Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

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

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Ms Lisa Jackson-Ward Executive Headteacher Beckwithshaw Community Primary School Church Row Beckwithshaw Harrogate North Yorkshire HG3 1QW

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 29 November 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 good in March 2012.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

Since the last inspection, you are the second headteacher to lead the school. The governors appointed you in September 2016 as executive headteacher, after they recognised the need to collaborate with another small school in order to secure capacity for further improvement. Since then, you and the governing body have worked together to consult with parents about a more formal federation to secure the future success of the school. All your teaching staff are new to the school since the last inspection, so the school has been through many changes in the last four years.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

You have taken a carefully considered approach to your new role, recognising the many strengths which are evident, but also building up a full picture of key areas for improvement. Your evaluation is accurate and you are working with staff to help them on their journey of continuous improvement to provide the best education for all pupils. As a result, your small staff team are developing more leadership skills and taking more ownership of their roles and responsibilities.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

You have plans in place to tackle and improve priority areas. Starting with the provision for the younger children, you have supported recent improvements both in the provision of outdoor and indoor resources and in the organisation of learning. You have implemented systems to improve assessment and outcomes for children in the early years, particularly the most able. Your expectations are very clear. You and your assistant headteacher are working together, to ensure that these expectations are being met. Your early years action plan is detailed and identifies the steps that need to be taken. It is too early to measure the impact of your actions.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

Year 1 pupils are benefiting from more focused learning that the improved provision is providing and this is resulting in greater challenge and a more tailored curriculum.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

Governors are ambitious in their expectations of the school. They are proactive in seeking support, recognising the benefits of collaboration for their small school. They value the excellent parental relationships and are proud of their school’s place within the local community. Governors celebrate the strengths of the school, but are aware of which areas need to improve and can give examples of how they have supported this work. Areas identified for action by the governance review have been addressed, which demonstrates their commitment to self-improvement. They have now secured future leadership of the school and put actions in place to secure the staffing structure.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

The behaviour and welfare of the pupils is a key strength of the school. Pupils show care and consideration to each other, supporting one another and demonstrating positive attitudes to learning. They enjoy their lessons and teachers ensure that relationships are harmonious. The strong focus on the six spirits of learning ensures that pupils are developing into well-rounded learners who are kind and thoughtful.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

The sports premium is well spent and is encouraging pupils to be active and successful in physical activity. All pupils take part in competitions in school, and the majority of pupils take part in competitive sport outside of school. The use of the sports coach focuses on coaching groups of pupils in different sports in preparation for competitions. This is giving pupils more chance of success as well as developing a positive attitude towards keeping fit and healthy.

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Short inspection of Beckwithshaw Community Primary School

You have checked that all safeguarding procedures are in place. Systems for recruitment follow local authority guidance well. You recognise the need to strengthen leadership in this area and your assistant headteacher has recently completed the training to become the designated safeguarding lead. Confidential information is kept securely, and although there are few incidences which require recording, leaders are developing a more formal system to help them see patterns over time.

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Inspection findings

 Regular assessment tasks built into lessons are helping teachers to secure their judgements about how pupils are progressing. Teachers identify how this is helping them pinpoint specific skills which they need to teach in order for more pupils to reach the highest standards. Attainment continues to rise because outcomes for the most able pupils are a key priority. Teachers demonstrate a good understanding of what to do to extend learning opportunities.  Successful interventions have focused on ensuring that most, if not all, pupils reach the expected levels at the end of both key stages. As a result, a high proportion of pupils are meeting the expected standard at the end of both key stages.  Governors and leaders have identified the need to increase the number of pupils who exceed national expectations. Subject leaders’ action plans clearly identify steps to improve attainment for the most able pupils. While action plans detail

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Inspection findings

the improvements required, they do not contain any targets or measureable impact. Therefore, governors cannot hold leaders fully accountable for the outcomes of the most able pupils, because the impact is not explicit.  Pupils’ writing is neat and well presented. It shows good progress over time and teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Writing style is lively and pupils enjoy writing because teachers make links between the subjects they are working on to make writing purposeful. In key stage 2, a high proportion of pupils have reached the higher standards over the last three years. However, in key stage 1, few pupils have reached the higher standards over time. Leaders are now focusing on improving writing by giving pupils more opportunities to write in a variety of styles.  Teachers are taking full advantage of strong links with local schools. They are working together to compare work samples and ensure that their assessments

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Inspection findings

are accurate. Regular training from mathematics meetings is supporting leaders to implement changes to secure learning at greater depth across school.  Current pupils are making strong progress. During a mathematics lesson, the teacher skilfully managed the class to ensure that each pupil worked at the correct level. She constantly checked understanding and adapted her teaching to meet the needs of each group. Pupils were enthusiastic to complete their work and apply the skills they had learnt. Both year groups in this class made strong progress within the lesson and demonstrated positive learning behaviours.  Recent changes to the organisation of teaching and learning for younger pupils is already beginning to have impact. During a mathematics lesson, pupils focused on reading and solving subtraction problems. The most able pupils worked quickly, recording their answers neatly and working out the answers

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Inspection findings

independently. The teaching assistant used effective questioning to support other pupils in solving the problems, which enabled them to succeed. Successful adult intervention and well-matched resources resulted in most pupils being able to subtract up to 20.  Outcomes in reading and phonics are strong across the school. Pupils demonstrate a love of reading, and this is a result of the impact of previous school improvement work. The most able pupils read texts that are more demanding and least-able readers use their phonic skills to help them read unknown words. Recent work on Roald Dahl takes advantage of cross-curricular links and builds on pupils’ interests.

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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

 planned improvements to the provision and curriculum within the early years continue to be implemented, ensuring that children are challenged to reach their full potential and assessment is robust and accurate  the most able pupils are identified earlier so that targeted and measureable actions ensure that a higher proportion of pupils exceed national expectations, particularly in writing and mathematics across all year groups  subject leaders’ action plans are improved to ensure that the impact of planned improvements can be measured and linked to pupil outcomes.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I pursued the following lines of enquiry:

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Information about the inspection

 Does the school meet the needs of the most able learners across the school?  How have leaders ensured that achievement and progress in writing has improved?  How effective is teaching and learning in key stage 1?  How effective are leaders in driving forward improvements across the school?  Is safeguarding effective?

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, your assistant headteacher and the leader for mathematics. I also met with four governors and spoke to a local authority school improvement advisor on the telephone. Together, we visited every class, where we observed learning and looked at work in books. I listened to two pupils read. I took into account the views of 41 parents, using the Ofsted online Parent View survey, and the 11 text responses. I considered the responses of eight members of staff. I evaluated a range of documents provided by the school, including school improvement plans, a range of policies and assessment information.

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