Manor Green Primary School

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

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Mr David Reid Headteacher Manor Green Primary School Lady Margaret Road Ifield Crawley West Sussex RH11 0DU

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 1 February 2017 with Andrew Hogarth, Ofsted Inspector, 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 outstanding in February 2012.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have a deep commitment to the school. The leadership team and staff have succeeded in achieving the school’s aims of unlocking each pupil’s potential and inspiring a love of learning.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

Parents say how delighted they are that their children attend this school and all would recommend the school to other parents. One parent expressed the views of many, commenting, ‘Manor Green is the best thing that’s happened to my child and our family.’ Parents appreciate the way that you and your staff are always there to greet children at the start of the school day and answer any queries or questions. Parents are very complimentary about the teachers and say that they know and understand their children’s needs exceptionally well. Those parents of children who have complex needs, including medical needs, say that staff are extremely caring and well trained. All parents appreciate the close links between therapists and healthcare professionals. Parents are unanimous in saying that exceptional working relationships have a very positive impact on their children and enable them to make rapid progress.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

You and your senior leaders have worked tirelessly to create a strong teaching team with a wealth of talent. As headteacher of a teaching school as well as a national support school, you strive for the best and are skilled at disseminating your many strengths. Those in leadership roles recognise the strengths in the staff team. All staff willingly share their expertise with other schools.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

The school excels in developing pupils’ communication skills through an effective programme of personalised support. Strong links are formed between staff, parents and pupils’ speech and language therapists. Effective teaching that constantly encourages pupils’ communication skills has had a very positive impact. In the last couple of years, around half of pupils who were non-verbal have acquired significant verbal skills.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

All pupils who attend this school make exceptional progress because staff help them to develop greater confidence in their abilities. Staff have a ‘can do’ attitude and this helps all pupils, including those who have significant needs, to enjoy trying out new activities. Pupils reported how much they enjoyed forest school, horse riding and swimming.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

At the last inspection, the only area identified for improvement was to ensure that pupils could review their own work. This has now been fully addressed. Since the last inspection, the senior leadership team has worked hard to continue the improvements in the school. In particular, there has been a focus on investing in new resources, technology and training. You are rightly proud of the enhanced multi-sensory rooms. Subject leaders have responded effectively to the national changes in the curriculum. They have created their own purpose-made system of assessing pupils’ progress. However, the school is still in the early stages of assessing the amount of progress pupils make in their personal development.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. Risk assessments for trips are exceptionally thorough. Staff and governors complete regular training in all key areas relating to keeping pupils safe. All staff are dedicated to ensuring that pupils, including those who have communication barriers, have every possible opportunity to express their worries and concerns.

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Short inspection of Manor Green Primary School

Excellent relationships with parents and a range of agencies help to ensure that the care and safety of pupils are paramount in this school. Many pupils within the school’s community have significant additional requirements related to their medical or emotional needs. Staff are committed to making sure that these pupils’ needs are carefully and sensitively met.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, we agreed to look at how effectively the leadership team has monitored and evaluated the work of the school. It is clear that leadership at all levels is highly effective, resulting in pupils making rapid progress from their starting points. Your self-evaluation is accurate and clearly identifies the school’s many strengths. You and your staff are always looking to improve the school further and have clear plans for the future. This includes providing further additional support to other schools.  During the inspection, we examined the impact that pupil premium funding has had on disadvantaged pupils’ progress. We found that, in common with other groups of pupils, disadvantaged pupils make exceptionally strong progress from their starting points. This is because staff are clear where each pupil is in their learning and carefully plan the next steps that need to be taken. Leaders and

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Inspection findings

governors are rigorous in checking that all the funding is used carefully to enable disadvantaged pupils to surmount any barriers they have to their learning.  We agreed to examine the attendance rates of pupils at the school. This is because rates of attendance are often below the national average. It is clear that the school’s staff do all they can to make sure that pupils attend regularly. However, for some pupils, due to medical reasons, attendance is sometimes sporadic. Careful checks of the school’s records of attendance showed that pupils do not take time off school without good cause.  An area of focus during the inspection was how well teachers have helped pupils to make rapid progress. Teaching is highly effective and staff are accurate in knowing each pupil’s starting point. Work provided is carefully planned to meet individuals’ needs. In early years, teaching enables pupils to explore all of the

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Inspection findings

areas of learning in a highly imaginative indoor and outdoor environment. In the rest of the school, including in the specialist classes, teaching is geared to maximising pupils’ potential. Many pupils read regularly both at home and school. They write extensively, including writing compelling reviews of their favourite books. In mathematics, teachers challenge pupils to solve problems related to everyday life.  During the inspection, we considered whether the curriculum was sufficiently enriched by appropriate activities. Pupils at this school enjoy an enormous range of activities in all subjects. Photographs around the school celebrate pupils’ performances in drama productions, sports and music festivals.  The effectiveness of the school’s new assessment system was also an area of focus during the inspection. You and your team have worked hard to create a system that assesses pupils’ starting points and subsequent steps of progress in

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Inspection findings

English, mathematics, science, information technology and several other subjects. This system is highly effective and enables teachers and leaders to quickly identify and support any pupil who needs additional support. Leaders recognise that the school is still to complete the system for assessing pupils’ small steps of progress in their personal development.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that systems for tracking the personal development of pupils are developed fully and implemented effectively.

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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 West Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, meetings were held with you, members of your senior leadership team and governors, including the chair of the governing body. A telephone conversation was held with a representative from the local authority and discussions were held with pupils. We spoke to a few parents at the start of the school day and took into consideration 22 responses to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View. We visited all the classes and looked at pupils’ books. A range of documentation was checked, including leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance and plans for further improvement, assessment, behaviour and exclusions information, the single central record of pre-employment checks, policies and procedures, and minutes of governing body meetings.

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