Setting

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CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566932 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: hcarnall@cfbt.com

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Mrs N Brogan Headteacher Woodland Community Primary School Regent Street Heywood Lancashire OL10 3BX

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

Following my visit with Marian Thomas, Additional Inspector, to your school on 30 and 31 May 2012, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

The inspection was the third monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in March 2011. The full list of the areas for improvement which were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached and the main judgements are set out below.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

Progress since being subject to special measures – satisfactory

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

Progress since previous monitoring inspection – good

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

Newly Qualified Teachers may be appointed but no more than one and into Key Stage 2 only .

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Executive Director, Children's Services for Rochdale.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Woodland Community Primary School

Angela Westington Her Majesty's Inspector

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March 2011

 Raise attainment and accelerate pupils' progress securely and rapidly by:  eradicating inadequate teaching and ensuring the quality of teaching is at least consistently good  making sure that teaching challenges pupils of all abilities appropriately  making sure that teaching has a sharp focus on its impact on pupils' learning and progress.

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March 2011

 Improve behaviour so that it is at least satisfactory by making sure that teaching is consistent in stimulating pupils' interest and application.

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March 2011

 Improve pupils' prospects for their future success and economic well-being so that they are at least satisfactory by:  maintaining and embedding the recent improvements in attendance  improving pupils' basic skills in literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT).

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March 2011

 Improve the effectiveness with which leaders and managers embed ambition and drive the school forward so that pupils' achievement is at least satisfactory by:  making sure that evaluation of the school's effectiveness is accurate and leads to more rigorous tackling of shortcomings  monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching and learning with more rigour  making sure that forward planning provides the school with clear direction and a sharp concentration on priorities to bring about the rapid improvement that is necessary  making governance more effective in holding the school rigorously to account.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school's work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, the Chair and vice-chair of the Governing Body and two representatives from the local authority. They observed 17 lessons or part lessons, including extended observations in the Early Years Foundation Stage and extended observations of reading sessions. They examined pupils’ books, reading records, the school’s data on reading and mathematics and spoke to teaching assistants about the management of the teaching of reading.

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Context

Since the previous monitoring inspection, there remains some instability in staffing. There are currently four temporary teachers in the school. Some permanent appointments have recently been made: a new Key Stage 1 leader and three teachers. The new Key Stage 1 leader will take up post in the second half of the summer term; other new members of the teaching staff will start in September 2012. One of the substantive deputy headteachers is currently on secondment.

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Context

At the time of this monitoring inspection, substantive building work was being undertaken at the school to provide three new classrooms for use from September 2012 onwards. Further internal remodelling work is scheduled to take place over the summer break.

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Achievement of pupils at the school

Attainment is rising across the school. The greatest gains are being made in reading and mathematics; standards of attainment in writing are improving, but not as quickly as in reading and mathematics. Pupils’ weak grasp of parts of speech is a contributory factor to weaker attainment in writing and in their speech. Attainment remains lower than average overall, but across the school they are now edging towards national expectations. The school’s own, unvalidated, figures for the summer 2012 national tests for 11-year-olds suggest that, for the first time in several years, results in English and mathematics may be close to the government’s floor targets, the minimum expectation for pupils’ attainment and progress. This is a significant increase on the figures for 2011. At Key Stage 1, the proportion of pupils attaining at or around the expected levels in reading and mathematics is likely to be in line with the national average. Few pupils, however, are attaining the higher

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Achievement of pupils at the school

levels. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, the proportion of pupils attaining a good level of development is likely to be in line with national expectations; continuing the trend established in 2010. However, there are pockets where attainment remains lower and have proved harder to shift. Year 5 is a particular cause for concern. This year group has had

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Page4 over thirty teachers and has suffered more than other cohorts from a lack of stability. The school has recognised this and, now that the Year 6 SATs (the national tests for 11-year- olds) are completed, all additional support has been redirected to this cohort. Overall progress in Year 3 is also weak.

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The majority of pupils are now making at least satisfactory progress in reading and mathematics and many are making good progress. Some individuals are making rapid and outstanding progress. There are several examples of pupils making two, three and even four years’ progress in reading since the baseline assessments were undertaken as a result of the combined actions, initiatives and procedures now established in the school to teach reading. In the majority of classes, the deficit in pupils’ reading skills is being eroded. The impact of this in classrooms and on behaviour is palpable. Pupils enjoy reading now; reading is ‘cool’ and they enjoy the healthy competition to see how many books they can read to gain bronze, silver or gold badges. Parents and carers are more involved in their children’s reading. The school is alive with talk about reading and books. However, progress is not consistent across all classes. Further examination reveals that not all agreed procedures

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have been implemented consistently; for example, not all younger pupils, and those older ones who need them, have been taking home de-codable reading books. In a few guided reading sessions, the books provided for the most-able readers are not challenging enough. In one or two classes, reading records are not maintained rigorously enough. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children are making good progress in learning to read and write. Many are reading early de-codable books and can write simple sentences. The more-able can identify two and three syllable words, such as ‘carpet’, ‘Manchester’ and ‘chimpanzee’; they can spell them correctly and write them in simple sentences.

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Rates of progress in mathematics are also increasing due to the consistency of teachers’ planning and approaches to teaching core skills, such as calculation of the four rules of number, and because the whole-school mathematics scheme is providing a structure to ensure coverage of the mathematics programme of study. The work in pupils’ mathematics books is neater, better presented and covers a wider range of topics. Following the previous monitoring inspection, an analysis of the test results was undertaken, which revealed the specific gaps in pupils’ knowledge. Each class now has a programme to review and re-teach the aspects specific to that class. Much work has been done to improve pupils’ understanding of place value, an area highlighted as a specific weakness at the previous monitoring inspection.

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Although they write more, and more often than was previously the case, pupils’ progress in writing lags behind that of reading and mathematics. Many pupils have gaps in the building blocks of speech; they do not know, or use, various parts of speech such as pronouns, articles and prepositions. Consequently, when they try to answer questions or write sentences, they struggle to express themselves clearly because they cannot form coherent sentences. The school knows that it has work to do to remedy this.

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An increasingly interesting curriculum is contributing to pupils’ enjoyment of, and engagement with, their lessons. Inspectors observed several instances where pupils

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Page5 exhibited sheer joy and exuberance in what they were doing, for example, in a Year 2 mathematics lesson on number patterns, in a Year 3 lesson on how to be an archaeologist and in a Year 6 reading session. Increasing use is made of ICT in lessons. Inspectors observed pupils using laptops to research, for example, events from the past 60 years and key events from the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2. In general though, this aspect of the school’s work remains underdeveloped.

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Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  raise attainment and accelerate pupils' progress securely and rapidly – satisfactory

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The quality of teaching

The quality of teaching is much improved. Almost all teaching of English and mathematics is now satisfactory and much of it is good. During this inspection, inspectors observed more instances of outstanding teaching than has previously been the case. Where variability in the quality of teaching exists, it reflects a lack of adherence to agreed policies and procedures, or lack of challenge for more-able pupils. Assessment data are not always used consistently to plan lessons that challenge more-able pupils.

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The quality of teaching

The provision for teaching reading is now very good. In those classes where all the elements of the provision are being optimised, many pupils are making rapid gains in their reading. Teaching assistants are much better deployed than previously; their primary focus is hearing readers and supporting reading. Some have been trained as ‘better reading partners’ and are working with individual pupils, those with the largest reading deficits, for 30 minutes, three times a week. These pupils are among those who have made the greatest gains in their reading. One 11-year-old boy, whose reading age has risen from 8 years and 8 months to 11 years, in a matter of months, told the teaching assistant who has been reading with him each day that she had changed his life. He could do his SATs and he loves reading now.

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The quality of teaching

Senior leaders continue to monitor the quality of teaching and provide mentoring and coaching where necessary. They know that their priority now is to raise the quality of teaching even further, driving satisfactory teaching up to good, so that pupils make consistently good progress and the gaps in their knowledge and skills are closed.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

During this inspection, pupils’ behaviour was much improved and no poor behaviour was observed. Pupils are responding well to the higher demands placed upon them. Attendance, currently, is broadly average, although there is some persistent absence by a small number of pupils.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Attendance procedures are not as robust as they should be and not enough is done to chase up non-attendance quickly. Punctuality at the start of the school day is very poor. In the three week period before this monitoring inspection, 227 late arrivals to school were recorded; this is lower than is really the case, because registration arrangements are not as

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Page6 robust as they should be. Nevertheless, there has been a 33% reduction in lateness to school in comparison with the same period this time last year.

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Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  improve behaviour so that it is at least satisfactory – satisfactory  improve pupils' prospects for their future success and economic well-being so that they are at least satisfactory by improving attendance – satisfactory

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

At the time of the previous monitoring inspection, the senior leadership team was newly formed. Ably led by the headteacher, it continues to grow in strength and provides clear vision and direction to other members of staff. The developments in reading and mathematics have had a profound impact on the school and have provided a model for further school improvement. Staff have a clearer picture of how to move the school forward and a stronger sense of ownership of the changes taking place. Morale is high; there is a palpable sense of community, involving all adults in the school and a very significant sense that the school is moving forward. Work to develop the curriculum has begun in earnest.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

The school has much clearer data on which to evaluate its performance and these data are used by staff at all levels. However, there is sometimes too long a delay between identifying anomalies in the data and exploring the reasons for them directly in classrooms. The monitoring of teaching takes place regularly and a programme of coaching and mentoring has been put in place where necessary. However, senior leaders do not follow up as rigorously as they ought to how well agreed policies and procedures are being implemented.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

The governing body continues to provide robust, clear oversight. It asks pertinent and challenging questions of the senior leadership team. Twelve of the eighteen governors are on the monitoring committee, a reflection of how seriously they take their role. They have scrutinised the most recent reading and mathematics scores and are fully aware of where gaps in performance still remain and what the school is doing about them. The governing body is holding the school to account fully. Action plans are clear, unambiguous and focused on the right priorities.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Some instability in staffing remains and one of the substantive deputy headteachers is currently on secondment elsewhere in the authority.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  improve the effectiveness with which leaders and managers embed ambition and drive the school forward so that pupils' achievement is at least satisfactory – good

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External support

The local authority continues to provide good support in respect of staffing issues. Local authority officers continue to have an accurate external evaluation of the school’s position.

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