Newby Primary School

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

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Miss Janice Stephenson Headteacher Newby Primary School Ryan Street Manchester Road Bradford West Yorkshire BD5 7DQ

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 25 May 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 June 2013.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have successfully created a warm, friendly and caring school ethos. Children are happy and enthusiastic about their lessons. Staff enjoy working at the school. They particularly value the way in which families are at the heart of all you do. The vast majority of parents are happy with the work the school does and recognise the benefits of the range of classes on offer to support them.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Your honest and accurate evaluation of the school’s strengths and weaknesses provides a clear rationale for improvement. You know your school well and use a range of monitoring information to ensure that you are continuing to move the school forward. As a result, the areas I identified prior to the inspection are also the key areas for improvement that you are working on. You can show where your work has had impact. For example, you have reviewed the curriculum to include more visits and visitors and to make better links between subjects. This has had a positive impact on writing outcomes across key stage 2.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

You lead by example, setting high standards and working with staff to help them develop and improve. Your staff speak with enthusiasm about their work, showing pride that they work at Newby. One member of staff stated, ‘Staff go the extra mile for children at this school, and I feel it is a strength that together we make a difference to the pupils and families.’

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

At the previous inspection, you were asked to increase the amount of outstanding teaching to raise achievement further. You are still working on improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment because the profile of your teaching team has significantly changed since that time. The majority of your more-experienced staff recently retired and many of your new teachers are relatively new to the profession. Alongside this, you have promoted some of your strongest teachers into quite new leadership positions within the school. Much of your work has been focused on providing support and coaching to develop your staff. Your leaders are playing a key role in developing effective teams and setting high standards across each year group. Leaders and senior teachers oversee planning meetings and use their knowledge of shared analysis of information to focus on ensuring greater challenge for the most able. This is having a positive impact across most year groups.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Standards remain high and progress from starting points is improving. Not all year groups are equally effective, and you recognise that some year groups require more support to drive up standards, particularly for the most able pupils. Where your teams have worked least effectively, you have taken steps to address inconsistencies, but some differences remain.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Regular monitoring provides you with an accurate picture of where strengths are, and where more work is needed to improve outcomes. You take effective action to address any areas of weakness, including moving key leaders into less-effective teams. Your more experienced middle leader can demonstrate where he has had a positive impact on improving outcomes for pupils. However, other middle leaders are still very new to their positions and need more time to demonstrate impact. A formal monitoring timetable runs throughout the year and links to your key priorities. Although you carry out regular informal monitoring across the school, you recognise that you could further strengthen this work by recording what you have seen to provide a more comprehensive picture of the learning that is taking place.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

You are working closely with other schools in the local area, where you play a leading role in providing support and developing leadership skills. Alongside this, you utilise external support to provide regular reviews of your own performance, which you share with governors. Your teachers benefit from working alongside trained moderators from other schools to compare work samples and check the accuracy of their own assessment. Your new leader for special educational needs is already benefiting from attending local training, which is preparing her to take up her role in September. You are also training some of your own teachers to become writing moderators in order to strengthen your internal monitoring. Because of strong partnerships with other schools, your teachers have an accurate view of the progress that pupils are making.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Governors play a key role in supporting the work you do. They are ambitious for the school to succeed and proud of the progress that pupils make. Governors speak passionately about the ethos of the school, particularly how it plays a key role within the local community. Governors recently conducted a staff well-being survey, and as a result have established half-termly staff forums in response to feedback. They are quick to address any issues raised and are improving training opportunities for support staff as a result. Governing body minutes show a high degree of challenge through pertinent questions about the progress that pupils are making. Your assessment leader has developed effective systems to monitor and track progress across the school. You know how well each group of pupils is progressing and know where progress is strongest. As a result, you quickly identify pupils who need extra support and put this in place when needed. You have adapted your

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

tracking to take account of where pupils start. You have already identified that some year groups are not making the rapid progress you know they are capable of and have taken steps to address this.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Strong safeguarding procedures ensure that all relevant checks on new staff are undertaken before they are appointed. Governors regularly check all recruitment documentation and procedures. You have strengthened your safeguarding procedures to take account of some auxiliary staff who struggle to read and understanding written documentation. Face-to-face training for these staff ensures that they fully understand how to keep children safe.

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Short inspection of Newby Primary School

Your safeguarding records detail prompt action taken to keep pupils safe. You involve a range of other agencies when you have concerns and keep written accounts of all your work. You are already training your deputy headteacher to take over from the current safeguarding lead in September. Training records show that all training is up to date and monitored.

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Inspection findings

 I particularly wanted to know what leaders are doing to improve rates of progress across key stage 1 so that more pupils reach greater depth in all subjects. You have improved how you track the progress of pupils across key stage 1. You can see exactly which pupils are on line to make accelerated progress and know where to put additional support. Your leaders ensure that planning meetings and monitoring work has a sharp focus on the progress of the most able. The sample of work seen in mathematics books shows that there is a greater focus on applying skills to solve problems, which is helping to deepen thinking. Pupils work together to tackle problems, which allows them to develop more confidence and explain their thinking. Current progress information shows that more pupils are already working at greater depth across key stage 1.  I also wanted to know what you have done to improve outcomes at the end of

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Inspection findings

key stage 2 in writing, because although progress was good in 2016, no pupils reached greater depth. You feel that your assessments were rather cautious in writing and you have since worked on moderation with other schools to ensure that your teachers have a better understanding of what to look for. You are in the process of training key staff to become moderators and you are using external verification to check your assessments are accurate. Writing in your current Year 6 shows that more pupils are already working at greater depth. Recent curriculum improvements have also given both staff and pupils an increased enthusiasm for writing, because writing is more purposeful.  In 2016, in key stage 2, the number of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in all subjects was above that seen nationally. Although progress rates were in line with other pupils nationally, they were below those of

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Inspection findings

other pupils at the school, who made above average progress across key stage 2. Leaders have set targets to ensure that more disadvantaged pupils reach greater depth in all subjects to secure rapid progress.  Another area I looked at was how effective your work has been to improve attendance. Your deputy headteacher has lead on this area. She has worked with parents, held regular review meetings and been rigorous in ensuring that pupils attend regularly. Alongside this, she has introduced more rewards and incentives for pupils who do have good attendance, to celebrate and publicly praise regular attendance. The impact of the work has been particularly successful and the attendance of all groups of pupils has improved. Attendance is now above the national average for all groups.  I also looked at personal development, behaviour and welfare across the school to see if this is still a key strength. You pride yourself on the work you do to

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Inspection findings

engage parents and help them to improve their own skills so that they can support their children. Your parent support worker runs a wide range of classes, from keeping healthy and fit to supporting reading across the school. Pupils behave well. They are proud of their school and talk with enthusiasm about their work. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. Celebration assemblies recognise individual achievements and create a real sense of pride and belonging. You support a range of charities, including local food banks and support for the homeless. As a result, pupils show a mature attitude to others and show respect and consideration. Personal development, behaviour and welfare are still strong elements of the school.

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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

 outcomes for the most able pupils continue to improve and that disadvantaged pupils make the same rapid progress as other pupils at the school  informal monitoring is recorded in a manageable format, to aid leaders in checking that areas identified for development are addressed  all year groups have a consistent approach to teaching, learning and assessment to allow all pupils to reach their potential.

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

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Information about the inspection

I met with you, the deputy headteacher and one of the assistant headteachers to discuss the impact of your work across the school and look at current assessment information. I visited a selection of classrooms with you and the deputy headteacher, looking at work in books and speaking to pupils. I spoke to pupils throughout the inspection and observed breaktime. I met with a group of governors, including the chair, and spoke to your consultant. I met with middle leaders and the safeguarding leaders. I took account of the 40 responses to the staff online survey and the 45 online responses to Ofsted’s parent survey, Parent View, including the 19 written responses. I reviewed a range of documentation throughout the day, including attendance information, safeguarding files, governing body minutes and school improvement plans.

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