Barley Close Community Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 4–5 July 2012 Inspection number 377861 Barley Close Community Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 109047 Local authority South Gloucestershire Inspection number 377861 Inspection dates 4–5 July 2012 Lead inspector Colin Lee

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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 285 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Geoff Howell Headteacher Nicola Antwis Date of previous school inspection 15 October 2008 School address Barley Close Bristol BS16 9DL Telephone number 01454 867090 Fax number 01454 867091 Email address barleycloseprimary.school@southglos.gov.uk achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when.

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

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspectors observed the teaching of 11 teachers in a total of 20 lessons. Meetings were held with members of the governing body, staff and groups of pupils. The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at the school’s data on pupils’ attainment and progress, the school improvement plan, other planning documents and procedures for keeping pupils safe. The inspectors analysed 109 questionnaires completed by parents and carers, as well as speaking informally to groups of parents and carers. Questionnaires completed by staff and Key Stage 2 pupils were also analysed.

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Information about the school

The school is larger than an average-sized primary school. It meets the government’s floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress. The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage. Pupils are taught in single-age classes, one class for each year from Nursery to Year 6 except Reception, which has two classes. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is above average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special educational needs, is below average. Childcare provided by the school includes breakfast and after-school clubs, as well as a holiday club. The school has received awards for several aspects of its work, including the International Schools, Healthy Schools Plus and Activemark awards. 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. All aspects of its work have improved well since the last inspection, especially pupils’ levels of achievement. It is not yet outstanding because the quality of teaching, although good, is not yet consistent enough for it to enable pupils’ achievement to be outstanding.

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Key findings

 Pupils progress well from the moment they start school and throughout their time there. By the end of Year 6, attainment is in line with the national average in English and above average in mathematics. Pupils also attain at well above the expected levels for their age in information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs progress as well as their peers at all ages in developing their reading, writing, communication and mathematics skills.

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Key findings

 Teaching has improved well over time and this has produced the upward trend in pupils’ achievement. Teaching does still vary in quality, even though most is good and better. This affects the quality of pupils’ learning, most especially because there is inconsistency in the guidance given to pupils in lessons about what will help them complete learning activities successfully.

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Key findings

 Behaviour is good, and sometimes exemplary, in nearly all classes and lessons and pupils have a very positive attitude to learning. Pupils say they feel very safe in school, which reflects parents’ and carers’ views. The relationships between pupils of different ages are excellent. According to pupils, bullying of any form is non-existent.

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Key findings

 Senior leaders give high priority to management of performance and their rigorous checking of teaching and pupils’ progress drives school improvement. There is excellent teamwork between all staff. They have developed a good curriculum that promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. 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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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 In order to further improve pupils’ achievement, raise the quality of their learning by making sure they fully understand what is needed to complete learning activities successfully.  Share outstanding practice in teaching to help others raise the quality of their own teaching to outstanding.

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Achievement of pupils

The vast majority of parents and carers are confident that their children are achieving well. Inspection evidence confirms that all pupils are making good progress and that progress has accelerated since the previous inspection. Children settle quickly in the Nursery and enjoy their learning. Starting points are low and children enter Reception with attainment well below expected levels in personal, language and mathematical development. Improved teaching has gradually raised attainment, which is now broadly average by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, average in reading and writing by the end of Key Stages 1 and 2, and above average in mathematics at the end of these stages.

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Achievement of pupils

Reception children make particularly good progress in language development because all staff place good emphasis on developing language skills in every learning situation. Indoors and outdoors, speaking skills are constantly being developed, as was seen when children were encouraged to think of words to describe the qualities of the mud pool that is currently a source of great excitement. As children’s spoken vocabularies increase they use them well as they develop writing skills. Small groups working with teachers showed pride in sentences they were writing about their imaginary aeroplane trip to Africa, thinking carefully about the letter sounds as they wrote.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils are good at learning how sounds link together (phonics). The full impact of the new programme developing that learning has yet to be seen but it is quickly raising pupils’ attainment in reading and writing. The love of reading of both fiction and non- fiction shown by Year 2 pupils develops into a passion by Year 6, where pupils read fluently and expressively, and have good comprehension skills. They talk knowledgeably about authors and what they like about an author’s work. 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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Achievement of pupils

School data show that, in recent years, there have been gaps in achievement between different groups of pupils. The most significant has been the lower attainment of boys compared with girls. This has been addressed successfully by ensuring learning activities across the curriculum capture boys’ interests. The impact on writing skills has been considerable and boys and girls now achieve equally well. This was seen in boys’ enthusiasm in a Year 6 lesson when pupils drafted a newspaper report. High interest levels and good writing skills produced well- structured accounts by all pupils. Here, as in many other lessons observed, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs responded keenly and produced work of a quality showing that, as in many subjects, they achieve as well as their peers.

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Achievement of pupils

Pupils have secure basic numeracy skills and the strong emphasis on pupils applying these skills to solving real-life problems produces a good understanding of mathematical principles. Pupils’ interest and success in problem solving activities, seen in lessons in Years 5 and 6, showed why attainment in mathematics is above expected levels. The same level of attainment is evident in ICT by the end of Year 6. Pupils are very competent and confident with a range of hardware, including computers, video cameras and control mechanisms. The high quality of computer- generated work is seen clearly in Year 6 pupils’ posters on e-safety.

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Quality of teaching

Teachers have a strong determination to improve their own effectiveness. They respond positively to the monitoring and evaluation of their teaching by senior leaders and external moderators. The improvement in teaching over time has steadily raised pupils’ achievement. The most successful feature of teaching is the careful matching of learning activities to pupils’ abilities and needs. Teachers consider pupils’ differing needs in all phases of a lesson. Work planned for different ability groups in second parts of lessons builds systematically on what has been learned before. In an outstandingly taught Year 4 literacy lesson, for example, from the outset different types of questions and short tasks were directed at individuals and groups so that everything they did was matched to their levels of learning.

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Quality of teaching

Matching of task to needs benefits all. The more able are constantly challenged and this is increasing the proportion of pupils achieving higher National Curriculum levels. Good teaching of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs successfully meets their specific needs, overcoming learning difficulties and, where necessary, emotional and behavioural difficulties. For instance, pupils needing extra help in developing social skills were seen receiving highly effective support that raises their confidence and helps improve relationships with adults and other pupils.

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Quality of teaching

Although teachers start all lessons by explaining what is to be learned, they are not so consistent in clarifying what pupils need to do in their work to achieve these lesson objectives. From Reception onwards teachers provide ‘success steps’ to guide pupils but these vary in usefulness. Sometimes it is just a description of the task; in Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Quality of teaching

other lessons the steps are vague and rarely do they list the specific skills to be developed or what should be included in the work. In the best teaching, pupils review their own work, and often that of others, with a checklist of what should be included. This good practice was seen, for example, where teaching was outstanding in a Year 6 literacy lesson when pupils used such a checklist to identify the good features of a pupils’ written work and suggested improvements.

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Quality of teaching

Reading is taught well throughout the school. Teachers use the curriculum well to develop pupils’ literacy, numeracy and ICT skills as well as to promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Many opportunities are provided for pupils to develop creative skills and these are often used to explore aspects of different cultures.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils’ good behaviour is due to the constant reminders that it is they who make the choice about how to behave and the vast majority strive to meet the school’s high expectations. They are helped by effective, consistent behaviour management by most adults. The majority of parents and carers think that most pupils behave well. A group of parents and carers have expressed concern about lessons being disrupted by bad behaviour. Their concern is justified insofar as inspection evidence shows this applies to one class, where behaviour is not as consistent as it is in other classes. Senior leaders are focusing support successfully in order to bring about improvement.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils reflect the view of parents and carers who returned questionnaires when they say that they feel absolutely safe in school. Pupils say there is no bullying in school. They understand well different forms of bullying, such as name-calling, cyber- bullying and gender or racial discrimination.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The quality of relationships between pupils of different ages is a strength of the school. The harmony between pupils was very evident in the well-run breakfast and after-school clubs. Pupils enjoy regular opportunities to work with pupils from other classes, such as the weekly enrichment session when mixed-age groups are involved in a wide range of practical, creative and sporting activities. Other such opportunities include theme weeks, for example the sport and healthy living week, and the linking of older classes with younger for reading sessions. These are aspects of school life that Year 6 pupils said they will particularly miss. Above average rates of attendance are a further sign of pupils’ enjoyment of school.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher has very successfully promoted strong teamwork among staff. Accurate self-evaluation focuses on constantly checking the impact on pupils’ achievement of work done to improve teaching. This work is driven by a very effective senior leadership team. Their monitoring of teaching and management of Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory, and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms

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Leadership and management

performance, together with a comprehensive professional development programme for all staff, are the key to pupils’ rising achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. Significant improvements since the last inspection, in particular the better teaching and improved achievement by all pupils, show that the school has a strong capacity for sustained improvement in the future. The fact that progress for all groups of pupils has accelerated reflects the school’s determination to provide equal opportunities for all and eliminate all forms of discrimination.

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Leadership and management

The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well and there are particular strengths in the promotion of pupils’ spiritual awareness and understanding of cultural diversity. There is not yet a full picture of pupils’ achievement in all subjects. Senior leaders recognise this and have plans to check the curriculum’s broader impact on pupil outcomes.

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Leadership and management

The governing body takes care to ensure that safeguarding meets statutory requirements and that staff are thoroughly trained in attending to health and safety, risk assessment and child protection issues. Governors are well informed about the school’s work by their rigorous independent monitoring and evaluation of school improvement. 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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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 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

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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 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.

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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

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

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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 Court Community Primary School, Bristol BS16 9DL

I am writing to thank you for helping us during the inspection of your school. We especially enjoyed talking to you and listening to your views, and reading your responses to the questionnaire. I have taken these views into account. You go to a good school and this confirms what nearly all the parents and carers think. Here is what we found.

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Inspection of Barley Court Community Primary School, Bristol BS16 9DL

 You work hard and make good progress.  The standards you achieve in Year 6 are at the levels expected at that age in reading and writing and above the expected standards in mathematics and ICT.  You are taught well and teachers give you many interesting learning activities.  Most of you behave well and we were very impressed by how well you get on with one another and particularly by how older pupils look out for the younger ones.  You say you feel very safe in school. This is because all the adults do an excellent job in looking after you.

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Inspection of Barley Court Community Primary School, Bristol BS16 9DL

The headteacher leads the school well and all the staff and governors work well together to help the school to improve. They want to make the school even better. We have asked them to make sure the teachers explain more clearly, in lessons, what it is that you should include in your work so that you are successful.

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Inspection of Barley Court Community Primary School, Bristol BS16 9DL

All of you can help your teachers to make your school even better by continuing to work hard to improve and enjoying your learning. Thank you once again for your help during our visit, and best wishes for your work in the future.

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Inspection of Barley Court Community Primary School, Bristol BS16 9DL

Colin Lee 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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