Brockley Primary School

Brockley Primary School Clowne Road, Shuttlewood, Chesterfield, S44 6AF

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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 Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Early years provision Requires improvement 3

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

 The progress pupils make is not good enough. It is broadly as expected in all year groups and subjects. It dipped markedly in mathematics in Year 6 in 2014. Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough.  Teaching is not consistently good enough to accelerate pupils’ progress.  Gaps between disadvantaged pupils’ attainment and that of other pupils nationally have yet to show signs of being closed in reading, mathematics and writing, including grammar, punctuation and spelling.  Senior and subject leadership and leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage have not been focused enough on securing improvements in teaching and pupils’ learning.  Pupils have few opportunities to use their writing skills in other subjects. They rarely produce longer pieces of writing.  Pupils’ mental calculation skills are not good enough to support their learning in mathematics.  Pupils’ behaviour is not always managed

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

consistently in lessons and between classes. Sometimes pupils talk to their classmates rather than listening to their teacher or getting on with their work.  Information about how well pupils are doing is not used well enough to plan work that helps them to move on quickly with their learning. Pupils sometimes find work too easy, or too hard.  Marking does not challenge pupils to improve their handwriting or the presentation of their work.  There are not good enough systems to teach reading and the grammar, punctuation and spelling aspects of writing.  Early years provision requires improvement. The activities planned do not always help children to make good progress.  The governing body has been through a period of change and is beginning to get to grips with the school. Governors are not yet fully involved in the school improvement process.

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The school has the following strengths

 Attendance is above average. Pupils enjoy coming to school and want to learn.  Pupils feel safe and well looked after in school. They have a good understanding of keeping themselves safe.  Pupils behave well outside class and willingly take on responsibilities.  The school’s support staff work very closely with teachers. They provide good support for pupils who need extra help with their learning.  Action taken to improve phonics (the sounds that letters make) in Year 1 has been successful.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector visited nine lessons, three of which were observed jointly with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with staff, school leaders, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  Account was taken of the 11 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and of the school’s own parent questionnaire, and of the views of those parents spoken to during the inspection.  Sixteen staff questionnaires were considered.  A range of documents were scrutinised, including behaviour and incident logs, the school self-evaluation, action plans and school performance information.  The inspector listened to pupils read and talked to them about their work and views of the school. Pupils’ behaviour was observed at break and lunchtime, as well as during lessons and assembly.

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Inspection team

Alison Cogher, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is a smaller than average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, about one in eight, is below average.  Just over one third of pupils are supported by the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in local authority care. This is above the national average.  Nearly all pupils are of White British heritage.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress by the end of Year 6.  Early Years provision at the school is made through a part-time Nursery and full-time Reception class.  There have been staffing changes since the last inspection including that of the headteacher. During the autumn term 2014 the school was supported by an executive headteacher. At the time of the inspection

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Information about this school

the new headteacher had been in post for 12 days.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Secure consistently good teaching so pupils make good progress in reading, mathematics and writing including the aspects of grammar, punctuation and spelling by:  having consistently high expectations of what all pupils can achieve  making better use of assessment information to ensure that pupils’ work is not too hard or too easy  ensuring that reading, and grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught in a systematic way throughout the school  providing pupils with the opportunity to write longer pieces of work and to practise their writing skills in other subjects  ensuring pupils develop good mental calculation skills  making sure that marking challenges pupils to improve their handwriting and the general presentation of their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:  clarifying the responsibilities for and processes involved in monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching  ensuring that subject leaders have the skills, understanding and confidence to bring about improvements to the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress  developing the confidence and skills of the governing body further to enable them to contribute fully to the school improvement process  ensuring that low level disruption is eradicated in lessons, through the consistent implementation of the school’s behaviour management policy.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage so that:  assessment information is better used to improve teaching, identify next steps for children and to modify activities to help them progress quickly in their learning.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders’ roles in the school are not well defined and the process for checking on the quality of teaching and the progress pupils are making is not systematic. The focus on securing improvements in teaching has not been sharp enough to ensure that it is consistently good so that pupils make good progress year on year.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The leadership of English and mathematics has not ensured that whole school procedures for teaching reading, writing and mathematics are supporting pupils systematically to improve their knowledge, skills and understanding.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Arrangements made to support disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are well structured to ensure their needs are met in and out of the classroom.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school is committed to ensuring all pupils have an equal opportunity to achieve as well as they can and discrimination of any kind is not tolerated. However, the way the school has used the pupil premium funding to help disadvantaged pupils attain as well as other pupils at the school and nationally has not been effective.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The new headteacher has been quick to identify the steps that the school needs to take to improve swiftly. She has high expectations for pupils and staff. Staff commitment to the school is strong and they are keen to secure improvement.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Recently introduced arrangements for managing pupils’ behaviour have been well received by staff and pupils and are beginning to impact on pupils’ learning and personal development.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The primary sports funding has increased opportunities for pupils to engage in competitive sport with other schools, and the range of sporting activities they can engage in. The employment of a qualified sports coach has ensured pupils receive good-quality physical education lessons and has also provided professional development for teachers.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The school has implemented the new National Curriculum. There are strengths in the school’s support for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and the way it prepares pupils for life in modern Britain. Tolerance, respect and the skills of cooperation and collaboration are promoted well through the curriculum including the personal, social and health education programme.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The local authority has provided appropriate support for the school during the period of appointing a new, permanent headteacher. Their support for governors has been effective.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  There have been a number of changes to the governing body recently. Governors have actively sought support and training to enable them to understand the school’s strengths and weaknesses, including the quality of teaching. They are beginning to hold leaders to account for the school’s performance, are making an increased contribution to school improvement and helping to shape its strategic direction. Governors have a grasp of pupils’ attainment and how it compares with national averages. They understand the link between teachers’ performance and pay progression and how underperformance is tackled.  Governors have not checked thoroughly enough the difference the pupil premium funding has made to the performance of disadvantaged pupils.  Members of the governing body have a good grasp of how to keep pupils safe at school. They ensure the school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils meet requirements.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. This is because sometimes in lessons pupils do not respond quickly to their teacher’s instructions and they do not always get on with their work, but talk to each other instead. This happens most when teachers are not consistent in their expectations.  Too many pupils take little pride in their work. This means it is often untidy, difficult to read and sometimes unfinished.

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Behaviour

 Pupils behave well as they move around the school. Pupils say sometimes there are incidents of unacceptable behaviour on the playground but that these are ‘part of life’ and they are sorted out so do not give significant cause for concern. They are confident an adult will help them to sort out any difficulties.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are very confident that the school’s new behaviour management procedures are fair and help them to enjoy their time at school.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ attendance is above average and few arrive late for school. The school has effective systems for encouraging good attendance and for checking up on pupils who are absent.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are welcoming, polite and proud of their school.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure requires improvement. The school has revised its systems and procedures, such as the management of pupils’ behaviour to ensure pupils’ safety at school. These procedures are thorough, and represent high expectations of how they will support pupils in their personal development, and in their learning. They are just beginning to embed into whole-school practice and their full impact, so that all pupils feel safe at all times, is yet to be realised.

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Safety

 Pupils know that risks exist, including those linked with a range of technologies. They are clear about what they should do to keep themselves safe in a wide range of situations.

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Safety

 Pupils say that bullying in any form is rare. They are confident that it is dealt with when it does occur. Pupils are very clear about the offence caused by derogatory language, including the use of racist and homophobic name calling. They say it happens infrequently and is tackled quickly.

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Safety

 Parents are supportive of the care taken by the school to look after their children and are confident that their children are safe.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers’ expectation of the progress pupils can make and the standards they can attain are not high enough. As a result there has been little improvement in pupils’ achievement over the last few years.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers make regular checks on pupils’ work to track their progress. This information is used to plan ‘steps’ for learning in lessons that are shared with pupils. Pupils choose the step they think most appropriate for them and work to achieve it during the lesson. However, pupils are not always given enough guidance about which step would be most appropriate for them and as a result some choose work that is too easy or too hard.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Assessment information is not used well enough to set challenging targets for pupils’ learning over time, or to ensure that any slippage in pupils’ progress is identified and tackled quickly.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Marking has improved but does not address key aspects of pupils’ written work such as handwriting, grammar, punctuation and spelling, or the overall quality of presentation. Consequently, pupils continue to make the same errors over time.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 There are no consistent procedures for teaching reading throughout the school. Pupils enjoy reading but are not helped to broaden their reading skills in aspects such as comprehension. This is hindering their ability to secure good progress and attain higher standards.  Too little attention is given to developing pupils’ mental calculation skills. Pupils’ recall of number facts is often slow and inaccurate, with the result that they make unnecessary errors in their mathematics work.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Relationships between pupils and adults are good. Teachers generally manage pupils well but there is some inconsistency between classes. Pupils say that when others chat, if teachers do not stop them quickly, they find it difficult to concentrate and work as well as they would like. They also report, however, that things have improved significantly since the introduction of the school’s new procedures for managing behaviour.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The teaching of phonics is good in the early years and Years 1 and 2. There is no plan to ensure pupils develop their spelling skills further in Years 3 to 6. Similarly, the lack of a whole-school plan to develop pupils’ competence in the use of grammar, punctuation and handwriting is hindering pupils’ progress in writing and the standard they reach by Year 6. Throughout the school pupils have few opportunities to practise all their skills by completing longer pieces of writing for a range of purposes and in other subjects.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching assistants are well deployed and work in close partnership with teachers. The help they provide for individuals and small groups ensures all pupils are included, including disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers generally question pupils well to check their understanding and to correct any misunderstandings quickly. They secure pupils’ interest by using a variety of resources and by using game-type activities that engage pupils’ interest.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The number of pupils in each year group varies making year on year comparisons unreliable. However, standards over time at both Key Stages 1 and 2 have remained broadly average. In 2014 the majority of pupils left Year 6 with attainment broadly in line with the national average in reading, writing and mathematics, but significantly below in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Typically, pupils have, over time, made the expected progress. In 2014 the progress made by Year 6 pupils since leaving Year 2 was markedly lower than expected in mathematics. Fewer pupils made better than expected progress in writing and mathematics compared to national figures. These results are due to teaching that is not good enough to enable pupils to make good progress over time.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The most able pupils are identified by teachers in all classes, but are not always challenged enough to make the progress needed to enable them to reach the levels of which they are capable.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The needs of disadvantaged pupils are identified by the school but there is no clear plan to show how they are to be supported to attain as well as other pupils. In Year 6 the gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally has widened over time in reading, mathematics and English grammar, punctuation and spelling but has closed in writing. In 2014, disadvantaged Year 6 pupils were approximately two terms behind other pupils nationally in reading and writing, three terms behind in mathematics and five terms behind in English grammar, punctuation and spelling.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The gaps between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils at the school have closed slightly in mathematics, writing and English grammar, punctuation and spelling. The gaps in 2014 were between two and three terms.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The needs of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are identified accurately. Support is provided where it is most needed by skilled teaching assistants, and the impact of the help given is checked. As a result these pupils make similar progress to pupils nationally.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Improvements in phonics at Year 1 are the result of more systematic teaching. Work seen in pupils’ books shows that this is yet to impact significantly on pupils’ writing with many basic spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors evident in the work of older pupils.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The assessment of children, whilst much improved this year, has not been entirely accurate over the past few years. Assessments made this year show that nearly all children starting in the nursery have the skills and knowledge that are typical for their age. Areas of relative weakness have been identified in children’s personal development and communication skills.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Assessments record children’s achievements but teachers are not using this information well enough to identify precisely what children need to learn next, or to plan activities that will ensure children are able to learn as quickly as they are able. Most children make at least expected progress and are prepared securely for their move into Year 1.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 The leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage has not focused sharply on improving teaching to ensure it is consistently effective, and supports children to make good progress through the nursery and reception classes.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Most of the time children behave well in the nursery and reception classes. Adults have high expectations of children’s behaviour and provide good levels of care. They support children to develop their personal skills and to enjoy the company of other children.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Relationships between adults and children are good. When staff lead learning, such as in phonics sessions or role-play activities, children make good progress.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 There is a good balance of adult-directed and child-chosen activities. The activities children choose for themselves, while engaging, do not always provide sufficient opportunities for children to practise their skills, for example, in mathematics. Children show good levels of independence, are cooperative and want to please.

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The early years provision requires improvement

 Early Years staff have good links with parents. There are good arrangements for children starting in the Nursery so children settle quickly and happily. Parents spoken to during the inspection expressed their satisfaction with the progress their children are making, and that they are happy at school.

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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 112510 Local authority Derbyshire Inspection number 454993

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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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 128 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair David Fidler Headteacher Caroline Rodgers Date of previous school inspection 12 February 2013 Telephone number 01246 823344 Fax number 01246 823344 Email address headteacher@brockley.derbyshire.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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