Eastborough Junior Infant and Nursery School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve outcomes by providing even greater challenge for all pupils so that they make stronger progress, especially in subjects other than mathematics and English.
• Improve the quality and consistency of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
  • all staff continue to share and evaluate best practice and successful classroom strategies for deepening and extending pupils’ independence as learners
  • all staff use the detailed information that the school gathers about pupils to focus their teaching
  • there are more opportunities for pupils to write at greater length in a range of subjects across the curriculum so that they develop and deepen their understanding, skills and stamina as writers
  • the focus on reading for pleasure and purpose continues so that it is fully established as a vital element of the school’s work
  • teaching assistants are more fully focused on pupils’ learning
  • all staff have high expectations of the presentation and neatness of pupils’ work.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher leads the school with vision and a sense of purpose. She is clear about what needs to be done. She is unwavering in her commitment and ambition as she seeks to improve the school. She is supported effectively by the governors and Kirklees local authority.
• The headteacher and governors know the community that the school serves very well. Links with parents and the wider community are strong. The Community House, adjacent to, and run and staffed by the school, is a centre for community and parent learning. The school contributes very effectively to the sense of togetherness and mutual understanding in the community. Pupils are aware and proud of this aspect of the school’s work.
• Working with her deputy and governors, the headteacher has ensured that all members of staff feel valued, challenged and have opportunities to improve their skills. As a result, staff are clear about what they need to do. Staff morale is high.
• The school’s systems for monitoring the quality of teaching and its effect on pupils’ learning are detailed. Leaders use the information they derive from this monitoring to shape and focus support and training for staff. As a result, although there is more to be done, the quality of teaching is now improving.
• The headteacher has been skilful in seeking advice and support from beyond the school to help her and her staff tackle underachievement. The school works closely and well with other local Dewsbury schools in the sharing of expertise and the checking of standards. The school also works closely and effectively with Greetlands Academy, a local outstanding school. Leaders at Greetlands have helped the school focus its planning and check the effect of the actions it has taken to improve standards.
• Middle leadership is a growing strength of the school. Senior leaders have effectively developed the roles of middle leaders so that they, working together and with governors, play an increasingly important role in improving the school. Overall, leaders demonstrate good capacity to drive forward further improvement.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is developing very well. This vital aspect of the school’s work is delivered through a broad and balanced curriculum which is underpinned by a wide range of extra-curricular activities, open to all. Pupils speak enthusiastically about their enjoyment of events the school has arranged to extend their understanding of the wider world. For example, they were able to talk confidently about the recent week-long multi-faith event that culminated in a gathering of local faith groups at the school. They also talked of their enjoyment of dodge ball. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• The additional funding the school receives to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used effectively. The recently appointed leader for this aspect of the school’s work has been very effective in ensuring that carefully focused actions are put in place to meet these pupils’ needs. She has also, through careful monitoring, assured the effectiveness of these actions. As a result, these pupils make generally good progress from their starting points.
• Additional funding for disadvantaged children is now being used more effectively to provide targeted work and guidance. Leaders are increasingly ensuring that staff use the information that the school gathers about these pupils’ progress and well-being to focus their teaching.
• The physical education and sport premium is used well to improve staff skills and to extend opportunities for pupils to attend additional coaching sessions and enrichment activities. Pupils’ levels of physical activity have increased and they are more aware of the ways that they can embrace a healthy lifestyle.
• All of the parents whom inspectors spoke with were very positive about the school and the service it offers their children. The school’s own surveys of parents’ views support this view. As one parent wrote: ‘The thing I love about Eastborough is its open-door policy, for any concerns.’ Another described the school as ‘super-duper’ to one of the inspectors.

