Golcar Junior Infant and Nursery School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching to strengthen pupils’ outcomes by:
  • ensuring work is consistently challenging for all groups of pupils so they reach a greater depth of understanding, especially in key stage 1
  • making sure that middle-ability pupils swiftly engage with challenging work to deepen their learning
  • providing greater opportunities for pupils to write at length using high-quality spelling and vocabulary across a wide range of subjects
  • developing greater purpose for writing extensively in English and redrafting work to strengthen the quality of middle-ability pupils’ work to reach high standards
  • using skilful questioning to develop a deeper understanding of what is being learned, especially for the least able pupils and middle-ability pupils
  • making sure boys’ handwriting, spelling and grammar are of a high standard.
• Increase the impact of leaders and managers by ensuring that:
  • improvement plans clearly identify the impact actions will have on improving teaching and outcomes for pupils
  • subject leaders develop their skills fully to check and support improvements in teaching and pupils’ progress.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The new leadership team has high expectations and has quickly gained staff support for the improvement work that is being done. Staff are clear about the key priorities of the school and are giving their full support, resulting in outcomes strengthening further for pupils.
• Leaders have made sure that the pupil premium funding is used very effectively and promotes the good attendance of disadvantaged pupils and their good achievement. Well-planned support for these pupils leads to good progress in mathematics, reading, writing and a range of other subjects. Some of the funding is used to support these pupils in engaging fully in residential visits, trips and school activities. This is a good example of the school’s commitment to equal opportunities for all.
• The curriculum makes a good contribution to pupils’ learning and contributes well to their personal development, behaviour and welfare. There is a wide range of additional activities such as dance, choir and drama. Parents and carers enthused about the school’s ‘super learning days’ focused on British values and the Brazilian carnival organised by the school.
• The promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is strong. Pupils have a good understanding of various cultures and religions through assemblies, visits, the teaching of religious education and activities in many subjects. The school has used its Trust partnership very effectively to give its pupils first-hand experience of working with other children from a range of ethnic backgrounds. The school works with the local university to teach its pupils well about equality and diversity. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• The primary school physical education and sport funding is used well. The funding has increased participation in sport and the school is successful in competitive sport. The funding has also been used to strengthen teaching in physical education. Pupils are very active at lunchtimes, using their play equipment well. Inspectors saw pupils enjoying their physical education lessons and participating enthusiastically.
• Additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is allocated effectively and ensures that they engage well in mainstream classes.
• The system for checking the performance of staff is thorough and identifies appropriate training and support to improve teaching. The senior leadership team uses a wide range of information when checking the quality of teaching. However, subject leaders are not thorough when analysing the quality of writing across their subjects to ensure it is of a high enough standard.
• Senior leaders have an accurate view of the school’s performance and have put appropriate actions in place to make sure current pupils are making good progress. However, the impact of these actions is not clearly identified in terms of improvements in teaching and the amount of progress pupils should make. Therefore, governors’ ability to hold leaders fully accountable for pupils’ learning is reduced because the impact of leaders’ work is not explicit.
• The local authority has worked well with the school. It has increased its visits to support new leadership across the school and provides training for governors. The local authority has a very good understanding of how well the school is performing and is supporting its development well. The Trust partnership provides joint training opportunities for teachers and teaching assistants as well as joint activities that pupils benefit from. The school supports the development of trainee teachers. The headteacher indicated that teacher recruitment is not an issue for the school.

Governance of the school

• Governance is well led and makes a good contribution to maintaining the good overall effectiveness of the school. Systems for inducting new governors involve more established governors supporting and mentoring them as well as appropriate training being made available through the local authority and other organisations. Governors are challenging and supportive of leadership in the school. They are very ambitious for the pupils and know the school well.
• Governors have good skills in reviewing the finances of the school as well as having a very clear understanding of pupils’ performance in comparison to national standards. They have a clear understanding of how well additional government funding for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used and its impact.
• Governors have been trained in keeping children safe in education and an appropriate number are trained in safer recruitment procedures for staff. They have appropriate systems to measure the performance of the school and ensure teachers’ performance is linked to pay progression. They have identified that sharper success criteria in school development planning would enable them to hold leaders to account even more rigorously.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a strong culture of care for pupils, with effective safeguarding procedures in place. The school fulfils all the requirements for checking staff members’ suitability to work with children and records this clearly in its central register. Governors, volunteers and supply teachers are also checked to make sure they are suitable to work with children. The school provides effective training to ensure staff are aware of how they should act to keep pupils safe.
• Staff are vigilant and clear about what to do should they have any concerns about the safety of pupils. Governors receive regular reports about safeguarding and meet weekly with the safeguarding leaders to check that pupils’ needs are being met. Records show that concerns are quickly followed up with other agencies and there is very effective support for pupils and families. School leaders are tenacious in their efforts to ensure other agencies respond appropriately. Unfortunately, the response of external agencies has sometimes not met the perceived needs of the school. In such circumstances school leaders have always ensured the safety of children.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

• Overall, the quality of teaching is good across the school. The new senior leaders have

Good

supported teachers well in developing their skills. They have increased teachers’ expectations and this is leading to good support for pupils and their good progress.

• Teachers’ good subject knowledge helps them plan interesting tasks that engage pupils in their learning. They give clear and concise explanation about what has to be done. Consequently, children settle quickly to their work and make good progress, especially in mathematics and reading, with writing strengthening well.
• There are good examples of skilful and challenging questioning where teachers check the understanding of all groups of pupils well. However, occasionally the understanding of middle-ability pupils and low-ability pupils is not checked well enough, especially when the pitch of questioning is set to challenge the most able. This slows learning for middle-ability pupils and the least able as they are not able to engage well enough.
• Expectations are usually high and activities are typically well matched to challenge pupils of all abilities. There is some inconsistency of challenge for pupils in key stage 1. When the challenge is not strong for these pupils, they do not develop greater depth of understanding of their work. In key stage 2, there are times when middle-ability pupils are not directed swiftly enough to work that challenges them to reach high standards in their subjects.
• An analysis of pupils’ work showed high-quality presentation in mathematics and good use of mathematics across a range of subjects including science and geography. There are good resources used to strengthen pupils’ reading in a wide range of subjects. However, writing at length is not well developed.
• Pupils, especially boys, can let their handwriting, spelling and grammar slip when their work is not checked well enough by teachers and subject leaders. High-quality vocabulary from their reading resources is not used consistently well enough by pupils to develop high standards of writing.
• Good relationships exist between pupils and adults, with lessons flowing smoothly. Teaching assistants are well respected for the good work they do with the pupils. Senior leaders are working to ensure that teachers check and support teaching assistants’ work more thoroughly to make sure pupils make even better progress.

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 polite, confident and courteous. They show great respect for each other and are proud to welcome visitors to their school.
• Pupils say they enjoy school and they are kept safe in school. The school teaches pupils how to stay safe and visitors such as the police and fire service support pupils’ good understanding of safety.
• Pupils understand the school’s values and rules very clearly. The school arranged a ‘values day’ to promote democracy, solidarity, self-help, self-responsibility, equity, equality and respect. Pupils have good opportunities through the personal, social, citizenship and health education programme to develop their understanding of the school’s values.
• Pupils are very clear about what constitutes bullying. They are confident that the school does not tolerate it and works hard to eradicate it.
• Pupils are well taught about how to keep safe when using the internet. The school promotes this well with parents through its school website and regular communication with parents. Even the very youngest children have a well-developed understanding of how to keep safe when using the internet.
• Pupils are keen to adopt leadership roles to support the school. There are ‘play leaders’
  • older pupils who help younger pupils at break and lunchtimes – as well as school librarians and a school council that is elected through a democratic vote.
• School leaders have very effective systems to support pupils’ welfare and safety, particularly the safety of the most vulnerable pupils. Pupils have good support for their emotional well-being and use an ‘emotions board’ in their classrooms to point out to adults how they are feeling. Adults check the board and support pupils well.
• Pupils usually take pride in their work. Occasionally, they do not check their spelling well enough and make sure that their handwriting is of the highest quality.
• Parents are very confident that their children are happy and safe at school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils manage their behaviour well both inside and outside the classroom. They are keen to learn and follow the instructions of adults. The school is a calm and orderly place. Behaviour in the dining hall is good and pupils are polite and respectful.
• Pupils know what is expected of them and they say behaviour is good. Staff agree that behaviour is good and so do most parents. Very occasionally, pupils can lose concentration and not contribute strongly to their learning.
• Attendance is above average and there are few pupils who are often absent from school. The attendance of disadvantaged pupils has strengthened over recent years because of the good support and encouragement given to the parents of these children. With the support of their parents, pupils are punctual to school.
• The school environment is well cared for and free of litter. Displays of pupils’ work around the school are well looked after and promote good learning.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The new leaders’ determined work has strengthened teaching and is accelerating pupils’ progress. Currently, pupils’ overall outcomes are good across the school.
• Leaders’ sharp analysis of pupils’ published outcomes noted that pupils needed to strengthen the quality of their writing, especially boys at the end of key stage 2. They also recognised that more pupils needed to deepen their learning in key stage 1 to reach higher standards in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Inspectors found that leaders, with the support of staff, have tackled these areas for development well; currently pupils have good skills in mathematics, skills in reading that are better than average, and at least average skills in writing with examples of strong progress. Also, inspectors found that pupils were making good progress in a wide range of other subjects.
• The most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, have been challenged well over time. Inspectors noted that they are highly motivated by the work set for them and challenged well by their teachers to reach high standards. These pupils make similar progress to the most able pupils nationally across key stages 1 and 2 and attain well.
• Disadvantaged pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics because of the good level of adult support in class and the targeted support in reading and writing outside of the classroom. Differences in attainment between these pupils and others nationally have been diminishing over time. These pupils said how much they enjoyed the extra spelling support that is strengthening their writing.
• Inspectors’ analysis of middle-ability pupils’ work in mathematics showed that good progress is being made and that they are making good gains in reading. There are examples of high-quality writing from these pupils. However, boys’ progress in writing needs strengthening. They are not careful enough in checking their spelling and grammar and using high-quality vocabulary to reach the high standards of which they are capable. Inspectors noted that work was not consistently challenging for these pupils in key stage 1.
• The progress being made by the small numbers of least able pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is strengthening. New leadership is making sure these pupils are included well in mainstream classes and their needs are identified well. These pupils are benefiting better than in the past and teachers’ skills are developing well to support these pupils in making good progress.
• Reading is promoted strongly across the school. Pupils enjoy selecting books from the school library, with especially high levels of lending in Years 1 to 4. The most recent Year 1 phonics screening check shows average attainment for pupils, which is an improvement on the previous year. Inspectors found that reading is developing well across the school and good progress is being made. Pupils read fluently by the end of Year 2 and are developing good skills in understanding what they are reading. The older pupils are not always sufficiently motivated to extend their vocabulary by checking the meaning of the more complex words they are reading.

