Callowell Primary School

Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 22–23 February 2012 Inspection number 379101 Callowell Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 115570 Local authority Gloucestershire Inspection number 379101 Inspection dates 22–23 February 2012 Lead inspector John Taylor

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 178 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mike Anthony Headteacher Linda Wall Date of previous school inspection 27 June 2007 School address Barrowfield Road Farm Hill Stroud GL5 4DG Telephone number 01453762962 Fax number 01453762962 Email address head@callowell.gloucs.sch.uk 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

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.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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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspectors observed 11 lessons involving eight teachers and support staff. In addition, some small group work was observed and a systematic walk around the school focusing on pupils’ learning was undertaken. The inspectors held discussions with staff, groups of pupils and with the Chair of the Governing Body. They observed the school’s work and scrutinised documentation including a review of the school’s development plan, the systems for tracking pupils’ progress, the arrangements for safeguarding pupils and a sample of pupils’ work. A random sample of pupils was heard reading. Inspectors took account of the responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection. They analysed the 52 questionnaires returned by parents and carers. There were 58 questionnaires from the pupils and 12 from the staff which were also reviewed.

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Information about the school

Callowell is a smaller than average-sized primary school where there are more girls than boys. The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below the national average. The school has had significant changes in its leadership during the last three years. The present headteacher has been in post since April 2011. The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about the school

There is separate nursery, breakfast and after-school provision on site. These are privately managed and were not part of this inspection. 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. To move to being a good school, improvements are needed to accelerate pupils’ progress and increase achievement, which are currently satisfactory rather than good.

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Key findings

 Children’s learning gets off to a secure start in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Children enter with a range of skills and abilities with a few being above age-related expectations while the majority are at or below. They make satisfactory progress. Between Years 1 and 6, pupils continue to make satisfactory progress. Recently introduced monitoring of pupils’ achievement is enabling the school to address areas where progress needs to be accelerated. At the end of Year 6, attainment is broadly average in English and mathematics.

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Key findings

 The quality of teaching is satisfactory. Relationships are good and, as a result, pupils enjoy their lessons and show positive attitudes to learning. Staff have good subject knowledge, know the pupils well and generally make good use of questioning to help the pupils progress. Work is usually matched to the pupils’ ability. However, the pace of lessons is sometimes too slow and although marking is regular and encouraging, it needs a sharper focus on telling the pupils how to improve their work.

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Key findings

 Pupils are well behaved. They are cooperative, considerate and polite. They enjoy school and feel safe. Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. Attendance is improving and is now above average.

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Key findings

 Leadership and management at all levels are satisfactory. The recently appointed headteacher is successfully developing the leadership team, and the governing body is becoming more challenging. The introduction of more frequent and accurate monitoring of the quality of teaching is providing detailed feedback to guide improvement and support closer monitoring of performance. The resulting impact of this on the pupils’ achievement has yet to be seen, but 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

there are some positive signs, for example in reading. The school has a clear and well-conceived development plan.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that the quality of teaching is consistently good or better across the school by:  making sure pupils know their learning targets and how to reach them  providing lessons that are appropriately paced and challenging  giving more opportunities for pupils to contribute to lessons  raising teachers’ expectations of pupils’ attainment and conveying these higher expectations to the pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop leadership and management at all levels, including within the governing body, to accelerate pupils’ progress and attainment by:  providing opportunities for middle leaders to gain wider experience of good and outstanding practice  improving leaders’ ability to monitor staff performance and provide focused feedback to guide improvement  embedding the use of systems to track pupils’ progress, to inform lesson planning and accelerate achievement.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise attainment and progress by:  ensuring that frequent and accurate assessment of pupils’ progress is used effectively to inform teaching  measuring the impact of interventions used to address pupils’ specific needs  improving the skills of middle managers to hold them increasingly accountable for their areas of learning across the school.

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Achievement of pupils

Achievement is satisfactory. Although this represents a wide range, children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills and attainment that are broadly as expected for their age. They leave Reception with attainment which in some cases is above average and for the majority average. Progress is satisfactory and for some children, particularly the more able, good. Particular strengths are in personal, social and emotional development and physical development of the children. This learning takes place in an exciting environment. Relationships between staff and children and among children are good and there is a positive climate for learning. The overwhelming opinion expressed by parents and carers is that their children make good progress at the school. However, inspectors found that progress is satisfactory Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate

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Achievement of pupils

Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Achievement of pupils

overall and is more variable in Key Stage 1 than in the other key stages. Pupils’ attainment in English is better than in mathematics, and a particular strength is in reading. Pupils say they enjoy reading and have several planned opportunities to read during the school day. Attainment at the end of Year 2 is broadly average and in reading slightly better than this. In Years 3 to 6, pupils make satisfactory progress, with pupils continuing to attain higher levels in English than in mathematics. Many pupils say they enjoy mathematics and there are opportunities for them to complete extended pieces of writing in a range of areas. In a typical English lesson in Year 5 which was about characters in The Railway Children, pupils made satisfactory progress in developing their writing. Learning was sound because pupils understood what they were expected to write about, but were not clear on what they needed to

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Achievement of pupils

do to improve their work. At the end of Year 6, pupils’ attainment is broadly in line with the national averages. Overall, between Years 1 and 6, pupils, including disabled pupils and those special educational needs, make satisfactory progress. A systematic and more frequent monitoring of pupils’ progress is now in place, and this is allowing more effective intervention targeted at pupils’ needs. This is starting to have an impact on pupils’ progress.

