Southgate Primary

Southgate Primary School Barrington Road, Southgate, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 6DG

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Safeguarding is not effective. School leaders and governors do not know their statutory responsibilities and do not carry them out. Governors do not check the effectiveness of systems in the school.  Leaders do not have rigorous processes for staff to record their concerns about pupils’ well-being. Follow-up actions are not recorded consistently.  Leaders do not have an accurate view of how effective learning and teaching are.  Standards in Year 1 phonics and at the end of key stage 1 are not improving quickly because of inconsistent teaching. Differences in the outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are not diminishing consistently. Not enough pupils make good progress in mathematics and reading in key stage 2.  Leaders do not manage the performance of staff well. Teachers do not receive helpful feedback about what improvements are needed.  Teachers do not take enough account of pupils’ starting points when planning learning.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

Sometimes work is too easy or too difficult. Some pupils do not behave well in lessons when they are confused or not interested.  Not enough pupils come to school regularly. Leaders do not look carefully at the attendance of groups of pupils. Improvements in attendance made in 2014 have not been sustained.  Governors do not challenge leaders effectively. The information that governors receive from school leaders is not sufficiently focused on the quality of teaching, attendance or standards in the school. Governors do not use the information that is publicly available to question leaders about pupils’ outcomes over time.  The early years is inadequate because safeguarding is not effective. Outcomes for children over time are not good. Too few disadvantaged children make good progress from their starting points.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils are provided with a rich range of trips and visits.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is planned for well. Pupils are polite and courteous around the school.

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Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of 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?

 Ensure that safeguarding is effective by: – making sure that leaders and governors know, understand and carry out their statutory responsibilities – having clear and consistent systems that enable any adult to promptly record any concerns – making sure that all follow-up actions are systematically recorded, so that it is clear who did what and when.  Improve the quality of teaching and learning, accelerate pupils’ progress and raise attainment by: – ensuring that all teachers set work that accounts for pupils’ starting points and challenges pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and the most able – ensuring that teachers consistently respond swiftly to the needs of pupils who find work too easy or too difficult.  Improve the quality of the early years, to ensure that all children get the best start, by: – making effective use of additional funding to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged children – providing a range of experiences that challenge and extend children’s learning,

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

including for the most able.  Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by: – ensuring that governors review all aspects of the school’s work to hold leaders to account, so that required improvements are secured and sustained – managing the performance of staff effectively – checking rigorously the quality of learning in the school, so that weak teaching is identified and improved – ensuring that leaders look carefully at the progress of different groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and the most able disadvantaged pupils, to ensure that additional funding is used effectively to raise achievement.  Ensure that pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare are at least good by: – improving the attendance of all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged – reducing the proportion of pupils who are often absent from school. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium is recommended in order to

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

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

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders have not focused sufficient time and energy on the things that make the biggest difference to the quality of education that pupils receive. Leaders have not addressed key issues such as safeguarding, the quality of teaching, pupils’ absence and the progress that different groups of pupils make.  Leaders do not place enough urgency on seeing and understanding what is happening in the classrooms. The headteacher has been into lessons but has not recorded what is working well and what is not. Over time, when leaders have monitored learning and teaching, the recorded findings are insufficiently detailed to inform improvement.  Leaders do not have an accurate view of the school’s weaknesses. They do not use published information about pupils’ outcomes or their own assessment information well. As a result, leaders are not clear enough about the progress and outcomes of groups of pupils.  Plans to improve the school are weak. Objectives are too general and there is often no

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

clear indication of what success will look like.  Leaders’ management of staff performance is ineffective. The focus on improving the outcomes of pupils or groups of pupils lacks detail and rigour. Key objectives relating to learning and progress are not followed up or evaluated. Teachers in the school do not receive clear feedback about whether their targets are met or not.  Pupil premium funding is not used effectively. Leaders do not evaluate what has worked and what has not. Disadvantaged pupils in the lower part of the school have received significantly less support over time, and this is reflected in their outcomes. The relatively small amount of funding identified to support the most able disadvantaged pupils does not focus on improving their outcomes.  The local authority has had limited engagement with the school over recent years. However, recent visits have encouraged leaders to think more precisely about their

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

own evaluation of the school.  Leaders provide pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum. Pupils have opportunities to apply their mathematics skills in a range of subjects, such as science. Teachers plan a rich range of trips and visits with the clear intention of raising pupils’ aspirations.  Additional sports funding is used effectively. Leaders have a clear understanding of its impact because they track pupils’ participation and outcomes well.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength. Pupils conduct themselves well around the school and relationships between adults and pupils are respectful. Pupils know their rights and are confident to articulate them. During this inspection, inspectors saw this at first hand with pupils confidently asking for work that was more challenging.  Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.

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Governance of the school

 Governors do not have an accurate view of how effective the school is. Governors rely too heavily on the information that they receive from school leaders and do not use publicly available information about the school’s performance over time to challenge leaders.  Governors do not understand or meet their statutory responsibilities to keep pupils safe. Governors do not have an oversight of the systems that leaders have developed to keep pupils safe, so are not able to ask probing questions about their effectiveness.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.  Leaders do not know, understand or meet their statutory responsibilities. All designated safeguarding leads told inspectors that they had not read the latest statutory guidance and had not issued staff with the relevant information.  The systems that school leaders have introduced to track incidents and concerns are not robust. Leaders now recognise this. The absence of a systematic way to record any concerns that any adult may have is unsafe. Leaders’ overview of their systems and processes are weak. For example, leaders do record when an action is required but they do not consistently record when and if those actions have taken place. Risk assessments are in place but are not reviewed systematically.  Accidents are logged and recorded effectively. School leaders meet their requirements to report more serious accidents to the local authority. Leaders plan trips and visits

