Carlinghow Princess Royal Junior Infant and Nursery 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?

• Rapidly improve the quality of teaching so that it is at least consistently good and enables all groups of pupils, including middle-ability pupils, disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, to achieve well by ensuring that:
  • staff have high expectations of what pupils can achieve
  • assessment information is used skilfully to plan work that matches pupils’ needs and abilities and challenges them to make good progress
  • teachers guide pupils appropriately to take on challenging tasks that match their needs and abilities
  • skilful questioning engages pupils well and deepens their understanding of what is being learned
  • greater opportunities are provided for pupils to apply their mathematical skills and write at length across a wide range of subjects
  • pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar skills are accurately assessed to promote learning and good writing skills
  • pupils’ understanding of what they are reading is checked regularly to strengthen comprehension
  • the work of teaching assistants is managed well and checked thoroughly.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by ensuring that:
  • adults manage pupils’ behaviour consistently well to promote good attitudes to learning
  • pupils take pride in their work, present it well and take time to make it better
  • there is a rapid and sustainable reduction in absenteeism and exclusions for disadvantaged pupils.
• Improve the provision in early years by:
  • providing greater opportunities for children to use their skills in reading, writing and mathematics in the outdoor area
  • ensuring that challenging work is set and leads to most children making good progress.
• Rapidly improve the impact of leadership at all levels, including governance, by making sure that:
  • effective plans for improvement are developed, with sharply focused actions and precise measures for success linked to pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching
  • senior and middle leaders take swift and timely action to ensure that the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress are good
  • senior leaders provide sufficient advice and support for middle leaders to be successful in raising standards across all subjects
  • professional development and external advice are used successfully to ensure that teaching, leadership and pupils’ progress are good
  • the curriculum is well taught across a wide range of subjects and includes good opportunities for pupils to develop their spiritual understanding
  • teachers are sufficiently skilled to ensure that disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities have their needs identified and met so that they make good progress
  • reading is successfully promoted both in school and at home to ensure that pupils are well prepared for their next stage in education
  • swift action is taken to resolve incidents of bullying
  • governors hold leaders to account for their actions, including the effective use of additional government funding for disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Over time, senior leaders and governors have been unsuccessful in tackling poor teaching and pupils’ underachievement. They have also been ineffective in addressing areas for improvement from the previous inspection. Consequently, the overall effectiveness of the school has declined. Pupils are not receiving an adequate education.
• Senior leaders have been too slow to implement advice provided by the local authority and others. Plans for improvement have not been coordinated successfully by leaders. Key priorities have been addressed too slowly.
• Senior leaders have introduced a number of new initiatives and professional development opportunities for staff. However, they have not been diligent in checking the effect that changes are having on improving pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching. As a result, they are unable to provide evidence for school improvement, and both teaching and pupils’ outcomes are inadequate.
• Middle leaders have not developed good teaching in the subjects they are responsible for. Senior leaders have not held them to account well enough. In addition, senior leaders have not provided sufficient support and advice to enable middle leaders to tackle weak teaching and achievement in their subjects.
• Disadvantaged pupils are not supported well. The school’s assessment systems have not picked up pupils’ underachievement quickly enough to make sure that disadvantaged pupils achieve well. Leaders have not taken effective action to ensure that disadvantaged pupils attend school regularly.
• The government’s funding for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities provides additional support for these pupils in school and, when necessary, external support for pupils with complex needs. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are cared for well. However, their academic progress is too slow, and they do not reach the standards that they should. Hence, the funding for these pupils is not used effectively overall.
• Despite changes to the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics, pupils continue to underachieve. There is little emphasis on the development of literacy and numeracy skills across a wide range of subjects in the school’s curriculum. Subjects are taught in isolation, with little emphasis on these key skills. The physical education and sports funding is used efficiently to engage pupils in competitive sports such as football and cross-country running.
• Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is not promoted throughout the curriculum soundly. Pupils’ work in religious education requires much improvement to secure a good understanding of spirituality. Their social, moral and cultural understanding is promoted to a better extent.
• The local authority has kept a close eye on the school’s performance. It has provided additional funding and advice to help improve the school. The local authority has brokered work from a national leader of education to identify areas for improvement and to provide support for leadership. Overall, leaders in school have not acted on the advice to develop successful changes. Very recently, the local authority held a meeting with the headteacher to raise its concerns about leaders being too slow in implementing changes to improve outcomes for pupils. Leaders are dependent on the support of the local authority and other external support. Leaders have not demonstrated the capacity to improve the school.
• The school should not seek to appoint newly qualified teachers.

