St Chad's CofE (VC) First School

St Chad's CofE (VC) First School Westbeech Road, Pattingham, Wolverhampton, WV6 7AQ

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Overall effectiveness

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

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

 Achievement requires improvement because although pupils make expected progress in Key Stage 1 in mathematics and writing not enough pupils make good progress.  By the end of Year 4, too few pupils are working above the levels expected for their age in mathematics. This is because teachers do not have high expectations of more able pupils. Planning and teachers’ questions are not used effectively to assist pupils to apply their skills.  Teachers do not check or guide the work pupils do on their own well enough to accelerate their progress in lessons.  Marking is not used consistently well to support pupils’ progress.  Data on pupils’ progress is not analysed sharply enough. This prevents subject leaders from acquiring an accurate view of pupils’ achievement over Key Stages 1 and 2. It reduces the school’s capacity to set challenging targets for pupils.  Leaders, including governors, have not improved teaching and achievement successfully. Not all

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

leaders are held effectively accountable for pupils’ progress.  Some evaluations of the quality of teaching are over-generous. This means that aspects of staff’s practice and pupils’ skills that require improvement are not tackled quickly enough.

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The school has the following strengths

 Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage achieve well, because of good teaching.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are well supported and make good progress.  Pupils achieve well in reading in Years 1 to 4 and their attainment in Year 4 rose this year.  There have been some recent improvements in the teaching of writing.  Pupils are keen to learn and behave well. Attendance is well above average. Pupils feel very secure in school due to the school’s outstanding arrangements for keeping them safe.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching during visits to classrooms to check on pupils’ learning. All teachers were seen twice. On two visits, they were accompanied by the headteacher.  A range of pupils in Years 2 and 4 were heard reading.  Samples of pupils’ work were looked at.  Meetings were held with school staff, a group of pupils and three members of the governing body. A telephone conversation was held with a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the six questionnaires completed by staff and the 63 responses made by parents to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. An inspector spoke informally to some parents during the inspection.  Inspectors checked a range of evidence including: monitoring records; consultants’ reports; the school improvement plan; the school’s own data on pupils’ attainment and progress; and policies, procedures and practice relating to safeguarding, behaviour and attendance.

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Inspection team

Derek Aitken, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than most primary schools. Most pupils come from the village of Pattingham and the surrounding hamlets.  The school’s part-time Nursery operates in the mornings. Reception children attend on a full-time basis. The school also offers some extended services, including ‘Huggy Bears Wraparound Club’ for children of pre-Nursery age. This provision is managed by the governing body but is separately inspected.  Around nine in ten pupils are from White British backgrounds and the remaining pupils are from various minority ethnic backgrounds.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium, which is additional funding for pupils previously known to be eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority, is below average at about one in seven.  At around one in five, the proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is

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Information about this school

slightly above average.  The headteacher also acts as the special educational needs coordinator. She is also currently overseeing the work of the Early Years Foundation Stage due to absence of its coordinator.  The new Chair of the Governing Body took up post in September 2014.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make teaching consistently good or better, and so improve progress and standards by ensuring that:  teachers step in regularly to assess pupils’ understanding when they are working on their own and use this information to move their learning on quickly  teachers use marking well to support pupils’ progress  teachers always provide the most-able pupils with work that makes them think hard and learn as quickly as they can  teachers and subject leaders set challenging targets for pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise pupils’ achievement in mathematics by ensuring that all teachers:  take careful account of what pupils already know and can do when planning lessons so that learning builds systematically on previous understanding  question pupils well to develop their command of mathematical language and to help them to explain their strategies for carrying out their calculations  provide pupils with good opportunities for applying their skills in practical situations.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, by ensuring that:  leaders acquire a very accurate view of pupils’ achievement and all leaders are more accountable for driving school improvement  leaders check the quality of teaching more rigorously to identify training needs, to improve staff’s performance and to raise pupils’ achievement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Teaching and achievement declined in the last few years . Although actions which have been taken by the headteacher and staff are starting to improve teaching and raise achievement, they are not enabling rapid improvements to be made in all areas of the school’s work.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school collects a lot of data on pupils’ performance. The headteacher’s responsibilities for checking the school’s work are wide-ranging. Some of her judgements of how well pupils attain at the end of Year 2 and, especially, at the end of Year 4, are not totally accurate. Consequently, they do not enable senior leaders to assess precisely how well pupils achieve across Years 1 to 4. Leaders of key subjects do not always analyse this data to help them to monitor standards tightly and to drive improvement. Targets for the attainment of pupils by the end of Year 2 are a not as challenging as they could be.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Although suitable arrangements have been made for appraising staff’s performance, judgements about the quality of teaching, based, for example, on the headteacher’s lesson observations and work scrutiny, they do not always pinpoint sharply what teachers and pupils need to do next to improve their skills.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority’s contribution to school self-evaluation has been ineffective, partly because termly visits by its personnel have been confined mainly to examination of the school’s data. Little attention has been paid to gathering first-hand evidence of the quality of other parts of the school’s work, such as the impact of teaching on pupils’ work.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Staff have made concerted efforts to improve pupils’ writing skills. There is evidence of the impact of training for example, in the higher proportion of pupils in Year 2 in 2014 who achieved Level 3, and in pupils’ work in the current Year 4 class, but this improvement is not fully established across the school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher, in her capacity of special educational needs coordinator, together with her assistant, directs support for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs very effectively. Pupils’ needs are identified and acted upon quickly, with the support of outside agencies as required.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders have decided on their preferred form of assessment following withdrawal of National Curriculum levels and are working effectively on their plans to implement it.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school ensures that there is no discrimination and promotes equal opportunities well. Pupils whose circumstances might make them vulnerable are well supported. Pupil premium funding has been used effectively to reduce gaps in attainment for disadvantaged pupils.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school’s curriculum uses the resources of the local community, surrounding area and links made through the diocese, well. It provides pupils with many enjoyable experiences which develop their knowledge and citizenship qualities and prepares them well for life in modern Britain. The school’s informative website provides parents with copious advice and guidance. It includes curriculum handbooks and support packs to enable parents to contribute to their children’s studies. Adult volunteers regularly hear pupils reading.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school’s leadership has created a welcoming and happy school. There are many strengths in the ways the school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It acquaints pupils with diverse faiths and religious celebrations. Pupils learn about democracy through conducting secret ballots to elect school councillors and the lives of peoples in under-developed societies, for example, through the link the school has established with its Kenyan partner school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 National sports funding has been spent appropriately. These monies have been spent, for example, to improve staff’s expertise in teaching physical education, to develop the range of after-school sports activities and to subsidise transport to competitions. This has resulted in more pupils participating in sporting activities.  The governance of the school:  Through their committees governors have taken some tough decisions to ensure that the school can accommodate the demands of the new curriculum, for example, in music and computing. They have been fully involved in determining how to spend national sports funding.  Over the past year, governors have improved their capacity to hold the headteacher to account for pupils’ performance. Three governors have undertaken data training. Governors’ minutes show that governors asked the headteacher some searching questions about the achievement of Year 2 pupils

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The leadership and management requires improvement

and, how well prepared the staff are for assessing pupils without levels. Their work has been given extra impetus and focus through the appointment of a retired headteacher as the new chair. They have undertaken a skills audit to provide a list of skills and expertise to guide the next phase in the development of the governing body.  Governors know how pupils’ attainment in Year 2 compares to national standards. They know that pupils do less well in mathematics in Key Stage 2. Governors understand and review the strategies used to support disadvantaged pupils and know where the use of this funding has had most impact.  Governors are knowledgeable about the actions the headteacher has taken to improve the impact of teaching. They are beginning to understand how staff’s performance is managed and underachievement is tackled as well as why staff are promoted.  Governors ensure that current government requirements for safeguarding are fully met and that

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The leadership and management requires improvement

safeguarding arrangements are effective.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. The vast majority of pupils behave impeccably in assemblies, in the dinner hall and in the corridors. In these areas, pupils demonstrate high standards of self-discipline and courtesy towards each other.

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Behaviour

 Pupils know each other well, partly due the close relationships they form in after-school clubs and in village activities. They are kind, considerate and play well together, sharing resources willingly. They relate well to the staff and follow their guidance and instructions promptly.

