Preston Grange Primary School

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

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Ms Cheryl Taylor Headteacher Preston Grange Primary School Grange Avenue Ribbleton Preston Lancashire PR2 6PS

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 16 March 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 the school was judged to be good in May 2013.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have high expectations of staff and pupils and a clear vision for improvement, which you share with your staff and governors. Your tenacious leadership and passionate drive for improvement ensure that the school is an oasis of calm and learning for pupils. Pupils say they feel safe and enjoy school because teachers make learning exciting and fun. They rarely miss a day of school. They exhibit great pride in their school, and those who excel in an aspect of their work in each class are honoured to wear the ‘star of the week’ jumper. This pride is shared by parents, who overwhelmingly support the school. One parent typified the views of others when she commented that this school was the ‘best choice’ she had made for her daughter and that she ‘had nothing but praise for the school and looked forward to watching her grow as part of the Grange Primary family’.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

You have a detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school, which you use well to identify the correct priorities for improvement. You have successfully addressed the two areas for development identified at the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

You have improved the quality of teaching through effective training and coaching, particularly in reading and writing. Teachers receive high-quality feedback from senior and subject leaders that enables them to improve their practice. Your effective use of monitoring information from lesson observations and frequent scrutiny of teachers’ planning and pupils’ work ensure that your training plans meet the needs of the staff and the school closely.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

Pupils’ outcomes in writing have improved, because of the better teaching they now receive. Teachers carefully plan work that meets pupils’ needs and systematically develops their skills to write for different audiences and purposes. Effective use of cross-curricular links ensures that pupils have many opportunities to practise their writing skills in a wide range of subjects and develop their technical vocabulary. You have refined the school’s guidance and feedback policy. It is used consistently by teachers and teaching assistants in most subjects. This means that pupils receive high-quality guidance on how improve their work and appropriate opportunities to act upon it.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

Leaders and governors have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are clear and are followed meticulously. Statutory checks are carried out on the suitability of staff to work with children. Appropriate training ensures that staff have up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding and are vigilant about the potential risks pupils may face. Leaders keep records meticulously and share information with appropriate authorities effectively to ensure pupils’ safety.

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Short inspection of Preston Grange Primary School

Governors have ensured that appropriate monitoring and filtering arrangements are in place for the school’s internet connection. Pupils are kept safe through highly effective online safety procedures, including the school’s own group of pupils who are online safety ‘experts’, who meet frequently and deliver training and support to their peers in school.

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Inspection findings

 Governors effectively monitor the work of the school. They often ask searching questions and hold leaders to account well. Governors have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school, based on the comprehensive reports that you and your subject leaders provide for them. Governors frequently visit the school to check the accuracy of the information they receive.  Governors have effective procedures in place to deal with any complaints. Meticulous record-keeping ensures that leaders appropriately follow up any issues or concerns and that parents are well informed of any actions taken and that they are satisfied with the outcomes. The school’s highly informative website, frequent newsletters and leaders’ effective use of text messaging keep parents up to date about school life.  You were disappointed with the outcomes in reading at the end of key stage 2 in 2016, where the progress pupils made from their starting points was below the

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Inspection findings

national average. You have taken effective and immediate actions to improve pupils’ reading skills. Additional training for teachers and teaching assistants, including some specialist training in small group support, has improved their knowledge and skills in how to teach reading. Changes made to how reading is taught ensure that pupils have the teaching and support they need to systematically develop their reading skills. ‘Reading Warriors’, specially chosen and trained older pupils, work daily with younger pupils to develop their reading skills and love of books, under the careful supervision of a skilled teaching assistant. She has also helped to reinvigorate the use of the school library through frequent and very popular special events, including a recent ‘Alice in Wonderland tea party’.  Past assessment information indicates low-ability disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2 did not make enough progress in writing and mathematics. However,

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Inspection findings

work in pupils’ books and the school’s current assessment data show disadvantaged pupils from all starting points make effective progress. Leaders have a detailed understanding of the barriers to learning for disadvantaged pupils. They take carefully planned actions and meticulously analyse their impact on disadvantaged pupils’ achievement and they report this regularly to the governing body.  Work in pupils’ books and the school’s own data show your actions have had positive impact and that pupils’ progress from their starting points, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, is rapidly improving. However, you recognise further work still needs to be done to ensure that a higher proportion of pupils reach the highest standards in reading by the time they leave the school.  Pupils apply their reading and writing skills well in other subjects across the curriculum. However, in science, opportunities for pupils to develop their

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Inspection findings

knowledge and understanding by studying topics to a greater depth are more limited.

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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

 more pupils make the progress required to reach the highest standards in reading by the time they leave the school  pupils deepen their knowledge and understanding of the science topics they study.

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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 Lancashire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, the subject leaders for reading, teaching staff and governors, including the chair of the governing body and the chair of the curriculum committee. I had a telephone conversation with two advisers from the local authority who are linked with the school. I spoke with pupils during lessons and around the school. I took account of the information contained within the responses to the online questionnaires for parents, Parent View, and staff. There were no responses to the pupils’ questionnaire.

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Information about the inspection

I visited classrooms to observe pupils’ learning, looked at their work in books and listened to some pupils read. I reviewed information about pupils’ progress, attainment and attendance. I scrutinised the school’s self-evaluation document, action plans and other policies. I looked at safeguarding, including evaluating the impact of the school’s procedures and policies to keep children safe, recruitment checks and record-keeping.

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