Royd Nursery and Infant School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Miss Louise Jones Royd Nursery and Infant School Carr Road Deepcar Sheffield South Yorkshire S36 2PR

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

Following my visit to the school on 15 June 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in May 2011.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

Since your appointment in February 2013 you have worked hard with governors to establish a stable leadership team and staffing profile with the skills and ambition to drive the school’s improvement. This has successfully created a secure platform to move the school to its next stage of development. Working alongside the assistant headteacher and other school leaders you have accurately identified the school’s strengths and priorities for further improvement. These are clearly outlined in the school’s self-evaluation and development plan. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

You and your staff have created a harmonious, friendly school where pupils are happy, feel safe and are proud of their achievements. Pupils develop good learning behaviours and grow in confidence. Equally, you, your staff and governors set high expectations for pupils’ achievements and carefully nurture their personal development. Pupils respond well to these aspirations and guidance and this is reflected by the displays of high quality pupils’ work which can be found throughout the school.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

Overall, the school has successfully tackled the two areas identified for improvement at the previous inspection. Firstly, you have improved the transition links with the junior school. Improved opportunities for staff from both schools to review work together enable a shared view of the quality and standards of pupils’ work across the schools. Meetings between staff from the schools and pupils’ visits to the junior school are supporting better links between the schools. Ultimately this is helping your pupils to be better prepared for their move to the junior school. Year 2 pupils told me that they were feeling confident about starting at their new school in September.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

The second area to address has also been tackled and overall attendance rates have substantially improved since the last inspection. You and your staff have a well-structured and diligent approach to improving attendance levels. A high profile is given to this work through school displays and regular newsletters for parents. Governors monitor this aspect and provide appropriate support and challenge to leaders ensuring that the work on raising attendance continues to have impact. Your own analysis of attendance shows that there is still some more to do to reduce absence levels of disadvantaged pupils in certain year groups. However, you have clear plans in place to continue improving attendance levels for all pupils.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

You and your staff give the highest priority to keeping pupils safe. Leaders and governors have ensured that current safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are of high quality. Careful checks are carried out for all staff, governors and volunteers. Safeguarding and behaviour policies have been updated to ensure that all requirements are met and all staff understand the procedures and their own responsibilities. Staff and governors receive regular and appropriate training so they know how to keep pupils safe. Effective induction arrangements are in place and new staff are clear about the school’s safeguarding arrangements. Referral to other agencies is well managed. Close links with external agencies ensure that pupils and their families receive the help and support they need to keep pupils safe and in education.

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Short inspection of Royd Nursery and Infant School

Pupils are taught effectively about how to keep themselves safe, including when they are online. They have a good understanding of the different forms that bullying can take and know that staff will help them if they ever have concerns. Pupils say incidents of bullying are rare in their school. The school’s records show that incidents of misbehaviour and bullying are infrequent and that these are quickly addressed by the staff. Pupils and staff agree that behaviour at the school is good.

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Inspection findings

 You, your assistant headteacher, leader of the early years and governors are providing the ambition and drive to further improve the school. There is now an established leadership and staff team following a period of turbulence where temporary staffing and leadership arrangements were required. This has provided a stable platform from which to promote effective school improvement and develop consistency in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Leadership capacity is increasing across the school, for example in English and mathematics, through your creation of leadership teams. At present some of the leaders in these teams are at an early point in their development. You have rightly arranged for them to work with senior leaders to grow their leadership skills.   Governors provide good strategic challenge and support for leaders. They are ambitious to achieve the best academic and personal development

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Inspection findings

outcomes for pupils. Training by a national leader for governance (NLG) has helped sharpen their skills.  Your self-evaluation is accurate and well linked to the school improvement plan. Leaders regularly check the impact of the plan to ensure that it is driving improvement. Staff have a clear understanding of the goals the school aims to achieve and believe that this is bringing about improvements to the school.  You have in place very thorough systems for checking the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the school. Findings from this monitoring are well used to plan training which continuously improves the quality of teaching across the school. High-quality support and effectively planned transition arrangements for teachers who are new to the school support the maintenance of good-quality teaching and consistency of approaches and expectations.  You and your staff are working hard to further improve the quality of

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Inspection findings

mathematics teaching and to take account of the developments in the mathematics national curriculum. Relevant training, new resources and checking for improvements are all having a positive impact. You agree that the consistency of the improvements is not yet fully embedded and this remains an area for the school to focus on.  In 2015, pupils’ outcomes by the end of Year 2 improved in reading, writing and mathematics and were above those found nationally. Current pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are making good progress and the improved outcomes from last year have been maintained.  The teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make) is well structured and pupils work in groups which are carefully matched to their level of development. As a result, the proportion of pupils who are achieving the expected standard has improved and is above that found nationally.   The recently introduced systems for measuring and recording pupils’

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Inspection findings

progress in reading, writing and mathematics are generating useful information. Staff are using this information with growing confidence to match teaching to meet pupils’ needs, including increased challenge for the most able pupils. Moderation of assessments within school and with other schools is helping to secure the accuracy of your judgements. You recognise that further work is required here to ensure that this approach is embedded.  The school’s marking system helps pupils to readily identify where they are demonstrating learning and informs them how to further improve their work. Pupils understand how this works and respond positively to improve their work or deepen their learning.  From their starting points, children make good progress in Nursery and Reception classes. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development has improved and is above that found nationally. Strong leadership is provided by the leader of the early years appointed since the

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Inspection findings

last inspection. The indoor provision in the early years is vibrant and very well organised to provide stimulating activities for children across the early years curriculum. Children benefit from good teaching both in adult-led activities and through opportunities to explore and learn by themselves. Effective questioning by staff engages children with learning activities, develops their understanding and encourages their independence. You recognise that the Nursery outdoor learning provision does not match the high quality found in other areas of the early years and have early plans to improve this area.  Your school provides good opportunities for the growth of pupils’ personal development and welfare. The school’s curriculum, opportunities such as the school’s council and links with other schools, all help pupils to be well prepared for life in modern Britain.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at playtimes is good. They work hard and

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Inspection findings

are keen to share their learning with adults. High staff expectations, a caring atmosphere and constructive feedback encourage pupils to produce high-quality work. Displays of quality work with clear explanations of why this work is praiseworthy can be found throughout the school. This reinforces for pupils what can be achieved and engenders a sense of pride in both self and the school they attend.  At the start of the inspection the school did not meet requirements on the publication of information about governors’ details and the special educational needs report on its website. You are taking prompt action to address this and plans are in place to launch your new school website shortly.  Your school has benefited from appropriate local authority support. This has included facilitating the guidance of headteachers from strong schools and working with you and your leaders to sharpen school self-evaluation.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the actions taken to improve teaching in mathematics are fully embedded  the leadership skills of middle leaders are further developed through the mentoring and training in place. 

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the director of children’s services for Sheffield. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this one-day inspection, I discussed the work of the school with you, the assistant headteacher, the leader of the early years and your English and mathematics leadership teams. I talked with pupils about what it feels like to be a member of the school community and looked at the responses from 52 parents to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. I observed and spoke with pupils during play time and at other times during the day. I held discussions with a representative of the local authority and with five governors who were able to provide me with additional information. I also took into account school documentation, assessment information, policies and information posted on the school website. I considered the responses to the 14 staff and 18 pupil questionnaires. Alongside you, I visited every class to observe teaching and learning. We looked at children’s and pupils’ work to help us evaluate the quality of

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