Breadsall Hill Top Primary School

Breadsall Hill Top Primary School St Andrew's View, Derby, Derbyshire DE21 4ET

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Inspection dates 31 January–1 February 2017

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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 Inadequate

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Early years provision Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders, including governors, have not ensured that pupils in key stage 2 feel safe and free from bullying. Too many pupils report that concerns they have raised have not been addressed by adults in the school, while others say that they do not have the confidence to report their concerns.  The behaviour of a significant minority of pupils is not managed well and disrupts the learning and undermines the confidence of the majority.  Pupils’ achievement in key stages 1 and 2 is inadequate. They make insufficient progress in reading, writing and mathematics because teaching has been inadequate.  Too many teachers do not have appropriate expectations for pupils, especially the most able.  Staff absenteeism is not well managed.  Teachers do not follow the school’s assessment policy consistently.  Pupils do not have enough opportunities to apply their mathematical skills to solving problems.  The leadership of pupils who have special

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

educational needs and/or disabilities is inadequate.  Leaders do not systematically monitor or analyse pupils’ progress effectively, as they do not take account of pupils’ starting points. Teaching and pupils’ achievements are not improving rapidly enough.  Governors have not challenged leaders and have not ensured that extra funding is well spent. They do not have an accurate view of the school’s weaknesses and do not question effectively.  Provision for children in the early years requires improvement. At times, children are not provided with activities which engage them well when they are asked to learn independently. The school has the following strengths

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Due to improvements in the teaching of phonics, an average proportion of Year 1 pupils met the expected standard in phonics in 2016.  Pupils in the early years and in key stage 1 behave well. These pupils say that they feel safe.  Adults, leading activities in the early years, use effective questions to extend children’s language skills and check their understanding.  Pupils’ attendance is in line with the national average.

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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?

 Raise standards in reading, writing and mathematics and ensure that all groups of pupils make at least good progress by: – eradicating weak teaching – ensuring that expectations of pupils’ work are appropriate to their age or to their developmental stage – developing pupils’ love of reading and improving their comprehension and inference skills – developing pupils’ problem solving and reasoning skills in mathematics – ensuring that pupils’ presentation of written work is of a high quality and that their writing reflects an age appropriate (or developmental) knowledge of grammar, punctuation and spelling – deploying additional adults effectively to enable pupils who are at risk of falling behind to make accelerated progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Create a climate and culture of safety, so that all pupils feel safe and secure, by ensuring that: – immediate action is taken to eliminate issues of bullying and unacceptable behaviour – all adults have a clear understanding of their legal and moral obligations to make sure that all pupils are and feel safe at school – pupils know that all adults will treat them with respect and respond appropriately to their concerns.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and governance to ensure that: – there is an increase in capacity at senior and middle leadership level to tackle weaknesses in the school and to challenge the culture of low expectations – leaders evaluate the school’s performance more precisely and take urgent action to close gaps in pupils’ learning resulting from weak teaching over time – leaders and managers (including governors) are fully equipped to lead and improve the school – monitoring fully evaluates the impact of systems and training put into place to improve the school – there is an effective system to track pupils’ progress from their individual starting points – all statutory arrangements for special educational needs and/or disabilities are in place to ensure that pupils have their needs accurately identified, met and reviewed – teachers consistently follow the school’s policy on giving effective feedback to pupils

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– staff absenteeism is managed effectively – governors challenge leaders over pupils’ outcomes, including for disadvantaged pupils, and check the impact of how the pupil premium funding is spent – governors hold senior leaders to account more rigorously by challenging the information they receive about the school’s performance, including pupils’ progress, the quality of teaching, behaviour and welfare.

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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.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Significant disruptions to staffing at all levels have meant that the school’s overall effectiveness has declined since the predecessor junior school took on the pupils from the infant school. Since then, there have been several different headteachers and there has been a significant turnover of teachers. The constant instability in staffing has meant that previous weaknesses have not been addressed effectively and many staff have not embraced the changes required.  Leaders and governors have failed to ensure that pupils in key stage 2 feel safe in school. Evidence from Parent View, from the school’s own records of behaviour and exclusions, together with information from staff and pupils, indicate that both unacceptable behaviour and bullying occur. Too many pupils report that their concerns are not taken seriously or that the perpetrators do not stop even when reprimanded or sanctioned. Some pupils no longer have the confidence to report their concerns. Pupils’

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is therefore not promoted effectively.  Leaders have not ensured that all pupils have equal opportunities to succeed, particularly those who are the most able and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Various headteachers have put tracking systems into place, but even the current system is not used effectively to track all aspects of pupils’ progress. Consequently, leaders do not know how individuals or groups of pupils are progressing, except from the start of this year.  Middle leaders responsible for key subjects and key areas within the school have not had sufficient impact in supporting the school’s improvement.  Leaders have not used the pupil premium funding to ensure that disadvantaged pupils across the school achieve well. A disproportionate amount of the grant has been used inappropriately. Too many disadvantaged pupils make inadequate progress.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 The leadership of special educational needs and/or disabilities is inadequate. These pupils are identified, but their progress from starting points is not monitored, nor is the quality of the teaching they receive. Many records have not been updated since the end of the summer term 2016. There is little evidence to show that parents have been involved in the assessments of their child’s needs or informed about their progress. Funding for these pupils has not been used effectively.  The current headteacher has a good understanding of the school’s current position. Since her arrival, she has made improvements. A new behaviour policy and reward system is in place. Inadequate teaching has been challenged and some training and coaching has been successful. However, improvements have been fragile and have not been monitored effectively enough at all levels to maintain the momentum.  Performance management of staff has now been put into place and meets

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

requirements. However, staff morale is low and many staff do not feel valued or supported well enough in their role. Staff absenteeism is disproportionately high and some absences are not managed effectively.  The curriculum covers all subjects adequately, including the promotion of British values. ‘Choices week’ allows teachers to be more creative in their approach to the overall delivery of spiritual, moral, social and cultural opportunities for pupils. There are some extra-curricular clubs including a choir, various sports and mathematics booster sessions. However, sporting opportunities are minimal and currently there are no competitive teams.  The local authority has provided support to the school as well as signposting the school to support available from other sources. However, while some of this support has been well focused, overall it has not been sufficiently effective or intensive enough to help

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

the various headteachers improve outcomes, teaching and learning and behaviour to an acceptable standard.  The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Governance of the school

 Governors have undertaken safeguarding checks but have not questioned contradictory information about behaviour and bullying in the school. Consequently, they do not have an accurate understanding of the issues around behaviour and bullying that pupils report.  Many governors have undertaken training. However, the governing body as a whole does not have the expertise to be able to challenge school leaders and hold them to account for the low standards and the weak progress made by pupils.  Governors have not monitored the effectiveness of the pupil premium grant or that of the sports premium sufficiently well.  Across the governing body there is a good range of skills, with most members having the commitment to help shape the direction of the school. Governors were faced with a difficult task of recruiting the current headteacher to the post. They had to repeat the recruitment process four times before being able to appoint a suitable candidate to the

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Governance of the school

position.  Governors have ensured that the school’s policies are now up to date. They know that they need to focus their monitoring activities on the school’s plans for improvement.  The headteacher rightly encouraged the governing body to commission a full external review of governance. This has been undertaken, but the outcomes have not yet been published or acted upon.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. The current headteacher has made significant improvements to ensure that the school site is safe and secure. Following an external review of safeguarding, she ensured that the recommendations on training, pupils’ records and documentation were put into place. However, not all members of staff have understood their responsibility to keep pupils safe and to ensure that they feel safe in school. Consequently, not all staff, including leaders, deal with issues raised by pupils or parents well enough.  Leaders have not done enough to tackle the unacceptable behaviour of a significant minority of pupils. Records show that leaders do not systematically monitor pupils who have reported concerns, to check that their problem has been addressed. Some pupils do not have appropriate ‘behaviour support plans’ in place to help themselves or to help staff manage their behaviour well. Exclusion from school is used to address

