Bonneville Primary School

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

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Ms Andrea Parker Headteacher Bonneville Primary School Bonneville Gardens Clapham London SW4 9LB

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 25 April 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 December 2012.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

You have successfully created a welcoming, caring and very harmonious atmosphere, where all feel valued. Your clear and determined leadership has been inspirational to others and staff morale is high. You have high expectations and are ambitious for all pupils at the school. Staff and governors share your aspirations and are highly committed to ensuring strong outcomes for pupils’ learning and behaviour. Parents and carers value the work of the school. Parents typically told me that the school community was ‘like a family’, ‘very warm’, and ‘nurturing and inclusive’. Parents appreciate the school’s inclusive values and particularly appreciate events such as ‘International Evening’, which celebrate the richness of cultures within the school. The overwhelming majority of parents who responded to the online survey, Parent View, agreed that pupils are taught well and looked after effectively.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

You have tackled the areas for development from the last inspection by taking the decision to restructure the way the curriculum is taught. You have continued to develop a ‘three teacher’ model, which means that teaching groups are small. This enables teachers to support each pupil’s learning effectively. You have changed the way reading is taught so that every day, pupils focus on developing a specific skill. As a result, teachers ensure that pupils acquire reading skills and make better progress in their reading than they did previously. Similarly, the much-improved curriculum provides pupils with significantly more opportunities to write across the whole range of subjects that are taught than in the past. Curriculum enrichment in recent years has helped to ensure that pupils are interested and engaged. One pupil told me how forest school outdoor activities have improved his confidence so much that he is now happy ‘to have a go at things in

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

class’ that he would not have done previously.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

You have supportive governors who are rightly very proud of the progress the school has made since its last inspection. They have a range of skills and experiences. Governors routinely address any gaps they identify in their skills by recruiting new members of the governing body to further strengthen their capacity. Many members of the governing body are regular visitors to the school and spoke of the open and transparent relationship they have with you and the rest of the staff.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. All staff have received the required safeguarding training to support their understanding and knowledge of the government’s current statutory guidance. Clear procedures are in place and staff know how to report concerns.

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Short inspection of Bonneville Primary School

Pupils know how to keep themselves safe. Leaders have ensured that the curriculum is adapted to meet pupils’ age and stage of development. As a result, younger pupils understand the key features of road safety and stranger danger, while older pupils are very clear about how to protect themselves when online. Pupils have a good awareness of different forms of bullying. They know what to do if they experience any bullying and are confident to report it to a member of the school staff.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection focused on the key lines of enquiry, which we agreed at the start of the inspection. The first was around the use of pupil premium funding to accelerate rates of progress for disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics. Over the last three years, and as recently as 2016, the progress of disadvantaged pupils has been much slower than that of other pupils nationally. Furthermore, at the time of the inspection, the school’s website did not fully explain what the barriers to learning are for this group of pupils.  I found that school leaders have identified the barriers to disadvantaged pupils’ learning. You have ensured that disadvantaged pupils’ progress is a high priority for all. Leaders have put in place a wide range of support to enable these pupils to make good progress in English and mathematics. I saw evidence of this in pupils’ workbooks.

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Inspection findings

 You know the pupils and their families well. You have worked hard to build trusting and supportive relationships. As a result of initiatives, including providing free access to the breakfast club, this group of pupils now has improved attendance rates, which in turn is having a positive impact on their learning.  Leaders track the progress of disadvantaged pupils regularly and adjust groupings and interventions where necessary. Effective additional support is led by teachers, and well-trained higher level teaching assistants, and as a result, differences between the progress of disadvantaged pupils and that of the others are diminishing.  The leadership decision to have an additional teacher in each year group has a positive impact on pupils’ learning and progress. Pupils’ misconceptions are picked up quickly by teachers and addressed.  Changes to the curriculum and outdoor learning have engaged pupils effectively,

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Inspection findings

and pupils speak positively about their learning. As well as providing opportunities for pupils to improve their skills in mathematics and communication, the enriched curriculum also provides positive social experiences for pupils. Pupils develop skills such as teamwork, collaboration, confidence and resilience effectively.  I also looked at how successful leaders’ actions have been in improving the challenge for the most able learners in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2016, no pupils achieved the highest standards.  I found that reading skills and phonics are taught effectively. The focused approach to teaching reading skills has resulted in rapid progress across the school. Pupils enjoy reading, and they read for pleasure both inside and outside school. Older pupils read with fluency and expression. They can discuss the texts they are reading in an interesting and engaging way and can identify their

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Inspection findings

favourite authors. Younger pupils use phonics well to help them segment and blend words. A range of more complex texts has been purchased for older pupils. This is helping to provide even more challenge for the most able readers and opportunities for them to work at greater depth.  Writing skills are taught daily and pupils are provided with opportunities to write at length across the curriculum. The teaching of English grammar, punctuation and spelling is a strength in upper key stage 2. More pupils are now starting to work at greater depth. However, variation in teachers’ expectations means that the standard of writing in English books is generally better than in other subjects. This is because pupils are more careful with their handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structures when writing in their English books than in other curriculum subjects.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders have worked hard to diminish differences in pupils’ progress in mathematics. Leaders have boosted pupils’ mental mathematical skills and helped pupils to improve their knowledge of multiplication tables. Work in books shows that sometimes the most able pupils, particularly those lower down the school, spend too long working on things they already know or can easily do. Pupils’ progress rates slow when teaching does not encourage pupils to move quickly to more demanding tasks. Pupils need more opportunities to move quickly to the next level of challenge so that their rates of progress are not slowed. The most able pupils across the school reported that they liked learning in mathematics best when they felt challenged.  All pupils, including the disadvantaged and most able pupils, benefit from the school’s focus on speaking, listening, rehearsing and reasoning. Some teachers are very skilled at questioning pupils to get them to think hard and reflect before

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Inspection findings

they start work in their books. As a result, these groups make accelerated progress because pupils are confident and willing to explore new ideas. An example of this was seen in the sophisticated way that key stage 1 pupils could use direct speech to develop their own short plays based on an Aesop fable.  Finally, I considered how effective leaders’ actions have been in improving attendance rates for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. I found that the school has many effective systems in place to ensure that pupils are safe and to raise attendance rates.  Attendance is improving well for these pupils. Initiatives, including the free breakfast club, an engaging curriculum and practical support for parents, are all having a positive impact.

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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

 there is a consistently high level of challenge for the most able learners, particularly in mathematics  outcomes in writing improve, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, by eliminating inconsistencies in teachers’ expectations.

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

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Information about the inspection

I carried out the following activities during the inspection:

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Information about the inspection

 met with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, governors and a representative from the local authority  scrutinised pupils’ work in English, science, mathematics, reading and topic books  visited lessons in the early years, and key stages 1 and 2 to observe learning  talked to pupils about their learning both at formal and informal times throughout the day  listened to pupils reading in class in key stages 1 and 2  met with parents at the start of the school day and analysed 84 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents  scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school’s improvement plans, pupils’ attendance information, documentation related to safeguarding , and the school’s assessment and behaviour information.

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