Oldfield Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Urgently improve leadership and management, including governance, by ensuring that leaders:
  • devise precisely targeted plans that focus on improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement rapidly
  • set challenging targets for pupils’ learning throughout the school and ensure that pupils of all abilities and backgrounds are better prepared for secondary school
  • implement robust monitoring systems that enable leaders to swiftly identify when teaching needs to improve, so that all pupils make good progress in their learning
  • develop more effective use of additional funding so that disadvantaged pupils consistently achieve well throughout the school
  • embed a broad and rich academic curriculum that enables pupils to develop secure knowledge and skills in all subjects and a greater proportion of pupils achieve at greater depth and attain higher standards
  • provide subject leaders with targeted support and training so that they can accurately monitor the effectiveness of teaching in their areas of responsibility and take action to secure stronger outcomes for pupils
  • identify appropriate training for governors to be able to evaluate the work of the school and hold leaders to account for pupils’ progress more robustly.
• Rapidly improve teaching and learning in all subjects throughout the school by:
  • providing teachers with high-quality and precisely targeted professional development to improve their subject knowledge
  • making sure that teachers take full account of pupils’ starting points and use assessment information to plan work more precisely for all pupils so that they are challenged appropriately and consistently achieve well
  • planning work that stimulates pupils’ love of learning and holds their interest fully
  • making sure that teachers’ expectations of all pupils are high and that pupils receive the support and guidance they need to succeed in their learning and that the most able pupils move on to more challenging work more rapidly throughout the school
  • making sure that pupils understand their learning fully and have the resources and the support and guidance they need to complete their work successfully
  • ensuring that pupils apply what they have learned previously more confidently when tackling new learning
  • ensuring that targeted interventions for disadvantaged pupils help them to catch up quickly and achieve well
  • routinely providing pupils with sufficient opportunities to practise and apply their literacy and numeracy skills in other subjects.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by ensuring that:
  • teachers consistently promote positive attitudes to learning and equip pupils with the skills and confidence they need to manage their own learning when asked to work independently
  • teachers tackle any lapses in behaviour and inattentiveness swiftly and consistently so that pupils know what is expected of them and work hard and achieve more
  • pupils always do their best and check for errors before submitting their workbooks
  • pupils have a better understanding of the diversity represented in Britain today.
• Improve teaching and provision in early years by ensuring that:
  • leaders evaluate children’s starting points and subsequent progress accurately and rigorously and consistently set sufficiently challenging targets for all children, but particularly the most able
  • children develop confidence and resilience in managing their own learning when working independently. It is recommended that the school undertake an external review of the use of pupil premium funding to determine how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. It is also recommended that the school undertake an external review of governance to determine how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Leaders have not acted with enough rigour or speed to arrest and reverse the decline in the quality of teaching since the previous inspection. School leaders have not managed the high turnover of teachers effectively in that time. As a result, outcomes for pupils, particularly at key stage 2, are well below where they should be. Too many pupils are underachieving.
• Leaders have an overgenerous view of the school’s performance. The school is failing to provide an acceptable standard of education to its pupils and leaders have not demonstrated sufficient capacity to remedy this.
• Pupils start falling behind in their learning because leaders have low expectations of what pupils of all ages are capable of. Consequently, they set targets that are not suitably challenging. As a result, pupils, particularly the most able, do not achieve well.
• The monitoring of teaching and learning is ineffective, as are the systems for managing teachers’ performance. Leaders do not provide the level of support, guidance and training that teachers need to improve their practice and secure higher outcomes for pupils.
• Subject leadership is weak because subject leaders do not receive the level of support and guidance they need from senior leaders in the school to carry out their roles effectively. This means that they are restricted in the degree to which they can improve teaching and help pupils to make better progress.
• While leaders collect pupil progress information diligently, they do not check that teachers make appropriate use of this to inform their planning. The assessment information is largely reliable, and it clearly shows that too few pupils are working at greater depth in any part of the school, and that too many are underachieving.
• Additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils is used to fund additional teaching and provide opportunities for disadvantaged pupils to participate in different activities, such as residential trips. Leaders have identified that the funding has been partially effective in supporting pupils’ social and emotional needs and their personal development, but they have failed to note that over half of the pupils supported through this funding have not made the progress they should have in their learning.
• Leaders are aware that too few pupils attain at greater depth. However, leaders have not checked closely enough that the most able pupils are routinely challenged in their learning. Consequently, too few reach the higher standards of which they are capable.
• The school appointed a temporary leader to take responsibility for special educational needs (SEN) provision at the start of the year. This leader has a clear understanding of the pupils’ specific needs and this helps in planning appropriate academic and pastoral provision. These pupils are now beginning to make better progress as a result.
• The curriculum is poorly planned and narrow. With the decline in outcomes in 2017, the school has focused heavily on English and mathematics, at the expense of other subjects. As a result, the curriculum does not help pupils gain skills, knowledge and understanding in subjects beyond English and mathematics in any depth.
• The teaching of phonics and early reading skills is effective, but from Year 2 onwards, reading at greater depth remains weak. The curriculum provides pupils with a fair range of experiences to enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, but their understanding of the diversity represented in Britain today is limited.
• The PE and sport premium is used effectively to provide opportunities for pupils to learn a range of skills, such as gymnastics and outdoor sports. The sports leader shares her skills and expertise with staff and provides a lively curriculum that supports pupils’ health and well-being effectively. Pupils are very positive about the clubs they can join to keep them active and opportunities to engage in competitions with other schools.
• Leaders have provided teachers with professional development opportunities in the form of support from partner schools and attendance on training courses. However, leaders have not focused sufficiently on checking that this support has had the impact required to improve the quality of teaching in any sustained way.
• Leaders have sought support from the local authority, which has enabled them to identify the key priorities for the school. However, leaders did not act quickly enough on the advice they received from the local authority in September 2017 and pupils continue to underachieve. The school’s development plans identify improvement priorities, but these plans lack precision and clarity as to what actions leaders will do to secure and sustain effective improvement or how they will measure success. Leaders are relying heavily on external support from partner schools and the local authority because there is insufficient leadership capacity within the school. Leaders’ evaluations of their actions are limited and their actions do not sufficiently demonstrate impact.
• Most parents and carers are happy with the school. They like the small-school, family ethos and feel that their children are safe and well cared for. However, a few indicated that they are not always listened to when issues arise. These parents raised concerns regarding support for individual pupils and the lack of challenge, particularly at key stage 2, where they rightly say that teaching does not help their children make good progress.
• The headteacher cares about the pupils and staff in her school and wants to improve outcomes for pupils. However, a lack of secure understanding of how to do this, coupled with the constraints of the leadership structure in this small school, limit the extent to which this ambition can be achieved without support. Staff who responded to the Ofsted inspection survey commented that they enjoy working at the school and believe that the headteacher supports them well.
• The school may not seek to appoint newly qualified teachers at this time.

