Scarborough, Northstead Community Primary School

Scarborough, Northstead Community Primary School Maple Drive, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO12 6LP

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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

 The quality of teaching is uneven across the school, and not enough teaching is good or better. As a result, from their individual starting points, not enough pupils make more than expected progress, especially in reading. The gap between the attainment of pupils eligible for the pupil premium funding and that of their classmates is too wide.  Standards are not rising sufficiently quickly enough in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  Pupils do not have the opportunity to consolidate their spelling and grammatical skills in subjects other than English.  Teachers’ marking and the targets set for pupils to improve their work are not always used effectively to raise standards.  Pupils do not always have time to respond to teachers’ marking to help them improve their work.  Leaders’ checks on teaching do not always focus on the impact of the teaching on pupils’ progress.  Initiatives introduced by the leaders have not

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

had sufficient time to have a real impact on pupil progress.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils have a good start in the Early Years Foundation Stage. As a result, they make good progress.  School leaders are tackling some weaknesses effectively, with the result that standards in mathematics have improved, and the quality of teaching has improved.  Pupils’ moral, spiritual, social and cultural development is good.  The good relationship between staff and pupils is a strong feature of the school. Pupils behave well, are keen to learn, enjoy school, and feel valued and safe.  The governing body is extremely committed and supportive of the school in its drive to raise standards and as a result, the school is improving.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all class groups totalling 29 lessons, two of which were conducted jointly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher. A number of shorter visits was made in order to gain a wider range of evidence for the quality of teaching and learning, and the range of subjects taught.  Inspectors looked at a range of evidence, including the school’s self-evaluation documents and improvement plan, documents relating to the management of staff performance, behaviour records, attendance records, and safeguarding documentation and records.  Inspectors took account of 58 responses on Parent View, the on-line questionnaire, and also the most recent survey of parent views. Additionally, the responses of five staff that competed inspection questionnaires were considered.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ books, displays of pupils’ work, listened to pupils read, and looked

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Information about this inspection

closely at the school’s assessment of pupils’ progress.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, phase leaders, representatives of the governing body and the local authority.  Inspectors spoke informally to pupils in lessons and around the school, as well as holding two more formal discussions with groups of pupils from upper and lower Key Stage 2.

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Inspection team

Peter Bailey, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Jan Lomas Additional Inspector Susan Twaits Additional Inspector Jim Alexander Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Scarborough Northstead Community Primary school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  Almost all pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion from other ethnic heritages is extremely small.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for pupil premium funding is above average. (This is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families, and those who are looked after by the local authority.) This number has increased over the last three years.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action is above the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special education needs is below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  There is a newly appointed Chair of the Governing Body.

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Information about this school

 The school provides a wide range of before- and after-school activities as well as lunchtime clubs.

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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, in order to accelerate pupils’ progress, particularly in English by:  ensuring that the outstanding practice in teaching is shared more widely in the school  ensuring that spelling and the understanding of grammar skills have a high and consistent focus in all the subjects taught in school  ensuring that the recently introduced phonics (letters and sounds) programme is taught well.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Accelerate pupils’ progress and attainment by:  making sure that pupils acknowledge that they have read and understood the teachers’ comments on their work and have the opportunity to reflect and respond to the guidance  improving the use of pupil targets and assessment information, so that teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve  increasing the level of challenge for the most able, so that a greater proportion does well.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the leadership and management by:  ensuring that checks on the quality of teaching are clearly focused on the impact on pupils’ learning  responding more effectively to the differences in achievement between groups of pupils, in particular pupils supported through the pupil premium  ensuring that improvement plans have precise targets for measuring success, and are regularly checked to make sure outcomes are being achieved  ensuring that the recent appointments to the senior leadership team have clearly defined roles, and responsibilities, in sharpening the focus for improvement. An external review of 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 requires improvement

 Achievement requires improvement because teaching over time has not ensured that pupils make consistently strong gains in their learning. Pupils’ attainment at the end of Year 6 is broadly average, but their progress through the school is not rapid enough.  Children typically join the Early Years Foundation Stage with levels of skills and abilities which are lower than expected for their age, especially in early skills of reading and writing. As a result of effective teaching, the children make good progress, and the majority has reached a good level of development in their learning and is much closer to the levels expected of children nationally by the end of the Reception Year.  Pupils make satisfactory progress in Key Stage 1. Although there has been an improving trend over the last three years, levels of attainment in Key Stage 1, although still slightly below, are much closer to the expected standards. Pupils’ attainment in writing and mathematics was

