Estcourt Primary Academy

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

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Mrs Mel Hewitt Principal Estcourt Primary Academy Estcourt Street Hull HU9 2RP

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

Following my visit to the school on 7 February 2017, 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 your predecessor school was judged to be good in May 2011.

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

 The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since the inspection of the predecessor school the school joined the Delta Academies Trust in April 2014. A headteacher was in place from September 2014 to September 2015 and you became the principal in September 2015. A new leadership team has been in place since September 2015 with the vast majority of that team having already being a part of Delta Academies Trust or Estcourt Primary Academy. You have created a strong team who wholeheartedly follow the school’s vision of ‘inspiring and empowering others to achieve’.  In September 2016, a further review of the leadership structure took place which created the structure that is evident in school today. A senior leadership team of three deep learning leaders take on responsibilities for pupils’ learning, experiences and support. This structure further promotes the school’s vision of

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

empowering all, as all teachers have a specific area of responsibility and are held fully accountable.  All senior leaders and managers are extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of the school due to a highly rigorous and regular monitoring regime. Weekly meetings are held with teachers to discuss pupils’ needs and to monitor their progress and attainment. This enables any concerns to be picked up straight away and ensure that pupils’ needs are well met.  The governing body and directors of the trust support and challenge you well. Links with other schools in the trust support moderation processes and improvement in the quality of teaching through activities such as sharing good practice.  The quality of teaching has improved over time and continues to do so. This improvement has resulted in the acceleration of pupil outcomes across all year groups, including disadvantaged pupils. You are acutely aware that teachers’

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

aspirations of what some pupils can achieve could be higher so that more pupils reach learning at a greater depth and that disadvantaged pupils make even better progress.  Your staff are highly supportive of the work you do; they consider that you all work well as a team and that the senior leadership team is unremitting in ensuring that both teachers and pupils reach their maximum potential.  Parents are confident that the school is well led by you and your team. They feel their children are safe and are making good progress. You have made sure that they are well informed about how well their children are doing. Parents can attend a range of parental workshops should they wish to know more about aspects of teaching, for example phonics.  Pupils like their school and they say that it is a happy and friendly place to be in. Pupils who join the school talk about how they are immediately made to feel

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

welcome. Pupils acknowledge that there is a minority of pupils that do not always reach the high standards of behaviour that you and your team insist upon. However, the behaviour of these pupils is improving through careful monitoring and good behaviour management. Pupils talk about exciting lessons and although some say that lessons are ‘really hard’ they know that teachers are always there to help them.

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

 You have established a team of highly effective leaders who are responsible for all aspects of safeguarding. A deep leader support effectively leads a team who are responsible for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, vulnerable pupils, and the attendance and behaviour of all pupils. This team ensures that all aspects of pupils’ welfare and safeguarding needs are well met, that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality.  Directors of the trust ensure that you are well supported and effective with regard to all aspects of safeguarding through regular audits and with specialist support when needed.  Your team regularly checks that all staff have a clear understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities through regular quizzes and questionnaires. If questionnaires raise any areas of misunderstanding they are immediately

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Short inspection of Estcourt Primary Academy

addressed at weekly staff meetings.  Pupils say they feel safe. They say that they have good relationships with adults and they know they can talk to them if they are worried. Pupils are well educated about how to keep themselves safe. They can readily draw on things they have learned in assemblies and in topic lessons about how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations, for example on roads and on the internet.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils’ attendance has steadily improved through the actions of a dedicated team who work with the deep leader support. Pupils’ attendance now closely matches that of other primary schools nationally. Rates of persistent absence have recently improved dramatically from 13% to 6.3%.  A new early years leader and the redesigning of the early years environment and assessment system means the needs of younger children are well met. In 2016, the proportion of children who reached a good level of development was greatly improved and in line with the national average. This accelerated progress is being maintained.  You and your team have recognised that pupils need to make more progress in learning reading skills. You have introduced a number of successful strategies to tackle this relative area of weakness. You have ensured that gaining this important skill takes priority on the timetable with activities such as daily activity-

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Inspection findings

based guided reading sessions, weekly comprehension tests and speed reading sessions. Parents have the opportunity to take part in regular workshops so that they can support their children in gaining skills such as learning phonics. The steps you have taken have resulted in pupils, particularly lower- and middle- attaining pupils, making better progress.  Disadvantaged pupils have their needs well met as you ensure that the pupil premium funding is appropriately spent. You have invested much of the funding in extra resources for younger pupils so that skills are fully embedded at a young age. Older disadvantaged pupils benefit from same-day interventions to support their progress. In 2016, these pupils made progress which was nearly in line with other pupils nationally and this progress continues to improve.

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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

 aspirations are raised so that more pupils reach higher levels of attainment and learning at greater depth  current strategies to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils are rigorously monitored to ensure continuing improvement.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the education advisory board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for the City of Kingston upon Hull. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you and your senior leadership team. I met with the regional director of Delta Academy Trust and the chair of the governing curriculum committee. I also met with pupils throughout the day both informally and formally and heard pupils of different abilities read. Seventeen responses to the staff questionnaire were considered as were 125 responses to the Ofsted Parent View questionnaire. We visited all classes together and looked at some books to consider the quality of teaching and learning across the school. Behaviour was observed throughout the day including dinner time. A range of documentation was scrutinised including that relating to safeguarding, pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching in school.

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