Clough Head Junior and Infant School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Eradicate inconsistencies in teaching so that pupils make consistently good progress by ensuring that:
  • all staff have the highest expectations of what pupils can, and should, achieve
  • all staff use the detailed information the school gathers on pupils to focus their teaching so that all pupils consistently make the progress that they should
  • the good practice that is evident in much of the teaching at the school is systematically shared across all years
  • pupils have more opportunities to write at length, not only in English but in other subjects across the curriculum.
• Improve outcomes for pupils by providing even greater challenge for the most able pupils, including most-able disadvantaged pupils, so that they make stronger progress across all subjects, especially in subjects other than mathematics and English.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher and deputy headteacher are skilled. They know the school and its community well. They use the strength that being part of an effective federation of schools provides effectively. They are clear about what needs to be done to improve the school. They have taken effective action to address its shortcomings. However, insufficient time has passed for these actions to have a sustained positive impact across the school.
• Leaders carefully monitor the performance of staff and the effectiveness of teaching through regular observation and other focused activities. Leaders provide prompt and effective support for staff in order to improve their skills. These actions are having a positive impact on the effectiveness of the school. This aspect of leadership is well supported by officers of the local authority.
• Middle leadership is a developing strength of the school. Senior leaders have carefully and systematically supported middle leaders so that they, working together, increasingly play a vital role in improvements at the school and across the Heights Federation. For example, the leader who coordinates the support for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities at the school and across the federation is knowledgeable, skilled and tenacious. She supports staff well. As a result, staff are increasingly effective in planning their teaching so that all pupils have opportunities to develop and extend their learning. Overall, leaders demonstrate good capacity to drive forward further improvement.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is developed well through a curriculum which engages and excites them. This formal curriculum is underpinned by a wide range of extra-curricular activities and clubs. Pupils speak enthusiastically about their enjoyment of the additional opportunities the school offers, such as visiting the parish church and a local mosque as part of their religious education lessons. They are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• Additional funding for disadvantaged children is used effectively to provide targeted work and guidance. As a result, these pupils make good progress across the school, and differences in progress are diminishing.
• The additional funding the school receives to support pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is used effectively. The leader for this aspect of the school’s work has been effective in ensuring that carefully focused actions are put in place to meet these pupils’ needs. She has also, through careful monitoring, assured the impact of these actions. As a result, these pupils make good progress from their starting points.
• Leaders have deployed the additional physical education and sport premium funding very well. The school has engaged with a range of partners to develop the skills of staff at the school and across the federation. Sports and physical education opportunities for pupils have also been significantly enhanced. The school, working with the federation, fields teams in a wide range of sports for competition with other local schools. It has also used the funding to underline, for all pupils, the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the benefits of regular exercise and eating healthily. Pupils like this.
• A very large majority of parents speak very positively about the school and the service it offers their children. A significant number spoke positively about the school’s leadership, its accessibility and its readiness to engage with and respond to parents’ concerns and suggestions.
• The curriculum the school offers is generally broad and balanced. It is supported by a range of other activities that give pupils additional opportunities to explore and develop new skills and existing enthusiasms, such as those in the arts and music. However, the curriculum beyond the ‘core’ of English, mathematics and science is not sufficiently detailed and needs further development so that the skills, knowledge and understanding associated with these additional subjects are further developed. This is particularly the case for the most able pupils.

Governance of the school

• Governors share leaders’ ambitions and high expectations. They know the strengths and weaknesses of the school through the information provided by leaders and by their increasingly effective links with middle leaders. They also know and understand the communities that the three schools in the Heights Federation serve. As a result, governors provide robust challenge to school leaders about the progress of all groups of pupils from their starting points. However, progress is not yet consistently good.
• Governors use effective performance management procedures to help secure improvements to teaching and learning.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Procedures for checking the suitability of visitors and staff recruitment are secure. Leaders check staff’s suitability to work with children appropriately.
• Leaders maintain a culture in the school where staff show a clear understanding of their responsibilities and of the processes that keep pupils safe. As a result, staff promptly identify, and appropriately support, potentially vulnerable pupils. They also tenaciously engage with outside agencies to ensure that pupils get the support they need.
• Pupils have many opportunities to learn how to stay safe, for example, in class time, and through assemblies and regular visits from outside speakers. Pupils told the inspector that they regularly learn about how to stay safe online. All parents who responded to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, agree that their children are safe at school.
• Pupils told the inspector that they have staff they can go to if they have any concerns. They are confident that adults would listen to their concerns and take prompt and appropriate action. Pupils are appreciative of the way adults at the school take care of them.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teaching, learning and assessment require improvement because, although the majority of teaching is effective, there is too much that is not good enough. As a result, too many pupils are not making the sustained progress that they should.
• Where there is effective teaching at the school, pupils make good progress in lessons because they are clear about what they have to do next to improve. Staff set out their expectations clearly and pupils respond enthusiastically. Where the teaching is less effective, pupils make slower progress because they are not sufficiently clear about what they are doing and give up too easily.
• Where teaching is not effective, staff do not use the detailed information that the school gathers about pupils’ progress and attitudes consistently enough in their planning. As a result, the work is not focused sufficiently on what pupils need to do to make good and rapid progress. This is particularly the case with most-able pupils.
• Overall, teaching assistants are well deployed across the school. They are effectively involved in planning and assessment with their teacher colleagues. However, where the purpose of learning is less certain, the positive impact of teaching assistants’ work is less certain.
• Teachers set regular homework in line with the school’s policy. Pupils say that they welcome this and the opportunities it gives them to deepen their learning.
• Overall, staff follow the school’s assessment systems effectively. Pupils generally respond carefully to staff, particularly when staff are precise about what pupils need to do to improve. This is particularly the case in English, mathematics and French.
• Teachers display generally good subject knowledge and they share their enthusiasm for learning with their pupils. Pupils have very good attitudes to learning. They are keen to learn and explore. They work well together and want to learn.
• Overall, staff’s use of questioning is effective in helping pupils deepen their understanding. For example, in a key stage 1 class, the teacher very deftly used questioning to really get pupils thinking about the nature of even numbers. She was persistent, precise and targeted in what she asked. Pupils responded with energy and real interest. They then applied what they had discussed to their next steps in learning.
• In most classes, pupils’ writing skills are developed effectively. Teachers plan a range of contexts for writing, and the quality of handwriting, sentence structure and vocabulary is typically of a good standard. However, most-able pupils do not get sufficient opportunities to extend and deepen their writing skills in subjects other than English.
• In mathematics, number and calculation skills are taught effectively across the school. This ensures that pupils are well placed to solve more complex problems and to reason mathematically. However, opportunities for this deeper thinking are variable across classes. Leaders are aware of this inconsistency and are addressing it.
• Reading is a recent developing strength. Pupils say that they enjoy reading widely and they use the well-stocked library regularly. The particular focus on strengthening reading in key stage 2 has been successful. Pupils enjoy reading for a range of purposes and, as a result of effective teaching, are developing inference skills and widening their vocabulary.
• The teaching of phonics is structured and effective. Pupils in Year 1 apply their knowledge of letters and sounds well to sentence writing. As a result, their progress in reading and writing is strong.
• Relationships across the school between pupils and adults are relaxed and respectful. The classrooms at the school are lively, comfortable and enthralling places to learn in. In the best learning, staff used the material displayed on the classroom walls to help pupils. For example, in a key stage 2 class, the teacher referred pupils to helpful information on the walls to keep their learning moving at a rapid pace.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils are confident and polite. They are understanding and aware of the needs of others. They relate well to each other and to staff. They speak with real pleasure about how much they enjoy school and how well the staff care for them. They are confident that staff at the school would be there for them if they ever had a problem.
• Pupils wear their uniform with pride. They take very good care of the school and of each other. There is no litter on the site.
• As a result of the carefully planned actions of the school, pupils are very clear about what bullying is and the various forms it can take. Pupils said that bullying is very rare and that, when it does occur, it is dealt with promptly and well by staff.
• Pupils have a good understanding and knowledge of how to stay safe, including when on the roads and online. Pupils were very complimentary about the opportunities the school gives them explore and discuss risk.
• Pupils who, from time to time, need additional care are very well and tenaciously supported by the school. The school is very skilled in engaging with these pupils and discerning where best to deploy focused support.
• The school carefully and systematically uses the opportunities that being part of a federation offers. For example, during the inspection, the inspector visited Wilberlee Junior and Infant School, where Year 5 pupils from across the three schools in the Heights Federation were working together as part of the outdoor curriculum. As well as giving pupils opportunities to develop their practical science skills, the session gave pupils of these three small schools a chance to work collaboratively in a larger group of peers.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Staff have high expectations of children’s behaviour. Pupils told the inspector that poor behaviour is very rare. They say that the ‘stay on green’ behaviour system works well and the vast majority of pupils respond well to it. As a result, disruption to learning is rare and, when it does occur, it is dealt with effectively.
• As a result of leaders’ efforts, attendance is now slightly above the national average. Records show that the school is quick to identify and respond to any downward trends in pupils’ attendance. It works effectively with families to remove any barriers that threaten good attendance. Pupils are very clear about why it is important to attend school regularly.
• Behaviour is not yet outstanding because there are still incidents of low-level disruption. These generally take place when the pace of learning slows.

Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

• Outcomes require improvement because, over time, pupils do not make consistently good progress across the school. This is because teaching has not been consistently effective.
• Outcomes in national tests at the end of key stage 2 over the past two years have been disappointing. Leaders have accurately identified the reasons for this. They have moved swiftly to address weaker teaching. However, it is too early to judge whether the impact of their actions have led to consistent, sustained improvement.
• Unvalidated outcomes for 2017 for the tests at the end of key stage 1 show variability in outcomes across subjects. Mathematics continued to show generally sustained success and there were improvements in writing as a result of the school’s actions. Although reading outcomes overall were disappointing, these provisional results show an increase in the number of pupils achieving at greater depth in their reading.
• There is too much variability in pupils’ outcomes in the books scrutinised during the inspection. Most-able pupils do not consistently make the progress that they should across all classes. This is because in some areas of the school, expectations of what most-able pupils can and should be achieving are not consistently high enough. They, along with other pupils, are also not being given sufficient opportunities to write at sufficient length to develop their ideas and skills in subjects other than English.
• The percentage of pupils meeting the required standard for the phonics screening check had been rising year on year. However, unvalidated results for the checks taken in summer 2017 showed a significant decline in the number of pupils meeting the required standard.
• Across the school, the small number of disadvantaged pupils make progress from their starting points that is similar to that of their peers.
• Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make good progress as a result of the staff’s detailed knowledge of their needs and teaching which breaks down tasks into manageable steps. The recently appointed leader for this area of the school’s work has also identified key areas for next steps in further improving the provision for these pupils.
• Overall, the number of children who achieve a good level of development at the end of their Reception Year is above the national average.
• The development of early reading skills is a growing strength across the school. This is because leaders have moved swiftly and effectively to raise the profile of reading and build on the generally strong teaching of reading in the Reception and Year 1 class. There is now a more systematic approach to reading and a more careful linking of success in reading to the improvement of pupils’ writing.

Early years provision Good

• The leadership of early years is good. Staff assess children accurately on entry and they know them well. There are strong links with local Nursery providers. As a result of this culture of accurate assessment, staff plan effectively for children’s development. They provide a stimulating learning environment which interests children, and a wide range of activities support learning both indoors and outdoors.
• There is a good balance between adult- and child-initiated activities in early years. This encourages children to take control of their own learning. It also means that children learn to take turns and work collaboratively.
• Relationships between children and adults are strong. As a result of this, children are happy and develop positive attitudes to learning. They gain in confidence and independence. Children were very keen to tell the inspector all about their learning and the exciting things they had been doing.
• Teaching is good in early years. For example, staff used focused questioning very effectively in a numeracy session to really make children think about even and odd numbers. The children were attentive and engaged.
• Phonics is taught effectively and systematically in early years. As well as its impact on reading, this is beginning to have a positive effect on the quality of writing and the formation of simple sentences.
• Children feel safe. Staff carefully monitor children and they know what to do if they have any concerns about a child’s safety. Staff receive good-quality training in all aspects of keeping children safe, including child protection and paediatric first aid.
• Parents said that they really value the work of the early years team and its positive impact on the learning and well-being of their children. They commented very positively about the staff’s expertise and ready availability should parents have a concern or question. They welcome the recent emphasis on reading and enjoy the opportunities they have to work with their children in regular ‘stay and play’ sessions.
• The provision for those children who have SEN and/or disabilities is effective.
• The numbers of children who enter the Reception class is low and differs from year to year. However, overall over time, children make good progress from their starting points and most reach a good level of development because of good teaching.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107643 Kirklees 10037733 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 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 90 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Dr Mark Davies Mrs Claire Kenworthy Telephone number 01484 222217 Website Email address www.cloughheadpri.kgfl.dbprimary.com Office.cloughead@kirkleeseducation.uk Date of previous inspection 27 November 2012

Information about this school

• The school is part of the Heights Federation with two local schools, Wellhouse Junior and Infant School and Wilberlee Junior and Infant School. The federation has a single governing body and headteacher.
• This school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Pupils are currently grouped into three mixed-age classes.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is low.
• The proportion of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding is low.
• The majority of pupils are from a White British heritage.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed learning in all classes in the school. In most lessons, he was accompanied by the deputy headteacher. He also observed an outdoor learning session at Wilberlee Junior and Infant School, where Year 5 pupils from Clough Head were working with other Year 5 pupils from across the Heights Federation.
• The inspector met with the deputy headteacher, other senior leaders, middle leaders and members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. He also met with an officer of the local authority. He reviewed a range of the school’s documentation, including that related to safeguarding, achievement, attendance and behaviour.
• The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour and conduct at breaks and lunchtimes.
• The inspector scrutinised a wide sample of pupils’ work from all year groups and in a range of subjects.
• Throughout the two days of the inspection, the inspector spoke with pupils, both formally and informally, about their learning, safety and well-being. The inspector also listened to pupils read and talked with them about their reading experiences.
• The inspector took account of the 40 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View). He also reviewed responses from 33 parents via the free-text facility. In addition, he spoke with 15 parents during the inspection.

Inspection team

Mark Evans, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector