Ben Rhydding Primary School

Ben Rhydding Primary School Inspection report

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Age group 4–11 Inspection date(s) 26–27 March 2012 Inspection number 377564 1 Unique Reference Number 107281 Local authority Bradford Inspection number 377564 Inspection dates 26–27 March 2012 Lead inspector Jane Hughes

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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 215 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Katie Smith Headteacher Carry Lynott Date of previous school inspection 14 November 2006 School address Bolling Road Ben Rhydding Ilkley LS29 8QH Telephone number 01943 431133 Fax number 01943 433479 Email address office@benrhydding.bradford.sch.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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

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

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

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Introduction

Jane Hughes Sue Eland Additional inspector Additional inspector

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days’ notice. Inspectors looked at the online questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection but there were no responses. Inspectors observed the teaching of eight teachers in 14 lessons or part lessons, of which two were joint observations with members of the senior leadership team. In addition, the inspection team made short visits to a few support lessons where specialist help is provided by trained assistants. Meetings were held with two groups of pupils, members of the governing body and school staff, including senior and middle managers. The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s improvement plan, safeguarding and child protection policies, attainment data and assessment information. They listened to some pupils read and looked at pupils’ work. Inspectors analysed 101 parental and carers’ questionnaires and others completed by pupils and staff.

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Information about the school

This school is of smaller than average size compared with other primary schools. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low. Most pupils are White British and few speak English as an additional language. The percentage of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is below average. The school exceeds the current floor standard set by the government. The school has achieved a number of awards including: Sports Activemark, Eco School Silver, International School Intermediate, Healthy School status and Leadership Development School for the National College of School Leadership. The school is part of the Two Valleys Learning Collaborative for which the headteacher is currently Chair.

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Information about the school

A private childcare provider is located on the same site. It provides before-and-after- school care. It receives a separate inspection and a separate inspection report. 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 good school. It has sustained the outstanding elements reported at the time of its previous inspection relating to pupils’ behaviour and personal skills. It continues to improve. Pupils, parents and carers have positive views of the school. The school is not outstanding because there is still some variability in teaching which stops pupils from making better than good progress over time.

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Key Findings

 All groups of pupils, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, achieve well. Inspection evidence shows that, across the school, pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics from higher than expected starting points. Attainment is significantly above average in English and mathematics by the time pupils leave school. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage learn and develop well, although less effectively outdoors.

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Key Findings

 Teaching is good. Some is outstanding, particularly in Years 2, 4 and 5. Some inconsistencies remain where teaching is satisfactory, particularly in terms of expectation and pace.

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Key Findings

 Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary in lessons and around the school. Pupils enjoy school greatly as reflected in their consistently high rates of attendance. Pupils collaborate particularly well in lessons. They, and their parents and carers, are rightly confident that the school keeps them safe.

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Key Findings

 The headteacher, senior leaders and governing body know the school well. They use this knowledge effectively to improve the school’s performance. A new approach to the leadership of teaching is consolidating and does not currently ensure that all teaching is consistently good or better. The management of performance is good and morale is high. Highly imaginative approaches to curriculum delivery engage pupils fully in their learning which is full of purpose and fun. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is exceptionally well promoted. The excellent school ethos enables pupils to flourish.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure all teaching is consistently good or better by:  ensuring teachers plan sufficient challenge in all the work they set  ensuring teachers maintain a brisk pace during lessons and, in particular, do not talk for too long.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop further the impact of leadership and management by:  consolidating the new approach to rigorous peer mentoring of teaching and learning  ensuring that children’s skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage develop as effectively when they learn outdoors as in classrooms.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils say that they thoroughly enjoy their lessons, particularly when learning is active. They collaborate well and make the most of exciting tasks. For example, in Year 2 science, pupils were quick to work out how some materials change permanently when heated while others do not. They investigated with great curiosity how jelly dissolved, chocolate melted and eggs scrambled. Pupils’ strong engagement in the planned activities ensures they produce a good volume of work in these lessons. They listen carefully to teachers’ instructions and are quick to volunteer answers.

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Achievement of pupils

From above average starting points, particularly in their mathematical and social skills, children make good progress through the Early Years Foundation Stage. Over the past three years, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception has risen and is well above average. Children in Reception are starting to sound out accurately the new words they read because the teaching of the sounds that letters make (phonics) is lively and engages children well.

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Achievement of pupils

Attainment in reading is well above average by the end of Year 2 and when pupils leave the school in Year 6, so that pupils are at least two terms in advance of the national average. Most pupils become accomplished readers. Teachers’ assessments and pupils’ current work in writing and mathematics show that pupils’ attainment is well above average and also two terms ahead. They are making good progress overall and accelerated progress in some year groups. The school monitors pupils’ achievement carefully so that any gaps in performance between different groups are swiftly identified and remedied. For instance, the gap in attainment between boys and girls is closing now that the school has introduced more practical activities to enthuse boys and girls equally well. The number of boys achieving the higher levels in reading and writing has increased over the last three years. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs learn as well as their peers.

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Achievement of pupils

Their individual needs are carefully identified and appropriate support programmes implemented. One parent commented, ‘The school has been incredibly supportive of my child with special educational needs.’ Most parents and carers who returned the inspection questionnaire say that their children make good progress whatever their individual needs. Inspection findings support these views.

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Quality of teaching

The quality of teaching is good. Parents and carers rightly think that their children are taught well. Some outstanding teaching was observed during the inspection and evidence of this was also clear in pupils work over time. Adults use questioning well to check what pupils understand. In the best lessons, teachers move lessons along briskly. They set high expectations of what pupils can achieve in carefully timed activities. In Year 5, for example, the much enriched curriculum provided a real life scenario for pupils to tackle as they recreated a news room. There was a great buzz of activity as pupils used laptops to create advertisements and write individual pieces for the paper’s next edition.

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Quality of teaching

Teaching makes a positive contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. For example, teachers encourage pupils to hone their social skills and to work productively alongside others, taking turns to lead activities and to work in different groups. They are encouraged to put into practice daily the strong values, principles and beliefs of inclusiveness, respect, care and consideration for others championed by the school in all areas of its work. These inform pupils’ highly positive attitudes to learning and their very well developed morality.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers plan the curriculum carefully and with close regard to turning pupils into ‘life-long learners’. Steps to success for each lesson are pitched at different levels in order to meet pupils’ needs well and support their good achievement. Teachers then encourage pupils to set their own learning objectives for the lesson. When teaching is less successful, a number of inconsistencies creep in. For instance, some teachers talk for too long, others do not plan sufficiently challenging tasks or do not offer sufficiently developmental comments in their marking of pupils’ work. Home–school intervention and specific parental support ensure that disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are very well supported.

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Quality of teaching

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, adults listen carefully to what children say and model spoken English well. Adults support and challenge children well when they are working inside the classrooms. However, once outdoors, adults’ expectations and the impact of organisation dip a little.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Inspectors concur with parental and carers’ views that behaviour is typically excellent and that pupils are safe. Pupils are exceptionally courteous and are quick to offer help without prompting. They show great maturity and are highly trustworthy as they carry out duties around school. Those in Year 6 particularly relish the time they spend as buddies to children in Reception. They confirm that behaviour is outstanding in lessons and around the school.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The school is harmonious. Any rare instances of homophobic bullying, name calling or racism are speedily tackled and most parents, carers and pupils express confidence in the school’s systems for dealing with bullying and harassment. Older pupils have been involved in a Bradford diversity and cohesion project for the last three years. Most recently, they were trained as ambassadors to lead other schools around an exhibition that focused on race and tackling prejudice. Pupils understand clearly how to keep themselves safe both in and out of school. They are aware of the inherent dangers associated with internet use and explain coherently how to avoid cyber-bullying. Rates of attendance are consistently high and unauthorised absence is rare. The school works hard to encourage all parents and carers to support their children’s education by bringing them to school regularly and on time.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher, senior leaders and the governing body provide strong vision and direction for the school. The headteacher shoulders considerable responsibility, leading the local learning collaboration of schools. This leads to professional development for staff in all the associated schools. The two assistant headteachers have complementary skills and provide first class models of classroom practice for other staff to emulate. There are some remaining inconsistencies within teaching as the new peer mentoring approach to evaluating the quality of teaching still lacks some rigour. Accurate self-evaluation, strong leadership and a track record of improvement since the last inspection show that the school has strong capacity to improve further. The governing body offers good levels of challenge, support and time to leaders and managers. It has a clear overview of the school’s work and priorities. The school

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Leadership and management

meets requirements with regard to safeguarding. Adults, including administrators, site supervisors and lunchtime staff, all pay close attention to pupils’ safety and well being. Senior leaders ensure that staff throughout the school are confident about using and updating the assessment information they produce. This helps them to keep a close check on how well pupils in their class are doing and to pinpoint areas that require additional support. Discriminatory practice is not tolerated and there is a strong commitment to promoting equality of opportunity. This results in the good achievement of all groups of pupils, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum is outstanding because well established links in learning across different subjects inspire pupils to participate fully in classwork. It enables pupils to glimpse life beyond the classroom and to engage in real life activities. For instance, themed activities this term in Year 5 included how to read and write persuasions in English, use computers to pitch ideas to a target audience and consider how powerful a voice can be in citizenship while considering the impact of famous speeches in history.

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Leadership and management

The successful promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is an outstanding element of the school’s work. The school encourages thoughtfulness, honesty, respect for difference, moral principles, independence and self-respect. All adults encourage pupils to ask questions to harness the curiosity in pupils that the school cultivates. Pupils are encouraged to engage in many cultural activities such as The Ilkley Literature Festival. They use Ilkley Moor as inspiration for evocative creative writing. A strong partnership with another primary school in a different locality is well established. Parents and carers from both schools collaborate and organise joint social occasions that bring together groups of parents from two very different communities for the benefit of all staff, pupils, parents and carers.

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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.

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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 Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

 Thank you for your friendly welcome when we inspected your school recently. We enjoyed meeting you and listening to your views. A special thanks to those pupils who read to us or who joined the discussion groups. We agree with you that Ben Rhydding Primary is a good school.

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Inspection of Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

You told us that you feel safe in school and that you are happy there. You and your parents and carers said that you learn well in lessons. We saw these things too. Teaching is good and you achieve well. Your behaviour is exemplary and you are kind and caring to each other. You work together really well in lessons, particularly on practical tasks. Your headteacher, along with the other adults and governors who lead and manage your school are doing a good job. They are particularly good at supporting improvement not only in school but also in other local schools. Your attendance is high. Well done and keep this up!

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Inspection of Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

Part of our job is to see what your school could do even better. We have asked your headteacher and all the adults to focus on making sure that all the teaching is of a high quality and to use the new systems already in place to check this even more carefully. They will also make certain that children in Reception learn just as well when they are outdoors as when they are in their classrooms.

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Inspection of Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

Keep working hard and earning your well deserved house points!

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Inspection of Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

We send you our very best wishes for the future.

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Inspection of Ben Rhydding Primary School, Ilkley, LS29 8QH

Jane Hughes 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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