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Behaviour

 Themes explored in assemblies develop in pupils a keen awareness of global and environmental issues. Pupils’ verbal responses show that they are well informed about, and have reflected sensitively on, sustainable development and similar matters.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are willing learners, enjoy working with each other and are keen to please their teachers. They settle quickly to the tasks teachers set them. On occasion, their enthusiasm and resilience flag a little. This happens, for example, when they need re-assurance from the teachers and approach them individually to help them to overcome their uncertainty in how to proceed with tasks or to check their work.

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Behaviour

 Parents have very few concerns with behaviour and the school’s records show that incidents of untoward behaviour are rare and are relatively minor. At the previous inspection, a significant proportion of pupils expressed some concern with behaviour. Pupils now report that nearly all pupils behave well in lessons and that staff manage the few pupils who need reminders about their behaviour appropriately. There have been no exclusions in the last three years.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils are well supervised on the site. Numerous awards such as ‘star of the week’ show that staff value pupils’ efforts. These awards provide pupils with every incentive to behave well, to treat each other with respect and to try hard. The school’s house system encourages a strong spirit of togetherness where everyone looks out for each other.

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Safety

 Pupils feel very safe in school. They are well aware of strategies for keeping themselves and others safe and understand what constitute potentially unsafe situations, for example in the vicinity of roads and building works. They are especially aware of the importance of healthy lifestyles and aspects of e-safety, such as the need for password protection. Year 4 play leaders devise and supervise interesting activities to occupy younger pupils at break-times.  The school’s work to alert pupils to the dangers of bullying is recognised through its award of the Staffordshire Anti-Bullying Pledge. Pupils are aware of different types of bullying, but have rarely experienced any form of it in school. They report that staff deal with isolated incidents of this kind very effectively.

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Safety

 Case studies show swift, detailed and effective responses to the pastoral and academic needs of vulnerable pupils. Safeguarding procedures are comprehensive, rigorous and robust. Relevant staff have safer recruitment training. All staff have received emergency response training.

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Safety

 Staff monitor attendance closely and make successful use of a range of strategies, including rewards, to improve the attendance and punctuality of individual pupils. Attendance rose last year and remains well above average.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Over time, teaching has not been consistent enough to ensure that pupils achieve well. Teaching is less effective in mathematics.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers manage pupils well and usually provide them with work that they enjoy. They use computer programmes or video clips on historical topics well to capture pupils’ interest, to illustrate new learning and to prepare pupils for their writing tasks. However, the activities teachers provide, especially in mathematics, are not always solidly based on previous learning or precisely focused on the skills pupils need to acquire next.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Although lessons get off to a brisk start, teachers often do not review the work pupils do on their own in a timely way to sustain pupils’ work-rate, to assess their understanding, and to re-direct the work of the class. On these occasions, pupils are not able to show whether they have clearly understood new learning and whether they can confidently move on to the next task.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers do not consistently have high enough expectations for what the most-able pupils can achieve. Some of the tasks that they give them repeat what they already know and can do, and do not ensure that they think hard and make rapid progress.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Mathematical skills are sometimes not taught well. On a few occasions, gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not tackled well enough. Teachers sometimes make limited use of questioning to develop pupils’ command of mathematical language or to help them to explain their strategies for carrying out calculations. Pupils have insufficient opportunities to apply their knowledge in practical situations.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Writing skills are usually taught effectively. Pupils have good opportunities to write for a range of purposes and teachers link pupils’ writing tasks well to the interesting topics which pupils study in other subjects, such as history and geography.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Early reading skills are taught well and this enables pupils to master sounds which are spelt differently, to locate them quickly in short paragraphs and to build up their fluency in reading.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Pupils and staff usually complete assessment checklists at the end of each piece of work to provide pupils with some indication of how well they are doing. Marking is regular, but variable in quantity and quality and does not enable pupils to improve the standard of their work quickly.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Since the previous inspection, attainment has dipped a little at the end of Years 2 and 4. Attainment at the end of Year 4 in 2013 was in line with that expected for that age in reading, writing and mathematics. Attainment rose a little in 2014 but remained unchanged in mathematics. Attainment overall at the end of Year 2 has varied slightly in the last two years, dependent on the nature of the cohort, but has been broadly average.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 From their starting points at the start of Year 1, not enough pupils make good progress in mathematics. Year 4 targets in mathematics were not met fully in 2014. Some pupils in Year 2 make mistakes in their calculations because they confuse subtractions and additions. Year 4 pupils calculate correctly but have limited opportunities to apply their knowledge in practical contexts, investigative tasks or in other subjects. Progress in writing is now more secure, especially in Year 4, but teachers’ marking does not provide pupils with good opportunities to edit their work and to avoid repeating mistakes.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The most-able pupils do not do as well as they could, especially in mathematics. These pupils in Year 2 have some difficulties solving calculations involving word problems. Although their good reading skills enable them to understand the tasks set, they sometimes find it hard to determine which is the larger of two two-digit numbers, or to transfer pounds into pence. In Year 4, the most-able pupils are not moved on quickly enough to more challenging work.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils achieve well in reading. Attainment in reading, including those from minority ethnic groups is consistently higher in Years 1 to 4 than in mathematics. Pupils’ good general knowledge and their enthusiasm for reading, for example, on historical topics, support the development of their reading skills well. Pupils’ reading records show that parents listen very regularly to their children reading at home and provide useful feedback to help staff to decide what pupils should read next.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Results in the Year 1 screening check for phonics (the sounds that letters make) have improved steadily in the last two years and were, once again, are above average in 2014. Less-able Year 2 pupils read competently and often with suitably varied expression to highlight emphases in texts. They know how to split up and combine the sounds of tricky words and some use picture clues expertly to help them to grasp meanings.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs achieve well. Their individual educational plans are detailed and tightly focused. Most of these pupils have speech and language difficulties; intensive support by well-trained staff, regular scrutiny of home-school diaries and meetings with parents ensure these pupils’ good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Support programmes and computer resources have accelerated the progress of disadvantaged pupils. Most of these pupils are making faster progress than their classmates. While gaps in attainment have not yet closed, they are reducing quickly.

