Crossley Fields Junior and Infant School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Enable a greater proportion of children to reach a good level of development at the end of Reception by:
  • establishing an accurate and reliable method of assessing children’s stage of development on entry to school
  • making sure that planning is responsive to children’s needs and interests, and gives greater opportunity for children to use and apply their developing literacy and numeracy skills in the indoor and outdoor areas of provision
  • pitching the learning to match children’s next steps for development
  • analysing more sharply the progress made by individuals and groups in order to address any weaker aspects of children’s learning.
• Further improve the impact and effectiveness of leaders at all levels by:
  • developing new leaders’ ability to contribute fully to school improvement by evaluating and analysing the impact of their actions and reporting this consistently to senior leaders and governors
  • refining assessment procedures to enable greater clarity about the progress made by groups of pupils throughout the school
  • more robustly analysing information about the progress made by disadvantaged pupils so that the difference between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and that of other pupils nationally diminishes more quickly.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that:
  • an increasing proportion of pupils exceed the expected standards at the end of each key stage
  • pupils in key stage 1 who did not reach a good level of development at the end of Reception make accelerated progress.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The new headteacher has quickly created a positive learning culture where staff feel valued and supported. Increased accountability, sharing of good practice and an ethos centred around teamwork have been instrumental in bringing about improvements.
• Leaders took effective action when, in 2016, progress in reading, writing and mathematics was below the national average at the end of key stage 2. Leaders’ actions to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment have been successful and so current pupils are making better progress in key stages 1 and 2. Consequently, a greater proportion of current Year 6 pupils met and exceeded the expected standards this year in reading, writing and mathematics.
• A new assessment system has been introduced that supports leaders and teachers both to keep track of pupils’ attainment and progress and to identify any gaps in learning. This careful tracking of individuals means that leaders are able to target funding for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities accordingly. Leaders acknowledge, however, that the next development is to use the information to provide greater clarity about progress for year groups and other groups of pupils to support leaders in checking the pace of improvement.
• The team of senior and middle leaders, most of whom are new to their role this year, is successfully bringing about improvements to the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Leaders have a secure understanding of teachers’ strengths and weaknesses, and provide specific feedback to support continuous development. As a result, staff feel well supported and are motivated by seeing the improvement in pupils’ outcomes. New teachers in school are being effectively supported to develop their skills to match those of the strongest teaching in school.
• Leaders are becoming more established in their posts and are clearer about their roles and responsibilities. However, they do not routinely evaluate the impact of their actions and report this to senior leaders and governors. They are not held rigorously to account for improving outcomes for pupils.
• On taking up post, the new headteacher identified pupils’ behaviour as an area for development. A whole-school behaviour system has been implemented and has raised staff expectations. Consequently, behaviour is showing substantial improvement.
• Leaders have developed a new system to check the impact of the funding for disadvantaged pupils and make sure it is used effectively. They are now eager to track more rigorously the progress of this group of pupils to ensure that the difference between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally diminishes more quickly.
• The leadership of provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is good. Leaders are committed to providing an inclusive education for these pupils and make efficient use of funding to support their development. Strong relationships with external agencies help leaders to secure the right support for individuals. A wide range of assessment tools enable leaders to track small steps in the progress of these pupils. However, their progress is not compared with that of other pupils with similar starting points so leaders are not able to check the impact of their actions robustly.
• Leaders have designed the curriculum to incorporate the school’s core values. It ensures a strong contribution to pupils’ good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development so that they are well prepared for life in modern Britain. The curriculum offers a broad range of experiences though themes and topics which give pupils opportunities to question, reason and work practically across a range of subjects. Leaders have a passionate belief in providing a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities to support pupils’ development.
• Leaders use the primary school physical education (PE) and sport funding well to offer a range of sporting equipment and activities. There has been a strong upward trend in participation rates and this is supporting pupils in developing healthy lifestyles.

