Coleridge Primary Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching even further, by:
  • ensuring that pupils are well supported to achieve higher standards in reading
  • providing more challenging reading books to increase pupils’ knowledge of a broad range of authors
  • insisting accurate spelling is promoted across all subjects, as it is in English.
• Improve provision and outcomes in the early years by making sure that:
  • assessments made of children’s progress lead to clear next steps in learning
  • expectations are high so that the most able are challenged appropriately to make stronger progress
  • adults take more opportunities to promote language and writing skills well.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The new head of school, executive headteacher, senior leaders and governors have been determined to raise expectations and drive the school forward effectively. As a result, all staff have responded positively and are proud to be part of a strongly improving school. Several parents and carers commented on the positive changes introduced this year.
• Leaders manage the performance of staff effectively. Weak teaching has been addressed robustly, and leaders have ensured that teaching is now of a good standard. Leaders ensure that performance management targets are focused tightly on the teachers’ standards and the needs of the school. Leaders ensure that training for teachers is well matched to their individual needs. Training has had a positive impact on improving pupils’ achievement in writing.
• Together with senior leaders, middle leaders are now fully involved in checking the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Middle leaders have relished the frequent opportunities to improve the consistency and standards across the school. For example, they have ensured that pupils use and apply their calculation skills in mathematics effectively.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils are taught through topics which reflect a wide range of subjects. The curriculum is enhanced by a variety of trips as well as visitors into school. Moments of inspiration motivate pupils highly. For example, a visit to a museum to learn about rocks and a space dome in school added colour to pupils’ experiences.
• The school actively promotes British values through the curriculum and assemblies. Older pupils have a mature understanding of diversity and the importance of equality. They are sensible but reasoned in their view and understanding of issues, including homophobia.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strong feature of the school. Pupils are taught about other faiths and cultures in a respectful way. Pupils are highly respectful and tolerant of different faiths and beliefs. One pupil remarked, ‘In Britain, we accept that other people have different faiths and beliefs.’
• Leaders make careful use of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Precise knowledge of barriers to learning ensures that additional funding is used to take effective action to overcome them. As a result, disadvantaged pupils are making accelerated progress, especially at key stage one.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive timely and focused support. The school uses its staff and draws on external support to enable pupils to make good progress from their different starting points. Many parents shared positive views about the care and support their children receive.

• The physical education and sport premium funding is used effectively to engage pupils in a diverse range of sporting activities. Pupils have achieved highly, for example they participated in a regional tennis final. Sports coaches have worked alongside teachers to increase confidence and expertise when they teach physical education.
• The school has received effective support and challenge from the academy trust and from the schools in its hub. The trust is watchful over standards and ensures that governors fulfil their role as a critical friend diligently.

Governance of the school

• Governors are ambitious and make a good contribution to the leadership of the school. They have clear understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. Governors ask challenging questions about the school, particularly on the use of pupil premium funding, to ensure that disadvantaged pupils achieve as well as other groups of pupils. Through detailed reports, committee meetings and visits into school, governors get first-hand evidence to ensure that the school moves forward rapidly.
• Governors ensure that all statutory aspects are fulfilled robustly. For example, governors conducted a detailed and rigorous safeguarding audit to ensure that policies are fit for purpose and to ensure that pupils are kept safe from harm.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders have put clear systems in place for safeguarding pupils. Staff are vigilant and understand their responsibilities in protecting pupils from harm. Staff benefit from regular training updates, which keeps them up to date and alert to the potential signs of harm. All staff know what they should do and who to report concerns to, should they arise.
• The well-respected safeguarding leaders are tenacious in ensuring that pupils and families get the support that they need from external agencies. They are rigorous in following up children who miss education and involve external agencies as appropriate.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The leadership team’s relentless drive to raise standards has been pivotal in ensuring that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment are good overall.
• Teachers are crystal clear in what leaders expect from them. Teachers have responded very positively to the high expectations laid down. As a result, high expectations are becoming increasingly consistent across the school. Pupils have also risen to the challenges set.
• Teachers use their good subject knowledge to plan interesting and challenging lessons based on pupils’ needs. Pupils are highly motivated and try their best in all that is asked of them. For example, pupils persevered and used accurate measuring skills when calculating the length of shapes in mathematics.
• Teaching assistants make a valuable contribution to pupils’ learning, especially to support lower-ability pupils. Inspectors observed effective questioning from teachers and teaching assistants alike, which enabled pupils to think deeply and find out things for themselves.
• An analysis of pupils’ work showed that pupils now have greater opportunities to write at length in a wide range of subjects. Pupils in key stage 2 take pride in their writing by presenting their work beautifully. Efforts are taken to ensure that spelling is accurate in English, but inaccuracies in spelling are not picked up in other subjects, particularly in mathematics.
• Pupils of all abilities are enthused by reading. Teachers encourage regular reading in school. Leaders and teachers measure the progress pupils are making on a regular basis. However, pupils do not have access to challenging reading books. As a result, they are not pushed on to meet the higher standards by the end of key stage 2. Pupils’ knowledge of a wide range of authors is at an early stage. Leaders have plans in place to broaden pupils’ knowledge of authors and literature.
• The school sets a range of homework that is reflective of pupils’ current learning. This includes reading, spelling and mathematics skills. The activities, which pupils enjoy and complete well, help to consolidate skills.
• Good relationships and mutual respect were observed across the school. As a result, lessons proceed smoothly with pupils showing high levels of engagement and good behaviour.
• Pupils at the early stages of learning English are supported and taught well. As a result, they make secure progress in all that they do.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils feel that the school is improving. They feel that teachers explain tasks clearly and provide work that is challenging.
• Pupils are friendly and inquisitive. They enjoy sharing ideas and show respect for each other’s views. The school’s work in lessons and assemblies is preparing pupils well to be active citizens in modern Britain.
• Pupils demonstrate good manners and are welcoming to visitors. Some pupils hold the door open for each other and adults.
• Pupils have a good grasp of what constitutes bullying. They say instances of bullying are rare. Pupils have high levels of confidence in adults to deal with bullying quickly if it occurs. Pupils also know how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations, including using different forms of technology.
• Pupils have access to participate in a range of activities to keep them fit and healthy. Pupils know that eating fruit is important to keep healthy. They explained that anyone can attend activities such as trampolining, football and cricket and that they enjoy these activities.
• Families enjoy learning alongside their children in family-learning workshops. Inspectors observed families enjoying the challenge of making carefully crafted animal masks.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils conduct themselves very well in lessons. Pupils are very attentive and demonstrate good levels of effort in their work. Because teachers set engaging and challenging work, there is rarely a need for behaviour to be managed.
• Pupils generally conduct themselves well around the school building. Behaviour at breaktimes is good. Pupils enjoy being active and playing with their friends. They benefit from varied spaces and equipment to play with. Occasionally, a very small minority of pupils do not demonstrate self-control at breaktimes by not respecting equipment.
• The school is a calm and orderly learning environment. Displays of pupils’ work are eye-catching and reflect the high standards in presentation seen in pupils’ books. For example, pupils produced careful instructions on ‘how to trap a pesky pirate’.
• Attendance has improved over time and is above the national average. Tenacious leadership and regular rewards have been the keys to success in improving attendance. The school has also provided sensitive support for pupils whose attendance was low. As a result, they now attend school regularly.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Work in pupils’ books and the school’s assessment records across almost all year groups show a marked improvement in progress from the start of the year. Leaders have ensured that teachers have raised the bar for what pupils can achieve. Historic underachievement has been addressed successfully, especially at the end of key stage 1. However, there has not been sufficient time for these changes to become embedded firmly at the end of key stage 2.
• Results in 2016 at the end of key stage 2 were below those nationally in reading, mathematics and English, grammar, punctuation and spelling, although writing was a strength. Unvalidated results in 2017 indicate that standards have improved in mathematics and English, grammar, punctuation and spelling but are likely to be below those seen nationally. Pupils’ rapid progress from low starting points means that they are making up lost ground and are better prepared for secondary education.
• In 2016, end of key stage 1 assessments showed that pupils were broadly in line with national figures in reading, writing and mathematics. The improvements seen in 2016 have been built on in 2017, especially in writing and mathematics. Current disadvantaged pupils, including the most able, outperform their peers at the end of key stage 1.
• The current picture of progress across the school is much stronger. Changes made by the new head of school have been effective in raising standards. Inspectors observed that pupils are being challenged well by the activities set for them. As a result, progress is faster in writing and mathematics. Most-able pupils generally make good progress and many are exceeding expectations, particularly at key stage 1. Writing is a strength of the school. Pupils benefit from activities which help to broaden their vocabulary.
• From early years, the school’s development of pupils’ phonics skills helps them to tackle words when reading. Over time, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check by the end of Year 1 has been improving and is set to be broadly average this year.
• The progress of disadvantaged pupils has strengthened since the previous inspection. Additional staffing has strengthened the teaching of disadvantaged pupils. As a result, progress for disadvantaged pupils is accelerating and many exceed expectations. The differences between disadvantaged pupils and other groups are virtually non-existent.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making good progress from their different starting points. Work is well matched to their needs and sensitive support is provided to help with the challenges these pupils experience in their learning. Equally, pupils new to English make good progress because of effective teaching.
• Pupils achieve well across the curriculum. Pupils have ample opportunities to develop a range of skills, including their artistic dispositions. For example, pupils took great pride when they made high-quality clay woodland animals.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Improvements since the last inspection have not been as rapid as those seen in the rest of the school. Leaders’ plans for improvement, adults’ expectations and use of assessment have not been strong enough. As a result, provision in the early years requires improvement.
• Children start school with varying skills and knowledge below that which is typical for their age. Some children have weaknesses in their speech and language development. The proportion of children leaving the early years with a good level of development is still below average. Inspection evidence showed that progress between Nursery and Reception is not consistently strong, especially in writing.
• Inspection evidence and evidence in children’s learning journeys confirm that children, especially the most able, are not given sufficient challenge to make better than expected progress. Adults do not use assessment and plan next steps in learning well enough to help children to achieve more highly.
• Opportunities are often missed by adults to extend children’s learning, especially in writing. For example, adults are often satisfied with the independent writing children produce and do not capitalise on the opportunity for it to be made even better.
• The impact of the additional funding for disadvantaged children over time has been mixed. Their attainment in 2016 was behind other groups nationally. The picture is likely to be similar in 2017. More rapid progress is required to make sure that they attain as well as other groups.
• Over time, there have been very few children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities to be able to make meaningful comparisons with other children. However, inspection evidence showed that adults provide appropriate support for these children to make expected progress.
• All children enjoy the broad range of activities on offer. Children are keen to learn and cooperate well. Inspectors observed children sharing and taking turns with each other in a range of situations.
• Parents are involved in their child’s early years education. They are encouraged to visit the school and stay for play sessions. Overall, parents enjoy these sessions afforded to them. Parents are encouraged to contribute to their child’s learning journey and help children to develop some key skills in writing at home.
• Arrangements for safeguarding children are effective, in line with the rest of the school. Adults supervise children well. They ensure that children are taught to be safe and independent in all areas of the early years provision.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 139223 Rotherham 10031979 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 Academy sponsor-led 3 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 221 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Ray Griffiths Samantha Robinson Telephone number 01709 828 988 Website Email address

www.coleridgeprimary.org enquiries@coleridgeprimary.org

Date of previous inspection 11–12 February 2015

Information about this school

• The head of the school joined the school in September 2016. A large proportion of staff have left the school since the previous inspection. Seven teachers have been replaced by three experienced teachers and four newly qualified teachers.
• This is an average-sized primary school.
• Children attend Nursery on a part-time basis until they join the Reception class.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium is well above the national average. It is more than double the national average.
• The large majority of pupils are from minority ethnic groups. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is also well above average.
• The proportion of pupils who have additional support to meet their special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average. The proportion who have an education, health and care plan is in line with the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed a range of teaching and learning in every class. Observations were undertaken jointly with senior leaders.
• Inspectors held meetings with the executive headteacher, head of school, deputy headteacher and the wider leadership team.
• A selection of pupils’ work in English, mathematics and other subjects was sampled jointly with senior leaders. Inspectors listened to pupils read aloud.
• Throughout the inspection, inspectors spoke with pupils, both individually and in groups, about their learning.
• A range of documentation was considered including the school’s self-evaluation; records of the monitoring of teaching and learning; the school improvement plan; information on pupils’ progress; minutes of governing body meetings; the school’s review of its own performance; and safeguarding documentation. Documents outlining the arrangements for the use of the pupil premium funding and the primary school physical education and sport funding were also considered.
• An inspector held a meeting with the chair of the governing body and two representatives of the academy trust.
• Inspectors analysed 23 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and 9 responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire.
• Inspectors spoke with parents informally at the start of the school day in order to seek their views about the school. The school’s own parental survey information was also considered.

Inspection team

Brian Stillings, lead inspector Lynda Florence

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector