Setting

Miss Karen Leyland St Andrew’s CofE Primary School Barton Lane Eccles Manchester M30 0FL

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 2 February 2016, 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 February 2011.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your team ensure that you have continued to improve the standard of education for all your pupils. Staff, pupils, parents and governors hold you and your leaders in high regard. While you have high expectations and aspirations both for pupils and staff, they know that they will be well supported to achieve the ambitious goals you set them. Parents recognise the good job which you and your team do and appreciate the difference you are making to their children’s lives.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Pupils are proud of their school. They talk enthusiastically of how your teachers make learning fun. Pupils like the fact that you insist they wear their school uniform, have high expectations for their behaviour and make them work hard. You and your staff make parents feel welcome in school and involve them in their children’s education. Parents value the regular communication about how well their children are getting on in school.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Since the last inspection, your leadership team has sustained an ambitious culture at St Andrew’s. Governors have taken decisive action to address weaknesses in their performance. Over the last two years they have made sure that they have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to hold you and your team to account. You and your leaders have developed carefully considered systems to monitor the attainment and progress of individuals, groups and classes. You use this information well to identify those pupils who need support to make sure that they catch up Ofsted

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk quickly to their peers nationally. Most groups, including the more-able pupils, make strong progress across school. Leaders hold teachers to account for the progress of pupils in their classes by holding regular pupil progress meetings. As a result, staff now have an in-depth understanding of pupils’ learning and achievement.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

You have accurately identified areas for further improvement at St Andrew’s and drawn up detailed action plans. However, your measures of success are not linked closely enough to the outcomes for your pupils. This makes it hard for you to know precisely what difference your actions are making and for governors to measure your success.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

There is a strong culture in school of keeping pupils safe and secure. Staff understand their responsibility to keep pupils safe. Pupils and their parents know who to talk to if they have a concern and are confident that they will be listened to. Leaders follow up all concerns assiduously, keeping high-quality, detailed records. You have developed good working relationships with partner agencies to make sure that your children and their families get the help they need. Consequently your pupils feel safe and well cared for.

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Short inspection of St Andrew’s CofE Primary School

Leaders ensure that recruitment procedures and checks are thorough. All new staff are carefully checked before they start work in the school. New staff are made aware of your policies and procedures as part of your comprehensive induction process. Everyone has had recent training on the ‘Prevent’ strategy and as a result you know how to keep your pupils safe from radicalisation and extremism.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders have a deep understanding of the context of your school and use this information well to set about planning what needs to be done to improve outcomes for your pupils. However, you do not use the challenges faced by your community as an excuse. You are continually reviewing the work of the school, identifying where further improvements need to be made and then taking appropriate actions.  Pupils are rightly proud of their school. They look smart in their uniforms, keep their classrooms tidy, take care of their books, listen to their teachers and are kind to each other.  Your pupils enjoy coming to school. They like the engaging lessons your teachers plan for them. They value the help their teachers give them to improve their work. Your pupils and parents agree that there are lots of opportunities to celebrate success. Pupils like the teachers using their pink pens to highlight good work, they are proud to see their work displayed on the walls around school and

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Inspection findings

look forward to the weekly celebration assembly.  Early years is a hive of activity. Children play cooperatively, sharing resources well with their friends. Strong leadership ensures that the learning environment promotes purposeful play through resources and activities which capture children’s interests and support their learning. For example, during my visit we saw two children enjoying taking their turn as waiters in the café. They reminded children to wash their hands, took their orders from the menu, served the snacks and tidied up. As a result of rich learning opportunities such as this, children make strong progress.  Pupils’ progress slows as they move into Year 1 but then picks up momentum in Year 2. However, many pupils have low starting points and there is not sufficient time to make up all the lost ground. As a result, too few pupils achieve the expected standard. You are right to identify improvement in this area as a

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Inspection findings

priority.  In Year 1, the proportion of pupils attaining the expected standard is in line with the national average. However, you are right to pick up that for some pupils, particularly boys and disadvantaged pupils, there is still much work to be done. You have correctly prioritised your focus on accelerating their language development to secure improvements in their reading skills.  In Key Stage 2, all pupils, including boys and those that are disadvantaged, make good progress, ensuring they are well prepared for the rigours of secondary school.  As a result of your relentless focus, standards have risen since the previous inspection at the end of both Key Stage 1 and 2.  You and your team place a high value on the role of parents as educators. You make sure that you create opportunities for parents to be involved in their children’s learning through the ‘stay and play’ sessions, the reading café and

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Inspection findings

frequent workshops to show parents how you approach the teaching of basic skills. Parents who responded to ‘Parent View’, the Ofsted online survey, applaud the ‘support, hard work and determination’ of staff and are confident that the team will ‘never give up’ on their children. They rate highly the regular opportunities to find out about how well their children are getting on in school.  St Andrew’s is a team. Staff share the vision of leaders to ‘do the very best for every child’. More established colleagues help new staff to settle in quickly. Staff benefit from the well-considered training packages. Leaders and teachers place high value on the accomplished support staff.  You demand consistently high standards across the school. Staff and pupils are in no doubt about what is expected. Pupils like the fact that all the teachers expect them to set their work out in the same way. They know that all staff will

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Inspection findings

follow the school policy and use a green pen to tell them how to improve their work. In the classrooms, the working walls remind pupils about the vocabulary and grammar choices they should be making. Pupils know the rules and recognise that all staff apply rewards and sanctions fairly. As a result, pupils make good use of lesson time.  Your pupils benefit from the wealth of experiences you provide for them during their time at St Andrew’s. Pupils speak enthusiastically about the range of the themed curriculum days and weeks. In a recent study of the Tudors, they enjoyed learning about why so many ships sank in the Armada, painting portraits of the wives of Henry VIII and considering different views on divorce. Pupils enthuse about their trips to the theatre and museums as well as the annual residential trip for older pupils. Pupils look forward to the visitors who come into school. The high-quality paintings displayed in the stairwell are

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Inspection findings

testament to the impact of work with a local artist.  At its heart this is a Christian school. Parents, staff and pupils speak effusively of the respect everyone shows for each other’s faiths and cultures. Assemblies are used to teach pupils how to live out Christian values. The local minister frequently leads the act of worship and this is attended by pupils and parents of different faiths.  Governors have recognised their shortcomings. They have taken decisive action to increase their effectiveness. During the reconstitution of the governing body they did not shy away from the difficult decisions that had to be made to ensure that governors had the skills, knowledge and experience to drive the school forward. Governors are resolute in their desire to support you and your team to make St Andrew’s the best school it can be. Governors are much better informed about the school than they once were and, as a result, they now ask more

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Inspection findings

insightful questions of leaders.  You and your governors set high standards for all staff. While you make sure staff are well supported to improve their practice, you are not afraid to act when a member of staff does not meet your expectations.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 you work together to agree key performance indicators linked to outcomes for groups and cohorts of pupils to ensure that all actions in the school development plan are directly linked to raising pupils’ achievement  governors challenge leaders to make sure that these performance indicators are sufficiently aspirational to ensure that all cohorts and groups of pupils make even stronger progress across all year groups  pupils make faster progress as they move from early years into Key Stage 1 to ensure that they close the gaps between their attainment and that of pupils nationally by the end of Year 2.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I spoke to you, your leadership team, members of the governing body, a group of staff and a group of pupils. I also spoke with a representative from the local authority and parents at the end of the school day. We made short visits to lessons during which I spoke to pupils and looked at the quality of their work. I looked at the survey results from Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and considered the comments provided as well as your own survey results from parents, staff and pupils. I reviewed your self-evaluation as well as a range of other documentation. I also checked the effectiveness of your safeguarding arrangements and recruitment information.

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