Butts Primary School

Butts Primary School Butts Road, Walsall, WS4 2AH

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Inadequate 4 Achievement of pupils Inadequate 4 Quality of teaching Inadequate 4 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Inadequate 4

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This is a school that requires special measures

 The school’s effectiveness has declined sharply since the last inspection. Senior leaders have not recognised the seriousness of the situation and have not taken the strong action needed to reverse the decline.  Pupils’ achievement is inadequate because they do not learn quickly enough in Years 2 to 5. Pupils do not build steadily on their reading, writing and mathematics skills because their teachers do not expect enough of them.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make even slower progress than their classmates because their needs are not properly met.  In many cases, teachers do not mark in enough detail to make accurate assessments. Pupils are not told how to improve their work, or even that it needs to improve.  Teaching is inadequate because work is not matched well enough to pupils’ capabilities. Some pupils lose interest because the work is too hard or too easy for them.  Some pupils’ learning is disrupted either by

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This is a school that requires special measures

their own irregular attendance or by the unsettling effect of staff changes. Senior leaders have not dealt with these issues.  Senior leaders do not use the available assessment information to check on pupils’ progress. As a result they have not held teachers to account for pupils’ underachievement.  Senior leaders do not check carefully enough on the quality of teaching. They do not give teachers enough guidance on how to improve their practice. The management of teachers’ performance and pay is not monitored closely enough by the governing body.  Senior leaders and governors are unable to say how they are using pupil premium funding to help the pupils it is intended to support.  The governing body was surprised at the extent of the school’s weaknesses because it had not been informed about pupils’ poor progress. Until this inspection, the governing body did not know that the local authority had recently judged the school as inadequate.

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The school has the following strengths

 Good teaching enables children to learn successfully in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Year 1.  Pupils in Year 6 are making up for their earlier slow progress as a result of good teaching and well-targeted additional support.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 14 lessons. Some were joint observations with the deputy headteacher.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils, with the deputy headteacher and other senior managers, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  Information from the school’s website could not be used as the website was not on line. There were only three responses from the online questionnaire (Parent View) so these could not be taken into account as there were too few. A recent survey of the views of parents and carers undertaken by the school was considered. Questionnaires from 28 staff were also evaluated.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a wide range of documents. They heard pupils read and evaluated work in pupils’ books. They examined teachers’ planning, safeguarding information, the school’s systems for improving teaching and learning, minutes from the governing body meetings and documents provided by the local authority.

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Inspection team

Angela Kirk, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Jonathan Moore Additional Inspector Rowena Green Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this school

 The school is slightly larger than the average-size primary school.  The proportion of disabled pupils or those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below the national average. The proportion of those at school action plus or who have a statement of special educational needs is also below average.  The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium funding is high. This is extra funding provided by the government to support certain pupils, including those known to be eligible for free school meals.  Nearly half of the pupils are Pakistani, with about one third being of White British heritage. Other pupils come from a range of minority ethnic groups. About half of the pupils speak English as an additional language.  The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The headteacher, who took up his position in January 2012, was absent during the inspection.

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Information about this school

 The governing body manages the school’s breakfast club.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that it is good in all years by:  raising the expectations of staff about what pupils of all abilities are capable of achieving  making sure that teachers’ assessments are accurate and used to plan work that is closely matched to pupils’ needs and capabilities  making sure that lessons engage all pupils’ interest particularly during the main teaching sections  training teachers to use probing questions during lessons to assess pupils understanding and to use the information to adapt their teaching  ensuring that teachers mark in enough detail to give pupils precise guidance on what they have done well and how to improve their work further  ensuring that all staff are skilled in managing pupils’ behaviour and follow the school’s discipline code consistently  ensuring the continuity and quality of lesson planning, particularly when pupils are taught by different adults, so that their learning proceeds smoothly.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ achievement by:  ensuring that the needs of pupils supported by pupil premium funding, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are accurately assessed and that they receive effective support to help them learn well  improving the teaching of reading, particularly in Years 2 to 5, so that pupils gain a deeper level of understanding and knowledge about the books they read and read widely in school and at home  giving pupils regular opportunities to practise their basic skills in writing and mathematics in a range of subjects and to develop their skills in using mathematics to solve problems  ensuring pupils always present their work neatly and use good handwriting skills  increasing attendance to at least average for all groups of pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by:  establishing a regular programme of meetings with teachers to discuss the progress of the pupils that they teach and to identify ways of tackling underachievement  using the most effective teachers to support their colleagues through coaching and by demonstrating good practice  training all leaders fully in analysing and using information about pupils’ progress to pinpoint areas of strength and weakness  training leaders to use lesson observation, work scrutiny and the analysis of assessment data to evaluate the school’s performance accurately and to identify precise actions that will raise pupils’ achievement and improve teaching and learning  securing the services of an experienced and effective school leader to support and guide the senior leadership team.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the governance of the school by:  making sure that governors receive regular and frank updates on pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching  training governors to challenge leaders about the performance of the school, including the impact of pupil premium spending on pupils’ achievement  ensuring that the arrangements for managing teachers’ performance are robust and are closely monitored by the governing body  following the recommendations of the local authority’s review of governance, which is currently under way.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils’ achievement has dropped considerably since the last inspection. In 2012, national test results for Year 6 pupils were well below average in reading, writing and mathematics. A third of pupils failed to reach the expected level in English, mathematics or both and few achieved the higher levels. The school’s internal assessments are too generous, but still show that pupils have fallen badly behind in Years 2, 3, 4 and 5, due to slow progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  Pupils currently in Year 6 are catching up some of the ground they lost in previous years, as a result of good teaching and well-targeted support. Current standards are broadly average in reading and mathematics but below average in writing, where their progress is still slow.  Pupils’ writing skills vary widely and are not being developed sufficiently to raise their attainment in English overall. Too few pupils join their writing or present their work well. Many pupils have