Early years provision

Good

• The provision, both indoors and outdoors, is well planned. It helps children settle in quickly, providing good opportunities for them to become confident in exploring learning and developing high levels of cooperation with adults and other children.
• Links with parents are very strong. Parents are welcomed into the provision, regularly listening to their children reading and supporting them in ‘stay and play’ sessions. Parents are very positive about the procedures to keep their children safe and how well their children are progressing in their learning.
• Most children enter the early years with skills that are typical for their age. Children, including disadvantaged children, make good progress with almost all working at, and many above, the level typical for their age. Children with lower starting points are also making good progress because of the well-planned provision and skilful intervention from adults.
• Adults have high expectations of what children can do. They take care to find out what interests children to develop children’s strong engagement in learning. They assess children’s skills accurately and develop clear ‘next steps’ for children’s learning. They use this information well to help children make good progress and inform parents of how well their children are learning.
• The leader of the early years is well supported by an assistant headteacher. A good programme of professional development is in place for the early years leader. She is supporting other adults well across the provision and making sure that children’s experiences in all the areas of learning are planned carefully.
• Teaching is good across the provision. Adults develop key questions for each child’s ‘next steps’ in learning to challenge and extend children’s knowledge, skills and understanding. Children are very interested in the tasks set for them and the exciting opportunities they can choose for themselves. Behaviour is strong across the provision with children exceptionally interested in their work.
• The curriculum is planned to follow the interests of children, and opportunities for writing are abundant. Currently, children’s writing skills are strengthening. Inspectors saw excellent examples of writing although further work is to be done to ensure strong outcomes for all, and leaders are aware of this.
• World Book Day was used by adults to promote writing and encourage children to write independently. Children took the opportunity to dress in costumes to look like their favourite character from a book. Spontaneously, some children wrote at great length in cursive text using their good phonics skills to spell accurately.
• All the appropriate welfare requirements are met in the provision.
• Children are well prepared for learning in Year 1.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107696 Kirklees 10000542 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 Foundation 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 476 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Bryn Stokes Gillian Dyson 01484 222220 www.golcarjin.com office@golcarjin.com Date of previous inspection 22 February 2012

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is much larger than the average primary school.
• The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is below average.
• Most of the pupils are White British. Almost all pupils speak English as their first language.
• The proportion of pupils who have support for special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below average.
• The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below average.
• In the early years, children have part-time education in the Nursery. Children receive full-time education in Reception.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school converted to a Foundation School on 1 September 2014 and is part of the Aspire Co-operative Learning Trust with two other schools: Royds Hall Community School and St John’s CE Junior and Infants School.
• Since the previous inspection there has been a change in leadership with the headteacher and four assistant headteachers appointed from 1 September 2015. The leader of the early years was appointed from 1 September 2016.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed a range of teaching and learning in parts of lessons.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils, both individually and in groups, about learning and safety.
• Inspectors listened to pupils reading. They reviewed pupils’ work in lessons and analysed samples of work in pupils’ books.
• The lead inspector held a meeting with the chair of the governing body and four other governors. He also met with a representative of 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 plan, a number of key school policies and the minutes of governing body meetings. They considered a range of documentation in relation to child protection, safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.
• Inspectors analysed 75 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents (Parent View) and the results of a school questionnaire completed by parents.
• Inspectors considered the 43 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 62 responses to Ofsted’s online pupil questionnaire.
• World Book Day was celebrated in school on the second day of the inspection.

Inspection team

Jim McGrath, lead inspector Lynda Florence Chris Cook Juliet Wright Janet Keefe

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector