Stivichall Primary School

Stivichall Primary School Coat of Arms Bridge Road, Coventry, CV3 6PY

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Overall effectiveness

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

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

 Although the standards that pupils reach by the end of Year 6 are usually above average, pupils have not yet made consistently rapid progress from Year 3 to Year 6 from the strong standards they achieve by Year 2.  Pupils make relatively less progress in mathematics than in reading and writing because they do not have enough opportunities to apply their learning to different situations.  Teachers do not routinely provide learning to challenge pupils of all abilities in Key Stage 2 and some more-able pupils, in particular, do not make the progress they could.  Teachers’ marking and feedback does not always give pupils precise information about how to improve their work.  Teachers do not consistently provide pupils with opportunities to respond to the marking of work, and some do not check that the pupils make the improvements required.

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The school has the following strengths

 The headteacher, supported by her senior leadership team and the governing body, has made significant improvements to the quality of teaching and learning.  Pupils currently in the school are making better progress and achieving more as a result of the strong focus from senior leaders on improving the quality of teaching.  The quality of pupils’ writing has improved strongly because the headteacher has made the development of this skill across all subjects a priority.  Children make good progress in the Reception classes and the teaching of letters and the sounds they make (phonics) is good. Pupils’ good progress continues in Key Stage 1 because teaching engages and interests them.  Pupils’ behaviour is good. There is a very positive learning environment in the school. Relationships between staff and pupils are excellent and pupils are extremely keen to learn.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 18 lessons, five of which were jointly observed with senior leaders. In addition, inspectors made other short visits to lessons and to learning areas in the course of their observations of pupils’ behaviour and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. They also listened to pupils read.  Inspectors took account of the 88 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, other communications, including letters and e-mail messages, and spoke informally to parents as they brought their children to school.  Meetings were held with two groups of pupils, a representative from the local authority, governors, senior and subject leaders and teaching staff.  The information from 30 staff questionnaires was taken into consideration.  Inspectors observed the work of the school, and looked at pupils’ books and a number of documents, including: the school’s own data on pupils’ performance, its self-evaluation and

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Information about this inspection

monitoring of how well pupils are doing. They also checked planning documents, records of checks on the quality of teaching, and records of behaviour, attendance and punctuality, as well as documents relating to safeguarding.

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Inspection team

Simon Blackburn, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Marlene Hotchkiss Additional Inspector Kerin Jones Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium (additional funding to support pupils eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority) is well below the national average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average, but the proportion supported at school action plus or through a statement of special educational needs is above average.  About two thirds of pupils come from White British backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.  The headteacher has been in post since September 2013.

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Information about this school

 The school works closely with other local schools to moderate assessments of pupils’ work and develop the range of learning opportunities provided.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching and pupils’ achievement, particularly that of the more able, by ensuring that teachers:  set work to stretch and challenge all pupils to make at least good progress from their starting points, especially in Years 3 to 6  share the best quality of marking and feedback seen in the school so that teachers give pupils precise information about how to improve their work and check that their advice is used effectively  develop pupils’ mathematical skills by giving them opportunities to apply what they have learned in unfamiliar situations.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the progress pupils make in Years 3 to 6 by ensuring that teachers take their previous learning into account when they set work for these pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by ensuring that the data collected about pupils’ progress is readily accessible to teachers and leaders so that they can analyse it quickly and use it to direct improvement priorities.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The standards reached by pupils at the end of Year 6 fell in 2013 to be broadly average, having been above average since the previous inspection. However, given their starting points in Year 3, pupils made too little progress from Year 3 to Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Children begin the Reception Year with starting points that are slightly above those expected for their age, although there is a wide range in their skills and knowledge. They make good progress through the year as a result of teaching that challenges and supports them to learn successfully. The teaching of reading and writing, including letters and the sounds they make, provides children with a good grounding that allows them to make good progress in all their learning and they reach a good level of development on entry to Year 1.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Standards at the end of Key Stage 1 improved over the last two years and were above average in 2013. Pupils make good progress in Years 1 and 2 and develop their reading and writing skills well as a result of effective teaching. Pupils read with confidence and fluency in Year 2 and can apply the skills they have learned to sound out letters and blend them into words. Pupils do well in the Year 1 phonics screening check.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Although the rate of pupils’ progress across Key Stage 2 requires improvement, it is starting to accelerate. Progress made by pupils in Years 3 to 6 is increasing as teaching becomes more imaginative, but the level of challenge for pupils is not consistently demanding across the key stage or across subjects. The progress pupils make in mathematics is relatively weaker than in reading and writing because they are not given enough opportunity to practise their mathematical skills in different situations.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ writing has improved and continues to improve strongly because teachers give them more opportunities to practise their writing in subjects other than English. Work seen in science and topic books shows that teachers correct extended pieces for grammar, punctuation and spelling and improvements in pupils’ skills and accuracy can be seen over time.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The level of challenge for the more-able pupils, particularly in Key Stage 2, is not always as high as it could be because pupils are given similar tasks and are not moved on to more difficult activities quickly enough. Consequently, more-able pupils do not make rapid progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Investigative work forms a large part of pupils’ learning in science and they thoroughly enjoy the challenge of finding things out for themselves and testing their own ideas. Teachers use the excellent resource of the school grounds well in their science teaching and pupils are well motivated to write extensively about their learning as a result.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make similar progress to that of their peers in most year groups and most subjects and, sometimes, make better progress than others. This is the result of early identification of pupils’ learning needs and well-organised and effective support from teachers and teaching assistants.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 In 2013, Year 6 pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium made good progress in all subjects and their attainment was close to that of other pupils in reading and writing but about three terms behind other pupils in mathematics. Across the school, eligible pupils achieve equally well but there is variation because of the small numbers of these pupils in each year group, some of whom also have additional needs.  Pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds make similar progress to that of other pupils in their year groups. Those pupils who are learning English as an additional language make slightly better progress than other pupils as a result of effective early support when they enter the school.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Primary school sports funding has been used to employ specialist coaches who work alongside class teachers to develop their coaching skills. They also provide additional sports clubs which are ensuring that more pupils take part in sport in the school, with early signs showing improvements in pupils’ health and well-being.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Despite improvements in the quality of teaching, overall it still requires improvement. Some teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough and the level of challenge in lessons in Years 3 to 6 is too variable. Consequently, the more-able pupils in particular are not stretched and challenged to make the progress they could.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers do not habitually take pupils’ previous learning and standards into account when setting work, particularly in Key Stage 2 classes. Consequently, some pupils are not stretched and challenged at the right level to make the progress of which they are capable.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching of mathematics in Key Stage 2 does not challenge pupils to apply the skills they learn in unfamiliar situations. This means that their learning is too fixed in simple processes and they do not apply the numerical methods they learn in different contexts.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers mark pupils work assiduously and regularly. Their hard work is not always rewarded with accelerated progress, however, because the comments they make are not precise enough for the pupils to understand exactly what is required to improve their work. There is some excellent practice in marking, where teachers give very clear guidance, allow pupils time to respond to their comments and check that they have progressed. This is not consistent across the school, and procedures to share this good practice are not yet fully applied.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils have excellent relationships with teachers and this encourages very positive attitudes to learning in classrooms. Inspectors saw many examples of pupils who were excited to learn and develop their skills. The best teaching exploited these very positive attitudes; pupils could comment on how they learned best – as well as what they learned. For example, in a lesson investigating the symmetry of polygons with Year 3 and Year 4 pupils, the teacher posed challenging questions that demanded that pupils thought very hard in gaining understanding of the ideas. They responded very well and were aware of how best to take their learning forward.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The teaching of writing continues to improve strongly across the school. Teachers build on the phonics skills that pupils develop in Reception and Year 1 and provide a wide range of opportunities for them to write in many subjects. Work seen in pupils’ books shows increasingly rapid improvements in variety and complexity of sentence structure and shaping text for particular audiences.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching assistants and other adults who support learning are effective because they are careful to question and challenge, rather than just tell pupils what to do. As a result, those pupils who need additional support make progress that is similar to that of other pupils in their year groups.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching in the Reception classes and in Key Stage 1 is good. Teachers use the resources at their disposal well, both inside and outside, to develop learners’ skills and knowledge. The environment for learning is stimulating and adults constantly challenge and question children in Reception about what they are learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils enjoy coming to school and this is reflected in their above-average attendance and very low levels of persistent absence. Pupils wear their uniform smartly and with pride and take good care of their surroundings. There is no litter and the corridors are quiet and purposeful places as pupils move about their business.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils work well with others in lessons. They enjoy working with others, while also getting down to quiet individual work with enthusiasm. Staff work diligently to make sure all pupils are treated equally and can achieve success. Any discrimination is tackled promptly.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils take pride in their work and their presentation in books is consistently good. Pupils were very keen to celebrate each other’s success, as seen in an excellent celebration assembly to which parents were invited. Pupils behave well in lessons and retain their enthusiasm for learning even when teaching does not inspire interest or provide proper challenge, as in some Key Stage 2 lessons.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Pupils are keen to take on responsibility in the school. The minutes of the school council show that their meetings are very businesslike and discuss issues related to learning. The school council were asked to evaluate the different styles of marking being piloted in the school, and they provided a thoughtful review for school leaders to add to the debate. Pupils also lead play activities and provide support for pupils who find themselves without playmates.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Parents spoke to the inspection team as they brought their children to school. They said their children were happy at the school and that behaviour was good and managed well by teachers and staff. The large majority of parents who responded to Parent View thought that the school ensured that their children behaved well.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Parents think that their children are safe in the school and pupils agree with them. Leaders make the extensive and stimulating site secure and staff are rigorously checked before appointment. Pupils know who they can talk to in the school if they ever have any problems. They have a good awareness of different forms of bullying, and while they are aware of isolated incidents of bullying, they are confident that these are dealt with very effectively.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The curriculum includes many experiences that enable pupils to learn about risk and how to keep themselves safe.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher with the strong support of the senior leadership team has successfully improved the quality of teaching since September 2013. The staff are fully committed to the vision of rapid and consistent progress that the headteacher has articulated and, as a result, there are measurable improvements in the progress being made by pupils currently in the school

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The leadership and management are good

 The strong leadership provided by the headteacher to ensure that skills underpin the curriculum has ensured that pupils’ writing has improved across the school, including in Key Stage 2. There is also evidence of improvements in mathematics, but pupils’ skills are less well developed both within mathematics lessons and across the curriculum.  The measurable impact of the actions taken by the headteacher in particular with the support of other leaders shows the school has the capacity to improve rapidly. Good teaching and learning in Reception and Years 1 and 2 have been established. Further improvement in Key Stage 2 is, rightly, a high priority for the school’s effective leadership.

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The leadership and management are good

 While improvements are evident in pupils’ work and in the classroom, they do not yet ensure consistently good progress across the school. For example, changes to the way that teachers give feedback on pupils’ work have been tried and views of staff and pupils sought. However, there is still variability in the quality of comments pupils receive and the extent to which teachers check that their directions for improvement have been used.

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The leadership and management are good

 Staff responsible for leading subjects have been supported to make them more confident in their roles. They are using their expertise to develop more interesting approaches to teaching and this is resulting in improving rates of progress in reading and writing. Careful checks are made on the quality of teaching by senior leaders and, increasingly, by subject leaders, which result in teachers receiving high-quality training to help them improve aspects of their teaching.

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The leadership and management are good

 The Reception Year is well led and managed. Teachers gain a clear understanding of the children’s previous learning as they enter the school and provide learning experiences that exploit the excellent resources both inside and outside, including the ‘Forest School’.

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The leadership and management are good

 Teachers’ performance is managed well. Challenging targets are set for pupils’ progress and for the development of teaching skills. Subject leaders and senior teachers have targets designed to improve their leadership skills, supported by training and coaching from the headteacher and deputy headteacher.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority has recognised that the progress pupils make at Key Stage 2 is too slow, and it has provided leaders with additional support and challenge. It has also worked with governors to improve the challenge they offer to the school through training in interpreting school data and in setting appropriate targets for improvement.

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The leadership and management are good

 The range of subjects taught gives pupils rich experiences to expand their learning and develop their curiosity. Subject leaders work with local schools to develop the range of learning opportunities, using the resources available locally to add interest, relevance and excitement for pupils. Where necessary, subjects are carefully chosen for groups and even for individuals, and some pupils receive extra teaching to prepare them before topics are launched.

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The leadership and management are good

 Learning opportunities promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well and are supplemented by assemblies and class assemblies that encourage pupils to reflect, celebrate and share others’ thoughts and feelings.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is currently changing the system it uses to collect and analyse data on pupils’ progress. In the past, the system used has hampered leaders’ ability to analyse accurately the progress made by groups of pupils so that improvements can be planned and implemented where necessary. The revised system has not yet had time to show the impact intended in improving progress and teaching, although assessment in classrooms is generally accurate and underachievement can be identified by class teachers.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They know what the priorities are to take teaching and achievement further forward. Plans and action for improvement are rigorously set out.  The governance of the school:  Governors have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school and have changed the way they operate in order to make sure they can identify changes in school performance quickly and take appropriate action. Governors recognise that in the past they have relied too heavily on senior leaders to supply and interpret information. Consequently, they have engaged with the local authority to improve their skills in the analysis of data on progress and attainment so they are able to provide strong and informed challenge to leaders by asking demanding questions about pupils’ performance. Governors understand improvement priorities and the strategic direction of the school. Their greater role in

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The leadership and management are good

evaluating school performance and setting priorities for future action has made them more effective in helping the school move forward. Governors know what the quality of teaching is across the school and know, in detail, how teachers’ performance is managed and evaluated. They maintain a firm control over the school budget and understand the impact that pupil premium funding is having on eligible pupils’ achievement. They ensure that current safeguarding arrangements meet requirements.

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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 103686 Local authority Coventry Inspection number 443858

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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 5–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 528 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Pauline Parkes Headteacher Karen Ferguson Date of previous school inspection 7 July 2010 Telephone number 024 76419555 Fax number 024 76690281 Email address adminstaff@stivichall.coventry.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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