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Safeguarding

unacceptable behaviour. However, because the methods used to manage behaviour are not effective, exclusion rates for individuals and groups have not improved.  The evidence evaluated during the inspection showed that unacceptable behaviour and bullying incidents are more frequent than the school’s current records show.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 Teaching, learning and assessment are weak across key stages 1 and 2. This means that all groups of pupils make poor progress and too few reach the expected standards for their age. Very few reach the higher standards. Consequently, pupils are not adequately prepared for the next stage of their learning.  Teachers are not following the school’s assessment policy consistently. As a result, feedback is not fully effective in supporting pupils’ progress.  Work in pupils’ books shows that pupils are not making good progress because their needs are not being met. Leaders have only focused on pupils’ progress since the start of the year and have taken no account of pupils’ prior starting points. Consequently, many pupils, including the most able pupils, are not sustaining their prior attainment standard.  Teaching assistants are not deployed well enough to support pupils’ learning or to help accelerate pupils’ progress when they fall behind. Many who support pupils to manage

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

their behaviour do not have the skills to guide these pupils effectively.  Teachers do not take account of pupils’ misconceptions and adapt their teaching to rectify them. In mathematics, many teachers teach a method to pupils without ensuring that pupils understand the concept behind the method.  Learning time is lost when pupils do not understand their tasks. This is due to the teachers’ poor direction or because the work set is too hard. This results in some pupils’ attitudes to learning slipping and this leads to them avoiding work by distracting others. A significant minority are disruptive and poorly behaved.  A minority of teachers have begun to improve their tracking of pupils’ skills. In these cases, teachers’ planning to address gaps in pupils’ learning and skills is more effective. Some teachers use questioning well to check pupils’ understanding. They revise and recap the main learning in the lesson and introduce new learning clearly.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 The teaching of phonics is good and has improved over the last three years, resulting in average standards in the Year 1 phonics check. Younger pupils can sound out words accurately and use these to help them read unknown words with confidence. However, many do not understand their reading well enough to be able to talk about what they have read or to make simple predictions.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school's work to promote pupils' personal development and welfare is inadequate. Pupils in key stage 2 say that they do not feel safe in school. They say that bullying takes place in school and they do not feel that adults listen to their concerns or help sufficiently well to sort out their problems. Some explained that they did not have the confidence to approach an adult.  Pupils are helped to keep themselves safe, for example, when using the internet. They say they have lessons and assemblies which help them to know about ‘privacy’ settings for accounts. They know to show their parents anything they receive from someone they do not know and show a good understanding of cyber bullying, although pupils spoken to said that this had not affected anyone they knew in school.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is inadequate. Too many pupils in key stage 2 have not developed the self-discipline to manage their behaviour well.  Pupils say that there have been instances of chairs and scissors being thrown in class. They say that name calling takes place around school and there is ‘lots of bad behaviour’. Inspectors took account of a large number of comments on the freetext responses from Parent View and the staff questionnaire which supported pupils’ concerns. They also observed a number of pupils in key stage 2 exhibiting totally unacceptable behaviour.  Around school, most pupils demonstrate good behaviour. They are polite and well- mannered. They enter assembly calmly and quietly, supported by Year 6 prefects, who remind pupils of the need to be quiet, where necessary. The current headteacher has introduced the school’s ‘respect’ code of conduct, which pupils are able to articulate

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Behaviour

well. Pupils like the new reward-based points system.  In class, key stage 1 pupils are typically well-behaved, even when learning tasks are not engaging. At play, pupils are appropriately supervised and they respond well to adult direction.  Attendance is average and the school challenges the parents of pupils whose attendance falls below that expected. The importance of good attendance is promoted appropriately.

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 Many pupils enjoy reading but too many do not read widely or often enough. Too many lack good comprehension skills for their age, including the ability to make inferences based on what they read. Most younger pupils are able to use their phonics knowledge to sound out unknown words. However, even some of the most able show a lack of understanding of the features of punctuation in their reading, for example, pausing at a full stop or changing the intonation in their voice to show how a character might have spoken when indicated in the text.  Attainment in writing is too low. Pupils are given too few opportunities to write at length when appropriate. The quality of their writing is affected by a patchy understanding of basic grammar. For example, older pupils miss capital letters frequently in their writing. Common words are frequently misspelled and this shows little improvement over time. Teachers do not encourage pupils to use a wide variety of

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

conjunctions to improve their written work. Improvements in writing in the early years last year have not been sustained well enough into Year 1.  In mathematics, pupils’ basic skills are reasonably secure, but pupils have few opportunities to use their skills and knowledge to solve problems or to explore reasoning activities. Too often, the challenging learning tasks are left to the end of the lesson. Consequently, the most able pupils waste time on activities which are too easy for them. Other pupils do not get the opportunity to engage in more challenging activities at all because they have inappropriately large amounts of work to complete on basic operations.  Many pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making inadequate progress. This is because teachers are not providing work or feedback at the right level. Many pupils are given tasks that are too advanced for their current

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

developmental stage.  Disadvantaged pupils across the school are not sufficiently well targeted to enable them to make any better progress than their peers.  Pupils’ presentation of their work is often poor.

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Early years provision Requires improvement

 Many children arrive with skills and abilities which are typical for their age, although a significant proportion start in Reception with lower skills and without any pre-school experience. From their starting points, many children are beginning to make good progress as provision is improving.  Activities do not always engage children well enough to hold their attention. Consequently, some move rapidly between activities without engaging in effective learning unless a member of staff intervenes.  The proportion of children who reached a good level of development was close to the national average for the first time in 2016. However, leaders do not make comparisons with the full range of national data available in order to evaluate how well the early years is performing in all areas. They do not evaluate performance by gender or for the most able sufficiently well. This means that leaders are not fully informed about

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Early years provision Requires improvement

potential issues relating to the achievement of these groups of pupils.  Whole school phonics training has been one of the driving forces behind improvements to Reception (and into Year 1). This has allowed pupils to make links between families of sounds, and the good impact can be seen in pupils’ reading and writing skills. For example, during the inspection pupils were seen being able to write instructions for making soup using many correctly spelled words and other plausible alternatives. Informative workshops have helped to engage parents well in their child’s learning.  Assessments of children’s development are accurate and a good range of evidence is gathered to enable adults to form an accurate view of what children can already do. Planning takes account of children’s prior knowledge and skills, as well as their current interests. Adults use questioning well to engage children and to extend their spoken

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Early years provision Requires improvement

language and understanding. Many activities are well planned and appropriately challenging.  Leaders have ensured that all statutory requirements for provision in the early years are met. Children are kept safe, are well-behaved and follow instructions for well- established routines. As well as improvements to children’s learning, this is helping to ensure that increasing proportions of children are ready to start Year 1 at the end of the year.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 23 April 2013

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Information about this school

 The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school.  The early years comprises three full-time Reception classes and part-time Nursery provision.  Over four-fifths of pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well below average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for the pupil premium funding is slightly above average.  The proportion of pupils who join or leave the school other than at the usual times is below average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average.  The school organises and manages a breakfast club.  In 2016, the school met the national floor standards for pupils’ achievement.  The current headteacher was appointed in November 2015. In April 2014, the

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Information about this school

predecessor junior school admitted the pupils from the infant school on the adjacent site. Since that time there have been two changes of headteacher.  A new chair of governors was appointed in October 2016.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed pupils’ learning at least once, and usually more often, in each class. In total they visited 15 parts of lessons, as well as a large number of shorter visits to observe learning in all classes.  Inspectors also observed pupils’ behaviour at different times throughout the school day, including when they were at play.  Discussions were held with the headteacher and other senior and middle leaders. Inspectors also met with several teachers and seven members of the governing body. An additional meeting was held with a representative from the local authority and the external professionals who had undertaken the review of governance.  Inspectors met with a number of groups of pupils and spoke to many others informally throughout the inspection. They also listened to pupils of all abilities read.  Inspectors spoke with many parents during the inspection. The 36 parental responses expressed through the online questionnaire, Parent View, were also considered, as

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Information about this inspection

were the 32 questionnaire responses from staff.  The inspection team scrutinised a range of school documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the improvement plan, the school’s data for tracking pupils’ attainment and progress, records relating to behaviour and attendance, and documents used by leaders, governors and the local authority to monitor and evaluate the school’s work.  A review of safeguarding records and procedures was carried out.

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Inspection team

Angela Kirk, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Heidi Malliff 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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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