St Paul's Catholic Primary School

St Paul's Catholic Primary School Turner Lane, Hyde, Cheshire, SK14 4AG

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Overall effectiveness

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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires improvement.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Achievement requires improvement. Standards in reading, writing and mathematics are below those seen at the time of the previous inspection.  Too few pupils consistently reach the higher levels in reading, writing and mathematics or make better than expected progress.  At times, work set does not provide enough challenge, particularly for the most able, or too little is expected from pupils in lessons and in the quality of the work they complete.  Pupils apply their mathematical skills insufficiently to reason and solve problems in a range of contexts.  Sometimes, teachers do not tell pupils what they need to do to improve their work nor help them to learn from their mistakes.  Senior leaders and governors have not held the teachers fully to account for the progress of all pupils, particularly the most able.  The skills of subject leaders to check on pupils’ learning are not yet fully developed in the subjects

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The school has the following strengths

 Recent actions from senior leaders, governors and support from the associate headteacher are beginning to pay off. The quality of teaching and the progress of pupils currently in the school has started to accelerate.  The early years provision is good. It is well led and good teaching ensures that children enjoy learning and achieve well.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress in their learning. Pupils who are disabled and those who have special educational needs are well supported and make good progress.  Pupils are happy, behave well and feel safe and valued. A strong community ethos permeates all that the school does. Parents are highly supportive of the leaders and staff.  The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength. Pupils play an active role in the school and are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  The additional funding for sport is used effectively

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The school has the following strengths

and pupils enjoy a wide range of enrichment activities.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed learning in every class. An observation of learning was carried out jointly with the headteacher.  The inspectors held discussions with pupils to ascertain their views of school and their learning. Pupils’ work in their books was also scrutinised.  The inspectors listened to pupils read in Years 1, 2 and 6. They observed the teaching of reading skills and talked to pupils about the books they have enjoyed and those that they are currently reading.  Meetings were held with senior leaders, staff, the associate headteacher and a representative of the local authority as well as with members of the governing body.  The inspectors looked at a number of documents, including safeguarding records, the school’s improvement plan, the school’s data for tracking pupils’ progress, reports on pupils’ achievement, records of pupils’ behaviour and the school’s checks on the quality of teaching.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors talked with pupils as they played at break times, and visited the dining hall at lunchtime. They observed pupils’ behaviour as they moved around school.  The inspectors took account of the 32 responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View). They also took account of returns to the staff questionnaire completed during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Clare Henderson, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is an average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium is average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is well below average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those with 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 reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.  Early years provision in the Nursery class is available part time and full time in the Reception classes.  There is a before-school and after-school club. This setting was inspected separately and the report can be found on the Ofsted website.

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Information about this school

 The headteacher was appointed to the post permanently in September 2012 and the deputy headteacher in January 2013. The leadership team has been supported by a local national leader of education (NLE) since November 2014.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to at least good in order to accelerate progress and raise standards in reading, writing and mathematics for all pupils, including the most able, by ensuring that:  pupils are offered sufficiently challenging activities which enable them to make faster progress and achieve as well as they can in lessons  teachers have the highest expectations of what pupils can achieve in the content and presentation of their work  the books that pupils read are sufficiently matched to their abilities and interest levels  teachers consistently tell pupils what they need to do to improve their work and help them to correct mistakes  pupils use reason and solve problems by applying their knowledge of the basic skills of mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the leadership and management at all levels by ensuring that:  leaders continue to check the quality of teaching is good enough to enable all pupils, and particularly the most able, to achieve the best they possibly can  the skills of subject leaders continue to develop so that they are fully involved in leading improvements in teaching and pupils’ learning.

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The leadership and management require improvement

 Leadership is not good and improvement is required because leaders have not made sure that the quality of teaching is consistently good. They have not ensured that all pupils, including the most able, make consistently good progress and achieve as well as they possibly could.  Senior and middle leaders and governors have a strong ambition for the school to improve rapidly. They have ensured that pupils’ good behaviour flourishes and that the information relating to pupils’ progress is now accurate. Furthermore, those pupils needing extra help are given the right level of support to make up gaps in their learning as quickly as possible.  Clear actions to make sure pupils’ achievement is consistently good across the school are the first priority of the school improvement plan. The local authority, with the support of the associate headteacher, provides good levels of support in this work. However, this support is fairly recent and has yet to be fully

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The leadership and management require improvement

effective in raising standards, particularly for the most able.  Teachers’ performance is linked to the progress of pupils and is related to training needs and to teachers’ salary progression. This having a positive effect on the quality of teaching.  Some subject leaders are at an early stage of developing their management role and have yet to ensure that teaching and pupils’ achievement are consistently good or better in the subjects they lead.  Carefully-targeted teaching linked to pupils’ individual needs is helping to accelerate pupils’ progress. As a result, progress in the current year groups is improving. However, the progress of the most able is not yet fully secure and so the promotion of equal opportunities is not fully effective.  Improvements in the quality of teaching, pupils’ attainment and the good progress made by disabled pupils, those who have special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils demonstrate the school’s

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The leadership and management require improvement

capacity for further improvement.  The curriculum offers pupils a range of topics which capture their interests well. Staff ensure that all pupils have equal opportunities to participate in a wealth of enrichment activities. Pupils of different ages get on well together and enjoy the range of activities provided for them. However, the school does not provide pupils with enough opportunities to apply their basic mathematics skills in a range of subjects.  The primary school physical education and sport funding is used effectively to give pupils experience of a wide range of different sports, such as dodgeball and access to external sports coaches. As a result, pupils’ skills are developed well and they view physical education and the need to stay active and healthy very positively.  The promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school. Leaders make sure that pupils develop their understanding of different cultures, religions and lifestyles

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The leadership and management require improvement

effectively. Staff promote core values such as respect, care, honesty and tolerance extremely well and this demonstrates the school’s drive to foster good relations, tackle discrimination and prepare all pupils effectively for life in modern Britain.  Parents who spoke to inspectors or contributed to Parent View hold extremely positive views of the care provided for their children by the headteacher and staff. They feel fully involved in this harmonious school community and say that their children are very happy and safe in school. The school is an active member of the Hyde cluster and as such, shares good practice with colleagues in neighbouring schools.  Arrangements for safeguarding pupils and child protection procedures are fully effective and meet statutory requirements.  The governance of the school:  Governors are highly supportive of the school and committed to bringing about improvements. They

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The leadership and management require improvement

receive regular reports from the headteacher and other leaders about the quality of teaching and make regular visits to gain first-hand views of school life. Governors recognised that achievement required improvement and requested support from the local authority. Minutes from governing body meetings show that governors ask challenging questions of the leadership. They understand how teachers’ performance is managed, and how any underperformance is tackled. They contribute well to identifying priorities for improvement and to making sure that plans to improve the school are effective.  As a result of training and high levels of expertise, governors are proficient in understanding what information on pupils’ performance tells them about how well the school is doing compared to others nationally. This means they are able to hold school leaders to account to improve the school further.  Governors oversee the school’s budget well and understand how extra funding, for example, the pupil

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The leadership and management require improvement

premium and primary school sport funding, is spent, and to what effect. Members of the governing body carry out regular checks to make sure that staff and pupils are kept safe.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils love their school and are proud to belong to the ‘St Paul’s Family’. They are keen to tell visitors about their work, the range of enrichment activities provided for them and the way that the adults in the school keep them safe and take care of them.  Pupils of all ages show great respect for one another and towards adults. They behave well in lessons and move around school extremely sensibly.  Pupils listen attentively to their teachers and teaching assistants and enjoy the regular opportunities provided for them to work collaboratively. Occasionally, learning slows because work is too easy and pupils’ concentration drifts. At times, they are too content with producing less than their best work.  Pupils make an excellent contribution to the life of the school and eagerly take on a range of roles. For example, some pupils represent their class on the school or the eco-council and others have been

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Behaviour

appointed house captains. Some of the older pupils also enjoy helping the younger pupils.  Pupils enjoy school, which is reflected in their above average attendance and good punctuality. They benefit from an exciting range of after-school clubs, including sports and music. These contribute extremely well to their physical development and personal well-being .

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.  Pupils are well informed about the dangers they might face, and how to keep themselves safe in different situations. For example, they are taught how to use the internet and mobile technology safely.  Pupils understand the different kinds of bullying, including verbal, racist or prejudice-based bullying. They and their parents say that bullying of any kind is rare and that if it ever happened, adults would deal with it quickly.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The quality of teaching requires improvement because it has not been good enough over time to enable all pupils, particularly the most able, to make consistently good progress. However, leaders have taken decisive action and some aspects of teaching have improved recently.  The teaching of basic number skills and the development of pupils’ grasp of grammar, spelling and punctuation and opportunities to produce good quality extended writing in literacy lessons and in other subjects are increasingly effective.  Pupils are becoming more confident in applying this knowledge to their learning. However, teachers do not encourage pupils sufficiently to use their knowledge of mathematics to reason and solve problems in a range of contexts. This means that sometimes learning, particularly for the most able, is not challenging enough and progress is not as rapid as it could be in mathematics.  In some classes, teachers provide the most-able pupils with work which is more challenging than for other

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

pupils, but this is not always demanding enough to stretch these pupils’ thinking or extend their skills fully. There are times when they are expected to sit through explanations when they already understand what they need to do.  Teachers plan activities which capture the imagination of pupils. They use questioning effectively to identify any misconceptions and generally provide pupils with clear explanations of what they are expected to learn. However, sometimes expectations of how much work pupils can complete are not high enough.  The teaching of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is tailored well to their particular needs. As a result, the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics for these pupils is good.  Teachers generally mark pupils’ work regularly and helpfully provide guidance on what pupils need to do to improve their work. However, this is not fully evident in all classes. Furthermore, teachers do not

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

always help pupils to learn from their mistakes.  The school library is a popular resource. The enjoyment of reading is promoted well and pupils say they enjoy the books linked to their topics. However, at times, the books that pupils read are not sufficiently matched to their abilities and interests. Phonics (letters and the sounds they make) are taught consistently well which promotes pupils’ basic reading skills effectively.  Across the school, warm, positive relationships exist between pupils and adults. Effective teamwork between teachers and teaching assistants contributes well to pupils’ learning, especially for the pupils with special educational needs.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Achievement requires improvement because pupils’ progress from their individual starting points is not consistently good in reading, writing and mathematics. Weaker teaching, mostly in the past, has slowed the pace of pupils’ learning and consequently not enough pupils have achieved as well as they could.  In the 2014 Year 2 national tests, standards rose from below average in 2013 to average for all pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. However, because expectations of what pupils can achieve are not always high enough, too few pupils achieved the higher Level 3.  At the end of Year 6 in 2014, standards achieved in the national tests were below average in reading, writing and mathematics and the proportion making better than expected progress was below average. The school acknowledges that too few of the most-able pupils gained the higher Level 5.  Throughout the school the more-able pupils do not achieve as well as they could because they are not

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

sufficiently challenged and work is, in some year groups, too easy. Furthermore, the most-able pupils have insufficient skills in applying their mathematical knowledge to solve problems in a range of contexts.  Currently, all pupils, including the most able in Years 1 to 6, make at least expected progress from their starting points in reading, writing and mathematics and some achieve better than expected. However, there are some missed opportunities for all pupils to make good progress consistently because all teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve.  In 2014, a large majority of pupils reached the expected standard in the Year 1 check on their knowledge of phonics. By the time they reach Year 6, pupils have a good knowledge of different authors and use this information to help them choose new books. However, at times the books pupils read are not sufficiently matched to their abilities or interests.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The gap in the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils nationally at the end of Key Stage 2 in 2014 was one term behind in reading and mathematics and two terms behind in writing. In 2014, disadvantaged pupils attained better standards than other pupils in the school by two terms in reading and half a term in writing and mathematics.  School information and national data show that the progress disadvantaged pupils made compared to both other pupils in the school and nationally was good in 2014. Disadvantaged pupils currently in the school are making at least good or better progress compared with other pupils.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs make good progress and achieve well. They are well supported in lessons or on a one-to-one basis as appropriate to their specific needs.

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The early years provision is good

 The overall quality of the early years provision is good. A large majority of children begin in the Nursery with skills and experiences that are below those typical for their age, particularly in their social and mathematical skills. They make an excellent start to their learning in the Nursery class because strong links are established with parents prior to their children starting school. As a result, children are happy and confident to come to school.  Adults give high priority to developing the children’s communication and investigation skills through exciting indoor and outdoor play opportunities. As a result they settle to Nursery routines successfully.  Children’s behaviour and respect for staff and each other is excellent. They learn rapidly to listen to one another, to share toys and play well together. This extends their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development extremely well. Children are safe and cared for well.

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The early years provision is good

 Children show good progress in developing confidence and concentration skills as they begin to explore letters and sounds and develop their reading and writing skills. Some children work with sustained concentration, for example when they were investigating why a leprechaun had left a mess in the Nursery on St Patrick’s Day.  A group of children in the Nursery was finding out where Ireland was and how they could travel there. Because of this, they extended their thinking skills and knowledge and understanding of the world successfully.  Staff develop children’s number recognition and counting skills well through rhymes and other activities. Children learn to recognise numbers to 20 and beyond in the Reception class. However, at times, activities do not challenge the most able in the Reception Year consistently.  Children develop their physical skills and their health and well-being well through a broad range of

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The early years provision is good

activities. For instance, following the teacher’s guidance, they have the confidence to tackle the climbing wall in the Reception class, to share toys, to develop early writing skills, to paint and to play musical instruments.  The early years provision is led and managed well. The leader uses an accurate understanding of current strengths within the provision and areas for development to drive forward improvements well. The good quality provision is having a positive effect on children’s learning and behaviour.  From their different starting points, children of all abilities do well by the end of Reception Year across all areas of learning. As a result, the proportion of children attaining a good level of development rose on the previous two years and met national proportions in 2014. This indicates that children are prepared well for entry into Year 1.

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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 106238 Local authority Tameside Inspection number 456159

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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 Voluntary aided Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 258 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Wallace Headteacher Marie Flynn Date of previous school inspection 28 May 2012 Telephone number 0161 368 2934 Fax number 0161 368 1964 Email address admin@st-pauls-hyde.tameside.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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