Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, the very large majority of parent responses were positive, with almost all parents recommending the school to others.
• Leaders and governors have an accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses in the school and what still needs to be done to improve further. School plans set priorities that are tackled systematically and are resulting in good teaching, good personal development, behaviour and welfare, and improving pupils’ outcomes.
• Systems for managing the performance of staff are well organised. These systems ensure that teachers and learning support assistants are focused on the school’s priorities. These are currently improving pupils’ progress in reading, and ensuring that leaders hold staff to account for pupils making good and better progress. Senior leaders have not been afraid to take action if performance does not meet the school’s high expectations for raising standards.
• Senior leaders for English, mathematics and the curriculum check the quality of teaching thoroughly and set high standards. Leaders ensure that teachers use the school’s teaching sequences consistently well and this is supporting good improvements in pupils’ learning. However, the addition of a sequence for teaching comprehension and developing vocabulary has yet to be embedded fully.
• Leaders track pupils’ progress rigorously using teacher assessments, tests and the work in pupils’ books. Underachieving pupils are identified and targeted for additional support.
• Subject leaders are well supported by experienced colleagues to develop their leadership skills so that they can effectively evaluate the quality of teaching in their areas and identify what needs to be developed further. They are in the process of developing systems to assess achievement in each of the foundation subjects. Further work is required to ensure that subject leaders are able to fulfil their roles independently in determining the quality of provision in their subject areas.
• The pupil premium funding is used effectively. Funding is reviewed regularly to ensure that it is helping pupils to achieve their full potential. As a result, the overall difference between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that other pupils nationally is diminishing.
• The leaders responsible for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities ensure that these pupils receive good support for their learning and welfare needs. The progress of this group of pupils is tracked carefully so adjustments can be made to the interventions that support them. As a result, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make similar rates of good progress compared with that of other pupils nationally.
• The primary school PE and sport funding is used well. It is spent to increase the range of sports that pupils can participate in and to purchase specialist equipment. There has been an increase in pupil participation in sports clubs in school and an increase in the school’s participation in inter-school competitions.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, including an appreciation of British values, is promoted very effectively through the wider curriculum. Pupils learn to appreciate the work of artists, authors and musicians through the topics they study. Through religious education they are taught about different religions and learn to appreciate the similarities and differences between them.
• The school has developed a curriculum that is exciting and relevant for the pupils at the school. Through themed topics such as Chocolate, Young Entrepreneurs, Pirates and Treasure, and Explorers, pupils investigate the theme through research activities. Visitors and visits relating to the theme are used to stimulate pupils’ interest and develop their skills in reading, writing, mathematics and other subjects. Presentations by pupils at the end of a theme are well attended by parents who are able to witness first hand what their children have learned.
• Links with parents and the community have been strengthened over the last two years, not only through the sharing of pupils’ learning across the curriculum, but also through fitness workshops, the reading café, English for speakers of other languages sessions and parent and toddler groups. When asked, parents said that they felt that they receive enough information from the school about their child’s progress.
• The school works closely with other schools in the locality. It shares its expertise in the teaching of mathematics with other schools, and its skills to moderate outcomes at the end of key stage 1 with schools throughout the city.
• The local authority has every confidence in the leadership of the headteacher. It has an accurate view of the school’s strengths and areas for further improvement. School leaders have maintained a link with their previous local authority adviser to conduct reviews on aspects such as special educational needs and the curriculum to obtain an external perspective of the school’s provision.

Governance of the school

• Following a period of turbulence over the last two years, the governing body has
• Governors understand that pupil achievement is the focus for school improvement and recruited governors that have a range of expertise and skills. As a result, governors are becoming a more effective body that challenges and supports school leaders and holds them to account for the performance of the school. that raising achievement in reading is the key priority.
• Governors are well informed because they are provided with high-quality, detailed information by the headteacher and others. Some governors take on responsibility for liaising with senior leaders on aspects of the school’s provision, such as safeguarding, special educational needs, finance and the curriculum.
• They visit the school regularly and engage with senior leaders in monitoring teaching and learning. In addition, they have engaged in whole-school reviews evaluating aspects of the school’s provision, such as the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum and provision for special educational needs. As a result, governors have a clear understanding about the quality of teaching and learning.
• Governors scrutinise the use and impact of pupil premium funding. This funding is allocated to some whole-school strategies and on specific support for disadvantaged pupils so that they make the good progress towards expected levels of attainment. However, governors are less conversant in their understanding of the allocation and impact of PE and sport funding and the timely reporting on special educational needs provision to the governing body.
• Governors understand their statutory duties for safeguarding.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders have created a school culture in which all staff have a focus on safeguarding children. Staff are well trained, knowledgeable and vigilant about safeguarding matters, including the strategy to keep children safe from radicalisation and extremism.
• Safeguarding records are very thorough and exhibit the school’s commitment to keeping children safe, particularly the most vulnerable. Leaders take appropriate action when necessary and refer to, and communicate effectively with, outside agencies.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The headteacher and senior leaders have focused strongly on developing the quality of teaching. They have developed a structure that teachers follow to plan for the teaching of reading into writing, mathematics and the curriculum. This ensures that the quality of teaching is good overall.
• Teachers use books that engage pupils, and through these texts, pupils practise their reading competence and comprehension, explore vocabulary and grammar, and refine their writing skills.
• These books are often linked to the themes in the broader curriculum and because of this, both boys and girls are engaged and motivated to learn. For example, the book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was the start for pupils in Year 4 to find out about the history of chocolate, to experiment with chocolate in science and to make their own chocolate in technology.
• Across the curriculum, there are opportunities for pupils to write at length. This contributes well to developing pupils’ good writing skills and pupils making good progress. This is reflected in their progress in writing through school and the increasing proportion of pupils who achieve the higher standards in writing.
• Teaching in mathematics is effective. Explanations are clear and the school’s teaching structure ensures that pupils have opportunities to practise mathematical concepts and then apply their understanding of these in solving problems.
• Pupils take pride in their work. The quality of the work and presentation in pupils’ books is often exemplary. Work in pupils’ books shows that they are appropriately challenged and are making good progress across all curriculum subjects.
• The improvement of reading has been a priority and leaders have implemented a number of new approaches to teaching reading. This is focusing on developing pupils’ vocabulary and they are now more confident when answering questions about texts, referring to evidence from what they have read. The introduction of high-quality texts and strategies such as the online reading challenges mean that pupils are increasingly enthusiastic about reading.
• Pupils and parents have more frequent opportunities to read because of the school’s promotion of home reading and the development of the school library.
• Inspectors listened to groups of pupils read from different year groups. A common feature of pupils’ reading was the speed with which they read aloud. As a result, pupils mispronounced words and did not always use punctuation to read with expression. Reading at such speed meant that pupils did not always fully understand what they had read.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge so that clear explanations help pupils to settle to their work and make good progress. Questioning is skilful and adjusted to the varying abilities of pupils. Teachers generally use their conversations with pupils to identify any misconceptions and address these quickly.
• Teaching assistants make an effective contribution to learning. They have a clear understanding and sound subject knowledge to be able to support pupils’ learning accurately. They use questioning skilfully to probe pupils’ understanding.
• Teachers regularly mark pupils’ books and pupils respond to the advice to make improvements to their work.
• On a few occasions, teaching is not as responsive to learning by moving pupils on quickly to more challenging tasks. In addition, when pupils finish tasks, some are reliant on teacher guidance to initiate further learning. When this happens, the pace of learning slows. Furthermore, in a few classes, some pupils are reliant on adult support to ensure that they stay on task.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are proud of their school and they take pride in their work. This can be seen in all their books where the presentation of their work is exemplary.
• Leaders work successfully with other agencies, including the local authority, police, ‘Prevent’ duty team and social care, when they identify any pupils or families that may be at risk.
• At breakfast club, pupils behave well, are kept safe and can choose to eat a healthy breakfast. Pupils gain a good understanding of healthy lifestyles through their physical education and science lessons.
• Pupils show good manners and courtesy to each other and the adults working with them. Pupils are pleasant, polite and keen to share with visitors that they feel the school is friendly and fair.
• The school puts great emphasis on promoting eight personal goals – enquiry, adaptability, resilience, morality, communication, thoughtfulness, cooperation and respect – which are displayed in every classroom. Pupils can talk about what each of these means and how these personal attributes help them to learn.
• All pupils spoken to during the inspection said that they were safe and enjoy school. Pupils in key stage 1 and key stage 2 have an appropriate understanding of the potential risks of using the internet and social media, including the use of mobile phones.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The school is a calm and orderly environment. Pupils conduct themselves well inside the school and in the playground, where they are well supervised by adults.
• Pupils understand the expectations for their behaviour and the consequences for not behaving in a positive way. They enjoy the rewards they receive for good behaviour and good work.
• Pupils are clear about different types of bullying and say that instances of bullying are very rare. They are confident that when there are concerns about bullying or behaviour, these are dealt with effectively by staff.
• Nearly all parents who responded to Parent View agree that pupils are well behaved.
• Pupils listen to their peers and to adults and show consideration for views that may be different from their own.
• Leaders have a robust system to check pupils’ attendance. Absences are followed up swiftly on the first day and the school liaises with local authority agencies where there are concerns about absence. As a result, most pupils attend regularly so that attendance is improving and is close to the average.
• As a result of the school working closely with the parents of pupils who have challenging behaviour, the number and frequency of fixed-term exclusions have declined significantly.
• Attitudes to learning are generally good. However, occasionally, a few pupils lose concentration in lessons, although they rarely disturb the work of other pupils. Some pupils are reliant on adults to support and guide their learning. As a result, some pupils wait to be told what to do when they finish work rather than taking the initiative to find out what is required.

