Springfield Primary School

Springfield Primary School Inspection report

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Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 22–23 February 2012 Inspection number 377525 Unique Reference Number 107073 Local authority Sheffield Inspection number 377525 Inspection dates 22–23 February 2012 Lead inspector Ronald Cohen

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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 Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 211 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Philip Barker Headteacher Beth-Lorien Stevenson Date of previous school inspection 17 September 2008 School address Broomspring Lane Sheffield S10 2FA Telephone number 0114 2723455 Fax number 0114 2493291 Email address headteacher@springfield.sheffield.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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Introduction

Ronald Cohen Michael Wintle Additional inspector Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. Inspectors visited 13 lessons and observed eight teachers, including a joint observation with the headteacher. Inspectors held meetings with staff, members of the governing body and pupils. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at a range of evidence, including policies, improvement plans, pupils’ work and the school’s records indicating pupils’ progress and attainment. Inspectors also analysed 84 parental and carers’ questionnaires, together with others completed by pupils and staff.

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Information about the school

This average-sized primary school serves an inner city community in Sheffield. The overwhelming majority of pupils is from ethnic minority backgrounds, of which the largest proportion is of Black African heritage. This is reflected in the well above average proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language. A growing proportion of pupils are the children of students from overseas. Some of those joining the school are refugees or asylum seekers, and they are new to the country as well as to the school. Many of these pupils have no English at all on arrival. A significant proportion joins the school after the normal age of entry to primary education. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is above average and more pupils than usual have a statement of special educational needs. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well above average. The school meets the current government floor

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Information about the school

standard. The school holds the Leading Parents Partnership Award. 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

 Springfield primary school is a satisfactory school. It is not good overall because achievement, whilst rising, is only satisfactory. The school is improving strongly and is successfully emerging from a period of low achievement. The headteacher and her senior leadership team, together with the governing body, are effectively steering the school through this period of change. The overwhelming majority of parents and carers are happy with the education the school provides for their children and the relationships the school has with them.

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Key Findings

 The school plays a vital role at the centre of its culturally rich and diverse community. It is very effective in ensuring that the different faiths and social and cultural backgrounds of its pupils make a positive contribution to their good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Key Findings

 The quality of teaching is satisfactory overall, with some good and occasionally outstanding lessons. In satisfactory lessons, pupils do not always have enough challenge to achieve well. The level of independent work in which pupils engage and the quality of the in-class assessment of their work is often the difference between good and satisfactory lessons.   Pupils behave well throughout the school. They show positive attitudes towards their learning, although the attendance of a small number is adversely affected by parental decisions to take them abroad on extended holidays or leave. Pupils say they feel safe in school and that staff deal effectively with their concerns.

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Key Findings

 Leadership and management, including governance, are satisfactory overall. There are some strong features, including the school’s clear vision of what it can achieve, and what is needed to get it there. Well-organised and effective professional development has given the senior leadership team, and the staff as a whole, a much clearer understanding of how to evaluate the impact of their work on pupils’ improving performance.  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?

 Increase, as quickly as possible, and certainly within one year, the amount of good and better teaching to enable more pupils to make accelerated progress in both English and mathematics, by teachers ensuring that: - pupils’ work is consistently challenging - pupils are engaged in more independent work , on which they are asked to reflect and improve - they use probing questions more effectively to check and extend pupils’ understanding. 

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the attendance of those pupils who are taken out of school by: - continuing to work with parents and carers to stress the importance of continuity of attendance - working more closely with the local education and other authorities to strengthen the impact of the messages concerning attendance.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils’ attainment remains below average in English and mathematics at the end of both Year2 and Year 6. However, the gap is closing because of the accelerated progress pupils are making. However, this accelerated progress is not consistent across the whole school and is best in Reception, Year 2 and Year 6.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils’ achievement is satisfactory overall. As a result of targeted intervention, based on an analysis of their needs, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and those who speak English as an additional language make at least satisfactory progress, and for some it is good.

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Achievement of pupils

Year 6 pupils are increasingly confident writers and enjoy the opportunities, in class discussion, to demonstrate their burgeoning skills in the use of extended adjectival phrases to widen their vocabulary for descriptive writing. Progress in mathematics is slower.

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Achievement of pupils

The proportion of Year 2 pupils who read to the level expected for their age is broadly average. They recognise many common words on sight, and use their secure understanding of sounds and letters effectively when identifying words which are new or unfamiliar to them. By the end of year 6, almost all pupils read with the competence expected at their age, and the proportion reading at an above average level is growing. Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage with starting points which are well below those typical for their age. By the end of Reception, good provision, particularly indoor provision, and good teaching ensure that they have made good progress and many reach age-related expectations in the different areas of learning. For example, children, playing sounds and letters games with the teacher (ably assisted by Emu, the puppet) demonstrated their understanding of how many ‘sound dots’ (phonemes) there are in the words ‘fun’ and ‘funfair’.

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Achievement of pupils

Overall, boys and girls, pupils of different abilities and those from different ethnic backgrounds maintain similarly satisfactory rates of progress. The vast majority of parents and carers who returned the inspection questionnaires expressed satisfaction with their children’s progress. This reflects the inspection findings.

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Quality of teaching

The quality of teaching is satisfactory. However, there are elements of good and outstanding teaching. The most successful lessons are characterised by challenging activities which stretch all pupils appropriately, and pupils are encouraged to be independent participants in their own learning, rather than passive recipients of teacher input. Teaching assistants in these lessons are seen both by pupils and teacher as an integral factor in this process, and they are deployed well to make a positive contribution to pupils’ learning. In one Year 2 lesson for example, the teacher made clear and strong reference to them, as essential additional “gatherers of evidence” to attest to pupils’ progress during the lesson. A growing feature of the better lessons across the curriculum is the planning for, and encouragement of, pupils’ reading and the use of their extended vocabulary. In most lessons, teachers take the opportunity to enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural

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Quality of teaching

awareness. For example, in a Year 4 lesson on the use of persuasive argument, pupils engaged in discussions about a range of issues, such as “should mobile telephones be allowed in school?” This gave them the possibility to tackle the topic from moral, social and cultural standpoints.

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Quality of teaching

In those lessons judged to be satisfactory, teachers speak too much, and pupils are not always sufficiently and quickly engaged in independent learning. As a result, their concentration wanes and their learning slows. Moreover, opportunities are sometimes missed to check their learning with probing questions, and teachers are content with one- or two-word answers when a second, deeper question would elicit a more analytical answer, and give greater assurance as to the extent of pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

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Quality of teaching

Increasingly effective use is made of marking and target-setting for pupils, whose notebooks have clear references to targets. Older pupils are aware of their target grades and the levels at which they are currently working.

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Quality of teaching

An appropriate range of child-initiated and teacher-led activities contributes well to children’s progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage. There is, however, a difference between indoor and outdoor provision, with the latter not being as good as the more stimulating indoor provision. Parents and carers overwhelmingly believe that teaching in the school is allowing their children to make progress.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Behaviour is good in all aspects of the school’s life. Strong relationships underpin pupils’ good behaviour and positive attitudes to learning. One parent’s comment summarises the views of many, “My daughter loves this school, and I am very happy at the progress she is making. In particular, I appreciate the wider pastoral role of the school”. Parents and carers appreciate the warmth and friendliness shown to them and their children. Pupils confirm that they feel safe in the school and that the vast majority of their schoolmates behave very well at all times. Pupils say that any kind of bullying is very rare, and if it happens, it is dealt with swiftly and effectively by the school. Pupils know right from wrong.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils enjoy their studies. They particularly enjoy those lessons in which they are given freedom to be independent learners and their mature and responsible response to that freedom is testimony to their good behaviour for learning. They say that their teachers are “always there to help in any way they can”, and consequently, they hold teachers in high regard.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

However, there is one area in which behaviour which has an impact on learning can be improved. Although attendance overall is average, the attendance of a small and specific minority of pupils is lower than average. These are the children of students at local universities, who often engage in medium- to long-term field studies, as part of their course, usually in their countries of origin, and they take their children out of school accordingly. The school is working very hard to convince these parents that the best time for these field studies is the long summer holidays. They are having some success, but there remains much room for further concerted actions between the school and the various local authorities and agencies, to prove to parents and carers that they have a legal as well as an educational reason for maintaining the continuity of their children’s attendance at school during term time.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils talked freely and spontaneously to inspectors as they moved round the school, demonstrating a genuine warm welcome and courteous respect for visitors. Their respect for their own peers is demonstrated in many ways; not least by the way they applaud and enjoy the successes of their schoolmates in celebration assemblies.

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Leadership and management

Over the past three years, the school experienced a period of staffing instability and attainment dipped. Determined leadership and management have halted this decline and have returned the school to a satisfactory level of performance. Planning for development is well-structured and is based firmly on tracking and assessment evidence and on thorough and accurate self-evaluation. Attainment has been brought close to the national average, and some aspects of teaching, such as effective strategies to promote pupils’ writing, have been successfully developed. Although inconsistencies in the quality of teaching remain, there is clear evidence of the school’s satisfactory capacity to continue to improve. The satisfactory curriculum meets pupils’ needs. The school makes good use of the history of its Victorian building in the heart of Sheffield, which enables the “we are Sheffielders” programme to celebrate the city’s industrial heritage. This is a very

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Leadership and management

useful addition to the more eclectic elements of curriculum provision, which celebrate the diversity of the cultures of the pupils, and which gives a sense of community identity and cohesion. This is enhanced by references throughout the school to ‘ubuntu’, the African philosophy which stresses the importance of love for one’s neighbour. These two complementary themes contribute much to pupils’ good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Leadership and management

Procedures for ensuring pupils’ safety and well-being are thorough and effective. Safeguarding policies and procedures are good. A careful watch is kept over pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable. Pupils' progress is monitored systematically and the school is vigilant in ensuring that no pupil is discriminated against. The governing body is becoming increasingly adept at asking more challenging questions of the school. Both the governing body and the senior management of the school recognise the importance of maintaining the current upward trend, by speedily putting into effect the areas for development which the inspection has outlined.

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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 Springfield Primary School, Sheffield – S10 2FA

Firstly, may I say what an enjoyable time my colleague and I had when we visited your school. Thank you for talking to us and showing us your work. We especially enjoyed hearing about what you did to celebrate being “Sheffielders” .You obviously enjoy school a lot and behave well. You told us you thought the school was a happy, warm place, where you feel very safe; we agree with you. We think you are making satisfactory progress in the school. We have asked your headteacher and the other teachers to do some things which will help you progress even more. These are the things we have asked them to do.

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Inspection of Springfield Primary School, Sheffield – S10 2FA

 We want you to continue to achieve in English and mathematics, so we have asked your teachers to set you work which really makes you think hard.  We would also like teachers to plan lessons where you can be active in your learning, and ask you questions which allow you to show just how much you know about the subject you are studying.  Finally, we have asked your school to do all it can to make sure all of you come to school as often as you can.

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Inspection of Springfield Primary School, Sheffield – S10 2FA

You can help here a little, by attending every day and telling your parents and carers just how much you enjoy coming to school, and learning so much.

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Inspection of Springfield Primary School, Sheffield – S10 2FA

Best wishes for your future. Yours sincerely,

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Inspection of Springfield Primary School, Sheffield – S10 2FA

Ronald Cohen 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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