Goldthorn Park Primary School

Goldthorn Park Primary School Ward Road, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV4 5ET

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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

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 a school that requires improvement

 There has not yet been enough time for the new system that has been introduced to monitor the quality of teaching to improve the progress that pupils are making by the end of Year 6 in reading and mathematics.  Middle leaders do not yet fully understand how to hold teachers to account for the progress that pupils make. Their monitoring lacks rigour and the next steps they identify for improvement are not focused enough.  The quality of teaching is not consistently good because some of the work pupils are asked to do is not challenging enough.  Some pupils lose interest in their lessons, if the work they are given to do is too easy.  The early years leader does not fully ensure that achievement in understanding the world or in expressive arts and design is as strong as in the prime areas (communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy and mathematics).

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This a school that requires improvement

 The school’s marking policy is not followed by some teachers and opportunities to move pupils on quickly to the next stage in their learning are missed.

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The school has the following strengths

 The headteacher and the deputy headteacher are determined to act on the support being given by the local authority adviser and a local outstanding school.  Standards across the school have improved since September 2015.  Overall, pupils’ progress in writing is above the national average. The progress made in writing at the end of Year 6 in 2015 was better than the national average.  The Chair of the Governing Body has an extensive background in education and she knows what the school needs to do next in order to improve.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by ensuring that the new system to check on the quality of teaching is more rigorously used so that:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– teachers are given clear and accurate information about what they need to do next in order to increase the speed with which pupils learn – middle managers are able to hold teachers to account for the progress that pupils are making. – in line with the school’s whole-school policy for marking and assessment, teachers provide comments in pupils’ books which identify exactly what needs to be done next in order to improve their work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching in Key Stage 1 and Years 3 and 4 so that it is consistently good by:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– providing work which is at the right level of challenge so that pupils stay focused in their lessons and make accelerated progress in reading and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the progress made by Nursery and Reception children in the areas of understanding the world and expressive arts and design, by ensuring that children have a wider opportunity to experience learning in these areas.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 Standards pupils in Year 6 reached when they left the school in 2015 were lower than in the previous two years in reading and mathematics.  With the help of the local authority adviser and a local teaching school, senior leaders have introduced a more robust system to check that teaching in all year groups is consistently good and that pupils are making good progress. As a result, teaching has begun to improve and the school’s own internal data show that better than expected progress is now being made in reading and mathematics from pupils’ starting points.  However, the way in which senior staff check the quality of teaching, together with the areas they identify as next steps for improving teaching, is not yet accurate enough to identify what the teacher needs to do next in order to accelerate further the progress that pupils are making.  In addition, middle leaders do not yet have a clear understanding of how to use the school’s assessment

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

system in order to hold teachers to account for the progress pupils are making.  The system in place to ensure that teachers are held to account for the progress that pupils make is robust and clear targets are set to improve the quality of teaching.  All parents who spoke with inspectors at the start of the school day and during the inspection are pleased with the school and the progress their children are making. Parents of children in the Reception classes were particularly positive about the warm welcome that they receive from the teachers and with the sessions that are offered to them to help them support their children’s learning at home.  The majority of the parents who responded to Parent View feel their children are well looked after and the school responds well to any concerns that they raise.  The curriculum covers a wide range of subjects, and there is evidence in pupils’ books that literacy skills

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

are practised in areas other than English and mathematics. Pupils elect members of their classes to act as school councillors and work on display, on the theme of the Queen’s birthday, includes an electronic soundtrack of the pupils in Year 6 singing the first verse of the national anthem. This work prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.  The rich diversity in pupils’ backgrounds is celebrated through studies of different faiths and cultures and ensures pupils’ good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The school uses support provided by the local authority for pupils who join it speaking little or no English effectively, to ensure that they make good progress from their starting points.  The school has used its sports funding well to employ a sports coach. The coach has supported staff by demonstrating lessons and doubling the number of pupils who attend after-school sports clubs.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

Information shared with inspectors shows accelerated progress over time in pupils’ balance and muscular strength and endurance, from their starting points.  The pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils and funding for pupils with special educational needs or disability is used effectively and the gap between their achievement and that of others is narrowing. In fact, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils who make better than expected progress in writing by the end of Year 6 is now better than that of all pupils nationally.  The support offered by the local authority is of high quality. The local authority adviser working with the school knows the strengths and areas for improvement very well, and is successfully supporting the school in accelerating the progress that pupils make.  The governance of the school – The new Chair of the Governing Body was elected in September 2014 and has a long track record in

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

education at a senior level. She is very aware of how the school is performing and what needs to be done next in order to improve standards. Evidence in the governing body documentation shows that the headteacher is challenged regularly on areas of school improvement. – Governors are aware of the amount of funding that the school receives to support the development of sport and disadvantaged pupils, know how it is used and understand its impact.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff undertake regular training to ensure that their knowledge of child protection procedures is up to date. They know how to keep pupils safe and who to go to in order to report their concerns. Leaders engage with parents on a range of issues, which enhances pupils’ safety.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The quality of teaching is not yet consistently good. Teaching in Key Stage 1 and in Years 3 and 4 requires improvement because the progress pupils are making is variable. Although teaching in Years 5 and 6 is good, the inconsistencies across the other year groups mean that the overall quality of teaching across the school requires improvement.  Work provided by teachers in Key Stage 1 and Years 3 and 4 is not challenging enough. Evidence in books shows that pupils at different stages in their learning are sometimes given the same work. As a result, pupils in these classes do not attain as well as they should in reading and mathematics, especially the most-able pupils.  The teaching of phonics is pitched well to meet the needs of the pupils, and staff successfully model the segmenting of words to help pupils with their reading. However, because pupils are not introduced to a wide range of styles of writing their attainment in reading by the end of Year 6 is not as strong as it is in

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

writing.  School staff have worked together successfully to improve the whole-school marking policy. Teachers are expected to include comments on what pupils have done well and what they need to do next in order to improve. However, the next steps for learning are not detailed enough to accelerate learning. Where steps have been successfully identified for pupils, teachers are not always checking to make sure that they are improving their work as a result, as the policy requires.  Where teaching is at its strongest, pupils are challenged to use their prior learning to tackle new problems. For example, one lesson observed on calculating perimeters challenged the pupils to find the largest and smallest perimeter of a shape with a specified area. Pupils were encouraged to think about previous lessons to come up with an effective calculation strategy, which they discussed with the teacher. Following this discussion, pupils were given a different starting value and the speed with which they

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

applied their new learning allowed them to calculate the perimeters quickly and reliably. As a result, progress during this session was accelerated; the most-able pupils benefited particularly from being rigorously challenged.  Teachers successfully use topic sessions to support pupils’ developing literacy skills. Once every two weeks, pupils complete a ‘topic write’, which is an extended piece of writing on a topic-based subject. This approach has seen standards in writing increase at an accelerated rate.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.  Although many aspects of the school’s work to promote personal development are good, pupils say that they do not have ‘hard enough work’ and that there is some poor behaviour after ‘finishing my work’.  Pupils say that they enjoy coming to school and they feel safe. They know who they should report bullying to if it happens, and that action is always taken. Parents agree the school acts promptly to contact them if something has happened and that it is resolved very quickly.  Staff are caring and supportive of the pupils, and pupils show respect for each other’s views. They understand how to treat each other with respect and these values are preparing them well for life in modern Britain and keeping them safe from radicalisation.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. This is because, even though there are many aspects of their behaviour that are good, the lack of challenge in some lessons means that they become restless and this impacts negatively on the progress that they make in their learning.  However, pupils say that they like the ‘reach for the stars’ traffic light system used to support appropriate behaviour and that this works well in some lessons to help them stay focused.  Pupils enter the school at the start of the day calmly and quietly and settle quickly into their classrooms.  Overall attendance is below average but has shown a steady improvement since 2013 and is now much closer to the national average. The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent is also reducing. This is a result of the good work that the school has done with pupils and their families to ensure that some pupils attend school on a more regular basis.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Outcomes require improvement because the progress pupils make in Key Stage 1 and in Years 3 and 4 is not consistently good.  By the end of Key Stage 2, standards in reading and mathematics are lower than the national average and fewer pupils than average made more than expected progress in reading and mathematics in 2015. However, in writing, pupils’ attainment is broadly in line with the national average and the proportion of pupils who made better than expected progress in 2015 in this subject was much higher than the national average.  The school’s internal assessments show that standards in reading and mathematics are improving in all year groups, especially in Years 5 and 6, but there has not yet been enough time for changes introduced in September 2015 to impact fully on pupils’ progress.  The school’s assessments indicate that the proportion of pupils currently on track to reach the standards

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

set within the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 is above the national average.  Progress made by those pupils who are disadvantaged varies across the school. Typically by the end of Year 6 good progress is being made by this group of pupils and the difference in the attainment between them and their peers in the school is closing.  The progress pupils with special educational needs or disability make in writing and mathematics is at least in line with their peers, although this still remains below the national average. The school’s internal assessments indicate that at least expected progress in reading is being made from their starting points.

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Early years provision requires improvement

 Children enter the Reception Year with skills typically below those expected for their age. The children then make good progress in the five prime areas. As a result, the proportion of children who achieved a good level of development at the end of 2014 was above the national average. In 2015, however, this proportion was slightly below the national average. This was a result of a small number of children joining the school mid-year with very little English, which affected the overall attainment of this Reception class.  Although many aspects of the early years provision are good, this area requires improvement because not enough progress is made by children in the areas of understanding the world and expressive arts and design. This applies equally in the Nursery and Reception classes.  The leader is aware of the strengths of the staff team and the next steps for improvement in the early years. She has organised effective training for all of the staff in order to ensure that pupils are well

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Early years provision requires improvement

supported in their basic literacy skills.  The curriculum is well planned and excites the children. For example, Reception classrooms become ‘space stations’ and the children and the staff dress as astronauts as part of a ‘space day’ topic. This encourages the children to learn well.  Staff are deployed effectively to support children’s progress and their subject knowledge is strong. They plan well to use the additional funding to narrow the gaps in achievement between disadvantaged children and others in the school.  Children behave well and are keen to listen. Their attitude towards their learning is a strong factor in supporting the progress that they make.  Phonics is taught effectively in the Reception Year and children are well prepared to start in Year 1.  Partnerships with parents of Nursery and Reception children are a strength of the school. Relationships are warm and supportive and parents speak very positively about the welcome they receive and the work

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Early years provision requires improvement

that is done to help them support their children’s learning. Workshops such as FRED, Fathers Reading Every Day, are very well attended.

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School details

Unique reference number 104331 Local authority Wolverhampton Inspection number 10002459 This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 455 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Gill Bladon Headteacher Julia Roseblade Telephone number 01902 558730 Website www.goldthornparkprimaryschool.co.uk Email address office@goldthornpark.co.uk Date of previous inspection 27–28 November 2013

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Information about this school

 Goldthorn Park is larger in size than most primary schools.  Since the last inspection the school has appointed a new deputy headteacher. In addition, in September 2015, governors appointed a new Years 3 and 4 leader and a new Chair of the Governing Body.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium (additional government funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after by the local authority) is broadly in line with the national average.  The proportion of pupils whose first language is not believed to be English is much higher than the national average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is lower than in most other schools.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 24 lessons, two of which were joint observations with the headteacher and one with the deputy headteacher, and carried out a number of walks around the school. Inspectors listened to pupils read and observed them on entry to the school, at breaktime and lunchtime and around the school building.  Inspectors considered a range of school documentation with the headteacher. This included the school’s self-evaluation, the school development plan, a range of the school’s internal assessments of pupils’ attainment and progress, minutes of the governing body meetings and school documentation. In addition, the inspectors reviewed samples of pupils’ work in subjects other than English and mathematics, from each of the year groups.  Meetings were held with the Chair of the Governing Body, senior members of staff, a group of pupils and a local authority representative.  Inspectors took account of the 14 responses to the online Parent View survey, met with parents at the

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Information about this inspection

start of the school day and spoke with a parent on the telephone, and took account of 17 staff questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Graeme Burgess, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Anna Smith Ofsted Inspector Abigail Rourke Ofsted Inspector Lynda Townsend – Shadow 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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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