Larmenier & Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

School report Larmenier & Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School 41a Brook Green, Hammersmith, London, W6 7BL

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 All leaders say that they aim to ensure that every pupil has the opportunity to thrive academically, socially, physically, spiritually, morally and culturally. They are highly successful in doing so. Pupils, therefore, leave the school extremely well prepared for secondary education.  The new senior leaders, as well as all other leaders, are building on the long track record of outstanding teaching, high standards and excellent behaviour found in the school.  Governors are extremely well informed about all aspects of the school’s work. They check on the work of all leaders and challenge them to meet highly ambitious targets for all pupils.  Parents have exceptionally positive views of all aspects of the school’s work.  Pupils behave exceedingly well in lessons and around the school. They feel safe at all times as they know that adults care for them deeply and will help them should they have any difficulties.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The pupils themselves play a major role in their successful learning. They display a thirst for learning, readily engaging in any activities that teachers set for them. They are eager to come to school and so attendance is well above average.  Teaching is consistently at least good and much is outstanding. Teachers and teaching assistants plan meaningful and interesting activities that support and challenge all groups of pupils to learn exceptionally well.  Achievement is outstanding. All groups of pupils make rapid progress from their starting points. Overall, standards reached in English and mathematics at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 are high.  Last year, Year 6 disadvantaged pupils attained higher standards than both their peers and other pupils nationally.  Children get off to an excellent start in the early years. They learn exceptionally well because of the first rate teaching and support they receive. The

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

well-resourced, vibrant and stimulating environment ensures that children are productively occupied and learning at all times. As a result, they are extremely well prepared for entry into Year 1.  The exciting curriculum and many enrichment opportunities on offer ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development flourishes in this school. Pupils are very well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 21 lessons. Some observations were carried out jointly with members of the senior leadership team. Inspectors spoke to pupils during lessons and looked closely at the work in their books.  Inspectors met three groups of pupils and spoke informally to other pupils in lessons and during breaks and lunchtimes.  Meetings were held with school leaders and with the Chair of the Governing Body and four other members.  Inspectors observed the work of the school. They examined several documents including those concerning pupils’ achievement and progress, development plans and information about teachers’ performance. They also looked at records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding. Minutes of governing body meetings were considered.  Inspectors considered the 152 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. They also spoke to parents at the start of the school day and received one letter. Inspectors considered the 26 responses to

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Inspection team

David Radomsky, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Inspection team

Michael Sutherland-Harper Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds is well above average.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is much larger than found nationally.  Almost one in six pupils is disadvantaged and supported by the pupil premium (additional government funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those in care). This proportion of pupils is lower than the national average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is about one in six. This proportion is broadly average.  The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school at other than the usual times is above average.  The early years provision comprises a Nursery class for three-year-old children who attend part time, either in the morning or the afternoon, and two Reception classes for four-year-olds who all attend full

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Information about this school

time.  The school works in partnership with Sacred Heart High School and St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School in a local teaching alliance. This work includes providing training, in conjunction with St Mary’s University, for new teachers. The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  There have been some changes to the personnel in leadership roles since the last inspection. The deputy headteacher was promoted to the headteacher role in September 2014. The two deputy headteachers and the early years leader took up their posts at the same time.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that the newly appointed senior leaders continue to build on the school’s outstanding practice.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher leads with a calm assurance. She and all other leaders, including the governors, have the full support and commitment of staff and parents to deliver their vision for excellence in all aspects of the school’s work. They have created an industrious culture where all adults and pupils work extremely hard so that outstanding teaching and behaviour flourish. Everyone is valued and morale is high.  The school’s leadership is fully committed to the ideals of equality of opportunity and not allowing any form of discrimination. The members are focused on the best outcomes for every pupil. As a result, they frequently check on every pupil’s progress. Any pupils not on track to reach their ambitious targets are given very well focused support to help them catch up. Leaders also ensure that all pupils have opportunities to participate in the full range of enrichment activities on offer.  All staff and governors contribute to the school’s self-evaluation processes. As a result, all leaders have a

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The leadership and management are outstanding

thorough understanding of the strengths of the school and what could be improved. Every leader produces an action plan for improvement, which is regularly reviewed. These processes ensure that there is no complacency and that the school continuously challenges itself to be outstanding.  Subject and phase leaders are highly effective. They benefit from training and support that they receive from external consultants, and from working together and sharing ideas with colleagues in other schools. In turn, they share their expertise with teachers and teaching assistants in the school. When appropriate, they work alongside colleagues to model outstanding teaching practice. As a result, pupils benefit from an extremely well taught curriculum. This motivates them to attend regularly and to behave well.  Additional funding to support disadvantaged and other vulnerable pupils is used extremely well. As a

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The leadership and management are outstanding

result, gaps are closing rapidly and these pupils achieve exceptionally well.  Leaders and governors take great care to ensure that the school’s arrangements for safeguarding its pupils are effective and meet all related statutory requirements. This ensures that pupils and staff are safe.  The primary school sport funding is used very successfully. The range of sporting activities and uptake in physical activities during and after school have increased. Staff benefit from additional training to improve their skills in teaching physical education and the school’s participation in a range of local tournaments is increasing. These additional opportunities are helping to promote pupils’ good health.  The excellent curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to participate in a wide range of activities that awakens their enthusiasm and makes learning a highly enjoyable experience. This produces work which,

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The leadership and management are outstanding

for example in art, is of an exceptionally high standard. Learning is very well enriched by a range of activities, both in and away from school. These include trips to museums, the Houses of Parliament as well as overseas residential visits. This results in an exceptionally positive impact on pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and is preparing pupils very well for their future lives in modern Britain.  The school participates in a local teaching school alliance to provide teacher training to new entrants to the profession.  The local authority is aware of the strengths of leadership in the school and therefore provides light touch support to this outstanding school.  The governance of the school:  Governors are highly effective in ensuring that the school continues to be outstanding. They have high aspirations for themselves and so commissioned a ‘health check’ from the National Governors

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The leadership and management are outstanding

Association (NGA) to report on their effectiveness. Governors have acted on its findings so that they remain extremely effective. They regularly attend training courses and are frequent visitors to the school.  Governors have a thorough understanding of pupil performance information. They meet with leaders at all levels to challenge them to ensure all pupils make rapid progress and any barriers to success are overcome. They fully understand how pupils’ achievement is linked to the quality of teaching.  Governors set clear targets in managing the performance of the headteacher and staff. Appraisal procedures are rigorous and are sharply focused, ensuring all teaching and pupils’ achievement are outstanding. Governors make sure teachers’ pay increases are linked to competence.  Governors are fully involved in strategic planning and their decisions are well informed. They successfully galvanised the school community in a fundraising effort which resulted in the recently

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The leadership and management are outstanding

opened ‘Curve’ building to provide for additional indoor sporting and performing arts opportunities.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. It is equally outstanding in the early years. Pupils are extremely courteous and polite. Visitors are made very welcome; pupils shared their thoughts enthusiastically with inspectors. There is a harmonious feeling and great sense of community and belonging in the school.  Pupils told inspectors that the best thing about the school is the teachers because they help them to learn well and care for them. This respect that pupils have for teachers and other adults means that they arrive punctually to lessons, ready and willing to work hard. They are keen to learn as much as possible. They collaborate extremely well when working in groups and gladly help their peers with their work if they get stuck. These excellent attitudes help pupils to learn extremely well.  Behaviour around the school is equally impressive. Pupils wear their uniform with pride and take very

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Behaviour

good care of the environment. They behave maturely when eating in the dining hall and the school site is free of litter.  Pupils welcome the many opportunities for taking on responsibilities. A recent initiative of the school council, for instance, was to recruit playground ‘buddies’ to befriend anyone that might be feeling lonely. Pupils also arrange an array of activities to raise money for good causes.  Attendance is consistently well above average. Fixed-term exclusions are extremely rare and there have been no permanent exclusions for many years.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Pupils say that they are very well cared for and feel extremely safe. Pupils have a sound understanding of how to keep themselves safe in different situations, such as when using the internet.  Pupils are fully aware of the different types of bullying. They told inspectors that the work done during ‘anti-bullying’ week helps them fully understand why bullying is wrong. As a result, incidents of bullying are rare. If they do occur, pupils know that adults will take their concerns very seriously and sort out any problems.  Very effective systems identify and support pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable. This can include working with a range of external agencies and supporting pupils’ families as well as the pupils themselves.  Staff are well trained in child protection. Site security is monitored carefully and the school takes its

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Safety

safeguarding responsibilities seriously.  Almost every parent who responded to the Parent View survey or who spoke to inspectors thinks that their children are happy and feel safe in school, that they are well looked after and that the school makes sure pupils are well behaved. All but one would recommend this school to other parents.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching in all year groups, including the early years, is consistently at least good and often outstanding. As a result, all groups of pupils make rapid gains in literacy, reading and mathematics.  Teachers and teaching assistants use the information they have on pupils’ achievement to plan a range of activities that inspires pupils to work hard. Pupils are challenged and supported to reach the highest standards of which they are capable.  Displays in the classroom are used very well to celebrate pupils’ achievements and demonstrate the richness of the curriculum. The wall displays provide excellent frames of reference to help pupils work independently and to extend their literacy and numeracy skills.  The very strong relationships in the classrooms ensure that pupils get on with their work happily and that no time is wasted. They enjoy their lessons greatly and have a very clear understanding of what they are

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

learning.  The teaching of reading is highly effective. Right from the early years, the teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds that they make) ensures that children quickly learn basic reading skills and start the journey to becoming avid readers. As they progress through the school, pupils are challenged to read increasingly difficult texts and to rapidly learn the skills of comprehension and inference. Teachers encourage pupils to read daily in school as well as at home, and to make good use of the school and class libraries. Pupils therefore learn to read for pleasure and this makes a strong contribution to their literacy skills.  Writing is very well taught. Pupils write at length in subjects across the curriculum. Teachers challenge pupils to check, edit and improve the quality of their writing, ensuring that spelling, punctuation and grammar are accurate. Consequently, pupils write confidently to a high standard and for a range of

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

purposes.  The teaching of mathematics is excellent. The many opportunities that pupils have to apply their mathematical skills to solve a range of real life problems help them to make rapid progress.  Homework is set regularly and is used extremely well to build on learning, for mastering skills, or for pupils to find out things for themselves.  The quality of marking and feedback is very high. Teachers mark work frequently. Pupils are praised for what they have done well and are given clear guidance on how to improve. Pupils respond well to their teachers’ comments to correct their work or to attempt more challenging tasks. As a result, pupils are confident that they know how well they are doing and what they need to do to improve.

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is outstanding

 From their starting points, all groups of pupils make rapid progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  In the 2013 and 2014 Year 1 phonic screening checks, the proportions of pupils reaching the expected standard were well above average.  Progress throughout Key Stages 1 and 2 has been outstanding since the time of the previous inspection. This has resulted in high standards in English and mathematics year on year at the end of Years 2 and 6.  Standards achieved by the most-able pupils over time have been high. This is because pupils are given suitably challenging work to stretch them to reach the higher levels. In 2014, the proportions attaining Level 6 were above the national average in writing, English spelling, punctuation and grammar, and well above in mathematics. In reading, the proportion attaining Level 5 was well above average.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, late joiners, those who speak English as an

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is outstanding

additional language and those from minority ethnic heritages make similar rapid progress to their peers. This is because teachers and teaching assistants work closely together to provide well targeted support to help any underachieving pupil to catch up rapidly with their classmates.  Disadvantaged pupils make rapid progress. In 2014, at the end of Year 6, they were about one term ahead of their classmates in reading and mathematics and two terms ahead of other pupils nationally. In writing, they were slightly ahead of their classmates and about one month ahead of other pupils nationally.

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is outstanding

 The early years provision is extremely well led and managed. Leaders ensure that teachers and teaching assistants work closely together to note children’s emerging strengths and areas for further development. This assessment information is used extremely well to plan activities and support for all groups of children. As a result, all children develop their skills in all areas of learning rapidly.  There is strong communication between staff and parents. Parents are encouraged to share with staff any information about their children’s activities, interests and learning at home. Staff keep parents well informed about the progress their children are making. As a result, parents are very happy that their children are achieving extremely well in a very safe and caring environment.  Children’s behaviour is excellent. Children work happily and very well together, participate fully in all activities, and clearly enjoy their learning. As a result, children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural

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is outstanding

development is excellent.  Teaching is outstanding. Staff work closely together to ensure that children are engaged and challenged in their learning. They create indoor and outdoor learning environments that are vibrant, inviting and that encourage children to be inquisitive. Themes, based on books, encourage children to value reading and to try different activities. For example, inspectors saw children reading Little Red Riding Hood in the class reading area, others building ‘Grandma’s cottage’ with building bricks, some drawing the wolf’s teeth, others baking in the outdoor ‘mud kitchen’ and others counting the baked gingerbread men.  Children enter Reception with skills that are typical for their age. They make rapid gains in their learning and personal development so that, by the time they start Year 1, the proportion of children leaving Reception with a good level of development is well above average.

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is outstanding

 Staff have high expectations for all children. Those experiencing any difficulties, such as disabled children or those with special educational needs and those who speak English as an additional language, are given well-targeted additional small group support. The most-able are challenged to think more deeply and try more difficult activities. This ensures that all groups of children make the rapid progress of which they are capable.

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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 134009 Local authority Hammersmith and Fulham Inspection number 453297

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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 Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 466 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Dominic McGonigal Headteacher Jennifer McGinty Date of previous school inspection 11 February 2009 Telephone number 020 87489444 Fax number 020 82370959 Email address admin@larshrc.lbhf.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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