Moorlands Primary School

Moorlands Primary School Moorland Road, Mount, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD3 3UH

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Children in the early years make good progress and are well prepared for the step up to Year 1.  Pupils make outstanding progress in Key Stage 1 and standards reached in Year 2 are well above national averages.  Key Stage 2 pupils make good progress. By the end of Year 6, standards are above average, especially in reading and mathematics.  Teaching is typically good with some that is outstanding. Teachers have high expectations for all pupils and provide motivating lessons that interest them and help them to learn.  Highly skilled teaching assistants support the good learning of individuals and small groups of pupils inside and outside the classroom.  Behaviour is good in lessons both inside and outside the classroom. This is a happy school where pupils feel safe and enjoy coming to school.  Pupils are well mannered, polite, wear their uniform with pride and enjoy holding positions of responsibility. Attendance is good and punctuality is

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

excellent.  The exciting curriculum and studies linked to the natural world make a strong contribution to the personal development of pupils. This is positively supporting pupils’ preparation for life in Britain today.  The headteacher and senior staff are relentless in seeking to improve the school. This is seen in recent improvements in the teaching of reading, mathematics, the development of marking and the careful tracking of the progress that pupils are making.  Governance is a strength of the school. The governing body knows the school well and actively supports and challenges school leaders to continue to improve further.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils in Key Stage 2 do not consistently make as much progress or attain as highly in writing as they do in reading and mathematics.  Pupils’ use of practical resources to aid their understanding of mathematical concepts and develop problem-solving skills is not yet consistent across all classes.  Procedures to encourage all parents of children in early years to contribute to the ‘learning journeys’ of their children are not fully developed.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in the majority of classes. One observation was undertaken jointly with the headteacher. Inspectors observed small group sessions led by teaching assistants.  Inspectors held formal discussions with four groups of pupils from Years 3, 4, 5, and 6. They informally spoke with many pupils in the playground, in the classroom and while sitting with them eating lunch in the dining hall.  Meetings were held with senior leaders, middle leaders, members of staff, a representative of the local authority and five members of the governing body, including the Chair of the Governing Body.  The inspectors observed the school at work and looked at the school’s review of its own performance, its development plan, arrangements for safeguarding and child protection, systems for checking the quality of teaching and data tracking pupils’ progress.  In the early years, the inspectors looked at teachers’ planning, of both focused activities led by staff and

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Information about this inspection

activities that are always available to children (continuous provision). They examined the records of children’s development, called ‘Learning Journeys’.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in lessons and scrutinised samples of pupils’ books.  The views of parents were gained from the 67 responses to Parent View, the online questionnaire, the school’s recent survey of parents’ views and from talking to parents at the end of the school day.  The views of staff were gained from meetings and from a review of the 13 responses to the school questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Fiona Dixon, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Moorlands Primary School is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  Early years provision is full time.  The majority of pupils come from White British backgrounds. The proportion from minority ethnic backgrounds is higher than average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils, those eligible for the pupil premium, is below average. Pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in mathematics and English by the end of Year 6.  There have been significant changes in teaching staff and leadership since the previous inspection.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve provision in the early years by encouraging those families who are hard to reach to contribute to their children’s ‘learning journeys’.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue the drive to improve teaching further and ensure all pupils make rapid and sustained progress by:  fully establishing recent improvements to the teaching of writing in Key Stage 2  developing further pupils’ use of practical resources to aid their understanding of mathematical concepts and promote their problem-solving skills.

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The leadership and management are good

 The excellent leadership of the headteacher has created a shared sense of purpose and commitment to sustained improvement. The improved teaching in mathematics and reading, alongside the recently developed system for tracking pupils’ progress and the highly effectively marking of work, has made a significant impact on the progress that pupils make.  School leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Their plans for improvement correctly identify the priorities for the school, including the need to improve the writing skills of pupils in Key Stage 2 and to develop the use of practical resources in mathematics. Plans are regularly checked and so the school is very clear about what is still required to move the school forward.  Highly-motivated middle leaders monitor all aspects of work in their area of responsibility. The school’s procedures for checking the progress that pupils make is now very strong and well-targeted support is

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The leadership and management are good

promptly put into place if the progress of a pupil slows.  Thorough and regular checks on the quality of teaching and learning are driving forward improvements. Teaching is typically good with some that is outstanding in each key stage. Arrangements to check the performance of staff clearly identify what staff need to do better and leaders provide training that helps them improve their practice. Teachers are held accountable for pupils’ progress and staff performance is linked to pay progression.  The exciting curriculum, often based around a storybook or historical event, provides many creative opportunities for pupils. When planning work teachers take account of pupils’ interests, for example, when studying Brazil, the Year 2 classes looked at the influence of football on modern culture. This, along with a rich variety of visits and visitors, gives pupils a strong interest in the work that is planned for them.

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The leadership and management are good

 Children in the early years and Year 1 benefit greatly from their learning outdoors. They rapidly develop personal, social, emotional and behavioural skills as they learn to respect, explore and enjoy the natural world.  Pupils are well prepared for life in Britain today. A whole-school study of the First World War led to all pupils developing respect for the importance of liberty and the sacrifice of others. Each pupil made their own ceramic poppy and the creation of a large communal poppy, as a focus for an act of remembrance, reflected the school’s commitment to spiritual, moral, social and cultural opportunities.  The good progress of pupils from different backgrounds and of varying abilities shows the school’s commitment to promoting good relations, ensuring all pupils have equality of opportunity and tackling all forms of discrimination.  The primary school sport funding is used effectively to increase participation in sport, both for fun and

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The leadership and management are good

competitively. The school has won an award for the high level of pupils who are now ‘sports leaders’. The skills of teachers have improved and pupils regularly enjoy a wider range of physical activities in lessons. Pupils are very conscious of the link between exercise and a healthy lifestyle.  The local authority provides ‘light touch’ support for this good school. Officers have helped the school to confirm their analysis of data.  Parents and the community are actively involved in the school. ‘Reading Friends’ regularly listen to pupils read. The Intergenerational Project allows older members of the community to pass on skills, such as knitting, and pupils are respectful as they spend time enjoying their company. Parents are very happy with the school’s work and many would echo the view expressed on a parental questionnaire that ‘my child is very happy and loves coming to school’.  The governance of the school:

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The leadership and management are good

 Governance is a strength of the school. Governors are well informed and knowledgeable about how well the school is doing compared to other schools. Governors have a clear understanding of the progress made by pupils and this enables them to challenge leaders about pupils’ achievement.  Governors are linked to year groups and this, alongside information from school leaders, helps them understand the quality of teaching, behaviour and achievement of pupils.  Governors have developed an effective and thorough system for checking on the performance of all staff. Procedures reward good teaching and pupils’ good progress and address underperformance.  Governors monitor the spending of the pupil premium and this has enabled the school to effectively support disadvantaged pupils. As a result last year, at the end of Year 6, more of this group made better than expected progress than non-disadvantaged pupils in reading and writing.

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The leadership and management are good

 Governors ensure that all their statutory duties, including those for safeguarding and financial management, are carried out.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils’ attitudes to learning in all year groups are at least good and regularly exemplary. A very small number of pupils find it hard to work on their own without supervision. Disruption to learning is rare and exclusion has not been used for many years.  Around the school pupils move with purpose and consideration of others. They have good manners. For example, pupils regularly hold the door open for one another with ‘thank you’ being heard in recognition for this courtesy. Pupils are happy and proud to be members of Moorlands Primary School.  Pupils play well together and younger children enjoy the activities organised by the play leaders.  Pupils have many opportunities to take on positions of responsibility. They enjoy serving on the very active school council, being sports leaders, librarians or eco-team members. The eco-team acts as the ‘environmental conscience’ of the school encouraging recycling, monitoring energy use and actively

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Behaviour

reducing the consumption of energy.  Pupils’ views are heard through the school council where pupils influence improvements. Recently they have looked at alternative methods of coming to school and funded the safe storage of bicycles and scooters. They are also working towards the ‘Speakers Award’ from the House of Commons to reflect their commitment to working in a democratic manner.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils are taught how to keep safe through a wide range of lessons during their time at school. These include how to stay safe on the road, the dangers of water, cycling and scooter proficiency, and the risks associated with alcohol and drug misuse. Risk assessments for all activities are thorough.  Pupils understand what constitutes bullying including cyber–bullying. They say that name-calling, including racist and homophobic language, is very rare. Pupils know they can trust adults to act upon any form of bullying should it occur. Pupils say that bullying is rare and school records confirm this.  All pupils say they feel safe in school. Safeguarding procedures are thorough.  Attendance is above that found nationally and pupils’ punctuality is exemplary.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is typically good, and sometimes outstanding in each key stage. This is evident from the quality of work displayed around the school, the work recorded in pupils’ books, the progress pupils make and the observations made during the inspection.  Teachers have high expectations for pupils’ learning. They set different work for different abilities within their classes so that every pupil is working at the right level to stretch and challenge them. This year the most able pupils in Year 6 are working towards Level 6, a standard well above that expected for their age, in reading, writing and mathematics.  Teaching assistants make an enormous contribution to the good learning and progress of individuals and small groups of pupils in and out of the classroom. They skilfully use questioning to enable pupils to complete tasks which they find difficult and also to provide targeted activities that move learning on. For

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The quality of teaching is good

example, a group of Year 3 pupils were successfully helped to improve their understanding of ‘quarter to’ and ‘quarter past’ the hour, a concept they had found difficult in the classroom the previous day.  Teachers focus on developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills in all lessons. Pupils are encouraged to reply to questions in full sentences, especially in early years and Key Stage 1, and use the correct terminology for the subject. For example, in a Year 5 science lesson pupils were confidently and coherently reporting back their technical findings on how life in a space station was different from life on earth.  In mathematics, pupils sometimes use practical resources successfully to help their understanding of a mathematical concept, such as fractions, and to solve problems. This is not yet fully developed across all classes and so the progress of some pupils is slowed.  Interesting work is set and it captures the attention of pupils. For example, a Year 6 class had read the

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The quality of teaching is good

story of ‘The Chocolate Tree’ as part of their topic on Mayan culture and were enthusiastically, yet systematically, trying to extract the eight most important points to include in a comic strip on the development of chocolate.  Teachers mark pupils’ work very regularly. Pupils know what they have done well and what they need to do to get even better. Their progress is accelerated as they always go back and correct their mistakes.  Reading, writing, communication and numeracy are taught well across different subjects. During this inspection Year 3 pupils had the opportunity to ask searching questions of Boudicca, when a historian in costume visited the school to support their topic work. Display work showed the high quality numeracy work of Year 5 as they analysed and recorded the performance of riders in the Tour de France last year, and Key Stage 2 pupils have learnt the correct method of writing a recipe for their entries to ‘Moorlands

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The quality of teaching is good

Master Chef’.  The well-stocked library, classroom libraries, guided reading, ‘Reading Friends’ and the celebration of national events, such as World Book day, all promote a love of reading. Reading for pleasure as well as for learning is encouraged from an early age. Pupils who spoke with inspectors confidently discuss their favourite authors and their eagerness for book ownership.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Attainment has risen at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 since the previous inspection.  Pupils make outstanding progress in Key Stage 1. In the 2014 phonics screening check, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard was higher than that seen nationally. Standards at the end of Year 2 have risen significantly over time and, in 2014, the proportion of pupils attaining at the typically expected level and the higher level was well above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics.  Good progress continues in Key Stage 2. Attainment in reading, mathematics, English grammar, punctuation and spelling is above average at the end of Year 6. Achievement in writing is not as strong as that seen in other subjects but is improving as teachers become increasingly confident in using the skills and approaches they have learnt in recent training.  The most able pupils achieve well. They are taught well and are equally challenged and supported to work

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The achievement of pupils is good

towards the highest levels of attainment. In 2014, in comparison to similar pupils nationally, their overall standards were higher in reading, mathematics and English grammar, punctuation and spelling.  Pupils from minority ethnic groups make at least the same good progress as their peers.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress from their starting points. The development of careful tracking of pupils’ progress is helping to close gaps in attainment and this was clearly shown in 2014 when the disadvantaged pupils in Key Stage 1 attained better standards than non-disadvantaged pupils nationally. There was no gap between disadvantaged pupils and non-disadvantaged pupils in the school for mathematics and half a term only for reading and writing.  For Year 6 in 2014 the gap with non-disadvantaged pupils nationally closed to be two terms behind in mathematics and a term and half in reading and writing. In 2014, the in-school attainment gap closed in

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The achievement of pupils is good

writing to one term and widened in mathematics to a year and in reading to two terms. It is worth noting that, in school, non-disadvantaged pupils attained more highly than national average in mathematics and reading.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress from their individual starting points because they receive support that closely matches their needs.

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The early years provision is good

 Children enter the Reception Year with knowledge and skills below those typical for their age. Children make good progress from their individual starting points especially in their self-confidence, reading and physical development and they are well prepared for the step up to Year 1. The proportion of children entering Year 1 who have reached a good level of development is increasing and exceeds the national average.  Leadership is good and the recently appointed leader for the early years has a clear understanding of the strengths and priorities for development. The curriculum is broad and balanced.  Children are safe and happy and all welfare requirements are met. Behaviour is good, with children showing very positive attitudes to their learning. Children benefit greatly from activities linked to the environment and the natural world. These activities develop many aspects of children’s learning and help

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The early years provision is good

them connect with nature and the outdoors. For example, children learn about the importance of animal survival and feeding birds in winter, and why it is too risky to climb trees when it is very windy and snowy.  Assessment is frequent and used effectively to ensure that all children make good progress and promptly support any child if progress slows. For example, a focus on ‘boy-friendly’ writing activities has led to their increased progress. Children’s individual progress is carefully monitored and recorded in beautifully presented ‘Learning Journeys’.  Parents are very positive about the early years and staff ‘meet and greet’ parents every day. All parents are encouraged to take an active part in their child’s learning by contributing to the ‘learning journey’ and many do. However, there are some hard-to-reach families who have yet to make a contribution and the school is considering ways of encouraging them to do so.

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The early years provision is good

 Teaching is good and enables progress to be made by all children. In a phonics (letters and the sounds they make) session the most able children were challenged to record the different ways of making the sound ‘a’ and in a literacy activity the least able children were supported to explain in full sentences why they made certain choices when packing a suitcase for holiday, for example, why they had chosen to take sunglasses to a hot location.  Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness is well developed. For example, children were encouraged to talk about their feeling of wonder when the snow was falling heavily. They enjoyed sprinkling glitter on their snowman to see if he was magical, like the one they had heard about in a favourite story.

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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 135030 Local authority Kirklees Inspection number 449697

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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 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 634 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Gary Laird Headteacher Ann Walker Date of previous school inspection 13 July 2010 Telephone number 01484 222197 Fax number 01484 222189 Email address office@moorlandsprimary.org.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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