Hodge Clough Primary School

Hodge Clough Primary School Conduit Street, Moorside, Oldham, Greater Manchester, OL1 4JX

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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

 Leaders, including governors, are committed to ensuring that the school is inclusive and provides for all aspects of pupils’ development.  Pupils make good progress, and by the end of Year 6 reach average standards in reading, writing and mathematics.  Children get off to a good start in Reception and are well prepared for the next stage of their learning.  Teaching is good because teachers and teaching assistants make lessons interesting and make sure that pupils understand what they are learning.  Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well. Consequently, pupils show respect and tolerance for each other’s differing beliefs and are prepared well for life in modern Britain.  Pupils behave well and feel safe because the school has a calm and purposeful learning atmosphere.  Pupils' attendance is improving because they say they enjoy school. They particularly appreciate the many sporting activities they are involved in.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Parents rightly believe that their children are extremely safe at the school and that pupils behave well.  Governance is good. Governors are knowledgeable and take an active part in supporting and challenging school leaders.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Sometimes, activities that pupils are asked to complete in lessons are not set at the right level.  Feedback in pupils’ books does not always provide clear guidance on how pupils can improve their work nor do pupils act upon the advice they are given.  When engaged in work in lessons, other than English or mathematics, pupils do not always take care with their spelling, grammar and punctuation.  The curriculum does not provide sufficient opportunities for pupils developing their key English and mathematical skills in all subjects.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection team observed teaching and learning in 17 lessons, one of which was observed jointly with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with leaders, teachers, pupils and members of the governing body. A discussion was held with a representative from the local authority.  The inspection team took into account the 58 responses to the online survey, Parent View, and held informal discussions with a number of parents.  The inspection team considered the views expressed in the survey responses from 25 members of staff.  A range of information supplied by the school was scrutinised, including the school’s own information about how well pupils are doing, planning documents, checks on the quality of teaching and the school development.

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Inspection team

Andrew Morley, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is larger than the average-sized primary school and was opened in January 2011, on the amalgamation of Hodge Clough Junior and Hodge Clough Infant schools. The school operates on two sites.  In the early years provision, there is a full-time Nursery class and two full-time Reception classes.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for pupil premium funding (extra government money for pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority) is broadly average.  Most pupils are White British, although about one in five pupils comes from a range of multi-ethnic backgrounds. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average and few of these are at the early stages of learning English.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for

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Information about this school

pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics.   The Scallywags before- and after-school club shares the school site. It is subject to a separate inspection and receives a separate report, which is available on the Ofsted website.  The chair of governors is a National Leader of Governance.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching to further raise the achievement of pupils by ensuring that:  teachers always set work at the right level for all pupils  the feedback given to pupils, particularly in their books, is consistently helpful in moving them on in their learning and that pupils act upon that advice  the quality of spelling, grammar and presentation is of the same quality in all the work that pupils produce, particularly in subjects other than English and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the curriculum to ensure it provides systematic opportunities for pupils to develop their reading, writing and mathematical skills across all subjects.

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The leadership and management are good

 The ethos of Hodge Clough is one of serving the pupils. This can be seen in practice through the commitment of the leadership team to ensuring that they do their very best for all pupils to help them achieve the best they can be and become valuable members of society.  The headteacher and the deputy headteacher have a clear vision for the future of the school. They are enthusiastic and inspire members of staff to help drive the school forward.  Senior leaders know their school well. They have a clear idea about strengths and weaknesses, which they use to create effective action plans that are put into place and monitored.  Leaders are having a positive impact on teaching and pupils’ achievement. The two sites are managed well and leaders have established a calm and positive learning culture that supports good teaching and learning.  Senior and key stage leaders make regular and useful checks on the quality of teaching and learning

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The leadership and management are good

through visits to classes and through work scrutiny. The deputy headteacher in her role as assessment leader makes a strong contribution to these checks by analysing and sharing progress and attainment information.  Middle leaders are knowledgeable about the school’s next steps and support other members of staff well. However, subject leaders do not consistently challenge pupils on the quality of their written work in subjects other than English and occasionally pupils do not present their work to the best of their ability.  Equal opportunities are a priority for leaders and discrimination of any kind is not accepted. The good relationships fostered between staff and the pupils ensure that there is sensitivity towards diversity. During the inspection pupils had the opportunity to think deeply about British values. For example, in a Key Stage 2 lesson, pupils demonstrated a deep understanding of what it means to be tolerant and

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The leadership and management are good

respectful.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted extremely well. Pupils are taught about the difference between right and wrong through the clear sanctions and rewards system in the school and the strong values of the school. A group of Year 6 girls, who act as ambassadors for their school as ‘Play makers’ in the community, spoke with great maturity and sensitivity in explaining how they helped disable people access sporting activities.  Disadvantaged pupils, who are eligible for additional funding, are given good support socially and academically so that they can take a full part in all the school has to offer. Individual and small-group support is helping to move their learning forward quickly.  Pupils benefit from a curriculum that is enriched by a range of extra-curricular activities and is enriched with a comprehensive programme of visits and visitors. One pupil spoke with great enthusiasm about the

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The leadership and management are good

residential visit to Winmarleigh Hall. Other pupils spoke with great appreciation of the many sporting activities, and they are rightly proud of their success in inter-schools sporting events. The additional sport funding is used well to provide coaching and staff training. As a result even more pupils are taking part in a wide range of sporting clubs and competitions.  While the school provides a stimulating curriculum, leaders do not always monitor the quality of work that some of the pupils produce on a day-to-day basis in all subjects. This results in some of the pupils not always producing quality work in subjects other than English and mathematics.  Comprehensive systems are in place to keep pupils safe and these are understood by all those working within the school. Staff are checked for suitability for working with children and are diligent in reporting any concerns they might have about the welfare of their pupils. They receive good training in health and

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The leadership and management are good

safety matters.  Parents are very appreciative and positive about their experiences with the school and wholeheartedly recommend it to others.  The school benefits from a range of partnership work with a local cluster of schools. Careful liaison with external agencies and close contact with parents ensure that vulnerable pupils are protected and barriers to learning are overcome. The local authority is appreciative of the inclusive nature of the school and its commitment to support pupils and their families.  The governance of the school:  The governors are passionate about, and committed to, the school. They are well led by the chair of governors and all take an active role in supporting and challenging school leaders.  They have a good understanding of the information about how well pupils are doing in relation to others nationally. They also know about the school’s success in closing gaps between disadvantaged

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The leadership and management are good

pupils and others nationally by the end of Key Stage 2.  They are well informed about the quality of teaching in the school and understand the way that salary progression links with staff performance and how underperformance is tackled.  They make good use of the skill set of governors to ensure that school funds are used appropriately and that budgets are considered carefully.  The governors ensure that current safeguarding requirements are met.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils are polite and courteous. They play and work together well.  They demonstrate caring attitudes to one another and socialise well together at break times. They respond quickly to teachers’ instructions and gather in an orderly way in the dining hall and for assembly. The older pupils are good role models for the younger children. They have many roles, which they carry out with pride and great maturity.  Parents, members of staff and the pupils themselves agree that behaviour at the school is good. School records show that behaviour over time is good and improving. Poor behaviour rarely disrupts learning, with only occasional drops in concentration when the work pupils are doing lacks sufficient challenge.  Pupils take pride in their school, work hard and celebrate their achievements readily. On a small number of occasions they do not always produce their best work when not doing English or mathematics.

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Behaviour

 Pupils enjoy school. Their attendance is average and rising. School leaders have improved the attendance of pupils who attended less regularly in the past.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils feel very safe in school. They know how to keep safe in a range of situations, including when using the internet. They are supported exceptionally well by staff in learning how to keep safe, for example, when cycling and using the internet.  Pupils and their parents reported that the school was a ‘kind’ and ‘secure’ place, where staff and friends help them. Supervision of pupils at break times is plentiful with pupils kept safe as a result.  Pupils say that any form of bullying or unkind behaviour is rare and they understand what to do if they have any concerns. For example, pupils know to say ‘Stop, don’t do it!’ to someone who is being unkind, and if this fails, to then seek adult help.  Pupils’ safety is given a high priority by the governors and leaders; relevant contact information for the person responsible for child protection is highly visible throughout the school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 As a result of good teaching over time, pupils make good progress and achieve well.  Good classroom management, coupled with teachers’ high expectations of behaviour, ensures that teaching takes place in a purposeful and calm learning atmosphere. This makes a significant contribution to pupils’ good progress.  Pupils and adults share positive working relationships, which help to motivate pupils to achieve well. Pupils make positive comments about learning such as, ‘I enjoy the activities we get to do.’ and ‘My teacher always helps me when I get stuck.’  Reading is promoted in the school and is well supported by parents. The pupils enjoy reading and the older ones read independently. The effective teaching of reading ensures that pupils apply their phonics (the sounds letters make) skills successfully and reach average standards in reading.  Pupils make good progress in lessons but on some occasions this progress slows. This is when the work

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The quality of teaching is good

set for them to do is too easy. When doing their topic work pupils do not always concentrate on presenting their work well and using correct spelling and punctuation.  Pupils throughout the school talk positively about how they enjoy lessons, especially reading. They are given many opportunities in which develop their reading skills. However, they are not consistently and systematically taught grammar, spelling and punctuation, which sometimes detracts from their writing.  Teaching assistants provide valuable support for groups of pupils in lessons and during additional group activities. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are given effective support, especially when working on tasks that are planned specifically for them. For example, a small group, supported by a teaching assistant, developed key communication skills in constructing models using Lego.  There are good examples across the school where teachers mark pupils’ work regularly, acknowledging

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The quality of teaching is good

and praising pupils’ successes and often providing pupils with guidance about how to improve. However, this is not always consistent and it does not always provide appropriate focus on key errors such as spelling, sentence construction or mathematical reasoning.  Pupils say that they enjoy their homework, which is set regularly and complements class work, providing pupils with opportunities to practise and apply literacy and numeracy skills.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Children start school in the Nursery classes with a range of skills and knowledge, but many start with skills below those typical for their age in communication and language. Pupils make good progress from their starting points. By the end of Year 6, standards are at least average in reading, writing and mathematics.  Achievement dipped at the end of Year 6 in 2014, but school data and pupils’ work show that pupils are now making good progress across the school. The current Year 6 pupils are on track to do better than in the previous two years.  Reading is given a high profile in the school and pupils spoke with great enthusiasm about reading a range of books, including fact and fiction. Pupils demonstrate good phonetic skills and are achieving well in reading at all phases of the school.  Disadvantaged pupils make good progress over time, so that gaps between them and other pupils nationally close by the time they leave the school. In the 2014 national tests, there was no gap in

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The achievement of pupils is good

disadvantaged pupils’ attainment compared with other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. When compared with other pupils in the school, the gaps are about one term in reading, writing and mathematics.  Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are making more rapid progress than in the past. They are now making good progress, especially when working in additional groups with work that focuses on their next steps.  The most able pupils do well over time, although in some lessons, especially in subjects other than literacy and numeracy, progress is restricted when they do not move on to hard enough work soon enough.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language usually make good and sometimes rapid progress, but sometimes when feedback does not pick up on key errors in their written work, such as those in pupils’ use of tenses, their learning slows.

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The early years provision is good

 Children enter Reception with skills which are broadly typical, but which are sometimes weaker in literacy and communication. They do particularly well in developing confidence and independence and soon establish clear routines. For example, Nursery children were able to access different learning areas independently of their teacher and were very clear about what they were expected to do and achieve.  Assessment is detailed and used very effectively to plan the next steps that children need to take to move their learning on. All adults are involved in observing and recording children’s progress and keep a close check on how well children are learning. They quickly identify any children who may need extra support, and make sure this is rapidly in place.  Good links have been established with parents, who contribute to the children’s learning through the children’s individual learning journals.  Children make good progress in Reception and leave well prepared for learning in Key Stage 1. In 2014,

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The early years provision is good

the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development was above average. This represented an improvement on 2013.  Children benefit from a stimulating learning environment, both indoors and outdoors. They are given good opportunities to make choices, develop their imagination and key literacy and numeracy skills. Their physical development, art and technology skills are promoted well. Teaching in Reception classes is good. Children are well supported in their learning. They have many opportunities to apply their phonics skills in writing words and simple sentences. They learn to count and sort groups of objects, as well as to recognise and write numerals.  Children are given great responsibility and encouraged to think deeply about aspects of their personal, social and emotional development. The children provided very mature responses as they explored moral issues in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

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The early years provision is good

 Strong leadership and management ensure that members of staff are well trained and that work is relevant and purposeful. It is very much a team approach.  Children behave well, feel safe and have good attitudes towards learning because members of staff have high expectations and make sure that the children are kept safe and are nurtured well.

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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 136223 Local authority Oldham Inspection number 461927

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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 402 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Martin Matthews Headteacher Neil Cavanagh Date of previous school inspection 10 May 2012 Telephone number 0161 770 5790 Fax number 0161 770 5788 Email address info@hodgecloughprimary.oldham.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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