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Quality of teaching

The majority of parents and carers are very happy with the teaching at this school. The pupils have a similar view. However, the inspectors confirmed the school’s view that while teaching in many lessons is effective, over time and more typically it is satisfactory. Teachers’ strong subject knowledge, productive relationships with the pupils and awareness of pupils’ abilities make a notable contribution to pupils’ progress. In a Year 2 mathematics lesson, pupils made good progress because they were praised for the work they had completed and they were encouraged to attempt more challenging problems, supported by visual prompts to aid their learning. Good questioning to check their understanding, opportunities to work in pairs and links to other areas of learning resulted in the pupils’ achieving well in this lesson. However, evidence and observations show that teaching is not always as successful, with

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Quality of teaching

pupils generally making satisfactory rather than good progress.

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Quality of teaching

When the content of the lesson is stimulating, and the pupils are clear about what they need to do to improve, they make better progress. For example, in a Year 6 literacy lesson all pupils were actively engaged in writing about one character’s state of mind, from a film they had seen. The teacher praised and encouraged all pupils and ensured all were able to write extensively using descriptive language. They had a clear understanding of how to improve and the teacher gave explicit messages of her high expectations of the quality of their work. Pupils were invited to read aloud their opening paragraphs and other pupils were given the opportunity to comment on the work. However, where lessons are less effective this is due to the slower pace, and marking of the pupils’ work which does not clearly indicate how to make improvements. Overall pupils have too few opportunities actively to contribute ideas,

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Quality of teaching

suggestions and answer questions in lessons. Improvement in the accuracy and consistency of lesson monitoring by senior leaders and subject managers is starting to address these issues and the staff are responsive to the feedback they receive. 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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Quality of teaching

This supports the school’s view that the quality of teaching is improving. The curriculum ensures that spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is appropriately promoted through topics that take into account world faiths, the diversity of cultures in their own neighbourhood and further afield. This is reinforced by many displays around the school which raise awareness of other faiths and cultures as well as environmental issues with a positive impact on pupils’ understanding and tolerance of other faiths and beliefs.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils feel safe in the school, and they have a good knowledge about e-safety. Their attitude to learning is good even when teaching is not fully engaging. Parents and carers are positive about this aspect of the school’s work, including the effective management of the very rare incidence of any form of bullying. One parent commented that ‘Callowell has a good ethos for learning’. Personal, social and emotional development is a strength of the school. In the main, pupils are punctual to lessons and good relationships are evident across the school. There are no major disruptions to lessons. Case studies of challenging behaviour reflect the effective management of behaviour observed by inspectors and reported by pupils. Behaviour over time is good; this is evident by what was seen during the inspection, school records, exclusion data, very low incidence of disruption, and no recorded incidents of racist or homophobic behaviour. Recent attendance figures for the whole school

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

show an improving picture which is now above average.

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Leadership and management

The school has had substantial changes in its leadership over the last three years and this has restricted school development and, consequently, pupils’ progress and achievement. The current headteacher has provided a clear vision for improvement and is supported by all staff. Systems are now in place to monitor the progress of pupils accurately and enable the school’s leadership to address areas where progress needs to be accelerated. The impact of these systems, which are still being embedded, is yet to be fully realised in terms of pupils’ attainment and progress but there are positive indications of improvement, for example in reading. Middle leaders are at an early stage of development in monitoring whole-school performance, including the quality of teaching. The governing body is starting to ask more challenging questions but needs to be more involved in the strategic development of the school. The capacity for sustained improvement is clearly evident, as

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Leadership and management

demonstrated by improvements in the accuracy of monitoring and evaluation of the quality of teaching.

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Leadership and management

Arrangements to ensure children are kept safe meet statutory requirements. The effective provision for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs demonstrates leaders’ commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and effectiveness in tackling discrimination. This is supported by teachers ensuring all pupils are equally included in lesson activities. The promotion of pupils’ social, moral, cultural and emotional development is enabled by the many opportunities and links 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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Leadership and management

between subjects across the curriculum. Planning shows a broad coverage of all areas of learning and sufficient opportunities to cater for a wide range of needs and interests. Opportunities to use information and communication technology in other subjects are not fully developed. The many extra-curricular clubs and activities provide ample opportunities to extend the range of learning experiences for the pupils. All pupils are actively encouraged to attend at least one club, resulting in few pupils who do not take advantage of this provision.

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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. 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). 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. 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.

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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

Attendance: the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

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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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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Callowell Primary School, Stroud GL5 4DG

Thank you for the very warm welcome you gave the team when we inspected your school. We thoroughly enjoyed talking to you, hearing you read and watching you at work in your classes. You go to a satisfactory school. By the end of Year 6, your attainment is similar to what is expected for children of your age, and we judge that you are making satisfactory progress.

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Inspection of Callowell Primary School, Stroud GL5 4DG

This is what we have said about your school in our report.  Your learning gets off to a secure start in the Early Years Foundation Stage.  You enjoy school particularly when you are well taught. We found that overall the quality of teaching is satisfactory.  Your teachers are good at asking questions to find out if you understand the work. This works well in the best lessons.  Teachers mark your work regularly, and give you encouraging comments but this does not always link up well enough to your targets or show you how to make improvements.  You are cooperative, considerate, polite and behave well. You have a good attitude to learning.  The way your school is led and managed is satisfactory and the curriculum you follow is satisfactory.

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Inspection of Callowell Primary School, Stroud GL5 4DG

This is what we have asked your school to do to help you achieve even more.  Make sure you know your targets and how to reach them.  Give you more opportunities to contribute to your lessons.  Provide opportunities for teachers to visit other schools to observe what goes well.  Make sure the lessons they plan for you build on your knowledge and abilities and are designed to help you improve your skills and understanding.

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Inspection of Callowell Primary School, Stroud GL5 4DG

All of you can help the school improve too. You can do this by continuing to behave well and working with your teachers to achieve the very best that you can.

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Inspection of Callowell Primary School, Stroud GL5 4DG

John Taylor 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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