Badocks Wood Primary School

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

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Mr Zak Willis Headteacher Badocks Wood Primary School Doncaster Road Southmead Bristol BS10 5PU

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& Children’s Centre

Following my visit with Michael Brady, Her Majesty’s Inspector, to your school on 11–12 October 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 most recent section 5 inspection.

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& Children’s Centre

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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& Children’s Centre

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

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& Children’s Centre

Leaders and managers are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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& Children’s Centre

The local authority’s statement of action is fit for purpose.

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& Children’s Centre

The school’s improvement plan is fit for purpose.

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& Children’s Centre

The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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& Children’s Centre

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Bristol. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

 Rapidly improve the quality of leadership and management by:  ensuring that robust systems and procedures are securely in place to safeguard pupils  setting clear priorities for improvement which are frequently checked and evaluated for impact by leaders, including governors  strengthening governance so that governors carry out their roles and responsibilities to swiftly improve the quality of education pupils receive  implementing a robust, structured programme of training and support to equip subject leaders with the skills needed to be highly effective  improving the attendance of pupils and reducing persistent absence  improving pupils’ behaviour to ensure that learning is not routinely disrupted and the number of exclusions reduces.  Rapidly improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that teachers:  have access to high-quality training to develop their practice  accurately assess what pupils can and cannot do to inform planning so that

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

learning is sufficiently challenging for all pupils, especially the most able  question pupils effectively in order to assess, probe and deepen their learning provide pupils with high-quality feedback to enable them to fully understand how they can improve their learning.  Urgently improve pupils’ outcomes by ensuring that:  teachers raise their expectations of what pupils are able to achieve  the most able, especially the most able disadvantaged pupils, benefit from teaching that inspires, excites and challenges them to think more deeply about their learning  disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive effective support to meet their individual needs  girls’ achievement and progress in mathematics are at least in line with the national average  pupils develop positive attitudes to their learning  teaching assistants’ subject knowledge is improved in mathematics and

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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

English to increase the effectiveness of their work. 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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The areas for improvement identified during the inspection that took

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.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, staff, groups of pupils, parents, members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and at social times and conducted visits to classrooms to observe pupils’ progress and their attitudes to learning. Pupils’ work across a range of subjects and year groups was scrutinised.

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Context

Significant changes in staffing have taken place since the school was deemed to require special measures in November 2016. At the end of summer term in 2017, 12 members of staff left the school. Due to financial constraints, only one of these members of staff was replaced.

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Context

The school had an academy order issued in January 2017 but the conversion to a sponsored academy is yet to take place.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The morale of staff at Badocks Wood Primary School is extremely low. Staff feel that they have had insufficient support from leaders to improve the quality of their teaching since the school was judged to require special measures. Staff stated strongly that they have felt unsettled and uninformed over the last year. This has caused them much unrest over the future direction of the school. A common concern from staff is their inability to cope with a minority of pupils who exhibit highly challenging behaviour. This is made worse by a significantly lower number of staff now at the school compared to summer term 2017.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Following a safeguarding audit conducted by Bristol local authority in January 2017, leaders and governors devised an action plan to address the shortcoming identified at the previous inspection. Governors have monitored the progress of this plan closely and policies and procedures around safeguarding are now much more robust. For example, checks made on staff prior to joining the school are comprehensive and comply fully with legislation.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Since the previous inspection, a review of the school’s use of pupil premium funding has been conducted. This has enabled governors to better understand their responsibility for how this funding is best used. Governors now ensure that the funding is carefully targeted at raising outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Recent outcomes show that disadvantaged pupils achieve in line with, and sometimes better than, their peers. Pupils’ achievement overall, however, remains weak.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The views of parents are very mixed about the school. Many were highly complimentary about how they feel their children are supported at the school. They indicate that their children enjoy coming to school and are supported well by staff. Other parents, however, stated that some pupils’ behaviour gives a real cause for concern. They also did not feel they were kept informed well enough about their children’s progress and felt that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities were not supported well. They feel this is due to the special educational needs coordinator leaving the school in summer 2017.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment remains far too inconsistent. Teachers’ expectations of what pupils are able to achieve are too low. Teachers’ assessment of what pupils know, understand and can do is not accurate enough. As a result, teachers do not consistently plan learning that suitably challenges pupils or enables them to catch up quickly enough with their peers nationally.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Scrutiny of books across the school shows that pupils’ presentation is sometimes poor in their topic books. This is not addressed by teachers to demand higher expectations. Common basic errors appear throughout pupils’ books. For example, older pupils in key stage 2 are still not consistently using full stops, capital letters and paragraphs correctly.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Pupils get off to a sound start in Reception, where the quality of teaching meets their individual needs well. Pupils’ phonic skills are developed effectively. However, on transition to Year 1, these skills are not built on sufficiently for the progress pupils make to be sustained.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