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

broadly average in line but reading was well below average in 2013.  Year 1 pupils’ performance in the phonics (letters and sounds) check was broadly in line with that expected of pupils nationally, although the Year 2 pupils who re-took the test were below the expected standards. Weaknesses in the teaching of phonics have not helped pupils’ attainment in reading across the school, and the school has recently introduced a more thorough programme of teaching letters and sounds to raise attainment in reading.  In Key Stage 2 progress requires improvement. The number of pupils that make expected progress in mathematics, reading, and writing is in line with the national average. However, not enough pupils do better than this.  Standards have risen over the last three years. In 2013, at the end of Year 6, attainment was broadly average for reading, writing and mathematics. It was well below for spelling, English and

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

punctuation in the grammar test.  Over time not enough of the most able pupils have gone on to achieve higher levels, particularly in reading and English grammar, punctuation and spelling.  Pupils supported by pupil premium funding do not achieve as well as other pupils in the school. In 2013, at the end of Year 6, these pupils were on average two terms behind the others in all subjects. They are currently making rates of progress in English and mathematics similar to those of their classmates throughout the school, but this is insufficient to ensure that they are reducing the gap in attainment. The school has recently introduced more targeted interventions in order to accelerate progress, and the predicted outcomes for the current Year 6 indicate a reduction in this gap in attainment. This indicates the school’s commitment to equal opportunities, although the full impact of these initiatives is yet to be felt.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs have well-planned support and make good progress towards their personal learning targets.  Pupils enjoy taking part in sporting activities, and have a good understanding of how sport contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Sports coaches and a wide range of activities encourage pupils to become involved in sport. The primary school sport funding has been allocated effectively to raise the profile of sport in school and provide new opportunities for all pupils, both in school time and after school. One pupil commented, ’PE is getting so much better.’

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching requires improvement because it is not consistently good or better in increasing the rate of the pupil progress and raising attainment.  There is good, and some outstanding teaching, particularly in the Early Years Foundation Stage, and Year 6, on which the school can build, but it is uneven across the age range. Questioning is used well, and pupils are expected to explain their thinking, especially in mathematics, for example – ’How do you that?’- in order to deepen pupils’ understanding.  At times the most able pupils find the work too easy, which results in them not making as much progress as they should.  Teachers routinely set pupils different tasks and provide guidance on how the work should be undertaken. Pupils have individual literacy and numeracy targets but teachers do not always make reference to these to remind pupils what they have to improve and make better progress.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

Similarly, teachers do not always make it clear what they expect pupils working at different levels to achieve by the end of the lesson.  Teaching does not provide enough opportunities for pupils to write at length, and to practise their spelling and grammar skills in other subjects. Spelling and grammar are not corrected regularly enough to improve the basic skills, and ensure that pupils do not repeat errors.  The work in pupils’ books is marked regularly and tells pupils what they have done well and how they can improve. However, this marking is rarely acted upon, and pupils do not respond to teachers’ comments by correcting their own work, or re-doing an element of it, to show that they have understood the point for improvement.  The school’s approach to the teaching of phonics (letters and sounds) is not secure. This has been recently reorganised, with the introduction of a more systemised programme, which is

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

intended to provide a greater consistency in the teaching of reading.  The school has introduced innovative booster session to targeted groups. One highly effective session, a Year 6 literacy booster ’Boot Camp’, captivated and enthused the pupils, gaining their attention from entry into the room, and had a strong impact on pupils’ learning and progress.  Teaching assistants are effective in supporting pupils’ learning. They question pupils carefully, encouraging them to stay motivated and really think about their learning and about the answers they give.  Pupils’ social, and communication skills are enhanced when they work together in pairs, or small groups. Children in Reception classes settle quickly and are happy because they have plenty of opportunities to work and play together in the indoor and outdoor areas.  Relationships are strong and create a positive learning environment in the classroom.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of the pupils is good and is a strength of the school.  Teachers and teaching assistants set a good example of how to respect one another, and this contributes to the positive relationships in the school.  Pupils behave well in and around the school. They are polite and courteous with adults, and treat each other with respect. They are keen to learn and display a positive attitude to learning. Teaching is rarely affected by any distracting behaviour.  There have been no exclusions in the past two years. The school’s behaviour log evidences that the number of incidents is few and reducing. Pupil behaviour is managed well.  The school has a warm, welcoming atmosphere, and an ethos that has a very positive impact on all aspects of the school’s work.  Pupils interviewed all agreed that they enjoyed school. They said most lessons were interesting and that teachers helped them with their learning. A more able pupil commented, however, ’I

