St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School

St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School Western Avenue, Woodley , Reading, RG53BH

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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:

 The quality of teaching is not consistently good: teachers do not always have high enough expectations.  Teachers do not always use accurate assessment information to set work at the right level for pupils. More-able pupils are not always challenged enough.  Teachers sometimes take too long explaining tasks and do not set pupils off to learn quickly enough by themselves.  Some pupils with special educational needs, or who are eligible for pupil premium funding, make less progress than their peers.  Learning is not always well structured and adults do not always provide timely guidance to children in Reception classes.  Pupils are not always clear about how they can improve their work and they are not given opportunities to respond to marked work.  Leaders at all levels, including governors, do not have a consistently good understanding of assessment information and they do not use this rigorously enough to hold staff to account

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

for pupils’ achievement.  Leaders do not always make judgements about teaching over time which are based on pupils’ achievement over time.  School development plans do not identify the personnel responsible for actions and do not always measure how successful actions are by looking at pupils’ achievement.

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The school has the following strengths:

 The new headteacher and senior leaders have addressed the dip in achievement for Year 6 pupils in 2012 and formerly inadequate teaching is being eliminated.  The number of Year 6 pupils who gained Level 4 and Level 5 in reading and mathematics increased to above average in 2013.  Attainment in reading and mathematics is above average in Key Stages 1 and 2.  Pupils behave well in school. They are happy, feel safe and have good opportunities to develop strong spiritual, moral and social skills.  The school is a welcoming community where pupils and staff from a range of cultures and religions interact well together.  Pupils lead healthy lives and enjoy opportunities to participate in a range of sporting, musical and cultural activities. Inspection report: Error! Reference source not found. St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School, 19−20 September 2013 Error! Reference source not found. 2 of 9

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in 22 lessons or part lessons in all classes. Many of these observations were conducted jointly with senior leaders.  They held informal discussions with parents and carers and took account of 113 responses to the Parent View online survey and 21 questionnaire responses from staff.  Meetings were held with pupils, leaders at all levels, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in lessons, and separately with senior leaders. This included work from pupils’ books from the last academic year.  They heard pupils reading, and observed them in class and around the school.  Inspectors considered a wide range of school documentation including: information relating to the attainment and progress of pupils from entry to the school and across different years; the performance management of staff; records of lesson observations; the school’s website; the

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Information about this inspection

school’s development plans; its checks on how well it is doing; minutes from governing body meetings; and behavioural records and safeguarding information.

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Inspection team

Najoud Ensaff, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Gail Robertson Additional Inspector Anthony Green Additional Inspector Inspection report: Error! Reference source not found. St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School, 19−20 September 2013 Error! Reference source not found. 3 of 9

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Information about this school

 St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The current headteacher has been at the school since April 2013, following a term when an interim executive headteacher had been in post.  Most of the middle leaders have only been in place for a short time.  The majority of pupils come from White British backgrounds and others come from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language has increased since the last inspection and is now in line with the national average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported through school action is well below average as is the number supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium (those known to be eligible for free school

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Information about this school

meals, in the care of the local authority or with a parent or carer in the armed services) is much lower than the national average. In the school there are pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and some in the care of the local authority.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise the quality of teaching to good by ensuring that teachers:  consistently use accurate assessment information to set tasks that match the range of pupils’ needs and that offer a good level of challenge for more-able pupils  always provide pupils with guidance in marked work about how to improve and allow them time to respond to their comments  structure lessons effectively in the Reception classes, with adults providing timely support, so that children are always engaged in purposeful learning activity  always have high expectations and set pupils off to learn more quickly by themselves.  Raise the effectiveness of leadership and management to good by ensuring that:  leaders at all levels, including governors, have a good understanding of assessment information and use this effectively to hold staff to account for pupils’ achievement, including pupils with special educational needs, those supported through pupil premium funding and

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

more-able pupils  leaders always make judgements about the quality teaching over time based on pupils’ achievement over time school development plans clearly identify the personnel responsible for actions and measure the success of actions by checking how well these have had an impact on pupils’ achievement. An external review of the governing body should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved Inspection report: Error! Reference source not found. St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School, 19−20 September 2013 Error! Reference source not found. 4 of 9

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children enter Reception classes with skills which are generally at least in line with and often above the levels expected for their age. They enter Key Stage 1 with skills which are above expected levels. Pupils make expected rather than good progress over time across Key Stages 1 and 2.  They leave the school with above average attainment in reading and mathematics in particular. Attainment for pupils in Year 6 improved from below average in 2012 to above average in 2013, particularly in reading and mathematics. Year 6 pupils’ attainment in writing improved in 2013 to broadly average.  Progress for the few disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, particularly in Key Stage 1, is not as good as it should be because teachers do not always use accurate assessment information to set work at the right level for these pupils and leaders and managers do not always have a good understanding of assessment information.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress of the small number of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is similar to that of their peers, in most classes. Occasionally these pupils make less progress particularly in writing and mathematics and their attainment trails behind others nationally by up to two terms in English and mathematics.  More-able pupils often make progress which is similar to their peers but sometimes they do not make as much progress because they are not challenged sufficiently well in lessons.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language generally make similar or better progress than their peers and those from minority ethnic backgrounds make similar progress although occasionally they do not. This is because assessment information is not yet used rigorously or quickly enough to ensure good progress for all pupils.  Year 6 pupils’ achievement across Key Stage 2 has improved since 2012, when it fell to

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

significantly below average. Current school data indicate that pupils across different years have made the expected progress over time and some have made good progress in 2013. Work in pupils’ books supports this view of expected progress over time.  The number of pupils in Year 6 in 2013 who gained Level 4 and Level 5 in reading and mathematics was above average and the number who gained Level 4 in writing improved from the below average number in 2012.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching is not yet consistently good across all classes and for all groups. As a result, pupils do not make sustained good progress across the school. Teachers do not consistently have high expectations or set work at the right level for pupils, so that sometimes more-able pupils are not challenged enough and pupils with special educational needs, particularly in Key Stage 1, as well as some pupils eligible for pupil premium funding, are not always supported well in their learning.  The pace of learning in lessons is not consistently strong. This is because teachers sometimes spend too long explaining tasks before pupils begin to work by themselves or because the tasks set are not demanding enough. In some Reception classes, learning is not always structured well so that adults do not always provide timely guidance to children or move their learning on effectively.  Where teaching is better, teachers have high expectations. They use accurate assessment

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

information to build effectively on pupils’ prior learning and actively involve pupils in their learning. For example, in a mathematics lesson in Year 5, pupils were provided with work that matched their different abilities well, they were given clear and relevant ways in which they could measure how successful they had been and had effective opportunities to discuss their learning in pairs.  While teachers mark pupils’ work and provide them with praise, sometimes using the ‘tickled pink and green for growth’ marking system, they do not always provide pupils with specific enough guidance about their next steps in learning, or give them opportunities to respond to comments in marked work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils report that they feel safe at the school because teachers take care of them and the site is secure. They have a good understanding of how to keep safe when travelling and when using the internet.  Pupils say that they enjoy attending school. Attendance has improved over the past year with almost all pupils attending regularly.  Pupils understand about different forms of bullying including verbal, physical and cyber bullying, and they report that rare instances of bullying are effectively handled by the school.  While a number of parents and carers who responded to the online Parent View survey indicated that they did not think or did not know whether bullying was dealt with well, parents, carers and pupils spoken to on inspection said that bullying was effectively handled, and individuals spoke positively about the ‘community’ atmosphere at the school and of ‘teachers who are kind to us’.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

All parents and carers who responded to the Parent View survey said that their children are happy at the school and almost all believed that they were safe and well looked after.  The school monitors behaviour appropriately and has reviewed its behaviour management system recently. This has had a positive impact on pupils’ behaviour. It is now planning to restructure the way incidents are tracked in order to make it easier to spot patterns in behaviour.  It is because pupils have positive attitudes to learning that they are able to make expected progress in lessons where teaching is not strong and good progress where teaching is better.  Pupils behave well around the school; they are polite and respectful to each other and to adults, demonstrating good social and moral development.  Although older pupils indicated that accidents occasionally happen on the playground, this is as a result of boisterous play and limited space rather than poor behaviour. The school is planning to

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

increase the range of structured activities on offer to pupils on the playground to help address this issue.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 The decisive steps taken by the new headteacher have not yet had time to have a full impact on raising pupils’ progress and attainment across the school. While some pupils make good progress, particularly in reading, this is not consistent across all groups currently at the school. There remain gaps in attainment between the few pupils eligible for pupil premium funding, those with special educational needs and their peers. More-able pupils do not always make enough progress.  Middle leaders do not always have a good understanding of assessment information or use this effectively to put in place support or challenge early enough, or hold staff rigorously enough to account for pupils’ achievement.  Until recently, governors did not have a good understanding of assessment information and did not use this well to hold staff to account for pupils’ achievement.  The new headteacher has provided clear direction for the school, raising expectations and

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The leadership and management require improvement

uniting staff. Senior leaders have put in place better systems to ensure that the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress improve. This has ensured that, even in the short time the headteacher has been in role, he and the deputy headteacher have managed to eliminate almost all inadequate teaching and increase the proportion of good teaching at the school.  Since September 2012, the local authority has offered increased support to the school. In particular, this has focused on improving the quality of teaching and middle leadership at the school.  Termly pupil progress review meetings have helped the school to ensure that former underachievement is being addressed, and appropriate monitoring of teaching is helping to improve the quality of teaching at the school.  While this monitoring identifies accurately strengths and areas for development, leaders’ judgements relating to achievement over time are not always closely linked to those for teaching

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The leadership and management require improvement

over time.  While school development plans identify appropriate priorities for the school, and list relevant actions that will be carried out, personnel responsible for these actions are not identified and the way the success of these actions is measured is not currently linked to pupils’ achievement.  A wide range of extra-curricular sports including netball, football, lacrosse and cricket for example, as well as musical activities and other educational visits help to promote pupils’ cultural and social skills. The strong Catholic ethos at the school ensures that pupils are well guided spiritually and morally.  The governance of the school:  Governors show some understanding of the school’s performance, but until recently they offered limited challenge to the school; this was, in part, because their attention had been too focused on building works and recruitment for a new headteacher. While governors are

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The leadership and management require improvement

involved in the school’s evaluation of its effectiveness, until recently, they had not asked searching questions in relation to pupils’ achievement and the way in which teachers’ performance leads to pay progression. The governing body understands well how the funding for pupil premium is spent and is beginning to ensure that it is making a change to these pupils. It also understands how funding for sport is spent and knows well the impact of this funding on pupils’ health and well-being. The governing body has been restructured so that it is now more able to look closely at pupils’ achievement, and it is now better informed about this, the quality of teaching and teachers’ performance. It understands the need to ensure staff and pupils work in a safe environment, and it does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Inspection report: Error! Reference source not found. St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School, 19−20

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The leadership and management require improvement

September 2013 Error! Reference source not found. 7 of 9

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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. Inspection report: Error! Reference source not found. St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School, 19−20 September 2013 Error! Reference source not found. 8 of 9

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School details

Unique reference number 110041 Local authority Wokingham Inspection number 426573

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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 aided Age range of pupils 4−11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 400 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dr Michelle Sutherland Headteacher James Broadbridge Date of previous school inspection 20 November 2008 Telephone number 0118 9691606 Fax number 0118 9693765 Email address admin@st-dominicsavio.wokingham.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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