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The early years provision is good

 Children’s skills and knowledge when they join Nursery are typical for their age. The percentage of children in the Reception class who reached a good level of development in 2014 was above the national average. While this cohort of children was particularly able, in recent years, pupils’ standards on entry to Year 1 have been a little closer to the average.

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The early years provision is good

 They are well prepared to move into Key Stage 1. Progress is quicker in Nursery and Reception because over time, teaching has been consistently better in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Children concentrate and behave well. They are keen to learn new skills because staff manage them with positive comments and their enthusiasm for learning new things.

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The early years provision is good

 Nursery children benefit from a good range of tasks which develop their number and fine motor skills and creativity well. Children approach these tasks confidently and can explain what they are doing and why they are doing it. Staff support children’s language development well through praise and questioning. They encourage children to use sophisticated language, such as ‘medium’ and ‘patchwork,’ in their descriptions of objects. Staff guide children skilfully to make decisions, as was observed, for example, when children sorted groups of elephants according to shape, colour and size.

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The early years provision is good

 Staff record children’s achievements regularly and thoroughly. They usually use these observations carefully to tackle weaknesses in individual children’s skills and to plan suitable class activities. However, on a few occasions, for example, in Reception, tasks do not build effectively on children’s prior learning and lack challenge for more-able children. Staff are sometimes slow to intervene when children have exhausted all the possibilities of an activity to re-direct their learning.

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The early years provision is good

 The curriculum is well led by the coordinator. The programmes have depth and breadth across the areas of learning and provide stimulating experiences which children enjoy. Children are motivated and interested in their work. They listen and respond carefully, cooperate readily and require little prompting to tidy away resources. Nursery children demonstrate a good capacity for logical thinking through their ability to follow detailed instructions.

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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 124269 Local authority Staffordshire Inspection number 448918

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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 First School category Voluntary controlled Age range of pupils 3-9 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 156 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Morgan Headteacher Sarah Yeomans Date of previous school inspection 21 June 2010 Telephone number 01902 700372 Fax number 01902 700372 Email address office@st-chads-pattingham.staffs.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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