Outcomes for pupils

Good

• Over the last two years since the headteacher’s appointment, she and the senior leadership team have focused their efforts on improving the quality of teaching and learning. Consequently, teaching is good and key stage 2 attainment has risen from standards below the national average for the last three years to be close to the national average in 2017.
• By the end of key stage 2 in 2017, pupils had made better progress when compared with the national picture in writing and mathematics. Progress in reading is slower. The school has some concerns that teachers had been too generous with their assessments at the end of key stage 1 in 2013. Despite this assumption, the school has identified reading to be an area for development to address any underachievement. Because of a focus on the teaching of reading, attainment and progress outcomes have improved at the end of key stage 2 when compared with those in 2016.
• Current pupils’ work in books, in all year groups, shows that pupils across the school are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics and across a range of subjects taught through the school’s thematic approach to the curriculum. Pupils are building on previous learning and developing secure knowledge, skills and understanding from their different starting points.
• The most able pupils make good progress in writing and mathematics because teachers have high expectations and are setting challenging work for them. As a result, the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standards exceeds the national average in writing and is equal to the national average in mathematics.
• Disadvantaged pupils are making good progress in writing and mathematics. In key stage 2, differences are diminishing between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally in reading because of good support from teachers and teaching assistants. Additional reading sessions to accelerate progress are beginning to have a positive impact on outcomes. However, in reading and mathematics, the rates of progress are not sufficient to enable disadvantaged pupils to achieve the higher standards.
• Analysis of the current work of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities shows that they make effective progress from their individual starting points. They benefit from the support of teachers and teaching assistants who ensure that their learning needs are met.
• Attainment in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 1 at expected levels has been sustained over the last two years and is broadly in line with the national average. However, the good progress of the most able pupils has enabled a greater proportion to achieve greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics than in previous years.
• In the most recent screening check for phonics at the end of Year 1, attainment has increased year on year to be above the national average in 2017. The good teaching of phonics has led to these improving outcomes.

Early years provision

Good

• The quality of early years education has been sustained since the last inspection and remains good.
• Effective leadership in early years means that children get off to a good start in school. The early years leader has a good knowledge of the early years curriculum and knows the children well.
• Overall, children enter early years with skills that are below those typical for their age.
• Children make good progress from their starting points. This progress is reflected in children’s learning journeys, which show their achievement across the early years curriculum.
• Children’s progress is tracked by the early years leader. This tracking determines the way in which individual children are supported by adults to develop their skills. As a result, gender gaps have diminished over time and the small number of disadvantaged children achieve as well as other children.
• By the end of Nursery, children are well prepared for life in Reception. By the end of Reception, they are well prepared for Year 1.
• Adults understand how young children learn and know the children in the Nursery and Reception classes very well. They work seamlessly as a team, interacting with all the children in the setting. There is a focus on developing children’s language and vocabulary, which are modelled by adults throughout the day.
• By constantly asking children questions to determine their understanding, adults direct children to the next level of learning so that their reading, writing and numeracy skills are developed further.
• Early years provides a range of opportunities for children to explore, engage in and enjoy indoors and outdoors. Adults use their skills to plan a wide range of experiences that meet children’s interests and ensure that the tasks are appropriate for different ability levels so that most-able children are challenged to develop skills beyond those expected for their age.
• Across early years, there are positive relationships and routines that enable children to settle quickly and work with adults, but also work independently. Children’s behaviour is good inside and outside, where activities are well managed so that children engage in cooperative and purposeful play.
• Adult-led activities promote high levels of engagement from children. Most children stay on task when working independently. However, some children, mainly boys, are easily distracted, lose their focus and wander off to another task unless they are closely supervised by an adult.
• Relationships with parents are good. One parent, whose child had joined the Reception class from another Nursery setting, said, ‘My daughter loves attending her Reception class. The staff have worked really hard to help her gain her confidence and she loves to talk about the exciting activities she takes part in.’
• Adults are very vigilant to ensure that children are safe in the provision. They have received appropriate training in first aid and the reporting of safeguarding matters. All the appropriate safeguarding and welfare requirements are met.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107215 Bradford 10037712 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 461 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Mr Zakir Pandor Mrs Victoria Hartford Telephone number 01274 573295 Website Email address www.marshfieldprimary.com office@marshfield.bradford.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 21–22 May 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Marshfield Primary School is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium is average.
• The large majority of pupils are of Pakistani backgrounds.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is just below the national average. This has reduced from the past.
• The proportion of pupils who have a statement of SEN or an education, health and care plan is just above the national average. This has increased in recent years.
• Children attend the Nursery part time.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed 18 lessons across all years. Three of these lessons were conducted jointly with an inspector and the headteacher. Observations were made of the breakfast club.
• Inspectors looked at a range of pupils’ work either in lessons or as a separate activity with subject leaders and senior leaders.
• Meetings took place with the headteacher, senior leaders and subject leaders, a group of staff and groups of pupils. The lead inspector met with three representatives of the governing body, a consultant school improvement adviser and with a representative of the local authority. An inspector also spoke with parents at the beginning of the school day. Inspectors listened to various children read.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktime and lunchtime.
• Inspectors also took into account the 17 parental responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and the 13 parental text responses.
• Inspectors looked at a variety of documentation, including the school’s own self-evaluation of its provision and its school development plan. Inspectors also considered information relating to safeguarding, governance, the performance management of teachers, pupil achievement information, and information on the curriculum and behaviour and attendance.

Inspection team

Christine Turner, lead inspector Simon Bissett Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Mary Lanovy-Taylor Ofsted Inspector