Governance

• Governors are well equipped to question the work of the school and provide good challenge and support to school leaders. They have provided the strategic direction needed to make successful appointments and manage the new leadership arrangements which are now almost complete. Already, the changes made are enabling issues to be tackled and the pace of improvement to increase. The strengthened leadership team, with greater clarity of roles and responsibilities, is creating more capacity for further improvement.
• Governors do not always receive enough information from school leaders, for example about the progress of current pupils in all year groups. Leaders do not have a system for reporting attendance and persistent absence to governors to demonstrate the impact of actions to improve attendance for groups of pupils. This hinders governors in holding leaders rigorously to account for pupils’ outcomes.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders are tenacious in the actions they take to promote pupils’ welfare. The headteacher ensures that staff, pupils and parents are kept informed about safeguarding issues such as about unsafe apps which pupils may have access to.
• Case files and records for pupils at risk are detailed and thorough. They demonstrate leaders’ proactive work with parents and external agencies to support the safety of pupils.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is improving. Teachers are using assessment information on a lesson-by-lesson basis to make sure that work is matched to the needs of all pupils more effectively. As a result, pupils are making good progress in English and mathematics.
• Staff use effective questioning to check pupils’ understanding and to develop their thinking. In most cases, staff are quick to identify pupils who need extra support and those who need greater challenge to move their learning on.
• Opportunities for pupils to develop their speaking and listening skills are used well in lessons. Pupils collaborate together to complete tasks and also deepen their understanding by sharing their ideas and justifying their opinions. Pupils are encouraged to use advanced vocabulary choices in their spoken and written work.
• Positive relationships between staff and pupils create a constructive atmosphere in lessons. Pupils respond well to the expectations of staff and usually demonstrate good learning behaviours.
• A consistent approach to the teaching of mathematics is proving successful in supporting pupils in all year groups to make more rapid progress this year. Pupils, including the most able, are effectively challenged through tasks which are pitched appropriately to support the development of knowledge, skills and understanding.
• A well-structured approach to the teaching of phonics helps pupils to develop the skills of blending to read and segmenting to spell.
• Adults’ knowledge of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, coupled with effective support plans for each individual, means that this group of pupils receive appropriate support to help them achieve well and make good gains in their learning.
• Teachers are using the newly introduced assessment information to identify any gaps in learning for disadvantaged pupils. These are tackled well by teachers and teaching assistants.
• Teaching across the curriculum is usually effective and provides sufficient challenge, especially for the most able pupils. However, on occasion, teachers’ subject knowledge is not strong and they do not pick up on pupils’ inaccuracies.
• In some cases, teachers do not always insist on high standards of presentation in pupils’ workbooks. This can sometimes become a barrier to learning, especially in mathematics when numbers need to be set out neatly to avoid errors in calculation.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Positive relationships between staff and pupils ensure that pupils are confident to speak to adults if they require support.
• Pupils say incidents of bullying are rare. Pupils take part in anti-bullying activities which help them feel confident in how to respond should such an issue arise. The introduction of a reporting feature on the school’s website is an example of one of the ways in which pupils can express any concerns they have.
• Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, for example when online. They also contribute to producing child-friendly risk assessments for the use of playground equipment. This is another example of how the curriculum is effective in increasing their safety awareness.
• A large proportion of places at the school’s breakfast club are targeted at disadvantaged pupils and are facilitated through pupil premium funding. This is effective in helping to promote a punctual and settled start to pupils’ learning each day.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils move around school in a calm and orderly manner. Their attitudes to learning are generally positive and they enjoy their learning.
• A team of leaders and inclusion staff provides very strong support for the growing number of vulnerable pupils who often have complex needs. The inclusion team works together, making effective use of external support, to formulate personalised provision for these pupils which includes mentoring and reward incentives. This approach is supporting pupils’ ability to regulate their own emotions and be more ready to learn. Consequently, the frequency and length of exclusions have reduced.
• Records of behaviour incidents are tracked carefully. Leaders identify pupils who need support plans to help them improve their behaviour. Leaders carefully check the impact of the plans and adapt them as necessary to provide each individual with the right support to help them improve.
• Pupils, staff and governors recognise the positive improvements to behaviour in the last year. There is a strong emphasis on understanding pupils’ needs and having clear expectations. Sometimes though, teachers do not apply the school’s procedures as effectively as possible. In these cases, a minority of pupils do not demonstrate quite as much self-discipline and need greater supervision to keep them on task.
• Attendance is in line with national figures overall. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan and are regularly absent from school has dramatically reduced this year due to leaders’ actions.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• From their starting points, most current pupils in key stages 1 and 2 are making more rapid progress to enable them to achieve age-appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils’ work, observations of learning and leaders’ assessment information show that this is a result of the improvements in the quality of teaching this year.
• A high proportion of pupils, consistently above national figures, achieve the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Years 1 and 2.
• Over time, pupils have begun key stage 2 with high starting points. The proportion of pupils achieving and exceeding the age-related expectations has improved for the Year 6 cohort in 2017, compared with the 2016 cohort, in reading, writing and mathematics. This represents better progress across the key stage, including for the most able pupils. The proportion of pupils achieving beyond the expected standard is not as high by the end of key stage 1 as previously. Leaders are keen to sustain the increased rates of progress seen this year, to enable a greater proportion of key stage 1 pupils to meet and exceed the expected standards. This is particularly important given that some pupils did not achieve their potential during the early years and have more catching up to do.
• Leaders have used pupil premium funding effectively. This year disadvantaged pupils throughout the school are beginning to make more rapid progress in reading, writing and mathematics, with some pupils achieving beyond the expected standards. The improving progress made by these pupils is helping to diminish more quickly the difference between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported to make effective progress based on their needs and starting points. Individual support plans identify appropriate targets to support pupils’ development of a wide range of skills. This includes life skills, when relevant, such as crossing a road, shopping and gardening.
• Pupils achieve age-appropriate standards across the wider curriculum. They usually take pride and care in the presentation of their work. Displays around the school show examples of high-quality outcomes across the curriculum. Pupils achieve well in art and this subject often helps pupils make links with other subjects such as mathematics.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Leadership of the early years has not been effective enough to bring about improvements to the quality of teaching. Consequently, the proportion of children reaching a good level of development has remained stubbornly below the national average and not enough children are prepared for their learning in key stage 1.
• The new headteacher and governors have recognised that improvements are needed. While the impact of recent improvements is starting to emerge, leaders recognise that improvements in this part of the school have not been as rapid as in key stages 1 and 2. They have taken measures to address the weaknesses by making substantial changes to leadership and staffing arrangements from September 2017.
• The early years leader has not ensured that there is an accurate picture of children’s skills and understanding on entry to school or a detailed analysis of outcomes for the different groups of children in Reception. The extent of children’s progress is therefore unclear. It is limiting leaders’ ability to tackle the underlying issues that are preventing some children from reaching a good level of development. A new early years leader, who takes up post in September 2017, has already begun to establish systems to ensure more accurate baseline assessments in future.
• Staff do not have effective systems in place to capture observations of children’s learning or to record children’s progress and their next steps for development. Teachers do not always pitch learning activities to meet children’s stage of development and to support them in reaching the early learning goals by the end of Reception. Consequently, some tasks are too easy and do not help children to make the necessary gains in their learning. Additionally, teachers do not always explain tasks clearly to children, which means they sometimes struggle to access the activities.
• The indoor and outdoor environments are well equipped but teachers do not plan enough rich opportunities for pupils to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Adults are not always responsive enough to children’s needs and interests. This means that children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in reading, writing and mathematics are not able to flourish fully.
• Provision for children with complex needs is effective. They are making small steps of progress, often from very low starting points. Outcomes for disadvantaged children are also improving.
• Adults and children have positive relationships which build children’s self-confidence and help them to be enthusiastic and ready to learn. Staff are vigilant about the safety of children and ensure that the early years welfare requirements are met.
• Parents who spoke to inspectors said they enjoy participating in weekly stay-and-play sessions and accessing their children’s online learning journeys to support their children’s learning. Parents also feel that staff deal well with any concerns they have and say that their children are happy and settled at school.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107697 Kirklees 10032019 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 Community 4 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 621 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Chris Sutcliffe Tracy Dell 01924 499 608 www.crossleyfieldsschool.co.uk tracy.dell@kirkleeseducation.uk Date of previous inspection 25 26 March 2015

