Berkeley Primary School

Berkeley Junior School Marsden Drive, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, DN15 8AH

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 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 Requires improvement 3

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that has serious weaknesses.  Pupils underachieve in mathematics and standards in this subject remain stubbornly low; consequently pupils make inadequate progress over time in this subject.  The quality of teaching over time is inadequate, especially in mathematics.  Some teachers’ knowledge and understanding of how to teach mathematics is too weak. Too often pupils are not given enough opportunities to use practical contexts to solve problems in mathematics.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make inadequate progress, particularly in mathematics.  Tasks given to pupils do not always match their ability and there are not always appropriate levels of challenge, particularly for the most-able pupils. As a result, these pupils do not reach the standards they should in all subjects.  In lessons where teaching is weak some pupils are not sufficiently engaged in their learning.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is because they have limited opportunities to take an active part in their learning Subject leaders do not rigorously monitor the quality of teaching. As a result, there are still inconsistencies in teaching in their subjects.  Leaders do not regularly assess how well disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are progressing.

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The school has the following strengths

 Standards in writing are improving as a result of actions taken by the leadership.  Pupils feel safe in school and are courteous and polite to each other and to all adults. They enjoy coming to school. This is reflected in their above average attendance.  Initiatives and difficult decisions taken by senior leaders and governors are helping to improve the quality of teaching.  Governors are clear about their roles and are not afraid to challenge school leaders.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection team observed 20 part lessons. Three of these were jointly observed with the headteacher and deputy headteacher. Inspectors observed a whole-school assembly.  Inspectors listened to pupils read in Years 3 and 6.  Meetings were held with key staff, pupils, a representative from the local authority and five members of the governing body.  Inspectors looked at a number of documents including the school’s development plan, the school’s evaluation of its own performance, governing body minutes and reports of visits, the school’s own data on pupils’ current progress and documents relating to safeguarding and behaviour.  Inspectors took into account the school analyses of its own parental questionnaires and analysed 27 staff questionnaires. There were too few responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) for inspectors to access.

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Inspection team

Sharona Semlali, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Karen Foster Additional Inspector Susan Twaits Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with section 44 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended), Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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Information about this school

 The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The majority of pupils are from a White British background.  The proportion of pupils supported through the pupil premium is slightly above average. The pupil premium is additional government funding for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and pupils with a parent in the armed forces.  The proportion of disabled pupils or those with special educational needs supported at school action is above average. The proportion supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is slightly below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.  The school manages a breakfast club.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to be consistently good or better in order to raise standards and improve achievement in mathematics, especially for pupils with special educational needs and the most-able pupils, by: - eliminating all inadequate teaching - ensuring that the tasks given to pupils match their ability - ensuring all pupils have appropriate levels of challenge, especially in mathematics and particularly for the most-able pupils - ensuring all teaching assistants are used effectively throughout the lesson to support pupils’ learning - developing and improving pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills - ensuring all teachers have a good subject knowledge in mathematics - giving teachers more opportunities to observe good and outstanding practice within and beyond the school - giving pupils more opportunities to use practical contexts in which to solve problems in mathematics - allowing pupils to use the practical resources that are available to support their learning in

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve behaviour by: - giving pupils greater opportunities to be more active and take the initiative in their learning - providing more opportunities for pupils to learn independently and with others.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management to be good or better by ensuring: - subject leaders have the skills needed to monitor teaching in their subjects and that they do so regularly and rigorously in order to improve its quality - the school development plan shows how its focused activities are intended to impact on pupils’ achievement and includes short-term targets to hold leaders to account for improving the school’s performance - leaders regularly check how well pupils with special educational needs have progressed after taking part in a specific learning programme.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils underachieve in mathematics. They do not make enough progress in this subject from their starting points in Year 3. Standards at the end of Year 6 are well below the national average overall and pupils are not well prepared for the next stage in their education.  Standards in mathematics have been consistently well below average in recent years and declined further in 2013. It is the school’s weakest subject and is now a focus for improvement. As a result of recent initiatives, pupils are now becoming much quicker at working out number problems mentally and pupils in Years 3 and 4 are making better progress in mathematics.  In addition, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make inadequate progress, particularly in mathematics. This is because until recently when they were withdrawn from lessons to take part in specific learning programmes their progress was too slow. Also,

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

leadership of provision for pupils who have special educational needs did not regularly assess how well pupils were doing as a result of these programmes. Now all specific support programmes take place in lessons.  The proportion of most-able pupils that achieve the higher levels is well below the national average in all subjects with the exception of reading. This is because these pupils are not always sufficiently challenged by the work they are given. As a result, they underachieve.  The use of pupil premium funding is resulting in the gap in attainment between those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and others in the school closing in most year groups. In 2013, those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals were just over half a term behind in reading, two terms behind in writing and two terms behind in mathematics compared to other pupils in the school. This is an improvement overall on this group’s performance in 2012

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

although their progress is still inadequate.  School leaders have been focusing on developing pupils’ writing skills. As a result, progress is quickening and standards in this subject are beginning to rise but are still well below average. The improvement is the result of teachers’ giving pupils quality time in lessons to write at length across the different subjects and for a real purpose.  Reading is promoted well throughout the school. Pupils regularly use the school library. As a result, pupils enjoy reading for pleasure. Standards in reading are below average. They have improved overall as a result of the school’s promotion of reading but dipped slightly in 2013.  The new extra funding for sport has not yet been used, this will take place next term. There has been a specific focus on the teaching of gymnastics. This is enabling pupils to have an improved understanding on how to keep fit and enjoy sport.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 The closing of performance gaps for pupils supported by the pupil premium shows the school’s commitment to promoting equality of opportunity but it is not yet fully effective in this as disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are making inadequate progress and the most-able pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Although improving, the quality of teaching is inadequate because teaching over time is not strong enough to enable pupils to make the progress of which they are capable, particularly in mathematics. Leaders have eradicated some of the weaker teaching in the school but despite this, some is still inadequate.  Teachers do not always ensure that the tasks given to pupils match their abilities. For example, in a Year 5 lesson all of the different groups of pupils were given the same mental mathematics test. As a result, only a small group of the most-able pupils could derive benefit from the lesson and most pupils made very little gains in their learning.  In the least effective lessons teachers do not ensure that all groups of pupils, particularly the most-able, have appropriate levels of challenge in the work they are given, especially in mathematics. In discussion with inspectors pupils said they would like ‘harder lessons in literacy,

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

mathematics and science’. This lack of challenge is why the proportion of those achieving the higher levels in mathematics and English are well below average.  Where teaching is weak, teaching assistants are not used well enough throughout the lesson to support pupils’ learning and ensure they make enough progress. In the stronger lessons they are well utilised to help pupils to make better gains in their learning. For example, in a small specific learning group the teaching assistant supported pupils to make good progress by helping them to learn about the different sounds that letters make.  Work in pupils’ books show that there is inconsistency of expectations by teachers about the quality of pupils’ handwriting and presentation skills. Where presentation is poor, especially in mathematics, this results in pupils making careless errors and it is often difficult to read their writing.  Where the teaching of mathematics is weak, it is because some teachers’ subject knowledge is

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

not good enough. Therefore, they are not able to provide appropriate challenge and build on pupils’ existing skills. Sometimes teachers do not provide pupils with the practical resources that are available; therefore, some pupils do not always firmly grasp the basic concepts in mathematics. Too many opportunities are missed in getting pupils to provide practical contexts for solving mathematical problems. This limits their experience of how mathematics links to the real world.  In the weaker lessons pupils do not take an active part in their learning and have limited opportunities to learn independently and with others.  Where teaching is stronger, the pace of the lesson is right for the pupils, enabling them to be more productive with their work. These lessons hold their interests. A range of questioning is used well that encourages pupils to think more deeply. Teachers show pupils what is expected of

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Behaviour and safety are not good because where teaching is not effective pupils have limited opportunities to be more active in their learning and take the initiative in how they learn. In these lessons, pupils do not have enough time to learn independently and with others. All of this results in them becoming quite passive in their learning.  Pupils conduct themselves well around the school. They have a positive attitude to learning and they behave well in lessons. They show respect for each other and to all adults. Pupils know and understand the different rewards and sanctions used by the school.  Pupils have a clear understanding about the different forms of bullying. They know how to keep safe when using the internet.  Pupils feel safe in the school. If they have a concern they know they can use the ‘talk to box’ as this is always checked and followed up by the learning mentor.  The school works well in supporting pupils who find themselves in challenging and difficult

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

circumstances.  Pupils enjoy taking on extra responsibilities. Those who are ‘buddies’ help to settle the new pupils into the school. They have led ‘circle time’ sessions and have trained pupils in other schools to do this.  Senior leaders have implemented a number of initiatives to improve attendance. As a result, attendance is above average. Pupils like coming to school.  Breakfast club is popular. It gives those pupils who attend a healthy breakfast and provides them with a settled start to the school day.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because although teaching is improving as a result of the different initiatives that senior leaders have put in place, these are only beginning to have an impact on pupils’ achievement, for example by accelerating progress in writing.  Senior leaders regularly monitor the quality of teaching and learning through a variety of means. They are not afraid to have difficult conversations with staff and have faced many challenges in trying to eradicate weaker teaching. They have managed to achieve some success in doing this.  Teachers in their early stages of their career and those whose teaching is less than good are coached and well supported by senior leaders. This is helping to improve the quality of teaching. However, monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning by subject leaders is not as rigorous as it needs to be, as these leaders are still in the early stages of developing such monitoring

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The leadership and management requires improvement

skills.  Teachers in their early stages of their career have the opportunity to observe other teachers within the school but not in other settings. Other teachers have limited experience of observing good and outstanding teaching within and beyond the school.  Leaders do not regularly assess how much the learning and progress of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs have improved after they have taken part in a specific learning programme.  The school development plan focuses on the correct priorities. However, it does not include any short-term targets that will ensure leaders are held closely to account for the school’s performance.  In recent times, leaders have been successful in improving writing and attendance; narrowing the performance gap between those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and others; removing some of the weakest aspects of teaching; and increasing teachers’ awareness

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The leadership and management requires improvement

on how to use data to guide their planning.  As part of its performance management of teachers, school leadership has set a target for teachers to ensure that disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and the most- able pupils make better progress. These initiatives show that leaders have the capacity to improve the school further.  Changes in the curriculum have helped to improve pupils’ writing skills. Pupils have plenty of opportunities to go out on visits; for example, pupils in Years 5 and 6 have been on a residential visit to Caythorpe. The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well through assemblies, reflection and circle time.  The local authority supports the school by helping school leaders to analyse performance data and by undertaking joint lesson observations with senior leaders but this has not had a significant impact on raising pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school: - Members of the governing body have recently received the necessary training for them to fulfil their roles and responsibilities more effectively. They have completed a skills audit and utilise their skills and experiences well in monitoring the different aspects of the school. They regularly visit the school and write detailed reports about their findings. This helps them to keep well informed about how well the school is doing. They have a thorough understanding about the school’s data, are constantly questioning and holding all leaders to account and are not content about the school’s performance. - Governors know about the quality of teaching and the management of staff performance and their progression up the pay scales. All governors are fully informed about how the pupil premium funding is spent and the impact it is having on those pupils for whom it is intended.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

The governing body ensure that all safeguarding policies and procedures meet statutory 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 117781 Local authority North Lincolnshire Inspection number 425807

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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 7-11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 329 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Veall Headteacher Paula Bennett Date of previous school inspection 2 November 2011 Telephone number 01724 867065 Fax number 01724 873037 Email address admin.berkeleyjuniors@northlincs.gov.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

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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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