Stanville Primary School

Age group 3–11 Inspection date(s) 10–11 May 2012 Inspection number 395757 Stanville Primary School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 103257 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 395757 Inspection dates 10–11 May 2012 Lead inspector Steve Nelson

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 233 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Melanie Ashley Headteacher Susan Middleton Date of previous school inspection 16 October 2008 School address Stanville Road Birmingham B26 3YN Telephone number 0121 4642322 Fax number 0121 4642531 Email address enquiry@stanville.org 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 nine teachers in 14 lessons, over approximately seven hours. Meetings were held with groups of pupils, governors and staff including senior staff. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection and analysed 63 parental questionnaires and others competed by pupils and staff. The inspectors observed the school’s work, and looked at children’s books, the school’s plan of priorities for development, plus all documentation related to planning and data on pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about the school

This is an average-sized primary school. About 35% of pupils are from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. An above-average proportion of pupils are currently known to be eligible for free school meals. The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is above average. A high proportion of pupils join part-way through their primary school education. The school’s 2011 national test results did not meet the government’s current floor standards, which set minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress. There is a privately run pre-school on site. The school provides a breakfast club and after school clubs.

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Information about the school

The school has achieved the Artsmark Award, the Healthy Schools Award, the Activemark, the Sustainable Schools Award and the Impetus and Eco Tech Awards.

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Key findings

 This is a satisfactory school. It is rapidly improving after a fall in standards and pupils’ attainment is now broadly average. The school is not yet good because the majority of pupils do not make more than satisfactory progress in Key Stages 1 and 2 and teaching is not yet consistently good. The vast majority of parents and carers are happy with the school’s provision. Schools whose overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory may receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next Section 5 inspection.

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Key findings

 Pupils achieve satisfactorily and attain broadly average standards in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. Achievement of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is good overall.

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Key findings

 Teaching and learning are satisfactory. Increasingly effective teaching is having a positive impact on the progress made by all groups of pupils. There is some disparity between year groups, with inconsistencies in the use of questioning to challenge and engage pupils. Sometimes teachers’ expectations of what pupils can do are not high enough. As a result, pupils’ progress is satisfactory.

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Key findings

 Behaviour and safety are satisfactory. Pupils say they feel safe in school. The majority of pupils engage with their learning, particularly where tasks are well chosen and interesting. Attendance is below average but has consistently improved more recently.

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Key findings

 The headteacher provides focused educational direction and a clear vision for school improvement. Leaders and managers evaluate the school’s strengths and weaknesses and use outcomes increasing effectively to target further improvement. There is, however, not enough involvement of senior leaders in monitoring the quality of teaching and learning or sharing best practice across the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure the quality of teaching and learning is consistently good or better by:  making sure questioning is challenging and always extends pupils’ learning  ensuring there is sufficient challenge, especially for those with above average ability  improve pupils’ independent learning skills by increasing opportunities for them to plan their own learning and marking their own work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase attendance to the average of similar schools for the 2012/13 year by working more closely with families in order to reduce the number of absences.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the leadership and management of teaching and learning by:  formalising and making rigorous the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning by subject leaders  sharing the best classroom practice across the school.

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Achievement of pupils

Outcomes for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage are good and children make good progress from their starting points. Children enter Reception with skills below those typical for their age. The Nursery and Reception teams ensure every opportunity is taken to advance these skills. The teaching of phonics (linking letters with the sounds they make) is strong. This helps children to acquire effective early reading skills. Children make good progress and enter Year 1 as confident learners.

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Achievement of pupils

Lesson observations, the school’s current tracking data and the analysis of pupils’ work indicate considerable improvement, with attainment now broadly average. Higher expectations, new progress targets and a more rigorous focus on learning are supporting much-improved rates of progress across the school. As a result attainment is rising and the gaps are now closing. Pupils generally enjoy reading. Attainment in reading is improving across the school and is broadly average at the end of Year 2 and by the time they leave school. This represents satisfactory achievement overall.

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Achievement of pupils

There is no significant difference between the achievement of different groups. This includes pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and pupils who speak English as an additional language. Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress because the school identifies their needs accurately and provides highly effective support and teaching. In their questionnaires, almost all parents and cares agreed that their children were making good progress at the school. Inspection evidence shows that pupils make satisfactory progress overall.

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Quality of teaching

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, adults work well together to provide activities that are practical and interesting. They encourage children to work and play cooperatively and make decision for themselves, which contributes positively to their personal development. Children show much enjoyment in all they do and are keen to learn. A good example was observed in a Reception lesson developing balancing and climbing skills. Children provided enthusiastic answers about the purpose of the heart. They enjoyed working in groups and were happy to take turns balancing and jumping, consolidating their skills effectively.

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Quality of teaching

In Key Stages 1 and 2, teachers manage classrooms well to ensure that pupils are engaged and little time is lost. Teaching assistants are generally deployed effectively to support all pupils, especially disabled pupils and those with special educational needs. Teachers use a variety of resources, including information and communication technology, to add interest to lessons and motivate pupils. There are times when teachers do not provide sufficient challenge in their questioning or activities that extend the different groups in their classes, particularly for the more-able pupils. This slows the rate at which pupils make progress. This is not always the case; for example, in a Year 5 technology lesson, effective use of a practical exercise on sequencing instructions to create a series of shapes ensured all pupils made good progress. Teachers’ assessments of pupils’ work is regularly undertaken. Generally,

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Quality of teaching

marking clearly shows pupils what to do to improve their work. However, there is insufficient encouragement of pupils to take responsibility for their own learning by peer assessing and marking their own work.

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Quality of teaching

The very large majority of parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire feel that their children are taught well. Inspectors found that, although improved teaching is helping pupils to make at least satisfactory progress, this is not yet sufficiently embedded to ensure that they make consistently good progress. Teaching has a positive impact on pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This is shown in the opportunities provided for pupils to work together and share ideas. This was evident in a mathematics lesson for Year 3 pupils when they were challenged to work in teams to solve practical problems. The curriculum is planned appropriately to enable pupils to use their literacy and numeracy skills to support their learning in a variety of subjects.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The school is a harmonious community. Pupils enjoy school. They are polite to adults and respectful of each other and the school surroundings. Most parents and carers responding to the inspection questionnaire feel that, overall, there is a good standard of behaviour at the school and that the school keeps their children safe. Pupils typically behave satisfactorily in lessons. In lessons, when pupils are fully engaged, their behaviour contributes well to good learning. However, where there are weaknesses in teaching, pupils find it harder to concentrate and can become restless, limiting the progress they make.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Pupils say that behaviour is generally positive, that they feel safe both in the playground and in the classroom. They know there are adults they can talk to if they have any concerns. Pupils have a clear understanding of what constitutes acceptable behaviour. They are aware of the different types of bullying such as name-calling and cyber-bullying. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage develop their social skills through well-structured play, showing that a good understanding of personal safety and routines is established quickly. School leaders have implemented a range of initiatives to promote good attendance, such as weekly awards. Pupils’ attendance over time has improved; however, it remains below the national average. The breakfast club is well attended. It improves pupils’ social skills and provides good opportunities for additional learning through play activities.

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Leadership and management

The headteacher is committed to driving school improvement. Leaders have a clear school vision and have implemented a range of strategies, which have proved successful in raising attainment. Improvements to the school’s self-evaluation ensure that leaders know the strengths and areas for improvement. Staff believe their training needs are met. Professional development of teachers is clearly linked to the school’s priorities for improvement. However, subject leaders are not involved enough in the direct observation of teaching and learning and the dissemination of good practice within the school.

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Leadership and management

The school is particularly proud of its commitment to an inclusive ethos and has effective systems for promoting equality of opportunities for all pupils to be successful. The school has a range of effective partnerships, for example to provide opportunities in sport and to support pupils who have a range of learning, emotional and behavioural needs and their families. Safeguarding procedures are robustly managed. All members of staff are fully trained to protect children well. Members of the governing body are very supportive of the school. They have a sound understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and offer satisfactory challenge. The school’s capacity to improve is shown by a trend of rising attainment, including successfully securing the improvement issues from the previous inspection.

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Leadership and management

The school provides an appropriate curriculum that has a strong focus on developing basic skills in English, mathematics and the use of information technology. There are established procedures to develop writing skills in other areas of the curriculum. Across the school, there is a coherent and systematic approach to teaching reading, with a balanced emphasis on letters and sounds, comprehension and, as pupils become more proficient, opportunities to analyse character and authors’ use of language and plot. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good overall. There are particular strengths in pupils’ ability to relate well to others from different backgrounds and work well together in class activities. The popular after- school clubs promote learning and enjoyment in sporting music, artistic and environmental activities.

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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 Stanville Primary School, Birmingham, B26 3YN

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

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Inspection of Stanville Primary School, Birmingham, B26 3YN

You go to a satisfactory school. In the questionnaires that you completed, you said you feel safe at school, but sometimes behaviour is not as good as it should be. We judged behaviour to be satisfactory. Most of you feel that teaching is good and you feel you learn lots in lessons. We judge teaching to be satisfactory. The adults in the school take good care of you. Your achievement has improved this year and those of you who need extra help with your learning make good progress. The senior leaders are working hard to make sure your school gets better and better.

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Inspection of Stanville Primary School, Birmingham, B26 3YN

Part of our job is to see how the school can improve. We think that it will help you if teachers have higher hopes of what you can achieve. We have requested that the teachers ask you questions that will get you to think more to increase your learning. We have also asked them to provide more occasions for you to learn for yourselves, so you become more independent learners. We have asked that more of the senior leaders, particularly those in charge of subjects, see the teaching in your lessons and share good practice across the school. We have also asked them to make sure more of you come to school regularly because some of you miss too many days.

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Inspection of Stanville Primary School, Birmingham, B26 3YN

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

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Inspection of Stanville Primary School, Birmingham, B26 3YN

Steve Nelson Lead inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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