Setting

Mr S Luke, Executive Headteacher Miss K Richardson, Headteacher Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy Novers Lane Knowle West Bristol BS4 1QW

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

Following my visit to the school on 1 December 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 academy was judged to be good in September 2012.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

With the support of the leadership team, you have made sure that the many strengths highlighted at the last inspection have been maintained and built upon. You share a determination to improve the academy and have clearly communicated your ambitions to all those who work at, attend and send children to the academy. You have created a culture, shared by the leadership team and staff, of continually looking for ways to improve the academy. Staff are keen to develop new approaches, share best practice and work collaboratively so that they learn from each other. This is exemplified in your approach to improving pupils’ progress in reading. Staff share successful reading initiatives across the academy and develop their practice by observing high-quality reading sessions that are helping pupils to catch up and make better progress. You have been quick to provide coaching and support for individual staff. Even so, there remain occasions, especially for younger

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

pupils, when staff do not encourage them to articulate sounds clearly so any mispronunciation can be identified and corrected.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

As the new headteacher, you have maintained a clear and successful focus on improving provision and raising achievement. The recommendations identified at the previous inspection have been tackled head-on. Your relentless focus on improving the quality of pupils’ writing has had demonstrable impact, as shown by the more rapid progress that pupils now make across the academy, particularly in the older year groups. In 2015, an increased proportion of pupils in Year 6 reached higher standards in writing and mathematics, well above national average and Ofsted

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk better than ever before. You have also raised the standards reached by younger pupils. By tackling underachievement, standards in Year 2 have risen since the inspection from significantly below average to around the national average in 2015. However, there is still room for further improvement because currently too few more-able pupils are going on to achieve higher standards by the end of Year 2.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

In continually looking for ways to improve pupils’ enjoyment and engage them in their education, you have placed a strong focus on listening to the views of parents and pupils. Pupil members of the newly formed associate governing body have completed their own self-evaluation of the academy’s performance. They have compiled a list of key questions which are clearly designed to keep you on your toes.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

Members of the leadership team share your vision that the curriculum offered to pupils should be stimulating and interesting. Leaders describe a curriculum that is rich with opportunities for pupils to learn through excitement and engagement. These include participation in practical science activities, history topics that are aimed at bringing the era alive, and enterprise business weeks to encourage entrepreneurship. The recently opened art studio brings further opportunity and will shortly be launched with an event that will include an internationally renowned animation studio.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

The academy is a friendly and welcoming place with bright and attractive displays everywhere. Classrooms are bright, well resourced and provide further examples of the range of subjects on offer. Relationships between staff and pupils are caring and respectful. Pupils move around the corridors calmly and quietly: some were observed stepping aside to let a small group of pupils past, wearing stethoscopes and big smiles as they headed off to a catch-up session. Pupils in the academy’s nurture group chat brightly to staff as they make an early start to the school day. The staff there show care and consideration as they help pupils to manage and improve their behaviour.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

You and the governing body have ensured that all safeguarding procedures are fit for purpose. Governors complete a regular and comprehensive review of safeguarding arrangements including checking individual case files and monitoring staff awareness of the academy’s safeguarding procedures. For example, the governor with responsibility for safeguarding across the three local academies recently ensured a common approach to the publication of the child protection policy in the same place on each website.

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Short inspection of Greenfield E-Act Primary Academy

You have ensured that case files and records are detailed and maintained to a high quality, with evidence that any concerns and incidents are recorded and shared appropriately by staff. Personal education plans for vulnerable children are in place and reviewed at appropriate intervals. The academy maintains a swift and well- organised response to any absence, compiling a list daily of all pupils absent and following up promptly to investigate the reasons for any absence.

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Inspection findings

 The leadership team has focused on improving children’s and pupils’ early reading skills so that more pupils reach the expected standard at the Year 1 reading check. Sessions to teach children to develop their knowledge of phonics (letters and the sounds they make) place a clear emphasis on learning new sounds, which are immediately recorded as letters on a page, thus helping the children to develop their writing skills. However, children are not always encouraged to articulate the sounds clearly so that individual mispronunciations can be swiftly picked up.  Since the previous inspection, children’s level of development on entry has improved. Leaders have made effective use of technology and a range of assessments to record children’s progress more accurately. The use of this information to identify children’s learning needs is contributing to more rapid rates of progress across the early years and into Year 1.

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Inspection findings

Progress across Key Stage 1 has increased since the last inspection. Although improving, too few more-able pupils go on to reach higher standards by the end of Year 2.  As part of the academy’s drive to improve reading, senior leaders continue to place a strong emphasis on developing pupils’ understanding of the text. Reading sessions are designed to develop pupils’ skills in ‘reading between the lines’ to predict what a character in a story might do or say next. Pupils in Year 5 explained how they are regularly expected to interpret the author’s meaning and respond to questions about the text. The leadership team is fully aware that pupils’ progress in reading is not as rapid as in other subjects and are continually refining their approach, developing reading resources in each classroom and encouraging pupils to read regularly and select from a range of reading materials.  Although improving, pupils’ attendance was well below average last year.

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Inspection findings

The academy’s approach to raising attendance levels across the school provides a good example of the leadership team’s continuous drive for improvement. Their determination to address low rates of attendance is evident in the swift response to any absence and the individual visits made on a daily basis to family homes to encourage better attendance. Recent changes in the deployment of the academy’s educational welfare officer are beginning to make a positive difference and raise attendance, but this must be sustained over the course of the year to match or exceed the attendance rates of schools nationally.  The monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning is rigorous and effective. The academy continues to provide high-quality support that is helping teachers to improve their practice, particularly staff new to the academy. Programmes of support are detailed and draw on the expertise and knowledge of a range of staff. Staff are provided with individual

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Inspection findings

support, coaching and specific targets that are regularly followed up on to ensure improvements are maintained.  Pupils with special educational needs make progress that is similar to their peers. Since his arrival last year, the academy inclusion manager has adapted the tracking and monitoring of those pupils with special educational needs, using smaller steps of progress. This has ensured that the academy is better placed to complete an even more detailed analysis of the impact of additional support sessions in relation to their cost and respond immediately to small fluctuations in progress. However, the academy’s information report on provision for pupils with special educational needs lacks clear detail on pupils’ progress.  Senior leaders have been successful in raising pupils’ attainment since the previous inspection. The progress that pupils make across Key Stage 2 is now more rapid so that more pupils are reaching higher standards by

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Inspection findings

the time they leave the academy. The proportion of Year 6 pupils who reached the higher level 5 in writing and mathematics was well above that in most schools. Reading standards are in line with the national average. Staff have increased children’s progress in reading across the early years and Key Stage 1 so that attainment at the end of Year 2 is now around national levels. Even so, too few pupils reach higher levels in reading by the end of Year 2.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 progress across early years and Key Stage 1 continues to accelerate so that more pupils go on to reach higher standards by the end of Year 2  in phonics sessions, pupils are always encouraged to articulate sounds clearly so that individual mispronunciations can be swiftly picked up  the special educational needs information report provides more detailed evaluation of the effectiveness of the provision made for this group of pupils.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Director of Children’s Services for Bristol City Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, phase and subject leaders, the inclusion manager, members of staff with responsibility for safeguarding and two groups of pupils. I spoke to a representative of the academy trust by telephone. I spoke to the pupil associate governing body, heard pupils read and talked to them about their reading. We visited classrooms together and observed pupils and looked at pupils’ work in books. I reviewed a number of documents including records of pupils’ progress, parental questionnaires, minutes of governing body meetings and the academy’s monitoring of teaching and learning. I took account of the views expressed by five parents who completed the online questionnaire, and 14 members of staff who returned a questionnaire.

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