Greenfields Community Primary School

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

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Mrs Linda Taylor Headteacher Greenfields Community Primary School Taylor Avenue Wideopen Newcastle-upon-Tyne Tyne and Wear NE13 6NB

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 June 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 July 2013.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have created a clear vision that places the academic, social and emotional needs of pupils at the heart of the school. You have ensured that all staff and governors subscribe to this vision, which informs all aspects of the school’s work. You have fortified senior leadership and established a team who are committed to raising expectations and standards across the school. You have addressed many of the areas for improvement from the previous inspection by continuing to improve the quality of teaching and assessment. As a result of strong leadership, rigorous systems and effective teaching, pupils achieve good standards, particularly in English and mathematics, and make good and improving progress.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

The strong expectations that senior leaders have built with staff are shared with pupils and their parents. This has contributed to consistently high standards of behaviour and excellent attitudes to learning, further reflected in the significant improvements in rates of attendance. Leaders have worked with all adults on site and the governing body to build a highly stimulating curriculum that combines academic rigour with access to a range of enriching experiences through the enquiry-based curriculum. Staff are committed to developing pupils’ resilience and independence. This is reflected both in pupils’ capacity to reflect on their learning skills and in their ability to work together to solve problems. Innovations such as the Greenfields University initiative provide pupils with additional experiences, from dancing to learning languages that add to their self-esteem and confidence. The strength of leadership at the school is underpinned by extremely robust

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

procedures and systems. You track pupils’ progress regularly and in assiduous detail. Progress meetings explore pupils’ academic progress alongside discussions of behaviour and welfare, so that teachers address the total needs of pupils. You review progress towards whole-school targets every two months and update governors regularly on pupils’ progress. Performance management procedures are extremely robust and individual targets are closely aligned to whole-school targets and the progress of individuals and key groups of pupils. These systems provide a focus on progress that directly informs teachers’ planning.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

You are committed to the wider professional development of your team and this is having a clear impact on improvement. Each September, you re-visit the school vision with all staff and governors to check its continued relevance and ensure it informs development plans and school improvement activities for the year ahead. Teachers across the school work with local partners to moderate standards, strengthen expertise and improve provision for pupils. New and recently qualified teachers value the support they have received. Middle leaders are developing greater responsibility for monitoring standards and progress across key stages, although subject leadership is not as well developed, as reflected in the weaker curriculum coverage in subjects such as science and history. Specific focus on issues such as improving provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is building teachers’ expertise and leading to better diagnosis and

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

support. The school’s own strengths are sought by other schools and the local authority has called on your expertise and that of other leaders to provide support and spread good practice.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

You and your teachers have responded diligently to the increased demands of the new national curriculum and associated assessment tasks. As a result, pupils achieved impressive outcomes at key stage 1 in 2016, reflecting leaders’ commitment to build sustained improvement from the early years upwards. Pupils made good progress at key stage 2, although levels of attainment were not as high, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Leaders are aware of this and have modified targets and reviewed teaching in order to accelerate pupils’ progress at key stage 2 and diminish any remaining differences in outcomes between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

Governors are committed to the ongoing success of the school. They show a willingness to review their own performance and develop further expertise. They willingly took part in a review of governance in 2014. As a result, roles have been clarified and systems to check progress have been intensified. The chair makes new governors clearly aware of the demands of the role, such as the need to be present at key school occasions, for example enquiry learning reflection weeks. Appropriate committee structures are in place to monitor standards and finance. The headteacher provides governors with detailed but accessible half-termly updates on pupils’ progress. They explore this progress information in detail and use the expertise of local authority partners to check the accuracy of the information they receive. Governors have defined roles for key areas such as safeguarding and they carry out their responsibilities diligently.

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

The headteacher and her team maintain a consistent focus on pupils’ welfare and take their safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. Pupils’ well-being is tracked as assiduously as pupils’ academic progress and reviewed in progress meetings. Rigorous checks are made on the suitability of adults working at the school. Staff receive regular and up-to-date training on a wide range of key safeguarding issues. Concerns over pupil welfare are swiftly followed up and records are thoroughly maintained. Pupils feel safe and well supported in school, and the vast majority of their parents and carers agree. Leaders provide a clear home/school agreement that outlines the importance of pupil welfare and the contribution of both teachers and parents in promoting respectful behaviour and attitudes. The calm and orderly ethos cultivated by teachers supports pupils in feeling safe and secure. Pupils spoken with

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Short inspection of Greenfields Community Primary School

were able to discuss the actions they could take to remain safe, for example the actions needed to avoid the threats posed by strangers and how to stay safe online.

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Inspection findings

 The impact of teaching is consistently good and teachers develop pupils’ learning skills effectively. They question pupils skilfully to deepen their understanding. Teachers engender strong learning behaviours in pupils, who are encouraged to solve problems independently. Pupils are comfortable when asked to explain or develop a response to a question and show confidence when sharing their answers with the class.  Teachers and teaching assistants develop pupils’ reading skills effectively and achieve outcomes in the phonics screening check that are above those seen nationally. Despite a slight dip in reading outcomes at key stage 2 in 2016, pupils are now making good progress. They were seen analysing the impact of language features in texts in perceptive ways. Pupils’ reading skills are developing well as they progress through the school, enabling them to read more challenging texts with insight.  Pupils develop strong writing skills and demonstrate accomplished writing in their

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Inspection findings

books over time. They have the ability to write effectively in a range of genres and are comfortable writing at length. Pupils take a clear pride in their writing and demonstrate ambition in their vocabulary choices. Teachers enable pupils to develop an extremely good understanding of grammatical features and use them to considerable effect in their own writing.  In mathematics, pupils have regular opportunities to develop their fluency through frequent practice. Pupils have a confident understanding of a range of computational methods and show independence in selecting the most appropriate methods to solve problems.  While the standards of pupils’ work in English and mathematics are good and improving, this is not as clearly reflected in subjects such as science, geography and history. This is because the work set does not consistently provide enough curriculum depth for pupils to make strong rates of progress.

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Inspection findings

 As a result of individualised planning, effective teaching and a stimulating learning environment, children in the early years make strong progress and achieve levels of development above those seen nationally. In a Nursery class, children developed confidence and coordination jumping over small hurdles ahead of sports day, while in a Reception class children eagerly compared frogs and toads, as other children enthusiastically fulfilled their roles as group scientists. A display of pupils’ self-portraits gave a clear visual sign of children’s progress in drawing over time.  Pupils are extremely well behaved and conduct themselves in a friendly and orderly manner around the site. Pupils’ relationships with their teachers and their peers are strong and this gives pupils the confidence to contribute openly in lessons. Pupils are extremely positive learners, who can swiftly move without fuss from group discussion to quiet working conditions. The sustained focus on

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Inspection findings

positive behaviour contributes to a highly productive learning environment.  Leaders and teachers closely track the progress of disadvantaged pupils, and this is contributing to improving rates of progress across the majority of year groups. Teachers have clear targets for the progress of disadvantaged children in their classes and regularly account for this progress to senior leaders. Differences in progress have diminished significantly, although some differences in attainment remain. Stronger support and monitoring has contributed to a significant reduction in the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils.  Leaders have refined systems to diagnose and support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They have developed staff expertise through focused training and development work. As a result of this improving provision, pupils are making improving progress, although variance remains

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Inspection findings

between year groups. Through challenging teaching and a robust curriculum, the most able pupils achieve standards above those seen nationally in the majority of areas at key stage 1 and 2.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that they:

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Next steps for the school

 continue to develop subject leadership and strengthen the curriculum so that standards in subjects such as science, geography and history match those in English and mathematics  continue to diminish any remaining differences in outcomes between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body and the director of children’s services for North Tyneside. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you and many members of your leadership team. I met a group of recently qualified teachers and a Nursery teacher. I also met four members of the governing body, including the chair. I held a meeting with a group of pupils and talked to pupils less formally in lessons. I met the senior school improvement adviser from the local authority. I undertook an observation of learning with you and your deputy headteacher. I also looked at pupils’ work in books and folders. I examined the school improvement plan as well as other documents, including the school’s extensive self-evaluation documents, assessment information, behaviour and attendance information and pupil tracking. I examined a range of safeguarding documents, including the single central record. I took into account 55 responses to the online Parent View questionnaire and 22 free-text responses. I also took into account 29 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and

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Information about the inspection

94 responses to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire.

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