St Anne's CofE VC Primary School

St Anne's CofE VC Primary School Wyre Hill, Bewdley, DY12 2UQ

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Inadequate 4 Leadership and management Inadequate 4 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Inadequate 4 Achievement of pupils Inadequate 4 Early years provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires special measures.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Weak leadership and management have led to a decline in the school’s performance since the previous inspection.  Leaders, including governors, do not analyse data accurately or in sufficient depth to provide a true picture of the school’s performance and identify all the relevant priorities for improvement.  Leaders do not use the results of analyses to find out which aspects of teaching are most in need of improvement.  Governors do not check the accuracy of information provided by the headteacher. They do not hold him to account for the school’s performance.  Leaders and governors expect too little of teachers. Teachers’ targets are too low and lead to the underachievement of groups of pupils.  The attendance of pupils who are currently eligible for free school meals is well below that of other pupils and shows little sign of improvement.  Pupils do not all read often enough to an adult in Years 1 and 2.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Subject leaders and others with responsibility for aspects of the school’s work have a weak understanding of achievement and do not do enough to check provision in their areas.  Leaders have made poor use of pupil premium funds. The progress of disadvantaged pupils is inadequate and the gap between their performance and others is wide and growing.  Pupils make inadequate progress in Key Stages 1 and 2.  Groups of pupils, notably the most able, disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, underachieve.  Teachers do not set work that is well enough matched to the abilities of different groups of pupils.  Teachers’ marking is poor and does not help pupils to improve.  Pupils’ behaviour requires improvement, because teachers in Years 1 and 2 do not ensure that pupils always get on with their work when told to.

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The school has the following strengths

 Children make good progress in the Reception class, where teachers have high expectations of how much children will learn.  The school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively, and pupils have a strong understanding of British values.  Pupils are kept very safe.  The school has a strong track record of helping pupils with behaviour difficulties to manage their emotions.  Behaviour on the playground and outside of lessons is exemplary.  Leaders have used sports funds well to increase pupils’ participation in an active lifestyle.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 18 lessons, including three lessons jointly observed with the headteacher. In addition, the inspectors listened to pupils reading and analysed the work in their books.  Meetings were held with staff, pupils, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 74 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors spoke to parents informally during the inspection to gather their views and also considered the views that some parents expressed in letters.  Inspectors observed the school’s work including arrangements for keeping pupils safe. They looked at a number of documents including: the schools own information on pupils’ progress; the school’s evaluation of its performance; records relating to attendance; and documents relating to safeguarding.

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Inspection team

David Driscoll, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this school

 The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The early years comprises the Reception Year, in which children attend full time.  Most pupils are White British.  An average proportion of pupils is disabled or has special educational needs.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported through the pupil premium (additional funding for pupils currently known to be eligible for free school meals, those who have been eligible for free school meals at any time in the last six years and looked-after children) is average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Urgently improve teaching so that all groups of pupils make good or better progress by ensuring that teachers consistently:  set tasks that are matched to pupils’ abilities, particularly by giving harder work to the most-able pupils  mark work frequently, accurately identify errors in pupils’ work and ensure that pupils, especially those who are disabled or have special educational needs, learn from their mistakes  ensure that, by listening to pupils read in Years 1 and 2, standards improve in reading through more frequent assessment of pupils’ progress and by moving them on to new books more quickly  check the progress of pupils in Years 1 and 2 more frequently in lessons to make sure that they are working as hard as possible.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ achievement, including by using pupil premium funds to develop effective strategies for accelerating disadvantaged pupils’ progress and close the gap in attainment between them and other pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Analyse data on pupils’ attendance more frequently and in greater depth and use the results to target actions to improve the attendance of those pupils currently eligible for free school meals.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by ensuring that the headteacher and senior leaders:  record assessments of pupils’ progress accurately  analyse data on pupils’ achievement accurately and in greater depth to identify key weaknesses in the performance of different groups of pupils  use the results of such analyses to draw up a comprehensive and accurate list of priorities for the school’s improvement and find out what aspects of teaching are causing pupils to underachieve  have higher expectations of teachers and set them more challenging targets when managing their performance  develop the role of subject leaders and those responsible for other aspects of the school’s work, particularly with respect to understanding data and improving all aspects in their areas of responsibility.  Improve governance by ensuring that governors:  analyse and check data for themselves  provide greater challenge to the headteacher and hold him to account for the school’s performance

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 develop a better understanding of how teachers’ performance is managed and challenge the headteacher on the outcomes when necessary.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance and of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how these aspects of leadership and management may be improved.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Weak leadership and management have led to a rapid decline since the school was previously inspected. Standards are lower, teaching is less effective and pupils now underachieve. Key weaknesses at the previous inspection, such as marking and the roles of subject leaders, remain. The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders at all levels in the school, including governors, do not analyse data on pupils’ achievement or attendance in sufficient depth. They fail to identify all the groups who are underachieving, so leaders do not target checks on teaching to find out what is causing pupils to make slow progress. Leaders feel that the most-able pupils, for example, make good progress, when school data and work in pupils’ books show that they underachieve in several year groups and subjects.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Assessments, although accurate, are not always recorded properly. In some cases, pupils are missed off lists or do not have their records completed. In others, the data entered are incorrect, so leaders do not have a clear picture of how well groups of pupils are achieving and are not ensuring that all have the opportunity to achieve equally.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The headteacher’s analyses of data are also inaccurate. The school’s evaluation of its performance has many errors that lead to evaluations being far more generous than the school’s performance warrants. Consequently, the school’s priorities for improvement are not focused on all its key weaknesses.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 All these failures mean that leaders are not improving teaching quickly enough. Despite indications of widespread underachievement in 2014, the headteacher found almost all teaching he observed to be good or outstanding.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 All teachers met their targets in 2014. The headteacher had set targets that were too low. They focused on only a group of pupils in each class. This led to some groups, who were targeted, making good progress, while others fell behind. In Year 4 reading, for example, disadvantaged pupils made good progress, while the most able underachieved. In Year 5 mathematics the situation was reversed. Overall, however, there are many more instances of groups making slow progress than there are ones of groups making better than expected progress.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders have made poor use of the pupil premium funds. Strategies to boost the achievement of disadvantaged pupils have had little impact on the pupils and led to them falling further behind their peers.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The effectiveness of subject and other middle managers is inadequate. Subject leaders do not all have a good grasp of how well pupils are achieving in their areas of responsibility. They play only a limited role in checking the quality of teaching and evaluating the effectiveness of provision. Some, such as the mathematics coordinator, are totally unaware of key information on how well pupils achieve when compared to others nationally.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 In contrast, the leader of the early years has a complete picture of how well children are achieving and has drawn up plans to address any areas of learning where progress is slower than in others.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Some actions taken by leaders have been successful. In phonics (the sounds that letters make) for example, the very poor results in the Year 1 phonics screening in 2014 led to a greater focus on how well phonics is taught and standards have improved. However, the lack of foresight leads to leaders trying to remedy poor situations, such as the very low results at Key Stage 2 in 2013, rather than preventing them happening in the first place.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders have made good use of the extra sports funding. A specially trained teaching assistant has been employed who has lifted the quality of teaching of sport across the school. Many more pupils now participate in sport than was previously the case. Pupils are now much more active, which has led to better behaviour at breaks, when pupils quickly organise themselves into teams and play sports enthusiastically for the full duration.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The school has a ‘values for life’ theme that informs the planning of all subjects and is highly successful in promoting pupils spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well as providing them with a good understanding of British values. The most recent theme was ‘commitment and service’ and aspects were woven into all subjects. Pupils studied the life of Grace Darling, for example, and learnt how it is important to be selfless and think of others less fortunate than themselves. This approach is typical of leaders’ successful development of an ethos where pupils respect one another and where incidents of any form of discrimination are exceptionally rare. Overall though, the curriculum is not well enough matched to the differing abilities of pupils.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Leaders ensure that pupils are very safe in school. All safeguarding requirements are met.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The local authority has a broadly accurate overview of the school’s performance, but has not gone into sufficient detail in order to identify the extent of the problems.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The governance of the school:  Governance is inadequate. Governors are too accepting of what they are told by the headteacher. They do not check data for themselves. Governors do not have a clear picture of the school’s failings, so do not challenge the headteacher or hold him to account for the school’s performance.  Governors do not know enough about the quality of teaching and how teachers’ performance is managed. They have not questioned, for example, how all teachers could be performing well when pupils underachieve and standards have been falling.  Governors are starting to ask more pointed questions, but this has come too late to prevent the school falling into decline.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 in particular do not always do as they are told by their teachers. When given a task, they do not always settle quickly to their work. On occasions pupils daydream or talk quietly to a friend instead of getting on with their work.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ attendance is broadly average; it was above average at the previous inspection. The attendance of disadvantaged pupils is below average. While the attendance of those who are no longer eligible for free school meals is improving, there is no such change in the attendance of those who are still eligible.

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Behaviour

 In Year 6, pupils’ behaviour in lessons is often very good. They concentrate fully on their tasks, work hard and play a full part in class discussions.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ behaviour outside of lessons, at play and in the corridors is exemplary. Pupils are genuinely concerned to ensure others are as happy as they are. On the playground for example, they ensure that all are included in games and that those who are less talented are given the time and space they need to contribute to a team game. Pupils are quick to help any who fall over, for example, and stay with them until they know that all is well.

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Behaviour

 Pupils are very proud of their school. They wear their uniform with pride and take great care of the learning environment and equipment. Pupils are polite and well mannered. They hold doors open for one another and are respectful of adults.

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Behaviour

 The school has a strong track record of successfully supporting pupils with behaviour difficulties. Staff help such pupils to manage their emotions so they remain in school and exclusions are rare.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. All safeguarding requirements are met and records are meticulously maintained. Staff on duty at breaks are highly trained in first aid and carry a wide range of equipment with them so that they can deal with any incidents in a speedy manner.

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Safety

 The school’s leaders are quick to identify any pupil who is at risk of harm. They follow up concerns quickly and ensure good communications with other agencies in most cases.

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Safety

 Bullying is rare at the school, although a few parents still express some concerns. Any form of derogatory language or discriminatory behaviour is almost unknown.

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Safety

 Pupils have a good understanding of how to stay safe in a wide range of circumstances. Children in the Reception class are taught the importance of hygiene when making sandwiches, for example. By Year 6, pupils have a good understanding of how to stay safe on line and when using mobile devices.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teaching is not focused on ensuring that all groups of pupils in every class achieve well. As a result, groups in each class underachieve.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers do not plan work that is well matched to the abilities of the pupils. In some cases it is too difficult for disabled pupils or those who have special educational needs, or too easy for the most able. In Year 6 mathematics, for example, the most-able pupils sometimes spend too long carrying out routine calculations, all of which they get correct, instead of deepening their understanding of the mathematics or using their skills to solve problems.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers’ marking is not helping pupils to improve consistently. Leaders have set clear guidelines on what teachers are supposed to do, but these are not adhered to. For example, some pupils have not had books marked for over a month. Work is often just ticked, with little or no indication of what a pupil has done well or what needs to be improved.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers do not ensure that disabled pupils and those with special educational needs learn from their mistakes in writing and mathematics. Where teachers point out mistakes, they rarely insist that pupils correct them so errors, such as putting capital letters in the middle of sentences, are repeated.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers in Years 1 and 2 do not ensure that pupils are well focused on their work, especially in reading lessons. The teacher often works with a small group while others are supposed to read quietly on their own. However, teachers do not check that pupils are reading. Instead, pupils turn pages aimlessly or start talking quietly to their friends, making little progress in their reading.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers in Years 1 and 2 do not ensure that all pupils are heard to read by an adult with sufficient regularity, or moved on to new books quickly enough. Reading diaries show that some are heard to read three times more often than others, and their diaries are completed in much greater detail.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Throughout the school pupils trust their teachers and are quick to ask for help when needed, in attempting more difficult problems in mathematics, for example.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teachers have a good knowledge of the subjects they teach. They can answer questions asked about the wider subject and teach French with a convincing accent, for example.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 Teaching in the Reception class is good. Teachers use the accurate assessments of children to plan activities that are well matched to their abilities and promote good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Taking into account their starting points, pupils’ achievement has declined since the previous inspection. Standards, which were above average, have fallen to average. Pupils now make inadequate progress in Key Stage 1 and 2, when previously they had made good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Pupils start Year 1 with standards that are above average. They make too little progress and their standards fall to average by the end of Year 2.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Standards at the end of Year 6 were very low in 2013. The decline was halted in 2014 and results recovered to some degree, but for several years there have been indications of groups, such as disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, underachieving. Current data shows that these groups continue to make too little progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 The most-able pupils, most of whom are girls, also underachieve. The school’s assessments show that now there is a wide variation in their progress in different classes. Too often, the most able-pupils fall behind and even if they make good progress in the following year, it is not enough for them to make up for lost ground.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 There were too few disadvantaged pupils in Year 6 in 2014 to report on their standards in detail without identifying individuals. However, across the school, disadvantaged pupils make less progress than others both in the school and nationally. The gap in the standards of disadvantaged pupils and others is wide and increasing in all subjects.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 Children in the Reception class achieve well. They join the school with knowledge and skills that are typical for their age and start Year 1 with above-average standards.

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The early years provision is good

 Parents are full of praise for the early years provision. Children quickly settle into routines and soon learn to have good attitudes and behave well in lessons.

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The early years provision is good

 Teachers are quick to take any opportunity to help children learn, and match work well to their differencing abilities. When finding out the date, for example, the least able worked out the number, while the most able also identified what ‘st’, ‘nd’ meant in ‘1st’ and ‘2nd’.

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The early years provision is good

 Teaching is good, especially that of reading and writing. Teachers give children lots of opportunities to sound words out and quickly move them on to writing the words. When reading them a story, for example, children were asked to spot the rhyming words, sound them out and then write more words with the same sounds.

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The early years provision is good

 Teachers pay close attention to children’s safety and to their health and hygiene. They choose stories with messages about the dangers of overeating and not taking exercise, for example. Mathematics topics, such as fractions, are taught by making and cutting up sandwiches so that children learn to handle food and use knives safely at the same time as improving their mathematics.

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The early years provision is good

 Children make good progress in almost all areas of learning. In 2014, a higher-than-average proportion of children achieved a good level of development, especially in mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design. They are well prepared to start Year 1. Their progress is not as good in their physical development because the outdoor area is too small to allow children to use bicycles and scooters, for example, as and when they choose.

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The early years provision is good

 The good leadership of the early years ensures that it goes from strength to strength. Standards are rising as children make better progress each year.

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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 135036 Local authority Worcestershire Inspection number 456295

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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 controlled Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 300 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Diana Sutherland Headteacher Simon Tapp Date of previous school inspection 13 March 2012 Telephone number 01299 402013 Fax number 01299 402476 Email address office@stannesprimary.worcs.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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