Little Sutton Primary School

School report Little Sutton Primary School Worcester Lane, , Sutton Coldfield, B75 5NL

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  Children make an excellent start in the Early Years Foundation Stage. They make excellent progress across all years to achieve outstanding results before transferring to secondary school. Reading and mathematics are greatly enjoyed by pupils and achievement is very high.  Pupils known to be eligible for free school meals also make excellent progress so there is little difference between how well they achieve and others.  Outstanding teaching ensures pupils are fully engaged, enthused and enjoy their lessons. Teaching helps pupils to achieve very highly, particularly in mathematics and reading. Pupils develop excellent understanding. They learn to work well by themselves in class.  Behaviour is outstanding. Pupils are consulted on rules for behaviour; as a result they take more responsibility for their own behaviour and actions. Pupils feel safe within the highly caring environment.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders and managers make sure all staff know what they are expected to do and set very high standards for the quality of their teaching and how well pupils learn. They, along with the highly effective governing body, have made sure the school is continually improving the quality of teaching and achievement. This means that the school has improved in all areas since it was last inspected.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 19 lessons and an overview of all classes on a ‘learning walk’ with the headteacher.  They heard groups of pupils read and held meetings with staff, pupils, a representative of the local authority and three members of the governing body.  They spoke to parents and carers as they were picking up their children after school.  They took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) along with questionnaires for parents and carers collected by the school. The number of responses to Parent View rose from 10 before the inspection to 113 at the start of the second day. They observed the school’s work and analysed 37 staff questionnaires.  They scrutinised test results for 2012, assessment records, the minutes of the meetings of the governing body and the school’s improvement plans and evaluations.

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Inspection team

Michael Smith, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Mark Mallender Additional inspector Brenda Jones Additional inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is a larger than average primary school.  Less than a tenth of pupils are known to be eligible for pupil premium, which is well below average.  Around 3% of pupils are supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs. This is well below average. A similar proportion of pupils is supported through school action, which again is well below average.  The school has received a number of prestigious awards including the British Council International Award and the Healthy School’s Award.  The school meets the current government ‘floor standards’, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The nursery and a before and after school club on the school site are not managed by the school’s governing body.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure improvement plans include success criteria that are measureable so that school leaders can better evaluate their effectiveness.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills and knowledge broadly in line with those expected for their age, with the exception of communication and language which are lower. They make an excellent start, so that all children are above the expected level when they enter Key Stage 1.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Assessments show that pupils make excellent progress across all years. The school has responded swiftly and effectively to ensure that achievement in boys’ writing, which fell in 2011 Key Stage 2 tests, is now back to its previously outstanding level. Unvalidated results of the 2012 Key Stage 2 tests show that pupils in the school make far better progress in all areas than others nationally. Reading and mathematics are strengths of the school.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 The achievement of pupils who are identified as eligible for the pupil premium are closely monitored and additional support provided to ensure they make progress in line with all pupils.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs respond very well to additional support, often from very well trained and effective teaching assistants, to make similar excellent progress from their starting points.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils enjoy reading and are able to read very well. They show their understanding of texts by reading with confidence and feeling. Pupils understand the necessity to read well but also say they enjoy reading for pleasure and the school gives them many opportunities to do this.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Observations of lessons and analysis of pupils’ work show that pupils make excellent progress over time. For example, the quality of pupils’ writing has improved greatly throughout the year, in accuracy, spelling, grammar and the complexity and imagination of language. Pupils have a wide variety of opportunities to investigate mathematics problems. This gives them confidence and resilience in this area of their work. The school has been very successful in enabling pupils to take greater responsibility for their own learning and consequently being very well prepared for their next phase of their education.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Literacy and numeracy skills are incorporated very well across all subjects. Pupils are given a wide variety of opportunities for extended writing.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is outstanding and leads to excellent achievement because it is highly engaging and pupils respond very well to a wide variety of interesting lessons.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers who teach the same age groups plan together to provide a wide variety of imaginative activities. In Years 3 and 4, pupils are taught for some of their lessons in single sex groups so that questioning and activities can be adjusted to meet the needs of the boys and girls.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Questioning is a real strength of both teachers and teaching assistants. Pupils are asked to explain answers and to justify what they have said. Consequently, pupils develop a very good understanding of their work.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Staff constantly check on pupils’ learning during lessons so they can adjust their teaching, use pupils’ responses as teaching points or to target extension work as appropriate. Teachers are highly effective in marking pupils’ work and identifying how well they are achieving. They give clear advice on how the work can be improved. Pupils respond well to teachers comments so that a highly effective learning dialogue takes place.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 In lessons pupils are often directed to work in groups. Sometimes these are based on pupils’ ability. At other times, teachers carefully manage groups to ensure pupils of differing abilities support each other. One highly effective strategy observed was when ‘lead learners’ were identified and pupils knew who to turn to first if they encountered a problem. In other lessons, pupils were given different roles in groups such as when pupils were preparing a newspaper article related to the book they were studying.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Responses from parents and carers showed that virtually all believed their child was well taught in school. Responses from pupils said the best thing about their school was the enjoyable lessons. They felt that teachers really cared about how well they were doing and lessons were fun. They highlighted that spelling and mathematics were particular favourites. This shows how well teachers match activities to the interests and levels of their pupils.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching allows pupils to reflect on how they work and play and how they fit into the world. This, along with religious education and assemblies, helps support pupils’ excellent spiritual awareness. Excellent use is made of video-conferencing facilities to support pupils’ growing awareness of schools in Bermuda and India. They are also able to discuss Egyptian artefacts direct with the curator of the British Museum in London. Social development is very strong during group work. In the Early Years Foundation Stage children learn to play together and to share. Pupils take a great deal of responsibility within the school which supports their moral development.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Highly supportive relationships between pupils and between pupils and staff are key to the excellent behaviour found in this school. Pupils accept responsibility for their own behaviour and they respond very well to the trust and respect shown them by staff. Virtually all parents and carers who responded to Parent View said the school makes sure pupils are well behaved. This is borne out by observations in school, responses from pupils and the record of behaviour incidents over time.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils have a good understanding of the key issues of keeping safe at a level appropriate to their age. Younger children are taught about ‘stranger danger’, while older pupils learn about different elements of abuse, such as physical and the dangers of alcohol and smoking.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Bullying is discussed with pupils so they are aware of the various forms it takes. They also know the consequences of bullying for both the victim and the perpetrator. They report incidents are very rare. All pupils say they feel safe and that they have an adult they can talk to if they feel in anyway threatened or unhappy.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leadership and management of the school are very strong across all levels. The school’s clear purpose and ambition are shared by all staff. The school is a key member of the local cluster and often demonstrates its excellent practice to other local schools. There are excellent links with the local secondary school including Little Sutton staff contributing to its specialist teaching school outreach work.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The leadership to improve the quality of teaching is extremely strong. It focuses on helping good teachers to improve to outstanding as well as on improving the work of teaching assistants. On-going professional development of teachers and teaching assistants has been significant in the continual improvement of teaching to its current very high standard.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Performance management is highly effective. Teachers and teaching assistants all have appropriate targets. There is an expectation that all pupils make at least good progress in each year. Targets are also linked closely to aspects of teaching which have been identified as needing improvement during frequent, rigorous and accurate monitoring.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Monitoring, along with very detailed analysis of achievement across all subjects and different groups, informs the school and subject improvement plans. Staff have very focused activities which are highly relevant. However, the success criteria linked to these actions are not always specific enough to enable accurate evaluations on the impact on improving teaching and raising achievement.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The outstanding curriculum is both enjoyable and highly relevant. Consequently, pupils enjoy school, behaviour is excellent and attendance high. It also allows pupils opportunities to develop interests. Many pupils enjoy music by playing an instrument or singing in the highly successful choir. Sport is enjoyed by many, along with the wide variety of educational visits and visitors to the school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Relationships with parents and carers are highly productive, with all who responded to Parent View saying that their children enjoyed school and felt safe.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The local authority has rightly identified that the school has not been in need of additional support. It recognises the important work done by the school in supporting other schools to improve within the local authority.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  is of the highest quality and challenges the school constantly to improve  ensures governors take on responsibility for different aspects. This means that safeguarding is of the highest quality within the school. Governors also champion different groups. Consequently the school has been very successful in closing the gap between pupils who are eligible for pupil premium and others of their age. Governors hold the school to account for the impact of the pupil premium funding for ensuring equality of opportunity.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school

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Grade Judgement Description

is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 103388 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 402913

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 420 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mark Griffiths Headteacher Rachel Davis Date of previous school inspection 23 January 2008 Telephone number 0121 4644494 Fax number 0121 3232045 Email address enquiry@littlesu.bham.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', 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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School details

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 and as part of the inspection.

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School details

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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School details

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

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School details

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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School details

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

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