Grange Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 3–4 July 2012 Inspection number 395557 Grange Primary School Inspection report

p.1

Unique reference number 112584 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 395557 Inspection dates 3–4 July 2012 Lead inspector Doris Bell

p.1

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 463 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Bruce Bignall Headteacher Mike Hannon Date of previous school inspection 12 May 2008 School address Station Road Long Eaton Nottingham NG10 2DU Telephone number 0115 973 4956 Fax number 0115 972 6390 Email address admin@grange.derbyshire.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

p.1

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’.

p.2

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.

p.2

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

p.2

Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspection team observed 13 members of staff during 22 lessons, covering approximately 10 hours of teaching. As well as observing full or part lessons, inspectors spent time observing sessions where pupils were learning phonics (the links between letters and sounds). They also heard pupils read, watched them being taught in small groups and individually, analysed their work, and discussed their learning and school life with them. Meetings were held with senior and middle managers, and a representative of the governing body. Inspectors observed the school’s work, and looked at a range of documentation including information relating to the attainment and achievement of all groups of pupils, the school improvement plan, minutes of meetings of the governing body, and evidence of monitoring and evaluation. They also spoke to parents and carers, and analysed 172 parental questionnaire responses together with

p.3

Introduction

the responses to the questionnaires returned by staff and pupils.

p.3

Information about the school

The school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs who are supported at school action plus or have a statement of special educational needs is below average.

p.3

Information about the school

The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress. Recent awards include the Inclusion Quality mark and a National Gardens Scheme award. The school has won the Erewash in Bloom competition for the past two years. There have been several changes in staffing since the previous 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

p.3

Key findings

 This is a satisfactory school. It is not good because not all pupils make the expected progress in Years 3 to Year 6 in English, particularly in writing. Schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory may receive a visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

p.4

Key findings

 Achievement is satisfactory. It is good in the Early Years Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1. Attainment is above average in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 2 but only in mathematics at the end of Year 6. Weaknesses in writing include repeated errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and missed opportunities for pupils to write at length in different subjects to practise their writing skills.

p.4

Key findings

 Teaching is satisfactory. Much good and some outstanding teaching was observed during the inspection. However, the school’s marking policy is not being followed consistently well in all classes; there is no clear expectation that pupils will respond to marking; and assessment information is not used consistently well in teachers’ planning. While pupils have targets, they do not always understand them or how to achieve them, limiting their usefulness.

p.4

Key findings

 Pupils’ behaviour and safety are good. Pupils are polite and friendly, enjoy school and behave well. They say they feel safe, that the school keeps them safe, and almost all parents and carers agree. Pupils’ social skills are developed effectively through the outstanding range of additional activities provided for them, such as the Grangeton project, and they rise well to opportunities to take responsibility.

p.4

Key findings

 Leadership and management are satisfactory. The leadership of teaching and management of teachers’ performance, while satisfactory, are not always closely enough linked to the school’s priorities. The governing body supports the school well but does not challenge it sufficiently to improve because governors do not have detailed enough information about pupils’ progress. 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

p.4

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve achievement in Years 3 to 6, especially in writing, by:  providing more opportunities for extended writing in different subjects  ensuring writing is marked equally well at all times and that pupils are always clear about how to improve it  clarifying pupils’ targets, and involving pupils in assessing their own work and that of others  ensuring that pupils respond to marking comments and repeat spelling, grammar and punctuation errors less often.

p.5

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Secure more consistently good or better teaching throughout the school by:  ensuring all teachers follow agreed policies on marking and assessment  checking that all assessment information is used effectively to plan work at the right level of challenge for each pupil  establishing greater rigour in the monitoring of teaching and learning, and following up improvement points robustly.

p.5

What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of leadership and management by:  clarifying the links between school improvement planning, self-evaluation and performance management objectives and using them to give a clearer focus to monitoring and to professional development  providing the governing body with more detailed information about pupils’ achievement in school and over time, and ensuring members of the governing body have the skills required to challenge and hold the school to account more effectively.

p.5

Achievement of pupils

Children start in the Nursery with skills below those expected for their age. Their good progress ensures that they start Year 1 at nationally expected levels, and end Year 2 with above average attainment in reading, writing and mathematics. In Year 6, attainment is above average in mathematics, and broadly average in reading and writing. Weaknesses in teaching, leadership and management since the previous inspection led to a decline in both attainment and progress in English at Key Stage 2 which is only now being reversed. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs receive additional support in class, enabling their progress to follow a similar pattern to that of all other pupils. Parents and carers say their children’s progress is good but the inspection team found it to be satisfactory overall, for the reasons stated.