Governance of the school

• Since the previous inspection, governors have not challenged leaders thoroughly to make sure that the school provides an effective education for pupils. While governors are clear about how additional government funding is spent, they do not know the effect the expenditure is having on pupils’ progress across the school. For example, they have not made sure that the additional funding allocated to help disadvantaged pupils has been used effectively to help these pupils catch up with others nationally.
• There have been changes to governance in the past year, including a new chair of the governing body. Governors are now challenging the headteacher more effectively and are aware that the school is not improving quickly. They know that there is much to do to improve the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Appropriate systems and procedures are in place to protect children and keep them safe from harm. The school works closely with parents, carers and external agencies to make sure that children’s needs are met. Safeguarding records are of high quality and clearly indicate the school’s commitment to keep all pupils safe. Governors set children’s safety as a priority. They have strengthened the school’s safeguarding team by employing a safeguarding officer to support leaders in keeping children safe.
• Leaders provide child protection training for staff to ensure that they are knowledgeable and up to date in terms of the most recent guidance and legislation. Staff are vigilant and know what to do should they have any concerns about children’s welfare. Suitable checks are made to ensure that all adults on the school site are fit to work with children.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Across key stages 1 and 2, the overall quality of teaching is weak. Since the previous inspection, leadership has not provided sufficient support and challenge to ensure that the quality of teaching is effective. Too little progress has been made by disadvantaged pupils, middle-ability pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, because of the weak teaching they have received.
• Teachers’ expectations of what pupils are capable of are too low. They are not using accurate information about pupils’ previous learning to plan effectively and help pupils make good progress. Consequently, pupils, including middle-ability pupils, are not given effective support to learn well. Pupils’ presentation is highly variable and is not challenged so that they can develop pride in what they are doing.
• Teachers’ assessment of pupils’ work is weak, with misconceptions not being identified and errors not being tackled. The work that teachers set is often too easy and is not helping pupils to overcome low standards.
• Where teachers’ questioning skills are underdeveloped, pupils are not engaged through questioning and their understanding is not assessed well. As a result, pupils lose concentration and when this happens, their attitudes and behaviour are not effectively checked and modified by teachers.
• There are very few opportunities for pupils to write at length or apply their mathematical skills in a range of subjects. Consequently, pupils are not developing an adequate understanding of learning across a range of subjects, including science and religious education. Pupils’ comprehension and reading skills are not checked well. Teachers do not promote reading effectively, resulting in many pupils reading infrequently at home. Although the most able pupils read well, others do not, and this hinders their progress.
• Some teaching in key stages 1 and 2 promotes pupils’ progress more successfully. Pupils take pride in what they are doing, and skilful questioning is used to check pupils’ understanding.
• Teaching assistants make positive efforts to support pupils’ learning, particularly for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. However, too often, the work of teaching assistants is not well managed or checked well enough to ensure that it is supporting pupils’ progress effectively.
• Generally, good relationships exist between adults and pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Inspectors noted that when the pace of learning slows, some pupils are too quick to lose concentration and they do not listen well. School records show that behaviour is not consistently good, especially in lessons.
• Around the school, pupils conduct themselves appropriately throughout the day and are well supervised. Pupils spoken to by inspectors were polite and considerate.
• Pupils say that they enjoy school. However, far too many are absent from school, and attendance has slipped in the past year to well below average. In particular, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils regularly absent from school is high. The school ensures that the whereabouts of absent pupils is known, but is not doing enough to ensure that pupils attend regularly.
• Some pupils exhibit some very challenging behaviours in school. Exclusion is used by leaders in response to pupils’ extreme behaviours. Over time, the proportion of pupils excluded from school is above average and is not reducing sufficiently.
• Inspectors noted how well pupils cooperated with each other and with staff during the school’s sports day.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Over time, weak teaching and leadership have led to pupils making inadequate progress across a range of subjects, including reading, writing and mathematics. A legacy of poor teaching has led to a cycle of low attainment, and as a result pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Overall, progress has been weak for all pupils leaving school at the end of Year 6. Progress in reading has been in the bottom 5% of schools nationally for the past two years, with declining progress in writing. Over time, progress in mathematics by the end of key stage 2 has been highly inconsistent.
• From below-average starting points, pupils’ attainment by the end of key stage 2 has been low and in the bottom 20% of schools nationally for reading. The attainment of disadvantaged pupils has been weak in both reading and writing for the past two years. The attainment of disadvantaged pupils in mathematics has been well behind that of other pupils nationally.
• Similarly, by the end of key stage 1, pupils have made too little progress because of weak teaching, and this leaves pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, underachieving.
• Inspectors found that those pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make very slow progress and are not catching up. Leaders have not made sure that teachers and their assistants are sufficiently skilled to meet the needs of these pupils, so that they achieve well.
• An analysis of current pupils’ work shows that across a wide range of subjects, including science, religious education, history and geography, pupils are not making enough progress because of teachers’ low expectations. Pupils’ mathematical skills are weak, as are the reading and writing skills of middle-ability pupils and disadvantaged pupils in particular. Pupils’ progress is highly variable across the school. Spelling, punctuation and grammar skills are not developing well enough.
• There are some examples of better progress, mainly by a small number of the most able pupils, although this, again, is inconsistent across the school. School information shows too few pupils attaining expected standards and very variable proportions attaining greater depth in learning.
• Over time, reading has not been promoted well by the school and pupils make highly inconsistent progress, much that is too slow. The new system for reading has had too little effect on improving progress. Leaders and teachers have been ineffective in promoting reading. Too many pupils have not developed a love of reading, as they read infrequently at home. Currently, the school library is not well stocked, although there are development plans in place and more challenging texts are being purchased.
• Over time, there has been significant variability in attainment in the Year 1 phonics check. Exceptionally poor outcomes in 2017 have been improved on this year, because of better teaching and training for teachers. ,

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Children enter the Nursery with skills that are usually below those typical for their age. By the end of Reception, the proportion of children, including disadvantaged children, attaining a good level of development is average.
• There are children who exceed expectations in their development, but, with greater challenge, more are capable of doing so. There are a few who exceed the early learning goals in reading, writing or mathematics but, overall, children’s progress is not good. Leaders have begun to address this issue by teaching phonics, letter formation and mathematics daily.
• Leaders have made sure that adults support children’s language development effectively. Children are well supported by adults to acquire phonic skills. This aids their early reading and writing. The curriculum supports these skills appropriately with daily practice in reading, writing and mathematics. However, adults’ questioning does not consistently challenge the most able children well enough. Appropriate assessment of children’s learning is used to identify their next steps.
• There are good opportunities for children to develop a wide range of skills indoors. The outdoor provision is spacious, and pupils enjoy their time outside. However, there are few opportunities for children to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills when outside.
• Children understand the daily routines and cooperate well to share equipment. They follow adults’ instructions, and behaviour is good, as are children’s personal development and welfare. Staff are available to parents should there be any matters that need to be brought to their notice.
• Two-year-olds settle into the provision well and are confident when working with adults. The adults listen very carefully to the children in their care and correct their spoken language sensitively. For example, ‘dutterfly’ was corrected to ‘butterfly’ during the inspection.
• Children are well looked after. Safeguarding is effective, and all the appropriate welfare requirements are in place for early years.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107636 Kirklees 10047627 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 Community 2 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 380 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Gordon Newton Andrew Wilcock 01924 326371 www.carlinghowprincessroyal.co.uk head.carlinghow@kirkleeseducation.uk Date of previous inspection 1 October 2014

Information about this school

• The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium is well above average. Over half the pupils are disadvantaged.
• The large majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have support for SEN and/or disabilities is well above average. Almost one in four pupils have support for SEN and/or disabilities.
• The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is well above average.
• Children attend part time in Nursery and full time in Reception. There are a small number of children who attend the school’s provision for two-year-olds each afternoon.
• The school manages a breakfast club for its pupils.
• The school meets the Department for Education’s definition of a coasting school, based on key stage 2 academic performance results in 2015 to 2017 inclusive.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• There has been significant change in leadership since the previous inspection. The current deputy headteacher was acting headteacher for three months until the new headteacher took up post on 1 September 2017.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed a range of teaching and learning throughout the school. Several classes at work were jointly observed with the headteacher.
• During the two days of the inspection, inspectors spoke with pupils, both individually and in groups, about learning and safety.
• Inspectors reviewed pupils’ work in lessons and analysed samples of work in pupils’ books with middle leaders.
• Inspectors listened to pupils reading.
• The lead inspector held a meeting with the chair of the governing body and two other governors. He held a telephone conversation with a national leader of education.
• An inspector held a meeting with the school’s improvement adviser from the local authority.
• Inspectors also held meetings with senior leaders and other staff.
• Inspectors looked at the school’s review of its own performance, its development and improvement plans, a number of school policies and the minutes of meetings of the governing body. They considered a range of documentation in relation to child protection, safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.
• Inspectors analysed seven written responses from parents and 19 responses from staff to Ofsted’s questionnaires.
• On the second day of the inspection, the school held its sports day.

Inspection team

Jim McGrath, lead inspector Chris Cook Mike Tull

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector