Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

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

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Mr Michael Charnock Headteacher Preston Greenlands Community Primary School Dawnay Road Preston Lancashire PR2 6BB

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 4 July 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 September 2011.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community 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 Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

You and your deputy headteacher make a highly effective team.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Your leadership of the school can be summed up in two words: passion and commitment. This is a school which places itself squarely at the heart of its community and is determined to be the cornerstone of enrichment and development, not only for its pupils but also for the community which it serves. Your determined and compassionate leadership are key elements in the success of this school. You do not compromise in ensuring that every child has a rich, broad and exciting range of experiences during their time at Preston Greenlands. Your pupils are at the heart of everything you do. Your determination to provide a high-quality education is exemplary. You know every pupil exceptionally well and every pupil’s education matters to you. You want the best for each pupil academically, socially and personally. You communicate these aspirations to staff, governors, parents and pupils effectively.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Your skilful and determined leadership has brought about significant improvements to teaching and learning. There is a clear drive and determination to provide high-quality experiences which allow pupils to thrive. This ambition is shared by all staff. You have identified and evaluated the school’s strengths and current development priorities. The actions needed to address these priorities are detailed in your comprehensive school development plan. You correctly identify that more can be done to improve progress and raise attainment across the school for the most able pupils.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

You place a high value on distributive leadership and developing leaders across your school. As a result, the school has good capacity to continue to move forward. You and your school are ably supported by a local authority school improvement professional, whose work has had a highly effective impact on the school’s provision. Although you are considered a ‘light-touch’ school, you welcome and encourage external challenge and support. This is because you constantly seek opportunities to develop the quality of the education you provide.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

The leader for the early years has ensured that the environment is an exciting place to be. Children are able to develop their social, communication and problem-solving skills. A seamless stream of interesting activities flows from the classroom to the outdoor space. Children use a range of activities to develop their problem-solving and communication skills through well-planned social play. One group of children, for example, talked extensively about how they designed, built and were going to improve the new bird house they had made. As such, children leave Reception well prepared for Year 1.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Pupils’ excellent attitudes to learning and good relationships with adults remain key strengths of your inclusive school. Preston Greenlands is a school that welcomes and supports all its pupils, including the most vulnerable and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Pupils told me how much they enjoy coming to school and appreciate the supportive relationships they share with adults and with each other. They recognise that this helps them to learn.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Parents are united in their support for the school. Parents typically described the school as one where ‘all children are being pushed to do well and are well supported’. They value highly the support you and your teachers give them and the support your teachers provide for pupils’ social and emotional development.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

Governors provide a strong strategic direction for the school. They take their roles seriously and are uncompromising in their pursuit of excellence. They challenge the standards pupils achieve and monitor and gather information to check for themselves how well the school is performing. Governors have not shied away from taking some difficult decisions that have ensured that the school moves forward. For example, they set challenging performance management targets for you as headteacher and challenge the school to do better with its most able pupils.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

At the time of the last inspection, inspectors recognised the many strengths of the school. They did, though, ask you to look at how effectively teachers across the school matched work to the needs of all pupils. You have done much work on this. Although this aspect is much improved, there are still some inconsistencies in how teachers ensure that all pupils make the best possible progress across school. We agreed that ensuring consistency across all teaching should remain a focus for the school. Inspectors also identified a need to improve attendance. You now track attendance more closely and make good use of external services when necessary. Good attendance is rewarded and you do not shy away from tackling those with poor attendance. As such, attendance is much improved and is now at or above the national average.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

In your role as designated safeguarding leader, you ensure that policies, procedures and records are of a high quality and kept up to date. Your determination to leave no stone unturned in your duty to keep pupils safe is clear from the records and case files we reviewed. Governors play an important part in safeguarding and receive detailed and regular updates on the impact of the school’s work. This information has ensured that governors have the knowledge and skills necessary, so that they can determine the quality of the school’s safeguarding arrangements.

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Short inspection of Preston Greenlands Community Primary School

All staff are appropriately trained and have access to well-written policies and guidance. As a result, they have a secure understanding of their individual responsibilities for safeguarding pupils. Pupils are knowledgeable about e-safety and bullying. Parents are very clear that pupils are happy and safe in school.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection focused on several key lines of enquiry, which we agreed at the start of the inspection. The first was to consider the progress of disadvantaged pupils, in particular the most able. You have put in place a range of high-quality and effective teaching strategies that support their needs effectively. The analysis of data and your own tracking show that this group are now making good progress across the school. My analysis of pupils’ work in books and classroom visits highlights that learning at greater depth is becoming a strength of the school. This is starting to improve outcomes for all pupils. We did agree, though, that more still needed to be done to ensure that the most able pupils, including the disadvantaged, reached the very highest levels of which they were capable.  We also agreed to look at reading progress. Outcomes in reading at the end of Reception were lower than those of other children nationally. The progress of pupils in

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Inspection findings

reading across key stage 2 was below that of other subjects in school. This was due to the most able readers in school not reaching the highest levels of which they are capable. During our discussion, you were able to tell me about the new and more rigorous approaches you have put in place. Reading across school now has a very high priority and much cross-curricular work supports the development in reading. This is raising standards in reading for all pupils.  I listened to readers and spoke to them about their reading in school and looked at your data for reading progress. I was able to see the good progress that most pupils now make in reading. This is as a result of the introduction of a range of new approaches to the teaching and development of reading across the school. You have set more focused reading periods for all pupils and you have invested in reading resources across the school. This is clearly having an impact on the standard of

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Inspection findings

reading across the school. We agreed, though, that some of the most able pupils could make even more progress than they currently do.  We also agreed to look how governors and leaders support those pupils who are at risk of exclusion. The number of fixed-term and permanent exclusions has been above the national average in recent years. Support for teachers in managing behaviour and working with pupils exhibiting challenging behaviour has been successful. As a result of your work, there have been no exclusions this academic year.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  they further improve the consistency of progress made by the most able pupils  teaching and learning are of a consistently high quality across all year groups.

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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 meetings were held with you, your deputy headteacher, curriculum leaders, the early years leader and other staff members. I met with the chair of the governing body and five other governors. I spoke with the school improvement partner. I heard a group of pupils read and spoke to a group of pupils from across the school. I visited classrooms to observe pupils and to talk to them about their learning. Work across a range of abilities was examined. I spoke to a range of parents at the start of the school day. There were no responses by parents to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. There were 15 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and 17 responses to the pupils’ questionnaire. A wide range of documentation and information relating to your self-evaluation, school improvement planning, curriculum, assessment, monitoring and safeguarding was examined.

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