Barley Croft Primary School

Age group 3-11 Inspection date(s) 8–9 March 2012 Inspection number 379943 Barley Croft Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 120050 Local authority Leicester Inspection number 379943 Inspection dates 8–9 March 2012 Lead inspector Steve Nelson

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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 281 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dennis Yeates Headteacher Kevin Lacey Date of previous school inspection 10 February 2009 School address Malham Close Beaumont Leys Leicester LE4 0UT Telephone number 0116 2359008 Fax number 0116 2353497 Email address office@barleycroft.leicester.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 thi nk 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 12 teachers in 18 lessons, over approximately nine hours. Meetings were held with groups of pupils, governors and staff including senior staff. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection and analysed 22 parental questionnaires and others competed by pupils and staff. The inspectors observed the school’s work, and looked at children’s books, the school’s plan of priorities for development, plus all documentation related to planning and data on pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about the school

The school is a larger-than-average-sized primary school. Pupils come from a wide range of backgrounds. The Early Years Foundation Stage provision supports Nursery and Reception aged children. The school serves a diverse community with pupils coming from a variety of different backgrounds. Approximately 40% of pupils are from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of pupils with disabilities and those who have special educational needs is higher than average, with speech, language and communication difficulties being the largest group. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above average and rising. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is all also well above average. The school meets current government floor standards. The school has a specially resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs in a speech and language unit for up to 15 pupils between the

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Information about the school

ages of four and 11. The school provides a breakfast club.

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Key findings

 This is a satisfactory school, which is able to demonstrate improvement since its previous inspection. Its capacity to sustain improvement is demonstrated by the improving trend that has had a discernible impact on the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement. The school is not good overall because the majority of pupils, when they enter the main school, do not make more than satisfactory progress and teaching is not yet consistently good. The vast majority of parents and carers are happy with the school’s provision.  Teaching is satisfactory overall with a growing proportion that is good or better. There is some disparity between year groups, with inconsistencies in the use of questioning to challenge and engage pupils. Sometimes teachers’ expectations are not high enough. As a result, pupils’ progress is satisfactory.  Achievement in Key Stage 1 and 2 is satisfactory. The Early Years Foundation

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Key findings

Stage is a stimulating environment and teachers are developing their skills to ensure the needs of all groups of children are catered for. Children make good progress in this phase.  Pupils’ behaviour in and around the school is satisfactory. The school behaviour management procedures are clear and applied, but some inconsistencies exist and low-level disruption may occur occasionally. Pupils say they feel safe in school and parents and carers reinforce this view.  The headteacher and senior leaders have a clear understanding of the school’s performance and its areas for development. The school self-evaluation is accurate. The leadership of the designated specialist provision is effective in securing good teaching and outcomes. There is, however, not enough involvement of senior leaders in monitoring the quality of teaching and learning or sharing best practice across the school. The school has increased parents’

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Key findings

and carers’ involvement in their children’s education. Nevertheless, it does not sufficiently engage with parents and carers who might find working with the school difficult.

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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?

 Increase the proportion of good and better teaching by:  raising teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve  ensuring questioning is challenging and always extends pupils’ learning  improve pupils’ independent learning skills by increasing opportunities for them to plan their own learning and mark their own work.  Extend the impact of subject leaders on the leadership and management of teaching and learning by:  involving them more in observations of teaching  sharing the best classroom practice across the school  Involve more parents and carers in their children’s learning by increasing the engagement of those who might find working with the school difficult.

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Achievement of pupils

Children enter the Early Years Reception Stage with skills well below those typical for their age. The Nursery and Reception teams ensure every opportunity is taken to advance these skills. The early identification of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs leads to improved intervention during the early stages of education. The teaching of linking letters with the sounds they make (phonics) is strong. This helps children to acquire effective early reading skills. Children make good progress and enter Year 1 as confident learners.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils’ attainment in Key Stage 1 was significantly below average last year. However, school action has resulted in improvements and achievement seen in lessons and in work samples is at least satisfactory, with some examples of good progress. As a result attainment is rising and the gaps are now closing. Pupils’ progress in Key Stage 2 was satisfactory last year and their attainment was below average. The school’s record of progress indicate that most year groups in Key Stage 2 make satisfactory progress. Some slow progress in writing is effectively addressed with pupils making accelerated progress in Year 6. For example, there is particularly effective focus on the Level 4 descriptors in lessons with pupils assessing and tracking their own progress towards them.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment in reading has improved in Key Stage 1 through the effective promotion of reading such as the ‘Reading Miles Incentive’ that has increased the numbers of children reading at home and through the regular teaching of phonics. In Key stage 2, guided reading is having an important impact on improving skills and motivation. As a result, by the end of Years 2 and 6 pupils are reaching broadly average levels in reading. The large majority of pupils including those known to be eligible for free school meals make expected progress and achieve satisfactorily overall. The increasing numbers of pupils who speak English as an additional language make good progress relative to their starting points.

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Achievement of pupils

Parents and carers are complimentary about the progress their children make and how the school ensures their children develop skills in communication, reading, writing and mathematics. Inspectors found that the majority of pupils make satisfactory progress. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs benefit well from the ability grouping and additional help they receive. This ensures they make expected progress. Pupils who attend the designated specialist provision are provided for well and they make good progress in basic skills and achieve well relative to their starting points.

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Quality of teaching

While satisfactory overall, the quality of teaching is improving and this was evident in the number of good lessons and the small proportion of outstanding lessons observed during the inspection. Teaching in the Early Years Foundation Stage is good. For example, in a Reception class particularly effective use was made of the interactive white board to play ‘hide and seek’ by pulling down the screen to reveal a letter. Children quickly were able to quickly able to recognise the letter and say the sound.

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Quality of teaching

In many lessons pupils were often engaged in their work because it was directly matched to their ability. This, however, is not consistent across all lessons. In some lessons, expectations were low, questioning lacked challenge and there were not enough occasions for pupils to develop independent learning skills, such as planning their own learning. Practical work is not always challenging enough and at times there is too little independent work because teachers talk for too long. This is not always the case; for example, in a mixed Year 4/5 class pupils worked productively together. They independently identified the key features using the past tense effectively to write good quality outlines about Prince Albert’s death. Teachers promote pupils’ spiritual, moral and social and cultural development appropriately by supporting good behaviour and encouraging cooperation.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers’ assessments of pupils’ work is regularly undertaken. Generally marking clearly shows pupils what to do to improve their work. However, there is insufficient encouragement of pupils to take responsibility for their own learning by peer assessing and marking their own work. Pupils understand targets in books, although some do not always know their next step target when they have completed their current one.

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Quality of teaching

A high proportion of parents and carers think that the teaching is effective and is developing pupils’ skills in communication, reading and mathematics. Inspectors found teaching enabled pupils to develop these skills appropriately in other subject areas, particularly in the topic-based lessons. The curriculum is planned systematically and provides a solid base for developing basic literacy and numeracy skills.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils’ behaviour is satisfactory overall. In lessons and around school, the vast majority of pupils, including children in the designated specialist provision and the Early Years Foundation Stage, are well behaved and courteous. However, there are a small number of boys that are presenting the school with some challenging behaviour. The school is taking action to address this and is starting to see improvements. However, the responses for a minority of parents and carers to the questionnaire indicate a concern about the consistency with which the school behaviour policy is applied. The breakfast club is well attended. It improves pupils’ social skills and provides good opportunities for additional learning thorough play activities.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils report that although they recognise the poor behaviour, they have a clear understanding of what constitutes acceptable behaviour. They report that there is very little bullying of any kind and all staff will support them if they feel unsafe and any incidents are dealt with quickly. Prejudice-based bullying of any type is very rare and is dealt with well if it occurs. A small number of racist incidents have been reported, which the school has dealt with firmly and with conviction. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are developing their social skills though well-structured play showing a good understanding of personal safety and routines are established quickly.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The vast majority of parents and carers say the school is good at keeping their children safe. Pupils agree. All groups including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs report that they do not feel vulnerable, are fully included in activities and are supported well within the school. Attendance is average and improving. Pupils generally are punctual. The school has successfully reduced the number of persistent absences.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher and senior leaders have a clear understanding of the school’s performance and its areas for development. Support from the local authority has been embraced, resulting in effective professional development and a strong focus on improving teaching. However, subject leaders are not involved enough in the direct observation of teaching and learning and the dissemination of good practice within the school.

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Leadership and management

The school has been successful in making improvements, particularly improving progress in Key Stage 1, including the progress of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and increasing attendance to average. The assessment and tracking system is used well by leaders to review the progress of groups and individual pupils regularly, to improve the teaching at the school and monitor the teachers’ work. This has resulted in better progress and quicker identification of effective interventions.

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Leadership and management

Safeguarding procedures are robustly managed. All members of staff are fully trained to protect children well. Governors discharge their responsibilities appropriately. They provide the leadership team with challenge and support and are regularly involved in the life of the school. The governing body is self-evaluative and understands its own, and the school’s, strengths and weaknesses.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is developing from subject-based topics to cross-curricular themes that inspire pupils to learn. For example, the ‘Superheroes’ theme in Year 5 provided good opportunities for pupils to develop their writing skills and complemented well work in art and design technology. These themes contribute positively to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. As a result, this has enabled pupils to focus on their behaviour for learning by helping them to adopt positive attitudes. The school continues to develop its work to reflect the balance of cultures that exist within the school and the local community and tackles discrimination effectively. The school promotes equality of opportunity. Staff know the groups who are potentially vulnerable such as those entitled to free school meals and pupils who speak English as an additional language. There are effective interventions to support these groups.

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Leadership and management

The school has increased the involvement of parents and carers in their children’s learning. However, it does not sufficiently engage with parents and carers who might find working with the school difficult.

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Leadership and management

The self-evaluation undertaken by the school is accurate, has identified the priorities for development and these are embedded in an effective school improvement plan. This detailed planning and thorough monitoring ensure that the school is continuing to more forward. The school’s capacity to improve is shown by a trend of improvement over the last two years, including successfully securing the improvement issues from the previous inspection.

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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 Barley Croft Primary School, Leicester, LE4 0UT

Thank you for your friendly welcome when we inspected your school recently. We appreciated the help you gave to all the inspectors. We enjoyed meeting so many of you, listening to your views and joining you in lessons. This letter tells you what we have found.

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Inspection of Barley Croft Primary School, Leicester, LE4 0UT

You go to a satisfactory school. In the questionnaires completed you said you feel safe at school but sometimes behaviour is not as good as it should be. We agree and judged behaviour to be satisfactory. We were pleased to see that many of you come to school regularly and on time – please keep this up! Most of you feel that teaching is good and you feel you learn lots in lessons. We judge teaching to be satisfactory. The adults in the school take good care of you. The senior leaders are working hard to make sure your school gets better and better.

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Inspection of Barley Croft Primary School, Leicester, LE4 0UT

Part of our job is to see what your school could do better. We think that it will help you if teachers have higher hopes of what you can achieve. We have requested that the teachers ask you questions that will get you to think more to increase your learning. We have also asked them to provide more occasions for you to learn for yourselves, so you become more independent learners. We have asked more senior leaders see the teaching in your lessons and share good teaching practice across the school. We have also asked them to involve more of your parents and carers in helping you to learn.

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Inspection of Barley Croft Primary School, Leicester, LE4 0UT

We really enjoyed coming to your school. You can help to improve by continuing to work hard.

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Inspection of Barley Croft Primary School, Leicester, LE4 0UT

Steve Nelson 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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