Bollinbrook CofE (A) Primary School

Bollinbrook CofE Primary School Inspection report

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Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 17–18 January 2012 Inspection number 378288 Unique Reference Number 111360 Local authority Cheshire East Inspection number 378288 Inspection dates 17–18 January 2012 Lead inspector Sharona Semlali

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Primary School category Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 206 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Marek Wolski Headteacher Michael Waters Date of previous school inspection 6 November 2008 School address Abbey Road Macclesfield SK10 3AT Telephone number 01625 384071 Fax number 0 Email address admin@bollinbrook.cheshire.sch.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Introduction

Sharona Semlali Jeremy Barnes Additional inspector Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 10 parts of lessons taught by eight teachers. Meetings were held with parents and carers, groups of pupils, members of the governing body and staff. Inspectors took account of the responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school's work, and looked at some of the documentation. This included information about pupils’ progress and attainment, policies, minutes of meetings, safeguarding documentation and pupils’ work. The inspectors scrutinised 94 parents' and carers’ questionnaires as well questionnaires from pupils and staff.

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Information about the school

Bollinbrook is an average sized primary school. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and the proportion of pupils from a minority ethnic heritage are slightly lower than the national average. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs is low. The school meets the current government floor standard. Since the previous inspection, new members have been appointed to the governing body and it has been re-structured. The school has the ‘Silver Arts mark’ and the ‘Inclusion Quality Mark’ awards. There is a daily breakfast and after-school club that is not managed by the governing body and is inspected separately by Ofsted. Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Key Findings

 This is a satisfactory school. It provides a caring, safe and inclusive environment for its pupils. The school actively promotes its core values of ‘love, respect and honesty,’ which are displayed throughout the school. This gives the pupils a range of opportunities to learn and reflect about their beliefs, faith and values during their time there.

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Key Findings

 The school helps to develop pupils’ confidence and self-esteem and pupils say that they feel more confident in performing in front of others.

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Key Findings

 The newly-formed governing body is now working with school leaders to add urgency to making necessary improvements in order to accelerate progress and raise achievement.

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Key Findings

 Pupils make satisfactory progress and attainment is in line with national averages. Given their start starting points to school in the Early Years Foundation Stage, which are generally typical for their age, this represents satisfactory achievement.

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Key Findings

 Teaching is satisfactory. Teachers effectively deploy and make careful use of additional adult support to target those pupils that need it. They promote pupils’ collaboration and teamwork sufficiently. Nevertheless, some lessons lack challenge for more-able pupils. A lack of focus on developing pupils’ understanding of sounds and letters (phonics) holds back the progress of reading in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1.

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Key Findings

 Leadership and management are satisfactory. All teachers have a leadership responsibility and have effectively worked together in making ongoing improvements to the curriculum, but more is required to meet the needs of some pupils.

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Key Findings

Schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory may receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ achievement from satisfactory to good by: - increasing challenge in lessons particularly for the more able pupils - teaching phonics systematically in Years 1 and 2 - matching the curriculum more closely to pupils’ needs.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils make satisfactory progress during their time in school. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make satisfactory progress in all areas of their learning. Children enjoy discussions, as seen during the inspection when they debated who the rabbit met, using the book ‘Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.’ Attainment is broadly average in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6. Attainment in reading at the end of Year 2 is broadly average but held back by a weakness in the curriculum for promoting sounds and letters. Generally parents and carers feel that their children are achieving well, but a few have concerns that there is a lack of challenge in some lessons and their children could achieve more. This view is supported by inspection findings.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils work well together in small groups. This was particularly noted in a lesson in Year 6 where pupils explored together the purpose of a biography. They worked sensibly with another partner in recording the positives and negatives of the different ways a biography is communicated to the reader. They enjoyed sharing their laptop computers, reading with each other and listening to each other’s view point. Pupils were able to access the text and supported each other well when this was difficult. In a mathematics lesson, pupils worked effectively together in small groups, remembering to collect a different ‘number fact’ from behind a whiteboard in a given time frame.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils with special educational needs make satisfactory progress. Their progress is tracked with care. The resulting information helps the school to put in place provision and interventions where needed. When interviewed, the more-able pupils said they enjoy reading but often find some of the work easy and are, therefore, not always making the progress of which they are capable.

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Quality of teaching

The most effective lessons have a clear purpose which is shared with pupils and a clear message about what is expected of each pupil. The lessons objectives are displayed in all classrooms and most pupils understand them and use them sufficiently in their learning. This was seen at the beginning of a literacy lesson when looking at the word ‘imperative’. Here the aims were very clear from the start and the teacher's expectations were quickly established. This was also seen at the start of a mathematics lesson where there was also a clear description about the purpose of the lesson. This was to develop pupils’ understanding of patterns using odd and even numbers. Challenge was provided to all pupils throughout this lesson. A strength of teaching is the way in which teaching assistants make valuable contributions in supporting the pupils’ learning, particularly, those pupils with special educational needs. In the Early Years Foundation Stage support staff successfully used a

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Quality of teaching

range of life-like pirate resources to promote language and stimulate pupils’ imagination. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effectively developed during assembly times. During the inspection, pupils were encouraged to reflect by themselves about people who care for them. They were very respectful during this quiet individual thinking time.

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Quality of teaching

In the least effective lessons, there was lack of challenge for most pupils but particularly those who are more able. At times, pupils were all doing the same task and activity, which held back progress for the more able. Sometimes teachers’ questioning did not always probe pupils’ thinking enough. Also there were times when there was too much teacher-talk and the pace was too slow; this hindered pupils’ productivity. The majority of parents and carers feel that their children are well taught. However, a number of parents and carers were concerned about the teaching of reading and other aspects of teaching quality. This view more closely matched the inspection findings.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils say that they enjoy coming to school and arrive on time. Attendance is average. They are very sociable and polite and play well together during lunch and playtimes. Incidences of bullying are infrequent but when they do occur, pupils say that they are swiftly dealt with. Occasionally, there are low levels of disruptive behaviour which can hinder the pace of learning. A few parents and carers expressed their concerns around how the school deals with incidents of bullying and with the occasional low levels of disruptive behaviour in lessons. Pupils report that they feel strongly that staff deal with these issues effectively. They say that their teachers are, ‘firm but fair’ and that they know that their teachers are always there if they need to speak to someone. Pupils are clear about the school’s behaviour policy but say that they feel that there are inconsistencies on how this is used between the

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils enthusiastically talk about the reward systems, such as having team points or star of the week, but particularly they aspire to the ‘headteacher’s award.’ The older pupils have the opportunity to plan and implement their own rules when they deliver a programme called ‘physkids.’ This involves them planning and delivering physical educational games to a small group of younger pupils in the school. Older pupils provide rules so that they can play in a safe atmosphere. They often get feedback from the younger ones about the rules and are told that the rules are fair.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage respond well to adults, especially when it is time to stop and tidy up. However, during the inspection, there were a few occasions when they spoke over each other but adults dealt with this effectively. During child-initiated activities children played well together, particularly in the role play area where they dressed up as pirates.

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Leadership and management

Leaders at all levels are determined in their pursuit of school improvement and are beginning to impact on accelerating progress and improving achievement. After undergoing a period of change, new members have joined the governing body bringing in new energy. This has given them a sharper focus and a better understanding of the school. There is now a stronger partnership between school leaders and the governing body and a shared understanding that achievement can be better. The headteacher has extended the leadership team so that staff have more involvement in monitoring and contribute to accurate self-evaluation.. The leadership has improved the Early Years Foundation Stage and there is now a better balance of child-initiated and teacher-led activities. The governing body has successfully increased the number of pupils attending the school through establishing relationships with key groups such as the local pre-school and the group that

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Leadership and management

manages the before- and after-school clubs. These initiatives demonstrate that the school has satisfactory capacity to improve.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is satisfactory, providing access to all subjects. The school successfully promotes good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils have opportunities to go out on visits and have visitors such as artists and specialist music teachers coming in to teach them. The older pupils have been on a residential to Delamere Forest and visited the Conway Centre. Pupils have strong links with a school in Uganda and with another school that serves a community quite different from their own. Safeguarding procedures fulfil statutory duties enabling pupils and adults to learn and work in a safe environment. The school effectively promotes equality and does not tolerate any form of discrimination. All policies concerning this are in place and up to date.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils' needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ).

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstanding schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add up exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils' work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils' punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school's overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils' attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils' freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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to share with their children. It describes Ofsted's main

findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Bollinbrook C of E Primary School, Macclesfield, SK10 3AT

Thank you for making me and my colleague welcome and for spending time talking to us. We enjoyed talking to about your work and hearing you read. You told us that you try hard to get an award from your headteacher as you find this to be a special reward. You also told us that you enjoy planning and organising the ‘physkids’ activities for the younger children.

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Inspection of Bollinbrook C of E Primary School, Macclesfield, SK10 3AT

In order to find more information about your school we spoke to your parents and carers. We spoke to some of you and your teachers. We looked at your work and watched some of your lessons. Your school is satisfactory and these are the some of the strengths about it:  you have a new governing body that is really keen and has started to make improvements to your school  you feel that your school helps to develop your confidence so that you are less anxious in performing in front of other people  your school gives you time to reflect, think and care for other people  your school helps and encourages you to work together in lessons.

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Inspection of Bollinbrook C of E Primary School, Macclesfield, SK10 3AT

In order to help you to do even better, we have asked staff to:  increase your achievement by making sure that your work is more challenging and the work matches your ability  teach letter and sounds, known as phonics, to the younger children and pupils to help them to read better and more quickly.

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Inspection of Bollinbrook C of E Primary School, Macclesfield, SK10 3AT

You can help by letting your teachers know when you find the work too easy and by encouraging the younger children to work hard in learning the new sounds.

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Inspection of Bollinbrook C of E Primary School, Macclesfield, SK10 3AT

Yours sincerely Sharona Semlali Lead Inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted's website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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