Scout Road Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Continue to improve the quality of writing by ensuring that all pupils develop their skills as writers across the curriculum and are able to write accurately, at appropriate length and in a range of genres to suit their readers.
• Improve the impact of teaching assistants, by:
  • building on their current skills and identifying areas for further development and training so that they can play a fuller part in planning and assessment
  • identifying and developing their potential skills and aspirations and matching them closely to the needs of the school
  • monitoring and supporting their work to ensure that they are using their skills to benefit all pupils, including the most able.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher and governors have a determined focus on continuing to improve the school. At the time of the inspection, the school had only been back in its permanent building for a few days. This is because, due to a landslide, the school had been relocated to temporary accommodation for the previous 10 months. During this time, the headteacher ensured that staff and pupils were safe and that the quality of education was not affected unduly.
• The headteacher is determined to improve the school further. In this, she is fully supported by her staff and appropriately challenged by governors. The headteacher and governors have created a skilled and effective team of staff that work well together and are focused on the well-being and educational needs of all pupils. As a result, children and pupils are making good progress.
• Subject and phase leaders effectively support staff across the school. They model good practice and promptly identify areas for further development. They then work with staff to develop their skills. The leadership of the early years is particularly strong and the skills displayed and example set in this area of the school are having a positive impact across the school.
• Senior leaders monitor the quality of teaching carefully and track its impact on pupils’ progress. The headteacher uses the outcomes of her accurate observations of the work of teachers and, increasingly, teaching assistants to set clear performance targets. These are carefully linked to the school’s detailed plans and appropriately linked to pay.
• The headteacher and governors are clear about the importance of working with partners. For example, the headteacher has forged close links with the Calder Valley Cluster. Through this group, local schools share training and expertise. This helps ensure the accuracy of teachers’ assessments of pupils’ work and progress. As a result, teachers’ skills and subject knowledge continue to improve and they have an accurate understanding of how well the pupils at the school are doing.
• Leaders and governors are realistic about the performance of the school and are clear about what it needs to do to improve further. For example, leaders have acted promptly and very effectively to address the relatively poorer performance in key stage 2 writing, particularly of boys. They have tackled this issue with a range of challenging and imaginative initiatives. They have used outside expertise to support and challenge teaching. Teachers across the school are linking reading much more closely with writing. The marking policy has been adjusted to help ensure that pupils edit and improve their writing. Spelling is more coherently taught.
• The curriculum is balanced and broad and prepares pupils well for their next steps in learning and for life in modern Britain. There is a range of trips available to all pupils. These are carefully linked to aspects of the curriculum to make the most of pupils’ learning in and out of the classroom. For example, a recent trip to the Thackray Museum in Leeds was linked to a key stage 2 topic on the history of medicine.
• Leaders ensure that pupils have access to a wide range of after-school activities, along with lunchtime and homework clubs. These include a choir, a cooking club and a newspaper club. During assemblies and within the curriculum, activities are planned to develop pupils’ understanding of British values. For example, in the time leading up to Remembrance Day, assembly times focused on the positive impact that kindness and giving has on other people and how quiet acts of selflessness can have a long-lasting impact on others. These activities are enhancing the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• Pupil premium funding is used effectively. Strategies ensure that disadvantaged pupils receive more focused and precise support to overcome any difficulties in learning they may have. There is clear evidence that these pupils make as good if not better progress than their peers.
• Funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is being used effectively. Leaders ensure that pupils receive the help, support and guidance they need to support their development. Leaders track the impact of this support, and ensure that changes to provision are made quickly, as and when necessary.
• Physical education and sport funding is being used well to develop staff’s confidence and skills. It is also providing wider opportunities for pupils to participate in events with other schools through a sports partnership. Older pupils benefit from residential visits which enhance their team-building skills and self-esteem, along with enjoying physical activities outdoors.
• Leaders and governors make sure that parents are well informed about all aspects of their child’s education at school. Effective communication between school and home helped to minimise the negative impact of the recent relocation of the school. Parents are appreciative of the strong communication links.

Governance of the school

• The governing body is well led and effective. Governors have an accurate and realistic view of the school’s work. They are clear about what needs to be done to improve further.
• The chair and the governing body have provided effective support to the school during a challenging period of disruption and uncertainty.
• Governors know the school well because they visit regularly, have links to areas of the curriculum and carry out specific activities. All of these help sharpen governors’ focus on what is being done well and what more needs to be done.
• Governors are challenging and question leaders about the impact of initiatives to improve. They do not always challenge deeply enough about the impact of the use of funding to support disadvantaged pupils.
• Governors are effectively involved in holding leaders and teachers to account for improving the quality of teaching and learning. Governors employ appropriate support to help and challenge them in their management of the headteacher’s performance.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that pupils are kept safe through the implementation of their robust systems and recruitment procedures. Both staff and governors have up-to-date safer-recruitment knowledge from recent training. This is implemented during all recruitment activities which means that thorough checks are carried out on all members of staff.
• Staff receive regular training which ensures that they understand recent changes in guidance, best practice and legislation in child protection.
• Close collaboration of all staff, the sharing of vital information about pupils, and identified members of staff to work with vulnerable pupils as well as their families, reflect a culture where the safety of all pupils is of paramount importance.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Pupils enjoy learning and are engaged by teaching which is well suited to their needs, extends their experience and develops their skills. Teachers know their pupils well, have generally high expectations and good subject knowledge. There is a well-established culture of learning in each classroom. Pupils are motivated and encouraged to find things out for themselves. Teachers expect this.
• Teachers plan carefully using their detailed knowledge of their pupils. They monitor the impact of their teaching so that pupils make good progress. The school has recently introduced a new system for tracking how pupils are doing. This is already having a very positive impact and is adding even more to teachers’ detailed knowledge. This, in turn, is improving the quality of teaching further.
• Teachers, generally, use focused questioning well to develop and deepen pupils’ learning, particularly that of the most able pupils. Teachers have high expectations and use their skills to elicit more complex answers by asking the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of a situation in a story or mathematical problem rather than the more mundane ‘what’.
• The inspector saw some examples of high-quality writing during the inspection, particularly from the most able pupils. This writing took account of the needs of the audience the pupils were writing for and showed evidence of confidence and skill. There were also examples of pupils writing at length, particularly in key stage 2.
• These effective strategies for sustained improvements in writing are underpinned by the pupils’ growing confidence in editing and reflecting on their own written work. This is a key element of the school-wide assessment and marking policy which staff follow.
• Reading is a strength of the school. There is a well-stocked library at its heart. Children and pupils are encouraged to read both at school and at home. There are good links with home via the school reading diaries.
• The most able readers have well-developed comprehensions skills and are able to identify how the writer uses language to create effects in the book they are reading. Less able readers, generally, have developing skills in phonics so that they are able to decode words that they have not seen before.
• In mathematics, teachers help pupils build on a sound grasp of simple number operations, such as adding together numbers under ten in their heads, to take on more complex ‘open-ended’ problems. These often involve complex language which pupils have to understand before they can solve the problem. The inspector saw evidence of teachers using imaginative and challenging ways to help all pupils, but particularly the most able, to untangle these knotty mathematical problems and get to the root of the matter.
• Although the inspector saw examples of very good practice, overall, teaching assistants are not being used as effectively as they should be because they have not had enough opportunities to develop their skills. Their expectations of what pupils can and should do are not always as high as those of teachers. During the inspection there were examples of teaching assistants doing too much for the pupils for whom they were responsible. Also, teaching assistants’ questioning of pupils was not as demanding as it should be.
• Teachers are not giving pupils sufficient opportunities to write at length in subjects other than English. As a result, pupils are not developing and deepening their skills as, for example, historians and geographers.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The overwhelming opinion of parents who completed the inspection survey and/or spoke with the inspector was that their children are very well cared for at the school. Parents were particularly complimentary about the way the headteacher and her staff had made the 10 months in temporary accommodation a safe, rewarding and challenging learning experience.
• Pupils learn about and take part in democratic processes by electing others to represent their views on the active school council. As well as membership of the council, the school offers opportunities for a range of other positions of responsibility. These include roles as prefects and Year 6 pupils acting as reading ‘buddies’ for children in the early years. Pupils take their responsibilities seriously and strive to do their best on behalf of others.
• There is a strong culture of working together at the school. Pupils help each other with their learning and they play well together. Pupils look out for each other. The school’s prefects are particularly proud of their role in caring for others. As one said, ‘We are the eyes and ears of the teachers.’
• Pupils reported that they felt safe and know how to keep themselves safe, including when online. This is because safety has a very high profile at the school. It is a regular topic of discussion and teaching. There are regular assemblies and training sessions for pupils on topics such as road and water safety.
• The school has worked effectively to ensure that pupils are very clear about how to recognise and deal with bullying. Pupils were able to describe and talk confidently about the range of forms that bullying can take. They are clear about what they should do if they or a friend felt anxious or concerned.
• The school fosters and develops a sense of community through assemblies and shared experiences. For example, during the inspection a class teacher used expert questioning to gather insights into Remembrance Day from her class drawn from her pupils’ experience of their relatives. This was followed by the reading of a short poem and a period of silence that was all the more profound because pupils saw how it was important to them, to their loved ones and to the nation.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils are well behaved both in the classroom and around the school. They are kind and show consideration for each other. The very few examples of low-level disruption seen were carefully and effectively handled by staff.
• Pupils play well together. Despite the relatively cramped play areas, pupils who want to play football and those who want to skip are accommodated. This is because the school promotes careful consideration of others.
• Pupils enjoy learning and respond very well to teachers’ high expectations. They relish exploring open-ended tasks and enjoy opportunities to edit and manipulate their writing.
• Pupils enjoy coming to the school. Attendance is consistently above the national average. Staff work imaginatively and systematically to support those pupils and families who, from time to time, find regular attendance at school challenging.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Children enter the early years with skills that are generally typical for their age or slightly above. As a result of good teaching, they make very good progress during the early years. The percentage reaching a good level of development has improved across the last two years and is now likely to be significantly above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the required standard in the Year 1 phonics check has also improved across the last two years and is likely to be confirmed at the national average in 2016. All the pupils who did not reach the required standard by the end of Year 1 did so by the end of Year 2 last year, where they exceeded the national average.
• At the end of key stage 1, the school’s own information and the limited, provisional national data which is currently available, indicate that the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standards in reading and writing was above average. This is an improving trend over the previous years. Indications are that in 2016, mathematics outcomes at the end of key stage 1 are likely to be below those expected nationally. The school’s own tracking and inspection evidence shows continued improvement in writing and in reading in key stage 1. This very recent evidence also shows improvement in pupils’ facility, confidence and mastery in mathematics in key stage 1.
• Early indications are that the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standards by the end of key stage 2 in 2016 is likely to be well above average in reading and slightly above average in mathematics. For writing, the unconfirmed indications are that writing will be well below average. The results of the school’s own monitoring and inspection evidence show that leaders’ actions to address these shortcomings in writing, particularly for boys, are being successfully addressed.
• Reading is a strength across the school. A love of reading is encouraged from the early years. The inspector witnessed early years children enthusiastically choosing books to take home for the weekend. They spoke with real engagement about how much they were looking forward to reading their choices with their families.
• Older pupils also talked with real enthusiasm about their reading. The school’s relatively recent focus on linking reading books explicitly to the art and skills of writing has made pupils, especially the most able, more conscious of the close link between good writing and intelligent reading.
• Disadvantaged pupils, including most-able disadvantaged pupils, make generally strong progress at the school. This is because teachers and leaders carefully assess pupils’ needs and carefully monitor the impact of additional support. As a result there is very little difference between the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Similarly, most pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress. This is a result of carefully targeted and monitored support and by the close links the school has forged with other professionals and with, crucially, parents.

