St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley

St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley Inspection report

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Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 14–15 February 2012 Inspection number 379522 Unique Reference Number 118030 Local authority East Riding of Yorkshire Inspection number 379522 Inspection dates 14–15 February 2012 Lead inspector Alan Lemon

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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 controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 402 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Margaret Hairsine Headteacher Lucy Jordan Date of previous school inspection 29 April 2009 School address Eden Road Beverley HU17 7HD Telephone number 01482 868149 Fax number 01482 868149 Email address Stmarysbeverley.primary@eastriding.gov.uk February 2012 2 of 11

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 3 of 11

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Introduction

Alan Lemon Juliet Demster Additional inspector Additional inspector Nancy Walker Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Twenty two lessons were seen involving 12 teachers. Inspectors held meetings with a group of pupils, members of the governing body and staff. They took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school's work, and looked at the school’s self-evaluation, its policies and procedures for safeguarding pupils, and a range of pupil performance data. They analysed 145 questionnaires completed by parents and carers as well as questionnaires from staff and pupils.

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Information about the school

The school is larger than the average-sized primary school and the number on roll is increasing. Almost all pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of disabled pupils or those with special educational needs is below average. The proportion known to be eligible for free school meals is below that usually found. The school meets the current government floor standards for English and mathematics, which set minimum expectations for attainment and progress. Since the previous inspection, three new posts of assistant headteacher replaced the deputy headteacher post.

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Information about the school

The school has a wide range of accreditations including Healthy School status, the Basic Skills Quality Mark, the International School award, the Eco School award, the Sustainable Travel award (Gold), Activemark and Inclusion Accreditation (Gold). Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 4 of 11

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Information about the school

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. Parents and carers hold very positive views on the children’s experiences. Pupils’ behaviour is good; they are safe in school and understand how to deal with risks and stay safe. Pupils have a positive regard for others and are cooperative and helpful. They enjoy school and value what it offers them.

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Key Findings

■ This is not a good school because its leaders have not fully established a firm foundation of good teaching across the school which has a better than satisfactory impact on pupils’ progress and achievement. While leadership is being strengthened and is focused on what needs to be improved, its impact is not yet fully felt on raising achievement and improving teaching.

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Key Findings

■ Pupils’ learning and progress are satisfactory. Attainment on entry varies from year to year but is broadly average overall. At the end of Year 6, attainment in English and mathematics is broadly average over time, although in some years it is above average. Good teaching is currently not a sufficiently strong feature to promote good progress and achievement. Higher attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is hindered because of the inconsistency in building systematically on prior learning in these key areas.

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Key Findings

■ The quality of teaching is good overall in Reception ensuring children make good progress in all areas of learning. Teaching is satisfactory overall in Key Stages 1 and 2. Pupils’ experiences of learning over time are mixed. At times they are challenged by the teaching and at other times expectations are not as high as they should be.

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Key Findings

■ Leadership and management are satisfactory. The headteacher and senior leaders have introduced new developments aimed at raising achievement. They are guided by an increasingly comprehensive analysis of pupils’ performance and the quality of teaching. However, leader’s evaluations of the school’s strengths and weaknesses are not always as sufficiently robust and self-critical to provide a strong drive for school improvement. Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 5 of 11

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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?

 ■ Improve pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 by: - ensuring there is consistency across both stages in teachers’ expectations of pupils in relation to their efforts in lessons and to the standard of their work - ensuring every teacher plans lessons that challenge all pupils appropriately so their work builds systematically on their prior learning, particularly in reading and writing - ensuring marking gives pupils good, accessible advice that will help them improve their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

■ Improve leadership and management by ensuring self-evaluation is sufficiently robust in identifying weaknesses in pupils’ performance and provision, pinpoints accurately the causes of weaknesses and results in decisive action to remedy these.

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Achievement of pupils

Achievement is satisfactory. Currently, attainment in Year 6 is broadly average and in 2011, it was significantly above average. This reflects the variation in pupils’ ability levels from one year to the next. Irrespective of their ability, pupils make satisfactory progress over time. The questionnaires returned show that parents and carers consider that progress is good; inspection evidence shows that this is not entirely accurate.

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Achievement of pupils

Learning and progress across all areas are good in Reception and arise from the impact of effective teaching and good Early Years Foundation Stage provision. During their activities, children’s mathematical development is encouraged with the use of exciting visual, tactile resources for counting. This motivates them well to count, work independently and support each other. Children talk about what they learn and this provides good opportunities for them to develop their communication and social skills. They learn quickly to link letters and sounds with the result that they begin reading simple words with confidence. By the end of Reception, children are achieving the level expected for their age.

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Achievement of pupils

In Key Stages 1 and 2, when well taught, pupils are engaged in learning and, when challenged by their work, apply themselves well in English and mathematics to complete tasks and solve problems effectively. In such lessons, the pace of learning and progress is good. However, in other lessons and over time challenge is inconsistent and the pace of learning is satisfactory overall. As a result, pupils occasionally do not engage well in learning. On a few occasions pupils settle to work slowly and produce too little, sometimes when completing writing. Attainment in reading is broadly average at the end of Key Stage 1 and by the time pupils leave school. Currently, by the end of Key Stage 1 pupils have learnt to link letters and sounds satisfactorily. Most pupils read fluently, enjoy reading and understand what they have read. However, there is, in the case of some pupils, a mismatch between the level of their reading books and their reading ability. Pupils’ speaking and

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Achievement of pupils

listening skills are above average and these are often encouraged effectively. For example, a Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 6 of 11

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Achievement of pupils

play performed by pupils in Year 4 showed clearly their confidence and good ability to communicate expressively.

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Achievement of pupils

The support for pupils needing help with literacy and numeracy, including disabled pupils or those with special educational needs, ensures their progress is satisfactory overall. While the impact of this support is at an early stage of evaluation, the data available indicate that the gaps in attainment between these pupils and others are being closed and this matches the overall good quality of support provided.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching is satisfactory in its impact on pupils’ learning and progress. While there is none that is inadequate, there is not enough that is good across the school to raise achievement further. The large majority of parents and carers responding to the questionnaire consider that their children are well taught. However, inspection evidence shows that teaching is not as convincingly good as they believe.

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Quality of teaching

Literacy and numeracy are taught well in Reception, in particular the approach to learning letters and sounds, which is delivered expertly. Good teaching comprises engaging approaches to learning and effective planning, with strong links to the school’s increasingly detailed assessment of progress. In satisfactory lessons these links are not as strong and this gives rise to inconsistency which shows in pupils’ work and in their writing, in particular. The quality of marking in these lessons is not strong enough to provide pupils with a clear direction for their next steps in learning. Mostly, teachers plan their lessons in detail; they use assessment and identify learning objectives which they explain carefully to pupils. However, the sharp focus and pace as a result of good teaching are missing when teaching is merely satisfactory. Time is sometimes wasted revisiting knowledge and skills pupils have

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Quality of teaching

already grasped and pupils struggle to generate the interest to engage actively. Here, it is often the higher-attaining pupils who are motivated by what they are given to do. Other pupils are sometimes left too long to get on with work on their own and their interest, concentration and productivity wane.

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Quality of teaching

When planning is most effective, all groups of pupils are engaged actively in their learning. Teaching assistants are well briefed on learning objectives and approaches to support pupils with special educational needs and groups of lower-attaining pupils. Mostly, pupils are managed effectively, although expectations are not always made clear and a very few pupils take advantage of this to break off from work and chat to each other. However, teaching and the curriculum help promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development satisfactorily. It encourages pupils’ good social skills through the opportunities provided for them to work together and help each other’s learning. Pupils also learn about the diversity of different cultures and beliefs through topic work.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils’ behaviour and safety are good. The overwhelming majority of parents and carers returning questionnaires are of this view and this matches the views of pupils and staff. Bullying is a rare occurrence and this is reflected in the pupils’, parents’ and carers’ responses. Incidents of bullying, harassment and misbehaviour are taken very seriously by the school and dealt with quickly and effectively in close liaison with parents and carers. The very few pupils who have special educational needs giving rise to challenging behaviour are Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 7 of 11

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

well managed by staff who employ effective strategies to support them and ensure their behaviour does not disrupt the learning of others.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils enjoy school; their attendance is above average and they are punctual to school and lessons. Pupils throughout the school understand the importance of good behaviour; most manage their own behaviour effectively and encourage each other to behave well. They have a good deal of respect for each other and are considerate and helpful. They work and play well together.

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Leadership and management

Leadership and management are satisfactory. The headteacher is fully committed to increasing the effectiveness of the school and is driving improvement to this end: progress on improvement is therefore satisfactory. The headteacher has enlarged the senior leadership team and incorporated more staff into key leadership roles, which has added to the school’s capacity for improvement. The governing body’s work complements that of senior leaders. Members fulfil their duties effectively and use their experience and expertise to guide the school. They maintain a close and informed oversight of the school’s good arrangements for safeguarding pupils. The strength of their challenge to the school, like that of its senior leaders, is reduced somewhat by a less-than-critical evaluation of the school’s overall effectiveness.

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Leadership and management

Senior leaders provide a clear direction and have a particular focus on strengthening self- evaluation. They have made the tracking of pupils’ performance more comprehensive and, although it is too early to gauge the full impact of this on learning and progress, it contributes positively to the promotion of equality of opportunity. Similarly, the improvement of teaching is receiving close attention but this has currently not resulted in significant improvement in quality overall. While the school’s capacity to sustain improvement is satisfactory, evaluation of pupils’ achievement and of teaching is not sufficiently rigorous in identifying weaknesses and pointing the way effectively to making improvements. The occasional below-par performance of pupils and teachers is in some instances too easily explained away and does not always highlight an urgent need for action. Nevertheless, self- evaluation has led to several new initiatives aimed at raising the achievement of all pupils.

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Leadership and management

There are signs that these are helping to narrow the gaps in performance of different groups of pupils but their full impact over time is not fully clear.

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Leadership and management

Leaders have developed a broad and balanced curriculum which offers a variety of activities to match pupils’ interests and to create enjoyment in learning. It helps pupils learn to stay safe and helps them to develop the key skills they will need in the future. The curriculum provides many experiences of different cultures and good opportunities for expressive and visual arts. This is very evident in the wide range of high quality art work in displays and in the Year 4 performance of their play. The curriculum, including a range of enrichment activities, contributes significantly to pupils’ good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 8 of 11

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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 exactly to 100. Inspection report: St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Beverley, 14–15 February 2012 9 of 11

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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. February 2012 10 of 11

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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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School, Beverley, HU17 7HD

Thank you for your warm welcome and for being so helpful when we visited to inspect your school. I would like to thank those pupils who read for us and the group of pupils who agreed to discuss their views of the school. Your school provides you with a satisfactory quality of education. This is what we found out from our visit:

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School, Beverley, HU17 7HD

■ you enjoy school considerably; the headteacher and staff help you to develop as well-rounded individuals ■ you are achieving satisfactorily and leave school attaining the standards expected in English and mathematics; children in Reception are making good progress ■ in the main school, reading and writing are not always improving as well as they should; to tackle this we have asked your teachers to make sure their expectations of every pupil are high enough and that your work in lessons is always challenging for you ■ part of the teaching we saw was good and other parts were only satisfactory; the teaching you receive is satisfactory overall ■ the headteacher and staff lead and manage the school satisfactorily and are working hard to improve it further; however, school leaders need to be more critical in understanding the weaknesses they find in your progress and teaching so they are better placed to help you improve.

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School, Beverley, HU17 7HD

You can help by keeping up your good attendance and behaviour. I wish you all the very best for the future.

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School, Beverley, HU17 7HD

Alan Lemon Lead inspector February 2012 11 of 11

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School, Beverley, HU17 7HD

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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