St Michael's RC Primary School

St Michael’s RC Primary School Clumber Street North, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE4 7RE

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection 2–3 July 2013

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Weak teaching over time has resulted in pupils failing to achieve as well as they should. Teaching is not well matched to pupils’ needs and many pupils are not working at the standards expected for their age.  Pupils make too little progress in mathematics from key stage 1 to key stage 2. As a result, many pupils do not achieve the standard expected for their age and they are not well prepared for secondary school.  Pupil premium funding has not been well spent. As a result, disadvantaged pupils’ progress is weak and there are large differences between their progress and the progress of other pupils nationally.  The curriculum for mathematics and science does not fully meet pupils’ needs. Recent developments to the mathematics curriculum plan have not had time to embed.  Pupils’ behaviour requires improvement. Where teachers do not set clear expectations or the work is not well planned, some pupils do not

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

fully concentrate on their work. Pupils’ overall attendance levels are too low.  Leaders have not rigorously tackled the declining standards and the trend of pupils’ slower progress, particularly in mathematics.  English and mathematics leaders have not carefully checked the impact of actions aimed at improving pupils’ outcomes.  Over time, governors have not provided sufficient challenge to senior leaders. Their checking of the impact of the pupil premium spending has not been sharp enough.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leadership, teaching and learning and provision in the early years are good. As a result, children make good progress from their starting points.  The school provides good opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Pupils’ personal development and welfare are good. Pupils receive strong support, which nurtures their development. They grow in confidence and their emotional and physical needs are well met.

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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?

 Improve the quality of teaching so that all groups of pupils make at least good progress, especially in mathematics, by: – planning and delivering activities that are well matched to pupils’ needs and that ensure that gaps in learning are promptly addressed – having higher expectations for pupils’ outcomes based around the school’s recently established pupil progress tracking information, linked to the national curriculum – consistently implementing the school’s marking policy.  Further improve attendance levels and reduce persistent absence.  Improve systems for recording pupils’ behaviour, including ensuring that the school’s documentation for exclusions is in line with national guidance.  Improve outcomes for pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, by: – ensuring that subject leaders for English and mathematics take prompt action to rapidly improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes in their areas of

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

responsibility – ensuring that senior and subject leaders regularly and rigorously check that planned actions are improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for pupils – further improving the quality of the curriculum so that it better meets the needs of pupils, particularly in mathematics and science – improving the strategic challenge provided by governors, building on the work of the recently established local authority monitoring and support group – improving the planning, monitoring and evaluation of pupil premium spending, ensuring that all eligible pupils across the school benefit and make good progress.

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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. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders and governors have not taken sufficient action to ensure that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the school meets the needs of pupils. As a result, pupils make too little progress from key stage 1 to key stage 2 and, in addition, disadvantaged pupils underachieve across a range of subjects.  Areas identified for improvement by the previous inspection have not been tackled and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and pupils’ outcomes have deteriorated.  Stable subject leadership for English and mathematics has just recently been re- established. The arrangements that were in place during staff absence and breaks from teaching were not strong enough. Checking of the quality of teaching or analysis of pupils’ progress has not been regular or systematic. Consequently, leaders have not fully identified the key weaknesses or evaluated the impact of training and support.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 The current subject leaders have begun to monitor learning alongside the local authority achievement partner. While this is beginning to provide a picture of the teachers’ classroom organisation, the evaluations are not sharp enough to accurately identify the improvement required in the quality of teaching and learning.  The school’s spending of pupil premium funding has not been managed well as a means to improve disadvantaged pupils’ progress. The differences in these pupils’ progress and that of other pupils nationally are not diminishing. The targeting of funding towards additional support for improving the attendance of disadvantaged pupils with very high absence levels has been more effective, with a high proportion of these pupils now demonstrating improved attendance levels.  Performance management systems are in place and the school has drawn on a range of external expertise for staff professional development. Checks on the impact of this

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

support by senior leaders have been limited and the feedback to teachers about their performance is often lacking the precision needed to drive the necessary improvements.  The headteacher provides effective leadership of the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. There are strong links with other agencies and the school secures additional support, for example from the educational psychologist, to ensure that pupils’ needs are identified at an early stage. However, the analysis of the progress made by these pupils is not well focused.  The topic-based curriculum provides coverage of all the national curriculum subjects. Pupils also benefit from specialist teaching in music and physical education (PE). They have access to various after-school clubs that encourage participation in sports and healthy lifestyles. The planning of the mathematics curriculum has recently been

