Enderby Danemill Primary School

Enderby Danemill Primary School Mill Lane, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 4LH

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected as an academy This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 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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This is a good school

 The school has improved rapidly and significantly since becoming an academy.  Leadership at all levels has successfully focused on improving teaching and the outcomes for pupils.  Inadequate teaching has been eradicated and teaching is now consistently good.  Children make a good start to their education in the Reception year.  Pupils’ progress has accelerated significantly since the school was granted academy status, and particularly so in mathematics.  The presentation of pupils’ work is consistently outstanding and pride in their work is very evident.  The headteacher has successfully built a strong and highly professional team of staff committed to improving the school.  Governors have made significant improvements to their practice and now have a very clear view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The governing body monitors the actions of the school rigorously.  Behaviour is good in lessons and around school

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This is a good school

because expectations are high and pupils respond well to these.  Parents and pupils say that the children feel safe in school because systems for protecting them are effective and adults care for them well.  Pupils are well prepared for the next phase of their education.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Pupils’ progress in writing is not as good as it is in reading and mathematics.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed learning in nineteen lessons and while pupils were working in smaller groups. Three of the lessons were observed jointly with the headteacher or deputy headteacher.  The inspectors heard pupils read and checked their reading records.  Meetings were held with some members of the teaching staff.  A meeting was held with the Chair of the Governing Body and three other governors.  A meeting was held with the Director of the Academy Trust.  Many discussions took place with pupils, both formally in groups and informally in lessons and at lunchtimes.  The inspectors took account of the views of 47 parents from Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View). Conversations were also held with parents at the start and end of the school day. The inspector also analysed the 41 responses to the questionnaire for staff.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including: the school’s

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Information about this inspection

own data on pupils’ recent and current progress; planning and monitoring documentation; reports on the quality of teaching over time; records relating to behaviour and attendance; the school’s improvement plan; documents relating to safeguarding; and the minutes of various meetings, including those of the governing body.

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Inspection team

Nigel Grimshaw, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils, for whom the school receives the pupil premium, is average. The pupil premium is additional funding provided to schools for looked after children and those known to be eligible for free school meals.  The pupils are predominantly from White British backgrounds, with 14% from a range of minority ethnic groups, including some from Traveller and Gipsy/Roma backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils arriving at and leaving the school part way through their education is low compared to other schools.  The school’s early years provision in the Reception class is full time.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Information about this school

 The school operates a daily breakfast club.  Enderby Danemill Primary School converted to become an academy on 1 November 2013. When its predecessor school, also called Enderby Danemill Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to require improvement. The school is part of the Discovery Schools Academy Trust (DSAT).

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve progress in pupils’ writing by making sure that teachers place more emphasis on the teaching of grammar so that pupils’ good as in spelling and punctuation.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher’s welcoming and professional leadership has created a positive ethos and a strong team of staff that is fully committed to improving the school. The focus has been on improving the quality of teaching and learning, accelerating pupils’ progress and raising standards, and maintaining the pupils’ high standards of behaviour. The school has been successful in all these areas.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The quality of teaching is rigorously monitored through a planned programme of observations, checks on pupils’ work and on their attainment and progress. As a result, inadequate teaching has been eradicated since the school became an academy and teaching is now consistently good. Regular meetings are held with individual staff to discuss each pupil’s progress. In this way the school’s high expectations are regularly under review. If any pupil is slipping behind, the issue is tackled promptly and the correct support is put in place to accelerate his or her progress.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics have improved since the school became an academy and pupils are on track to continue these improvements in 2015. Overall progress measures now place the school in the top 9% nationally and in the top 4% in mathematics.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Staff at all levels of leadership work together exceptionally well. Subject leaders make an effective contribution to both improving their subjects and to school development as a whole. They have a very good grasp of standards and progress in their subjects and what needs to improve even more. They are actively involved in the full range of monitoring checks the school makes on its work. There are excellent links with governors to keep them fully informed and involved. Senior leaders and governors ensure equality of opportunity for all pupils and tackle discrimination firmly.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Since becoming an academy, the school has worked very effectively with the Discovery Schools Academy Trust. The Trust has provided an excellent range of high-quality training for staff and encouraged links between schools to share good practice. Teachers’ assessment of pupils’ work in the different year groups is effectively moderated with other schools in the Trust.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The curriculum has recently been reviewed, re-planned to meet the expectations of the new National Curriculum and remains outstanding. Subject leaders monitor teachers’ planning to ensure all areas are fully covered. The work planned motivates the pupils. The experiences they receive enable them to develop the academic, spiritual, moral, social and cultural skills to equip them for their future life in modern Britain. They show respect and tolerance for others and have a good understanding of democratic processes through class discussions and the elections to the school council.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 There is an excellent range of clubs and activities to enrich the curriculum and pupils are keen to take up these opportunities. Pupils are encouraged to show initiative and take responsibility. For instance, in running the ‘tuck shop’, pupils devised a business plan, consulted with pupils and parents, order the stock, sell the goods and report back to senior staff and governors. They are proud of this enterprise.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The pupil premium is used very effectively to provide one-to-one and small-group support for disadvantaged pupils. As a result, they all made expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics and many made better than expected progress. Consequently, the gaps are narrowing between these pupils and their classmates to within one term, or have been eliminated entirely.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The primary sport funding is also used well. Sport has a high profile in the school and a range of team sports are covered internally and through tournaments with other schools. The football team recently won a regional competition and are representing Leicester City in a national tournament at the home of Tottenham Hotspur. Pupils have a good understanding of healthy lifestyles and a healthy diet.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Arrangements for safeguarding of pupils are fully in place, are effective, and meet statutory requirements.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Senior leaders have been rigorous in their checks on attendance. They have introduced telephone calls on the first day of absence when parents have not notified the school. They write to parents when a child’s attendance drops below an acceptable level. They have worked closely with the local attendance officer to liaise with parents. This has been successful in reducing absence overall and attendance is now above the national average.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school:  There have been very significant improvements to governance over the last two years. There has been reorganisation of the governing body to ensure an excellent balance of relevant expertise. Training has been well attended and governors now have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.  The governing body has a good grasp of the school’s performance data and the overall quality of teaching. The governors are all now actively involved in checking the work of the school through their subject area links and regular visits into school. Consequently, they have a good appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses in the school and are monitoring carefully the progress through the school’s improvement plan. They are rigorous in monitoring the performance of staff and ensure that salary increases are linked to good performance in the classroom.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils and the large majority of parents who commented during the inspection agreed that behaviour is good at the school.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ behaviour is excellent around the school. They show good manners and are polite and courteous to adults and to their fellow pupils. Lunchtimes are friendly, relaxed and sociable occasions and pupils’ behaviour is impeccable.

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Behaviour

 Behaviour in lessons is generally exemplary. Just occasionally, pupils lose their focus and concentration and so their progress with their work suffers. However, behaviour does not cause any low-level disruption to the learning of others.

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Behaviour

 School leaders and governors have been rigorous in their efforts to improve attendance and it is now above the national average in the current academic year. They have been effective in reducing the number of pupils with persistent absences, including those from Traveller and Gipsy/Roma backgrounds.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils and the vast majority of parents who commented said that the pupils feel safe at school.

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Safety

 Safeguarding practices are rigorous. Visitors to the school are checked on arrival and issued with badges when they sign in. All external doors are secure. Appointments to the school staff comply with ‘safer recruitment’ requirements and all staff are checked thoroughly.

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Safety

 All necessary risk assessments are carried out in advance of trips and activities outside the school. Pupils are provided with good advice on how to keep safe in the wider community, including the safe use of the internet.

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Safety

 Pupils are knowledgeable about the various forms of bullying and these are discussed in classes, in assembles and during ‘Anti-Bullying Week’. Pupils said that instances of bullying are very rare and that they have confidence in the adults at school to deal with these quickly and effectively.

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Safety

 However, almost one in five parents who responded said that the school does not always deal effectively with bullying. The inspection team studied the school’s records and could not find evidence to support this view.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The weak teaching that was present when the school became an academy has been almost entirely eradicated and teaching is now consistently good. Some aspects, such as the ways in which teachers mark pupils’ work and how they encourage pupils to evaluate their own work are outstanding. The school’s records of observations of teaching, checks on pupils’ work books and data on their attainment and progress show that the improvements have been consistent over time.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers have successfully introduced the new National Curriculum and have planned work that motivates the pupils. This means that the pupils are enthusiastic in lessons and are engaged in their work. As a result, they are productive and their work shows they make consistently good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils’ pride in their work is outstanding. They have excellent attitudes to their learning and want to do well. The presentation of their work is equally good in literacy, topic and mathematics books. The books are a pleasure to read.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers’ marking of pupils’ work has been a priority on the school’s improvement plan and actions taken have worked well. Marking is now a strength of the school. It gives clear reasons for positive comments and provides pupils with good advice on how to improve their work. Pupils respond consistently well to this advice and consequently their work is improving rapidly.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils are also encouraged to check their own work against success criteria provided by the teacher. They enjoy doing this and the understanding they gain is another key factor in their improving progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Pupils have targets to achieve in reading, writing and mathematics. The pupils say that they find these helpful and motivating. Their positive attitudes to learning mean that they want to achieve and then exceed their targets.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The teaching of reading is good. In Key Stage 1 teachers take every opportunity to encourage pupils to use their phonics skills (the sounds that letters make) to work out unfamiliar words, but also to think about and discuss their reading. Older pupils are encouraged to think more deeply about their reading and to work out complex meanings for themselves. They have many opportunities to apply their reading skills for different purposes. This strengthens both their skills and their enjoyment of reading so that standards are high.

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The quality of teaching is good

 In mathematics, teachers provide activities that challenge pupils to achieve well. Firm foundations for mastering and using key mathematical ideas are laid in the Reception and Key Stage 1 because teachers tailor the work so well to what they know about pupils’ levels and needs. Teachers are quick to identify where pupils do not understand, spending more time on explanations and examples until they are sure everyone knows what they need to do. Older pupils are very well stretched and challenged in mathematics, because of teachers’ very strong subject knowledge and careful matching of tasks to groups and individuals.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Progress in writing is improving because teachers ensure that pupils have interesting things to write about, whether about where a parrot should live in Year 1, or writing a fable in Year 6. Pupils are enthused by the topics and have high expectations of themselves when thinking about how to improve their work. The good teaching of spelling and punctuation has also led to improvements in these areas. However, the school’s focus on teaching grammar has been less effective and this limits the progress some can make. This remains an area for improvement.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children enter the school with skills and knowledge that are broadly typical for their age, although some show weakness in their skills in reading and writing. They make good progress, and this has improved considerably over the last three years. By the time they leave the Reception class the large majority of the children have reached the typical levels of attainment or better. Vulnerable groups of children and those of lower ability make outstanding progress from their starting point during early years because of the close attention to their needs and the high quality care provided.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The improvements in children’s skills and knowledge in the Reception class mean that the pupils are better placed to sustain the good progress as they move into Year 1 and Year 2. From the activities observed, the books scrutinised and the school’s own data for the current year, the pupils are on track for the Key Stage 1 results in 2015 to be well above the current national averages.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 This good progress continues consistently throughout the rest of the school. Progress in mathematics and in reading is particularly good and, although progress in writing is better than expected nationally, it is not as fast as it is in reading and mathematics. Overall, pupils are now making significantly faster progress than pupils nationally.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils leave Year 6 with levels of attainment significantly above national averages in reading, writing and mathematics. In mathematics, pupils leave Year 6 a year ahead of all pupils nationally and in reading and writing they were half a year ahead. From the checks on pupils’ work and the school’s data during the inspection there is no sign of slippage in standards or in progress this year. Pupils are consequently well prepared for the next phase of their education.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The most-able pupils achieve above the national averages for similar pupils by the time they leave Year 6. The results are particularly good in mathematics and the tests in English grammar, punctuation and spelling. This is because teachers consistently provide high levels of challenge for these pupils in lessons.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs achieve extremely well because their particular needs are identified early and then they receive good support from well-trained teachers and learning support assistants. As a result, almost all pupils attain the expected or above in reading and writing and all pupils do so in mathematics by the time they leave Year 6.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Funding provided to support the disadvantaged pupils has been used very effectively indeed. Every pupil achieved expected or better progress in reading, writing and mathematics and the percentages achieving better than expected progress are in line with national averages for reading and writing and well above the national average in mathematics. In 2014, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics was within one term of their peers when they left the school and half a year ahead of other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Pupils from Gypsy/Roma backgrounds are now making much improved progress because their attendance is now much more regular. Pupils with English as an additional language make good progress in line with their peers because they receive good support when they enter the school and learn to grasp the English language quickly and effectively.

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The early years provision is good

 The leadership and management of early years is outstanding. The early years leader, ably supported by the early years team, has made sure that the provision in Reception has improved rapidly over the last two years. Provision is now good and the leadership is determined to improve it further.

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The early years provision is good

 The teaching and the help provided by the all staff, including the learning support assistants, is good. Some features such as the ways in which individual children are supported and encouraged are outstanding. Consequently all children make at least good progress in all the areas of learning. Some groups, such as disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, make outstanding progress. This means children are well prepared for Year 1.

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The early years provision is good

 Parents also agree that their children make a good start to their education. They find the induction procedures very helpful. They confirm that their children soon settle into school life and thoroughly enjoy school and that the staff are very helpful and supportive. This all helps families and staff to work effectively together to enhance children’s learning further.

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The early years provision is good

 The early years unit is attractive and well-resourced. All areas of learning are covered well and the learning environment is extended effectively into the outdoor area. There are good opportunities for children to practise their literacy and language skills, which is important given the difficulties some children have in these areas when they join the school. The quality of teaching is consistently good or better and the learning support assistants provide valuable support to the teachers and children.

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The early years provision is good

 Staff and children know the routines and expectations exceptionally well. Consequently, the high expectations of the staff are reflected in the high standards of behaviour and positive attitudes to learning that the pupils carry with them throughout their time at the school. It is easy to see that the children already take great pride in their work and want to succeed.

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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 140316 Local authority Leicestershire Inspection number 462006

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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 Academy converter Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 393 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ruth Malkin Headteacher Catherine Winterton Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected as an academy Telephone number 0116 286 2674 Email address office@danemill.leics.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . 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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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