During the next special measures monitoring visit, it is important that teachers demonstrate improved practice. Learning needs to be planned effectively to ensure that pupils make accelerated progress, and higher expectations need to be seen with regard to what pupils can achieve and to the quality of the work that they produce.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

There has been improvement in pupils’ conduct in classrooms since the previous inspection. During observations of learning, inspectors saw no poor behaviour. Pupils generally engage well with their teachers and in their learning. Pupils that were spoken to said they felt safe and that bullying was rare.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

There are, however, a minority of pupils whose behaviour is extreme and, sometimes, dangerous. These pupils are unpredictable and many staff commented that they felt they lacked expertise to deal with their challenging behaviour. The fact that there are now fewer staff at the school than previously means that many staff feel more vulnerable to these pupils’ behaviour.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Leaders work closely with the local authority education attendance officer to monitor pupils’ attendance. Leaders have raised the profile and importance of attending regularly with pupils and their parents. However, there is little evidence of improvement in pupils’ attendance. Too many pupils, significantly more than the national average, are persistently absent from school. The overall attendance of pupils, while improved slightly, remains well below the national figure. The lack of attendance had a detrimental effect on pupils’ ability to achieve well.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Pupils speak favourably of their school and the support the staff give them. They enjoy coming to school and their learning. The opportunities for extra-curricular activities, however, are limited. Older pupils do not feel that they get access to the clubs and activities on offer to younger pupils.

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Outcomes for pupils

Pupils’ outcomes remain too low. In the 2017 key stage 2 examinations, pupils made poor progress in both mathematics and reading. While attainment in some subjects has risen, including the proportion of pupils reaching a good level of development in the early years, pupils do not make enough progress. The exception to this was in pupils’ writing. In 2017, at the end of key stage 2, pupils made much better progress in writing than in other subjects.

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Outcomes for pupils

The work in pupils’ books shows that, across the school from Reception to Year 6, pupils are still not catching up quickly enough. Pupils make too many errors in their basic literacy and numeracy skills and these misconceptions are not being identified or addressed quickly enough by teachers.

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Outcomes for pupils

Leaders have conducted a thorough analysis of the key stage 2 outcomes in 2017. From this, they acknowledge that pupils’ reasoning skills were underdeveloped in mathematics, which inhibited their outcomes. A plan is in place to improve this aspect of pupils’ mathematical learning but it is too early to judge its impact.

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Outcomes for pupils

Teachers are using pupils’ personal experiences to help deepen their writing skills. This was evident following a recent visit to Bristol Zoo. Pupils were producing writing of a good quality which showed real imagination and flair. They spoke excitedly about the different animals they had seen and their passion and enjoyment were evident in their written work.

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External support

The local authority has provided effective support to leaders in rectifying shortcomings in safeguarding procedures and practice. Through two reviews, they have worked well with leaders and governors to ensure that safeguarding policies and practice comply with legislation.

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External support

Teachers and leaders, however, feel that the support offered to improve the quality of teaching has been insufficient to improve teachers’ practice. Inspection evidence confirms this to be the case and there is an urgency for teachers to receive improved and effective support.

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