Farnham Primary School

Farnham Primary School Stratford Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 3HU

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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This is an outstanding school

 School leaders have the highest expectations of adults and pupils. They demand the best, and staff deliver.  Teachers’ high expectations and skilful teaching secure pupils’ hard work and great commitment to learning.  Well-deployed and trained support staff make a terrific contribution to pupils’ progress and welfare.  Pupils make strong and sustained progress in their learning in all subjects and across the whole age range.  The excellent provision for disadvantaged pupils, and those with special educational needs and disabilities, enables these pupils to make consistently strong progress.  Many pupils who speak little or no English on entry to school make exceptional progress.  A relevant, broad and balanced curriculum stimulates pupils’ interest and engagement and contributes strongly to pupils’ enjoyment of school.  Adults and pupils take great pride in the exceptional internal environment, which oozes

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This is an outstanding school

quality and reflects the excellent work that goes on in this school.  Pupils’ personal development and welfare are outstanding. Leaders, teachers and other adults instil self-confidence and resilience in pupils of all ages, so they flourish.  Pupils behave exceptionally well in lessons and in all areas of the school, inside and outside. Pupils are happy and safe.  The high-quality provision for two-year-olds gives children a flying start and prepares them well for nursery.  Provision in the early years secures strong progress from low starting points in all areas of children’s development.  The governing body provides strong direction. Governors challenge and support leaders to continually improve the school’s performance.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Provide more opportunities for pupils to practise and apply mathematics in other subjects.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 The headteacher expects the best of everybody. He ensures that every member of staff maximises their role and makes a difference to pupils’ development. Leaders at all levels communicate high expectations to their colleagues.  Strong leadership has resulted in consistently improving outcomes in all phases and key stages since the last inspection. These improved outcomes have come about through a relentless focus on checking the progress of each pupil and ensuring that effective provision is in place to meet their needs, along with a commitment to the professional development of each adult and regular checks on the quality of teaching.  Leaders have a firm grasp on where the strengths and areas for development are in each pupil’s learning. A thorough and systematic new assessment system identifies pupils who may be underachieving. Because of this, leaders, teachers and support staff are able to plan effectively for each pupil’s needs. This

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

includes disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities. Consequently, any gaps between the progress of these pupils and others are minimal and in most cases closed.  Middle leaders have been well coached and supported so are effective in their duties. Because they carry out regular checks on the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning, they understand what needs to improve and they take action and follow up on any issues. For example, the prioritising of mental arithmetic by the mathematics subject leader has resulted in significant improvements in pupils’ ability to recall their times tables and other number facts. A sustained focus by the literacy subject leader on pupils’ oral rehearsal of sentences, building vocabulary, and daily opportunities to practise writing, is enabling pupils with weaker, spoken English skills to close the gap between their writing and reading ability.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

 Leaders and teachers deliver a broad, balanced, stimulating and relevant curriculum that inspires pupils and contributes enormously to their enjoyment of school. This exceptional curriculum is central to the strong achievement and exceptional personal development of the pupils. Regular visits to places of interest, making regular use of the school minibus, sparks learning back at school and provides purposeful opportunities for learning.  Pupils develop their writing and reading skills across broad curriculum themes, meaning that literacy is a core element of the wider curriculum. While there are opportunities for pupils to practise and apply their mathematics skills in other subjects, this is not as well developed.  Pupils are provided plentiful opportunities to engage in a range of extra activities before and after school and at lunchtimes. Large numbers of pupils arrive early at the beginning of the school day, when adults

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

provide a range of learning opportunities, including literacy and numeracy, that enhance and reinforce learning. Likewise, pupils take advantage of an extensive menu of quality sporting and other activities at lunchtime and the end of the school day.  Effective use is made of additional government sports funding to increase pupils’ participation in, and enjoyment of, a range of sporting activities. Effective partnership with the local cluster of schools provides regular sporting fixtures and chances for pupils to compete in inter-school events. Qualified sports coaches introduce pupils to a wide range of sports. Girls are involved in a successful after-school jujitsu club.  Farnham Primary School is a special place to be. The immense care shown by adults, and their attention to detail, can be seen clearly in the exceptional learning environment. Every nook and cranny is filled with stimulating and exciting resources, which ignite pupils’ interest. The high-quality library makes a big

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

contribution to pupils’ interest in and love of reading. Pupils value this stimulating environment and take care of it.  The provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is excellent. Leaders and teachers prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain, as can be seen from pupils’ superb knowledge about other faiths and cultures and the respect and tolerance they clearly demonstrate towards each other.  The governance of the school Governors have the skills and expertise needed to challenge and support leaders. The governing body ensures that there is no complacency and that the school is continually improving. They fulfil all their statutory duties, including safeguarding. The headteacher ensures governors receive detailed information so that they are able to identify areas for development and challenge leaders. Senior and middle leaders present regular reports to governors who question leaders about the impact of their actions.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

Governors check that decisions on teachers’ pay are closely linked to the quality of teaching and pupils’ performance. Governors keep a close eye on the school budget, ensuring a small ‘rainy day’ surplus and that spending represents value for money in terms of pupils’ outcomes. The strategic, forward-looking approach of governors can be seen in their recent consideration of the formation of a multi-academy trust. Governors have registered their intent with the Department for Education (DfE).  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders carry out proper checks on staff to make sure that they are suitable for working with children. Adults understand what to do when they have even the smallest concern about the welfare or safety of any individual child. A robust system for recording and communicating these concerns is in place, and timely referrals are made to the local authority social care

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is outstanding

services where needed, and are followed up. Staff are aware of their duty under ‘Prevent’ legislation to report any concerns about potential radicalisation of children and young people. Leaders check carefully where there are requests by families to take children abroad to ensure that there are no plans to take children to potentially unsafe places.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

 Teachers are very skilled in their craft. The systematic planning of teaching takes account of what pupils already know and can do. Teaching in every classroom is effective in promoting high-quality learning, as teachers put pupils to work and go about checking each pupil’s progress. It is this consistent solid teaching, rooted in effective assessment, that secures exceptional progress over time.  Teachers have high expectations of pupils. Teachers’ strong subject knowledge and skilful assessment enable them to plan activities that stretch pupils. This enables pupils to make progress in each lesson. Teachers and teaching assistants systematically check throughout lessons how pupils are doing with their learning. They question pupils to test their understanding and provide prompts, reminders and challenges during lessons.  Quality resources and activities, along with interesting subject matter, secure the deep interest of pupils

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

and their strong commitment to learning.  Pupils are enthused by annual visiting by authors, who have generated an increased interest in reading for pleasure. One boy explained to an inspector that he really liked one of the visiting authors because he loved the way the author had built the grandfather/grandson relationship in his work and he could see this in his own relationship with his grandfather. A resident artist inspires pupils to reach for the stars with their own artwork, which can be seen beautifully displayed around the school.  Almost all pupils in the school speak English as an additional language, so leaders and teachers make the development of English language the highest priority. Teachers skilfully provide plentiful opportunities for pupils’ speaking and listening. Teachers ensure that pupils give extended answers and speak using standard English. Effective use of the budget and the pupil premium funding often enables pupils to be

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding

taught in smaller groupings, led by teachers, enabling more extensive one-to-one discussion between pupils and adults.  Teaching assistants are exceptionally well-trained and effectively deployed. This enables them to provide highly effective support to groups and individuals. They are skilled in asking open questions to get pupils to think. Teaching assistants know the pupils well, so know what level of challenge to give the pupils.  Pupils know their targets. They enjoy their ‘Learn by Heart’ challenges of which teachers keep careful track. Pupils are highly motivated to compete against children across the world in the online ‘Mathletics’ games, which they complete at school and home. These are improving pupils’ mental arithmetic skills.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  The high expectations upheld by all adults, and the great care they provide, endow pupils with great self- confidence. Pupils develop a ‘can do’ attitude. They develop resilience, and understand that learning often means making mistakes.  Pupils take great pride in their work. This can be seen clearly in the presentation of work in pupils’ workbooks, which at its best is immaculate. This is further reinforced by the way adults showcase pupils’ work around the school.  Pupils are well-turned-out in their uniforms, which they wear with pride. They look after their school, tidying up after themselves and looking after resources.  Pupils have a well-developed understanding of how to stay safe, including how to stay safe online. The school has been awarded the Drug Prevention Charter Award for the way in which pupils are taught

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Personal development and welfare

about the dangers of alcohol and substance misuse.  Pupils have raised money for flood victims and have learned about how they can influence others, for example through negotiating changes to school lunch choices.  Teachers provide many opportunities for pupils to take on responsibilities. For example, older pupils act as buddies to support early years children’s games at lunchtime, as office buddies who help out in the school office, and as ambassadors on parents’ evenings. Year 6 pupils assist Year 1 pupils with reading and Year 5 pupils assist Year 2 pupils with mathematics.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. They are exceptionally welcoming to visitors and display excellent manners.  Pupils demonstrate strong self-discipline. This is seen in the orderly way in which they conduct themselves inside and outside. They line up sensibly without any pushing or shoving.  Pupils are active but not boisterous in the playground, where nobody is left out and girls are just as welcome as boys to play football. Adults actively facilitate the organisation of games.  The ‘traffic light’ systems adopted consistently in all classes ensure pupils are recognised for their excellent behaviour. Incidences of amber or red are very rare but are effective in keeping pupils on track where they have particular needs.  Pupils report that bullying is extremely rare and that teachers deal with the few incidences of bullying effectively. Pupils value the self-referral system in which they have a say about which adult should help

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Behaviour

them to sort out problems if they arise. Incidents of racial or derogatory language are exceptionally rare.  Attendance is in line with the national average and no group of pupils is disadvantaged by low attendance or high persistent absence. A successful ‘Pyramid’ intervention that focuses on building self-confidence and improving home-school relationships, has improved the attendance of identified pupils, particularly boys.

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

 Most pupils enter the school with skills, knowledge and understanding that is a year or two below that which is typical for their age. For most, their English language skills are particularly limited on entry. Almost all pupils make strong and sustained progress throughout the age range so, by the time they leave school, most pupils are working at age-related standards or above and are well prepared for secondary school.  Over the last few years, the gap between pupils in the school by the end of Key Stage 1 and pupils nationally has been steadily narrowing. Although attainment remains below the national average at the end of Key Stage 1, in 2015 it was overall very close to the age-related level. Many pupils who do not reach age-expected levels by the end of the early years catch up by the end of Key Stage 1. Progress accelerates even further by the end of Key Stage 2.  The 2015 national assessment information suggests a relative weakness in writing, particularly for boys.

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

This was not the case in 2014, and across the age range, current pupil assessment information shows no significant difference between attainment in reading and writing. Pupils’ workbooks demonstrate strong progress in writing from low starting points because of the effective actions taken by leaders.  The school was presented with a national Pupil Premium Award for 2015 for being one of the most improved schools in the country in terms of attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils since 2011. Over time, disadvantaged pupils make as much and sometimes more progress than other pupils so that there are no significant gaps in attainment between these groups by the time they leave the school.  The progress of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities matches that of other pupils in the school. Around a third of the pupils who have identified needs are already making more than expected

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Outcomes for pupils are outstanding

progress this year, and almost all have made at least expected progress.  Almost all pupils in the school speak English as an additional language. The strong focus on oral language development, along with the highly effective early teaching of reading and writing, enables pupils who enter school with little or no English to catch up. By the time they leave school, the gap between the attainment of these pupils and pupils who speak English as their first language nationally is very small.  Teachers challenge the most-able pupils well, so that, over the last two years, between a quarter and a half of them have consistently reached above average standards in each of reading, writing and mathematics by the time they left the school. Around a quarter of pupils currently in the school are working above the challenging age-related standards of the new National Curriculum.

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Early years provision is outstanding

 The relatively new early years leader has quickly evaluated where the many strengths and few areas for development are, and has taken swift action to further improve aspects of provision, for example by introducing more formal daily guided reading sessions, which are having a significant impact on pupils’ early reading skills.  From low starting points, pupils make strong progress by the end of the early years. The percentage of pupils reaching a good level of development by the end of the early years has increased year on year, narrowing the gap considerably between school and national averages. The vast majority of pupils make more than typical progress from their starting points.  The high-quality provision for two-year-olds is enabling more children to get off to a flying start. Adults provide a rich, varied, well-resourced and stimulating learning environment. Adults prioritise children’s

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Early years provision is outstanding

speaking and listening skills, encouraging talk as much as possible. Children engage in a balance of adult- directed and child-initiated activity so the children learn to follow instructions as well as beginning to develop some independence. Children are encouraged to play and explore together and to socialise.  Provision throughout the Nursery and Reception is of high quality. Adults arrange resources creatively both inside and outside to draw children in, provide challenge and sustain their concentration. Children share, take turns, play and explore well together.  Assessment of the children’s progress is thorough so adults understand individual children’s learning needs. Adults identify next steps clearly, so they know how to plan activities and exploit opportunities as they interact with children. For example, in the Nursery, an adult encouraged one child to add one more to 13, while modelling counting to three with another child.

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Early years provision is outstanding

 Interactions between adults and children promote opportunities all day long for speaking and listening, building vocabulary and the self-confidence to speak with increasing fluency and at greater length.  A rigorous focus on early reading and writing enables pupils to make quick progress. In daily guided reading sessions in the Reception classes, children show high levels of independence, enjoying having a go at blending letters together to read words and having a go at spelling words. Pupils enjoy time absorbed in books together in the book corners, sustaining interest for a considerable amount of time without the assistance of adults.  Safeguarding is effective. Access to areas from outside are tightly controlled, adult supervision is carefully planned and the full range of detailed risk assessments are in place.  Leaders engage the support of external professionals to assist with the identified needs of children. For

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Early years provision is outstanding

example, a speech and language therapist works with children and parents together throughout the two- year-old Nursery and Reception provision so that parents are able to support their children at home.

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School details

Unique reference number 107294 Local authority Bradford Inspection number 10001160 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 2–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 544 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rev Paul Bilton Headteacher Richard Edwards Telephone number 01274 573297 Website www.farnhamprimary.org.uk Email address office@farnham.bradford.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 2–3 February 2011

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Information about this school

 Farnham Primary School is a much larger than average-sized primary school.  Most pupils are of Pakistani heritage. Almost all pupils speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium is higher than that found nationally. The pupil premium is additional government funding for disadvantaged pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and for children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils special educational needs or disabilities is a little above the national average.  The school is in a very heavily populated part of Bradford and is located immediately adjacent to another very large primary school.  The provision for two-year-olds is jointly managed by Farnham Primary School and Horton Grange Primary School and was inspected as part of the Horton Grange Ofsted inspection in June 2015.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards. These are the minimum expectations of

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Information about this school

pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited most classes at least once to observe teaching. Some of these visits took place with school leaders.  Pupils were questioned about their learning and what it is like to be a pupil at Farnham Primary School. Inspectors scrutinised pupils’ workbooks and listened to several children read. Pupils’ behaviour was observed around the school, including breaktimes and at lunchtime.  Discussions took place with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, and teachers, five members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority.  There were insufficient responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) to analyse. Inspectors questioned parents at the start of the second day of the inspection.  Responses to the staff questionnaire and the pupils’ questionnaire were received and analysed.  Documents were analysed, including school development plans, governing body minutes and information

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Information about this inspection

about pupils’ achievement.  Records relating to behaviour, attendance and safeguarding were scrutinised.

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Inspection team

Philip Riozzi, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Fiona Dixon Ofsted Inspector Tracy Millard Ofsted Inspector Donald Parker Ofsted Inspector Jane Langley Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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Inspection team

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, further education and skills, 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. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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