Ambleside Primary School

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

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Mrs Karen Hannon Headteacher Ambleside Primary School Minver Crescent Aspley Nottingham Nottinghamshire NG8 5PN

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

Following my visit to your school on 6 to 7 June 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions that have been taken since the school’s recent section 5 inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

The inspection was the first monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection that took place in November 2016.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

The trust’s statement of action is fit for purpose.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

The school’s improvement plans are fit for purpose.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary School

Having considered all the evidence I strongly recommend that the academy does not seek to appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Ambleside Primary 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 Nottingham. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Strengthen the impact leaders, managers and governors have on pupils’ learning by ensuring that: – there are robust self-evaluation processes in place that will give leaders an accurate picture of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and how well it is performing compared with other schools nationally – governors increase their understanding of how well pupils are achieving so that they are able to challenge leaders more effectively and hold the school to account for pupils’ outcomes – the actions that leaders take are focused on the key priorities identified through self-evaluation – leaders take a more strategic role in overseeing improvements.  Improve teaching in order to accelerate the progress that pupils make and raise their attainment, especially in reading and mathematics, by: – ensuring that the work that teachers set for pupils is more challenging, especially for the most able pupils – making better use of the pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

pupils in their learning – making sure that teachers’ assessment of pupils’ work is accurate and is used more effectively by teachers to check what pupils know and what they need to learn next – providing opportunities for pupils to use and explain their reasoning behind how they solve mathematical problems – ensuring that children take note of written guidance provided by the teacher through their marking. 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. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Evidence

During this inspection, meetings were held with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the two assistant headteachers, the two early years leaders, four members of the governing body, a national leader of education and a group of pupils from key stage 2. The inspector spoke informally with parents before the start of the school day. The statement of action and the school improvement plan were evaluated. The inspector considered the school’s most recent assessment information. Documents relating to pupils’ attendance and arrangements for safeguarding pupils were also considered. The inspector also scrutinised information relating to the monitoring of teaching and learning, the external review of governance, the external review of the use of pupil premium funding and minutes from governing body meetings.

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Context

Following the inspection in November 2016, discussions took place to re-broker the sponsorship of Ambleside Primary School. In January 2017, the Department for Education confirmed that Old Basford Primary would no longer be the sponsor and that Ambleside Primary would be joining the multi-academy trust, ‘Raleigh’, in the future. Initial plans were put in place to facilitate this. However, due to the forthcoming general election and purdah implementation, this has been delayed. Since the previous inspection, two teachers have left the school.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

There is a strong working partnership between the headteacher, deputy headteacher and the two assistant headteachers. They have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Their complementary skills are ensuring that leadership is skilfully deployed to support staff, pupils and parents to achieve better outcomes for pupils.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Steps have been taken to improve the quality of teaching and learning, starting with a new approach to assessment. Teachers are being trained and senior leaders are checking the information about pupils’ progress to make sure it is accurate. It is early days for this work, and too soon to see an impact, but leaders are setting high expectations and are determined to eradicate low standards. There is a clear understanding that the accurate use of assessment needs to be secured across the school in order to bring about more rapid progress.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Senior leaders have devised a sound action plan following the review of the use of the pupil premium funding, which was completed in February 2017. Swift action is now being taken to ensure that the identified weaknesses are addressed. Senior leaders are keeping a closer eye on well-targeted intervention programmes to ensure that they remain suitably challenging at all times and bring about rapid improvements. For example, in the early years, the most recent mid-point assessment of the ‘Let’s Talk’ intervention confirms that 50% of children in this group are making rapid progress. In Year 6, a highly skilled teaching assistant is leading the ‘Fresh Start’ initiative, and effectively supporting pupils to make up some lost ground and work at levels closer to those expected of pupils this age. Senior leaders recognise that there is much to do to close the gaps between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others across the school, and to improve

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

their outcomes, and are tackling this with rigour.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The current delay in re-brokering the sponsorship of the academy brings many uncertainties and challenges for governors. However, despite this, governors are resolute in doing all they can to improve outcomes for all pupils and in understanding how they can fulfil their roles more effectively. The chair of the governing body demonstrates determined leadership and is taking effective action to address the recommendations of the recent review of governance. As a result, the governing body is strengthening. For example, governors are becoming better informed about the work of the school and have an increased understanding of their strategic role. The records of governing body meetings show that they are beginning to ask more challenging questions, particularly in relation to pupils’ progress.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Safeguarding documents were checked during the monitoring visit and meet current requirements.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Since the inspection in November 2016, teachers have received a range of training and support to improve their practice. However, teaching is not consistently good across the school. This is because teachers do not always use the information gained from assessment to help them pitch their lessons correctly. As a result, sometimes the work is either too hard or too easy for different groups and individuals. Teachers do not always make clear links for pupils between the activity they are doing and why they are doing it. Consequently, not all pupils are making progress at the rate they should.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Where teaching is strongest, teachers are setting high expectations and there is a close match between the teacher’s planning and information about what precisely a pupil needs to do to improve. As a result, pupils are engaged in purposeful and productive learning. For example, in a Year 1 class, pupils were able to demonstrate confidence in halving a group of objects. When asked to explain how they knew that they had been successful, they explained with delight, ‘they are equal’. In an early years phonics session, the teacher carefully checked the children’s understanding of the vocabulary and any misconceptions were dealt with skilfully. In a Year 6 lesson, pupils demonstrated confidence in using prepositional phrases and expanded noun phrases, through highly skilled questioning. In this lesson, no learning opportunity was missed and every minute counted.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

In mathematics, teachers are not always developing pupils’ knowledge and skills well enough to enable them to make good progress. Pupils’ workbooks show that sometimes they are not given sufficient time to deepen their knowledge on one topic before moving on to another. On other occasions, pupils are spending a lot of time consolidating their knowledge and skills, but are not given the opportunity to use their knowledge to solve more complex problems.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The impact of strong leadership in the early years is ensuring purposeful learning. The Nursery and Reception classrooms are providing children with a wide range of exciting tasks which seek to develop their basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders have rightly identified that the outside areas remain underdeveloped and this is limiting children’s opportunities to make good progress in all areas of learning.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils are polite, friendly and welcoming. They greet each other, staff and visitors pleasantly and respectfully. Pupils behave well around school, at playtimes and in the dining hall. Parents report that any behaviour incidents are handled appropriately. However, attitudes to learning and behaviour in lessons are not consistently good across the school. Where teaching is stronger, pupils show an enthusiasm for learning and are keen to do well. Where teaching is less strong, behaviour and attitudes understandably deteriorate and pupils become chatty and lose their focus on learning.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Leaders are continuing to monitor attendance closely. There are clear systems and procedures in place to track attendance and the school knows which pupils need support to improve their attendance. The school’s most recent attendance data shows an upward trend for many groups. For example, the ‘walking bus’ initiative has successfully improved the attendance of a targeted group of pupils from 85% in March 2017 to 92.7% in May 2017. Pupils enjoy being rewarded for good attendance and teachers actively promote it in their classes.

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Outcomes for pupils

Teachers do not set consistently high enough expectations. Many pupils are capable of achieving higher standards and making faster progress but are not doing so because the teaching over time has not been ambitious enough. It is evident that the quality of work and the progress made by pupils vary, depending on which class they are in. The school did not have reliable assessments for pupils at the time of the inspection in November 2016. Consequently, the school has introduced standardised testing across the school. Teachers are being given opportunities to moderate their judgements with other schools to improve the accuracy of their assessments. However, leaders are not yet assured that all of the teachers’ judgements are sufficiently accurate.

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Outcomes for pupils

Leaders are using assessment information more rigorously to ensure that all groups of pupils receive the interventions and challenge they require to make the progress of which they are capable. However, the school’s latest assessment information shows that pupils’ outcomes remain low, particularly at key stage 2.

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Outcomes for pupils

In the early years, many children are making good progress from their starting points. However, the teachers’ latest assessments show that although the proportion of children on track to reach a good level of development will be higher than in 2016, it will remain below the previous academic year’s national average.

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Outcomes for pupils

Pupils were keen to discuss their learning and show examples of how the school is taking steps to help them improve their work. The presentation of pupils’ work is improving, with pupils showing pride in their work and taking care to present their work neatly.

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External support

The unforeseen circumstances causing the delay of re-brokering the academy sponsorship have left the school without sponsor support at the present time.

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External support

A national leader of education is supporting the school well in this interim period. He spends one day each week in school and uses most of this time to support the senior leadership team. He has quickly gained an accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. He has supported senior leaders in reviewing assessment systems, introducing standardised testing and improving the accuracy of assessment. He has brought robust challenge to the senior leadership team and is keeping a close check on their work to bring about improvement. As a result, the school is able to demonstrate improvements at a rate that would enable special measures to be removed within the required timescale.

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