Whinmoor St Paul's Church of England Primary School

Whinmoor St Paul's Church of England Primary School Whinmoor Crescent, Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire , LS14 1EG

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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 Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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

 Pupils do not achieve as well in writing as they do in reading and mathematics. Pupils’ progress requires improvement in writing.  The quality of teaching varies too much and does not consistently challenge all pupils, particularly the most able to make the best progress of which they are capable.  Marking is inconsistent. Pupils do not always know what they do well, what they need to do to improve or have time to respond to teachers’ comments.  Since the last inspection, systems to check on the work of the school have not been consistent and have lacked rigour. Feedback given to teachers about their teaching has not been routinely followed up to see how teaching is improving and what impact it is having on pupils’ learning.  The governing body has not challenged leaders sufficiently about the quality of teaching or their management of teachers’ performance.

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The school has the following strengths

 Leaders have put in place some very effective initiatives to improve reading and mathematics. These are beginning to show a positive impact on pupils’ overall achievement.  The support of adults and a well-tailored curriculum ensure the most vulnerable pupils in school settle quickly and achieve as well as their peers.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. Assemblies provide pupils with clear moral guidance and challenge them to think and act deeply about how they treat others.  Teachers work extremely well with the small number of pupils who display more challenging behaviour. Effective support means their behaviour is almost always similar to that of other pupils in the school.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 13 lessons, taught by 10 teachers. Five observations were conducted jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documents, including those relating to safeguarding and child protection, development planning and the monitoring of the quality of teaching. They also looked at the school’s performance data and information about teachers’ performance management.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and other leaders in the school, members of the governing body and also with a representative from the local authority.  The inspectors spoke to many pupils in lessons, at breaks and lunchtimes. They spoke formally to two groups of pupils on the first day of the inspection.  The inspectors listened to pupils read individually as well as observing them read in class.  Discussions took place with a number of parents at the beginning of the school day and the 21

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Information about this inspection

responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) and the 19 responses to the staff questionnaire were analysed.

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Inspection team

Mark Colley, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Mary Lanovy-Taylor Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-size primary school.  The large majority of pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is below average. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.  The proportion of pupils with special educational needs supported at school action is below average, although the proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average. Since the last inspection the school has seen a significant increase in the number of pupils with special educational needs and the number of pupils in local authority care has increased in the past year.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is average. This is additional government funding provided to schools to support pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, those in local authority care and those with a parent in the armed services. There are no pupils

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Information about this school

whose parents are in the armed services.  The school was led by the deputy headteacher for a significant part of the last academic year due to the illness of the headteacher. The school was also affected by some changes to teaching staff.  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?

 Improve teaching and accelerate pupils’ progress by ensuring that teachers: - are better at checking pupils’ learning throughout lessons and reshaping lessons where necessary - improve marking by pointing out what pupils do well and what they need to do to improve and giving them time to respond to their teacher’s comments - share the good teaching seen in some classes to help teachers who are less effective do better.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ attainment and improve their rates of progress in writing by: - providing more challenging work for the most-able pupils - teaching grammar and punctuation more frequently across the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen the quality of leadership and management and governance by: - increasing the robustness and frequency of monitoring activities, telling teachers clearly what they need to do to improve their performance and including these measures more securely in the school’s plans for improvement - ensuring the new tracking system to check on the progress pupils are making is firmly embedded by all staff so they can be held accountable for the performance of pupils in their class - ensuring governors have further training to hold the school to account more effectively in respect of the quality of teaching.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and governance may be improved.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ achievement requires improvement because too few of them make better than expected progress, meaning that achievement is not consistently good.  Children enter school in the Nursery class with skills that are just below that expected for their age and particularly so in communication, language and literacy. Two-thirds of children in the Reception class reached a good level of development in 2013. They make faster progress in areas of their physical, personal, social and emotional development than in literacy. This is because there are not enough opportunities to develop and express their ideas in writing by the age of five. Opportunities for early reading, writing and number work in outdoor areas are also somewhat underdeveloped.  Pupils in Years 1 and 2 make expected progress to attain standards above those seen nationally in reading and mathematics at the end of Year 2, but their attainment in writing is below that

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

found nationally.  By the end of Year 6, pupils’ overall attainment is typically broadly average, which represents expected progress from their starting points for these groups of pupils. Pupils’ performance in writing remains less strong than in reading and mathematics.  The most-able pupils make slower progress than others, particularly in writing. They often find the work too easy and write at length sometimes with limited challenge, or lose interest while they wait for others to catch up with them. All pupils have some weaknesses in their ability to use grammar and punctuation correctly.  In mathematics, particularly at Key Stage 2, pupils use a range of strategies to calculate correctly. However, observations in lessons and evidence from pupils’ work this year show that their ability to apply different mathematical operations to solve a problem is somewhat lacking.  Pupils did particularly well in the phonics (linking letters and sounds) test at the end of Year 1 in

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

2013. Their scores were well above the national average. All pupils are encouraged to read at home. Pupils read regularly and the majority are confident and fluent readers, and this positive attitude is starting to have a good impact on their achievement.  Although progress requires improvement overall, it is improving in many year groups and particularly in Years 3 and 4. Progress in reading is improving strongly with pupils in the majority of classes making above average progress in 2013.  Data and inspection evidence show that funding for pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium has been used well. Pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those pupils looked after by the local authority make good progress in closing any gaps in attainment. By the end of Year 6 these pupils’ attainment in English and mathematics is no different to other pupils in the school.  The school provides good support to an increasing number of more vulnerable pupils, disabled

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

pupils and those with special educational needs. This helps them to overcome barriers to learning, especially in reading. Pupils work on a variety of activities designed to meet their particular needs. These pupils make progress similar to all pupils in school.  Sport has a high profile in school helped by the Primary School Sport funding. Pupils take part in many sporting events and their participation in sports and physical activities is high.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because it is not consistently good or better across the school and does not ensure that pupils make good progress, especially in writing. Although a more recent emphasis by teachers on improving handwriting and spelling are leading to improvement, teachers are inconsistent in focusing pupils on more complex grammar and punctuation.  Teachers are diligent in marking pupils’ work regularly and accurately. However, they are not fully consistent in identifying how pupils can improve work, when they ask pupils a question or redirect them to look again at what they have written. Teachers do not always check to see if pupils have responded to or learnt from their mistakes.  Teachers’ understanding of what pupils can do is not strong enough. Periodic checks on pupils’ achievements are not always secure. As a result, activities and planned work are not always set at the right level, for example, for the most-able pupils, in order to meet their needs so they can

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

make good progress.  In the best lessons, teachers enthuse their pupils and give them clear criteria for success. It was encouraging in these lessons to see pupils eagerly checking not only their own work but also that of their peers.  In lessons where the subject matter captures pupils’ imaginations, pupils learn particularly well and make good progress. This was seen, for example, in a Year 6 English lesson based around questioning and comprehension. The use of rich reading resources stimulated discussions on the moral and social issues around disability. The later demonstration of electronic gaming by one pupil also drew pupils into their learning and generated some powerful questions and writing.  The school has a number of teaching assistants, some of whom are exceptionally skilled. They offer good support to pupils throughout lessons that deepens their understanding, especially for those who are disabled or who have special educational needs.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Parents who responded to the on-line questionnaire and those spoken to during the inspection felt that their children are well taught. The inspectors judged, while this was the case in many lessons observed, teaching overall and over time is not yet consistently good.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Although behaviour and attitudes in class are predominantly positive, they do vary according to how interesting and challenging the learning is. In a number of weaker lessons observed, some pupils too easily lost concentration and this led to some unnecessary chatter.  Pupils feel the school is a very safe place and their parents agree. Behaviour outside lessons is predominantly good, although the number of trips, bumps and knocks reported to occur in the playground at break and lunchtimes is higher than normally found in most schools.  The school is particularly effective in helping the very small number of pupils who display more challenging behaviour. Strong rewards and a curriculum better linked to their interests have resulted in no pupils missing school as a result of poor behaviour.  Pupils have a good understanding of the different types of bullying, and stated that such instances in school were rare. Pupils were happy that any issues they had were quickly resolved

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

by staff. Older pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe online.  Pupils value their many roles of responsibility within school. They feel they have a direct involvement in what happens in school through the school council and regular consultations on areas such as religious education.  Pupils are respectful of staff and polite towards visitors. They have good manners, which develop well as they move up the school.  Attendance fell in 2013 from being broadly in line with the national average in 2012. Pupils’ attendance since September has been much improved and this also reflects their improved punctuality.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because the quality of teaching is not high enough to ensure pupils make consistently good progress. This is because: - in the past leaders at all levels have not consistently monitored the impact of professional development in school or the consistency with which teaching policy and practice is applied - when managing teachers’ performance teachers are given demanding targets to accelerate pupils’ progress but targets focused on improving their teaching practice to enable this have been less effective - the best teaching is not shared widely enough to develop the skills of those staff who are less effective.  The absence of the headteacher last year and changes in teaching staff hindered the school’s rate of improvement. The local authority kept a close check on the performance of the school and provided appropriate and measured support for the then acting headteacher.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Although the school’s view of its own performance is somewhat overgenerous, the headteacher has identified the appropriate priorities for improvement, based on a broadly accurate assessment of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. There are new and effective procedures for checking the progress and attainment of all individuals and groups of pupils. However, some teachers insufficiently use this progress data to plan and teach lessons that meet the needs of all pupils.  The school ensures that there is no discrimination and actively and successfully promotes the key values of inclusion, equality of opportunity and respect and tolerance.  The curriculum is increasingly well planned to meet the needs of the changing backgrounds of pupils in school. Pupils’ views are actively sought to shape the curriculum and leaders respond to their requests for their learning to be more active and relevant to their lives and experiences.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

Pupils told the inspectors that they liked their trips out of school, such as residential visits, that helped them to become more confident.  The school uses the extra funding for physical education and sport well to improve the quality and amount of provision. A range of dedicated sports coaches teach good quality sports sessions, such as gymnastics and football that ensures active participation of all pupils. The school currently lacks sufficiently formal systems to evaluate the impact of the funding on pupils’ achievement and health.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. Pupils establish a clear moral code through assemblies that challenge their thinking and actions. Pupils are very clear about the values the school promotes, including those of right and wrong.  All staff who responded to the staff inspection questionnaire indicated they are proud to work at the school, know what it is trying to achieve and are committed to helping this to happen.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 All statutory requirements relating to safeguarding are met well.  The governance of the school:  Governors have an appropriate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school linked to attainment and progress. They receive a great deal of information from the school about pupils’ progress but they do not ask sufficiently challenging questions to hold the school to account. There was little evidence of governors’ challenge around standards in writing or the achievement of the most-able pupils. Governors have a limited knowledge of teachers’ performance across the school and how this links to pay or to pupils’ achievement. Governors find out about the school through visits to classes. They carefully monitor the school’s finances, including how the extra pupil premium funding for eligible pupils is helping them achieve better. The governing body assesses its own training needs to get the best balance of

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The leadership and management requires improvement

skills to help the school. Governors fulfil their legal duties to ensure safeguarding requirements are met.

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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 108051 Local authority Leeds Inspection number 425925

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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 206 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rod Watson Headteacher Sheila Storey Date of previous school inspection 12 November 2008 Telephone number 0113 2657250 Fax number 0113 2657250 Email address storeys02@leedslearning.net 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

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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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