Newton Hill Community School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • securing and embedding permanent senior leadership positions within the school
  • ensuring that class teacher positions are permanent to allow developmental work over time to build on improving skills
  • improve the effectiveness of lesson observations by providing explicit feedback about strengths, areas for development and further training required
  • using information from checks on teaching to inform future observations of teachers
  • developing more links with a wider group of schools to share best practice and moderate the accuracy of teachers’ assessments
  • setting ambitious targets which challenge teachers to meet the highest standards
  • improving attendance, by working with parents and other agencies to ensure that pupils attend regularly
  • reviewing the way in which governors receive progress information, so that they understand what it tells them and have time to discuss it in detail.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning to secure improved pupils’ outcomes by:
  • increasing the pace of learning in lessons by making sure that all children know what is expected of them increasing teachers’ expectations so that they recognise the standards that pupils are capable of reaching
  • ensuring that recently introduced systems to improve outcomes are implemented effectively
  • improving the outdoor learning environment to ensure that children in the early years can develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills outside
  • deploying more experienced teachers to work alongside less experienced colleagues to support their development
  • ensuring that teachers plan for and direct the work of teaching assistants effectively
  • ensuring all teachers follow the school’s behaviour policy to ensure that pupils display positive learning behaviours during all lessons. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how effectively this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• While governors filled the position of headteacher quickly, other senior leadership posts have remained temporary for too long. This has affected the appointment and development of middle leaders; positions remain unfilled. Significant changes to staffing over the last year have resulted in the appointment of inexperienced temporary teachers, which has had an adverse effect on outcomes.
• The leadership’s self-evaluation of the school’s overall effectiveness is overly positive. Leaders have not taken into account the impact that changes to staffing have had on standards across the school. The school development plan identifies the correct actions needed to bring about improvements; however, actions are not happening quickly enough.
• Leaders are making checks on the quality of teaching and learning, but the process lacks rigour. Teachers receive the same areas for improvement over time, in the feedback that they receive on their performance. Leaders do not check to ensure that these areas have been addressed. Written feedback to teachers is too general and does not specify in detail what exactly needs to improve. As a result, teachers do not fully understand what to do to make the necessary improvements.
• Leaders demonstrate low expectations when setting pupils’ targets. Too many targets are set using national expectations, and these are too low for many of the school’s pupils, particularly the most able. Consequently, all teachers meet unchallenging performance management targets because ambition is too low.
• Too few disadvantaged pupils are achieving greater depth in their learning, because leaders only focus on ensuring that they reach the expected standard, rather than the higher standards of which some are capable. Recent work to improve pupils’ outcomes has not had time to embed. However, there have been significant improvements to the number of disadvantaged pupils making expected progress prior to 2016. Numbers vary from cohort to cohort, progress being inconsistent over time. Analysis of the impact of pupil premium spending lacks rigour.
• In-depth analysis of the 2016 test results has resulted in leaders making recent changes to the teaching of reading and mathematics. The introduction of regular testing across the school enables leaders to check the accuracy of teachers’ assessments more closely. In reading, a focus on inference and deduction skills, using whole-class texts through which teachers teach specific questioning skills, has been introduced. In mathematics, a more structured approach to teaching is in place. However, these recently introduced initiatives are still in the early stages of implementation and the impact is not evident.
• The headteacher has managed the staffing changes well, ensuring that teachers are on board with new ideas. Staff work well together and are positive about the changes they are implementing.
• The physical education and sport premium has had a positive impact on pupils’ outcomes in competitive sports. The school achieves more success in sporting competitions and pupils are proud of their achievements. Regular professional development has improved the knowledge and practice of teachers.
• The well-planned curriculum captures the children’s imagination with opportunities for educational visits and visitors. Pupils enjoy the wide range of subjects on offer, particularly humanities, Spanish and music. Regular themed days and weeks give pupils opportunities to study in more depth. Work on British values is firmly embedded into the curriculum through planned work on democracy and diversity.
• Along with a variety of after-school clubs, such as chess, choir, football and gardening, pupils are developing a wide range of skills. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about taking part in the ‘Young Voices’ music festival.
• Strong leadership of special educational needs results in high-quality support for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Effective use of funding enables this group of pupils to achieve at similar levels to those seen nationally.
• A recent link made with another school is providing opportunities for teachers to meet with colleagues to compare standards. However, this work is in its early stages and leaders are keen to explore further opportunities to strengthen this work.
• The local authority provides support for leaders. A recent change in the school improvement partner has increased the level of challenge and brought about a sense of urgency to tackle areas of underachievement.

Governance of the school

• Governing body minutes show that governors offer a degree of challenge during meetings, but have insufficient understanding to know if the answers they receive are telling them what they need to know.
• The decision to disband the standards and effectiveness committee has resulted in longer governing body meetings. Along with pressure on agendas from the proposed expansion plans, governors do not have time to reflect on key information. As a result, governors are unsure of the progress made by different groups of pupils over time.
• Governors are keen to support the relatively new leadership team. They enjoy positive relationships and are now involved in the permanent appointment of a deputy headteacher.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Safeguarding procedures are up to date, as is information relating to the checks carried out on staff employed through agencies. Leaders are now recording the information correctly. The introduction of a more comprehensive single central record, which collates all the information onto one electronic document, has further strengthened procedures.
• Regular updates on safeguarding are clearly displayed on the staff noticeboard and staff are given time to check that their knowledge is up to date. All staff completed an individual questionnaire on ‘Keeping children safe in education 2016’ to check that they fully understand their legal obligations. Leaders are active in working with staff who display gaps in their knowledge. Parents are kept well informed through a variety of information displayed on the website.
• Leaders record all safeguarding information in detail. They follow up incidents and comments quickly, contacting relevant agencies in a timely manner. Leaders take their work on the ‘Prevent’ duty seriously, sharing information, which has resulted in a whole-school assembly to make the pupils more aware of their responsibilities.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The pace of learning in most lessons is too slow. There is no sense of urgency to complete tasks. Teachers do not encourage pupils to work quickly and most pupils are not self-motivated to finish their work. Some pupils spend too long on ensuring the neat presentation of their work rather than moving onto the next task. Too few pupils volunteer answers.
• Teachers’ expectations about what children can do are too low. In mathematics lessons, all pupils unnecessarily start at the easiest level of work before moving onto harder work. Most pupils do not reach the more-challenging work set by the teacher. Work is not demanding enough for the most able group of pupils in particular, who coast through their lessons. At the beginning of one lesson, a most able pupil explained to the class how to solve a calculation on the ‘gold’ list, but was required to start work on the silver list, resulting in unnecessary practice.
• The impact of teaching is lost in some classes because pupils feel that they need to check with the teacher throughout the lesson. This results in a queue of pupils following the teacher around the class. This slows down their learning and stops the teacher from focusing on the learning needs of individual pupils.
• In some classes, teaching assistants are ineffective. On too many occasions, they were passive observers of the whole-class input. In these classes, their impact was not evident. This resulted in some lost opportunities to work with groups to extend or secure learning. However, some teaching assistants are more effective at helping pupils make progress throughout their lessons.
• The learning environments are bright and attractive, providing a safe place for pupils to work. Prompts and learning aids displayed around the classrooms support the pupils’ learning. Topic work displayed around corridors celebrates achievements and demonstrates high standards in writing.
• Some teaching is more effective. For example, some experienced teachers successfully use prior assessment information to inform their planning and ensure an appropriate match of work to pupils’ abilities. Effective questioning assesses understanding and encourages pupils to explain their answers. This was particularly telling in Years 2 and 3, where careful grouping enabled teachers to review prior learning and provide additional challenge.
• Standards in writing demonstrate that pupils are applying their skills well to given tasks. Writing is neat and most pupils in key stage 2 are joining their letters. The introduction of checklists for writing reminds pupils what they need to do to improve their work. However, some pupils do not use the checklists effectively because teachers do not remind them.
• Pupils enjoy reading and choose from a wide selection of books. Older pupils can give examples of how their reading lessons have improved. The most able pupils read with confidence and apply a wide range of skills to help them make sense of unfamiliar words. Reading homework is encouraged, with younger pupils proud of their reading records, in which parents meticulously record all their home reading. Evidence of comprehension work included appropriate questions to strengthen understanding. The introduction of the early birds reading club provides extra support for identified pupils to help them improve their reading skills.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are happy and enjoy school. They speak positively about how caring their teachers are and parents agree. One parent commented, ‘Nothing is too much trouble for the staff here.’
• Pupils feel safe in school and know whom to go to if they have any concerns or need advice. All pupils questioned said that staff deal with any incidents quickly and that they are happy with how situations are resolved.
• Pupils are aware of the different forms of bullying and know how to stay safe. Regular ongoing work ensures that pupils are given the information that they need to remind them of how to keep safe.
• High-quality before- and after-school care in ‘NEWTs’ enables working parents to leave their children in a safe and caring environment. Staff ensure the well-being of pupils, providing regular snacks and drinks. Communication books between teachers and the ‘NEWTs’ staff make sure that parents receive any relevant information. Strictly adhered-to staffing ratios ensure the safety of all pupils.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Too many incidents of low-level disruption happen across key stage 2. A minority of pupils shout out in lessons and teachers do not implement the behaviour system consistently. Some pupils switch off from their learning, resulting in them missing instructions, so the teacher has to repeat them again or pupils do not know what to do. However, most pupils behave well and ignore the distractions around them. Some pupils have specific plans to support their behaviour in school and additional adults are skilled in managing some challenging behaviours.
• In the younger classes, pupils are well behaved; they demonstrate positive attitudes to learning when the teaching engages them. However, in whole-class sessions when the teaching does not meet the needs of all pupils, some most- and least-able pupils switch off from their learning.
• Pupils behave well at breaktimes and when they move around the school. The school tracks their behaviour carefully and keeps up-to-date records on the declining number of behaviour incidents each term. Most parents believe that pupils behave well. They particularly like the golden rules for behaviour, displayed around the school.
• Attendance remains below the national average. However, work with some families shows that successful interventions have resulted in significant increases in attendance since September. Leaders understand the needs of their families well and do not authorise holidays in term time. Leaders are working with outside agencies to ensure that pupils’ attendance continues to improve. Pupils enjoy Monday assemblies in particular because they are rewarded for good attendance.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Prior to 2016, outcomes were broadly average. The appointment of temporary inexperienced staff to key year groups resulted in a decline in standards in 2016, with the exception of key stage 1. Pupils left Year 6 in 2016 ill-prepared for their next stage of education.
• Pupils’ achievement is too variable across the school. Progress in writing is stronger than that seen in mathematics. Recently appointed teachers are receiving regular training and opportunities to observe good practice in other schools to help them raise expectations and improve their own skills.
• Rates of progress for disadvantaged pupils have improved over time. Current progress information indicates pupils are making expected progress. However, too few disadvantaged pupils are on track to achieve greater depth. Most-able disadvantaged pupils are not being identified early enough, resulting in too few reaching the higher standards.
• Leaders have raised their expectations of what pupils in the early years can achieve in phonics. Focused teaching in the nursery to introduce phonic skills earlier is already in place and leaders are working with an early years specialist to help them make further improvements.
• No pupils reached the highest standard in Year 6 in mathematics in 2016. Work to improve pupils’ self-motivation and increase their stamina in learning is still in the early stages of implementation.
• Standards at the end of key stage 1 show that expectations are high and progress across the key stage has been strong. Work seen in books and observations of pupils learning in Year 2 show well-motivated and keen learners who receive correctly matched activities and want to succeed.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• The outdoor provision, while under refurbishment, does not provide children with the opportunities they require to develop their learning. The sparsity of the current outdoor provision limits what children can do. There are no opportunities for children to develop their reading, writing or mathematical skills independently outside.
• Outcomes at the end of early years fell in 2016, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics. Opportunities to support pupils’ writing development are not fully developed across the early years. For example, individual challenge cards focus on name writing, but children do not have access to their name cards to support their independent work. As a result, children were not supported to achieve their target without the support of an adult.
• Provision across the early years is variable. The nursery provision is well organised, with high-quality resources inside the setting. Pupils are confident learners and access all areas sensibly. They show high levels of concentration on chosen activities. Adults skilfully intervene to support and extend learning.
• Provision in the Reception class has improved recently, but does not provide enough opportunities for independent learning. Many activities rely on adults to lead the learning, and as a result, children choose to access the nursery provision when working independently.
• Leaders are not ensuring that expectations are high enough across the setting. Children enjoyed sending cars down ramps and measuring how far they had travelled. However, the provision of a number line up to six did not extend the learning for most children, resulting in missed opportunities to use larger numbers. Activities to attract boys or reluctant writers were not well planned, resulting in girls only accessing the writing areas.
• High staffing ratios ensure that children receive appropriate support in their learning. Learning journals are of good quality and include children’s next steps. Progress is clear and there is evidence of a wide range of age-appropriate activities. Writing skills are developing well and children are using their phonic knowledge to support spelling.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 108164 Wakefield 10000731 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 213 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Joanne Currell Caroline Wheatley Telephone number 01924 303680 Website Email address www.newton-hill-community.eschools.co.uk admin@newtonhill.wakefield.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 26–27 March 2012

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about examination and assessment results, pupil premium information, physical education and sports funding, special educational needs and governor information on its website.
• Since the time of the last inspection, the school has undergone significant changes in staffing, with only three of the original teachers still teaching in class now. Internal re-organisation and a number of maternity leaves have resulted in three temporary positions still in place, which has led to significant recruitment issues for leaders. During the previous academic year, three newly qualified teachers joined the school.
• The school runs its own before- and after-school club, ‘NEWTs’.
• This is a smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.
• Most pupils are from a White British background, although numbers of pupils with English as a second language are increasing.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is below average.
• The school met the government’s floor targets in 2015.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching, learning and assessment in all classes. On the first day of the inspection, the headteacher observed alongside the lead inspector.
• Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in classrooms, during breaktimes and spoke to pupils during the inspection. The lead inspector observed behaviour and safety procedures in the ‘NEWTs’ before-school club.
• Inspectors looked at work in pupils’ books and in learning journals. They scrutinised reading records for pupils in selected year groups.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the acting deputy headteacher and the acting assistant headteacher. The lead inspector met three members of the governing body, including the chair of governing body, and met with the school improvement advisor from the local authority.
• The lead inspector heard four pupils read. A group of pupils met with one inspector to discuss behaviour, teaching and learning and attitudes to learning.
• Twenty-seven responses to Ofsted’s online parent survey, Parent View, were considered and inspectors spoke with a number of parents during the inspection. Nineteen staff responses to the questionnaire were also taken into account during the inspection.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a wide variety of documents, including minutes from governors meetings, monitoring work and information on current pupils’ outcomes. Safeguarding records were scrutinised, along with behaviour and attendance records. The information provided on the school’s website was checked.

Inspection team

Janet Lunn, lead inspector Sue Birch Christopher Pearce Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector