Braunstone Community Primary School

Braunstone Community Primary School Cort Crescent, Braunstone, Leicester LE3 1QH

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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

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a school that requires improvement

 Teaching, learning and assessment require further improvement because there is too little teaching that is of good quality in Years 1 to 6.  Pupils’ progress is too variable and attainment is significantly below average at the end of Years 2 and 6.  During English and mathematics lessons, teachers do not consistently plan activities that fully engage and challenge all pupils, particularly the most able.  Lower attainers, including disabled pupils or pupils with special educational needs, lose focus when the activities they are given, especially in English lessons, are too difficult for them.  Teachers’ reading records do not clearly identify what individual pupils need to do to improve.  Pupils do not always respond to the comments teachers leave when teachers mark their work.  Leaders monitor the quality of teaching and learning but do not successfully help teachers to ensure good progress for all pupil groups.

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This is a school that requires improvement

 Action planning for English and mathematics is not sufficiently focused on improving pupils’ progress and raising attainment.  Gaps between the achievement of the disadvantaged pupils and their classmates remain too wide throughout the school. Leaders and governors acknowledge that they have not completed a recent analysis of the impact of this funding.  At times, pupils’ off-task behaviour, due to weaknesses in teaching, impedes learning. Not all pupils attend regularly and attendance is below average.

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The school has the following strengths

 This is an improving school. Early years provision has improved and is now good.  Personal development and welfare are good. Pupils show respect for each other’s ideas, views and cultural diversity.  The curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.  Leaders, including governors, understand the main strengths and weaknesses of the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that all pupil groups, particularly the most able, those who are disadvantaged, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, receive at least good-quality teaching by: planning activities that provide challenge and extend learning for all abilities so that all pupils are always fully engaged making sure that pupils respond to the comments that teachers leave in their books after work has been marked so that their learning is reinforced and developed ensuring that in mathematics lessons, the most-able pupils have opportunities to tackle harder problems to raise their levels of attainment and make good progress checking that in English lessons, activities meet the range of needs, including those of the most- able pupils and lower attainers so that their progress is accelerated developing individual pupils’ class reading records so that the school identifies the difficulties pupils

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

are experiencing and ultimately shows the rate of progress pupils are making as they acquire reading skills.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management, including governance, by: making sure that leaders assist teachers in identifying what is necessary to enable pupil groups, such as disadvantaged pupils and disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, to make accelerated progress checking that the impact of additional support given to disadvantaged pupils is evaluated carefully so that the gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that of others narrows ensuring that action planning for English and mathematics focuses on improving pupils’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improving the system to monitor pupils’ attendance by involving all staff, governors and parents so that everyone is fully involved in ensuring that all pupils attend school regularly.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 In the past, leaders have not ensured that teaching has been consistently strong and enabled all pupils to make at least good progress. There continues to be too little teaching of good quality in Years 1 to 6. However, due to the headteacher’s relentless drive for all pupils to receive good teaching, there have been improvements in early years where teaching is now good.  The headteacher has successfully tackled many difficulties since the previous inspection. There has been a high turnover of staff, including teachers and leaders, which has been well managed. She has enabled the newly appointed leadership team to quickly gain a sound understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the school, especially those related to teaching, learning and assessment.  Self-evaluation is accurate and there is a comprehensive system which allows leaders and governors to monitor the work of the school. Leaders have ensured that teaching is regularly monitored to check the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

impact of learning on individual pupils and pupil groups, particularly disadvantaged pupils, disabled pupils and pupils with special educational needs. However, in the short time they have been working as a group, they have not yet been successful in helping teachers to identify what is necessary to allow each pupil group to make good progress.  The headteacher acknowledges that the gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that of the others is too wide and that leaders, including the governors, have not completed a recent analysis to show the impact of funding intended to support disadvantaged pupils.  Reviews of the school’s work are constant. Leaders, governors and staff generally work with clear improvement plans that include measureable milestones and targets for improvement. However, action plans, particularly for English and mathematics, do not focus sufficiently on raising pupils’ attainment and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

progress.  The curriculum does not allow all pupils to achieve well, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics, because of weaknesses in teaching. However, many after-school extra-curricular opportunities are offered, which further enrich the curriculum. The learning environment is conducive to learning and attractive displays show the broad and balanced curriculum that is offered. There are particularly good links across the curriculum between art and design and other subjects. Primary sports funding is used effectively. Many sporting activities are offered and teachers and pupils benefit from specialist support. The headteacher is aware that the success rate of this funding has not been analysed recently.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is well promoted in the planned curriculum. During discussions, and while scrutinising documents and looking at prominent and informative displays

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

around the school, it is clear that there is an effective focus on British values and life in modern Britain. Pupils themselves spoke enthusiastically about a book they were reading, which explores issues around different races, discrimination and immigration. Pupils from different backgrounds work and play happily alongside each other.  The performance management arrangements are well known and understood by staff and governors. Teachers are held to account for the progress pupils make and leaders tackle underperformance with impact.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school Governors have confidence in the headteacher and, along with her, are determined to secure improvements. They speak knowledgeably about the strengths and weaknesses of the school because they are well informed and so are able to ask challenging questions. Governors know the issues identified in the previous inspection and improvements that the school is working towards as well as the progress they have made towards meeting them. Governors visit the school regularly and are involved in the ongoing monitoring programme, such as the regular task of looking at pupils’ previous work to determine how well pupils are progressing over time and how consistently teachers are following the marking policy.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Governors ensure that statutory requirements are fully met. Safeguarding training is up to date and there are comprehensive procedures to ensure that staff are vetted to keep everyone safe. Most parents are positive about the provision their children receive, particularly related to safety.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 Although teaching, learning and assessment are having a better impact on children’s learning in the early years, their quality remains variable in Years 1 to 6. The legacy of underachievement, caused by weak teaching in the past, has resulted in gaps in some pupils’ knowledge and understanding, and hence significantly below-average attainment at the end of Years 2 and 6.  Not all teachers provide pupils with activities that challenge and extend their learning. Consequently, pupils are not always fully engaged and do not consistently learn well during lessons. This affects the progress made by pupils of all abilities.  During some lessons, particularly in mathematics, a lack of focus on the most-able pupils means that they do not always have opportunities to tackle harder problems to raise their levels of attainment and make good progress.  In English lessons, teachers do not consistently check that pupils of different abilities, particularly the

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

most able and lower attainers, including disabled pupils and pupils with special educational needs, have activities that address their individual needs. As a result, their learning is impeded.  All teachers develop individual reading records for each pupil, but these records do not identify the difficulties pupils are experiencing as they read, and ultimately this slows the progress the pupils are making as they acquire reading skills.  Most teachers follow the marking policy and leave comments that inform pupils what they need to do to improve. However, not all pupils respond to the comments which reinforce and extend their learning.  There are many strengths in the teaching. Relationships are good between pupils and the adults who help them. Teacher expectations regarding behaviour is high and there is a consistent approach to behaviour management. Consequently, behaviour now rarely interferes with learning.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 Teaching assistants contribute to pupils’ learning. This is an improvement since the previous inspection.  The teaching of phonics (letters and the sounds they make) has improved because staff have received additional training. School performance information showed that the proportion of pupils who are on course to reach the level expected of them in the Year 1 phonics screening is much improved when compared with the last two years.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils’ attitudes to learning are generally positive during lessons and during discussions out of the classroom. Pupils are respectful and listen to the views of their classmates. From a range of different backgrounds, pupils get on well with each other.  During discussions, pupils spoke of being proud of their school and most stated that they enjoyed school. Most pupils take pride in their work and books are usually well presented. Pupils clearly understand how the marking policy works and acknowledge that, for whatever reason, they do not always respond to teachers’ comments about their work.  Pupils know how to keep themselves safe and say that they feel safe in school. During discussions, pupils stated that incidents of bullying are rare and dealt with effectively and promptly. Information gathered from questionnaires confirms this and also showed that almost all parents have no concerns about safety.

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Personal development and welfare

 The physical education programme gives pupils many opportunities to take part in sporting events, some competitive, and keeps them fit and healthy. This adds to the development of pupils’ personal skills and prepares them well for their next school.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Weaknesses in teachers’ planning, when the needs of individuals or specific groups are not met, slows down learning and pupils display off-task behaviour. Inspection evidence showed that behaviour is generally good in classes when teaching is good.

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Behaviour

 Attendance rates are below average and this has been the case for the last three years. Monitoring of attendance is not rigorous enough. Attendance information shows that pupils attend better in some classes than others. Leaders acknowledge that there has been more focus on improving behaviour than attendance.  The number of fixed-term exclusions has decreased significantly since the previous inspection due to improved and more consistent implementation and monitoring of behaviour management strategies.  Behaviour incidents are adequately logged initially. However, there is not enough detail regarding the impact and follow-up of the school’s work.  Most parents are satisfied with behaviour in the school. Inspection evidence shows that as pupils move around the school and as they play alongside each other outside, behaviour is good.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Attainment in reading, writing and mathematics requires improvement because standards have been significantly below average for the last five years at the end of Year 2 and significantly below average for the last three years at the end of Year 6.  School and national documentation shows that in 2015, too few pupils in the Year 6 cohort made expected progress as they moved through Years 3 to 6. Senior leaders acknowledge that many pupils underachieved in 2015 due to weaknesses in teaching. In addition, some pupil groups achieved better than others. For example, pupils who spoke English as an additional language made better progress as they moved through Years 3 to 6 than their classmates.  Inspection evidence shows that inadequate teaching has been eradicated. However, achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in Years 1 to 6 is not consistently good and requires improvement because of identified weaknesses in teaching.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Current school performance information and inspection evidence show that the progress pupils make is determined by the quality of teaching pupils receive. When teaching is good, all pupils, including disabled pupils, pupils with special educational needs and those who are disadvantaged, learn well and make good progress in Years 1 to 6. Pupils with speech and language difficulties make good gains in their learning when they receive good-quality support in a small group. Individual pupils achieve well during sessions where they work on reading targets that have been clearly identified.  Scrutiny of pupils’ previous work in English and mathematics shows that weaknesses in teaching result in progress being limited, particularly for lower-attaining pupils who do not finish their work and the most- able pupils who are not always suitably challenged, especially in mathematics.  The gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others remains too wide in reading,

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

writing and mathematics.  In classrooms, teachers do not clearly identify what individual pupils need to do to improve their reading. This impedes the progress pupils make as they acquire reading skills and strategies to sound out words they do not know.  The school does not prepare enough pupils well academically for their next school.

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Early years provision is good

 Leadership and management of early years are good. The provision in the Nursery and Reception classes is good and a strength of the school. Improvements since the previous inspection have been considerable and currently teaching is good. School priorities, such as the need to focus on improving the development of speaking, reading, writing and mathematical skills, were clearly evident during inspection observations.  Children in the Nursery were seen sitting and showing much enjoyment as they listened attentively to the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. They were keen to take part and showed an accurate understanding of the sequence of the story. Displays around the room clearly showed that the development of reading, writing and number skills is a high priority.  In Reception, children were observed working in small groups identifying initial sounds and blending two sounds together. Others were eager to show that they could read words such as ‘like’, ‘was’ and ‘I’.

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Early years provision is good

Activities are well planned to promote a love of reading and many children confidently write letters that are recognisable and the most-able children begin to write simple words.

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Early years provision is good

 In Nursery and Reception, adults do not miss opportunities to reinforce and develop children’s understanding of numbers and encourage them to count accurately in all they do.  Activities are well planned and include all areas of learning. The majority of children are on course to reach a good level of development in most areas of learning. This is an improvement on the last two years. School performance information for the last two academic years showed that the proportion of children who reached a good level of development was low when compared with the national figure, particularly in the development of speaking, reading, writing and mathematical skills.  Relationships between the children, teachers and teaching assistants are extremely warm and children quickly learn what is expected of them, for example in the ‘carpet rules’, which show them how to behave when they are taught in a whole-class situation. Children behave well in lessons, outside and when they

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Early years provision is good

eat their lunch.  School documentation shows that staff work well with external agencies to support children when necessary.  Learning journeys show the good progress children make and reinforces how the curriculum offered addresses all areas of learning. Parents are encouraged to contribute to these.  Safeguarding arrangements are secure for learning both inside and out. The outside area promotes learning in all areas and adults plan activities with safeguarding in mind.  The current children are on course to be well prepared for Year 1, which has not been the case in previous years.

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School details

Unique reference number 128085 Local authority Leicester City Inspection number 10009102 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 Alan Curtis Headteacher Ms Jatinder Mahil Telephone number 0116 2858130 Website www.braunstone.leicester.sch.uk Email address jmahil@braunstone.leicester.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 29 — 30 January 2014

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than most other primary schools.  Nearly three quarters of the pupils come from White British backgrounds. The remainder represent a range of minority ethnic groups.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium, which is the additional government funding for pupils eligible for free school meals, is well above average.  The proportion of disabled pupils or who have special educational needs is above average.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above average. Few pupils are at the early stages of learning English.  In 2014, the school met the government’s floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress. However, results for 2015 were considerably lower than the 2014 national floor standards expectations.  There has been a high turnover of teachers this academic year. Nearly half of the teachers were new at

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Information about this school

the beginning of this academic year. The senior leadership team is also recently established.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed learning in 20 parts of lessons taught by 14 teachers.  The headteacher and senior staff were involved in many of the observations.  Discussions were held with the headteacher and members of her staff, pupils, governors and a representative from the local authority.  The views of parents were considered by analysing the 16 responses to Parent View, the online survey, and the 124 responses to the questionnaire that school staff sent out to parents last term.  Inspectors also considered the online questionnaires and responses from the questionnaires the school sent out to gain the views of its staff and pupils.  The inspectors looked at a number of documents, including: the school’s self-evaluation and development plan; how senior staff check on the quality of teaching, along with safeguarding documents and minutes from recent governors’ meetings; pupils’ performance information; pupils’ previous and

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Information about this inspection

current work in Years 1 to 6 and records of the learning journeys from the children in Reception.

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Inspection team

Nina Bee, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector Yvonne Watts Ofsted Inspector Stuart Williams 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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