Setting

Mrs Ann-Marie Mason Headteacher Bielefeld School Catterick Barracks Germany BFPO 39

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 1 March 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 November 2012.

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

You, your leadership team and members of the school governance committee are deeply committed to all at Bielefeld School. Leaders are united in their work. It is clear, from discussions with pupils, looking at their work, and talking to teachers that, together, you have tackled the areas for improvement from the last inspection. You are clear about your vision for the school where improving pupils’ learning is your core purpose. An open and welcoming culture prevails. Pupils are happy and feel safe. While parents recognise that there has been a period of change at the school, a very large majority support the actions being taken because their involvement in the school has increased.

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

You have carefully managed a significant number of changes to the leadership team and membership of the school governance committee that have occurred during the past year. At the same time, you have emphasised partnership working between staff and parents to develop a more shared ownership of the changes being made. Teachers have been encouraged to contribute their ideas and to take on new training. Most staff report that they are well supported in their work. Consequently, they feel involved and understand the part they play in securing improvements. Their participation in forming the school’s ‘5 Rs Values’ curriculum ensures that values such as respect and responsibility underpin your collective approach and are promoted well. Activities planned also provide pupils with a secure framework on which to make informed moral judgements. Therefore, any intolerance of others’ differences is just not accepted by staff or the pupils themselves. Pupils’ strong

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

personal qualities are a prominent feature of your work. Ofsted

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Pupils’ academic achievement across the school is also good because you have a clear understanding of what good learning looks like. New approaches to the teaching of reading and writing are engaging more pupils in their learning and accelerating their progress. The re-organisation of the teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make) is raising the achievement of boys. Historically, fewer of the most-able pupils went on to achieve the highest levels in writing and mathematics. Analysis of pupils’ current work and school information indicates that more pupils are now on track to reach standards that are above average. When pupils leave in Year 6, they do so with the skills and attributes to equip them well for their secondary education.

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

You and the school governance committee take safeguarding very seriously. All recruitment procedures and checks are rigorously carried out. Training for all staff is frequent, detailed, and up to date, enabling them to carry out their duties effectively. Recent updates on the government’s ‘Prevent’ duty provide you and all staff with a good understanding of how to keep pupils safe from the risk of exposure to extreme views. Your engagement with parents has been highly successful in raising pupils’ attendance which is now well above the national average. When you raise concerns about a pupil, prompt and effective intervention by the army welfare support service is available. ‘Care’ lies at the heart of your core values and helps ensure that pupils’ academic and personal needs are fully met.

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Short inspection of Bielefeld Primary School

All staff know individual pupils and their needs exceptionally well. Staff act as role models for pupils in the way they talk, act and behave towards each other and interact with pupils. Your records are thorough and show your emphasis on ensuring that all concerns are fully resolved. You are rigorous in implementing your agreed safeguarding policies and procedures. Pupils’ safety plays a prominent part in the school curriculum. The positive culture of keeping all pupils safe is illustrated by pupils’ ability to express what it means to say that they feel safe. They reported to me that, ‘Teachers help us out, we are all part of a close family, if you ever have something to sort out you can do it, they don’t mind giving up their time and helping you…at any time.’

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Inspection findings

 You know the school is on a journey and are not prepared to stand still. As one member of the school governance committee told me, ‘In three years we will be outstanding.’ Your collective capacity is illustrated through improvements made to the curriculum and pupils’ attendance, which is well above average. The re- structuring of the school governance committee is enabling members to use their specific skills to support the improvements being made. Members have a good understanding of the school’s priorities through increased monitoring activities conducted alongside senior leaders.  Your key actions to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning are thorough, detailed and based on a range of accurate assessment information. However, in order to meet the requirements of the new National Curriculum, the reporting of how well pupils are achieving in the summary self-evaluation document and school development plan has led to a degree of confusion. The

