Humberstone Infant School

Humberstone Infant School Main Street, Humberstone, Leicester, LE5 1AE

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Early years provision Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a school that requires improvement

 Senior and subject leaders monitor the work of the school but their analysis and evaluation is not always accurate. Leadership and management require improvement.  Leaders are not successfully identifying and then addressing weaknesses in teaching. Their monitoring focuses too little on the quality of learning.  Teaching requires improvement in Reception and Years 1 and 2. Activities are not always planned to enthuse and excite the pupils. Assessment is not consistently used to match activities to pupils’ needs and abilities.  As pupils begin to write there is not enough focus on developing the correct letter formation, punctuation and spelling.  Personal development, behaviour and welfare require improvement. Attendance rates have not risen significantly since the previous inspection and are below the national average. Pupils who are frequently absent miss opportunities to learn.  Outcomes require improvement. Pupils do not

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This is a school that requires improvement

consistently make good progress as they move through the school. Too few pupils in Years 1 and 2 make good progress, particularly in reading and writing.  The teaching of letters and sounds does not ensure that enough pupils reach the levels expected of them by Year 1.  In Reception, the proportion of children who reach a good level of development in literacy and mathematics is considerably lower than the national figure.

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The school has the following strengths

 Children in the Nursery get off to a good start because they are taught well.  Behaviour is good as pupils move around the school, during assemblies and usually in lessons.  Pupils say they feel safe. They learn in a secure environment because safeguarding arrangements are secure.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted regularly within the curriculum.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching in Reception and Key Stage 1, so that all pupils make at least good progress, particularly in literacy and mathematics, by making sure that: activities are always accurately matched to pupils’ needs and abilities, and are exciting, requiring pupils to think hard as they reinforce and extend their learning when pupils begin to form recognisable letters, adults give them more guidance on how to form letters correctly and how to learn to spell the words they write adults promote basic sentence construction, such as starting with a capital letter and finishing with a full stop, when pupils begin to write sentences.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further develop procedures, practices and communication with parents so that all pupils attend regularly and have the opportunity to make good progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management by: checking teaching more rigorously, with a sharper focus on the quality of learning that is taking place, and then revisiting to check for improvement ensuring that school self-evaluation is based on accurate analysis and evaluation.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher, supported by his deputy, has focused on developing systems to monitor the work of the school since the previous inspection. Subject leaders, a few of whom are relatively new to their role, are developing their leadership skills quickly.  The school improvement plan is not based on accurate self-evaluation of pupil outcomes and the quality of teaching and learning. School self-evaluation is over-generous. The evaluation document gives an inaccurate view of how well some areas of the school are doing, particularly in relation to pupils’ outcomes and the quality of teaching and learning.  Leaders do not all have a clear understanding of what constitutes good and outstanding teaching and so their monitoring lacks accuracy and rigour. They do not accurately identify weaknesses in the quality of learning and then plan further classroom visits to check for improvements.  Senior leaders and governors have created a safe environment where pupils are treated as equals and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

discrimination is not tolerated. This is done particularly well through stories the pupils listen to. Pupils learn about famous people, such as Nelson Mandela, and are keen to speak about what they have learnt. The curriculum supports the understanding of British values well. For example, the pupils take part in a democratic election of the pupil leadership team. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is consistently promoted well. In classes and as they move around the school, pupils from many different backgrounds happily get along with each other.  Most parents are positive about the provision their children receive.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school Governors work effectively with leaders to set and communicate the vision and strategic direction of the school. The governors are ambitious for the school and play an active role in monitoring its work. They describe how they make decisions about teachers’ salary and performance and know about the link to teachers’ pay structure. Governors are involved in monitoring the use of the pupil premium and sport premium. However, their evaluation of the impact of this funding is in the early stages of development. Governors enlist external support to help them evaluate and carry out their financial role as well as the headteacher’s appraisal.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The procedures for vetting staff, to keep children safe, are thorough.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 There is not enough good teaching, particularly in reading and writing in Years 1 and 2. This is the reason why teaching, learning and assessment require improvement. The needs and abilities of pupils are not consistently catered for because teachers do not always use assessment information when they plan and deliver lessons. Pupils were seen taking part in activities that were of a low level, where learning was minimal. Some teachers’ expectations are too low.  Previous work and observations in classrooms show that not all pupils make good progress in lessons. In particular, pupils with disabilities, those with special educational needs and lower-attaining children do not always learn well because the work they are given is too difficult for them.  Pupils have many opportunities to write and are proud of their achievements. However, teachers do not successfully focus on showing them how to write their letters correctly or develop their spelling and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

punctuation skills. Many pupils know what a sentence is but too many do not use capital letters and full stops because such information is not successfully promoted.  Marking is inconsistent and not all teachers follow the marking policy. Pupils in some classes receive good-quality supportive and informative written or oral comments which clearly move their learning on, but this is inconsistent within classes and across the school.  Teachers generally manage the behaviour of pupils well and only very occasionally does the poor behaviour of some pupils limit learning for others.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.  Initiatives to improve attendance have been developed since the previous inspection but, as yet, have had little impact overall. Although the school works with parents and pupils, attendance figures remain similar to those reported at the previous inspection and continue to be below the national average. The progress of almost all groups of pupils is slowed as a result of poor attendance.  The percentage of persistent absentees has declined but is still above the national average. The learning and progress of this group of pupils is affected because they do not attend school regularly.  Punctuality has improved as a result of improvements in monitoring pupils’ timekeeping. The number of pupils who are late for school has been reduced by half since the previous inspection.  As pupils get older they have opportunities to be members of the pupil leadership team. They take this

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Personal development and welfare

seriously as they learn what it is like to be important people such as the chairperson or the secretary.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils throughout the school is good.  Where behaviour is less than good it is usually because teaching does not cater well enough for the abilities, needs and interests of the pupils. Very occasionally, poor behaviour interferes with the learning of others but usually it is managed effectively and quickly. Almost all parents spoken to stated that behaviour was good.  Adults generally deal with behaviour issues by promoting positive behaviour. They have high expectations of behaviour especially as pupils walk around the school. As a result, pupils conduct themselves well. They know what is expected of them and talk confidently about the school’s Golden Rules and what happens if someone disobeys one of them. Incidents of poor behaviour are rarely recorded.  Inspectors saw good behaviour as children in Nursery and Reception moved around the school, played outside or ate their lunch with their friends. Pupils of all ages were polite, friendly and confident to ask for

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Behaviour

help if it was needed. Many pupils initiated conversations with the inspectors.  In lessons, pupils were observed supporting each other as they completed activities, for example as they helped each other to spell challenging words such as ‘penguin’.  The good promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development enables pupils to understand how important it is to behave and get on with everyone. They learn about different views and traditions as they listen attentively to stories, such as the story of Ibrahim, during an assembly.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Teaching in Reception and Years 1 and 2 does not ensure that pupils learn well in every lesson or make good progress over time. Consequently, outcomes require improvement.  Children enter the Nursery with levels of development below those typical for their ages and make good progress because they are taught well. The current Reception children entered Reception with levels of development broadly typical for their ages. School staff say that this is slightly higher than usual.  The trend over the last three years shows above-average attainment in mathematics at the end of Year 2. Attainment is slightly lower in reading and writing and is broadly average.  The most recent teaching assessments for pupils at the end of Year 2 showed similar standards to the previous year. Assessments performed by school staff identified that those pupils made good progress as they moved through Years 1 and 2.  Inspection evidence shows that in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, learning and progress is variable and

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

ranges from good to inadequate due to weaknesses in teaching. In some classes, learning was better for the higher-attaining pupils than for those with disabilities or special educational needs.  Inspection evidence shows that all pupil groups make similar rates of progress. This includes disadvantaged children, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and the few children who are learning English as an additional language. All pupil progress is determined by the quality of teaching, which is variable.  Teachers regularly hear pupils read and they plan specific lessons which focus on the teaching of reading. During these sessions, pupils develop their understanding of letter sounds and learn to blend letter sounds together. National phonics screening checks in Year 1, over the last two years, indicate that not enough pupils meet the expected levels for their ages. Currently, staff are reorganising the way they

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

teach phonics (the sounds that letters make) to raise the quality of teaching in this area.  Not enough pupils learn well in lessons or make good progress over time. As a result they are not adequately prepared for their next stage in education.  Leaders and managers are aware of the need to narrow the gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Through careful monitoring of these groups the gap has narrowed in reading, writing and mathematics since the previous inspection.

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Early years provision requires improvement

 Provision is variable and better in the Nursery than Reception. Safeguarding arrangements are secure throughout Nursery and Reception. Leaders have identified the strengths in the Nursery but inaccurate self-evaluation prevents them from having a true picture of the strengths and weaknesses, particularly relating to the quality of teaching in Reception. In the Reception classrooms, the environment is not always carefully structured to enable effective learning and some children get a better experience than others. Teaching requires improvement because teacher expectations are sometimes too low and activities are not always interesting, exciting or matched well enough to children’s abilities. This limits learning. At times, too many resources are used and children do not have the room they need to play comfortably as they learn.  The Reception outdoor area is a more interesting place to be and activities are suitably planned to

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Early years provision requires improvement

enthuse the children. As a result, children are appropriately challenged and eager to be involved. Outdoors, children are engaged well in their learning. Adults have high expectations of what the children can do and activities promote literacy and numeracy skills effectively.  Teaching is good in the Nursery because children are given clear routines to support their learning. Adult expectations are high and they plan and deliver activities which are suitable for the children’s ages and abilities. Children in the Nursery receive good-quality teaching, settle in quickly and learn well.  All children have opportunities to take part in mark-making activities and then develop writing skills. Nursery children were seen enthusiastically making different marks on paper. They took turns and had fun. All children have opportunities to use pencils and pens. A few most-able children in Reception write recognisable letters. However, teachers’ expectations are too low and they miss opportunities to extend

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Early years provision requires improvement

children’s developing writing skills. Children are not shown how to write the letters correctly and are not given enough guidance to help them to improve.  Children have many opportunities to develop number skills. In the Nursery, they confidently counted the number of children in their group. Older children, in Reception, counted the number of candles on their cakes and identified the number which came next. Others sequenced numbers up to 20 but there was no encouragement to extend the activities, for example by seeing if they could write numbers. The early years curriculum covers all areas of learning and is generally suitable for children of this age.  The proportion of children who reach a good level of development at the end of Reception is lower than the national figure and has been for the last two years. This is a particular concern in reading, writing, number and space, shape and measure. Observations during the inspection did not show that these areas

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Early years provision requires improvement

were well promoted in Reception.  Learning during lessons and progress over time is limited when adults do not extend learning for all. Some good interactions between adults and children were seen in all classes but these were fewer in Reception, where children often just got on with an activity. In Nursery, adults ask clear questions to extend learning and expect children to respond. This also happens in Reception, although too many children are missed. During the inspection, a few quieter children were overlooked and received little adult attention.  Behaviour is generally good as children play and learn both inside and out. They are polite, confident and inquisitive, and get on well with each other. Children in Nursery were seen looking for their coats and attempting to put them on before going outside. Some did this easily but others just confidently asked an adult to help. In Reception, children were seen confidently helping themselves to their snack and drink

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Early years provision requires improvement

and then sitting down together to talk with their friends. At the end of sessions, children happily put equipment and apparatus away.  Parents are pleased with the provision their children receive.

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School details

Unique reference number 120012 Local authority Leicester Inspection number 10001841

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Infant School category Community Age range of pupils 3–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 343 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Robina Newcombe Headteacher Yusuf Campbell Telephone number 0116 276 7648 Website www.humberstone-inf.leicester.sch.uk Email address head@humberstone-inf.leicester.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 12–13 September 2013

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Information about this school

 The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  Approximately half of the pupils come from White British families and the remainder come from a range of different ethnic groups, with the largest from Indian backgrounds.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above average. Few children are at the early stages of learning English.  The proportion of children who are disabled or who have special educational needs is below average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are eligible for pupil premium, which is the additional government funding for pupils eligible for free school meals, is average.  The headteacher has been made permanent since the previous inspection when he was the interim headteacher.

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Information about this inspection

 This two-day inspection was carried out with half a day’s notice.  The inspectors observed pupils’ learning in 17 parts of lessons taught by 13 teachers and an early years practitioner. The headteacher was involved in two observations.  Discussions were held with the headteacher, staff, children, parents, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.  The inspectors looked at a range of documents which included the school’s self-evaluation, school improvement planning, teachers’ planning, pupils’ previous and current work, minutes from governors’ meetings and safeguarding documents.  The views of parents were considered through short discussions, during the inspection, and the scrutiny of 20 responses to Parent View, the online survey.

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Inspection team

Nina Bee, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Sarah Fielding Ofsted Inspector Robin Cruise 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

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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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