p.5

Achievement of pupils

All pupils spoken to say they enjoy reading. They read for a variety of purposes at home and at school, using an appropriate range of strategies to help them read 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

p.5

Achievement of pupils

‘tricky’ words. Younger pupils make good attempts at sounding words out, using their developing understanding of the links between letters and sounds. Pupils use different styles of writing to reach different audiences, for example, creating ‘Wanted’ posters in Year 2, adding additional clauses to provide more information in Year 3, and using persuasive language in Year 5. However, the same spelling, grammar and punctuation errors often persist over several pieces of work. In some classes, the over-use of worksheets in subjects such as history and science prevents pupils writing at length, and pupils are not secure about how to improve their own writing because they are not always involved in assessing it.

p.6

Achievement of pupils

Attainment in mathematics at the end of Year 6 remains above average. There was a declining trend up to 2011 which, as early indications from the 2012 national tests show, has started to be reversed this year. Pupils make good progress in mathematics up to the end of Year 2. When measured against their starting points in Year 3, pupils currently in Year 6 have made satisfactory progress, as have pupils in Years 3, 4 and 5. Mathematical language is developed well, and pupils often remind each other to use it. By Year 6, most pupils confidently use terms associated with different sorts of number. For example, pupils used ‘palindromic’ and ‘triangular’, as they followed clues to create a magic square but a significant minority struggled because the activity had not been adapted well enough to suit their different levels of ability. Pupils use their mathematical skills well as, for example, they learn to

p.6

Achievement of pupils

manage their own budget in the enterprise project, or create graphs following a science investigation.

p.6

Quality of teaching

Although good and outstanding teaching was seen, teaching is only satisfactory overall because, over time, it has resulted in pupils’ satisfactory achievement. Parents and carers say their children are taught well; this is true in some but not all classes. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are taught satisfactorily. The teaching is appropriately planned to meet their needs. These pupils are assisted by well-briefed support staff who break the learning down into smaller steps to help their understanding. Good planning and the good use of resources, indoors and out, ensure that Nursery and Reception children make good progress. Reading is taught well up to Year 2 and satisfactorily in Years 3 to 6.

p.6

Quality of teaching

Good relationships, mutual respect and high quality, well-planned dialogue feature highly where teaching is at its best. Then good progress is assured through teachers’ skilful questioning; exciting, often practical, activities; and opportunities for pupils to contribute to and reflect on their own learning. In a Year 5 mathematics lesson, for example, pupils greatly extended their knowledge of how to use the scales on axes when they saw how each pupil was represented by a dot on a scatter graph. In a Year 3 lesson, pupils formed a human sentence to consolidate their knowledge of how additional clauses give readers more information. Teachers skilfully weave into such lessons activities that tackle specific gaps in pupils’ learning, which have been picked up through marking or in class. They help pupils see how to improve their work and give them the confidence to do so, thus contributing to their overall

p.6

Quality of teaching

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

p.7

Quality of teaching

personal development. In addition, different groups of pupils are moved onto their tasks at differing times to allow the teacher to concentrate on those who need additional help, whatever their ability.

p.7

Quality of teaching

Where teaching is less successful, assessment information is not used as effectively, resulting in tasks not being well enough adjusted to suit pupils’ different learning needs. There are some examples of excellent marking but they are not consistent, and not all teachers follow the agreed marking policy. This leaves pupils unsure as to what they need to do to improve, and vague about their targets and how to achieve them. Pupils are not sufficiently involved in assessing and improving their own work and that of others, or in drawing up success criteria that will show whether they have achieved learning objectives. Pupils are less confident about how to take their own learning forward. In some classes, they queue up for approval from the teacher, often unnecessarily, before taking the next step.

p.7

Behaviour and safety of pupils

Good behaviour begins in Nursery where children are keen to learn, mix easily, share resources and develop good social skills, attributes they carry with them throughout the school. Pupils relish the responsibility placed on them as mini-leaders, school councillors and as the Mayor of Grangeton. They report that projects, which are supplemented by a good range of visits and visitors, ‘make it real’. They very much enjoy, for example, the business project linked to mathematics and the language café, which they manage, and demonstrate their high regard and respect for this provision. Pupils reflect on their own achievements, support others’ achievements, and derive great pleasure from the many sporting and arts activities available to them.

p.7

Behaviour and safety of pupils

Attendance is above average and pupils enjoy school. They feel safe, say the school keeps them safe, and have a good understanding of issues such as internet safety. Parents and carers also say behaviour is good and the school keeps their children safe. They are right. Pupils behave respectfully towards each other and adults. Lessons are not disrupted by poor behaviour, although pupils sometimes become restless when the initial input takes too long and they want to get onto their tasks.

p.7

Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils report that bullying is not a big issue and should it occur, as it has in the past, the school deals with it effectively. In discussing scenarios involving name calling, pushing and teasing, they showed a clear understanding of their responsibilities with regard to preventing and dealing with bullying.

p.7

Leadership and management

Leaders and managers express a clear commitment to ensuring that pupils do well. The curriculum teams contribute to this vision and recent changes in the leadership of English are securing better progress in writing. The curriculum contains an appropriate range of topics that promote pupils’ personal development but it does not promote sustained good academic progress in Years 3 to 6. Opportunities to 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

p.7

Leadership and management

promote writing skills in different subjects are still not explicit enough. The school’s good partnerships with parents and carers, other schools and external agencies contribute to the pupils’ overall satisfactory progress, and help to ease transition onto high school.

p.8

Leadership and management

The governing body supports the school well by visiting classes and meeting with staff, but it does not challenge it sufficiently regarding outcomes. The school’s self- evaluation is over-generous because it focuses only on pupils’ attainment, rather than on achievement. Nevertheless, the weaknesses that led to pupils’ inadequate progress in 2011 have been tackled this year, and shows the school has the capacity to improve. However, links between the school improvement plan, performance management objectives and self-evaluation are unclear. Staff attend many courses, but professional development is not tightly enough focused on school priorities. At whole-school level, teaching and learning are monitored in a range of ways but the findings, as shown to inspectors, are not detailed enough and it is not clear how areas for improvement are followed up.

p.8

Leadership and management

Safeguarding procedures, including child protection, meet current statutory requirements. The governing body moves quickly to deal with any matters as they arise. The school promotes equality of opportunity satisfactorily, and tackles all forms of discrimination, including racism, effectively. It is rightly proud of having received an Inclusion Award, but does not ensure that all groups of pupils always make the best possible academic progress. The school successfully encourages pupils to reflect on their actions, develop personal confidence, and take account of the ideas, feelings and opinions of others. Through the curriculum, it promotes pupils’ awareness of different faiths and cultures, and helps pupils to understand their place in an increasingly global society.

p.8

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.

p.9

Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 54 42 2 2 Primary schools 14 49 32 6 Secondary schools 20 39 34 7 Special schools 33 45 20 3 Pupil referral units 9 55 28 8 All schools 16 47 31 6

p.9

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 to 31 December 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.

p.9

Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

p.9

Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

Common terminology used by inspectors

Floor standards: the national minimum expectation of attainment and progression measures.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

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.

p.10

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

main findings from the inspection of their school.

p.11

Inspection of Grange Primary School, Long Eaton, NG10 2DU

Thank you for welcoming us to your school when we came to inspect it. We enjoyed listening to what you had to say about your work and what you do there, and were pleased to find that you enjoy school and want to do well. Your good behaviour certainly helps you to learn, and you are right when you say that some of your teachers make your learning fun. You have an incredibly good range of activities, such as the Grangeton project, and the language café, which you clearly enjoy, and which help you to prepare for adult life. You told us you feel very safe in school and that the school keeps you safe.

p.11

Inspection of Grange Primary School, Long Eaton, NG10 2DU

We found your school to be satisfactory because, while you make good progress in some year groups, by the time you leave at the end of Year 6 your progress is satisfactory when measured against how well you did when you were in Year 2. We looked at what needed to be done to help you make faster progress, especially in writing. We have, therefore, asked the school to do the following.

p.11

Inspection of Grange Primary School, Long Eaton, NG10 2DU

 Encourage you to do more extended pieces of writing in different subjects, and to make sure that teachers mark your writing equally well at all times, and that you respond to marking comments.  Ensure as much teaching as possible is good or better, so that you, whatever your age, can make consistently good progress.  Be very rigorous when checking the quality of teaching, and give the governing body the information and skills it needs to ensure the school is doing its very best for you at all times.

p.11

Inspection of Grange Primary School, Long Eaton, NG10 2DU

You can help by always listening to your teachers, doing your corrections and trying very hard not to repeat mistakes. We hope you will enjoy learning as much as you do now, for a long time to come, and we wish you well.

p.11

Inspection of Grange Primary School, Long Eaton, NG10 2DU

Doris Bell 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 .

p.11