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Inspection findings

school’s system for collating the attainment and progress information of pupils makes it difficult to establish at whole-school level how well pupils are achieving. This restricts the ability of the school governance committee to check whether planned actions are having the desired effect on raising the quality of teaching and its impact on pupils’ learning. While the documentation is sometimes confusing, the reality in the school is actually much clearer because you have a precise understanding of the achievement of each pupil.  Senior and middle leaders are playing a greater part in securing school improvements. Together, you evaluate a broader range of information from which to judge the quality of teaching, the curriculum and pupils’ learning. By sharing your findings and observing each other deliver feedback to teachers, you are developing leaders’ evaluative skills and sharpening their recommendations

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Inspection findings

for improvement. This approach, combined with six-weekly pupil progress meetings for teachers, establishes a shared accountability for the performance of pupils. However, current examples of evaluations of pupils’ learning by middle leaders are still too general. Teachers are not provided with precise enough subject-specific information that explains what pupils need to get better at and how their practice should change.  The teaching of writing is carefully considered. Pupils’ core literacy skills are being developed well in a range of subjects. Topics, such as ‘Star Wars’ motivate and engage pupils, especially boys. Work in pupils’ books and on display around the school confirms that pupils are writing more, writing confidently and making good progress. Planned activities extend well their understanding of the impact that their choice of a sentence, word or punctuation has on a reader. All pupils

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Inspection findings

are developing strong technical writing skills. Teachers structure pupils’ learning so that skills are built on effectively, day by day, over consecutive weeks. Pupils are excited and enthusiastic about this approach. Consequently, they are producing coherent pieces of writing with a clear purpose, in a range of different genres, accurately.  Your strong emphasis on girls’ use of language to reason, justify and explain their mathematics thinking is accelerating their progress. Effective guidance for staff on how pupils make progress in their reasoning skills is being used well to plan effective learning activities. However, training to support the delivery of a ‘mastery’ curriculum, a requirement of the new National Curriculum for mathematics, is not yet fully embedded. When we looked at pupils’ books together, your leader for mathematics spotted that pupils’ learning falters when the progression between topics is not clear and does not develop pupils’ deeper

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Inspection findings

or broader understanding of mathematical concepts. Well-developed links between the mathematics curriculum and other subjects are yet to be fully established.  Your ‘root and branch’ overhaul of the way phonics is organised has proved successful. You rearranged the curriculum, provided additional training and strengthened the leadership of reading. The teaching of phonics that pupils now receive in small groups is carefully followed up so that phonics permeates through to all aspects of pupils’ learning. Teachers watch carefully, listen and check accurately pupils’ gains in their knowledge of a particular sound. Pupils’ current progress is therefore rapid and the historical gaps between the achievement of boys and girls are closing quickly. The lower achievement of boys in the Year 1 phonics check has been completely eradicated. The same pupils, now in Year 2, have rapidly made up ground and are on track to make the

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Inspection findings

expected standard by the end of the year.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and members of the school’s governance committee should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the reporting of pupils’ achievement in the school development plan and summary self-evaluation document is simplified and made clear so the impact of actions to improve the quality of teaching and learning can be precisely checked  middle leaders develop their evaluation skills so they can precisely identify the exact improvements needed in teaching and pupils’ learning, in specific aspects of reading, writing and mathematics  the mathematics curriculum is developed to fully meet the requirements of the new National Curriculum and enable pupils to use their mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding in topics and themes in other subjects.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Senior Principal, MOD Schools and the Chair of the School Governance Committee. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, the assistant headteachers, other middle leaders, staff and pupils. I spoke with seven representatives from the school governance committee. I met with a representative from the Ministry of Defence schools team. I accompanied you on visits to lessons and together we looked at work in pupils’ books. I took into account the survey results from Parent View, the online questionnaire for parents, together with responses to pupils’ and staff questionnaires. I met with a group of pupils from Years 2 to 6 to discuss their work and gain their views of the school. I evaluated the accuracy of your self-evaluation and reviewed a range of other documentation. I checked the effectiveness of your safeguarding and recruitment arrangements.

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