Bowesfield Primary School

Bowesfield Primary School Northcote Street, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 3JB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Early years provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 This is a happy, caring school. Pupils thrive in this purposeful learning environment.  Achievement is good. From their individual starting points, the progress made in learning by all pupils across the school is good.  The impact of good teaching over time contributes significantly to the pupils’ good achievement.  The school provides carefully tailored care and support for a wide range of pupils’ differing needs, including those who speak English as an additional language, those who are disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs. As a result, all these pupils achieve well, demonstrating the school’s strong and successful commitment to equality of opportunity.  Pupils behave well and relationships between pupils and adults are very positive. As a result, pupils work hard and want to do well.  The dynamic leadership of the headteacher successfully sets a positive tone for the whole school in driving forward continued improvement

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and the importance of pupils’ personal development.  Through the school curriculum and out-of-school activities, the school provides very well for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Governors are highly knowledgeable and provide a good level of support and challenge. They contribute strongly to promoting school improvement.  The school provides a good level of care and guidance for pupils’ well-being and that of many families. As a result, pupils feel very safe and develop positive attitudes to learning. Parents are strongly supportive of the school.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Progress and attainment in reading is not as strong as in mathematics and writing.  Middle leaders are at an early stage in the monitoring of teaching and pupils’ progress in their subject area and so are not contributing as much as they could to improving pupils’ progress.

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Information about this inspection

 Bowesfield is a smaller than average-sized primary school.  Pupils come from a range of ethnic origins, with those of Asian Pakistani origin being the largest group. The proportion of pupils that are from minority ethnic groups is well above the national average, as is the proportion who speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of pupils supported through school action is well above the national average.  The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are therefore known to be eligible for pupil premium funding, is well above average. The pupil premium is funding for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils who move into or out of the school, other than at the usual times is well above

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Information about this inspection

average.  The early years consists of a part-time nursery and Reception classes.  In 2013, the school met the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school runs a breakfast club for its pupils.  The headteacher is a Local Leader of Education.

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Inspection team

Peter Bailey, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Inspectors observed 10 lessons or parts of lessons, two of which were joint observations with the headteacher. All class groups and teachers were observed.  They also reviewed the work in pupils’ books. In addition, the inspectors made a few short visits to observe pupils in small-group support sessions, and also heard pupils from Year 2 and Year 6 read.  Inspectors held discussions with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, senior leaders, subject leaders, staff, representatives of the governing body, a local authority representative and a number of parents.  Inspectors spoke informally to pupils in lessons and around the school, as well as having two more formal meetings with groups of pupils from Key Stages 1 and 2.  The inspectors observed the work of the school and looked at a range of documents including: the school’s own information about pupils’ progress; planning; the monitoring of learning and teachers’

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Information about this school

performance; organisation of the curriculum; records relating to behaviour and attendance; safeguarding information, how the money from pupil premium and sports funding is spent, and the minutes of governing body meetings.  There was insufficient response to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) to allow any analysis, but inspectors took account of the comments and views recorded from the 89% of parents that had attended the summer term pupil progress meeting and spoke with 14 parents.  Inspectors also took account of the 12 responses to the inspection questionnaire for staff.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, especially in Key Stage 2, by reviewing current approaches to the teaching of reading and ensuring that the best practice is used throughout the school.  Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:  promoting further the potential of subject and phase leaders in supporting school improvement by ensuring that they have more opportunities to monitor the quality of teaching, identify outstanding practice and share this to help develop teaching skills  ensuring that all subject leaders use data rigorously to drive improvements in their areas of responsibility.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides the school with infectious and dynamic leadership. She is extremely committed and passionate in engendering a positive approach to driving forward improvement. It sets the tone for the whole school. At its root is the headteacher’s unwavering determination to provide every child, regardless of background or ability, with a solid foundation for future success and happiness. Teamwork across the school is strong in pursuit of the headteacher’s fundamental beliefs.  The headteacher is held in high regard by the pupils, parents and staff. Comments on all the staff questionnaires returned indicated a high level of confidence in the school’s leadership. Staff morale is high.  The school leadership has a good awareness of the school’s strengths and areas for development. It thoroughly evaluates the school’s performance and ensures its action plan carefully matches its choice of

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The leadership and management are good

priorities to the school’s identified needs. Last year, for example, leaders noted a lack of progress in writing and appropriate action was taken to make improvements. This has resulted in a marked improvement in pupils’ writing and attainment in this area.  Senior leaders are robust in their monitoring of teaching. They carefully track pupils’ progress, and use this data to ensure that planning for improvement is founded on good evidence and accurate data. However, leaders of subjects are not sufficiently involved in this process.  Procedures to manage the performance of teachers are effective because leaders use a range of information to set challenging targets that are linked to the school’s development plans. There is a good link between pay levels and the quality of teaching.  The middle leadership team is relatively new and inexperienced. The roles and responsibilities of phase and subject leaders are not yet fully developed. At present there is not enough delegation of responsibility

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The leadership and management are good

and involvement in conducting lesson observations. Similarly, there is not enough sharing of good practice across the school to enable subject leaders to make a greater contribution to school improvement and to raise pupils’ achievement further.  The school promotes pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural development in a highly effective way and is a strength of the school. Many opportunities for pupils to reflect on their work, relationships and behaviour are included in their learning. The impact of this is seen in the children’s respect for others and understanding of their rights and responsibilities, which reinforces an appreciation of British values and life in modern Britain.  The school uses its primary sports funding well. It has been used to purchase the school’s P.E. kit and bag for all pupils, and to increase the scope of sports activities available to pupils, during and after school. The

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The leadership and management are good

funding is also used to provide pupils with the opportunity to be coached by sports specialists, participate in competitions with local schools and to buy additional swimming sessions. The impact is that all pupils in school participate in sporting activities.  School leaders have successfully developed mutually supportive relationships with parents and carers. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. They speak extremely positively of the staff, saying that they are approachable and know individual pupils well. During the inspection, parents in conversation with inspectors strongly reinforced their positive views of the school.  The local authority provides ‘light touch’ support to this good school. It has an accurate understanding of the school’s performance and has confidence in its ability to improve further.  The school works well with external agencies and, in particular, those helping individual pupils and their

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The leadership and management are good

families to overcome any difficulties that hinder pupils’ learning. It promotes equal opportunities and tackles discrimination effectively.  All aspects of safeguarding are fully met. The governing body and the school’s staff consider that keeping pupils safe is one of their prime responsibilities.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is extremely supportive of the school and committed to its success. Since the last full inspection there have been several changes in the governing body. The current governors bring considerable skills and expertise to the role. They are knowledgeable and ensure that the school is on a pathway to improvement. They are fully involved in evaluating the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and development planning. They have undertaken training and are increasingly effective in holding the school to account. They are determined to tackle the weaker aspects of the school quickly. Governors

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The leadership and management are good

evaluate the quality of teaching and know how teachers are rewarded for their effectiveness. Governors have a clear understanding of the school’s finances, including sport funding, and are aware of the impact of decisions about the use of pupil-premium funding and how gaps in pupils’ achievement are closing. The governing body ensures that safeguarding arrangements meet statutory requirements.

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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. Pupils are polite, well mannered and show respect for each other and adults. 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’ attitudes to learning are good and lead to hard work, concentration and good progress. They are excited about their school and are very keen and enthusiastic to take part in a wide range of clubs and opportunities offered to them.  Incidents of misbehaviour are rare, and pupils respond positively to the school’s behaviour policy. This is consistently applied by staff and valued by the pupils, who speak enthusiastically of earning team points and being nominated for the Shining Stars assembly.  The school council is becoming increasingly active in giving pupils a say in school matters.  The breakfast club is well attended and provides a cheerful start to the school day. It is a calm safe

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

environment and a useful resource for parents. The food and activities provided make sure children who use it are ready for their lessons.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils report that they feel 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 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.  The school has worked hard to improve attendance, which is now in line with the national average. Attendance for this academic year, so far, continues this upward trend. The number of pupils who are absent regularly has dramatically reduced and is now well below the national average.  In their responses to the inspection questionnaires, all staff agree that pupils are happy, well behaved and

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils in all year groups learn well owing to good and sometimes outstanding teaching. Talking to pupils and looking at the work in their books it is clear that the good teaching has promoted good progress over time. However, teachers have not had many opportunities to benefit from observing the very best teaching in their school and so improve further.  Excellent relationships within the classroom ensure pupils have a good attitude to their work and learn new skills quickly and confidently. Classrooms are orderly, well organised and create a stimulating learning environment.  Teachers have good subject knowledge and plan most of their lessons well, containing a variety of activities to keep pupils interested in their learning. They use a range of approaches such as visits, information technology, and pictures as the starting point for writing activities. In a Year 6 lesson, for instance, the skilful use of a DVD and story cards stimulated a great deal of enthusiasm and discussion in

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The quality of teaching is good

placing the cards in a story sequence.  Questioning is used well in most lessons to challenge pupils to explain their reasons for answers and extend learning.  The marking and feedback to pupils in Years 1 to 6 is of a high quality and is consistently applied across subjects and year groups. It is developmental and extremely effective in ensuring that pupils have clear guidance on how to improve their work. Pupils are given time to read and respond to the comments and improve their work.  Work in pupils’ books is extremely well presented. This demonstrates the pride that they have in their work and the high expectations of teachers.  Individual target cards in pupils’ books accurately record pupils’ learning and progress.  The special needs coordinator makes sure that groups or individual pupils with special educational needs are tracked carefully and receive good quality support to promote learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants are highly effective in delivering focused interventions and supporting pupils’ learning, both inside and outside the classroom. They question pupils carefully, encouraging them to stay motivated and really think about their learning and about the answers they give.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The majority of pupils start in Year 1 with a level of attainment below that typical for their age. Most make better than expected progress through the school so that by the end of Key Stage 2, their attainment is similar to the national average for reading and above average for mathematics and writing.  Throughout the school pupils have an extremely wide variety of needs that present challenges to their learning. For example, there are more than 10 different languages spoken in the school. The school’s excellent assessment of individuals’ needs is the starting point for triggering a range of effective support that reduces the effect of what it is that makes learning difficult for them. Similarly, effective support is given to pupils who join the school partway through the year, so that they settle quickly and make good progress.  The vast majority of children enter early years with levels of development that are significantly below

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The achievement of pupils is good

those expected for their age, especially in personal and social skills and those relating to communication, language and literacy. In the safe, caring environment the children settle quickly and by the end of the Reception class, all groups of children make good progress from their low starting points and enter Key Stage 1 with a level of development which has risen much closer to, but is still below, that which is expected, particularly in reading, writing and numeracy.  Progress and attainment for all pupils in Key Stage 1 show an increasing trend of improvement. In 2014, nearly all pupils made good progress and attainment overall was broadly similar to the national average for reading and slightly below in mathematics and English by the end of Year 2.  In 2014, the proportion of pupils meeting the national expectations for the Year 1 screening check in phonics (understanding letters and sounds) was below the national average, reflecting their very low

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The achievement of pupils is good

starting points. However, because of targeted support for those pupils who do not reach the expected standards, almost all reached the standard by the end of Year 2. Pupils in Key Stage 2 maintain their interest and enjoyment in reading, but they are slow to gain the more advanced skills of reading, such as gaining meaning and understanding by inference and deduction from the text. As a result, progress and outcomes in reading are not as strong as in writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  Pupils make good progress across Key Stage 2. In 2014, at the end of Year 6, the proportion of pupils attaining the expected levels of attainment was above the national average in mathematics and writing, and broadly similar to the national average for reading.  The most able pupils are generally provided with a good level of challenge. Their progress is tracked carefully and they did well in national tests in writing and mathematics. However, this is the group which

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The achievement of pupils is good

did not do as well in the national tests at the end of Key Stage 2 in reading. The school is looking at ways to ensure that they make as much progress in reading as they do in other subjects.  Observations in the classroom, scrutiny of pupils’ books, current school pupils’ progress data and speaking to pupils indicate that the good progress is being sustained for all groups of pupils, including the most able pupils, across all year groups. At the end of Key Stage 1 the attainment of disadvantaged pupils was below that of their classmates by two terms on average. Through effective use of pupil premium funding, the in-school gap in attainment, although still existing, is closing. By the end of Key Stage 2 they were on average one term behind in all subjects. The progress and attainment of this group of pupils, compared to all pupils nationally, was similar in mathematics and writing but slightly below in reading.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress, particularly in mathematics, because of the impressive support they receive from highly skilled teaching assistants both within and outside the classroom.

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The early years provision is good

 Children enter the school’s nursery class with skills and understanding significantly below what is typical for their age. Evidence from in-school data, sampling of work and observations show that children make good progress in the early years, but the majority still enter Key Stage 1 with standards below those typical for their age particularly in reading, English and mathematics. In 2014, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development increased by 31%.  The children settle quickly owing to the high level of provision, particularly outdoors, which encourages the children to be confident and keen to learn.  Children’s behaviour is good and supported by adults being good role models. Key workers are assigned to specific groups and this builds good relationships between children and adults.  Personal and social development underpins all activities and children play, cooperate and relate positively

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The early years provision is good

to each other.  Staff work well as a team, and the quality of teaching is good, making a strong contribution to children’s progress. Through careful analysis of checks on children’s learning, specific areas are prioritised. In 2014, for example, information from data identified a weakness in creative development and language skills and these have become a priority this year. Areas of weakness identified at the previous inspection have been addressed and monitoring of progress is rigorous and robust.  The early years leader has a good understanding of early years practice and leads her team well. She has forged excellent links with parents and other early years settings to ensure a high level of communication and information about the child on entry, so as to plan their learning and monitor progress.  The early years unit is extremely safe for children and they are well supervised at all times.  The school has successfully addressed the issue of when children move into Key Stage 1 and are not yet

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The early years provision is good

ready to access the curriculum, by continuing with some elements of early years provision in Key Stage 1.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 111540 Local authority Stockton-on-Tees Inspection number 448747

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 198 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Sharon Veitch Headteacher Emily Hodgeon Date of previous school inspection 25 November 2009 Telephone number 01642 601890 Fax number 01642 634912 Email address bowesfield.school@stockton.gov.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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