Morven Park Primary and Nursery School

Morven Park Primary and Nursery School School Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottingham, NG17 7BT

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Early years provision Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils achieve well throughout Key Stages 1 and 2.  Standards are average in reading, writing and mathematics and are improving overall, reflecting pupils’ good progress.  Children learn and develop outstandingly well in the Early Years Foundation Stage. The proportion achieving a good level of development is increasing rapidly because teaching and activities enable them to learn and develop really well.  Teaching is consistently good throughout Key Stages 1 and 2, and some is outstanding, because learning is planned carefully and marking and questioning are good.  The school is led extremely well by the headteacher. He has a very accurate knowledge of its strengths and very good strategies for improvement.  Senior and subject leaders support the headteacher very well in improving teaching and achievement. This is strengthening the school’s ability to improve further.  Pupils behave well and enjoy good relationships

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

with other pupils and with the staff.  Pupils feel safe and secure because of the good systems the school has to help ensure this. Teachers give them good guidance about how to stay safe.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well through the school’s ethos, expectations and teaching.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils do not have sufficiently regular opportunities in mathematics to use the skills that they have learned in solving mathematical problems. As a result, pupils capable of reaching higher levels do not achieve their full potential.  There is not a consistent approach to the presentation of pupils’ work and handwriting and to the teaching of spelling.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed 27 lessons, of which two were observed with the headteacher.  The inspectors spoke with pupils during learning and playing and observed an assembly and singing practice. They listened to numerous pupils reading and watched a lot of pupils being supported in small groups or individually.  One inspector held a meeting with a group of pupils to find out what they think about their school. He spoke with individual parents at the start and end of the school day.  The inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, senior and subject leaders and members of the governing body. The lead inspector had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including information about the achievement of the pupils, the school’s improvement planning, samples of pupils’ work, and the policies to keep them safe.  The inspectors took into account the 40 parental responses to the online Ofsted questionnaire (Parent

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Information about this inspection

View). They checked the eight responses to the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Lynne Blakelock, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than most primary schools of its type and the number on roll is increasing steadily.  Most pupils are of White British heritage and speak English as their first language.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is below average.  The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of students who are known to be disadvantaged and supported through the pupil premium is well-above average. The pupil premium funding is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children that are looked after by the local authority.  The Early Years Foundation Stage has three Nursery groups which children attend on a part-time basis either in the morning or the afternoon. There are four full-time Reception groups. All the groups are led by

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Information about this school

a key worker.  The school runs a breakfast club each day that the school is open to provide a nutritious start to the day.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics.  The school works in partnership with a local family of primary schools to share ideas and good practice.  The headteacher is a local leader of education. He has supported successfully a school that was in special measures.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that pupils capable of achieving higher levels in mathematics are challenged strongly to achieve their full potential by the end of Year 6, through very regular opportunities to use the skills that they have learned, in a wide variety of situations.  Make sure that there is consistency of approach throughout the school in the expectations of the quality of presentation of pupils’ work, their handwriting and the teaching of spelling.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher is a very strong and capable leader. He is respected by the staff, parents, pupils and the local community for his efficient, effective and carefully considered leadership of the school and his success in ensuring it continues to improve.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leadership and management at all levels are very strong. The senior team and governing body work very successfully with the headteacher to strengthen the school. They evaluate the school’s effectiveness thoroughly so that they know exactly where the weaknesses are. They put their findings into the school improvement plan and address them ‘head-on’. All of the necessary actions to further improve the children’s education are tackled. As a result, the achievement of disadvantaged pupils is now good and teaching is consistently good, with some that is outstanding. The leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage is excellent and so the children achieve very well.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders have prepared carefully for the new curriculum, including computing. A programme of personal, social and health education supports the school’s equal emphasis on developing the pupils’ personal as well as academic skills. The community liaison member of staff, together with the learning mentor, does an outstanding job in helping pupils who need support, and their families. Pupils enjoy the ever-growing range of activities after school, such as cookery, jewellery and the eco club. The school is inclusive and provides well for all pupils. The bear words club, for example, is for those who most need to develop word skills. There is no discrimination within the school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Learning is regularly checked and information about pupils’ performance is used carefully to continue to raise attainment. New assessment systems are being planned carefully, following changes nationally on how pupils’ learning is to be evaluated.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The roles of subject leaders have increased significantly since the previous inspection and they strengthen the capacity of the school to be even better. They have a comprehensive understanding of performance in their subjects because they check it regularly and act on their findings. They provide a report to the governing body which probes their actions and performance.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school’s major priority is to continue strengthening the quality of teaching. Teachers’ individual performance targets reflect this. Almost all targets are very specific, measureable and challenging. Teachers have to meet all of their targets to be awarded a pay rise. The staff are provided with the training that they need to carry out their roles effectively.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted each day through the school’s routines and through learning. It includes British values, which are evident in the pupils’ positive attitudes to each other and their responses to questions about equality and fairness.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Additional sports funding is used imaginatively to provide the pupils with many opportunities to develop skills in a much greater range of activities, such as dance, gymnastics, rowing and handball and to provide all of the pupils with a sports kit, which they wear proudly. The school’s records show that the pupils’ performance has improved, as well as their confidence.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school’s work with a group of local primary schools benefits Morven Primary in the sharing of ideas including those about the curriculum and assessment. The school works hard to involve parents, such as by holding regular workshops to enable them to support their children’s learning. Most parents are very supportive of the school and agree that their children are taught well and are safe and happy. Parents are kept well-informed including through the website which includes a letter of thanks to the parents for their help in increasing their children’s attendance rates.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The local authority reviews the school’s performance and capacity yearly and evaluates it accurately as a good school with strong leadership. It does no more than this because the school continues to improve without needing its support. There has been no requirement to provide support for which the impact can be evaluated.  The school meets the statutory requirements for safeguarding. Policies and procedures are in place and are checked very regularly to help ensure that the pupils remain safe.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has a comprehensive knowledge of the school’s work and know how it can be even better. Members seem to look at everything and respond to what they see and hear, including the parents’ views.  They know that teaching is good and understand the role of performance targets in strengthening teaching. They have very high expectations of the staff.  The governors are able to challenge the school’s work confidently because they find out a great deal for themselves from senior and subject leaders, parents and pupils and from being in school. They meet with subject leaders to check for themselves the effectiveness of the departments and receive detailed reports from them. They know what data about the school is telling them about the achievement of different groups of pupils and question the headteacher strenuously about any inconsistencies in performance.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 They know the uses of pupil premium and its impact and are equally determined that it will help such pupils to have equal opportunities to develop both their academic and personal skills.  The budget is sound and spending monitored very regularly.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good because the school accepts nothing less.

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Behaviour

 The pupils want to learn so they settle down quickly in lessons and pay attention. They are keen to practise what they have learned and concentrate well on their work, whether working alone or in pairs or small groups.

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Behaviour

 On the very few occasions when teaching does not interest the pupils and work is too easy or too hard, it is harder for them to keep concentrating.

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Behaviour

 Breaks and lunchtimes are happy times during which the pupils interact well. The older pupils support the younger ones such as being buddies for them and organising playground activities.

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Behaviour

 Pupils like their school and treat it with respect. They keep their learning and eating areas tidy. They are proud of the displays of their work.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ good behaviour, consideration and support towards other pupils, and the help they give to other pupils, help them to develop good personal skills by the end of Year 6. Their good spiritual moral, social and cultural understanding is evident in their equal valuing of other pupils, whatever their values, beliefs and lifestyles, as they learn and play.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Parents agree that the school provides a happy and safe environment so that the pupils like coming to school.

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Safety

 The pupils say that the site is secure and that makes them feel safe.

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Safety

 The school makes sure that the pupils, from the time that they join the Nursery, understand the potential dangers that they may face. The pupils have an emerging good understanding that using the internet can have a positive and negative impact on their safety. Younger pupils know, for example, that they must not talk to strangers or run around in the classrooms.

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Safety

 All of the pupils are confident in the school’s arrangements to keep them safe, including if anyone is unkind to them. Bullying is rare because the school does not tolerate it and the pupils respond accordingly. The pupils know that all types of prejudice are wrong, including homophobia, and the school works with families to prevent discrimination and derogatory language.

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Safety

 Pupils’ above average attendance backs-up pupils’ good attitudes and the parents’ understanding of good attendance in helping their children to learn as well as they can. Persistent absenteeism has fallen and punctuality has improved.

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The quality of teaching is good

 A key factor in pupils’ good progress is their desire to achieve well. Teachers’ high expectations and positive relationships between teachers and pupils help them to do this.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Learning is also promoted very well by the bright, high quality environment. The school is full of displays of the pupils’ work, in corridors and classrooms. The playground, including the outdoor area in the Early Years Foundation Stage, is a riot of colour and full of resources that really make the pupils want to get involved and produce their best work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have good subject knowledge. They organise teaching and resources carefully so that the pupils know exactly what they have to know, understand and be able to do by the end of learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers check regularly that pupils understand what they have to do. They target their questions carefully to make sure that pupils of all abilities are learning well. In Year 1, the teacher realised quickly that a group of pupils was unclear about how to proceed in number pairings and adapted her teaching accordingly. The pupils made good progress because of the additional teaching.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The pupils get many opportunities to write, including at length, reflecting the school’s good focus on literacy. They enjoy it most when they write for an interesting reason, such as when applying to be a buddy to younger pupils. Pupils read regularly and often.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Marking helps pupils to quicken their progress because it tells them what they know well and what to do next. Teachers expect the pupils to make any corrections that they highlight, which remind them of what they have recently learned.

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The quality of teaching is good

 All pupils have homework, including the children in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Year 5 pupils spoke enthusiastically of the homework that they had been given to make a rocket.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Activities, overall, enable the pupils to learn as well as possible. However, in mathematics, teaching has not encouraged the most-able pupils to use the skills they know in a wide range of situations.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching assistants, led very capably by a senior teaching assistant, provide effective support to groups of pupils because they know what pupils need to learn. They explain learning very clearly.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In this good and improving school the attainment at the end of both the Early Years Foundation Stage and at the end of Key Stage 1 are rising. All groups of pupils make good progress from the Early Years Foundation Stage and pupils’ standards at the end of Key Stage 1 are now the same as those nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Progress in Key Stage 2 is good but attainment reflects their lower attainment levels when they entered Key Stage 2.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 From their individual starting points, pupils make good progress throughout the school, in reading, writing and mathematics. This is because teaching is good and sometimes outstanding. Standards are average in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6 over time and improving further in reading and writing.  The proportion of pupils making expected and better than expected progress from their individual starting points is consistently above average.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Over time, standards in mathematics have been very similar to those in reading and writing through the school. However, they dipped last year in Year 6 because not enough pupils expected to reach higher levels in mathematics did so. They did not have sufficient skills to use what they had learned in solving problems. The school is acting swiftly to address this, including teaching those pupils expected to achieve higher levels, separately.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Year 6 pupils’ grammar, punctuation and spelling skills also dipped last year in the percentage reaching the expected levels because of the inconsistency in approach throughout the school in the expectations of the quality of presentation of pupils’ work, their handwriting and the teaching of spelling. The school is giving more time each day for pupils to strengthen these skills but there is not yet a whole school approach.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The proportion of pupils reaching the required standards in the Year 1 screening check in phonics (the sounds that letters make) is average, with standards rising in line with nationally. Pupils read regularly. Those pupils who have difficulties in reading achieve well because the support staff know their specific needs and make sure that they practise them repeatedly.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Throughout the school, there is an equal focus on the achievement of disadvantaged pupils who make significant progress due to carefully constructed activities, support for reading, writing and number skills and breakfast each day. The two-term gap in standards in reading, writing and mathematics in 2013 between those receiving the funding and those not has narrowed so that there is no gap in reading, writing and mathematics. The attainment of disadvantaged pupils is better than that of disadvantaged pupils nationally in reading and mathematics and in line and improving in writing.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make better than expected progress because their needs are well met. Boys and girls, and those who speak English as an additional language, also achieve well due to effective teaching and support based on pupils’ individual needs, and tasks that motivate them.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils achieve well in reading and writing. Opportunities to extend their skills ensure this.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children join the Nursery classes with levels of knowledge and skills that are well below those that are typical for their age. Boys’ skills are lower than those of the girls but the gap narrows quickly because of fascinating activities and very good teaching.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The staff know the children’s needs and interests when they start in the Nursery classes because they have met with their parents. They plan learning, in and outdoors, to encourage the children to be curious, to explore and to ask questions. This is one aspect of the excellent leadership and management of the Early Years Foundation Stage. The topic about the farm has fascinated them and enabled them to develop their skills very well in all areas of learning, including in their drawing skills and using their imagination.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Different groups of children learn similarly well, including boys and girls, disabled children and those who have special educational needs and disadvantaged children. The most-able pupils also learn and develop well because of the range of resources and the attention given to them by their key workers.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The children make significant gains in all of the seven areas of learning, including communication and language skills. The proportion of children achieving good levels of development rose significantly this year and is much closer to that nationally.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 There is a very welcoming, happy and calm atmosphere in the Nursery and Reception classes. The staff model their expectations of the children’s behaviour and the children learn to mix well, to share, and to behave safely and kindly.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The staff make sure that every activity encourages the children to practise speaking and listening. The children develop quickly their understanding of phonics and use their skills increasingly to support their reading and writing skills. Children achieve very well and outstandingly so in their writing. Many are able to write sentences by the end of the stage.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The staff work well together very productively and understand the leaders’ high expectations. They keep detailed and regular records of their learning and development so that the children’s learning continues to be rapid.

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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 122717 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 448689

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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 480 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Alison Dowsing Headteacher Mark Watson Date of previous school inspection 9 February 2010 Telephone number 01623 459395 Fax number 01623 459395 Email address office@morvenpark.notts.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

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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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