Sinclair Primary and Nursery School - Part of the Learning Federation Partnership of Schools

Sinclair Nursery and Primary School Sinclair Road, Lordshill, Southampton, SO16 8GF

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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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This is an outstanding school

 The achievement of pupils, including those known to be entitled to free school meals, is outstanding.  The quality of teaching is outstanding and contributes significantly to the high levels of progress made by the pupils.  Pupils’ progress is carefully tracked and actions promptly taken to support any child in danger of falling behind.  Pupils’ behaviour is outstanding both in and out of lessons. Pupils feel safe and have a very secure knowledge of potential risk and a clear understanding of how to stay safe.  Pupils enjoy their learning and adopt very positive attitudes to learning. They readily accept opportunities given to them to evaluate their own work and check whether they have met the success criteria in lessons. They are not yet as involved in assessing how best they and others learn.  Leadership and management are outstanding and a very clear vision of continuous school improvement, shared by all staff, has been

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This is an outstanding school

established. This has resulted in the rapid and impressive improvement in outcomes for pupils.  Underpinning the success of the school is the inspired leadership of the headteacher and the excellent focus of senior leaders and governors on developing and ensuring consistently high quality teaching. This is linked exceptionally well to performance management and continuous professional development for teachers, much of which is in-house coaching.  Leadership responsibilities have been very well shared and accountability levels are very high.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 14 lessons including guided reading and linking sounds and letters (phonics) sessions.  They listened to a sample of readers in Years 2 and 3.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at attainment and progress data, the school’s development plan, curriculum plans, governing body documentation and policies and procedures. Those documents relating to health and safety and safeguarding of pupils were carefully scrutinised.  There were no responses to the on-line Parent View questionnaire. However, inspectors took account of the latest parent survey conducted by the school.  Discussions were held with senior and other leaders, teachers, the Chair of the Governing Body, pupils, and a representative from the local authority.

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Inspection team

Michael Pye, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Margaret Faull Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection the partnership which the headteacher leads has been extended to three schools.  The school is of average size.  The majority of pupils are from a White British background. The next largest groups are Any Other Asian White and White/Black Caribbean heritage.  The proportion of pupils known to be entitled to free school meals and supported under pupil premium funding, which provides additional funding for children in local authority care, children from service families and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, is well above the national average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported at school action is above average. The proportion supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special educational needs, is below average. The main needs of these pupils relate to moderate learning difficulties.  The government’s current floor standards which set the minimum expectations for pupils’

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Information about this school

attainment and progress were exceeded in 2012 by the school.  No pupils from this school attend any alternative provision.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Develop the understanding of pupils about how best they and others learn, and how this information can be applied in lessons by themselves to increase learning still further.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils, by the end of Year 2, attain well above the nationally expected levels overall when performance in reading, writing and mathematics is considered. Standards are particularly high in mathematics. This has been so for three years and indicates outstanding progress from pupils’ starting points.  The headteacher has led a relentless and concerted drive over the last three years to address a legacy of underachievement at Key Stage 2. As a result, attainment when measured by average point scores in assessments at the end of Year 6 has improved significantly since the low levels of previous years, and reached average levels. This includes those pupils supported by pupil premium funding whose average point scores have improved significantly when compared to other pupils. Current school data strongly and accurately suggest that attainment is set to rise further in 2013 and beyond to an above average level.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Children enter Nursery with well below the expected levels of skills and knowledge. They have particular weaknesses in calculation and early literacy and communication skills. The school is appropriately looking into how it can access pre-nursery children to help parents and carers understand how they can help prepare their children for mathematics before starting Nursery.  Children leave the Reception class with levels just below those expected nationally, which indicates outstanding progress.  Given these well below starting points, pupils make outstanding progress across the school. The progress measures achieved by the school place it in the top 6% of schools nationally.  Data and inspection observations show that pupil groups, including those pupils who have disabilities or special educational needs, and those from ethnic minority groups, make similar progress to their peers. On occasions they do better. For example, Year 3 pupils known to be

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

entitled to free school meals and those with special educational needs are currently progressing at a faster rate in writing and reading.  Work scrutiny and lesson observations confirm that pupils are making consistently outstanding progress across the school. This is the result of their positive attitudes towards learning and the high quality teaching they receive.  Attainment in reading is average at the end of Years 2 and 6. This has much to do with the effect of the regular and high quality letters and sounds (phonics) lessons that pupils receive. The 2012 phonics screening check shows pupils attaining at above the national average. Low attaining readers show good understanding of how to separate and then blend the sounds in words that they find difficult, such as ‘shrimp’.  Pupils have good opportunities to read regularly, and reading logs help ensure that parents and carers can support their child’s learning at home.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Excellent monitoring and accompanying professional development result in very high levels of teaching. The high incidence of outstanding teaching observed during the inspection is typical of teaching over time.  In lessons, very enthusiastic teachers adopt consistent approaches to learning which are underpinned by extremely positive relationships in lessons.  An excellent range of strategies is employed by teachers to assess pupils’ ongoing knowledge and understanding. For example, individual whiteboard work and pupil self-evaluation were used in mathematics lessons for younger and older pupils. Where necessary this led to a change of direction to meet the pupils’ needs and fill any gaps in their knowledge.  Similarly, imaginative and stimulating activities are consistently used to motivate pupils. ‘What’s in the box?’ activities engaged younger pupils in an English lesson. Year 6 pupils were quickly on

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

task as a computer programme challenged them to give the right mathematical answer in a very short period of time. In history, older pupils analysed different photographs. Their views of the photographs were then challenged when it was revealed that all the scenes came from one larger photograph relating to the treatment of the Jews in the Second World War.  Teachers adopt a ‘cut away’ approach to ensure pupils are appropriately challenged and the pace of their learning is maintained. As soon as pupils show an understanding of the proposed task, they are ‘cut away’ from the whole class session and given appropriate work.  Learning support assistants are pro-active and in the Reception class, for example, actively promote the correct phonics approaches to sounding out ‘ee’ and ‘ey’.  The moral and social development of pupils is encouraged extremely well through the promotion of talk partner work and mutual respect for pupils’ views.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 All parents completing the school survey believe their child is safe in school. Pupils spoken to fully agree.  Pupils say, ‘We don’t have bullying.’ They explain what constitutes bullying and the use by bullies of computers and mobile phones.  Behaviour is outstanding with pupils motivated by their learning. Their willingness to engage with their learning, and the high levels of mutual respect and teamwork, show the excellent personal and social development of pupils. They enjoy lessons and opportunities to self-evaluate and set their own targets during ‘Aim High’ sessions. However, opportunities for them to explore how best they and classmates learn and then apply that to lessons are limited.  Classroom codes of conduct are clearly displayed. Negotiated with the pupils, they cover aspects such as being safe, kind, polite and cooperative. The very positive effect of the ‘rights and responsibilities’ work can be seen in the development of such messages as, ‘If we distract others

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

we are taking away their right to learn’.  Pupils tell of very few disruptions to lessons. This shows behaviour over time is excellent. Any incidents are effectively and promptly dealt with by the school. ‘It would be sorted straight away,’ said one pupil.  The pupils’ enjoyment of school is summed up by one pupil. When asked whether he wanted to change anything he said, ‘It’s the best I think it could be!’

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Exceptional improvement to the school has taken place in the last three years. This has resulted from the very high focus on pupil progress, on coaching to improve teaching, and the successful building of leaders’ expertise in, and responsibility for, overseeing the work of the school and accurate self-evaluation. Typically, development plans are highly focused on checking the impact of changes on pupils’ progress in their learning.  An example of the high quality leadership can be seen in the excellent arrangements for monitoring and developing teaching and supporting pupils who are not quite reaching expected levels. The headteacher helps identify their needs prior to her deputy reviewing progress of those individual pupils on a fortnightly basis.  What happens to help support this process is exceptional. Leaders at all levels may be involved in developing strategies to help a pupil. If it is believed that teaching needs development so that

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The leadership and management are outstanding

the pupil (and others) can thrive, then a senior leader with responsibility for developing teaching and learning will work alongside the teacher(s) to develop their skills. Such excellent strategies, which extend to all other pupils, including those with special educational needs, help ensure equality of opportunity and a no tolerance stance to any form of discrimination.  Performance management has an extremely appropriate focus on teaching and leadership targets. There are very clear links with professional development and in-school support for career development. All senior leaders must previously have been judged outstanding in the classroom.  The pupil premium budget is allocated well, with a very appropriate focus on the provision of resources and personnel to support these pupils. This includes booster classes or the provision of highly focused and skilled one-to-one work.  The excellent curriculum clearly meets pupils’ needs. It provides very good opportunities to

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The leadership and management are outstanding

reinforce their literacy and numeracy skills in all subjects. The work since the last inspection on such topics as the Gambia contributes well to the pupils’ moral and cultural development.  The partnership of schools is increasingly benefiting pupils through the sharing of resources and expertise. Other partnerships with the local cluster of schools and the church benefit pupils. Links with parents and carers are forged through home visits in Nursery and Reception to workshops covering how parents can help their children at home in their studies.  Local authority support is light touch, recognising the degree of improvement in recent times.  The governance of the school: – The governing body employs numerous, excellent strategies to monitor the school and learn about its strengths and areas for development. Focused visits include the sampling of teaching, detailed reports from the headteacher and subject leaders, and governor training on

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The leadership and management are outstanding

aspects such as data interpretation. These enable governors to challenge the school regarding teaching quality, pupils’ progress and the school’s overall performance when compared to other schools nationally. The governors fully back the excellent arrangements for developing teaching quality and any subsequent leadership responsibilities. Governors meet statutory requirements; health and safety visits take place, safeguarding issues are discussed regularly and the majority are trained in safe recruitment procedures. They track the budget regularly and, together with information about progress, are able to identify the impact of expenditure on the progress of pupils benefiting from the pupil premium funding. Challenging performance management targets are set. The governing body uses a wide range of strategies to build a deep evidence base about progress towards meeting these targets and ensuring that there is

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The leadership and management are outstanding

a close alignment between teaching quality and salary progression.

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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 is

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Grade Judgement Description

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 133943 Local authority Southampton Inspection number 400149

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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 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 218 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair David Tomkins Headteacher Gerida Montague-Munson Date of previous school inspection 30 September – 1 October 2010 Telephone number 023 8073 6663 Fax number 023 8071 4649 Email address info@sinclair–pri.southampton.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, please

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School details

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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