Batchley First and Nursery School

Batchley First and Nursery School Cherry Tree Walk, Batchley, Redditch, B97 6PD

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Overall effectiveness

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

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

 Standards are well below average at the end of Key Stage 1.  When pupils leave the school at the end of Year 4, standards are below those usually expected for pupils at that age.  Teaching has not been consistently good enough for pupils to make the good progress necessary to raise standards more quickly.  Teachers expectations of the progress pupils can make in lessons are not always high enough.  In some lessons, pupils capable of reaching higher levels are given work that is too easy. Pupils are not given enough opportunities to practise their reading, writing, and mathematical skills in subjects other than English and mathematics.  The marking of pupils’ work does not always provide clear guidance to help them improve.  Some pupils are too slow to settle to work and do not work with sustained concentration.  There is not enough rigour in the checking of the quality of teaching by senior leaders. Leaders do not have enough impact on

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

improving teaching and achievement.  Improvement planning is not precise enough to enable leaders to check what actions have taken place and how well they are working.  Too many pupils regularly miss school and this slows down their learning.  Governors do not have a sufficient understanding of pupils’ achievement or the quality of teaching to challenge leaders rigorously.

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The school has the following strengths

 Teaching is good in the Early Years Foundation Stage and children get off to a good start. They enjoy the stimulating range of activities provided.  Disabled pupils and those with complex special educational needs achieve well because they receive good support.  The school works well with outside agencies to support vulnerable pupils and their families.  Pupils have a good awareness of how to keep themselves safe.  The school provides a good range of sporting activities and clubs, which the pupils enjoy.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 17 lessons or parts of lessons. Two lessons were observed jointly with the headteacher and the deputy headteacher.  Meetings were held with the school council, a group of pupils chosen at random, senior leaders, representatives of the governing body, teachers, the parent support worker, staff at The Pod and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors looked at a wide range of evidence, including the school’s self-evaluation, development plan, monitoring files, the tracking system used to check on pupils’ progress, and safeguarding arrangements. They looked at pupils’ books, and heard them read. They also looked at evidence of the school’s work with families.  There were not enough responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, for the inspectors to take into consideration. Inspectors talked to parents at the start of the school day and looked at the responses to a parent survey carried out by the school.

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Inspection team

Frances Le Pla, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Anthony Green Additional Inspector Terence Payne Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is similar to the average-sized primary school.  The large majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils of minority ethnic heritage and those who speak English as an additional language is below average.  Nursery and Reception children are taught in single-age classes. Year 1 and 2 and Year 3 and 4 are taught in mixed-age classes.  The school runs a Nursery for up to 60 children who attend part time.  The school provides specially resourced provision for Nursery-aged pupils with special educational needs. It is known as the ‘Nursery Plus’ and provides 15 part-time places for pupils with learning and behavioural difficulties.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is above average. The proportion supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special educational needs, is well above average.

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Information about this school

 A well above-average proportion of pupils are supported by the pupil premium, which provides additional government funding for pupils looked after by the local authority, those known to be eligible for free school meals, and those with a parent in the armed forces.  Two social workers and two family support workers are based at the school in a unit known as ‘The Pod’.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that it is consistently good and better, and thereby raise achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, by making sure that: - teachers are more ambitious for the progress all groups of pupils can make in lessons and encourage them to think for themselves - pupils capable of reaching higher levels are given tasks that are appropriately challenging - teachers provide more opportunities for pupils to practise their reading, writing and mathematical skills in the topics that are studied - when teaching assistants work with pupils, they give them opportunities to try to complete tasks on their own - the marking of pupils’ work provides guidance on how their work can be improved and teachers check that pupils act on the advice given.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by ensuring that: - checks on the quality of teaching by senior managers focus on its impact on accelerating pupils’ learning - leaders check the impact of arrangements to support pupils in making better progress - improvement planning is precise about what actions will take place and when and how the impact will be monitored - governors regularly and rigorously hold school leaders to account for all aspects of performance and check that actions are leading to improvements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve attendance so that it reaches the national average for primary schools by doing more to stress to parents the importance of regular attendance and the negative effect that absence has on their children’s achievement.

