Kings Hill Primary School

School report Kings Hill Primary School Old Park Road, Walsall, WS10 9JG

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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 Inadequate 4

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires special measures.  Pupils’ attainment at the end of Year 6 has declined since the previous inspection and is now well below average in reading, writing and mathematics. There are too few signs of improvement.  Pupils’ achievement is inadequate. Progress for many groups of pupils is particularly poor in Years 3 to 6, including those eligible for support from the pupil premium and those with special educational needs.  There is not enough effective teaching to ensure pupils make adequate progress.  Behaviour requires improvement because in lessons where activities are not designed well enough for pupils of different abilities, pupils lose concentration.  Pupils are given too few opportunities to write at length in English and solve problems in mathematics or apply their skills in other subjects.  Leaders and teachers make too little use of the information they gather on pupils’

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

achievements to help those falling behind.  Leaders’ and managers’ initiatives to raise achievement have been largely ineffective.  The governing body does not hold leaders to account. It is not sufficiently aware of weaknesses in the teaching and pupils’ achievement, or the impact of the pupil premium funding on the progress or attendance of disadvantaged pupils.

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The school has the following strengths:

 Pupils are courteous and considerate towards adults and other pupils. They enjoy coming to school and have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe.  Children make good progress in the Nursery and Reception classes as the result of good provision. Their progress is showing signs of improving in Years 1 and 2.  Pupils, staff and parents and carers are supportive of the school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 20 lessons, three of which were observed jointly with the executive headteacher and associate headteacher. They looked at pupils’ work from Reception, Years 2, 4 and 6 and heard some of them read. As well as this the inspectors made brief visits to a number of other lessons and small-group work.  Meetings were held with pupils, three members of the governing body, a representative from the local authority and other members of staff with specific responsibilities. The lead inspector also had a telephone conversation with the Chair of the Governing Body.  There were four responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View), insufficient to be viewed. Inspectors talked to some parents and carers at the beginning of the school day. Inspectors also took account of 24 responses to the staff questionnaire.  Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the

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Information about this inspection

school’s data on pupils’ progress, planning and monitoring documentation and records relating to pupils’ behaviour and attendance, safeguarding and the performance management of teachers.

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Inspection team

John Taylor, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Enid Korn Additional Inspector Richard Boswell Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this school

 This is a larger than average-sized primary school. In the Nursery there are separate morning and afternoon sessions. There are two Reception classes, and in Key Stages 1 and 2 there are eight mixed-age classes.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic heritages is well above average.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average and a large proportion are at an early stage of learning English.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs supported through school action is below average. The proportion supported through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of pupils known for whom the school receives the pupil premium, which is additional funding for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and service children, is above the national average.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standard, which sets the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  Kings Hill formed a federation with Salisbury Primary School in February 2013. The two schools share an executive headteacher and governing body.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to at least good so that pupils make good progress by making sure teachers:  match the level of work more closely to the pupils’ ability  give high-quality feedback to pupils about their work and make sure they act upon this guidance  give clear direction to teaching assistants so they are used more effectively to support pupils’ learning  challenge the more-able pupils, giving them more opportunities for extended writing and problem solving in mathematics in different subjects  teach phonics (the sounds letters make) for as long as pupils need it and make sure pupils learn correct grammar and punctuation.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management, including governance, by making sure leaders:  address pupils’ underperformance by frequently checking their attainment and progress towards challenging targets and swiftly acting to address any identified concerns  closely check the progress of different group of pupils, especially those supported by the pupil premium, and act to ensure they do not fall further behind  improve the way assessment data are used by all staff, so they have a better knowledge of pupils’ attainment and use this in their lesson planning  frequently monitor the impact of small-group work on pupils’ progress, and use this information to effectively deploy resources to accelerate pupils’ progress  ensure governors have an accurate knowledge of the achievement of different groups of pupils in the school, a better understanding of the impact of different strategies, and hold the leaders to account for improving the pupils’ progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance, to include a specific focus on the school’s use of the pupil premium, 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 is inadequate

 Pupils make inadequate progress during their time in the school. Standards have declined in the last three years and are low in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6. Children join the school with skills and understanding that are well below the levels typical for their age and do not close the gaps before they leave.  In Key Stage 1 pupils’ progress is slow, due to some weak teaching; however, there are indications of some improvement this term. Pupils leave Year 2 with standards well below average in reading, writing and mathematics.  The teaching of phonics skills to help pupils learn to read is often ineffective. It is not continued past Key Stage 1 although many pupils have not gained a sufficient grasp of these skills to become fluent readers. This hinders their progress in many areas of their work in Key Stage 2.  Pupils’ standards have declined in the last three years in Key Stage 2 in all areas. This includes

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language. Although the school met the government’s minimum expectations for attainment and progress in 2012, pupils’ attainment continues to decline.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make inadequate progress. Because pupils’ achievements are not checked accurately and frequently, resources are not used effectively to address underachievement in specific areas.  Pupils supported by the pupil premium underachieve in all years. The gap in attainment between these pupils and others in the school has increased in the last year. By the end of Year 6 the pupils supported by the pupil premium are about four months behind others in mathematics and a year behind in writing. In reading they do as well as others.  In the Nursery and Reception classes children make good progress, but their attainment remains

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

below average when they enter Year 1, especially in communication, reading and writing skills.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teaching does not enable pupils to make sufficient progress. As a result of weak teaching over time, too many pupils have made inadequate progress.  Marking is regular and encouraging. Increasingly teachers tell the pupils how to improve their work, although not always. There is little evidence that teachers check to make sure the pupils are responding to this advice. This results in the pupils not learning as fast as they could.  Teachers do not give pupils enough opportunities to write at length or to solve problems in mathematics. Opportunities are missed to use and develop these skills in meaningful contexts in a range of subjects. In particular, this results in work being insufficiently challenging for the more-able pupils. They are too rarely expected to think things out for themselves and therefore their progress is limited.  In many lessons the pupils are allowed to choose their own level of task without appropriate

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

guidance. This results in slow progress because the work can be too hard or too easy.  In mathematics lessons teachers make sure that there is a good use of technical language, and opportunities for the pupils to practise the use of mathematical terms. In other lessons the teachers do not correct the pupils’ misuse of words so their language development is not as rapid as it could be. There is insufficient emphasis in mathematics on making sure that pupils fully understand and that concepts are firmly grasped so that pupils can then apply their skills to solve problems. Consequently these skills are underdeveloped.  In the teaching of phonics children are not encouraged to use technical words such as ‘blending’, and ‘segmenting’. Consequently the children cannot easily discuss how complex words are constructed.  Teaching assistants are not always actively engaged in supporting pupils' learning throughout

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

the lessons. Too often they are observers during the teachers’ introductions to lessons.  Small-group work and one-to-one teaching have not been monitored closely enough to be sure they are having the intended impact.  In the lessons where pupils make better progress, teachers provide a good variety of tasks to maintain the pupils’ engagement, and use questions well to test the pupils’ understanding and deepen their knowledge. Recently, teachers have improved their questioning skills. This is starting to increase the pace of learning in some lessons.  In the Nursery and Reception classes, children make good progress because of good provision in a warm and stimulating learning environment.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 In weaker lessons pupils become distracted from their work, and so do not make progress as quickly as they could. In some lessons pupils do not find the tasks interesting and so do not participate fully.  Some younger pupils are unclear as to what constitutes bullying. However, pupils, parents, carers and staff say that on its rare occurrence bullying is effectively dealt with by the school.  The school’s leaders do not routinely analyse patterns of inappropriate behaviour because the school does not keep an overview of these incidents.  A clear behaviour policy is understood by the pupils. Rewards to encourage good behaviour, attendance and hard work are valued.  Around the school, at break and at lunchtime pupils are courteous to adults and each other. They know how to speak to adults and are ready to engage in conversation.  Older pupils who spoke to an inspector had a good knowledge of how to keep themselves safe

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

and understood cyber bullying and how to deal with dangers on the internet.  Pupils are safe in the school. Staff and parents and carers have a positive view of the behaviour and safety. There have been no exclusions in the past two years.  The steps the school has taken to increase attendance have resulted in a steady improvement, but levels of absence remain below average.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders have not adequately addressed underachievement nor improved teaching sufficiently. Monitoring has not been frequent enough to quickly identify pupils, or groups of pupils, who need to make better progress and inform action to ensure that they do so. The school has not addressed all the issues identified at its previous inspection and has declined in key respects rather than improved. Allied to weak governance this demonstrates that the school does not have the capacity to make the improvements to provide an acceptable standard of education.  Teachers in charge of areas of the school’s work are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the progress of different groups of pupils. This makes it difficult for the school to accurately judge whether or not the one-to-one and small-group teaching is helping these pupils make faster progress.  Leaders do not link teachers’ performance to their salaries. In some respects the management of

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The leadership and management are inadequate

teachers’ performance is developing. Teachers now have targets linked to improving their teaching and the pupils’ learning, though these have not always been sufficiently challenging. There is evidence that some underperformance has been tackled and this has resulted in some improvement in the quality of teaching.  Senior leaders correctly identify the strengths and weaknesses of the lessons they observe, but this has not resulted in action that has led to a sustained improvement in the quality of teaching across the school. Recently, the local authority has provided effective support to improve the quality of teaching and its impact was observed in some lessons in Years 1 and 2, where teachers’ questioning is of good quality.  The school’s action plan has measurable targets with clear accountability. However the actions are not always clearly linked to the intended outcomes.  The curriculum is broad and balanced, but does not provide opportunities to fully develop pupils’

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The leadership and management are inadequate

literacy and numeracy skills. It adequately reflects the different cultures of the pupils and provides opportunities for many aspects of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to be strongly promoted.  The federation with Salisbury Primary School is starting to have a positive effect on improving leadership and management. Joint working across the schools is at an early stage.  The school is spending the extra funding for sports and physical education, focusing on benefits for pupils in the long term. Some of the money is spent on a specialist teacher working alongside other teachers, to enhance their skills.  The leadership and management of the provision for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are inadequate. Provision for these pupils is not managed well and consequently they make far less progress than they should. The recently formed ‘intervention

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The leadership and management are inadequate

team’ has yet to have any impact.  The school is not using the pupil premium funding effectively to provide extra help for those pupils for whom it is intended. Money is allocated for extra teaching time and teaching assistants for intervention support in reading, writing and mathematics. This has not been effective in accelerating the progress of these targeted pupils.  The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.  The governance of the school:  The governors have a limited awareness of the school’s strength’s and areas of weakness. They have challenged the school over low attendance. However, the governors rely too heavily on the school’s leaders to inform them of the pupils’ achievement, and there is no evidence that any challenge to the school about this has resulted in improvements. They closely monitor the school’s finances as it recovers from a deficit. However, they have little knowledge of how the pupil premium money is spent and are not aware of its impact on

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The leadership and management are inadequate

eligible pupils. They do not provide the school leaders with sufficient challenge and strategic direction. As a result, issues of underachievement have not been tackled. Governors have ensured safeguarding standards are met. The local authority is undertaking a review of the effectiveness of governance.

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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 104179 Local authority Walsall Inspection number 426952

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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 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 296 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Keith Chambers Headteacher Malcolm Morrey Date of previous school inspection 6–7 March 2012 Telephone number 0121 5686301 Fax number 0121 5267491 Email address postbox@kings-hill.walsall.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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