Bishop Wilson Church of England Primary School

Bishop Wilson Church of England Primary School Pike Drive, Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, B37 7US

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Overall effectiveness

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

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This is a school that requires improvement. .It is not good because

 Although pupils’ progress is improving, not all groups of pupils are progressing quickly enough.  Teaching requires improvement and pupils do not have enough opportunities to engage actively in lessons.  Some leaders lack the necessary skills and knowledge to drive rapid improvement in teaching and achievement.  The monitoring of school performance by leaders has not always identified the highest priorities for improvement, and the actions taken have not been sufficiently focused.  Attendance is lower than average.

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The school has the following strengths

 The school is caring and nurturing of all groups and cultures.  Pupils behave well, feel happy, safe and have positive attitudes to learning.  Pupils develop good reading skills and talk enthusiastically about a wide range of reading material and authors.  The school has built strong relationships with the community, parents and carers.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 25 lessons or part-lessons. 6 of these were joint observations with senior school leaders.  Meetings were held with pupils, parents, staff, members of the governing body, and a representative of the local authority, and account was taken of the responses to the staff questionnaire.  Informal discussions took place with parents. The online questionnaire Parent View did not have sufficient responses to register the data.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documentation, including national assessment data, the school’s own assessments, pupils’ work, the school’s development plan, minutes of governing body meetings, safeguarding information, leaders’ reports and action plans.

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Inspection team

Lynne Bradbury, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Janet Watts Additional Inspector Harkireet Sohel Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  Most pupils are White British.  Children start school in the Nursery class in the September after they are three years old and then move into the Reception class the following September.  The proportion of pupils eligible for support from the pupil premium is well above average. The pupil premium provides additional funding for children in local authority care, those with a parent in the armed services and pupils known to be eligible for free meals.  A higher than average proportion of pupils are supported through school action. The proportion of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or supported at school action plus is also above average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise the quality of teaching to at least good so that pupils of all ages and abilities make faster progress in key subjects by:  improving teachers’ questioning skills to promote independent thinking and team investigations  encouraging more active engagement of pupils throughout lessons  ensuring that all teachers help pupils to know what their next steps in learning should be, and give time for this feedback to be followed up by the pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the impact of the work of leaders on learning by ensuring that:  the monitoring of the school’s work judges the quality of teaching against pupils’ progress, and identifies more clearly the priorities for improvement  all leaders understand and address the need for improvement urgently and that all are trained with the skills they need to carry out their roles effectively  leaders and staff work more closely with families to raise attendance at least to the national average.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 While attainment at the end of Year 6 is in line with standards expected nationally, in 2012, not enough students achieved higher levels, and girls did less well than they should. While most pupils made expected progress from the end of Year 2, few pupils exceeded this. As a result, progress last year was in the bottom 40% of schools. Current school data and inspection evidence suggests that this rate of progress is improving.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs progress at the same rate as their peers.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In 2012, those pupils for whom the school receives pupil premium funding were two terms behind their peers in reading, a year behind in writing, and six months behind in mathematics at the end of Year 6. This gap is narrowing. Funding is used to offer one-to-one and small-group support, educational visits and extra support assistants, including a parent support assistant.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children start the Nursery class with skills which are generally well below those expected for their age, especially in communication and language, and personal, social and emotional development. The learning environment, care and support of staff enable the children to become confident, to approach learning enthusiastically and to make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 A high proportion of children who have not attended the school Nursery join the Reception classes where children are taught in ability groups for literacy and mathematics. This ensures that staff have a clear understanding of their learning needs. By the time they start Year 1, standards are broadly in line with those expected for their age.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The proportion of pupils in Year 1 who met the expected standards in the national screening test in phonics (letters and sounds) was above the national average. Those pupils who did not meet this standard have been well supported and are making steady progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils in Years 1 and 2 make steady progress to attain standards in line with those seen nationally at the end of Year 2 in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils enjoy their reading for a range of purposes and some attain high standards in this area.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In too many lessons, progress is not good enough because the quality of teaching is uneven.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers often talk for too long and so do not engage pupils in developing higher level skills and understanding. Pupils’ opportunities to explore and discuss their learning are limited in these lessons, and teachers do not use questioning well enough to extend pupils’ skills and understanding.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Most pupils know what they need to aim for in their learning, but this is not always followed up during lessons.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 As a result of training, some teachers’ marking is beginning to give good feedback so that pupils understand what will help to improve their work, but this is uneven across the school. Where comments are provided, rarely are pupils given the opportunity to respond.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Where teaching is good, teachers match the challenge of the work to pupils’ ability because they base their planning on careful checking of pupils’ past progress. Pupils are given opportunities to explain their thinking and to explore problems together. Teachers challenge pupils to think at higher levels.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In the best lessons, too, teachers carefully assess what pupils are learning and amend the level of support and challenge accordingly. For example, in a lesson with a small group of pupils, the teacher adapted the learning task appropriately when pupils initially struggled with their number work. This helped them to succeed.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Staff have established warm and respectful relationships at all levels and this has produced good behaviour and attitudes to work. Teachers use well-developed systems of praise and rewards to encourage pupils to develop confidence and self-esteem and to focus on their learning.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Where teaching assistants are engaged well, they support pupils’ good progress.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In the Early Years Foundation Stage, staff direct learning appropriately or join in with children’s play to ask well-focused questions. This develops good understanding and good progress in most of the areas of learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils enjoy coming to school and are enthusiastic about their learning. Pupils say that behaviour in school is good and this was evident during the inspection.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils are aware of the different forms of bullying, including cyber-bullying, and how to protect themselves or get help should problems arise. They say that very little bullying takes place in school and that staff deal with it well if it happens. Pupils are also aware of the dangers outside school and how to stay safe.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The large majority of parents express positive views about behaviour and safety in school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 There was little evidence of any disruption to learning or behaviour difficulties on the playground because the development of good relationships is a key aspect of the school’s work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils enjoy and respond positively to the wide range of opportunities through the curriculum or extra-curricular activities, including exciting visits, and they make a good contribution to school life as helpers and in supporting younger pupils.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is a strength of the school and ensures that pupils show care for their environment and each other, and respect those from other backgrounds or who have disabilities.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Attendance is below average but the school has implemented a wide range of measures to support families who are experiencing difficulties. This is beginning to reduce absence.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Senior leaders’ judgements about school performance do not take sufficient account of the modest progress made by pupils in Years 3 to 6 when compared with schools nationally. Some aspects of progress are not addressed with sufficient urgency, and the vision for improvement is not understood clearly enough by all members of staff.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Subject leaders are not all sufficiently skilled to drive improvement in their subject areas.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Training and management of staff performance are addressing priority areas, though not always rapidly enough. Support from the local authority is helping to focus these priorities, particularly in supporting the development of the leadership team and less experienced teachers.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Governors and school leaders have ensured that the school’s values based upon care and support, drive all aspects of its work. Learning is valued by pupils, staff and parents. Equality is promoted and discrimination is tackled effectively.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The pupil premium is being used effectively in raising achievement for those eligible for this funding.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The curriculum offers a broad and exciting range of experiences outside the classroom. These are enjoyed by the pupils and are effective in motivating interest and learning. There is good evidence of literacy skills being developed through other subjects.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Pupils have regular opportunities to engage in high-quality, professional-standard events. For example, they work with the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to produce concerts each year.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Links with parents have established a supportive partnership. Some parents support reading and other aspects of the school’s work and some of these have taken up training to work in professional roles in school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  The governing body is committed to supporting the school and its aims of giving the very best care and nurture to its pupils. Extensive training and development has been undertaken to enable governors to establish a structure and procedures to hold the school to account for its work. They have ensured that the pupil premium is being used effectively to raise progress and to close gaps in attainment between groups of pupils. The performance management of the headteacher is used to target areas for development, and the appraisal policy has established high expectations of all members of staff, so that the governing body now expects teachers’ pay and promotion to be linked to the progress their pupils make. Governors have a good overview of the school’s finances and ensure that the school’s arrangements for pupils’ safeguarding meet the current regulatory requirements.

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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 104105 Local authority Solihull Inspection number 412965

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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 Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 427 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Angela Cameron Headteacher Jonathan Kirk Date of previous school inspection 30 September 2009 Telephone number 0121 7704063 Fax number 0121 7792821 Email address office@bishop-wilson.solihull.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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