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

revised to provide an overview and more detailed guidance for teachers. It is too early to determine whether this will improve pupils’ outcomes in this subject. Pupils’ science books indicate that pupils’ skills are not consistently developed across the school.  Pupils are well provided with the qualities and attitudes for life in modern Britain. For example, they have a good understanding of democracy through activities such as the school’s council. High levels of mutual respect exist between adults and pupils and pupils and their peers.  The additional funding for sport and PE in primary schools is used effectively to increase the opportunities pupils have to enjoy physical activities and learn from specialist teachers. This has improved teachers’ skills and the quality of teaching in this subject. Opportunities for pupils to take part in competitive sports and after-school clubs have developed.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school. For example, pupils’ cultural development is well developed through links with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Displays of pupils’ work demonstrate how this link improves pupils’ cultural understanding and provides a useful stimulus for writing.  Greater accountability for leaders and governors is now in place following additional challenge from the local authority support and challenge group. This is beginning to sharpen leaders’ focus on school improvement.

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Governance of the school

 Governors are supportive of the school and have recently been more proactive in providing a greater degree of challenge to school leaders. Governors have ensured that appropriate performance management systems are in place. However, over time, their strategic checking on the impact of the school’s actions to improve the quality of teaching, subject leadership, outcomes for pupils and the impact of pupil premium funding has been too weak.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The culture of safeguarding is strong and leaders and staff implement a thorough and determined approach to keeping children safe. Very effective engagement with parents and other agencies is in place. Staff, governors and parents receive regular and appropriate training. For example, the chair of the governing body provides guidance about online safety. However, while the school ensures that parents of excluded pupils are promptly informed by letter, these letters do not provide parents with the information required in line with national guidance.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 The quality of teaching over time has been weak and this is why pupils’ outcomes are inadequate.  Teachers do not plan work that is well matched to pupils’ abilities or takes account of gaps in pupils’ learning. Sometimes the work is too easy and sometimes it is too hard, which causes pupils to struggle. Most-able pupils are too often given tasks that do not provide them with sufficient challenge or that repeat learning previously mastered.  Teachers do not select the resources to support pupils’ learning carefully enough. For example, some resources are not well matched to the age range or abilities of pupils and some resources do not link well to the learning intention of the lesson.  The quality of teaching and learning in mathematics is too variable. Some teachers are beginning to plan lessons to meet the range of ability within their class and to build upon prior learning. However, other teachers are not taking sufficient notice of pupils’

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

previous learning. While there is extensive practice to develop arithmetic skills, opportunities for pupils to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills are more limited.  The recently introduced assessment system is starting to help teachers improve their understanding of the age-related expectations set out in the national curriculum. While the school has recently established pupils’ starting points, teachers and leaders do not set high enough expectations for pupils’ achievement.  Most teachers follow the school’s marking policy. However, teachers’ comments in English books are often not specific enough to develop, challenge or deepen pupils’ learning.  Some teachers are making clear links between the discrete learning of grammar, punctuation and spelling skills and pupils’ writing work. This is helping pupils to apply their learning in context and is improving their writing skills.  Where teaching assistants have a clear understanding of the planned learning, they are

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

providing effective support, particularly for less able pupils. However, where the guidance provided to teaching assistants is not clear enough, their impact on pupils’ learning is more variable.  A well-structured approach to the teaching of phonics is adopted with the early years children and key stage 1 pupils. This is ensuring that most pupils make strong progress from their starting points and that their early reading skills develop well. However, sometimes the most able pupils are not fully challenged to extend their understanding and apply their knowledge.  Pupils are set a range of homework to support the development of their English and mathematical skills. While pupils have reading books for home, some younger pupils are not heard reading regularly enough in school, and the regularity of how often pupils read at home is not well monitored.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils develop self-confidence as they progress through the school. From the very start, they are taught how to listen carefully to the views of others and what they have to say about their learning. For example, children in the Reception class listened carefully to other children explaining what they had been learning about earlier in the day.  Pupils feel safe and are valued as members of the school community. They know how to keep themselves safe, including when online. Assemblies are well used to celebrate pupils’ achievements and this helps to develop their self-esteem.  Pupils understand the different forms of bullying, and while they report that such incidents are rare, they believe that these will be well addressed by staff. School records show that the infrequent occurrences of homophobic bullying or racist incidents

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Personal development and welfare

are taken very seriously by leaders and dealt with appropriately.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. In the majority of lessons, pupils are well behaved and keen to learn. Where teachers’ expectations are not clear enough or the work is not well matched to their needs, some pupils’ interest wanes and this results in less positive behaviour.  During playtimes and lunchtimes, pupils behave well, socialise suitably and choose between well-organised games or more independent activities such as number games and construction activities. Pupils move around the school in a sensible and orderly fashion.  The level of attendance remains below that found nationally. The recent focus by school leaders and the additional support from the education welfare officer are beginning to bring about improvements in the attendance of those who have been persistently absent.

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 The proportions of Year 6 pupils achieving the expected standard for their age are below those found nationally in reading, writing and mathematics. Consequently, too many pupils are not well prepared for starting secondary school. Pupils’ progress across key stage 2 has been too slow and particularly weak in mathematics.  The school’s current pupil progress information shows that progress in mathematics remains a weakness in the vast majority of key stage 2 year groups.  Progress for pupils entitled to pupil premium funding is weak. The differences between the progress made by these pupils and that of other pupils nationally are not diminishing, in reading and particularly mathematics. As a result, too many of these pupils achieve below the expected standards at the end of key stage 2.  Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make variable progress. They tend to make better progress in writing than in reading and mathematics.

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 Most-able pupils make progress in line with that found nationally across key stage 2. However, by Year 6, the number of pupils working at the higher levels remains too low in mathematics.  In key stage 1, pupils make variable progress from their starting points. Disadvantaged pupils make poor progress and the difference between their attainment and that of other pupils widen. Other pupils are making stronger progress, particularly in writing and mathematics. By the end of Year 2, the overall proportion of pupils achieving expected standards remains below that found nationally, and substantially below for disadvantaged pupils.  The school has addressed the dip in phonics results in 2015. In 2016, the proportion of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, who achieved the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check was above that found nationally.

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Early years provision Good

 Children start in the early years with skills and abilities that are generally below those typical for their age, particularly in communication skills and personal, social and emotional development. From their individual starting points, children, including those entitled to pupil premium funding, make good progress. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development has improved year on year. As a result, an increasing proportion of children are well prepared for Year 1.  Strong teaching across both the Nursery and Reception classes provides an effective balance of teacher-led activities and opportunities for children to explore and learn by themselves.  Staff make good use of assessment information to inform planning and shape learning activities to ensure that children’s developmental needs are addressed quickly and that any gaps in learning are closed.  Most staff intervene in children’s learning at appropriate points and generally use

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Early years provision Good

questioning effectively to reinforce and develop learning. On occasions, opportunities are missed to deepen the learning by asking more challenging questions.  Children’s phonics skills are well taught through structured, adult-led sessions. This is helping children to make good progress in developing their early reading skills.  The early years leader has a clear understanding of the learning needs of the children. Very effective provision is in place to meet the children’s interests and to provide the next steps in learning.  Children supported by early years pupil premium funding are now making good progress. Children’s assessment information from 2016 shows that by the end of Reception Year, the differences between their outcomes and those of other children have closed.  Early years staff work well with parents. Parents are very positive about the support provided by early years staff, particularly in helping their children settle into school.

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Early years provision Good

However, parents’ involvement with children’s assessments is not fully developed.  Children behave well, and cooperate with other children, taking their turn and demonstrating good listening skills. This is because staff model these behaviours well. For example, children waited patiently for their turn to share their learning with the group during ‘circle time’ with ‘Snappy Sam’ the puppet.  There are good partnerships with other professionals. This helps the school promptly address children’s developmental or special educational needs.  Children feel safe and secure. Safeguarding is effective and all welfare requirements are met.

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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 admin@stmichaels.newcastle.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 2–3 July 2013

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Information about this school

 The school is in the Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.  The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The proportions of pupils both from minority ethnic backgrounds or who speak English as an additional language are well above those found nationally.  The proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is well above that found nationally.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities support is above that found nationally.  The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is well below that found nationally.  The school does not meet the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.  The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about pupil premium spending in the last academic year, and the impact of that expenditure on

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Information about this school

eligible and other pupils, on its website.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons and parts of lessons in all classes. The headteacher joined the lead inspector for three of these observations.  The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour around school and reviewed the school’s promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The inspectors observed pupils in the playgrounds and during lunchtime.  The inspectors held meetings with the headteacher and the teachers responsible for leading English, mathematics and the early years, as well as the special educational needs coordinator. The lead inspector met with the chair of the governing body.  A group of pupils discussed their opinions about the school and their learning with an inspector. The inspectors listened to a total of four pupils in key stage 1 and key stage 2 read.  The inspectors held discussions with parents at the beginning of the school day. There

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Information about this inspection

were no responses to the pupil or staff questionnaires. There were not enough responses to Parent View to allow for analysis.  The inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including minutes from meetings of the governing body, information about pupils’ achievement, the school’s evaluation of its own performance, and its development plan. Behaviour and attendance records and information relating to safeguarding were also considered. The inspectors scrutinised pupils’ work in their books.

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Inspection team

Michael Reeves, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Anne Vernon 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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