Governance of the school

• Governance is weak. Governors do not have a precise understanding of the school’s effectiveness. They are not able to challenge leaders and hold them to account. For example, they have not identified that pupil premium funding has not benefited disadvantaged pupils effectively.
• Governors are very supportive of the school and want to serve the pupils and the school community well. However, they do not have sufficient skills to question the school’s performance. They have not acted on the areas for improvement in the previous report or advice from the local authority quickly enough to remedy weaknesses.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders provide staff with relevant updates to training and staff can recognise the signs that might indicate that a child is at risk of harm. Governors and all staff understand their duty of care responsibilities fully and know to follow school procedures if they have any concerns about a child.
• The school keeps detailed and secure records of all referrals to outside agencies and these are routinely followed up by staff to ensure that pupils receive the support they need. The school knows its families well and staff are diligent in ensuring that vulnerable pupils have the care and support they need. The school is particularly supportive of pupils presenting with emotional needs and guides them sensitively. Leaders alert other agencies if appropriate and ensure that parents are fully informed.
• The school also makes sure that staff have relevant information and training to support pupils’ specific medical needs. There are clear procedures for administering first aid and contacting parents, when necessary.
• Leaders carry out and record all necessary checks to ensure that adults in the school are suitable to work with children.
• Governors ensure that all relevant risk assessments and fire drills are undertaken regularly. The introduction of security cameras has strengthened site security and regular checks of boundary walls ensure that any risks to pupils and staff are minimised.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Teachers do not take sufficient account of pupils’ starting points or maximise the use of assessment information that identifies pupils’ previous achievements. Too often, there is a tendency to pitch learning to the needs of middle-ability pupils in each mixed-age class, so failing to engage the most able pupils fully and over-challenging others. This results in gaps in pupils’ learning over time and, when these gaps are not addressed quickly, pupils underachieve.
• Teachers’ expectations of pupils are too low. Teaching does not consistently ensure that pupils are gaining the knowledge and skills appropriate for their age. This means that too few pupils achieve the standards expected of them and only a very small minority achieve higher standards.
• Teachers’ questioning does not deepen pupils’ understanding or check that they understand their work well enough. While teachers give pupils time to discuss their ideas, they then often fail to seek their responses before moving on. Consequently, pupils sometimes become disheartened and do not contribute subsequently. These pupils lose interest and so do not engage fully. Occasionally, this results in lapses in behaviour and incidents of low-level disruption that sometimes go unchecked.
• Pupils are not always clear about what they are learning. In part, this is because teachers do not model work clearly and accurately enough to ensure that all pupils understand.
• Teachers do not always urge pupils to have pride in their work and, consequently, it is sometimes incomplete, untidy and contains some basic errors.
• Teaching assistants are generally deployed well to support individual pupils or small groups. However, teaching support for disadvantaged pupils is not always sharply focused. The impact of their work is sometimes restricted by teachers’ weak planning of learning and lack of clarity as to what pupils should achieve. Staff ‘coach’ pupils to complete tasks set rather than checking that pupils understand their learning. Consequently, some pupils do not make the accelerated progress needed to catch up. Some pupils receive effective and sensitive guidance and counselling to help them to manage their emotions, and this is improving their readiness to engage in their learning and make better progress.
• The systematic teaching of phonics is improving in early years and Year 1. This has resulted in pupils developing secure early reading skills. However, some older pupils are still catching up from previous weak teaching and current teaching is not focused sharply enough on accelerating their progress. This means that some readers struggle to read with fluency and accuracy, particularly at key stage 2.
• The teaching of spelling and grammar is sporadic and inconsistent across the school. This hinders how well pupils can apply and consolidate these skills in their written work. While the basic skills of literacy are taught from early years onwards, without direction and reminders, pupils make careless errors that detract from their work.
• Pupils do not apply with sufficient confidence the skills they have learned previously to help them with new learning. For example, during the inspection, some pupils were unable to use their phonic skills to read unfamiliar vocabulary or interpret turns of phrase to fully understand their reading. They knew about features of good writing, but only use such features when reminded, so limiting their progress.
• While most pupils are eager to learn and enjoy being challenged, there are too few opportunities for pupils to practise their reading, writing and mathematical skills in other subjects. Overall, the organisation, quality and teaching of the curriculum are poor. Consequently, pupils are held back from developing their full potential or acquiring a love of learning across different subjects.