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Safeguarding

effectively, including the considerations of safety and risk. The single record of recruitment and staff checks meets requirements.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Teaching is not consistently good across the school. As a result, not enough pupils make good progress from their starting points. Pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics varies between classes and year groups.  Teachers do not always use assessment information well. Planned learning does not begin with what pupils know and can do. Pupils are confident to feed back to teachers that work is too easy or too difficult, both verbally in lessons and in their written comments to teachers. However, teachers do not respond to this feedback swiftly enough.  The teaching of phonics is inconsistent. Some pupils make good progress because adults build on what pupils already know and can do. However, some teachers’ planning does not take account of pupils’ starting points and the work is too easy.  The teaching of reading is inconsistent. Younger pupils read appropriate texts but older pupils do not always have access to a wide range of texts and genres. In addition,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

pupils’ reading records are not always used effectively. In the best examples, parents are kept informed about their child’s progress. However, in other examples, teachers simply list what has been read.  In some subjects, in some year groups, pupils make good progress because teachers are ambitious for pupils and build on what they can do. For example, in Year 1 pupils develop good drawing skills in art lessons because they receive clear guidance on how to improve their work.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  Pupils are not safe because leaders do not ensure that statutory requirements for safeguarding pupils are met.  Attendance levels have declined over time, including for disadvantaged pupils. Leaders do not systematically track the absence rates of groups of pupils. A high proportion of pupils are absent often.  Pupils feel safe in school. Pupils have a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe, particularly online. Almost all parents say their child feels safe in school.  Pupils have a good understanding about the different types of bullying. Pupils feel that the school deals with rare incidents of bullying well.  Learning mentors provide good support to vulnerable children and families. Working relationships with outside agencies are strong. The impact of their work is evident in case studies.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  Behaviour in classrooms is inconsistent because the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not good. Some staff do not have high enough or clear expectations of pupils’ behaviour. In lessons where the work is not interesting, pupils lose their attention and focus.  Behaviour around the school is good. Pupils are polite, courteous and inquisitive. Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and positive. Pupils know and understand the school’s system for managing behaviour.  The vast majority of parents and staff feel that pupils behave appropriately at school.

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Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

 Not enough pupils reach the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check. The proportion of pupils meeting the standard has increased, although standards remain below those seen nationally. Disadvantaged pupils do not make consistently good progress from their starting points and differences are not diminishing quickly enough.  In July 2016, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard at the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics was broadly in line with national averages. However, some disadvantaged pupils made slower progress from the same starting points.  In some key stage 2 classes, disadvantaged pupils make good progress and subsequently greater proportions are working at expected standards.  The progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is inconsistent. Tracking systems do not enable leaders to evaluate the impact of interventions or measure progress from starting points. Work in books shows that

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Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

some pupils do make good progress.  Inconsistent teaching over time means that the proportion of pupils working at age- related expectations varies significantly within subjects and year groups. For example, assessment information for current Year 6 pupils highlights that the proportion of pupils working within age-related expectations in mathematics is lower than in reading.  The school’s assessment information highlights that the progress pupils make between key stage 1 and key stage 2 varies significantly. Faster progress is secured in writing than in reading or mathematics.

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Early years provision Inadequate

 The early years is inadequate because safeguarding is ineffective across the school.  Outcomes in the early years require improvement. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development is below that seen nationally. Consequently, children are not prepared well enough for key stage one.  Leaders are not ambitious enough for children. Some children join Reception with low starting points but do not make rapid enough progress.  Disadvantaged children do not make good progress and do not achieve good outcomes. The proportion of disadvantaged children who join Year 1 without achieving a good level of development is too high. Pupil premium funding is not focused sufficiently well on improving outcomes for the youngest children.  The activities and experiences offered to children do not take account of their starting points. The most able children are sometimes given tasks that they can already do.

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Early years provision Inadequate

Experiences on offer do not always have a clear purpose, such as painting a daffodil or shamrock to assess children’s knowledge of Wales or Ireland.  Children settle into their Reception Year quickly. They work alongside each other well, demonstrating a high level of personal and social skills on entry to school.  Leaders are beginning to work more closely with the nursery provision that shares the same site. Parents are invited into classrooms at the beginning of the day to settle children and to see the range of activities on offer.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address office@southgate.w-sussex.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 23–24 April 2012

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Information about this school

 The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  Southgate is subject to an academy order.  Southgate is much larger than the average primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is broadly in line with that seen nationally.  Half the pupils are from minority ethnic groups. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is twice the national average.  The school met the 2015 floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed learning throughout the school, usually with senior leaders. Inspectors looked at pupils’ work during lessons and work in their books from the previous year.  Meetings were held with senior leaders, middle leaders and the special educational needs coordinator. Meetings were also held with a local authority representative and with governors.  Parents’ views were considered through the 30 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and in conversations with parents at the beginning of the school day. The views of staff were considered through the 27 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey and through meetings.  Pupils’ views were considered through the 31 survey responses, meetings with pupils and by talking to pupils around the school.  Inspectors observed lunchtime and an assembly.  Inspectors considered a wide range of documents, including leaders’ evaluations of the school’s effectiveness, improvement plans, records of local authority visits, and leaders’

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Information about this inspection

analysis of the quality of teaching, pupils’ progress, behaviour and attendance.  Inspectors reviewed safeguarding records, risk assessments, school trip information, online accident reporting and the central record of recruitment checks on staff.

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Inspection team

Mark Cole, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Chris Donovan 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

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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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.gov.uk/ofsted

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