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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. 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

 Standards are well below average in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Key Stage 1 because not enough pupils make good progress in Years 1 and 2.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children join the Nursery and Reception classes with skills well below those typically found in all areas of learning. Many children have additional behavioural and social difficulties that make it hard for them to learn. Children make good progress in these classes because they are carefully assessed, and adults provide interesting and engaging opportunities to develop their basic skills.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 When they join Year 1, many pupils still have skills that are below those expected for their age, especially in reading. In 2012, Year 1 pupils did not perform well in the phonics (the sounds made by letters and words) reading check. Changes to the teaching of phonics meant that in 2013 results were much better and, although still below, they were closer to the nationally expected standard.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Progress is too slow in Years 1 and 2 because the work does not build well enough on what pupils already know and is sometimes too simple or too difficult for them. There are too few opportunities for pupils to write longer pieces of work or solve problems using their mathematical skills.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 By the time pupils leave the school at the end of Year 4, standards in reading, writing and mathematics have improved but they are still below the levels expected for their age.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress of the most- able pupils requires improvement. Sometimes, they show ready understanding of the work done but they are not given new work to deepen their understanding of the topic and their progress slows.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Many of the pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium have complex social and learning needs. In 2013, in the Year 2 assessments, these pupils were more than two terms behind their classmates in reading, writing and mathematics. The funding is used by the school to provide additional help and catch-up classes. It has resulted in better progress this year for eligible pupils. Like that of their classmates, the progress of these pupils requires improvement.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils who are disabled and those who have special educational needs make good progress because of early identification of their learning needs and appropriate support to help them. The Nursery Plus group helps pupils with complex learning needs to make good progress. Pupils who attend the small ‘Bumble Bee’ nurture group benefit from additional support which helps them to gain confidence to work with others when they return to their classes.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The early indications are that the use of the additional funding for sport is helping to raise pupils’ understanding of healthy lifestyles and increase their participation in a wide range of physical activities such as after-school sports clubs.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In the mixed-age classes, the work set is not matched closely enough to what pupils can do and achieve. As a result, pupils sometimes find the work too difficult or too easy. On occasions this leads to inattentiveness and wasted time, which slows down their progress.  Teachers do not keep a close enough check on how well pupils are doing in lessons and misconceptions are not picked up quickly.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Marking does not always help pupils to improve their work; sometimes, teachers praise the work but do not explain how it could be better.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers do not demand enough of pupils. For example, pupils’ writing is often limited to a few sentences when they could manage more, and this slows down their writing development. In mathematics, too much time completing repetitive tasks prevents pupils from thinking for themselves and limits the opportunities to move on to more difficult work.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils sometimes find it difficult to express themselves clearly and are not always given the opportunity to do so.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching assistants know the pupils they work with very well and they support them in their learning. Sometimes, however, they do too much for the pupils; for example, sticking work into their books and rubbing out mistakes. This leads to over-reliance on them, with the result that pupils lack the confidence to try to complete tasks on their own.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Relationships between staff and pupils are good, and behaviour is well managed. Teachers establish clear expectations for behaviour in the classroom and pupils follow these. This leads to a generally calm and co-operative atmosphere in lessons.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 There are examples of good teaching when all pupils are fully engaged in their work and inspired to do the best they can. The Nursery and Reception classes are stimulating workplaces, and the children learn from a good range of well-planned practical experiences. Adults work effectively with the children. In one lesson, for example, the children were so enthralled by the story about a spider that there were screams of delight as they joined in and copied the actions of the spider as the plot unfolded.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. This is because some pupils are too slow to settle to work and they do not work with sustained concentration. This is particularly the case when they spend too much time waiting to be told what to do next when they get stuck with their work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils move calmly around the school and show respect for each other and for adults. They are polite and well mannered in the way they speak to adults, visitors and to each other. Pupils play well together during break times.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils respond well to opportunities to take on jobs and responsibilities within the school; for example, as members of the school council or as part of sports teams.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Safeguarding arrangements meet national requirements.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils report that they feel safe and are happy in school. Parents and carers spoken to during the inspection shared this view. They said that this is a harmonious and welcoming school in which their children are kept safe.  For their ages, pupils display a good knowledge of risk and danger. They know about different types of bullying, including fighting, persistent name-calling, racial, religious or cyber-bullying. Those spoken to by the inspectors said there are very few incidents of bullying. This was confirmed by school records. All pupils were confident that adults would look after them if they had any concerns.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 There are effective arrangements to support children whose needs are sometimes complex and which make them potentially vulnerable. These include targeted use of specialist support. Parents appreciate the good quality of care that the school provides.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Although there has been some recent improvement, pupils’ attendance is below the average for primary schools. Some pupils miss too much school because their parents do not send them regularly and this slows down their rate of learning.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because the action taken to improve the school’s performance has not raised pupils’ achievement rapidly enough.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Improvement planning is not sufficiently rigorous to enable progress towards meeting targets to be regularly checked. The pace of improvement is slowed because checks on the quality of teaching do not focus closely enough on the impact of teaching on pupils’ progress. Similarly, reviews of pupils’ work do not always identify when pupils of different abilities are all given the same work to do.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Senior leaders have an accurate grasp of the schools’ strengths and areas where improvement is needed. For example, after the poor performance in 2012, improvements to the teaching of phonics led to much better results in 2013.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school has put a range of measures in place to support the learning of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding, but there is no systematic approach to identifying which are the most effective in accelerating their progress and closing attainment gaps.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Key Stage leaders have too many responsibilities. Consequently, they have not been able to focus appropriately on improving reading, writing and mathematics across the school. There has been too little training for teachers to help them improve.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher, supported by senior staff and governors, has created a positive and inclusive atmosphere in the school. The school regularly admits pupils that cannot get on in other schools and they settle well because of the high level of care they are given. Strong links with outside agencies maximises the support available for pupils and their families who are experiencing difficulties. For example, close working between the school, staff in ‘The Pod’, the recently appointed attendance officer and families is beginning to improve attendance rates.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Reviews of staff performance are well managed. Teachers are set clear targets which link to the attainment of pupils in their classes.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The range of subjects taught is uneven across classes. While Nursery and Reception children have an exciting menu of enjoyable and interesting things to learn, older pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 have a narrower ranges of experiences and their work shows that there are not many opportunities to study some subjects, such as science, history and geography.  Pupils enjoy taking part in trips, such as the Reception class visit to the Bishop Wood Centre. These make a helpful contribution to pupils’ spiritual and cultural development. The school promotes social and moral development well.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The additional primary sports funding is being used to increase the range of sporting activities, involvement in local sports competitions and to employ specialists to work alongside teachers; for example, to teach the more advanced swimmers in Years 3 and 4. There is a wide range of sporting clubs for pupils to attend, including basketball to cross-country running.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority regularly reviews the performance of the school. This year, it has included the school in the ‘Achievement for all’ project to raise attainment of vulnerable pupils. Local authority officers visit regularly to check on the progress of this work.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governors are very supportive of the school and visit regularly. They bring enthusiasm to their roles and a determination to ensure that weaknesses will be tackled and the pupils will have a successful future. However, they do not provide enough challenge to school leaders to make sure that improvements are taking place. They are gaining a better understanding of how the school’s performance compares with that of other schools. However, they do not do enough to ask probing questions relating to pupils’ achievement and they are overly reliant on information supplied by the headteacher. Governors know how much money the school receives through the pupil premium, and how it is spent, but are less well informed about the impact the extra spending has on eligible pupils’ progress. They have appropriate arrangements to manage the performance of the headteacher. Although the governing body is

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The leadership and management requires improvement

involved in discussions relating to managing the performance of staff, it does not do enough to make sure that teachers only get pay rises when their pupils make good progress. This is because governors do not have an accurate picture of the quality of teaching across the 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 116721 Local authority Worcestershire Inspection number 440542

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school First School category Maintained Age range of pupils 3–9 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 260 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Mark Jones Headteacher Matt Whiteley Date of previous school inspection 28 March 2011 Telephone number 01527 62926 Fax number 01527 61621 Email address office@batchley.worcs.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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