• The teaching of mathematics is weak. While basic skills are established from early years onwards, weaknesses in teaching over time result in too many gaps in learning that often only the most able pupils can circumvent. Support from the mathematics leader from a partner school is effectively highlighting these gaps, but the teaching of mathematics is not improving quickly enough. Occasionally, this is due to weaknesses in teachers’ subject knowledge, but mostly it is because teachers do not always build successfully on what pupils have learned previously. Pupils enjoy the mental mathematics tests and activities that teachers introduce to increase pupils’ speed and agility in number, but because work is not matched well to pupils’ abilities, the level of challenge is often not high enough for some.
• Staff form supportive relations with pupils and generally expect them to demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Most pupils appreciate and respect their teachers and try their best. They particularly enjoy PE and music because teaching in these subjects is strong.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Support for pupils who experience difficulties in their lives or who need help to manage their behaviour is effective in enabling them to cope in stressful situations. However, this pastoral support does not always have the same good impact on their academic success.
• Most pupils form positive relationships with staff and are confident that teachers will help them if they are worried or upset. A few are less sure about approaching school staff, preferring to go to their parents or friends instead for this support.
• The most vulnerable pupils are supported well, with school staff alerting other agencies where appropriate to seek their expertise and guidance. Parents are kept informed of such interventions and appreciate all the school does to care for their children and their families.
• Pupils enjoy taking active roles in school life as ‘play buddies’ and school councillors. These pupils are very positive about their contribution to school, for example by speaking on behalf of others, and through generally helping around the school. They act as valuable role models in offering guidance and advice to pupils who seek their help. All pupils are active fund-raisers in supporting various charities and helping others.
• Pupils have frequent opportunities to learn about online bullying and know how to stay safe when using the internet. They discuss the possible dangers of using social media sites and know that cyber bullying is a real threat. They explain that they must not give out personal information online. Most pupils confirm that bullying at school does happen but is very rare and that adults would quickly sort out any problems if they did occur.
• Pupils’ spiritual and cultural development is enhanced by opportunities to reflect on their own experience and a range of cultures and faiths. For example, they learn about different places of worship through visits. However, their experience of diversity is limited.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Most pupils enjoy school and are keen to learn, but teachers do not take full advantage of this enthusiasm. In most situations, pupils understand school routines and know what is expected of them regarding conduct and effort. Most listen to teachers’ instructions even when teaching does not support their learning as well as it should. However, despite pupils’ best efforts, a small number lose interest and disengage, and so lapses in behaviour ensue. Such interruptions, particularly at key stage 2, often go unchecked and continue to slow the learning of too many pupils.
• Most pupils work cooperatively and sensibly. A few find it difficult to be self-sufficient and lack the skills to manage their learning independently if help is not immediately to hand. In these situations, they become restive and chatty and so achieve too little.
• Most pupils behave well around the school, including in the playground and dining hall. The school is generally a calm, orderly and happy place where pupils help each other and look out for each other in the playground.
• Pupils attend regularly because they like school and want to achieve well. Leaders successfully raised attendance last year to be in line with the national average.
• Most parents, pupils and staff confirm that behaviour is well managed. Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Over time, pupils in the school underachieve. Too few achieve the standards expected of them and very few achieve at the higher standards at all key stages.
• At key stage 2, for the last two years, pupils’ progress in mathematics, reading and writing has been in the bottom 20% of all schools nationally. In 2017, pupils’ progress in all three subjects was significantly lower than the national average. Pupils’ progress in mathematics was particularly poor. In that year, pupils did not meet the minimum standards expected of pupils at the end of Year 6 due to their weak performance in reading and mathematics.
• The picture in 2017, for pupils at the end of key stage 1, was not much stronger, because teaching was not effective in both Year 1 and Year 2. Pupils did not make the progress they should have, based on their starting points.
• The progress of pupils currently in the school is too slow because leaders have failed to act with the degree of urgency required to reverse a legacy of weak teaching. Actions that leaders have taken have been slow to take hold, and learning is not suitably planned to help pupils make strong progress.
• While leaders have taken action to improve the teaching of mathematics this year, the impact so far is minimal. The long-term legacy of weak teaching still prevails. For example, pupils in Year 5 have considerable gaps in all aspects of mathematical understanding and are working at a level well below the standards expected for their age. This is because pupils throughout the school are not routinely provided with opportunities to practise and apply the skills they have learned. For some, new work is introduced too quickly for them to understand concepts securely and teachers move on before learning is embedded. For example, some pupils in the Year 5/6 class did not have a secure understanding of rounding up or down when working with decimal numbers or how to calculate averages when handling data.
• In reading, while the grounding in phonics and basic skills of reading is generally effective in early years and Year 1, pupils underachieve subsequently because they do not explore unfamiliar vocabulary or features of writing in different types of texts. This is because time dedicated to reading in school is limited and the quality of teaching of reading is inconsistent. Less confident readers, given the choice, do not read regularly enough, further slowing their progress. The most able readers demonstrate a love of reading when they talk enthusiastically about their favourite authors or texts.
• Outcomes in writing are stronger. Nevertheless, too few pupils attain at greater depth or higher standards because opportunities for them to develop and extend their writing skills through other subjects are too limited. Teachers sometimes do not make it clear to pupils what they want them to learn. Additionally, teachers’ expectations are inconsistent and so the work pupils produce in other subjects does not reflect the standard of work they produce in their literacy books.
• There is little evidence that pupils develop a depth of knowledge, understanding and skills in the full range of subjects beyond English and mathematics. Pupils undertake work in most subjects, but often this is too infrequent for pupils to develop their knowledge and skills successfully. Over time, they cover too little ground to be confident in their learning or to apply previous learning to new contexts.
• Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are not consistently strong. Additional support is not always well matched to pupils’ individual learning needs and teachers’ expectations of what these pupils can achieve are generally not high enough.
• A number of pupils join the school part-way through their primary education, some with considerable gaps in their learning. While some of these pupils make up lost ground effectively, most do not.
• Specialist support was delayed in previous years for some pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and so some still have considerable gaps in their learning. However, through more focused support this year, these pupils are now making better progress, though the level of challenge is still not as high as it might be for those capable of making more rapid progress.
• Outcomes in the Year 1 and Year 2 phonics screening check were in line with the national average in 2017 because the teaching of phonics is effective in early years and Year 1. Pupils acquire the basic skills to decode words accurately and confidently.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Outcomes at the end of Reception fluctuate from year to year, depending on the profile of children in each year group. Cohort sizes do vary from year to year. The current Reception group is larger, and most children are developing the skills and understanding expected for their age. Even so, due to lack of challenge, too few achieve beyond the expected good level of development.
• The leadership of provision in early years requires improvement. This is because current leadership does not focus on aspects of teaching that need to improve urgently, particularly in ensuring that teaching challenges all children sufficiently and that the activities promote greater independence when children initiate their own leaning.
• Most children enter the Reception group with skills and knowledge typical for their age and generally make steady progress over time. Too few make rapid progress because teachers’ expectations, of the most able particularly, are not high enough. Children in the current Reception group are working at skills typical for their age in all the areas of learning. They also benefit from working alongside Year 1 pupils, who act as good role models for children’s personal and academic development.
• Children know what is expected of them and listen carefully to instructions. Staff provide a range of resources to underpin children’s learning, but when planning is not well structured, and staff do not explain clearly enough what children are to achieve, some children do not make as much progress they could. For example, a number of children struggled with explaining what a ‘quarter turn’ was and how this related to previous work on fractions.
• The strong focus on speaking and listening successfully promotes children’s confidence in talking about their work and children gain a firm grounding in phonics and early reading skills. For example, children were eager to ‘sell’ package holidays with options to fly to the moon. They explained that, ‘You can go there in a rocket, but we haven’t got any tickets printed yet; can we have your credit card to pay for it!’
• Children are more confident learners when they work with adults than when they initiate their own learning, because they enjoy the attention they receive in these activities and want to impress. When working on their own, a few find it difficult to sustain interest and concentration, particularly when it is unclear to them what they are supposed to be learning.
• The early years environment is attractive and inviting, with areas inside and out that engage children’s curiosity. Children are confident with school routines. Most behave well, showing kindness when sharing toys and equipment. Learning experiences and the effective care, guidance and support in early years help children to be suitably prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Adults in early years develop warm and caring relationships with children. Adults have a good understanding of how to keep children safe and know how to assess when children might be at risk. Children know whom to talk to if they have concerns.
• Early years staff work closely with parents to share information about how well their children are doing. Parents appreciate the communication from adults at school, which is helping them to understand how to support their children at home.