Governance of the school

• Governors share leaders’ ambitions and high expectations. They know the strengths and weaknesses of the school. This is because they receive detailed information from senior leaders. However, they do not rely on this alone. They also have direct links with each class and with subject leaders. As a result, governors are very well informed and are able to provide robust challenge to leaders about the progress of the school.
• With the effective support of the local authority, governors ensure that performance management procedures are effective in helping secure improvements to teaching and learning.
• Governors, ably led by the chair of governors, constantly seek to improve. They are keen to seek out additional support to extend and deepen their analytical and strategic skills. Officers of the local authority support them well in this.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders maintain a culture in the school whereby staff show a clear understanding of their responsibilities and of the processes to keep pupils safe. All staff are clear that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. As a result, staff promptly identify and appropriately support potentially vulnerable pupils. They are also tenacious in their engagement with outside agencies. Staff ensure that pupils get the support they need.
• Procedures for the recruitment of staff and for checking the suitability of visitors are very secure. Leaders check staff’s suitability to work with children appropriately.
• Pupils have many opportunities to learn how to stay safe, both through the subjects taught in the curriculum and through other opportunities such as assemblies and visiting speakers. Pupils told inspectors that they know how to stay safe online.
• Pupils say 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.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching requires improvement because, although improving, it is inconsistent across year groups and between subjects. However, this year, leaders have focused the strengths of an increasingly skilled and committed teaching team. There are signs of better teaching, and this is leading to encouraging signs of improvement in pupils’ outcomes.
• Teachers’ expectations of handwriting and presentation are inconsistent. On too many occasions, in the books seen, poor and untidy presentation went unchallenged by staff. This was particularly the case with boys. In addition, there are insufficient opportunities across the school and across the curriculum for pupils to develop their ideas and extend their skills by writing at length. This has an adverse effect on the progress of the most able pupils in particular. There is clear evidence that staff are following the school’s assessment policy. However, too often, pupils are not undertaking the extension tasks that teachers have asked them to do.
• Teaching is beginning to tackle previous weaknesses in mathematics. However, less-able readers are sometimes unable to understand or access what they need to do in their mathematics learning. Progress slows when this occurs.
• Assessment information on pupils’ attainment and progress is increasingly reliable. Leaders have, this year, implemented a rigorous and consistent approach to assessment that is beginning to have a positive effect on standards. Staff are now focusing more carefully on how quickly pupils progress from their various starting points. Staff are using this increasingly detailed information the school collects about pupils to focus their teaching.
• Teaching assistants are generally well deployed and effective when they are clear about their roles and responsibilities. However, they are not as effective in moving pupils on in their learning when their role is more focused on monitoring behaviour rather than on encouraging progress.
• Staff show strong subject knowledge and demonstrate a wide range of skills to engage and enthuse pupils. Inspectors saw examples of teachers being imaginative and tenacious in their questioning of pupils so that they deepened their understanding. In a mathematics lesson, for example, the teacher really got pupils thinking about tens and units by repeatedly challenging them to explain to her and to each other why it is not sufficient merely to add a 0 to understand how and why 35 becomes 350.
• Interventions to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are increasingly more sharply focused on what pupils know, can do and understand. Consequently, these pupils are making generally good progress.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. Pupils want to learn. They show respect to staff and to each other. Pupils are also careful of the learning environment. The classrooms are attractive and comfortable places to learn in. Staff work hard to create these learning spaces and pupils are appreciative of the effort staff put in.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are very polite, friendly and aware of the needs of others. They relate well to each other and to staff because leaders encourage and sustain a culture of kindness and mutual understanding in all that the school does. Pupils speak with real pleasure about how much they enjoy school and how well the staff care for them. They say that they are confident that staff at the school would be there for them if they were concerned or needed help.
• Pupils are very aware of their responsibilities to themselves and to each other, both in and beyond school. They were keen to describe to inspectors how they organise charitable events. They explained how important it is to care for others, ‘even if you don’t see or know them’. Pupils enjoy taking on roles of responsibility in the service of others, such as reading ambassadors or house captains, for example.
• Pupils wear their uniforms with pride. They care for and are proud of their school. There is no litter.
• Pupils have a good understanding and knowledge of how to stay safe in a range of situations, including when using the internet. Pupils were very complimentary about the regular work the school does to alert them to risks and to keep them safe. They particularly like it when outside speakers come in to talk and work with them.
• Working with a local professional football club, the school provides a free breakfast club. This is well attended. Pupils say that they enjoy it and the opportunity it gives them to gather together and have breakfast.
• 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 who, from time to time or for a particular reason, need additional care are very well supported by the school. Staff are very skilled in engaging with these pupils. They are very good at identifying where best to deploy detailed, focused support with sensitivity and appropriate firmness.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• All staff and pupils have high expectations of behaviour. Pupils say that the relatively recently introduced behaviour system works well and has made a positive difference. They told inspectors that behaviour has improved. As a result, disruption to learning is rare and when it does occur it is dealt with promptly and consistently. The school has very well-developed, sensitive yet firm systems for engaging with parents and carers to keep children on track.
• The school’s records of behaviour are detailed. However, leaders are only just beginning to analyse these records to help them discern patterns in any poorer behaviour so that they can be tackled before they occur.
• As a result of leaders’ sustained and imaginative efforts, attendance, including that of disadvantaged pupils, is broadly in line with the national average. Records show that the school works very effectively with families to improve rates of attendance and, as a result, it is rising steadily. Pupils are very clear about why it is important to attend school regularly. They spoke animatedly about how important it is for their class to attend school regularly because the rewards for those that do so are well worth having.
• Pupils have, generally, good attitudes to school and want to do well. However, they can be too reliant on adults to guide them. As a result, they do not develop sufficient autonomy and control of their own learning. This is particularly the case with some boys.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• For the last two years, at the end of Year 6, a smaller proportion of pupils than nationally reached the expected standards for their age in reading and mathematics. As a result, some pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Across the school, too few pupils achieve the standards expected for their age. This does not represent good progress for middle- and low-attaining pupils across some parts of the school. However, as a result of leaders’ actions, pupils’ progress has accelerated since September. Pupils’ current progress in key stage 1, in particular, is stronger. Consequently, more pupils overall are on track to achieve the expected standards.
• Over time, pupils’ progress in reading and mathematics has been weaker than in writing. Pupils’ progress in mathematics is now accelerating in classes where work is more closely matched to pupils’ needs. Pupils are beginning to catch up from their low starting points, particularly in mathematics. However, some pupils’ weak reading skills are sometimes preventing them from applying reasoning skills in mathematics successfully. In addition, gaps in pupils’ knowledge hinder their ability to accurately problem-solve in mathematics.
• Inspection evidence shows inconsistencies in pupils’ outcomes in writing. The neatness and presentation of writing, particularly that of boys, across the school is inconsistent and, too often, untidy. There is too much writing in pencil. In addition, in subjects across the curriculum, there are insufficient examples of pupils being given opportunities to write at length so that they can deepen and extend their skills and thinking. This is particularly the case for the most able pupils.
• For the last two years, the progress of disadvantaged pupils has not been good enough. Too few pupils have achieved the standards expected for their age across all subjects. As a result of leaders’ actions, however, there are some very recent positive signs that support for disadvantaged pupils is beginning to tackle their previous underachievement in some year groups and subjects. However, differences are not yet diminishing quickly enough.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making increasingly better progress. Due to the work of the deputy headteacher, staff are better trained and able to identify and work with pupils who need additional targeted support. Staff now focus more sharply on what pupils need to improve. The effect of this on these pupils’ progress is carefully monitored by leaders and action is swiftly taken if progress slows.
• The number of pupils in Year 1 who met the expected standard in the phonics screening check in 2017 was close to the national average. This was an improvement on the previous year’s outcomes. Pupils’ phonics knowledge in the early years and key stage 1 is improving rapidly. Consequently, standards in reading and writing in these year groups are improving. However, too few of the older pupils who previously struggled with phonics are catching up quickly enough.
• Evidence from this inspection shows that the school’s recent increased focus on reading is having a positive effect. Pupils now have many more opportunities to read on their own, in groups and as a class. The well-stocked library is attractive and well used by pupils. There is more reading at home and more engagement with parents about reading. While it is too early to judge the sustained effect of this emphasis on reading, it is clear that pupils are now increasingly taking real delight in reading, as a result of leaders’ actions. For example, a group of Year 2 readers could not contain their laughter when one of them read from a book that focused on alien monsters and their thefts from washing lines.