Early years provision Good

• The early years leader’s skill and clarity of purpose have ensured that children’s experience as they start school is good and varied. The work and pleasure in learning experienced in the early years sets a firm foundation for learning further up the school. Children are very well prepared for Year 1.
• The early years leader has introduced an accurate system for tracking children’s progress. As a result, she and her team plan learning experiences that build very effectively on what children already know and can do. Also, children who are at risk of falling behind are quickly identified and brought up to speed.
• This system also enables parents and families to quickly share children’s progress online. This helps to ensure that parents have opportunities to feel very much part of their children’s experiences at school. It helps establish a culture of clear, honest and fruitful dialogue between the school and home which continues as the children move up through the school. All parents have this regular online access to their child’s progress.
• The early years leader deploys her teaching assistants effectively and well. Joint planning is careful and focuses on what children need. This is accompanied by regular and careful assessment of each child’s progress. These assessments help staff focus on what children need to learn next.
• The early years team leader models good-quality teaching practices, such as open-ended questioning, that encourage children to think for themselves. Through working alongside others, she ensures that teaching assistants witness and learn from this. As a result, more staff are using questions with increasing skill to extend the understanding of all children and, particularly, the most able.
• Children behave well in the early years. They respect each other’s needs and play and learn together well both in the indoor and outdoor areas. The systems for keeping them safe are very thorough. They are cared for extremely well. If any child is worried or concerned they are encouraged to put a note of their name in the ‘worry monster’s’ mouth. Staff then promptly follow up any concerns.
• The early years leader teaches phonics well. Outcomes show that the children enjoy their daily group sessions in which they learn to recognise, read and write letters and simple words. They make good progress. This focus on reading, writing and the manipulation of writing implements is already contributing to the school-wide drive to improve the quality of writing, particularly for boys. The early years lead’s ability to focus on the practical activities that will help children improve their grasp of writing is a real strength at the school.
• Children have access to high-quality reading books during their time in the early years and regularly taking books home is the norm. This vital experience is welcomed by parents. It is also supported by the presence of Year 6 ‘reading buddies’ who support children in their reading in the early years.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 137341 Calderdale 10023940 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 Academy converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 98 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Rachel Harling Anne Stamp 01422 883327 www.scoutroadacademy.org.uk admin@scoutroadacademy.org.uk Date of previous inspection 8 May 2013

Information about this school

• 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.
• The school has only recently moved back into its permanent buildings after a ten-month period in temporary accommodation. This was due to a landslide.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The majority of pupils are White British.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is slightly above average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed lessons in every class; in most of these visits the headteacher accompanied him. He spoke with pupils and observed their behaviour at playtimes, lunchtimes and as they moved around the school throughout the day.
• The inspector listened to a range of pupils read and reviewed the work in pupils’ books.
• The inspector held meetings with groups of pupils, leaders, the school’s improvement partner and a leader in education who is supporting the school. He also met with five members of the governing body, including the chair.
• The inspector scrutinised a range of documents, including the school’s development plan and self-evaluation, minutes of governing body meetings, records and policies relating to safeguarding and tracking information about pupils’ attendance, progress and attainment.
• The inspector spoke with staff and checked responses on Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. He spoke informally to a number of parents and carers as they arrived at the school. He also took into account a telephone call received from a parent of a pupil at the school.

Inspection team

Mark Evans, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector