Priestsic Primary and Nursery School

Priestsic Primary and Nursery School Park Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, NG17 4BB

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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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This is a good school

 The strong leadership of the two headteachers, subject and other leaders has ensured that teaching is good. Some teaching, particularly in Year 2 and Year 6, is outstanding.  Pupils achieve well: they make good progress from their starting points.  In 2014 standards in reading, writing, and mathematics, based on pupils’ good progress, reached broadly average. This was due to the innovative teaching that pupils received.  Pupils behave well and this makes a significant contribution to pupils’ learning and personal development.  Pupils show their whole-hearted support for the school through their above-average attendance.  Pupils and adults are respectful and get on well together. Pupils are excited about their learning and keen to take part in lessons. They say they are proud of their school and feel very safe.  Senior leaders, including governors, have created a staff team that are working together well to raise

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This is a good school

the pupils’ performance even further.  Governors are well informed and both supportive and challenging to school leaders.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Over time, there have been inconsistencies in pupils’ achievement in some areas of the school, especially for the most able in reading.  In some classes, when teachers mark work, they do not give clear advice about how pupils can improve their work and teachers do not check that pupils act upon that advice.  Opportunities to practice reading and writing skills outdoors is not yet fully supporting children’s’ communication and language skills of children in early years.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 26 lessons or part lessons, as well as one assembly. Six lessons were jointly observed with the two headteachers. In addition, inspectors made a number of short visits to lessons and observed pupils being taught in small groups.  One inspector visited the school’s breakfast club.  The inspectors compared the work pupils were doing with the work they have done in their books this year. Inspectors talked to pupils about their work and how well they were doing. They also discussed pupils’ views about behaviour and how safe pupils feel. Inspectors listened to pupils reading.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils, and with members of the governing body and senior staff. A telephone call was made to a representative from the local authority.  The inspection team observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s information on pupils’ progress for the previous two years and current pupils’ achievement. They

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Information about this inspection

also looked at plans to bring about further school improvement, policies and records relating to behaviour, safety and attendance. The school’s safeguarding procedures were also evaluated.  The responses from 29 parents to the online questionnaire (Parent View) were considered and the inspectors talked to parents during the inspection.  The 21 responses to a questionnaire for staff were reviewed.

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Inspection team

Michael Wintle, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Priestsic Primary is a larger than average-sized primary school.  The vast majority of pupils are White British.  At around 40%, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are eligible for support through the pupil premium is well above average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs and are supported through school action is above average, at nearly 15%. At around 6%, the proportion of pupils supported through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is below average.  In 2014, the school met the government’s floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  There are two headteachers who have been in post since September 2010 and jointly lead the school.

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Information about this school

 The school runs a pre-school breakfast club.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to further raise standards and rates of pupils’ progress by:  improving the consistency of marking so that pupils know clearly how to make their work better and that they act on the advice given to them by their teachers  ensuring that the tasks set enable the most able to always make progress at a good rate and in all subjects  better promotion of children’s communication and language development in early years by extending their opportunities for reading and writing in the outdoor learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leadership and management are good. The two headteachers lead the school well. They have a thorough understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. The headteachers have developed an effective team of subject leaders and, together, they have identified the issues facing the school and ensured that any weak teaching is tackled quickly. Morale in the school is high.

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The leadership and management are good

 Teaching has continued to improve since the previous inspection. Leaders regularly check the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers’ targets are robust and based on pupils’ progress. They are appropriately linked to training and to teachers’ salary progression.

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The leadership and management are good

 Subject and other leaders provide increasingly effective leadership in their subjects and areas of responsibility. An example of this is the quick and effective actions leaders have taken to address the fall in the number of most-able readers making good progress in 2014.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school’s plans for improvement concentrate on the right areas and provide an accurate view of the school. The school’s tracking systems to support pupils’ achievement are robust and support fully current pupils making good progress in all areas of their work. This is especially true of the progress made by disadvantaged pupils.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school’s curriculum is good. Pupils are given many opportunities to develop their skills across a range of subjects. Teachers provide exciting opportunities for pupils to gather information. Visitors to the school contribute well to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. During the inspection, a number of Year 4 pupils were involved with a horticulturalist outside in the school garden. They had grown pumpkins and were making pumpkin soup and cooking it on an open fire. Engagement was high and pupils talked excitedly with each other about their learning. One pupil said to the inspector that he ‘had just eaten his work’.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school is committed to equality of opportunity for all its pupils and ensures that discrimination is not tolerated. As a result, pupils of all abilities benefit from good-quality teaching and learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The primary school sports funding is used to good effect. More pupils enjoy taking part in physical education and sports competitions, which benefits their health and well-being. These include cross country and athletic competitions. There have been increased opportunities for pupils to swim and whole-school skipping workshops have been organised.

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The leadership and management are good

 Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school and say that their children are happy and safe. Arrangements for safeguarding pupils and child-protection meet statutory requirements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority provides light-touch support for this good school. In previous years, teachers at the school have supported other schools in the local authority.  The governance of the school:  Governors know the school well because they are well informed and spend time in school reviewing documents, systems and looking at the learning. An example of this is spending time with school leaders on the ‘late gate’. This has helped to reduce the number of pupils arriving late for school.  Governors know the quality of teaching across the school. They are not afraid to ask challenging questions or to make difficult decisions and especially relating to the quality of teaching. Governors make sure that the school’s finances are used well; for instance, to improve the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. As a result, attainment gaps have narrowed considerably. Governors make sure that any decisions about the level of pay awarded to teachers takes into account the quality of teaching

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The leadership and management are good

and their wider contribution to the school.  Governors carry out their statutory duties well, and make sure that they meet all legal requirements with regard to keeping everyone safe.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are keen to work hard and they enjoy the topics teachers prepare for them to study. Attitudes to learning are good. Around school, they are sensible, polite and kind to one another.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are keen to get on in lessons and little learning time is lost. Pupils trust their teachers, and relationships between pupils and adults are good. Pupils work well together; for example, during the inspection, younger pupils were keen to share their ideas about using and understanding standard measures. Similarly, older pupils were keen to work with a partner to develop a character’s personality from a class storybook on The Water Tower.

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Behaviour

 Adults use the agreed approaches for managing behaviour well, so that pupils know exactly what the school expects of them. This is true in early years right through to Year 6. The leaders of the school have been effective in introducing ‘The Priestsic Promise’ which fully explains to all pupils the expectations that adults have for their pupils. Pupils of all ages say that this helps them manage their good behaviour.

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Behaviour

 Pupils take their responsibilities very seriously and are proud to be a school council member, a Year 5 playground pal or a sports ambassador. Their enthusiasm is reflected in their above-average attendance. Attendance has improved significantly since the last inspection and especially since 2013.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. There are robust systems and routines in place to keep pupils safe and help them feel secure. Pupils understand how saying hurtful words can upset people.

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Safety

 Pupils say that they feel safe inside the school grounds. The online Parent View survey shows all parents who responded said that their child felt safe in school.

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Safety

 Safeguarding training has been provided for all staff and is regularly updated. Policies have recently been reviewed.

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Safety

 Pupils have a clear understanding of most types of bullying, including cyber-bullying, and the risks they might face in their everyday lives. Discrimination in any form is not tolerated and incidents of bullying are dealt with very effectively by all adults in the school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Good-quality relationships with pupils and high expectations are key components of the good-quality teaching in the school. This is especially so in Year 2 and Year 6 where teaching is often outstanding because learning is always exciting and pupils make good gains with their learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is good and sometimes outstanding. Evidence from observations during the inspection, work seen in pupils’ books, displays around the school, especially with regard to writing skills, parents’ views and the school’s own achievement records support this judgement. Current pupils’ progress is good in all areas of learning and especially mathematics.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils enjoy reading and say there is a good range of books in school to choose. Reading skills are good because younger pupils are given lots of opportunities to learn about the sounds letters make. In a Year 2 reading activity on The Great Fire of London, pupils sounded out tricky works with confidence and were keen to show off their reading skills to their classmates. Older pupils understand how to try to read unfamiliar words and have good attitudes to their reading. One Year 6 pupils said to an inspector, ‘I love reading. I read a lot.’

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils help each other to learn and discuss their work with good understanding of what they are learning. In a Key Stage 1 mathematics lesson on measurement and problem solving, pupils competently supported each other to discuss and understand complex word problems. Pupils were using good mathematical language to talk about their work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers work closely with teaching assistants. Teaching assistants are confident and trained well, which enables them to take the initiative in class or in other support activities outside the classroom. This has a valuable impact on pupils’ learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers make sure that pupils know the level of their work and have clear and well-understood targets which help them reach the next stage in learning. This has had a strong impact on helping pupils make good progress. However, there is some inconsistency in the quality of marking. Some teachers do not always make it clear to pupils how they can improve their work nor do they check that pupils to upon the advice they are given.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff use their subject knowledge well to question pupils effectively in order to deepen their thinking. This has the effect of increasing opportunities for pupils to talk about their learning. However, sometimes work set for the most able is too easy. As a result, some of them do not fully test themselves or move on with their learning as quickly as they could. This is especially true with reading where sometimes pupils’ books lacked challenge.

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is good

 Children who enter early years with very different skills and knowledge typical for their age and especially in their communication and language skills. They make good progress across all areas of learning and often outstanding progress in their personal and social development. By the time the children leave Reception they have good levels of development in all areas and are above national averages.

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is good

 Pupils make good progress overall and, by the end of each key stage, are very well prepared for their next stage of their education.

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is good

 Pupils’ books and the school’s very accurate information about pupils’ learning overtime show the majority of pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics leading to standards that are at least in line nationally by the time they leave Year 6. In 2014 national tests, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected level 4 in reading, writing and mathematics was close to that found nationally. The school’s own data indicates that the current Year 6 is on track to attain nationally expected standards in English and mathematics.

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is good

 In some year groups across the school, the progress of the most able pupils is not as strong as it might be because the work set for them to do is not always challenging enough, especially in reading. However, the most able make consistently good progress in writing and mathematics.

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is good

 In 2014, the proportion of pupils who reached the expected standard in the Year 1 national phonics check was below average for the first time. The proportion that will reach the expected standard is expected to rise in 2015 because of good teaching.

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is good

 Standards in mathematics are good. In 2014, 90% of pupils reached the expected standards and half of them achieve the higher Level 5. This is well above average. This is because of a good focus on calculation, mathematical language and problem solving.

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is good

 The standards reached by disadvantaged pupils at the end of Year 6 in 2014 though slightly below their classmates confirm that gaps have considerably closed. In many cases disadvantaged pupils now outperform other pupils in areas across the school. In 2014, eighty three percent of disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 achieved Level 4 in their reading, writing and mathematics combined, which was significantly above national averages of sixty seven percent. 90 percent of all pupils attained the same level and the gap of seven percent has fallen considerably since 2012.

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is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs achieve well. This is because the staff have a very clear awareness of the precise needs of these pupils and provide support that helps these pupils to achieve, especially in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The early years provision is good

 Children make a very settled start to their schooling because rules and routines are well established. Children make good progress across the early years from their very different starting points. They achieve a good level development which is above the national average and are well prepared for their next stage in their education and life in Year 1.

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The early years provision is good

 All staff have a good understanding of how children learn and they plan exciting activities, especially inside the classrooms. Four children were busy exploring old computer boxes with relish. They screwed down objects and tightened up nuts and bolts. Role play was strong, with all children wearing safety goggles and becoming confident ‘engineers’. Children played well with each other and had quickly established good relationships with one another. This contributes to their good spiritual, moral and social development.

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The early years provision is good

 In classrooms, the development of communication and language is strong and fully encouraged by skilled staff. There is wide access to a range of books, opportunities to write, regular story sessions and work on letters and sounds that promote reading development and a love of books. As a result, children’s development in reading and writing is good and well above the national average. Progress could be even quicker in developing children’s language skills if there was a greater emphasis by adults of increasing the communication and language focus outside. Even more books and more opportunities for children to read and mark make would increase their speaking and listening skills even faster.

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The early years provision is good

 Children make good progress in developing their physical skills. There are many opportunities where they run, jump, balance and explore, both indoors and outside. This is because activities are well planned by adults that model good learning. Disabled children and those who have special educational needs make good progress in early years because their needs are quickly identified and they are provided with effective support.

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The early years provision is good

 Leadership in early years is good. Leaders have a good understanding of the particular learning needs of all children and, as a result, ensure that adults are carefully positioned so that they can fully support the learning. Leaders have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities and consistently ensure that the provision meets safeguarding 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 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 122468 Local authority Nottinghamshire Inspection number 449185

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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 Catherine Ellis Headteacher Tracey Riley and Sarah Stamp Date of previous school inspection 24 May 2011 Telephone number 01623 465705 Fax number N/A Email address head@priestsic.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

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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