Kelbrook Primary School

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

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Angela Dugdale Kelbrook Primary School School Street Kelbrook Barnoldswick Lancashire BB18 6UD

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 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 December 2013.

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment you have introduced important changes, particularly with respect to restructuring the teaching team and prioritising areas for development across the school. You have ensured that the positive ethos is consistent across the school, so that all staff and pupils feel part of a united team. You have created an ‘open door’ for all staff to be involved. Staff I spoke to were appreciative of the opportunities you offer for professional development and know that you value their contributions to help move the school forward. You now have a stable and committed staff who value your leadership. You have established a very strong culture that emphasises pupils’ personal development as well as their academic achievement. As a result, you have consolidated and built on the school’s performance since the last inspection .

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

You have ensured that your small team of teachers and governors understand the strengths of the school and priorities for improvement. The school’s self-evaluation and development plan clearly identifies the priorities for improving the school further. Your evaluation of the performance of the school is accurate. Arrangements to keep governors informed about improvement are effective. Your reporting of improvement to the governors is well received and helpful. Also, governors appreciate the opportunity to link with classes, which provides them with a first- hand opportunity to understand what is going on.

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

Since the previous inspection you have worked hard to improve all aspects of provision. You and your team are keen to ensure that the pupils have a very positive experience. Pupils’ appreciate the richness of the curriculum they now experience. Pupils spoke with great enthusiasm about reading and enjoy the focus on whole- class reading. For example, Year 6 pupils are enjoying reading ‘Listen to the moon’ by Michael Morpurgo. Pupils are enjoying mathematics and some of the younger pupils were enthusiastic about becoming ‘times-table champs’. They were equally enthusiastic about the interesting work they do in their topics. For example, pupils in upper key stage 2 are enjoying learning about the Greeks. The range of additional activities, including a residential visit to Winnmarleigh Hall and a whole range of extra-school clubs, means that the pupils get a very broad and balanced curriculum which enables them to flourish personally and academically.

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

The school is very much a part of the local village community and works well with other local schools. As a small school you have recognised the need to work with other local schools within the Barnoldswick cluster. Your teachers benefit from and contribute to other schools in a range of joint learning projects. The active parents’ association ensures that there are many community events, a number of which take place in the local village hall and at St Mary’s C of E Church. As the chair of governors said at our meeting, ‘Our school is a family.’

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

You, your staff and governors give the highest priority to keeping pupils safe. Leaders and governors have ensured that current safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are of a high quality. The school site is secure and well supervised. Leaders are diligent in ensuring that the appropriate checks are made on the suitability of staff. Staff and governors receive regular and appropriate training so they know how to keep pupils safe, including recent training about how to protect pupils from radicalisation and extremism. The parent liaison officer works with vulnerable pupils, ensures that all concerns are followed up promptly and seeks guidance from external agencies if necessary.

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Short inspection of Kelbrook Primary School

You are committed to ensuring that pupils understand their role in how to keep themselves safe, including when they are online. They are given regular opportunities to learn about safeguarding issues within the curriculum. Leaders remind pupils regularly about the importance of talking to an adult if they have any worries. As a result, pupils say that they can speak to a member of staff at any time or write down their concerns. They have a good understanding of the different forms that bullying can take and what to do should it occur. Pupils say incidents of bullying do not happen in their school. The school’s records show that incidents of misbehaviour and bullying are rare and dealt with appropriately by staff.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils at Kelbrook Primary School make good progress from their starting points. The pupil cohorts are small and are made up of pupils with a range of abilities and needs relative to their ages. In addition, there are a number of pupils who do not start in Reception class and join the school in key stage 1 and 2. In response to this you are committed to checking their progress and providing teachers with detailed information about every individual pupil.  During the inspection, the first line of enquiry explored the impact of assessment on pupils’ progress in writing and mathematics. You have ensured that the assessment of pupils’ performance is accurate at all phases of the school, particularly key stage 1. This is now ensuring that teachers are provided with the correct information so that they can plan activities that are tightly matched to the needs of individual pupils.  You have worked hard to ensure that feedback and challenge to pupils about

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Inspection findings

their work is enhancing their progress. In mathematics during our visits to classes we saw some good examples of this. Pupils in Year 6 were very focused as they explored the characteristics of triangles. The teacher effectively corrected misconceptions and encouraged pupils to be resilient as they were challenged to solve some complex problems.  In writing, when we scrutinised the work of the pupils, there was significant evidence of pupils making progress in their basic grammar, punctuation and spelling. However, teachers are not consistently using this information effectively. Pupils are not given enough opportunity to practise these key skills in extended pieces of writing, both within their English and topic books.  A further line of enquiry focused on the progress of the most-able pupils. As a team you recognise that, while a number of most-able pupils are achieving at a greater depth, there is a need to ensure that more do so. In lessons and in the

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Inspection findings

pupils’ work there are some good examples of challenge for the most able. During our visits to classrooms we witnessed teachers working with most-able pupils to improve their progress in reading. They benefit from effective phonics sessions developing words and sounds. We saw Year 1 and 2 pupils reading the poem ‘I’m a little robot’. The most able pupils took the lead in developing words that rhyme. As the pupils move through school they are increasingly reading for pleasure. Most-able pupils are taking the lead in respect to this.  Similarly, we saw some high level of challenge for some of the most-able in mathematics, with some good reasoning activities evident in pupils’ books. However, it is not always the case that provision for these pupils is tightly focused on a day-to-day basis in writing and mathematics.  Our final line of enquiry was to explore the quality of provision and outcomes in the early years. The school works hard to ensure that all children settle into

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Inspection findings

school. There are good opportunities for parents to be involved in the induction process and they are free to visit school and talk about the welfare and progress of their children during the year.  Transition into Year 1 is equally good. The school has an effective programme to ensure that pupils are secure, confident and ready to take on the challenge of the Year 1 curriculum. The improved phonics outcomes in Year 1 are, in part, due to the priority given to language development in the early years.  Both the indoor and outdoor settings are bright and stimulating. Children behave well in the early years because staff make their expectations clear and establish routines quickly. Children in early years benefit from good teaching. The classroom is well organised and resourced to enable children to select activities, which enhance their learning. For example, in counting to 100 in 10s, the children were encouraged to explore and extend their thinking in challenge areas

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Inspection findings

within the classroom.  The leaders of early years have worked hard to ensure that children continue to make at least good progress and that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development increases. Outcomes in the early years have improved. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development has risen from 50% in 2016 to 70% in 2017.

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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

 provision for the most-able pupils is systematically planned within the curriculum so that progress for some is further accelerated  all pupils have more frequent opportunities to write at length and in more detail in their English and topic work.

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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 this one-day inspection, I reviewed your evaluations of the school, your plans for improvement and information about pupils’ progress. I discussed the work of the school with you and the early years leader. I observed and spoke with pupils during playtime, lunchtime and at other times during the day. I held discussions with a representative from the local authority and with four governors. I also took into account school documentation, assessment information, policies and information posted on the school website. I talked with parents at the start of the school day about their views of the school and considered the 46 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View. With you, I visited all classes to observe teaching and learning. I looked at pupils’ writing and mathematics work to help evaluate the quality of teaching and learning over time. I considered behaviour and attendance records and information relating to safeguarding.

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