Early years provision Good

• The leadership of early years is good. Staff assess children carefully on entry and there are strong links with other local providers.
• Staff plan accurately for children’s development because they know the children well. Staff develop a stimulating learning environment, both inside and out, that provides a wide range of interesting activities to support learning and encourage independence.
• Staff establish a good balance between adult-led and child-initiated activities. 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 open and friendly. As a result of this, children are happy and develop positive attitudes to learning. They gain in confidence and independence. Children were keen to tell the inspector about the exciting things they had been doing and what they had learnt.
• The large majority of children enter the Nursery and Reception classes with skills and knowledge below those typical for their age. As a result of high expectations and strong teaching, they make good progress. Their speaking and listening skills are particularly well developed by the time they reach Year 1. There is a strong and appropriate emphasis on developing spoken language. Adults model language effectively and question well.
• As a result of the improvements at the school over the past three years, children make good progress in the Reception class. The majority attain a good level of development by the end of the year. Unvalidated outcomes for summer 2017 suggest another increase in the percentage of children reaching a good level of development.
• Phonics is taught effectively and systematically in the early years. This is not only improving reading but it also has 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 report that they value the good-quality service they and their children receive from the early years team. They welcome the daily emphasis on reading and the ways staff make themselves available to talk about their children.
• As a result of the care and attention the leader and her staff pay to each child’s progress and well-being, the provision for those children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is effective. They make good progress from their starting points.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107602 Kirklees 10031071 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 217 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Stuart Robertshaw Tracy Mahmood 01924 430 960 www.eastboroughjin.co.uk head@eastboroughjin.co.uk Date of previous inspection 12–13 December 2012

Information about this school

• Eastborough Junior, Infant and Nursery School is slightly smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The school has a Nursery that offers morning sessions.
• The majority of pupils are from British Asian Pakistani backgrounds.
• For the majority of pupils, English is not their first language.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium is higher than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is slightly above the national average.
• The school runs a free breakfast club sponsored by a local professional football team.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in all classes across the school. Most of these lessons were jointly observed with the headteacher. Inspectors listened to pupils read and talked with them, amid much appropriate hilarity, about their reading experiences.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, middle leaders and members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. The lead inspector met with an officer of the local authority. Inspectors reviewed a range of the school’s documentation, including that related to safeguarding, achievement, attendance and behaviour.
• The lead inspector spoke on the telephone with a national leader in education from a local outstanding school which is supporting Eastborough Junior Infant and Nursery School.
• The lead inspector attended part of an assembly conducted by a local church leader.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour and conduct at breaks and lunchtimes.
• A wide sample of pupils’ work from all year groups and a range of subjects was scrutinised.
• Inspectors took into account the 19 responses to a survey of staff, the 21 responses from a survey of pupils’ views and two text responses from parents. Inspectors also spoke with parents and carers at the start and end of the school day to seek their opinions of the school’s work and care for their children.
• Throughout the two days of the inspection, inspectors spoke with pupils, both formally and informally, about their learning, safety and well-being.

Inspection team

Mark Evans, lead inspector Mary Lanovy-Taylor

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector