Moorside Infant School

Moorside Infant School Harrogate Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 1SU

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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This is an inadequate school

 Leaders and governors do not have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, including provision in the early years.  Leaders have not successfully tackled the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. The gap in attainment between boys and girls is increasing in early years and Year 1.  Actions to improve the school are not focused precisely enough on the impact they will have on learning. Furthermore, there are limited opportunities to monitor the actions and assess their effectiveness.  Leaders do not have effective systems in place to check that pupils are making enough progress in lessons. In addition, they are unable to accurately assess the amount of progress pupils have made over time.  Leaders have not done enough to address the decline in the quality and effectiveness of teaching because they failed to recognise it.  Leaders do not hold teachers to account effectively for improving pupils’ progress and

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This is an inadequate school

outcomes. Teachers’ targets are weak and often unmeasurable.  Leaders have not provided enough professional development opportunities for staff to improve the quality of their teaching.  The wider curriculum is not planned or organised in a way which will enable teachers to accurately assess how much learning has taken place.  The governing body has not held school leaders to account robustly enough, despite recognising that some pupils are not doing as well as they should be.  Assessment practice in the early years is weak and inaccurate. Staff do not take into account previous learning and skill acquisition prior to children entering Reception.

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The school has the following strengths

 Leaders and staff are effective in keeping pupils safe. They are taught well about internet and road safety.  Pupils are polite and respectful and conduct themselves well around the school. They are articulate when speaking to adults.  Pupils benefit from a wide variety of experiences to help their learning, including visiting theatre companies, visits to local places of interest and coaching in a range of sports.  Pupils take pride in helping others, both locally, nationally and globally.

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Full report

In accordance with the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Urgently improve the impact of leaders and managers, including governance, by: – ensuring the headteacher and other leaders have an accurate view about what needs to improve and have clear plans as to how improvements will be achieved – making certain the monitoring of teaching and learning is rigorous and focused on pupils’ learning and progress – accessing external support and guidance so that they are clear about what pupils’ starting points are when measuring progress and how to judge that accurately – implementing an effective system for checking and tracking how much progress pupils are making and identifying more swiftly if any pupils are falling behind – identifying and accessing targeted training and professional development for teachers to improve aspects of their practice which require support and development – ensuring that gaps in attainment and progress for boys are addressed without delay

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– implementing an effective system to hold leaders and teachers to account – making sure the wider curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to develop their skills and knowledge at a level which challenges them, and is organised so that teachers can clearly identify if pupils need help and support – ensuring that the school website is fully updated so that it meets all statutory requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve provision in early years by: – urgently addressing the weaknesses in the accuracy of assessments of children’s learning, skills and knowledge – ensuring accurate assessments are used to plan activities which are matched to children’s abilities – leaders ensuring that all key staff meet regularly to share their knowledge about individual children.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

The school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 The effectiveness of leadership and management has declined over time and is now inadequate because leaders and governors have failed to act quickly enough to halt the decline in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. This has resulted in pupils not making enough progress during their time at the school.  Leaders have not evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of this school accurately. They have not recognised that pupils should be making better progress than they have been doing or accepted that this is as a direct result of the quality of education pupils are receiving.  During the previous inspection, leaders were asked to raise standards for boys. Actions to do this have not been successful. There are still large gaps between the outcomes for girls and boys in the early years, Year 1 phonics (letters and the sounds they represent) and in attainment by the end of Year 2.  Leaders have not ensured that they have an effective system in place to check the amount of progress

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

pupils are making following the removal of the National Curriculum levels. Leaders and teachers are not assessing pupils’ learning accurately because they do not recognise the pupils’ correct starting points. In addition to this, leaders do not have the skills necessary to analyse pupils’ work in order to judge if they are making adequate or better progress. As a result, leaders do not have a clear view of how much progress pupils are making or if any groups are falling behind.  Leaders’ plans for improvement lack the focus and precision needed to ensure that they will be effective. This is because leaders do not recognise the areas which need to be improved and the seriousness of the impact of this weakness. Actions to make any improvements are not clear, there are no systems in place to check that actions are making a difference and there is no evaluation of improvements in order to inform future planning. This means that the quality of education the school provides has declined sharply

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

since the previous inspection.  The system put in place by leaders to monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching and learning is ineffective. It is not planned systematically to ensure that school improvement actions are checked regularly. Checks on teaching do not focus on how much learning is occurring. Recommendations given to teachers to improve are insufficiently focused on accelerating pupils’ learning.  Middle leadership roles have not been developed. Key subject leaders, supported by an additional colleague, are not driving forward the necessary improvements because they are not looking precisely enough at what will improve teachers’ practice and result in better learning and progress. Additionally, their work has not been monitored closely enough to check the impact of that work.  The system for checking the performance of teachers and leaders is too weak to ensure that the necessary improvements are in place to improve teacher performance. This is because leaders have

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

provided actions which are not detailed enough, and targets are too vague to be measured accurately or effectively. Furthermore, leaders do not identify specific training needs which will help staff to improve their practice.  The curriculum does not fully meet the needs and abilities of the pupils. This means that leaders are not providing enough opportunities for all of the pupils to succeed. This includes the most able and boys.  While long-term planning of the wider curriculum signifies that pupils will get the breadth of subjects which are required through the National Curriculum, and there is evidence that pupils access a range of activities linked to different areas of the curriculum, there has not been enough thought given to how pupils will make individual progress in their skill and knowledge acquisition. Whole-class portfolios show that pupils have completed tasks related to famous artists, for example Van Gogh. They have taken part

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

in baking jam tarts and have looked at ways of being environmentally friendly with the help of ‘Power Down Pete’. Pupils also access extra-curricular clubs such as multi-skills and gymnastics. However, independent work completed by individuals is not suitable for some pupils with different abilities and is not organised in a way that teachers can check how much learning has taken place. This is significantly hindering the amount of progress pupils are making.  The school’s website is not compliant with statutory requirements. It does not give enough information for parents about what is being taught in all areas of the curriculum, and the documentation for the provision for pupils who have special educational needs or disability is not up to date with current legislation. Furthermore, the website does not provide enough information about the governing body.  The local authority has been too accepting of information given to them by leaders around the progress

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

pupils have made. They have not challenged leaders deeply enough about why standards are below where they should be and why gaps have not closed between boys and girls over a number of years.  There are only a small number of pupils eligible for the pupil premium grant. The school makes effective use of the funding to provide additional experiential learning which these pupils may not have had access to, for example educational visits and theatre opportunities, as well as additional support for learning.  The primary school physical education and sport funding is being used well to develop pupils’ well-being and personal health through the use of sports coaches and visits to Bewerley Park outdoor pursuits centre. Pupils have access to a wider range of competitions within the school and with other schools, for example mini-Olympics, gymnastics and cross-country. This is improving pupils’ participation and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

confidence.  Leaders and staff provide many opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Activities incorporated into the curriculum, including visiting theatre groups and workshops, along with other visitors from local churches, help pupils to be thoughtful and reflective. Pupils take part in a wide range of fundraising opportunities, including helping homeless people in a local town and supporting the Open Arms Children’s Home in Malawi. This highlights their care for others, both locally and nationally. Furthermore, pupils play an active role in decision making through the school council, and have explored and celebrated differences among people, including differing family circumstances as well as cultural differences. This helps to ensure that they are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  Relationships with parents are strong and well established. Parents feel as though they are well informed

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

and are confident that their children are being well cared for.  The governance of the school – The governing body does not have a clear picture of what actions are needed in order to improve outcomes for all pupils. This is because governors have been too reliant on information from leaders which is inaccurate. – Governors have challenged leaders over issues such as standards remaining below national expectations in the early years and by the end of Year 1, but they are too accepting of the reasons given to them by leaders. They have not been relentless enough to find out why pupils in their school, compared to pupils with similar backgrounds, are not doing as well as they could be. They do not make the link between lower standards and a drop in the quality of teaching.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective and meet all statutory requirements. There are good systems in place to ensure pupils are kept safe, and checks are carried out to make sure that staff are

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

vetted correctly prior to employment. Relevant training is delivered to make sure staff are clear about child protection protocols, and these are followed correctly.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement because the quality of teaching is too variable and has declined over time. Teachers do not take sufficient account of what pupils already know when planning the next steps in their learning. As a result, pupils are not making the progress they should be.  Some teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils are capable of. As a result, some learning opportunities and activities which are planned are not demanding enough. This means that those pupils are not progressing as quickly as they could.  Leaders have implemented a marking policy. However, it is unclear from the work in pupils’ books how this marking and feedback to pupils is being used to improve their work. Too often, teachers are not able to identify how pupils can improve their work, therefore comments lack the precise action pupils need to take to be able to do this.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 There are variations in the amount of subject knowledge teachers have, particularly in mathematics and English, which means that some lessons lack opportunities for pupils to extend and deepen their understanding. Furthermore, teachers sometimes use the incorrect vocabulary linked to these subjects.  The teaching of phonics is variable. Where it is stronger, pupils are showing a greater understanding of how to blend and segment sounds, and are beginning to be more confident readers. However, some pupils are being asked to practise sounds which they already know, or are being given too many prompts and scaffolds to support their learning which means that they are not thinking for themselves. As a result, they are not applying the learning in subsequent pieces of work because the skills and knowledge have not been embedded.  Pupils have started to develop more stamina for writing and are keen to do so. In some classes, pupils

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

are motivated to write through the use of a range of interesting resources and materials which tap into their imagination. However, there are not enough opportunities for pupils to write and make improvements to their work in order to make better progress. As a result, some pupils are making the same errors and using the same language and sentence construction week after week.  Teachers are using concrete apparatus well to develop pupils’ basic skill development in mathematics. Pupils have access to a range of resources which is enabling them to achieve a better understanding. Teachers are aware of strategies to encourage pupils to apply this learning in an abstract way, but they are not always giving them opportunities to do so.  Homework is giving pupils opportunities to develop their reading and mathematical skills. This is helping them during their lessons in school.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils are encouraged to serve their school and local community and do this with great pride. Elections are held for the school council which helps pupils to understand we live in a democratic society. Year 2 pupils take their role of being a ‘Buddy’ very seriously and know that they have been entrusted with responsibility for others. Pupils across the school understand their role and know that ‘A buddy makes you feel better if someone has hurt your feelings’.  Pupils feel safe and are kept safe. Parents overwhelmingly agree with this. Pupils demonstrated that they know how to keep themselves safe online after a theatre company visit highlighted how they should protect themselves. One child summed up the key message and stated you must ‘never give out personal information’ when online. Furthermore, pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe outside through

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Personal development and welfare

road safety events.  Pupils are given wide opportunities to learn about keeping healthy. They benefited from their visit from the ‘smoothie bike’ which motivated the pupils to make their own smoothies and discuss healthy eating.  Pupils are well prepared for living in modern Britain. Pupils show that they respect others who are different from themselves and their families and demonstrate a good understanding of those who have beliefs which are different from their own.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  While pupils are polite and move around the school calmly, in some lessons, pupils are distracting each other, fidgeting, not listening to instructions or not paying attention. This is directly linked to some teaching not motivating or enthusing the pupils because it does not match their level of need or understanding.  Low expectations from some teachers means that pupils are not completing their work with pride. Inspectors saw examples of work across Key Stage 1 which were torn, scribbled on and stuck into books upside down. Additionally, despite evidence that pupils are given opportunities to practise their handwriting, they are not transferring this well enough into their written work, and are not reminded frequently enough so that pupils know that they are expected to do this.  Over the last three years, attendance has slowly declined and absenteeism is above national figures.

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Behaviour

There are systems in place to ensure absenteeism is followed up, and leaders are not afraid to challenge parents over this where they have concerns. This has meant that for current pupils, attendance rates have improved slightly and are now broadly average.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Outcomes for pupils have declined over time and require improvement because pupils are not making enough progress throughout the school. This is because teachers are not accurately assessing what pupils already know in order to plan the learning.  Children enter the early years with skills which are typical for their age. Outcomes for pupils by the end of Year 2 are broadly average. Therefore, pupils are not making consistently good progress to ensure that they are achieving higher than the national expectations. Furthermore, boys are not attaining as well as girls, and this has been the case over time.  Pupils are developing a better understanding of phonics. Although still below national expectations, the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in the Year 1 phonics check has improved from 47% in 2014 to 69% in 2015. However, there remain large gaps between girls and boys, and this has increased

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

over time. In 2013, the gap was 27%, it dropped to 15% in 2014 and has increased again to 29% in 2015.  Overall attainment has remained around national average in all subjects. However, the deficit between the attainment of boys and girls in the school remains an issue, particularly in reading and writing.  Progress varies across each year group, between classes and across a range of subjects. Some pupils catch up on lost learning from a previous year where teaching was not good enough, while others do not have the correct learning opportunities to be able to do that. Leaders are not tackling this effectively or with clarity.  The number of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding is small. Those pupils are attaining as well as similar pupils nationally, and better than expected in writing.

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Early years provision is inadequate

 The effectiveness of early years provision has declined significantly over time and is now inadequate because leaders do not have an accurate picture of the provision’s strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, actions to improve the provision are not focused in the correct way and do not have the impact needed to drive forward the improvements which are necessary. Crucially, children’s outcomes are below national benchmarks and they do not make the progress they should, given their starting points.  Leaders do not have high enough expectations about what children can do and achieve. They say they were disappointed with outcomes in 2015 which has resulted in them not setting aspirational targets for pupils in 2016. This is simply not good enough.  The number of children leaving the early years with a good level of development is not high enough when compared with other children nationally. Therefore, not enough children are ready for Year 1. Although

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Early years provision is inadequate

this has improved over time, it is still below the national average. The gaps between boys’ and girls’ attainment is increasing. In 2014, 55% of girls achieved a good level of development, but only 35% of boys did. In 2015, this gap rose to 33%. This means that not enough children are ready to start Year 1, more so the boys with only around one third of them ready when they started Year 1 in 2014 and 2015.  Actions to improve outcomes for boys have not been successful. They have not been monitored and evaluated to ensure that they are working. Staff have not had access to professional development opportunities which would give them the knowledge and skills to stop the downward trend of attainment for boys.  Children enter Nursery with skills which are broadly typical for their age. They get off to a solid start because learning opportunities in the Nursery class are ensuring that they are developing their skills,

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Early years provision is inadequate

knowledge and independence well. However, this is not continued when they join the Reception class because children’s stages of development by the end of Nursery are not taken into consideration carefully enough.  Over the last two years, more than 80% of children from Nursery transferred into Reception. Staff carry out further assessment activities when they enter Reception, which show that children are significantly below where they were when they left Nursery. This large discrepancy between where children were at the end of Nursery and at the start of Reception demonstrates that leaders are not able to assess accurately enough.  Systems for checking the progress made by children in early years are not fit for purpose. This is because children’s starting points are inaccurate which results in a weak foundation for planning for learning.  The number of children eligible for pupil premium funding in early years is very small. In 2015, those

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Early years provision is inadequate

children did not attain as well as similar children nationally, nor in comparison to their peers who are not eligible for the funding.  Activities for children to develop their skills are not well matched to their ability in Reception. Some phonics teaching does not take into consideration that the children already know the sounds and are using them well. Mathematics activities are sometimes not explained well enough, so children do not know what to do. Staff have a tendency during focused sessions to give the children the answers instead of allowing them to think for themselves. This results in children not listening carefully, messing around on the carpet and becoming unsettled.  In the Nursery area, children are provided with learning opportunities which keep them engaged and help them learn. They are provided with a range of resources to help develop their basic counting and reading skills, and are encouraged to develop their speaking and listening skills when imagining they are ‘flying to

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Early years provision is inadequate

Africa’ in their aeroplane and building a den for a bear. They listen to each other well and are able to explain what they are doing and why. Explanations by staff ensure children know what they are doing and what the expectations are, and visual prompts are used as reminders to good effect.

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School details

Unique reference number 121426 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 10008220

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School details

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 Infant School category Maintained Age range of pupils 3–7 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 148 Appropriate authority Local authority Chair Sandra Jowett Headteacher Jane Calvert Telephone number 01765 609897 Website www.moorside-inf.n-yorks.sch.uk/ Email address admin@moorside-inf.n-yorks.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 23–24 March 2010

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Information about this school

 This is an average-sized infant school, where pupils tend to stay for the duration of their education.  Children attend part time in Nursery and full time in Reception.  Most pupils are of White British heritage.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is below average. The pupil premium funding is additional government funding for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and pupils with a parent in the armed forces.  The number of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is very low.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons and also made some short visits to classrooms. The headteacher jointly observed the quality of teaching in three lessons with the lead inspector.  Inspectors listened to a range of pupils read, and reviewed the work in pupils’ books alongside school leaders as well as independently.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and during break and lunchtime was observed.  Inspectors talked informally to pupils in lessons and around the school and held formal meetings with pupils from across Key Stage 1.  Inspectors held discussions with the headteacher and other leaders, governors and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation including the school’s evaluation of its own performance, school improvement planning, documents monitoring the effectiveness of teaching and learning, minutes of governing body meetings, the school’s own policies, and documentation relating to

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Information about this inspection

safeguarding and attendance.  Inspectors took into account the views of parents at the start of the day, in addition to 39 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View).  Inspectors took into account the 16 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Suzanne Lithgow, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Alison Aitchison 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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