Mountbatten Primary School

Mountbatten Primary School Wivern Road, Hull, East Yorkshire HU9 4HR

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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 Good

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Early years provision Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a school that requires improvement

 Leaders have not paid sufficient attention in ensuring that pupils make good progress across the school.  Improvement plans are not focused sharply enough on making sure pupils make faster progress. Imprecise targets are making it difficult for leaders and governors to know whether the school is improving fast enough.  Subject leadership has not improved enough since the time of the previous inspection. Some subject leaders are now more effective at checking how well teachers are teaching, but other less experienced subject leaders are not.  Teaching and learning across the school is not consistently good. Pupils are not challenged enough in lessons. This has been further hampered by ongoing changes in staffing.  The curriculum does not provide pupils with enough opportunities to develop their technical, artistic or computing skills.  The school’s website does not fully meet the government’s statutory requirements. This is

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This is a school that requires improvement

partly due to governors not reviewing some policies in a timely manner. At other times, reviewed policies are not updated on the school website.

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The school has the following strengths

 Since the previous inspection, standards have improved in early years, key stage 1 and key stage 2.  The curriculum provides pupils with good opportunities to develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. Effective actions are being taken to help pupils understand and appreciate British values, including democracy, tolerance and respect.  Attendance is improving and pupils have good attitudes to learning and behave well.  Pupils, parents and staff all agree that the school provides a safe and secure learning environment and as a result children enjoy coming to school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching so that pupils make consistently good progress by making sure that: – learning is sufficiently challenging for all groups of pupils including the most able – teachers check more carefully on the progress pupils are making both during lessons and over time – marking and feedback is completed in line with the school’s policy and has a greater impact on pupils’ progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, including governance, by making sure that: – pupils make good progress, especially in writing and mathematics – the effectiveness of subject coordinators is improved, so they carefully and regularly check that the quality of teaching is improving and pupils are making good progress, and take swift action if pupils are not – the curriculum provides pupils with more opportunities to develop their technical, artistic and computing skills – self-evaluation gives greater weight and importance to the progress pupils are making – improvement plans clearly show the intended impact actions are to have on improving the quality of teaching and pupil progress – the school’s policies are reviewed in a timely manner by governors and the school website complies fully with the government’s statutory requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 Despite improvements since the previous inspection, leadership and management still requires improvement. Teaching is not consistently good and so not enough pupils make fast enough progress. Pupils’ progress varies across classes and year groups. Ongoing staff changes are not helping and both pupils and parents rightly comment on the ‘unsettling’ effect this is having on pupils’ progress.  Senior leaders are not paying enough attention to making sure that pupils make good progress. For example, while outcomes at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 are improving, pupils could be achieving even more if they made faster progress, especially in writing and mathematics. This is the same for other pupils throughout the school. School self-evaluation, target-setting and improvement plans do not pay sufficient attention to making sure that pupils make accelerated progress, including those who are most able.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The impact that subject coordinators are having is variable and inconsistent. Some subject leaders check the quality of teaching and learning effectively in their subject area. They drop in to lessons, check on the quality of marking and feedback, and speak with pupils to get an accurate view on how well they are achieving. As a result, some teaching has improved.  Other subject coordinators, including those recently appointed, have not got to grips with their roles. Some are at the very early stages of planning for improvement and getting a sense of what it means to be a subject coordinator. As a result, they do not have a clear view on the quality of teaching and learning in their subject areas or how well pupils are progressing. Senior leaders are providing some useful professional development opportunities for leaders to visit other schools and attend network meetings held locally, to help them develop their skills. These are valued by staff and are helping them

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

better appreciate what they need to do as subject coordinators.  Improvement plans are having some impact in improving teaching. However, they are not as useful as a tool for school improvement as they could be. Plans do not always show the impact intended actions will have on pupils’ progress. Despite clear timescales for when reviews and checks will be made, it is difficult for governors to check whether improvements are happening fast enough.  Following the previous inspection, senior leadership capacity has increased. This enhanced senior leadership team is starting to have a positive impact and is more successful in improving attendance, reducing persistent absence and improving provision, especially for children in the early years.  Performance management targets are linked to pupil outcomes. There is a clear link between pupils’ progress and salary progression. However, targets are not always the most ambitious or suitable and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

more focus is needed on making sure that teachers are accountable for pupils making good progress, rather than just expected progress. Newly qualified teachers feel well supported, benefit from opportunities to see effective practice and are making steady progress in developing their teaching and assessment of pupils.  Leaders and managers have made improvements to the curriculum since the previous inspection. There are now regular weekly opportunities for pupils to practise their literacy and numeracy skills in other subjects, including history and geography. However, the school’s own checks show that other subjects, such as art, design technology and computing, are delivered less well in some year groups.  The curriculum is effective in developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. Pupils are developing their understanding of different cultures, for example, by celebrating the Chinese New Year,

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

Diwali and having assembles led by the local reverend. Pupils have a particularly good understanding of the value of democracy. This is because pupils vote for their school council representatives using a polling booth and ballot box. A local Member of Parliament announces which pupils have been elected as school council representatives.  The primary sports funding is used effectively to employ a specialist coach to work alongside teachers. Teachers are improving their ability to teach physical activities for themselves. Teachers are now more able and confident to teach PE and from September 2016 teachers will be teaching PE lessons without a specialist coach.  Pupil premium funding is having a positive effect as gaps between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils continue to close at both key stage 1 and 2. However, plans for how this additional funding is to be spent are not clear enough. Leaders are not precise enough in detailing what the intended benefits will be for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

pupils, including for those disadvantaged children in the early years and Year 1 for example. Consequently, leaders and governors do not have a clear enough view on the intended impact this funding is meant to be having.  The school receives regular visits from the local authority. This support has had some impact. For example, a recent review rightly highlighted the need to improve the quality of handwriting and presentation in some classes. Leaders responded well to the review’s findings and improvements in the quality of presentation are clear to see. However, external support has been less successful in making sure that the school’s self-evaluation pays enough attention to the progress pupils are making and ensuring that improvement plans are focused on the impact actions will have on pupils.  The governance of the school – Governance is improving. Governors share the vision and ambition of leaders in wanting to expand

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

pupils’ horizons and widen their opportunities to be ‘the best they can be’. As a result, governors are not afraid to challenge leaders across a range of issues. – Governors ask pertinent and challenging questions and have rightly raised questions about pupils’ attendance, the accuracy of teacher assessments and the way in which finances are managed. Improved headteacher reports mean governors are able to ask relevant and targeted questions about the achievement of pupils. – Governors are not as strategically involved in the self-evaluation process as they could be. Some link governors have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in their curriculum area. However, other link governors are less well informed. – Governors have reviewed and amended some statutory policies effectively, including child protection and safeguarding policies. Some other policies are out of date. As a result of this and the fact that the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

school website does not contain the latest updated policies, the school website does not fully meet the government’s statutory requirements  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective and meet statutory requirements. Staff have benefited from safeguarding training, including identifying potential signs of radicalisation and extremism. They know who to go to if they have any potential worries about a child. Parents, pupils and staff confirm that children are safe in school and well cared for. Effective child protection plans are in place for vulnerable pupils and records are detailed and regularly updated. The school works well with other agencies and parents to support pupils, including the educational welfare officer, the ‘Team around the School’ and the Early Help Team.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The quality of teaching and learning is inconsistent across the school. This has not been helped by the ongoing changes to staffing. Over time, teaching is not challenging enough. It is sometimes too easy for the most able and too difficult for the least able. Teachers do not always make best use of the information they have on pupils’ abilities to ensure that there is sufficient challenge.  Teachers do not consistently check whether pupils fully understand what they are being taught. Pupils told inspectors that sometimes their teachers use ‘hard words’ that they do not really understand and teachers do not check whether pupils understand these terms well enough.  Questioning is variable. Sometimes teachers do not dig deep enough to check how and why pupils have answered in the way they have. For example, in a mathematics lesson on reasoning and problem solving the teacher missed valuable opportunities to question pupils on how and why they arrived at a particular

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

answer.  Teachers follow the school marking and feedback policy. However, the impact of this feedback is inconsistent. Pupils are at times unclear why particular spellings are wrong and sometimes struggle to read the handwriting of some teachers. Despite helpful suggestions being made by teachers for how to improve work, some teachers do not do enough to ensure that pupils act upon this advice and so similar mistakes and errors continue to be made.  Some teachers are more effective at checking on the progress pupils are making. For example, in a literacy lesson on the use of direct speech, the teacher checked effectively that pupils could explain why some sentences she had written were better than others. This provided pupils with opportunities to explain their thinking in some detail and enabled misconceptions and errors to be tackled. Some teachers circulate effectively around the classroom, catching pupils doing something well or helping them if they

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

are having difficulties.  Additional adults are an effective resource in many classrooms. When teachers provide other adults with clear guidance, this leads to pupils making better progress. However, some teacher guidance is vague and unclear and so at times other adults in classrooms are not as confident in knowing how best to support pupils.  Pupils enjoy reading, and displays in school celebrate the reading achievements of classes. Younger children enjoy story time at the end of the day, in which teachers engage children enthusiastically and effectively in the joys of reading. However, home-school records are not used well enough. In key stage 1, for example, there are few, if any, comments made by teachers on how well pupils are progressing with their reading and so it is difficult for parents to know how well their children are doing.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils are well cared for. They work well with their teachers and other adults and, when given the opportunity, usually work well with each other in lessons. Pupils are inquisitive, friendly and confident. They say ‘good morning’ to visitors and hold the door open for them and are keen to share their thoughts about school.  Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. They confidently talk about how to keep themselves safe when crossing busy roads, staying safe when using computers and the potential dangers of talking to people they do not know.  Pupils’ personal development is being enhanced by a range of trips and visits. Pupils have had the opportunity to visit the Humber Bridge, Scarborough Castle and Headingly cricket ground and to meet the Lord Mayor. This is helping pupils build their self-awareness about the world around them.

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Personal development and welfare

 Pupils are benefiting from the school’s approach in helping them understand what makes a good citizen. As a result, pupils are respectful and well mannered. Pupils also have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. ‘Change for life’ lessons have helped vulnerable pupils develop their confidence and attitudes to learning. A wide range of extra-curricular activities are on offer, including choir, cross-country, gardening and dance clubs. These are well attended and having a positive impact on pupils, both in terms of improving attendance levels and their enjoyment of school.  Pupils are aware of different types of bullying, including name-calling and physical bullying. While some bullying does occur, pupils say that it does not happen often and that is dealt with effectively by their teacher or another adult. As a result, pupils feel safe and secure when in school.  The school works well with other agencies. These include the educational welfare officer, speech and

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Personal development and welfare

language therapists and child and mental health services. As a result, the levels of attendance are improving and the achievement of some of these pupils is improving.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ attitudes to learning are good. Pupils concentrate well in lessons and are keen to get on with their work. Pupils benefit from the strong relationships they have built with their teachers. For example, in a mathematics lesson, pupils were raring to have a go at practising their place value skills as a result of effective teaching and confidence building by the teacher.  The behaviour of pupils is good, exclusions are low and attendance is improving. Leaders have worked hard to ensure that levels of attendance continue to improve and they are now broadly in line with the national average. Imaginative rewards have been developed to encourage pupils to attend. Pupils say they like the range of certificates, prizes, the ‘walking to school bus’ to get them to school on time and the chance to take ‘Gordon the teddy bear’ home if they attended school regularly.  Pupils move around the school in a calm and sensible manner. During break and playtimes pupils are well

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Behaviour

supervised and get on well with each other. They follow classroom instructions well. Teachers have well- established routines for giving out and collecting equipment and pupils move swiftly from one activity to another. Little if any teaching time is wasted.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Outcomes require improvement because despite standards improving since the previous inspection, not enough pupils are making consistently good progress, especially in writing and mathematics. The most able and disadvantaged pupils make expected progress over time, but not enough of them make good progress given their starting points. This is because teaching is not matched well enough to meet their needs.  In 2015, the Year 1 screening check in phonics (letters and the sounds that they make) was well below the national average. School leaders’ predictions suggest a significant improvement this year. However, given the disruptions to pupils’ learning due to staffing changes and the quality of teaching over time, inspectors remain unconvinced that Year 1 pupils are making better progress in phonics this year.  The progress pupils are making in reading, writing and mathematics is also variable. Pupils are now

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

making expected progress in these subjects and their rates of progress are in line with national averages. However, levels of good progress are much more variable. Pupils’ progress in reading by the end of key stage 2 is much better than it is in writing and mathematics.  The progress of pupils who have special educational needs or disability also requires improvement. This group of pupils are making better progress in reading and mathematics than they are in writing. A ‘sound check’ project has also made a positive impact on pupils’ understanding of phonics.  Current assessment information shows a mixed picture. Outcomes in early years show signs of continued improvement, but the number of children achieving a good level of development remains below the national average. The progress pupils are making in key stage 1 is not good and has been hampered by the ongoing staffing changes. The progress pupils are making in literacy and numeracy is stronger in

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

Years 5 and 6 than elsewhere in the school. However, improving writing remains a key priority across the school.  Pupil progress is not checked well enough in other subjects, including science, history, geography and art. Parental reports provide parents with information about how well their children are attaining, but do not provide enough information on the progress they are making.

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Early years provision requires improvement

 Children start the early years with skills that are below those typically expected for their age. While outcomes are improving, not enough children are reaching a good level of development and so are not prepared well enough for key stage 1. Current assessment information shows that half of the girls are currently not on track to make typical progress and too few children are making better than typical progress.  The use of additional funding for disadvantaged children is not planned for well enough and the intended impact this additional funding is meant to be having remains unclear and imprecise. Consequently, governors are unsure of the impact this additional funding is having.  The new leader for early years has hit the ground running and has a clear vision and high expectations for how she wants provision to be improved. She has started to make a significant impact and the quality of teaching is improving and children are starting to make faster progress. The quality of phonics teaching

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Early years provision requires improvement

is strong and teachers have high expectations for children.  Adults know their groups of children well. The leader for early years has rightly identified the need to further improve the quality and accuracy of assessments so that they can better help teachers plan learning experiences for children. This is at the early stages of development and so it is too soon to evaluate the impact of this work.  Considerable additional resourcing has been used effectively to improve the learning environment. Children now have more opportunities to be creative and play with purpose. The curriculum is making an increasingly positive contribution to children’s personal development and behaviour. Children behave well and are responding well to the improvements in teaching that are being made.  Safeguarding checks are effective and detailed and help contribute to children feeling safe. Parents comment positively on the improvements they have seen and feel that staff are approachable and will

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School details

Unique reference number 117931 Local authority Kingston upon Hull Inspection number 10012050

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School details

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

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School details

Type of school Primary School category Community Age range of pupils 3–11 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 297 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Eunice Evans Headteacher Lynne Trotter Telephone number 01482 375224 Website www.mountbattenprimary.co.uk Email address admin@mountbatten.hull.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 13–14 May 2014

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Information about this school

 This is an averaged-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is nearly double the national average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disability is broadly average. The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is below the national average.  The school meets the current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  There have been numerous staffing changes since the previous inspection. Since January 2016, there are new teachers in the early years foundation stage and in Year 3. There is currently a supply teacher in Year 2.  The school does not meet the requirements on the publication of information on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors gathered a wide range of evidence during the inspection, including through observations of teaching, some of which were undertaken with senior leaders. They also carried out work scrutinies in classrooms, including checking literacy, numeracy, science and topic books.  Inspectors held meetings with school staff, including the headteacher, other senior leaders and staff in charge of aspects of the school’s work. Inspectors also met with a group of newly qualified teachers. They also met with two governors and with a local authority officer.  Inspectors spoke with pupils during formal interviews during lessons and informally.  Inspectors considered a wide range of documentation related to the school’s work, gathering the school’s view of its performance and information concerning pupils’ attainment, progress, attendance and behaviour.  Inspectors scrutinised records concerning safeguarding, pupils’ behaviour over time and the quality of

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Information about this inspection

teaching, learning and assessment.  Inspectors analysed parental responses submitted during the inspection to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. Seventeen staff surveys submitted to Ofsted and 11 pupil surveys were also considered. Inspectors also took into account the school’s own survey of parents and spoke informally to a number of parents during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Philip Smith, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Oliver Flitcroft Ofsted Inspector Juliet Demster 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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