Setting

Mr W Smith Mundella Community Primary School Mundella Place Sheffield S8 8SJ

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 November 2015 I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in September 2011.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

Under your committed and energetic leadership, the school is a purposeful, hardworking community determined to make sure all pupils do as well as they can. All staff share your sense of purpose, which leads to effective teaching, ensuring pupils make good progress, especially in reading and mathematics. As a result, pupils move confidently onto secondary school.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

The governing body have successfully addressed the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection report. Governors take part in all aspects of the school’s work, so they have detailed knowledge of what is working well and what needs to be developed further. Parents appreciate the wide range of opportunities to get involved in their children’s education because they know this helps their children to succeed.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

Pupils are proud of their school and their achievements. Pupils describe plenty of opportunities to take up roles of responsibility and how this helps them to prepare for their adult lives. The wide range of competitive sporting activities broadens the pupils’ experience of people from different backgrounds as well as developing their physical skills.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

You make sure teaching is effective and accurately identify aspects of teachers’ work that need to develop. The range of subjects taught in lessons and activities outside Ofsted

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk classrooms are interesting and draw pupils towards developing their own learning skills.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

Since the last inspection, governors appointed you to the role of headteacher and many other new staff have joined the school. The areas for improvement identified at the last inspection have been successfully addressed.

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Short inspection of Mundella Community Primary School

You and other leaders demonstrate a robust approach to making sure pupils are safe and well. Your work with other agencies is effective and sensitive. Parents and pupils appreciate this support. Leaders, governors and staff are appropriately trained in aspects of safeguarding. Pupils say they feel safe and the vast majority of their parents agree with them. Pupils talked confidently about how to keep safe online as well as what they know about keeping themselves safe and well in other areas of life. A very small number of parents raised concerns about bullying. Inspection evidence, including the views of pupils, shows the low number of incidents are managed effectively.

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Inspection findings

 The continual focus on the development of teaching, learning and assessment is at the heart of your leadership. You and the senior leaders regularly check how well pupils are progressing by visits to classrooms, looking at pupils’ work and making sure teachers’ assessments are accurate. This means you can identify subjects where pupils’ progress is slowing and develop new ways of working so that progress quickens. A good example of this is the approach to teaching writing you introduced in September 2015. Staff and pupils can already describe the positive effect the new approach is having on the standard of writing skills across the school.

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Inspection findings

 Effective teachers use a range of different ways to check each pupil’s understanding. They challenge pupils who pick things up quickly to use what they know in more complex questions and provide pupils who have not ‘got it’ with different ways of tackling the questions. As a result, pupils make rapid progress. Occasionally, where teachers’ skills are not as refined as those of their more effective colleagues, pupils do not make consistently good gains in all subjects.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils are eager to learn and are not afraid to have a go at difficult tasks. Teachers plan opportunities for pupils to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and pupils rise to the challenge. They respond when teachers give them guidance about how to improve their work and, as a result, they make faster progress.

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Inspection findings

 A recent decision to appoint an additional teacher to support disadvantaged pupils is proving effective. All staff are now focused on what extra support is needed so these pupils are catching up with other pupils in the school.  Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs get the help they need to make progress. You have made sure the new leader responsible for this group of pupils is being well supported into the job by a more experienced colleague.

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Inspection findings

 The support provided for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare is a strength of the school. Parents describe how staff make sure all aspects of pupils’ welfare are catered for. This means pupils’ progress does not slow when they face difficulties that crop up in their lives. Pupils’ attendance is above average.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils show care and consideration for each other. They behave well as a result of teachers’ high expectations, during lessons and at breaktimes. Pupils are taught to think about how their behaviour affects other people so their moral development is well supported.

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Inspection findings

 Subject leaders are gaining the skills needed to lead further developments in school. Some of the development plans are not precise enough for governors to check if plans have worked or if more needs to be done.

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Inspection findings

 The local authority has provided an appropriate level of support to the school, particularly when the current headteacher was new to the school. The local authority values the contribution the school is making to developments across the local network of schools, for example in provision for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders, governors and staff make sure that every aspect of their work helps to prepare pupils for the next stage in their lives and to develop them as responsible, respectful citizens. Pupils talk confidently about getting ready to move on to secondary school. Parents of the youngest children report how well staff help the children settle quickly into school. This is because staff in the early years provision get to know the children before they start by visiting their nurseries and making home visits.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the practice of the highly effective teachers in school is used as a model to sharpen the skills of others who show a little more variability in their practice  development plans are based on a detailed analysis of what is working well and what needs to be developed and are written in a way that helps governors to check if the plan is working well.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Sheffield local authority. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely

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Information about the inspection

I visited a range of lessons for varying amounts of time. The visits took place with leaders. During the visits I talked with pupils and looked at their books and work displayed on the walls. After the visits I discussed with leaders their view of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I talked with pupils at playtime and observed them playing. I also watched as they moved around school between lessons and over lunchtime.

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Information about the inspection

I considered 112 responses and 46 free text comments on Parent View and spoke with parents visiting the school. I also considered the 33 responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey.

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Information about the inspection

A range of meetings with representatives of the governing body, senior leaders and subject leaders were held to discuss their particular areas of responsibility. I also met with a representative of the local authority.

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Information about the inspection

Records and documents relating to the school’s work were reviewed. These included details of pupils’ progress and attainment; checks on teaching, learning and assessment; behaviour and incident records; and the minutes of the governing body meetings and records of their visits to the school.

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