Broomfield Community Primary School

Broomfield Primary School Off Ploughmans Lea, East Goscote, Leicester, LE7 3ZQ

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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

 Teaching is not consistently good enough to promote good achievement in writing and mathematics in all year groups.  Too often, teachers’ expectations of the amount of work to be completed and of pupils’ handwriting are not high enough.  Pupils who find learning difficult do not make as much progress as they should. The work given to them is often too hard for them.  The marking of pupils’ work does not give them enough help to understand how to improve, and not enough is done to ensure that pupils’ learn from their mistakes.  Staff have had few opportunities to learn from what other teachers do well.  School improvement is too dependent upon the headteacher. Although she is improving the school, she does not receive enough support from other teachers who have leadership responsibilities.  Leaders’ improvement plans do not identify how success is to be judged, or when actions should be completed.  Regular checks on teaching are carried out, but

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

leaders do not rigorously check pupils’ books to make sure that teaching in every class is having a good effect on their progress.  Governors do not have an accurate picture of how well the school as a whole is doing. This makes it hard to ask challenging questions and hold leaders to account.

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The school has the following strengths

 The school has been through a difficult period but is improving steadily under the leadership of the new headteacher.  Reading skills are taught well.  Pupils enjoy school and they have well above- average attendance.  Children in the Reception Year make good progress in their personal, social and emotional development, communication skills and physical development.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited lessons in all classrooms, four of them with the headteacher.  Pupils’ work was scrutinised in all year groups and inspectors listened to a sample of pupils read.  Discussions were held with pupils, staff, parents, governors, and a representative of the umbrella trust STEP (Syston, Thumaston, Education Partnership).  Inspectors looked at a wide range of documents, including those covering safeguarding and child protection, attendance, behaviour, and pupils’ progress and attainment. They studied the school improvement plan, subject leaders’ action plans and records of the monitoring of the quality of teaching.  Inspectors met with parents at the start of the school day to find out their opinions of the school and analysed the 27 responses on Parent View, the online Ofsted questionnaire. The nine replies to the optional staff questionnaire were also considered.

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Inspection team

Lois Furness, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Enid Korn Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Broomfield Primary school converted to an academy in September 2012. When the predecessor school was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good.  In this average-sized primary school, most pupils are White British, and all of the current pupils speak English as their first language.  A below-average proportion of pupils are supported by the pupil premium, which is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in local authority care.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported at school action is below average. The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is well below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum levels for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  Since the last inspection, there has been considerable staffing disruption. The current

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Information about this school

headteacher was appointed in January 2013 following an 18-month period of temporary leadership. One of the assistant headteachers, who was also the English subject leader, left the school in December 2013, and the mathematics subject leader is currently on maternity leave. During the inspection, there were three temporary teachers in post. The senior leadership team consists of the headteacher, an assistant headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator.  The school works with 10 local primary and two secondary schools. This umbrella trust, known as STEP, has been awarded teaching school status from April 2014.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching, particularly in writing and mathematics, by:  making sure that activities are suitable for all pupils, especially those who find learning difficult  raising teachers’ expectations of the quantity of pupils’ work and of pupils’ handwriting  ensuring that teachers’ marking is effective in helping pupils to produce better work in future  providing opportunities for staff to observe things other teachers do that lead to good or outstanding learning.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make leadership and management more effective in improving the school by ensuring that:  all teachers with leadership responsibilities help to improve the quality of teaching and raise standards  all leaders check more often that pupils’ work is of a high quality and provide teachers with regular feedback about their impact on pupils’ progress  plans for improvement have clear timescales and measurable targets  governors have an accurate understanding of the school’s performance.

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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 management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should also 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 progress in writing and mathematics is not consistently good throughout the school.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The Year 6 pupils who left the school in 2013 achieved well. Their attainment in the National Curriculum tests was well above average in mathematics, reading and writing, and progress was good. In the newly introduced grammar, spelling and punctuation test, attainment was average.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils currently in Year 6 are on track to attain similar standards. This would mean their overall progress over their time in Key Stage 2 was close to that made nationally. Tracking shows that standards in Year 6 have risen as a result of intensive focused teaching since January 2014. The school identified that, in the autumn term, pupils were making too slow progress. The work in younger pupils’ books and the school’s tracking of pupils’ progress show that their progress in writing and mathematics still requires improvement in some year groups.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 More-able pupils throughout the school are challenged well and generally make good progress but less-able pupils and disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs do not progress well enough. These pupils are sometimes given inappropriate work. For example, in writing, a pupil who was not yet able to write simple sentences was asked to ‘find a subordinate clause’. In mathematics, less-able pupils are often given the same sort of activities as more-able pupils. Though the activities are based around lower numbers, sometimes the mathematical ideas they have to understand are too hard, so lower numbers do not help.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children start school in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Reception Year) with the knowledge skills and understanding that are expected for children of this age. They make good progress in their personal and social development, communication and language skills and physical development. However, progress in writing and number is not as strong and, by the end of the Reception Year, the proportion of children attaining a good level of development (for which they have to reach expected standards in almost every area) is broadly average. Achievement is expected to be similar this year.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In the Year 1 screening check of how well pupils know the sounds letters make (phonics), a high proportion of pupils achieved the level expected nationally. This reflects the actions the school took to improve phonics teaching and the good progress they make in reading in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Year 1. Pupils develop good independent reading skills and, across the school, they enjoy reading a wide range of books. Most pupils read regularly at home and have plenty of opportunities to practise their skills in class.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The pupil premium contributes to the costs of employing an additional part-time teacher in Year 6, one-to-one tuition and extra-curricular activities to increase the self-esteem and confidence of eligible pupils. The impact of this Year 6 spending in 2013 was good, with all eligible pupils making at least expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics. At the end of Year 6, the attainment of pupils supported by the pupil premium funding was approximately two terms behind other pupils in mathematics and one term in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test. In reading and writing, their attainment was similar to that of their classmates. However, the school’s own analysis shows that the currently eligible pupils are making similar progress to other pupils throughout the school, so progress requires improvement in some year groups.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers do not always use assessment information accurately to set work in lessons that helps pupils to build on what they already know and understand. Work in books shows the activities given are not always appropriate and pupils do not always make the progress they should. This is especially the case for lower attaining pupils, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. More-able pupils, however, are usually set activities that match their abilities.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching assistants are usually directed appropriately to promote pupils’ learning. They often work with lower attaining pupils, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs. They are able to give pupils support but, since the activities they are supporting are not always appropriate for the pupils, the effect is blunted.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils’ work is marked conscientiously by staff but does not influence pupils’ achievement well enough. It is better in English than in other subjects but, even in English, written comments do not consistently give pupils a clear idea of what they have to do to improve. Teachers do not make sure that pupils act on any advice they are given; for example, they sometimes accept comments such as ‘OK’ when pupils are asked to make their work better rather than expecting specific improvement. In mathematics, comments seldom promote deeper thinking; for example, by challenging pupils to apply their new knowledge.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Expectations of the amount of work pupils should complete in a lesson are not consistently high. For example, in a lesson which lasted one and a half hours, most pupils only completed about half a page of writing. Untidy handwriting is too readily accepted and too few pupils have a neat cursive style of writing.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In all classrooms, pupils and adults have good relationships, which means that pupils willingly answer questions. Through praise and encouragement, pupils are keen to give of their best. All teachers make it clear to pupils what they are expected to achieve. Lessons start on time and classrooms are attractive learning environments.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Although pupils enjoy school, in a few classrooms, some pupils’ attitudes to learning are not consistently good. This is because when the work or the questions being asked are too hard, or occasionally too easy, pupils lose interest and become distracted. When this happens, they do not make as much progress.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Behaviour is good at breaks and lunchtimes. Pupils are polite and well mannered, and relationships among pupils and between pupils and adults are good. Pupils show respect for the school environment and wear their uniform with pride.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils say behaviour is usually good. The school’s actions to improve behaviour are effective and the behaviour of individuals has improved. A clear behaviour policy is in place and staff and pupils understand it.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Arrangements for pupils’ safeguarding meet current requirements.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils say they feel safe because they are well cared for by teachers and other adults. Playtimes are lively but friendly, and pupils behave safely in the playground at breaks. They understand how to keep themselves safe. Almost all parents who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire thought their children are kept safe during their time at school.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils are not concerned about bullying. They understand the different types of bullying, including physical, verbal and cyber-bullying. They know to tell an adult if bullying happens to them, and are confident that staff will help them.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Attendance is consistently well above average and pupils are routinely punctual to school and to their lessons.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management require improvement because leaders have not checked consistently well on the impact current teaching is having on progress, and, as a result, have not given enough priority to improving progress below Year 6.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school’s view of how well it is doing is not fully accurate as too much reliance has been placed on assessments at the end of Year 6 without verifying that this is a true reflection of pupils’ work over time in all year groups. After staff changes, leaders identified the need to support the current Year 6 intensively and took the right action. However, though they have observed lessons in other year groups since there were staffing changes, senior leaders have not checked often enough that pupils throughout the school are currently producing high-quality work in their books and that the work given to pupils is appropriate for their ability.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher, governors and all staff are committed to school improvement, and the improvement plan identifies some of the right priorities required to take the school forward; for example, aspects of improving teaching and developing the roles of subject leaders. Already there is evidence that these two priorities are being tackled. Leaders have an accurate view of the support needed to improve the quality of teaching and are addressing it. This year they have had a good impact on the progress of pupils in Year 6, and a key drive to improve the teaching of phonics was very successful the previous year. These illustrate that the school has the capacity to improve.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher has ensured that there are appropriate procedures to ensure that staff are held accountable for pupils’ progress and that pay is linked to performance. She is aware of areas of strength and weakness in teaching in the school. However, staffing changes have slowed improvement; teachers have had little opportunity to observe strategies that others use to promote good progress and thereby improve their own teaching skills.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The staff changes have also meant that the headteacher has not been able to share the leadership load. Leadership of subjects such as English and mathematics is currently temporary and these leaders are not influencing sufficiently well the provision in these areas. The special educational needs coordinator conscientiously ensures that all statutory documentation is completed but has not checked closely enough that disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are making good progress in their work over time.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Though improvement plans are checked, their format does not support good monitoring, as actions lack clear measurable criteria and dates for when actions will be completed. This makes it more difficult for governors and senior leaders to check on whether the improvements are successful.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Pupils learn a wide range of subjects in a variety of ways, involving visits and visitors to the school. There are some imaginative links between subjects, and parents are encouraged to help their children by downloading the curriculum planner from the school website. The school provides many additional opportunities for pupils to learn through different clubs and activities that broaden their experience. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is promoted effectively.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Pupils thoroughly enjoy their physical education lessons. These make an important contribution to their healthy physical development. The new primary sports funding has been used to pay for specialist coaches to broaden the range of physical education activities available, such as tag rugby, orienteering and hockey. It has also been used to provide training for staff. As a result, more pupils are involved in sporting activities, and staff are more confident in teaching physical education.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school works in close partnership with STEP. This partnership has benefited the school in a number of ways, including helping teachers to cross-check the accuracy of their assessments of writing, working with more-able pupils and training for staff in the teaching of English, mathematics, and information and communication technology.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governors identify a range of sources of information to inform them of school effectiveness, and understand how to compare achievement at the end of Year 6 with that of similar schools and schools nationally. However, they base their judgements too much on Year 6 rather than other year groups. This gives them too positive a view, even though they know where there are weaknesses in teaching. As a result, they have not been fully effective in holding the school to account.  Governors know about the setting of targets to help teachers improve their work and are aware that this is linked to pay awards. They visit classrooms regularly. They do not routinely look at pupils’ work in their books, nor probe senior staff about whether this is as good as it should be.  Governors know how the pupil premium funding is spent and how the primary sports funding grant is used. They are aware of the impact of this funding on pupils’ achievement. Training is

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The leadership and management requires improvement

attended to keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date and ensure that statutory duties are fulfilled effectively; for example, in relation to pupils’ safeguarding.

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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 138805 Local authority Not Applicable Inspection number 440171

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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 Academy converter Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 221 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Kevin Harrup Headteacher Alex Allison Date of previous school inspection 13 January 2009 Telephone number 0116 2606704 Fax number 0116 2698240 Email address admin@broomfield-eg.leics.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 and 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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