Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 13(4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve leadership and management, by:
  • ensuring that all subjects, including history, geography and science, are well led and managed, resulting in consistently good progress across the curriculum
  • sharpening improvement plans so that they identify precisely their intended impact
  • making sure that new governors are trained and supported, so that an effective academy council that focuses sharply on school improvement matters replaces the trust intervention board by the end of the school year.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that it is effective in all year groups, and brings about consistently good progress of all pupil groups across a wide range of subjects, by ensuring that:
  • new teachers are rapidly inducted
  • the current effective checks of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment continue.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the early years, by:
  • making sure that activities and resources consistently fully engage children, especially boys, and make sufficient demands on them, taking into account their stages of development
  • training adults to more consistently monitor, and intervene in, children’s independent play and exploration, and to ask questions that more effectively promote thinking, talking and learning.
• Improve pupils’ knowledge and understanding of a range of faiths and gender diversity, by ensuring that:
  • sufficient time is given to teaching about faiths other than Christianity
  • teachers engage pupils in discussions about gender stereotyping and diversity.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Following the previous inspection, the trust appointed an effective core leadership team. The headteacher has resolutely addressed the weakest teaching. Leaders are aspirational for pupils. They set challenging achievement targets and uphold high expectations. Nevertheless, it has taken some time to establish a stable staff. This has hampered developments.
• The headteacher has empowered two key leaders to help her make systematic and regular checks on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Leaders, with the help of the trust, have ensured that permanent teachers have been well trained. As a result, the quality of teaching, and pupils’ progress, are improving. However, they are not yet good.
• Although there are few leaders in this small school, capacity to sustain further improvement is strong, given the effectiveness of their work over the last year. Not all subjects are led well, not least because temporary staffing has prevented senior leaders from distributing leadership responsibility. A stable, permanent staff is now in place, along with a plan to develop subject leadership beyond English and mathematics.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced. Leaders ensure that teachers plan and teach a wide range of subjects. However, although English and mathematics are well led, this is not the case for some subjects, particularly science, history and geography. Consequently, the acquisition of knowledge in these subjects has not been systematic and cumulative. Furthermore, the degree to which teachers have upheld high standards has varied too much. Pockets of stronger teaching, for example recent science work in Year 3, have helped pupils to think more deeply. The leadership of art has been effective. As a result, pupils’ progress in art is developing well across the school.
• Leaders ensure that pupils participate in many motivating and interesting activities that broaden their horizons and stimulate learning. For example, pupils get to regularly visit places of interest, such as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and a birds of prey centre. Leaders plan themed days and weeks, such as a family challenge morning, where children made large junk models of megastructures from around the world with their parents and carers.
• Leaders involve parents well in their children’s education. Parents value regular ‘stay and learn’ sessions. During the inspection, pupils participated in World Book Day. Many parents attended to spend time sharing books with their children.
• Leaders, including the very effective pastoral team, have ensured that the most vulnerable pupils are well supported. As a result, despite instability in teaching, especially in Years 3 and 4, nurturing interventions, and strong relationships with teaching assistants, have compensated for this lack of stability.
• An external review of the spending of the pupil premium offered leaders some challenge. Systems and processes for checking the teaching and progress of these pupils are well developed. Instability in staffing has hampered the progress of too many disadvantaged pupils. In some classes, these pupils have made more rapid progress. Limited clarity about the intended impact of pupil premium spending makes it difficult for leaders and governors to be certain about the effectiveness of each spending initiative.
• The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) ensures that pupils’ needs are identified early. She involves external professionals in the careful diagnosis of pupils’ needs. Well-considered plans help pupils with SEND to make progress. The SENCo checks that teachers and teaching assistants properly implement these plans. Again, where teaching has been most disrupted, this work has been less effective.
• Leaders promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils well. The religious education curriculum, the personal social, health and citizenship curriculum, and regular assemblies, make a strong contribution to pupils’ development. However, pupils’ knowledge of faiths other than Christianity, and the variety of cultures represented in modern Britain, is limited, as is their knowledge and understanding of gender diversity. Nevertheless, pupils demonstrate tolerance and respect for those who are different from themselves.

Governance of the school

• The TIB is composed of diligent, suitably experienced and knowledgeable governors, including three trustees. Governors fulfil all their statutory duties, including their safeguarding duties. They appropriately challenge school leaders. However, until recently, governors have not emphasised with sufficient sharpness the most important school improvement priorities in their discussions. A lack of precision in leaders’ strategic planning has compounded this.
• The fact that the TIB has been exclusively made up of individuals directly involved in the trust means that accountability has not been as strong as it could be. Some recent governor self-evaluation, and the recent appointment of a governor from outside the trust, is leading to stronger objectivity. The school improvement adviser, commissioned by the trust to provide support and challenge to school leaders, has offered helpful challenge and support to the TIB.
• The trust intervention board has taken a considerable time to bring stability to the school. The board ensured the appointment of an effective headteacher and the appointment and development of two other effective key leaders. However, it has only very recently ensured a full permanent staff team. This has hampered the rate of improvement.
• The TIB has made appointments to a newly developing academy council, whose members are beginning to shadow the work of the TIB. The TIB intends that the academy council will take over the work of the TIB before the end of the academic year.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders take their safeguarding duties seriously. They are highly organised and thorough in their work to safeguard pupils. They are scrupulous in their record-keeping.
• A considerable number of pupils in this small school are identified as being harmed or at risk of harm. The child protection team is diligent in checking daily that these pupils are safe. Its members are timely in their actions, for example in making referrals to the local authority and following up on the work of external professionals.
• Safer recruitment processes are fit for purpose. The statutory record of checks is complete. All staff are properly trained. Leaders keep a meticulous record of the regular and up-to-date training provided for staff. Adults understand their duties. Their vigilance is evident in the timely contributions they regularly make to the records of concerns.
• The school site is safe. Entry procedures are tight. Leaders have recently reviewed boundary security and bolstered arrangements to check that pupils are properly supervised when they are outside.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The substantial instability in staffing noted at the last inspection has only recently been fully resolved. Too many pupils are only just beginning to make up lost ground. Teaching is not consistently effective in all classes and subjects.
• This inconsistency affects all groups of pupils. For example, not all teachers challenge the most able pupils well enough. Measures to help pupils who have fallen behind, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, are applied with too much variability.
• Some teaching is very effective. Since the last inspection, teachers’ expectations of what pupils ought to be able to achieve are substantially raised in some year groups. The best teaching ensures that the learning needs of pupils, identified through effective assessment and questioning, are precisely identified and met.
• Training has ensured that teachers have well-developed subject knowledge. This helps them to plan suitable sequences of learning adapted for the differing needs of pupils, especially in writing and mathematics, and increasingly in reading.
• A few teachers deliver the agreed mathematics teaching strategies well. They ensure that a suitable balance of work develops pupils’ fluency with numbers, builds conceptual understanding and reasoning skills, and helps pupils of all abilities to investigate and solve problems.
• In the classes where teachers deliver the agreed English teaching strategies well, pupils make good progress in their writing. Pupils learn to write neatly, accurately, and with increasing variety in the use of vocabulary and sentence structure. The most effective teaching helps pupils to comprehend challenging and appealing texts. Teachers ask questions that deepen pupils’ thinking and get them reading between the lines. The teaching of phonics is effective.
• However, the agreed strategies for teaching reading, writing and mathematics are not embedded across the age range, mainly because of the instability in staffing over time. As a result, rates of progress are variable across classes and subjects.
• The teaching of subjects other than English and mathematics also varies too much in quality. Some teachers do not give enough thought to the best ways of teaching some subjects. The teaching of history, geography and science generally does not deepen pupils’ thinking, especially that of the most able pupils. A little science work, more recently, has been much more appropriately challenging.
• Teaching assistants are largely conscientious and effective in their work, especially where teachers deploy and guide them carefully.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils enjoy their learning and the vast majority try their best in lessons. They work independently and cooperate conscientiously, often with enthusiasm, in group activities. Pupils develop confidence.
• The instability in staffing has had a negative effect on some of the most vulnerable pupils from time to time. However, leaders have taken effective action to assess the individual needs of pupils. The continuity and consistency in the presence and work of teaching assistants helps these pupils to engage with their learning, as do the regular interventions and nurturing programmes.
• The positive culture and effective promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development helps pupils to develop open-minded attitudes. Pupils demonstrate respect for each other’s differences. However, pupils’ knowledge about faiths other than Christianity and about gender differences is not as well developed as it might be.
• An active, well-organised and purposeful school council gives pupils insight into democratic principles. School councillors take their specific roles seriously and provide positive role models.
• Pupils have a well-developed understanding of the different forms bullying can take. They are confident that adults deal effectively with infrequent incidents.
• Adults are comprehensive in teaching pupils how to stay safe, including online. A termly safety week ensures that this teaching is updated regularly.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Positive relationships between adults and pupils, and between pupils, encourage good behaviour. Adults manage behaviour well and expect the best conduct from pupils. Pupils value the clear rewards and sanctions.
• Pupils conduct themselves sensibly around the school, including when they are not directly supervised. They exhibit good manners.
• Pupils recognise that a small number of their peers struggle with their behaviour. They are confident adults deal with this well, so the effects of occasional incidents on others are minimised.
• Leaders’ comprehensive actions to promote good attendance are successful. Persistent checking, vigilance and regular rewards have resulted in above-average attendance figures and rates of persistent absence that are lower than the national average. No one group of pupils is particularly over-represented in the figures.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Leaders have arrested the decline in the pupils’ progress in key stage 2. In 2018, Year 6 pupils made very strong progress in their reading. The progress in writing and in mathematics for last year’s Year 6 pupils over their time in key stage 2 was broadly average. Considering these pupils’ starting points at the end of key stage 1, which were too low, this progress was insufficient to raise attainment. As a result, attainment remained below the national average.
• Pupils currently in upper key stage 2 are making stronger progress because of effective teaching. Pupils overall are catching up. Leaders expect further improved outcomes this year. While the inspector is unable to verify this, the progress evident in pupils’ workbooks looks positive.
• Achievement by the end of key stage 1 was broadly average in 2017 but dipped substantially in 2018, due to instability in staffing. Stronger teaching this year is helping the current Year 2 pupils to make much stronger progress.
• Progress in Year 3 and Year 4, this year, has been too slow. However, recently, following the deployment of a very effective teacher, pupils in Year 3 are beginning to make rapid progress; those who need to catch up are beginning to do so. Teaching in Year 4 is better than it was at the time of the last monitoring visit. Nevertheless, many pupils in Year 4 have much ground to make up when the newly appointed teacher takes up post in a few weeks.
• School assessment information shows that the proportion of pupils across the school who are working at an age-appropriate standard is increasing. The work in pupils’ workbooks reflects this. However, the rates of progress are too variable across a wide range of subjects.
• Improved challenge for the most able pupils is slowly increasing the proportion of pupils achieving a higher standard and learning at greater depth.
• The effective support for pupils with SEND helps many to make progress to meet their targets. Where teaching has been most disrupted, these pupils have made less progress.
• Similarly, where teaching is most effective, disadvantaged pupils make greater progress. Overall, differences in achievement between disadvantaged pupils and others nationally and in the school vary across the age range. For example, the difference in attainment at key stage 1 is marked. At key stage 2, the progress of disadvantaged pupils has been no better than that of other pupils, so differences in attainment remain.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Generally, about half of the children enter Reception with skills, knowledge and understanding below that which is typical for their age. The other half are broadly typical for their age. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of the early years, over time, has been close to the national average. The very large majority of children are sufficiently prepared for Year 1. However, the proportion of disadvantaged children reaching a good level of development in the last two years has been below the average for all children in the school and nationally. Furthermore, too few children exceed any of the early learning goals.
• At the last inspection, the inspector identified that boys did not learn as well as girls. Although this has improved very recently, the quality of provision for boys is inconsistent. Boys are beginning to become better engaged in the activities they undertake independently. However, a few boys still flit from activity to activity, not sustaining interest. This too often goes unnoticed by adults. As a result, boys do not make the progress they could towards achieving a good level of development. Furthermore, they do not develop the characteristics of good learning that would prepare them well for Year 1.
• Recently, activities have been much more stimulating. Adults have improved the quality and arrangement of resources. This means that most children enjoy their activities and concentrate for longer periods of time. However, largely, independent, child-initiated activities do not challenge children enough. Furthermore, children do not have sufficient opportunities to apply their developing reading, writing and mathematics knowledge. This means that although children enjoy their activities, valuable learning time is wasted.
• The direct teaching of children, in groups, is effective. Children develop basic mathematics knowledge and understanding, they learn to form letters correctly and to have a go at spelling words. The large majority leave the early years able to write a recognisable simple sentence. Most children make good progress in phonics.
• The effectiveness of adults’ interactions with children as they play varies. For example, adults are only sometimes successful in making activities more challenging. The questions adults ask children do not probe children’s understanding or deepen their thinking well enough.
• Leaders ensure that all the early years welfare requirements are met. Children feel safe and are kept safe. Children learn to behave well and cooperate with each other. They play safely.
• Adults’ assessments of children largely cover the required areas of development. Until very recently, written assessments have not identified, precisely enough, what children have learned.
• Leaders successfully involve parents in their children’s learning and assessment. ‘Stay and learn’ sessions are popular with parents.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 138941 Wakefield 10077712 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 Academy converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 137 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Steve Dent Louise Bird Telephone number 01977 625354 Website Email address www.sacredheart.bkcat.co.uk Lbird@sacredheart.bkcat.co.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 2017

Information about this school

• The school is a member of the Bishop Konstant Catholic Academy Trust. There are 10 Catholic primary schools and two Catholic secondary schools in the trust. The trust board is accountable for the performance of schools within the trust. The trust board delegates responsibilities to a temporary trust intervention board to provide support and challenge to school leaders. Three trustees sit on this board. A standards officer, who is also a trustee, is appointed by the trust board, who hold her to account for the quality of education in the school.
• The school is a Roman Catholic School within the Diocese of Leeds. A Section 48 inspection took place in October 2013. The next Section 48 inspection must take place before the end of the current academic year.
• The trust commissions a school improvement adviser from the local authority to provide support and challenge to school leaders.
• Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is a smaller than average-sized primary school.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium is broadly average. The proportion of pupils with SEND is below the national average. No pupils currently have an education, health and care plan.
• Most pupils are of White British heritage. Just 5% of pupils speak English as an additional language, well below the national average.

Information about this inspection

• Evidence from two special measures monitoring inspections that took place in July 2017 and November 2017 contributed to this inspection.
• The inspector briefly visited all classes with the headteacher to observe the quality of teaching and learning. The inspector, alongside the leadership team, scrutinised the work in a range of pupils’ workbooks. The inspector listened to four pupils read.
• Brief discussions were held with parents as they dropped their children off at school in the morning. There were too few responses to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, for analysis. However, the inspector took account of the views of eight questionnaires filled in by parents.
• The inspector held discussions with pupils formally and informally about their learning and what it is like to be a pupil at the school. He took account of questionnaire responses from most of the pupils.
• Discussions were held with senior and middle leaders and with the trust standards officer, who is a senior executive within the multi-academy trust. A discussion took place with the school improvement adviser commissioned by the trust to provide support and challenge. The inspector discussed with a few adults their safeguarding responsibilities. The inspector considered the questionnaire responses of 11 members of staff.
• The inspector examined a range of documents, including the academy development plan, minutes of trust intervention board meetings, assessment information, and notes from leaders’ checks on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. A range of safeguarding documents and records were scrutinised, including the record of safer recruitment checks.

Inspection team

Philip Riozzi, lead inspector

Her Majesty’s Inspector