Carter Knowle Junior School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve consistency in the quality of teaching and so accelerate progress in all areas of the curriculum by:
  • ensuring that all teachers consistently use assessment information to plan learning activities which are closely matched to pupils’ abilities and provide sufficient challenge
  • sharing the strong teaching, learning and assessment practice that exists in pockets throughout the school
  • all staff having equally high expectations of pupils’ learning behaviour
  • further developing the teaching of reading to maximise the development of pupils’ comprehension skills
  • increasing the opportunity for all groups of pupils to reason in their mathematics work and so develop their understanding further.
• Improve the impact and effectiveness of leaders at all levels by:
  • ensuring that leaders’ self-evaluation is as accurate as possible in order to precisely identify and address the most urgent priorities
  • developing subject leaders’ skills so they can more rigorously monitor the quality of teaching and learning, and more effectively contribute to raising standards
  • continuing to develop the effective use of funding for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities
  • ensuring that pupils are better prepared for life in modern Britain by providing more opportunities for them to understand democracy and the rule of law, and by extending their cultural development
  • building the trust and confidence of an increasing proportion of parents
  • more robustly analysing information about behaviour and attendance
  • governors offering increasing challenge and more effectively holding school leaders to account for pupils’ outcomes and the overall quality of education the school provides.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The school has been through an unsettled period. Significant staffing and leadership changes have hindered the pace of the school’s improvement. New leadership arrangements are beginning to speed up the pace of change but it has not been in place long enough to have turned things around sufficiently. For example, current pupils are not consistently making the progress needed to reach the expected standards, given their often high starting points on entry to the junior school.
• Leaders of subjects beyond English and mathematics, many of whom are new to the role, are developing their skills as leaders. They are beginning to gather evidence about achievement in their subjects in order to drive improvement. However, their judgements about standards are sometimes too optimistic. This means that they are not effectively identifying areas for development in the quality of teaching for example, where tasks are too simple and do not challenge pupils sufficiently. Consequently, pupils are not making consistently strong progress across the curriculum.
• Leaders do not have well-developed systems for analysing behaviour and attendance and reporting this to governors. This results in leaders not being able to accurately identify and act on any areas for development. For example, incorrect figures led leaders to wrongly believe that attendance for disadvantaged pupils was above the national average last year. This meant that leaders did not take action to improve attendance for this group of pupils.
• The concerns of some parents who have lost confidence in the school remain unresolved.
• Leaders’ work to promote British values is not as effective as it should be. The school’s curriculum for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development often misses planned opportunities for pupils to make links with their learning across a range of subjects. Consequently, their understanding of British values and a range of cultures is underdeveloped.
• Pupils and parents value the opportunities pupils have to take part in visits out of school. For example, each year group has a different residential event. These practical experiences help pupils to better understand each other and work cooperatively together. Leaders make it possible for pupils who are not able to stay overnight to still be included in the daytime activities. Leaders also allocate pupil premium funding to enable disadvantaged pupils to fully participate in these valuable experiences.
• Pupils largely enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum. A range of lunchtime and after-school activities are helping pupils to develop and extend their skills and confidence beyond the academic curriculum.
• Leaders have introduced an increasingly accurate and reliable assessment system to check pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This not only provides leaders with year-by-year information but also for each term. Teachers therefore have much clearer information about pupils’ starting points, next steps and any gaps in learning. Progress is beginning to improve more quickly for current pupils.
• The headteacher and senior leaders set high expectations for pupils’ achievement and have begun transforming the systems for self-evaluation and school improvement to enable more rapid development. Very clear milestones are supporting leaders and governors in checking the impact of leaders’ actions. However, evaluations about the effectiveness of the school’s work are sometimes too optimistic.
• Staff benefit from a performance management process that helps identify their strengths and weaknesses. This process is helping to improve the quality of teaching. Staff who are new to the school receive a comprehensive induction. All staff value the training they receive, which is supporting them in developing the quality of their teaching.
• The federation with the local infant school is providing additional opportunities for staff development across both schools. For example, support for the teaching of writing provided by an English specialist at the infant school, resulted in better writing outcomes in 2016. In addition, pupils make a settled and effective start when joining the junior school because there have been a number of transition activities involving staff and pupils in both schools. Parents of Year 3 pupils are overwhelmingly positive about their children’s start in the junior school.
• Leaders have had mixed success with the use of pupil premium funding. Where this has been specifically prioritised, for example in Year 6, pupils have made accelerated progress. However, in some year groups, disadvantaged pupils are not making enough progress based on their starting points at the beginning of the year.
• The special educational needs coordinator has made a good start in reviewing the school’s practice and policy, and is better placed to make more effective use of funding to support pupils. The teaching and learning and rates of progress for this group of pupils are not checked with enough rigour at present.
• School leaders use the primary school physical education (PE) and sport funding well to offer a range of sporting equipment for use at breaktimes and in PE lessons and to provide specialist coaching. This is supporting pupils in developing a healthy lifestyle. However, pupils are keen to be involved in more competitive sport with other schools.

Governance

• Over time, the governing body has not exercised sufficient strategic influence to improve the quality of education the school provides.
• The newly formed governing body for the federation of schools is beginning to establish effective ways of working. There is a strong desire and determination to provide a high standard of education for all pupils. However, governors are not questioning leaders with enough robustness about the progress pupils are making.
• They receive detailed reports and information about key aspects of school improvement work from the headteacher. However, they have been misled, at times, by the overly optimistic self-evaluation of leaders.
• Governors have a well-developed understanding of their statutory responsibilities, for example regarding safeguarding.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders have ensured that all staff have received the training they need to fulfil their responsibilities in relation to keeping pupils safe. Appropriate records of ongoing safeguarding concerns are stored securely and leaders engage well with other agencies to share information about pupils where it is necessary. Although leaders take appropriate action where they have concerns about a pupil’s safety, they recognise that some records do not provide details of the outcome of actions taken. The headteacher took immediate steps during the inspection to remedy the situation and improve this essential aspect of record-keeping.
• All staff are fully aware that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and know what to do if they have a concern.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Turbulence in staffing has led to variability in the quality of teaching over time. Although improving, the quality of teaching is not yet consistently good. This is resulting in too many pupils making insufficient progress based on their starting points.
• Not all teachers provide pupils with sufficiently challenging learning activities. Pupils with typical starting points, in particular, do not reach the standards of which they are capable. In some cases, teachers’ expectations of the most able pupils are too low. Teachers do not always use assessment information to plan learning activities which are closely matched to pupils’ abilities. This results in some activities being set which do not deepen pupils’ learning or challenge their thinking.
• Inconsistencies in teachers’ practice hamper pupils’ progress. Teaching varies in how well it meets the needs of pupils. Where teaching has not been as consistently strong, too many pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, are not making enough progress in a range of subjects.
• The teaching of mathematics is developing and is resulting in better progress for current pupils. In some classes, teachers are using assessment information to more accurately pitch activities to pupils’ needs. There are often missed opportunities, though, for pupils to be challenged sufficiently through reasoning and problem-solving. This is particularly the case for the middle-attaining group of pupils.
• Teachers do not always ensure that pupils’ time is used effectively to develop their comprehension skills in guided reading sessions. In writing, teachers provide effective feedback in line with the school’s policy to enable pupils to increase the accuracy of their grammar, punctuation and spelling. Teachers model language structures effectively and this is particularly successful in supporting pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• Teaching of other subjects, such as science, history and geography, engages pupils who enjoy learning in these subjects. However, too often, teachers do not provide challenging tasks to deepen pupils’ knowledge and understanding. As a result, the standards achieved in these subjects are not always high enough.
• When teachers do not pitch the learning to the correct level for pupils, inspectors found there are more pupils off-task and this sometimes goes unchecked. This results in pupils not using time as productively as they should.
• Teaching assistants have been trained and developed and, as a result of leaders’ clear expectations, they are having an increasing impact on pupils’ learning in lessons. They provide effective support, particularly for pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The quality of teaching in Year 6 is resulting in all groups of pupils making consistently strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Where teachers’ subject knowledge in the school is stronger, there is better pupil engagement, less off-task behaviour and more challenge for pupils. This is because teachers adapt the curriculum and personalise learning based on any gaps identified in pupils’ knowledge. They also take account of the age-related expectations and pupils’ starting points to make sure that pupils are catching up quickly.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. A small minority of pupils told inspectors that they have experienced bullying and some feel this has not been dealt with effectively. Most pupils are happy that they do not experience bullying or that, if they do, adults deal with it well.
• The many first-hand sources of information available from the school’s diverse pupil population are not used effectively enough to develop pupils’ understanding of a range of cultures.
• Pupils have an underdeveloped understanding of British values. They are unable to articulate their understanding of democracy, tolerance and the rule of law. They enjoy raising money for charities, and would like to be more involved in taking responsibilities around school and in sharing their ideas for improving the school further.
• Pupils have a good understanding of the risks to their safety when online. They know that they should protect their passwords and their personal information and that they should not respond to any communication from strangers.
• Pupils who were fasting during Ramadan felt that the staff had respect for their faith traditions. Staff had made arrangements for them to have access to shade at lunchtimes during the warm weather.
• School records show that leaders take any incidents of bullying seriously and that they deal with these promptly and appropriately.
• A breakfast club provides a positive start to the day and is available to all pupils.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. While the majority of pupils have good attitudes to learning, where teachers do not have high enough expectations of pupils’ learning attitudes, there are more frequent off-task behaviours.
• Pupils and leaders identify that there are some incidents of poor behaviour from a minority of pupils. This has emerged following new leaders’ higher expectations for pupils’ behaviour and an improved recording system. It has resulted in an increase in exclusions and behaviour incidents over the last 18 months. However, leaders are not effectively analysing the valuable information they hold about pupils’ behaviour to check the impact of their actions on bringing about improvements.
• The vast majority of pupils conduct themselves well around school. They are polite, cooperate well with others and take pride in their work. Pupils speak confidently to visitors and welcome them to their school.
• Attendance overall is above the national average. Attendance for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, and for those who are disadvantaged, was below the national average last academic year. Leaders were not able to accurately determine the improvements in attendance for these groups of current pupils.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Current pupils are not making consistently strong progress considering their different and often very high starting points. The level of challenge has been insufficient to sustain a good rate of progress over time.
• In 2016, attainment at the end of key stage 2 was well above the national average in writing, a little above average in reading and below average in mathematics. Pupils’ progress in mathematics was significantly below the national average but was broadly in line with national figures in reading and writing.
• The school’s assessment information shows that at the start of the school year, a lower proportion of pupils were working at the standards expected for their age in Years 5 and 6. Scrutiny of pupils’ current workbooks indicates that progress for many pupils in English and mathematics has begun to increase as a result of the strategies introduced by new leaders. This is particularly noticeable in Years 5 and 6 but varies between classes and subjects due to inconsistencies in the quality of teaching and staffing changes.
• Pakistani pupils, over time, have made slower progress and their attainment has fallen behind that of their peers. Assessment information shows that this group of pupils are beginning to catch up more quickly this year in reading and mathematics. Except in Year 6, progress has not been rapid enough for this group to catch up sufficiently in writing, where too many pupils are not yet working at age-related expectations.
• Pupils’ progress in mathematics is beginning to quicken. A greater proportion are now working at age-related expectations than at the beginning of the school year. However, based on their high starting points, there is still some catching up to do. There are too few opportunities for pupils to reason and deepen their understanding. This is limiting the rate of progress in some classes.
• Not all pupils receive the challenge they need, particularly middle-attaining pupils and the most able.
• Progress made by pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is inconsistent. Some are making better progress than others.
• Pupils are not developing their reading skills quickly enough because time is not used productively for all groups of pupils during guided reading lessons to support this.
• Pupils who are disadvantaged are benefiting from improving teaching and are receiving targeted support through the pupil premium funding to help address the gaps in their learning. This has been particularly effective in Year 6 where leaders have prioritised the use of funding, resulting in accelerated progress this year. In some year groups though, the difference in attainment is not diminishing quickly enough for this group of pupils compared with other pupils nationally.
• Pupils in Year 6, and particularly those who are disadvantaged pupils or have a Pakistani heritage, have made consistently strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics this year. This has resulted in a greater proportion working at age-related expectations than at the start of the year, and has made up for pupils’ previous underachievement.
• Pupils enjoy their learning across the wider curriculum and demonstrate the same high standards of presentation in other subjects as they do in English and mathematics. However, activities are not always challenging pupils sufficiently to reach the high standards they are capable of.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106988 Sheffield 10023833 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Junior School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Maintained 7 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 215 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Alison Warner Helen Haynes (executive headteacher) Gill Clark (head of school) Telephone number 0114 255 2347 Website Email address www.carterknowle.sheffield.sch.uk enquiries@carterknowle.sheffield.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 28 29 January 2015

Information about this school

• There have been substantial staffing and organisational changes since the previous inspection. The headteacher left in December 2015. The headteacher of Holt House Infant School, who is a local leader of education, supported the leadership of the school from March 2015 and was appointed as interim executive headteacher from January 2016. At the same time, the deputy headteacher was appointed as interim head of school. A part-time assistant headteacher was appointed in June 2015 and another in September 2016. In July 2016, Carter Knowle Junior School federated with Holt House Infant School. They remain separate schools but have one governing body and one headteacher. The headteacher and head of school posts were made permanent in January 2017. Six new teachers, including one part-time teacher, have joined the school since the last inspection. Four of them, including one supply teacher, have joined since September 2016.
• The school is the average size for a primary school.
• There is a much higher than average proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups, the largest group being Pakistani.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is just below the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average. The proportion who have an education, health and care plan is also below 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 runs a breakfast club and an after-school club.
• The school has just been awarded the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed teaching in every year group. Some observations were undertaken jointly with senior leaders. Inspectors observed an assembly and 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 executive headteacher, head of school, subject leaders and year group leaders. 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 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 and end of the school day in order to seek their views about the school. Inspectors took account of the 68 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and considered several letters, emails and phone call conversations with parents.

Inspection team

Kirsty Godfrey, lead inspector Tracey Ralph Simon Bissett

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector