Trawden Forest Primary School

Trawden Forest Primary School Dean Street, Trawden, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 8RN

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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 across the school is not consistently good, and this means that pupils do not always progress as quickly as they could do in lessons and over time.  Teachers’ marking does not always provide pupils with the information that they need to help them to improve their work.  Not all teachers plan work that has appropriate levels of pace and challenge or that meets the needs of all groups of pupils within their class.  Progress in mathematics requires improvement. It is slower than in reading and writing, and too few pupils make more than the expected level of progress.  The impact that the newly established middle leadership team has on standards of teaching, learning and achievement is not embedded fully.  Governors do not have sufficiently well- developed skills in analysing and interpreting information about the school’s performance, and so have not always challenged the school’s leaders strongly enough about the quality of

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils make good progress in writing and by the time they leave the school reach levels of attainment in writing that are at least in line with national expectations.  Behaviour is good. Pupils are polite and friendly and get on well together.  The school provides pupils with a good level of care and support. Pupils feel safe in school.  The curriculum is enhanced by a range of extra-curricular clubs and educational visits. These make a good contribution to the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  School leaders and governors are committed to moving the school forward, and steps that they have taken, such as improving outdoor provision for Early Years Foundation Stage children, are having a positive impact.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 12 lessons or parts of lessons, of which one was jointly observed with the headteacher. Additional short visits to lessons were carried out to look at the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds that they make) and other aspects of the curriculum.  Inspectors listened to pupils reading in Key Stages 1 and 2, and held meetings with groups of pupils drawn from across Key Stages 1 and 2.  Meetings were held with the headteacher and other leaders, including subject leaders and the special educational needs coordinator. Inspectors met with three members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors undertook a scrutiny of pupils’ current work.  A range of other evidence was also considered by inspectors. This included the school’s evaluation of its own performance, development planning, performance management objectives for teachers, data about the achievement of pupils across the school, minutes of meetings of the

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Information about this inspection

governing body and its committees and records relating to attendance, behaviour and safeguarding.  Inspectors took account of 25 responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View).

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Inspection team

Neil Dixon, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Sheila Mawer Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-sized primary school.  Nearly all of the pupils are from White British backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action is average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is broadly average.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium is below average. The pupil premium is additional funding to support pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set out the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment.  The proportion of pupils in the school who are girls is well above average.  There have been considerable staffing changes within the last 12 months and the acting headteacher took up her post in September 2013.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently good or better, so that pupils make good progress throughout the school, particularly in mathematics, by: - making sure that the pace of learning is maintained throughout lessons so that pupils progress more quickly - ensuring that all pupils are given work to do that sufficiently challenges them, particularly in mathematics - making sure that marking provides children with clear next steps for improving their work, and that they have time to respond to these prompts - ensuring that enough time is allocated to the teaching of mathematics so that children have sufficient opportunities to develop their mathematical skills and knowledge.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by: - developing the skills of governors in analysing and interpreting school performance information so that they can more rigorously hold school leaders to account - developing the knowledge and skills of newly appointed middle leaders so that they can more effectively support school improvement.

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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

 Achievement requires improvement because the progress made by pupils across the school is not consistently good. Too few pupils make more than the expected rate of progress in mathematics.  Children enter Reception class with skills that are below those typical for their age. The majority of pupils leave the Early Years Foundation Stage with skills and knowledge below national expectations for their age. Children’s progress requires improvement. However, recent improvements to outdoor provision and more effective use of ongoing assessments are beginning to have a positive impact on children’s learning.  Pupils’ progress in Key Stage 1 is not quick enough, and so by the end of Year 2 they are still working below the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics.  Pupils’ scores in the Year 1 phonics check were below average in 2012 and 2013; however, strategies that the school has put in place to support progress in phonics are beginning to have

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

a positive impact on pupils’ confidence in using phonics to help their reading.  Progress in reading and writing accelerates during Key Stage 2 and pupils’ attainment in these areas is at least at nationally expected levels and sometimes just above. Strategies implemented by the school over the past 12 months, including the use of child-friendly targets, are helping to secure improvements in pupils’ attainment and progress in writing, which is now good.  Attainment in mathematics by the end of Key Stage 2 is broadly average. Progress from Year 3 to Year 6 in mathematics is not sufficiently quick, and far fewer pupils make better than the expected level of progress compared to pupils nationally. Insufficient time is allowed for mathematics lessons and this stops pupils from having enough opportunities to learn and practise mathematical skills or to use these skills to solve problems related to real life situations.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 More-able pupils achieve as well as their peers nationally in reading and writing but less well in mathematics, where lessons do not always provide them with sufficient opportunities to tackle more challenging work.  End of key stage results in 2013 showed some differences in the achievement of boys and girls. However, these were relatively small classes with an uneven proportion of girls and boys. The school’s current tracking and evidence from lesson observations during the inspection and looking at children’s work showed no significant difference in the achievement of boys and girls currently in the school.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make the same progress as other pupils in the school given their different starting points and abilities.  The funding for pupils eligible for the pupil premium is being used effectively to provide small group and individual support. In some year groups, the relatively small numbers of pupils eligible

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

for free school meals are attaining or progressing at least as well as other pupils, reflecting the school’s commitment to equality of opportunity.  The school has used the additional sports funding to provide specialist sports coaching and to increase participation in sporting events with other local schools, such as football and netball competitions. This has helped to increase pupils’ enjoyment and engagement in sport.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching is not consistently strong enough to ensure that pupils make good progress in all subjects across the school.  Where teaching is less effective, the pace of learning is too slow. Teachers’ expectations of the amount and level of work that pupils are capable of producing are not high enough, and as a result, pupils often do not have enough time to practise the things they have learnt or to tackle more challenging activities.  The quality of marking is not consistently good. It does not always show pupils the next steps that they need to take to improve their work. Where teachers have provided pupils with helpful feedback, pupils do not have enough opportunities to respond and so the impact on their learning is limited.  Pupils’ individual targets in writing provide them with clear indicators of what they need to improve in their written work, and pupils say that these targets help them to improve their

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

writing. This is reflected in the stronger progress that pupils have been making in writing, particularly in Key Stage 2.  Target setting in mathematics is not well established and so pupils are less clear about the next steps they need to take to improve their work in mathematics.  In the more effective lessons, teachers’ expectations were higher and the pace of learning was more sustained. As a result, pupils’ progress was quicker. For example, in a good Year 6 lesson, the teacher very effectively challenged the pupils to use and develop powerful imagery in their writing and the pupils were clearly engaged and enthused by the work. In a good Year 3 mathematics lesson, the teacher linked learning about co-ordinates to topic work that the pupils had been doing about Italy. Effective use of teaching assistant support and work that was appropriately matched to pupils’ needs ensured that good progress was made.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The school’s focused approach to teaching reading, including targeting phonics activities more closely to pupils’ needs, is beginning to have a positive impact. Older pupils say that they, ‘love reading,’ and younger pupils demonstrated an improving understanding of phonics when reading to the inspectors.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Behaviour around school is good. Pupils are polite and friendly. They report that they feel safe in school and are confident that, on rare occasions that unacceptable behaviour occurs, adults in the school will deal with it effectively. Parents support this view.  Where a behavioural need has been identified, the school has been proactive in putting appropriate support in place.  Good behaviour at playtimes and lunchtimes is supported by effective supervision and the provision of appropriate equipment to enhance pupils’ games. As a result, pupils play and get on well together. Pupils also benefit from opportunities to take part in other lunchtime activities, such as information and communication technology and homework clubs, which they clearly enjoy attending.  Pupils show positive attitudes to learning. One pupil explained that writing was the thing that she enjoyed most in school because, ‘I love to express myself in words.’ Attitudes are not

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

outstanding because in lessons where teaching is less effective, pupils are less engaged by the learning and become too passive which slows their learning.  Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves and others safe. They are aware of different types of bullying, including name-calling and cyber-bullying, but say that instances of bullying in school are extremely rare.  Attendance over the last three years has been broadly average and the school has been successful in reducing the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent, so that this is now below the national average level.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because not enough teaching is good or better and, as a result, pupils’ progress across the school is not consistently good. Over time, school leaders have been too reliant on attainment data from the end of Key Stage 2 and have not paid sufficient attention to information about pupils’ progress across the school or to comparisons with national data.  There have been a number of changes in the school’s leadership in recent years, and this instability has hindered the development of a coherent strategy for school improvement based on accurate self-evaluation.  The acting headteacher, in post since September 2013, and subject leaders, most of whom are also new to role, have now identified areas for improvement and a plan for addressing them, but it is too soon to judge the full impact of this work. Early signs are though, that improvements to the way phonics is taught are having a positive impact, while pupils’ confidence and progress in

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The leadership and management requires improvement

writing has been improved through developments in target setting for writing.  Performance management arrangements have not been sufficiently robust as to ensure that teaching is consistently good. However, the acting headteacher has made sure that performance management targets for the current year are sharper and more clearly focused on the impact of teaching on pupils’ learning.  The curriculum is well enhanced with a range of interesting educational visits linked to topics that engage pupils’ interest, such as the Year 6 topic that led to some pupils having the chance to meet primatologist Dr Jane Goodall. However, the curriculum is not good overall as it does not provide pupils with sufficient opportunities to develop or practise their skills in mathematics and, as a result, pupils do not make enough progress in mathematics.  Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. The school has

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The leadership and management requires improvement

particularly strong links with its local community, including local farms and the church, and plays a full part in community activities.  The local authority is providing effective support for the school: for example, by assisting the school in the appointment of an acting deputy headteacher who will be joining the school on secondment for two terms, adding to the school’s leadership capacity.  Strategies to increase engagement with parents, such a holding a ‘Phonics Evening’, are having a positive impact and while a small minority of parents expressed concern over the number of changes in leadership in recent years, a very large majority would recommend the school to other parents.  The governance of the school:  Governors are supportive of the school. However, they have not been effective enough in using and interpreting school performance information and as a result, have not systematically held school leaders to account regarding the quality of teaching in the school and the progress

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The leadership and management requires improvement

that pupils make, particularly in mathematics. Until recently, governors have been overly reliant on information presented to them by school leaders.  Governors manage finances well and have used them effectively: for example, in redeveloping the Early Years Foundation Stage outdoor area. They are also aware of how the new sport funding and pupil premium funding have been used.  Governors ensure that safeguarding arrangements meet requirements and that pupils are kept safe in school.

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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 119180 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 426304

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 177 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mark Gardiner Headteacher Clair Clark Date of previous school inspection 8 November 2010 Telephone number 01282 865242 Fax number 07092 315941 Email address head@trawden.lancs.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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