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

enjoy my lessons, but sometimes they go over stuff too much and I get bored.’  The school council is becoming increasingly active in giving pupils a say in school matters.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good and pupils report they feel very safe in school. They have a clear understanding of the different types of bullying, and say there is very little bullying in school. When it does occur they have the confidence in the staff to deal with it quickly. They have a good understanding of risk, supported well by the school’s input on personal and Internet safety.  While there were a few concerns expressed by a minority of parents regarding bullying in the school, the overwhelming majority of parental responses from Parent View, and comments expressed during the inspection, were extremely positive regarding the school’s response to bullying. This is supported by the views expressed by the pupils.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 A case study of a looked-after child demonstrated the high level of pastoral support in the school. The pupil’s attendance rapidly declined, owing to circumstances outside the school, and an effective support plan was put in place to help the pupil through this difficult period. The pupil is now a very successful pupil in the school.  The school has worked hard to improve attendance, which has been increasing over three years, and is above the national average. Attendance for this academic year continues this upward trend. Persistent absence is well below the national average.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Although the leadership and management have secured improvements in the quality of teaching, and pupils’ attainment, they are still judged to require improvement because the actions taken to address identified weaknesses have not yet resulted in raising pupils’ achievement, and raising the overall quality of teaching to at least good.  Leaders are sometimes overgenerous with their self-evaluation of the school’s performance, and are not fully accurate regarding pupils’ progress, and attainment of specific groups, in particular the pupils eligible for pupil premium funding.  Regular checks are made on the quality of teaching and learning within the classroom. However, judgements are often made on the quality of teaching, rather than its impact on how well pupils learn.  Phase leaders now have a greater accountability and conduct lesson observation in order to support classroom teachers and raise attainment. This has not yet had a sufficiently strong

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The leadership and management requires improvement

impact on improving pupils’ progress.  Weaknesses in teaching have been identified, and staff are being supported through a Personal Support Plan.  The process to check how well teachers perform is well-structured, with links to overall school targets. Teachers commented that they found the process supportive, with opportunities in place for professional development.  The deputy headteacher is now leading the staff on assessment, and has introduced more rigorous systems for tracking pupil progress, and checking the impact of support provided to pupils. This is resulting in important improvements in identifying underachievement.  The school demonstrates that it can move forward. The headteacher and other leaders have a clear plan for the future, and are working with some success to improve the school. However, the targets are not precise enough to measure their success accurately.  The school is in the process of appointing staff to the senior leadership team, which is intended

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The leadership and management requires improvement

to add to the focus and drive to promote progress.  The school has recently established a partnership with an outstanding primary school. This enables regular opportunities for staff to develop new skills, involving off-site visits, and training, in order to enhance the school’s drive to improve.  The school provides well for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through the quality of the subjects taught. This is enriched by a wide range of extra-curricular clubs and visits, including residential experiences to broaden the pupils’ horizons. The school has developed links with a school in Zambia, involving a teacher exchange, and a school assembly captivated the pupils’ attention by detailing life for children attending school in Finland.  The school has effectively planned for the use of the additional funding for sport, to enrich the sporting opportunities its pupils.  The local authority works closely with the school to provide additional support and guidance to

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The leadership and management requires improvement

promote high quality teaching and to strengthen leadership. However, it has not challenged the school sufficiently to improve pupils’ achievement.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is keen to ensure that it fulfils its duties well, and is extremely supportive of the school in its drive to ensure progress. Governors have a good understanding of how to use information about the school’s performance. However, they do not yet challenge the headteacher sufficiently well about the achievements of all groups of pupils. They have a very clear understanding of the priorities for the school, as detailed in the school development plan, and carefully check its progress. The new Chair of the Governing Body has weekly update meetings with the headteacher. Governors manage the finances well. They make sure that the income received through the pupil premium funding is spent for the purposes intended, but its

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The leadership and management requires improvement

impact requires improvement. Governors fully understand the arrangements for checking the performance of teachers, and its link with teachers’ salary progression. They make sure that their statutory responsibilities are met. Safeguarding requirements are fully in place and are effective in ensuring pupils’ safety.

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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 121321 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 430908

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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 613 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Louise Stanway Headteacher Stan Jackson Date of previous school inspection 20 March 2012 Telephone number 01723 362249 Fax number 01723 362249 Email address admin@northstead.n-yorks.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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