Information about this school

• Since the previous inspection, there have been considerable changes to the school’s leadership team. The previous headteacher retired in April 2016 and a new headteacher took up post in September 2016. Two new deputy headteachers have been appointed recently and existing assistant headteacher roles have been redefined.
• The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school. The number on roll has continued to rise and the pupil admission number has been increased to 89 pupils per year group.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is broadly average.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is larger than that found typically, as is the proportion who speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is just below the national average. The proportion who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is broadly average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school runs a breakfast club.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching in every class. Most observations were undertaken jointly with senior leaders. Inspectors listened to pupils read. They talked to pupils about their school and evaluated the quality of work in a sample of pupils’ books.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, subject leaders and the early years leader. They also met with a representative from the local authority and representatives from the governing body.
• A range of documentation was considered, including the school’s self-evaluation, records of the monitoring of teaching and learning, the school improvement plan, the school’s performance data, information on the progress of particular pupil groups, information relating to the attendance and behaviour of pupils, safeguarding and child protection records, and minutes from governing body meetings. Documents outlining the arrangements for the use of pupil premium funding and the primary school PE and sport funding were also considered.
• Inspectors spoke to parents informally at the start of the school day in order to seek their views about the school.

Inspection team

Kirsty Godfrey, lead inspector Ella Besharati Dave Brown Lynn Kenworthy Don Parker

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector