Lammack Primary School

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

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Mrs P Duckworth Headteacher Lammack Primary School Lammack Road Blackburn Lancashire BB1 8LH

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 September 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 February 2013.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. This is an ambitious school where pupils’ academic and personal development are equally important. Leaders ensure that pupils’ skills develop well across the wider curriculum. As a result, pupils are confident, resilient learners and are prepared thoroughly for the next stage of their education. Your strong leadership has established a culture of high expectations where everyone is valued and respected. You have developed a strong team spirit with your staff, which has led to many improvements across the school. Adults know pupils well and make learning interesting and exciting.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

Since the previous inspection, governors promoted you to the role of headteacher. You wasted no time in creating a new leadership structure that enabled you to implement improvements across the school. It was evident during the inspection that the leadership team and governors share your ambitions for the school. They provide strong support to you and have been instrumental in improving the school.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

Pupils enjoy coming to school and wear their uniform with pride. They are extremely polite and well mannered. Pupils are articulate and express their views and opinions clearly. Pupils listen attentively, respect other people’s ideas and their attitudes to learning are positive. This is evident in pupils’ diligence in class and in the high-quality presentation in their books. Relationships between staff and pupils are supportive and nurturing. As a result, pupils are keen to challenge themselves in their learning. As one pupil commented, ‘We learn from mistakes, it is good to get something wrong.’ The atmosphere in lessons and outside is calm. Pupils’ behaviour is impressive across the school. They are a credit to the school and their families.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

The school is at the heart of the community and is highly regarded by parents. Parents who spoke with me and those who responded to Parent View were very positive about the school. Many of them wanted to celebrate the work of your staff during the inspection. As one parent commented, ‘It is an excellent school with excellent staff. My child loves attending the school and as a parent I have always found the school and its staff very friendly and helpful.’

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

Leaders and governors know the school well and have jointly drawn up an accurate self-evaluation and improvement plan. They have a good grasp of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. Governors speak with pride about the changes made since the last inspection. They talk about the improvements that they have seen in pupils’ resilience and in their love of learning. As one governor commented, ‘When I visit classrooms, I enjoy being in the lessons so much that I do not want to leave. I want to see what is going to happen next.’ They are proud of the staff and the pupils in the school. Governors also attend school events to develop relationships with parents and the wider community.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

You have responded effectively to the areas for improvement identified in the last inspection. My review of pupils’ assessment information and checks on pupils’ work show that pupils have many opportunities to apply their skills to a high standard across different subjects. There has been training for staff to improve their questioning skills, resulting in the effective techniques seen during the inspection. Pupils are encouraged to explain their answers to deepen their learning. Pupils also challenge themselves. As one pupil stated, ‘I enjoy stretching my brain.’ Teachers plan creative activities across the curriculum to stimulate pupils’ curiosity and desire to learn. This was most evident in their writing. Pupils’ presentation and attention to detail in all of their work demonstrates the pride that they take in their learning.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

The previous inspection also identified that rates of progress could be improved further in most year groups, by more rigorous monitoring from leaders. There are now effective systems to monitor and improve teaching across the school. As a result, teaching is consistently good.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

There has also been training for teachers on how they can monitor the progress of pupils more accurately. As a result, teachers plan pupils’ next steps in learning more effectively and set more challenging targets. They use this information to identify pupils who need to catch up. The improvements made have led to increased pupil progress across the school. However, teachers now need opportunities to develop greater consistency and accuracy in assessing pupils’ progress, particularly between different key stages. Furthermore, the mathematics and English leaders spoke about how they now use pupils’ prior attainment to track progress. However, you acknowledge that the monitoring of progress by leaders is at an early stage. Leaders recognise that they need to refine assessment systems further to provide governors with more regular, detailed analyses of pupils’ progress in every year group. This is so that governors are more fully informed and can hold leaders even

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Safeguarding policies and procedures are fit for purpose and staff and governors receive appropriate training. Staff take their roles and responsibilities seriously and alert leaders to any concerns that they have. You are proactive and tenacious in following up any concerns about pupils’ safety. You work effectively with external agencies to ensure that pupils are safe. Those who are responsible for recruitment have completed training at the appropriate level. Vetting procedures for the recruitment of staff and governors are thorough.

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Short inspection of Lammack Primary School

There are many opportunities provided for pupils to learn about staying safe online. Parents receive useful information about how to ensure that their children are safe when using technology. The parents that I spoke with, including those who responded to Parent View, felt that their children were safe and happy. As one parent commented, ‘I have nothing but praise! My children feel happy secure and looked after at school which is the basis for learning.’ All of the pupils who I spoke with said that they felt safe and that bullying was rare. They were confident that if they had any concerns, staff would help them.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection focused on three key lines of enquiry. The first of these looked at how effectively leaders were improving the teaching of mathematics in key stage 1. Attention was given to checking that the most able pupils are being appropriately challenged. This was because in previous years the proportion of pupils who achieved the higher standard was below the national average. The mathematics leaders have wasted no time in tackling this concern. They have introduced new resources to add greater depth to pupils’ learning through problem-solving and reasoning. The teaching of mathematics has improved in response to high-quality training. Pupils are keen to learn and engage well in their work. Effective questioning by teachers supports pupils’ learning. As a result of this focus, achievement for the most able pupils in mathematics has now risen and is more in line with the national figures. The progress observed in pupils’

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Inspection findings

books is good because of the effective teaching that they receive.  The second key line of enquiry related to how effectively pupils are challenged to achieve the highest standard in writing. This focus relates to lower than average results in 2016. The English leaders acted quickly to improve writing across the school. They felt that their judgements of pupils’ writing in 2016 in Year 6 were a little harsh. As a result, your assessment information was lower than it should have been. This was because it was the first year of assessing pupils against the new standards. Since then, teachers have had access to training and there have been many different opportunities for them to learn from each other. Writing is used effectively across the curriculum to develop pupils’ skills and understanding of writing for different purposes. For example, pupils in Year 6 produced reports about life for a non-European society, the Mayan civilisation. As a result of your

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Inspection findings

focus in this area, pupils’ achievement in writing has risen across the school. The proportion of pupils who achieved the highest standard in writing in 2017 improved in both key stages. The improvements in checking on pupils’ progress, across every key stage have not yet been fully embedded. English and mathematics leaders are keen to further develop this aspect of your work. We agreed that this would ensure further accuracy and consistency in assessment across the school.  Another key line of enquiry considered the attendance and persistent absence for disadvantaged pupils. This was because in 2016, persistent absence was high for this group of pupils. You have established effective systems to check pupils’ attendance. You know pupils and families well and work closely with them. You are keen to seek out support from external agencies when necessary. Consequently, as a result of these targeted actions, absence and persistent

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Inspection findings

absence for disadvantaged pupils has reduced since 2016 and is now in line with the national average.

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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

 they refine assessment procedures and reports to governors, so that governors are better informed and can challenge leaders accurately about pupils’ progress in every year  teachers are provided with opportunities to develop greater consistency and accuracy in assessing pupils’ progress, particularly between different key stages.

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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 Blackburn with Darwen. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, the deputy headteacher, a group of your senior leaders and the safeguarding lead. I also met with six members of the governing body and a group of 10 pupils. I spoke with an officer from the local authority and three parents and carers during the day. I also spoke with the English and mathematics leaders. Documents were scrutinised including leaders’ self- evaluation document, the school improvement plan, external audits, attendance information and safeguarding checks. I reviewed pupils’ achievement records and your checks on the quality of teaching. I also visited lessons with you to speak with pupils, look at examples of pupils’ work and observe their behaviour during lessons and as they moved around school. I examined child protection information and governor minutes. I took account of the 46 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including 40 free-text responses and five responses to

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Information about the inspection

Ofsted’s staff questionnaire. I also undertook a review of the school’s website.

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