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

weak basic skills in mathematics and lack confidence in using mathematics to solve unfamiliar problems.  Children start school with skills that are low compared to those expected for their age. They make good progress and achieve well in the Early Years Foundation Stage, although standards are still slightly below those nationally by the time they enter Year 1.  Most pupils get off to a positive start in literacy by developing a good knowledge of phonics, (letters and the sounds they make) that helps them build their reading and writing skills well up to the end of Year 1. However, this good start is not continued in later years because pupils have too few opportunities to read. They are also limited in their choices of books. For example, they are not allowed to borrow books from the school library to read at home.  Pupils of Pakistani and White British heritage underachieve. Disabled pupils and those with

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

special educational needs achieve less well than their classmates because their needs are not being adequately met. Some of these pupils appear to have made no measurable progress so far this year in one or more subjects.  In the 2012 national tests, Year 6 pupils known to be eligible for free school meals did better than other pupils in the school. They were a year ahead in mathematics and a few weeks ahead in English. However, both groups underachieved compared to all pupils nationally, a pattern that is being repeated currently in Years 2 to 5.  The achievement of pupils who speak English as an additional language is similar to other pupils in the school. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children whose home language is not English often receive helpful bilingual support that assists their successful learning.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teaching is inadequate, particularly in Years 2 to 5. Teachers do not demand high enough standards, so pupils do not know what they need to do to achieve well. This is evident from the poor quality of work that teachers accept in many pupils’ books. Lessons do not always capture pupils’ interest.  Teachers do not always probe pupils’ understanding carefully or deeply enough in lessons through questioning. Their marking is not detailed enough to give a clear picture of what pupils know and can do. As a result, teachers do not know enough about each individual pupil.  The main consequences of this are that:  pupils do not know whether they have achieved well or how to improve their work  teachers are unable to adapt their teaching during the course of a lesson to deal with problems as they arise  work in future lessons is not well matched to pupils’ capabilities, so some find it too easy and others too difficult

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 pupils’ progress is inadequate in reading, writing and mathematics.  The teaching and learning support for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs is not sufficiently well targeted to meeting their specific needs. Too often the work planned by the teacher does not help the pupils to gain a secure grasp of new ideas.  Very recently, support from the local authority has helped to improve the accuracy of teachers’ assessments in writing and this is helping pinpoint underachievement. However, assessments in reading and mathematics are still too generous.  Suitable methods are taught in mathematics to help pupils carry out calculations efficiently, but pupils do not have enough opportunities to practise their basic number skills or apply their knowledge to solve problems.  Some lessons are well taught. In these, the pace of learning is brisk and pupils know what they need to do to achieve well. For example, Year 1 pupils made good progress in a lesson featuring

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

Oi! Get Off Our Train, a book by John Burningham, as they accurately labelled a story map they drew to re-tell the story. Year 6 pupils wrote a balanced argument with specific reasons woven into their writing that substantiated their views, following a discussion of a video and news item about a Justin Beiber concert.  In the Early Year Foundation Stage, consistently good teaching excites and engages the children who become engrossed in their learning activities and quickly build key skills. The balance between the indoor and outdoor activities is good, with the activities carefully planned so that they both reinforce and extend children’s learning and development.  Good phonics teaching for the younger pupils ensures they read, answer questions about their reading, spell words and write answers to questions that are at just the right level to make sure that they learn well. The very strong phonics screening check results in 2012 reflect the good

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

teaching in Year 1. From Year 2 onwards, reading comprehension skills are not taught effectively and this curtails the progress pupils make.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ behaviour and safety require improvement for two reasons. Attendance is below average and some pupils lose interest in the lesson and their behaviour slips when teaching is less effective. However, low-level disruption only occasionally slows other pupils’ learning. Pupils comment that this happens mainly when their usual teacher is away.  Pupils are eager to learn. They say that they enjoy all subjects and that their behaviour is usually good. Exclusions are rare and pupils from different religious and cultural backgrounds typically get on well together. During the inspection, most pupils behaved well in class and around the school. However, the behaviour management skills of same adults are not strong enough to ensure consistently good behaviour.  Pupils know about different types of bullying, including that which relates to prejudice. They say they feel safe. Pupils report that there is little bullying and harassment, and have confidence that

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

most members of staff will sort out their problems.  The level of attendance improved briefly after the last inspection, but has fallen back below average, partly due to holidays taken in term-time. Persistent absence has increased among pupils with higher levels of special educational needs, and this disrupts their learning.  Behaviour and safety in the Early Years Foundation Stage are good. Children engage very calmly with each other and play and work well together.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leadership and management are inadequate because leaders at all levels, including governors, have not recognised how poorly the school is performing. They have not used assessment data to check that pupils are making sufficient progress, or made sure that the assessments are accurate. They have not halted the downturn in achievement or tackled the issues raised by the previous inspection, which include attendance.  The leadership of teaching is inadequate. Leaders have not tackled the disruptions in learning caused by staffing changes. Their inaccurate view of pupils’ progress has meant that they have not identified weaknesses in teaching. As a result, they have not guided teachers on how to improve their work. In view of this, the school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.  The local authority carried out a review with the senior leaders in December 2012, which correctly identified the key priorities for improvement. However, leaders have not focused on

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The leadership and management are inadequate

these sufficiently well to make the necessary changes.  For example, since the review, some senior leaders have monitored teachers’ planning and the work in pupils’ books. They have made recommendations for improvements, which teachers are starting to act upon. However, the senior leaders are not sure if their recommendations are working because they do not observe enough lessons or understand the data on pupils’ progress.  The local authority has tried to help the school leaders by analysing the school’s assessment data for them, to show the achievement of different groups of pupils. However, this information only became available the day before the inspection, so has had no impact to date.  Senior leaders do not hold staff to account for the poor progress of pupils. Some reviews of teachers’ performance have not been completed. The targets set for teachers lack precision and do not reflect their position on the pay scale. Pay awards have sometimes been given

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The leadership and management are inadequate

irrespective of performance and pupils’ progress.  The use of the pupil premium has not had a substantial impact on raising attainment among the pupils it is intended to support. Senior leaders and governors were not able to tell inspectors how the extra funds were being spent.  The curriculum is inadequate because too few opportunities are provided for pupils to use their literacy and numeracy skills in other subjects. Pupils are given time to explore moral and social issues, although opportunities to explore cultural and spiritual issues are less well developed. There are weaknesses in the assessment and identification of pupils who may have special educational needs.  School leaders, including the governing body, are not promoting equality of opportunity or tackling discrimination well enough. The achievement and attendance of different groups of pupils has not been analysed. Insufficient thought is given to the rights and expectations of

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The leadership and management are inadequate

cultural and religious groups when considering school rules.  The arrangements for safeguarding are thorough and meet the government’s current requirements. The breakfast club provides a positive and calm start to the day for pupils who attend.  The results of a questionnaire to parents and carers undertaken earlier this year show that the most parents and carers are happy with the school. The school has promoted engagement with parents and carers well through ‘stay and play’ sessions in the Nursery and meetings to explain how they can help their children at home.  Leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage is good because the leader has formed a committed team with high expectations and with clarity about what needs to be done to improve.  The local authority has provided intensive support since the review, which was initially delayed by the school. However, the impact has been limited. As a result of well-targeted support

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The leadership and management are inadequate

organised by the local authority, some inadequate teaching has been eliminated, but the current leaders are not showing the capacity to make the many improvements needed without this help.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The governance of the school:  The governing body does not fully understand the school’s weaknesses because it has not been given key information about pupils’ achievements or about the quality of teaching to enable it to challenge the school. It has supported senior leaders without tackling them on their record.  The governing body makes sure that safeguarding procedures meet statutory requirements. It oversees a balanced budget but does not monitor spending closely enough. For example, it has not evaluated the impact of the pupil premium funding or satisfied itself about the arrangements for managing teachers’ performance and their movement up the pay scale.  The governing body is aware of its weaknesses and has already started a full review under the guidance of the local authority. This includes additional training and a reconstitution of the governing body.

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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 104147 Local authority Walsall Inspection number 411713

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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 262 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Chris Beebee Headteacher Adrian Dipple Date of previous school inspection 26 April 2010 Telephone number 01922 721073 Fax number 01922 721073 Email address postbox@butts.walsall.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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