Nelson Primary School

Nelson Junior and Infant School King Edward's Road, Ladywood, Birmingham, B1 2PJ

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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

 The headteacher and deputy headteacher lead the school very well. They have high expectations for pupils’ standards and have taken actions that have improved achievement after the dip in 2014.  Arrangements to manage the performance of all teaching staff are outstanding. Subsequent support and training have resulted in strong improvement to the quality of teaching this year.  Pupils across the school make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics. Some pupils who stay at the school for more than two years make outstanding progress.  Teachers have high expectations of most groups of pupils.  The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding.  Pupils feel very safe in school.  Pupils behave well both in and out of lessons.  Governors know the school well. They provide good support and challenge to ensure that school continues to improve.  Systems to track the progress of pupils are robust.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

Staff quickly identify and support any pupil in danger of falling behind.  The teaching of early reading is very effective.  Children in the Nursery and Reception Years enjoy good teaching and a varied range of learning activities. They make good progress as a result.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers sometimes set work for the most able pupils in Key Stage 1 that is too easy for them.  Teachers in the early years and Key Stage 1 do not expect pupils to talk at length, so their speaking skills lag behind those in other aspects of their learning.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in 16 lessons taught by 11 teachers. Eight were carried out jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher. In addition, inspectors made a number of short visits to lessons to observe work in reading, science, topics, personal, social and health education and physical education.  The inspectors looked at past and current information about pupils’ progress and the work of current pupils in books and on display.  The inspectors looked at the school’s own assessments of its strengths, school improvement planning and documents relating to behaviour and safeguarding.  The inspectors met formally with small groups of pupils as well as meeting pupils informally at playtimes and lunchtimes to talk about their learning and to find out what they thought of the school. Inspectors also met with staff, governors and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors talked to parents informally at the start and end of the school day. They considered the 20

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Information about this inspection

responses to Parent View, the online questionnaire. Inspectors also took into account the 80 parent responses on the school’s own recent survey.

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Inspection team

Georgina Beasley, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Nelson Junior and Infant School is larger than the average-sized school.  The early years is organised into Foundation One and Foundation Two. The nursery-aged children in Foundation One attend for three hours in the morning and are taught in one class. Reception-aged children in Foundation Two are taught together in two classes and attend full time.  Pupils are from a number of different minority ethnic backgrounds. A high proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.  A far higher proportion of pupils than in other schools nationally join and leave the school in different year groups throughout the year.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is high. This is additional government funding provided to give extra support to those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is average.

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Information about this school

 The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress and attainment in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Year 6.  The breakfast club that is managed by the school was inspected at the same time and is included in this report. The after-school club is managed privately and was not inspected.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise the quality of teaching and improve pupils’ achievement by:  setting more challenging work for the most-able pupils, especially in Key Stage 1  providing children in the early years and pupils in Key Stage 1 with more opportunities to speak at length.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher, deputy headteacher, staff and governors take shared responsibility for ensuring the school’s continued improvement. They know precisely what is going well and what is still in need of some improvement to move the school to outstanding.

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The leadership and management are good

 Arrangements to manage the performance of staff have improved over the last year. They are extremely focused and thorough. Improvement targets for all teaching staff are closely linked to the progress pupils are expected to make. Teachers and teaching assistants attend regular training to improve their practice. Relevant information is shared with governors to inform all decisions about pay.

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The leadership and management are good

 Teaching assistants attend weekly training sessions to build their personal subject knowledge and teaching skills. As a result, the support they give to individuals and small groups of pupils, especially those who arrive part way through their education, is highly effective in helping them to grow in confidence, to develop particular skills and to close any gaps in their learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 Subject leaders are knowledgeable about their subjects and know what is going well and what needs to improve. They check pupils’ progress closely to measure improvement and implement clear action plans to address any areas of concern. For example, the school has implemented new topics and approaches to teaching writing to motivate boys and improve their achievement in the subject this year. Pupils whose progress has slowed are taught in small groups to help them improve and close any gaps in their knowledge and understanding.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders use the pupil premium funding to good effect. Pupils eligible for the funding receive regular, often daily individual or small-group support from additional teachers or teaching assistants. As a result, they make sustained good progress to close any gaps in learning.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school uses the additional funding for sport effectively to provide training for teachers to improve their skills in teaching physical education. The number of pupils taking part in sporting activities during lunchtimes and in after-school clubs has increased significantly this year.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school meets all safeguarding requirements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school promotes equality well through a programme of support for any individual or small groups of pupils who are falling behind in their learning. Leaders ensure that all pupils are able to take part in all activities regardless of their ability to pay.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school celebrates the diversity of its pupils to promote a respect and tolerance for different beliefs and points of view. British values are promoted well in assemblies and through topics and personal, social and health education lessons. As a result, the school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.

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The leadership and management are good

 Pupils enjoy the varied topics that promote their learning well in subjects including art, history, geography and computing. Additional activities such as computer club, learning to play the recorder and steel pans, visits to places of interest and visitors to school enrich learning well. Weekly letters keep parents well informed about what is happening in school.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  Governance is effective. Governors make frequent visits to the school to observe it at work. They attend relevant training to help them secure an accurate understanding of the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress. Individual governors bring specific expertise which they use to support the school in its endeavours. They also use their in-depth knowledge of pupils’ progress to ask the school probing questions about its performance.  Governors check the budget closely to ensure that money is spent wisely and efficiently. They understand the way that pay is used to reward the best teaching and how weaker teaching is improved. Governors are clear about how teachers’ performance is managed in order to maximise pupils’ achievements.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils behave well when playing outside and when walking around the school. Pupils with behavioural difficulties receive good support and there is marked improvement in their behaviour overtime.

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Behaviour

 Pupils have positive attitudes to their learning and remain attentive and focused during lessons. They concentrate well and are quick to get started on their work. Pupils are proud to earn their ‘pen license’ for producing neat and tidy work, and they know how quickly they can lose it if the quality of their presentation worsens.

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Behaviour

 Pupils show respect and good manners to adults and each other by being polite, holding doors open for each other and waiting for their turn for equipment or to speak in lessons. They follow instructions quickly and sensibly and so lessons start promptly and are rarely interrupted by inacceptable behaviour. Pupils take care of their own and others’ possessions and are quick to pick up and tidy away anything that is not in its right place. On the rare occasion when a pupil breaks one of the rules, everyone considers the subsequent consequences to be fair and consistently applied.

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Behaviour

 Pupils show good respect and tolerance for the different religions and cultures represented in the school and give pupils new to the school a warm welcome. They have a good understanding of democracy through voting for school council members and listening to others’ point of view in lessons.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. The learning mentor meets with individuals and small groups of pupils every day to promote high levels of self-esteem and to deal with any concerns. All pupils take part in weekly meditation sessions to help them reflect on their personal feelings and to consider strategies for managing any negative thoughts.

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Safety

 All staff are diligent in noting any concerns about pupils’ behaviour and safety. This results in immediate relevant action being taken by the school.

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Safety

 Pupils talk knowledgeably about the different types of bullying. They understand why name-calling including of a racist, homophobic or sexist nature is unacceptable and they know about cyber-bullying. Pupils say that bullying does not occur but are confident that, should it happen, then any adult would deal with it quickly.

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Safety

 Pupils say they feel very safe and are confident to ask any adult for help should they need it. Almost all parents responding to the online survey said they feel their child is happy, safe and well cared for at the school.

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Safety

 Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in different situations, both at school and when out and about in the community. They learn, for example, about road safety and how to stay safe when using the internet. They also learn about the potential dangers of the nearby canals.

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Safety

 The school’s work to improve attendance and support families where there have been concerns about persistent absence has been successful. Attendance is improving and is close to the national average.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use the information that they have about pupils’ learning to set tasks, including homework, that are interesting and that motivate pupils to want to learn. Relationships are positive and so pupils are confident to take risks and to ask for help if they need it.  The teaching of reading is good. Pupils have daily lessons to teach specific skills relevant to their needs. Teaching assistants support younger pupils particularly well in using their knowledge of phonics (letters and sounds) to work out unfamiliar words. Teachers and teaching assistants ask probing questions of pupils to help them to understand what is happening in stories or to support their answers to comprehension questions with extracts from the text they are reading.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use pictures and other visual prompts to help pupils to understand how to solve number problems in mathematics. As a result, pupils are able to demonstrate their understanding, which helps teachers to adjust any teaching methods or to give pupils easier or harder work.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers use the information that they have about pupils’ learning to identify those who need a bit of extra support to deepen their understanding. Teaching assistants subsequently support these pupils well to help them complete the tasks set and so keep up with their classmates.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers employed to teach disadvantaged pupils use a range of teaching methods that respond extremely well to the particular learning needs of the pupils with whom they work. Tips such as ‘use what you already know’ help pupils to solve number problems in mathematics. Questions such as ‘How do you know?’ help pupils to think for themselves how to improve their reading and writing skills.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ high expectations of pupils’ achievement is resulting in higher standards across the school this year. Expectations are particularly high in Years 5 and 6 and when pupils are working individually with an adult on a particular task. Not all teachers have equally as high expectations of what the most able pupils can achieve, so sometimes teachers set them work that is too easy and fails to extend their learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching focuses on developing pupils’ vocabulary when they come across a new word in reading or in their topic work. However, teachers in the early years and Key stage 1 often ask questions that only require a one word answer so pupils do not get the chance to speak at length.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Attainment varies each year due to the high number of pupils who join and leave the school in all year groups throughout the year. A high number of pupils joined last year’s Year 6 during Year 4, 5 and 6. Almost half had special educational needs and about a third came from abroad and spoke English as an additional language. As a result, attainment fell last year in national tests. Attainment has risen again this year and standards in all year groups at Key Stage 2 are currently above average.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils make good progress as they move through the school. Those who joined later than usual and left Year 6 in 2014 made good progress while they were at the school, but it was not good enough to make up for the time they had lost previously.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils achieve well in reading. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 use their knowledge of letters and sounds to read well. While looking more positive this year, a below-average proportion compared to other pupils nationally reached the standard expected in the Year 1 phonics screening check last year. The number of pupils who joined the school during Year 1 was high.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Older pupils read confidently and use a range of strategies to enable them to read fluently and accurately for their age. They read regularly in school and at home, and complete tasks that test their understanding of what they have read. Standards have improved this year and pupils currently in Year 6 are on track to reach above average levels this year.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Writing skills are improving across the school as pupils use the ‘Think, Talk, Write’ process to structure their writing. Pupils have good opportunities to write for a range of purposes across different subjects and they take pride in producing writing of a good standard. Attainment is increasing and pupils in all year groups have higher attainment than in previous years.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils add, subtract, multiply and divide confidently at levels appropriate for their age. They use the skills to solve problems and investigate number patterns. The most-able pupils in Year 6 relish being given questions in mathematics that make them think hard and they persevere until they either solve the problem by themselves or with the help from their teacher.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs make good progress because of the individual support they receive. Pupils with behavioural needs are given the support that they need in small groups to help them to achieve well.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The school’s information about attainment and progress indicates that the gap between disadvantaged pupils with their classmates and with other pupils across the country varies considerably across the school. This is largely because of the high number of pupils who move in and out of year groups throughout each year. In some year groups, disadvantaged pupils are ahead of their classmates and in others they are behind.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 In 2014, at the end of Year 6, disadvantaged pupils were more than a year behind other pupils nationally in reading and mathematics and over two terms behind in writing. They reached similar standards to their classmates in mathematics and writing, but were around a term ahead of them in reading. A large number of disadvantaged pupils had special educational needs. This year, disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 are reaching higher standards and are ahead of their classmates in reading and writing, but a little behind in mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils at Key Stage 2 are making good progress. A greater proportion of pupils than last year are on track to reach the higher levels in reading, writing and mathematics across the school this year. A small number in Year 6 are on track to reach the higher Level 6 in mathematics. Some of the most able pupils in Key Stage 1 make slower progress than other such pupils in the school.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Teachers and teaching assistants work with pupils in small groups to develop pupils’ vocabulary and understanding of the English language. This is especially so for the high number of pupils who join the school throughout the year who speak English as an additional language. However, pupils are not always encouraged to talk at length. As a result, their speaking skills remain below average.

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The early years provision is good

 Good leadership and management have led to good improvement in the provision for children in Foundation One and Foundation Two. All three classrooms and the outside area are organised well to engage children in their learning. As a result, children settle quickly into classroom routines and are developing a keenness to learn that prepares them well for Year 1.

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The early years provision is good

 There has been good improvement to the quality of teaching since the previous inspection. Teachers and teaching assistants plan a varied range of interesting activities that promote the children’s good progress in all areas of learning and development.

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The early years provision is good

 Behaviour is good. Children respond positively when adults ask them to do something. They tidy up and put away toys and equipment at the end of sessions, and take turns and share when playing in the classroom and when playing outside.

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The early years provision is good

 Children feel safe. This is reflected in how confidently they join in with all activities and ask for help if they find a particular activity difficult. The children show joy when they accomplish something for the first time. For example, a small group of children were keen to show their good understanding of letters and the sounds that they make by reading all of the words they found in the sand tray.

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The early years provision is good

 Children make good progress in their listening and attention skills and in their understanding of language through a number of activities planned to develop new vocabulary. For example, children enjoyed exploring ‘gloop’ to develop the language relating to how it felt when they scooped it up in their hands. All are able to follow and act out a familiar story with support from an adult. Children in Foundation One enjoyed dressing up and acting out the story of Red Riding Hood. Children in Foundation Two had a great time creating a bridge outside and playing the parts of the troll and the Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Children start Foundation One with skills and abilities well below those typical for their age, especially in communication and language. Despite good progress, many have not caught up by the end of Foundation Two. Attainment remains below average in speaking, reading, writing and mathematics.

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The early years provision is good

 Children’s speaking skills still lag behind their understanding of language. Although children listen well and join in with storytelling and phonics lessons when asked, they do not always talk at length about what they are learning in a range of activities without a lot of adult support and encouragement.

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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 103237 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 453236

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 310 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Daniel Taylor Headteacher Claire Louise Forrest Date of previous school inspection 8 December 2010 Telephone number 0121 464 2201 Fax number 0121 464 8726 Email address enquiry@nelson.bham.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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