School details

Unique reference number 107266 Local authority Bradford Inspection number 10047374

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 5 to 11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 56 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mark Curtis Headteacher Fiona Lidstone-Green Telephone number 01535 642394 Website www.oldfieldprimarykeighley.co.uk Email address flidstone@oldfield.bradford.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 17–18 September 2013

Information about this school

• The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• There have been a number of changes in staffing since the previous inspection.
• Children attend full time in the Reception class.
• Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above average.
• In 2017, the school did not meet the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• A greater proportion of pupils join or leave the school at other than the expected times, compared with schools nationally.
• The school provides a breakfast club and offers a range of after-school activities.
• The school has been receiving support from schools in the federation that it is due to join shortly.

Inspection report: Oldfield Primary School, 12–13 June 2018 Page 13 of 15

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed teaching throughout the school, including numerous shared observations with the headteacher and a senior leader from the school’s partner in the federation it is due to join. In addition, the inspector scrutinised pupils’ workbooks and listened to some pupils read.
• The inspector held meetings with pupils, the chair of the governing body and two other governors, the headteacher, subject leaders and the leader managing provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. The inspector also had a meeting with a representative from the local authority, and the executive headteacher of the federation and her senior representatives. In addition, the inspector had a telephone conversation with the chair of the federation’s governing body.
• The inspector observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including the school’s evaluation of its own performance, current data on pupils’ progress, and planning and monitoring documentation. The inspector reviewed how well leaders used funding for disadvantaged pupils and for primary school PE and sport. The inspector also took into consideration records relating to behaviour and attendance, as well as documents relating to safeguarding.
• The inspector took into consideration the 24 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, the views of a few parents she spoke with during the inspection and those of parents who made telephone contact. The inspector also considered the views of the 26 parents who submitted text messages to Ofsted.
• The inspector took account of the seven responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and she talked to staff during the inspection about their views of the school.
• Ofsted received 42 pupil responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire and these were considered along with views pupils expressed in person during the inspection.

Inspection team

Rajinder Harrison, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector