Grange Farm Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment and its impact on outcomes for pupils by:
  • continuing to secure pupils’ basic skills in mathematics to support their rapidly improving reasoning and problem-solving abilities
  • developing a more systematic and rigorous approach to the teaching of phonics which allows all pupils to quickly become fluent readers
  • ensuring that all teachers have equally high expectations of pupils’ attitudes to learning.
• Ensure that pupils’ rates of attendance improve quickly, and that all pupils arrive at school on time so that not a moment is lost to learn.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The headteacher has been determined to secure an excellent standard of education for pupils in the school. Alongside governors and senior leaders, she has worked tirelessly to eliminate underperformance, improve the quality of teaching and accelerate the pace of progress pupils make in their learning. This has been a success, transforming the school so that it is now good.
• The quality of teaching has improved significantly and is now at least consistently good. Teachers work extremely well together, and share the leaders’ ambition to improve the quality of teaching still further to allow all pupils to excel. Leaders know that further refinements to particular elements of teaching, especially the teaching of phonics, are required in order to secure outstanding outcomes for pupils.
• Leaders and governors have an accurate and thorough understanding of what the school does well, and what it needs to do in order to become even more successful. Procedures to monitor and evaluate the quality of the school’s performance, including checking the quality of teaching, are incisive and highly detailed. There is a sense of drive and urgency to improve in all that the school does.
• The school’s curriculum is rich, broad and balanced. Care is taken to ensure that pupils have access to all subjects across the curriculum.
• Pupils’ good personal development is in part due to a curriculum that strongly contributes to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. In lessons and in assemblies, the promotion of British values such as democracy and the rule of law prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain. For example, pupils participated in an inter-school pupils forum.
• Teachers work closely together to review the curriculum, ensuring that it meets pupils’ needs and interests. It is much enhanced by a range of visits across the local region, such as to Yorvik Viking Centre, Harlow Carr Gardens, Leeds City Museum and the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. The school also welcomes visitors such as the Young Shakespeare Company and Ian’s Mobile Farm. It is extremely well supported by after-school and lunchtime clubs that involve areas such as coding, sewing, gardening, cookery, music and ICT. Older pupils have an annual residential experience.
• Leaders have carefully managed pupil-premium funding to provide targeted support for disadvantaged pupils through additional members of staff, including securing a counselling service for pupils and an attendance officer. There are specific targeted programmes of support. In addition, funding has subsidised the cost of some visits and residential experiences to inspire learning across the curriculum. The positive impact of these actions is clearly seen through the good progress made by disadvantaged pupils across the school, including the most able disadvantaged pupils.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported, needs identified early and their progress, which is good, tracked accurately. Consequently, the special educational needs funding is effectively used by leaders.
• Links with parents are very good, with many making positive comments through the school’s own questionnaire. Parents know that the school promotes equality of opportunity for all, and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.
• The physical education and sports funding for schools has been used very well. The school is part of the local ‘Active Schools’ group, and teachers have benefited from professional development. A much larger proportion of pupils access sports clubs and staff confidence about teaching physical education has risen.
• The school has benefited from good support from the local authority, including delivering specific mathematics training and brokering other support for teachers. The education partner used to visit a number of times a year, but now only visits termly as the school has improved.

Governance of the school

• Governance of the school is much improved since the previous inspection. Governors are earnest and forthright about school improvement, and know in detail how the school has planned to eradicate underperformance. They have an accurate and incisive view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses from first-hand experience, participating in monitoring activities alongside senior leaders. The newly formed Joint Review Group meets every half term and gives governors the opportunity to challenge and investigate the actions of leaders, while offering good support.
• Leaders are held to account for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, as well as for the quality of outcomes for pupils seen in statutory and school data. Governors are passionate about improving their effectiveness as a governing body, and have completed an in-depth skills assessment, and built an effective governors’ development plan based on their findings.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school has a distinctive ethos that is positive and caring, putting the welfare of each pupil at the centre of all that it does. This is clearly seen in the friendly, happy and confident manner of the pupils in Grange Farm Primary School.
• All staff receive regular training. As a result, staff were able to tell inspectors what they would do should they have any concerns about a child.
• The school rates the work of the school counsellor highly. Her role in school enables pupils to speak about any area of concern, allowing school leaders to be vigilant should any safeguarding issue arise.
• All documentation, including the single central record, risk assessments for school visits and a code of conduct for staff, is up to date and meets requirements.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching is now consistently good, and its quality is much improved since the last inspection. The impact of teaching on learning, including reading, writing and mathematics, is reflected in the good progress pupils now make in each year group, and the improving proportion of pupils working at the expected standard at the end of each key stage.
• Lessons are usually lively and interesting, capturing pupils’ interest and engagement. For example, pupils in Year 6 were inspired to share their ideas with a partner in a ‘round robin’ discussion after being inspired by the poem ‘A nightmare before Christmas’.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge and structure learning effectively. Resources are very well prepared and engaging, including slides for the interactive board. For example, in Year 2, good use was made of photographs and images to introduce a science topic on materials.
• Work is usually pitched well according to pupils’ abilities, providing the right amount of challenge to move learning forward, including for the most able pupils.
• Teachers usually have high expectations of pupils, and stick closely to the school behaviour policy. As a result, pupils’ attitudes to learning are usually good.
• In mathematics, basic skills of number and mental calculation are taught well and consolidated regularly. Pupils’ abilities to think mathematically, to conjecture, reason and explain ideas when problem-solving, are developing rapidly. Gaps in pupils’ knowledge of times tables and number bonds remain, especially for older pupils, resulting from historically weaker teaching. As a result, standards reached in mathematics still lag slightly behind those in writing and reading at key stage 2.
• Pupils write with enthusiasm and imagination, often because their writing is linked to the topic or text they are studying. In Year 5, pupils were able to improve and redraft their ideas based on the book ‘Blackberry blue’ by Jamila Gavin.
• The school is still developing a systematic and rigorous approach to the teaching of phonics in early years and key stage 1, and as a result some pupils do not get off to a fast start in their early reading skills.
• Some pupils from Years 2 and 6 read to an inspector, and both the least and most able pupils read well. Least able pupils read with some fluency and showed skills of decoding, while the most able read with expression. Pupils reported a mix of reading regularly at home, while others forget to read most days. Inspectors also observed most-able readers in Year 6 preparing for participating in the Leeds Book Awards by distilling the views of two characters in ‘Wonder’ by RL Palacio, identifying where the characters had similar and opposing views. This showed high-level skills of inference.
• Teaching assistants are deployed well to give timely and constructive advice to individuals and groups of pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils show respect and care for each other. They value their classmates’ opinions, and work happily and cooperatively in lessons. Their skills in paired and group discussions are very good.
• Pupils thrive in the positive, well-ordered and caring school environment. Despite the unusual classroom layouts, displays are bright and attractive, and support learning well. The school promotes pupils’ physical and emotional well-being very well. The school ethos is well described by the school’s motto, ‘CHIRP’ – caring, hardworking, independent, respectful and tolerant, and proud.
• Pupils report that they feel safe at all times, including online. They understand the different types of bullying that may occur. Pupils speak highly of Place2Be, describing it as a place of safety where they feel looked after. In addition, the new nurture room’s open-door policy allows pupils a place to settle and be quickly reintegrated into classroom learning when they become distressed.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness is extremely strong. There are a number of displays and artefacts from other cultures around school. During the inspection, Year 3 pupils displayed awe and wonder when learning about the customs and food associated with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah from two Jewish visitors.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Staff set high standards to which pupils respond well. Most pupils’ behaviour in the playground, in the dining hall and as they move around school is very good.
• Pupils are polite, courteous and have good manners.
• Pupils are keen to succeed, and the vast majority work hard in class. Occasionally, pupils become disengaged from learning and display low-level disruptive behaviour because not all teachers share the same high expectations.
• The school has worked hard to improve attendance, and the rates of attendance have improved since the last inspection. Attendance is now just below average. There are still a number of pupils who arrive at school late, which slows their learning.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Progress and attainment have improved since the last inspection. Current pupils are making consistently good progress in English and mathematics, as well as other subjects across the curriculum.
• Pupils start Year 1 with skills and knowledge that are below those expected for their age. Achievement has improved since the last inspection, and pupils are now making consistently good progress in Years 1 and 2, especially in writing and mathematics. Standards in reading are not as high, with few pupils working at a greater depth. Although a large majority achieved well in the 2016 national phonics check in Year 1, the proportion who met the expected standard was below average.
• Progress is accelerating quickly across key stage 2, with the proportion of Year 6 pupils making expected progress being close to the national average. Progress was above average in writing. Current pupils are making good progress in their learning from their individual starting points and a very large proportion are working at the expected standard for their age. Standards reached in mathematics lag behind reading and writing by the end of Year 6 because some pupils’ knowledge of times tables and number bonds is weak.
• The progress of the most able pupils matches that of their classmates, and also matches the progress of all other pupils nationally with similar starting points.
• As a result of the effective and strategic use of the pupil-premium funding, disadvantaged pupils in each year group make good progress in English and mathematics, including the most able disadvantaged. However, standards reached by disadvantaged pupils at the end of Year 6 are still below those of other pupils nationally.
• The school is quick to identify any pupils who are at risk of falling behind. Staff make effective provision for these pupils through activities that are well matched to their abilities and needs, including pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Where needed, detailed individual support plans are in place with appropriate and challenging targets. As a result, the progress made by pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is at least good from their individual starting points.

Early years provision Good

• Children are eager to explore and learn. They enjoy opportunities given to investigate and learn happily together. Reception and Nursery children’s play is lively and imaginative.
• The vast majority of children start the early years with skills and knowledge that are below those typical for their age. As a result of good teaching and provision, careful observation and good questioning, children make good progress and are well prepared to start Year 1.
• The proportion of children who leave Reception with a good level of development is improving rapidly year on year, but is still below average. Children are not yet making outstanding progress across early years.
• Children’s behaviour is consistently good. They quickly learn essential social and emotional skills, and are generally able to take turns and apply themselves to tasks.
• Adults observe children carefully and build upon their interests. They carefully support children’s learning through prompts, skilful questioning and work alongside children during imaginative and creative play sessions.
• Basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics are promoted very effectively, although there are fewer opportunities to write and make marks outside. Accurate assessment of children’s learning is used well to design and plan lessons to capture children’s interests and build upon existing knowledge and skills.
• The early years team is skilled at providing activities that promote children’s much- needed development in speech, language and communication.
• Leaders are vigilant in all aspects of safety and safeguarding children’s welfare. Judging by the confidence and fun with which the children play and learn, they clearly feel very safe, secure and happy.
• Links with parents are strong, and they are encouraged to stay and play with their children in the weekly timetabled session.
• The experienced and skilful leader of early years has accurately identified key areas for improvement. The early years team constantly refines its practice in order to drive forward the highest standards of teaching. There is a discernible sense of drive and urgency to offer the best possible provision for the children, and to see them thrive.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107923 Leeds 10020990 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 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 446 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Julie Davis Jo Geary Telephone number 01132 930120 Website Email address www.grangefarm.leeds.sch.uk admin.manager@grangefarm.leeds.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 4–5 February 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Grange Farm Primary is a larger than average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and who speak English as an additional language is average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average.
• The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium funding is above average.
• The early years provision is part time in Nursery and full time in Reception classes.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in lessons, including one lesson observed jointly with the headteacher, and one lesson with the deputy headteacher. In addition, an inspector listened to some pupils from Years 2 and 6 read, and inspectors reviewed a sample of pupils’ work alongside the headteacher and deputy headteacher.
• The inspectors held meetings with governors, the headteacher, deputy headteacher and other members of the teaching staff. They also held meetings with some pupils from the school council and a representative of the local authority.
• The inspectors viewed a range of documents including information on pupils’ achievements over time, the school’s data on recent and current progress of pupils, and the school’s view on how well it is doing. Inspectors also reviewed the school development plan, documents relating to safeguarding and records of behaviour and attendance.
• Inspectors took account of the comments made by parents online and responses to the online inspection questionnaire for staff. The school’s website was also scrutinised.

Inspection team

Phil Scott, lead inspector Catherine Precious Zoe Westley Chris Cook Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector