Gladstone Primary School

Gladstone Primary School Gladstone Street, Peterborough PE1 2BZ

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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 Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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This is an inadequate school

 Governors are not meeting their legal duty to ensure that pupils are safe. They do not examine safeguarding systems and procedures well enough to check that they are strong and are implemented correctly.  Concerns about pupils raised by staff are not followed up quickly and effectively. The designated safeguarding lead passes on too many duties to others and loses sight of the steps being taken to ensure pupils’ safety.  Record-keeping is extremely poor.  Leaders and governors have failed to sustain the good progress pupils were making at the last inspection and do not demonstrate sufficient capacity to make the necessary improvements. They are not setting high enough expectations for pupils’ academic achievement and their personal development and welfare.  Too few children in the early years are reaching a good level of development before they move into Year 1. Attainment in English and mathematics is

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This is an inadequate school

below average across the school.  Teaching requires improvement. Not enough is good so that pupils learn at a fast enough rate.  Pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare are inadequate. Some pupils do not think of others’ safety when they play.  Leaders’ evaluation of the school’s work is not thorough or accurate so it is not useful in helping them to decide where improvements are needed.  The roles and responsibilities of leaders at all levels are unclear and this leads to poor communication and generates misunderstandings among some staff.

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The school has the following strengths

 Pupils come to school regularly and most enjoy learning. Most pupils stick to the school’s rules for behaviour and follow instructions and requests from adults.  Staff say that they like working with the pupils in this community very much. Turnover of staff is low.  The school uses extra funding (known as pupil premium) effectively to support eligible pupils in their learning. Additional funding for sports broadens the range and number of sporting activities that pupils take part in.

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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?

 Leaders and governors must improve safeguarding arrangements as a matter of urgency by:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

checking to see that policies, procedures and systems are being implemented and are working well ensuring that the designated safeguarding lead oversees each case from start to finish so that action follows quickly when concerns are raised improving communication so that staff feel they are listened to when they raise concerns about pupils’ welfare, their learning or the effectiveness of practices within the school improve record-keeping and paperwork for safeguarding, child protection, behaviour and medical notes following protocols and procedures for making referrals to external agencies and professionals correctly ensuring that pupils take more responsibility for their own safety and have regard for the safety of others in the playground.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of staff at all levels and ensuring that everyone understands what these are leaders and governors raising expectations for pupils’ academic achievement and their personal development improving the accuracy of leaders’ judgements about how well the school is performing providing clear direction for staff about what needs to improve and how it will be done specifying who is responsible for leading actions to raise pupils’ achievement and holding them to account if improvements do not follow ensuring good teaching and learning in the early years classes so that children move into Year 1 with better skills in their personal development, speaking, listening, literacy and numeracy increasing the frequency of good-quality teaching across the school to accelerate pupils’ progress and raise their attainment, especially in English and mathematics.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

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

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 Leaders and governors are not doing enough to improve pupils’ progress and develop robust systems to ensure their safety and welfare. Pupils’ progress in reading and writing was identified for improvement in the previous inspection in 2013 and since then standards have fallen significantly. Expectations for what Gladstone pupils are able to achieve are too low.  Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.  Underpinning pupils’ underachievement is a lack of strategic oversight and sufficiently strong leadership to drive improvement. It is unclear who is responsible for leading each planned action for improvement, who will check that it is working and who will review the evidence to evaluate it. In the absence of this information, governors are not in a position to hold leaders to account.  Checks made to substantiate the quality of teaching, learning and assessment lack sufficient rigour and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

accuracy. Evaluation of the effectiveness of teaching and learning is inflated. Senior leaders are satisfied that teaching, for example, is good when it clearly requires improvement because pupils are not making good progress.  Leaders and governors have not acted quickly enough to tackle poor practice in safeguarding. The headteacher’s response has been to spread responsibilities even more widely among staff without a clear rationale behind decisions. Record-keeping is poor. The processing and filing of important information about safeguarding, child protection, behaviour and medical notes is undertaken by a range of staff, none of whom have received specific training to equip them to carry out the tasks effectively.  There is confusion among some staff about who they should approach to raise concerns about pupils’ welfare, safety or learning. The school’s policies do not follow through into practice. Staff are guarded

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

about speaking out because they do not have confidence that their concerns will be listened to, considered and acted upon.  Leadership of teaching and curriculum development is weak. While individual teams reflect on their practice and discuss how well pupils are learning, this work is not making a difference. There is a lack of joined-up thinking. In developing a systematic approach for the teaching of letters and the sounds they make (phonics), teachers in Year 3, for example, have little understanding of the approaches used in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 so that they can build on them effectively.  The curriculum promotes pupils’ understanding of fundamental British values through a suitable personal, health and social education programme. The design of the curriculum ensures that literacy and numeracy have a sufficiently high profile and that this is balanced with extra-curricular activities to increase pupils’

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

enjoyment of learning. The curriculum is not implemented effectively so that it makes a significant impact on pupils’ development and progress.  The early years leader has high ambitions to improve the achievement of children in Reception. Evaluation of the effectiveness of teaching is too generous.  The school’s spending to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils funded by the pupil premium is beginning to make a difference to their learning. Specialist teachers and teaching assistants working with disadvantaged pupils are speeding up their progress in reading and mathematics. The gap between disadvantaged pupils’ attainment and that of their peers is narrowing steadily in key stage 1 and current pupils in key stage 2 are making expected progress.  Pupils with disability and those who have special educational needs are not making sufficient progress. This is because, historically, many were not identified quickly enough and were left struggling for too long

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

without the right teaching to support their learning needs. The inclusion leader is making improvements earnestly and with some success. Even so, most pupils with disability and those with special educational needs have not made good progress from September 2015 to date.  The school uses the physical education and sport premium funding effectively to buy into a programme to improve pupils’ participation in intra- and interschool sports and train pupils in roles such as play leaders and play makers. Specialist coaches provide a broader range of activities such as extra dance classes and clubs such as ‘Just Do Sport’. They also help teachers to develop their skills in teaching physical education.  The school has a suitable procedure for managing staff performance but this is not helping to increase the proportion of good teaching through effective professional development and training. Governors understand how the process works and do not automatically agree pay rises if targets are unmet. Newly

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

qualified teachers receive regular feedback about their performance and value the guidance and training they receive.  There were very few parents who were able to contribute to inspection evidence. Those who did seemed happy with the school, the way that it communicates with them and what it provides for their children.  The governance of the school Governors have not taken immediate action to address a recent safeguarding audit and serious concerns raised about safeguarding by staff. Governors have not done enough to ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction or to hold the headteacher to account for the performance of staff and the academic achievement of pupils. Minutes of meetings show that governors do challenge leaders about pupils’ learning when they receive reports. Even so, they have failed to recognise and challenge inconsistencies; for example, if Year 6 pupils leave the school at least a year behind in English and mathematics, they cannot, as the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

school’s self-evaluation states, be pupils who ‘achieve well and leave the school as confident and curious learners ready for the next stage of formal education’. The governing body has ensured that it fulfils its ‘Prevent’ duty, ensuring that staff know how to identify pupils who may be vulnerable to radicalisation or extremism. Even so, mechanisms for communicating concerns to senior leaders are not working effectively.  The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. Governors have not checked closely that systems for safeguarding are implemented and that they are working smoothly. They have not acted upon some of the recommendations raised in a recent audit of safeguarding quickly enough.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 Not enough teaching is good. Pupils do not make rapid progress from low starting points to enable them to catch up from year to year and significantly narrow the gap between their attainment and that of other pupils nationally. Expectations are not high enough for what pupils are capable of achieving.  Teaching does not consistently ensure that work is matched well enough to the differing needs of pupils to promote their rapid progress. Senior leaders are not fully focused on the needs of different groups in the classes for which they are responsible. At times, the work is too easy for some or too difficult for others, thus pupils with disability and those with special educational needs, as well as the most-able pupils, do not make good progress.  Too much time is spent reinforcing learning that has gone before when pupils are ready to learn something new. This slows their progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The school is moving away from its old assessment system using national curriculum levels to a new system to help them to track how well pupils are progressing towards the new national expectations for each year group. Teachers are double-checking the accuracy of assessment with other local schools and local authority advisers to make sure that findings are accurate. In daily teaching, they frequently check pupils’ understanding of what they are learning. Teaching is getting better as a result of this new system but the difficulty of the work is still not matched well enough to meet the differing needs and abilities of pupils in each class.  Classrooms are suitably equipped with the right resources used to support pupils’ learning.  Most teaching assistants are focused on promoting good learning for the groups or individuals they are working with. They adapt learning on the spot to secure pupils’ understanding.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 Teachers insist on pupils using the correct vocabulary when talking about their learning. This enables pupils who speak English as an additional language to learn to use the correct words to describe what they are learning in different subjects. They ensure that pupils are able to talk about their ideas for writing before they begin to write.  Most teachers give clear instructions and manage pupils’ behaviour effectively in class.  Pupils receive regular feedback about their learning orally and in writing. Their written work is marked regularly, although this tends to tell them more about the effort they have made or if they completed the task, rather than how the work could be even better.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate. A few pupils said that they were not sure that adults always sort things out when they are anxious or upset.  A few pupils, mainly boys, do not show enough regard for the safety of others when they are out playing in the playground. The number of minor accidents that occur as a result of boisterous play is too high.  Arrangements for pupils with significant medical needs are not secure. Not all staff are trained to supervise the administration of medication and procedures in the event of staff absence are insecure.  Pupils have a good understanding of e-safety (how to keep safe online) in key stage 2. They know what bullying is and what to do should they experience it.  Buildings and premises present a safe environment for pupils.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  A few pupils, predominantly boys, give up too easily on their work and wait for an adult to remind them to get on with it.  Some pupils talk too much and too loudly while they are working, making it difficult for others to concentrate.  In class, most pupils show that they want to learn. Their conduct is generally orderly and most pupils respond quickly to instructions and requests from adults.  Pupils attend school regularly. Exclusion rates are low.  Pupils learn about fundamental British values and gain an understanding of the different groups in society that are protected from discrimination. They take their responsibilities as school councillors seriously, ensuring that they seek the views of their classmates regularly. Pupils are reflective about their actions and accept when they are wrong but they do not take enough responsibility for their actions in the first

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Behaviour

place. This is why their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development requires improvement.

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Outcomes for pupils are inadequate

 Pupils do not make progress quickly enough from their low starting points. As a result, they begin each year with attainment well below where it should be and the gap does not narrow significantly. They move from Reception into Year 1 without the skills they need to be successful learners. By the end of Year 2 their attainment in reading and writing is still below average. By the time they leave at the end of Year 6 pupils are at least a year behind other pupils nationally in reading, writing and mathematics because they are not making good progress. As a consequence, they are not prepared well for the next stage of their education.  Standards in reading, writing and mathematics have fallen since 2013 in key stages 1 and 2.  The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard for phonics in Year 1 was below average in 2015 and this figure has not improved notably over three years. By the end of Year 2, however, most pupils

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Outcomes for pupils are inadequate

reach the standard.  In 2015 the very large majority of Year 6 pupils did not make good progress between Year 3 and Year 6. In reading, their progress was inadequate. Better progress is evident this year because the school has taken steps to improve the teaching of reading. Predictions for outcomes at the end of this year show marginal improvement.  The progress that disadvantaged pupils are making is improving rapidly. Most are making better progress currently than pupils who are not eligible for pupil premium funding.  Pupils with disability and those with special educational needs are not making enough progress. New systems have been introduced to set targets for learning and monitoring pupils’ progress towards achieving them. There is not yet secure evidence to show that this is making a difference in raising achievement.  Very few pupils, including the more-able pupils, exceed expectations for progress and attainment in

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Outcomes for pupils are inadequate

reading, writing and mathematics. The work they are given does not stretch them enough. In 2015, the proportion achieving more than expected progress was below the national average in reading, writing and mathematics. A very small minority of pupils exceeded national expectations for attainment at the end of Year 2 and Year 6.

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Early years provision is inadequate

 Safeguarding is ineffective because systems and procedures are not sufficiently robust to ensure that children are always safe and that they play safely while they are learning.  Not enough children are reaching a good level of development by the time they move into Year 1. They are not prepared well enough for their learning in key stage 1. Not enough of the children who are eligible for pupil premium funding reached a good level of development by the end of the Reception Year in 2015.  Leadership is developing strongly. As yet it is not fully effective because monitoring of teaching and learning is not rigorous enough to ensure that provision is of consistently good quality across the whole year group and children make sufficient progress. Teaching is not good because it is not focused well enough on what children should learn through their play. Staff make regular assessments of children’s learning. This shows that a few more, but not enough, children will reach a good level of development by

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Early years provision is inadequate

the end of the year.  Routines are not well established so that children know what is expected of them. Children have not learned how to share equipment and toys successfully. Most children play happily but too many flit from one activity to another without staff intervening to move their learning forward.  Parents are given ideas of how they can help their children’s learning at home.  Provision for children who are learning how to speak English is good. Teaching assistants support these children well. Children are confident in talking in their home language while they play. At the same time they are being helped to learn how to speak in English.

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School details

Unique reference number 110757 Local authority Peterborough Inspection number 1007559 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 4–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 538 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Philippa Cherry Headteacher Christine Parker Telephone number 01733 343 908 Website www.gladstoneschool.co.uk Email address office@gladstone.peterborough.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 24 January 2013

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Information about this school

 The school is much larger than most primary schools.  Almost all pupils (94%) speak English as an additional language.  Since the last inspection the number of pupils on roll has risen significantly and is continuing to rise. The proportion of pupils joining or leaving after the start of each school year is above average. Currently this applies to around a quarter of the pupils on roll.  Pupils are accommodated in two buildings a few minutes’ walk apart. Early years and key stage 1 pupils are taught in the Gladstone Road building and key stage 2 pupils in the building located nearby in Bourges Boulevard.  The school has no specially resourced provision for pupils with disability and those with special educational needs.  A breakfast club is managed by the governing body.  The current national floor standards for pupils’ progress and attainment are met.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection was carried out following a number of complaints made to Ofsted which raised serious concerns. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) decided that an inspection of the school should take place to follow up the whole-school issues that were raised relating to the safeguarding of pupils and the effectiveness of leadership and governance. The complaints were not investigated. The school’s systems that gave rise to the complaints were scrutinised to establish whether leaders and the governing body are effective in monitoring and evaluating policy and practice for behaviour management and safeguarding within the school.  The inspection began on the first day as a no formal designation section 8 inspection where HMCI has the discretionary power to inspect any school in England. Two additional inspectors joined the inspection team on the second day of the inspection to complete a full section 5 inspection.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in all classes at least once, sometimes jointly with senior leaders.  They observed pupils playing in the playground at breaktimes and when they had an indoor break because of inclement weather. Inspectors talked to lunchtime supervisors. They spoke to pupils in class and more formally in groups. The inspectors looked at pupils’ written work in their exercise books and information that the school showed them about the progress that pupils are making currently.  Meetings were held with governors, senior leaders, staff responsible for administration and management of the site, middle leaders, class teachers and teaching assistants. The lead inspector had a telephone conversation with the head of school improvement for Peterborough.  Inspectors looked at a range of the school’s documentation including policies to do with safeguarding, behaviour and safety. They evaluated the school’s self-evaluation and its plans for future improvements.

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Information about this inspection

 Six parents responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View; too few to generate enough information about their views of the school. Inspectors talked to parents informally when they arrived at school to collect their children at the end of the school day.

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Inspection team

Linda Killman, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Tracy Fielding Her Majesty’s Inspector Olive Millington Ofsted Inspector Trish Hardy 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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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