Savile Town Church of England Voluntary Controlled Infant and Nursery School

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

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Mrs Debbie Douglas Headteacher Savile Town Church of England Voluntary Controlled Infant and Nursery School Warren Street Savile Town Dewsbury West Yorkshire WF12 9LY

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Infant and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 11 October 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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Infant and Nursery School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your staff have created an ethos where everyone is valued and respected. Parents say that they know you are all ‘open and approachable’. You listen to their concerns and often offer support before they ask for it. You make sure that children and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities swiftly access additional support, and you always engage their parents in planning what is needed.

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Infant and Nursery School

Your respectful approach extends to the staff as well. They say that you are very aware of how demanding their roles can be, and are very supportive towards them, making sure that their workload is manageable. You and the governors see staff well-being as a priority, particularly during the recent period of turbulence due to budget reductions. You always give staff every support when they are working with the most vulnerable families. Teachers and support staff are dedicated and committed to improving their practice. They quickly act on advice and guidance that comes from your sharply focused and frequent evaluations of their impact and they receive appropriate training. The most recent focus has been on early years and school readiness, and phonics. The impact of this work is clear because the progress and attainment of children and pupils continue to improve.

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Infant and Nursery School

Parents talk of the rapid progress that their children make during their time at the school. Although most children enter school with limited English language skills, perhaps having only two or three known words, the majority leave the Nursery with a good level of achievement. Boys’ progress and attainment are now in line with their peers nationally, and girls are rapidly catching up. By the time pupils leave school at the end of Year 2, their phonics knowledge is better than all pupils nationally. They reach expected outcomes in other areas of learning such as mathematics and writing.

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Infant and Nursery School

You know, through efficient analysis and assessment, that there is still work to do. You want to embed the successful work with the younger boys across the whole school, and you want all staff to challenge higher ability pupils more consistently. This will really stretch these pupils and enable them to exceed expectations.

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Infant and Nursery School

Children and pupils are robustly involved in the development of the school. This is a strength. Their thoughtful responses to the curriculum consultation, as well as the school council, are taken seriously. Through these and other forums such as the regular lunchtime consultation group and eco schools representation, you have ensured that their views are listened to and acted on. Their ideas drive the design of the curriculum and other aspects such as the outdoor area development. This ensures their engagement in learning and the continuing improvement in progress and attainment. It also effectively develops a practical understanding of democracy and British values.

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Infant and Nursery School

Leaders and managers have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. Parents say that they know their children are safe at school because they are happy to come and are progressing well. You regularly check that all staff training is up to date and that all the required security checks are completed before anyone works in the school. Parents say how effective the teaching of online security and ‘stranger danger’ is in helping to keep their children safe outside of school too. They feel that staff ‘look out’ for the children and go the ‘extra mile’ to keep their children safe.

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Inspection findings

 The dedicated staff team has taken decisive action to secure improvements. Subject leaders and managers effectively use observations to astutely identify any areas of improvement in practice. They robustly monitor these against outcomes for pupils. Subject audits have supported staff in improving the learning environment and redesigning the curriculum with reference to engaging boys in writing. In all observations of literacy during the inspection, boys eagerly participated and their imagination was captured. For example, when writing an adventure story about travelling to another planet, boys were engaged because of the subject matter and the dramatic interpretation. The most able were challenged to identify the parts of the sentence and expand their understanding of grammar. However, this level of challenge is not always seen when looking in pupils’ workbooks.  The introduction of structured phonics has effectively supported pupils in

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Inspection findings

developing their reading and writing skills. This has been enhanced through the development of approaches to the teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar. The older pupils are now producing extended writing, across all areas of the curriculum, at the expected standard for their age.  Attendance is showing a steady improvement. Leaders and managers are good at supporting parents to bring their children into school. The many initiatives to reward regular attendance have paid off, and those children in statutory education now come to school almost every day.  The governors fulfil their statutory duties. They know their responsibilities well and undertake them rigorously. They know when to challenge and when to support. They are monitoring the newly refurbished and redesigned website and are aware of the documents that are required to be uploaded. The high quality of the reports that they receive from the headteacher and the subject leaders

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Inspection findings

means that they know that the school is improving. They check this out for themselves by visiting the school and they can see where the areas lie for further work. Effective relationships with parents mean that parental views are reflected through the governors and are well documented in the minutes.  Most of the few pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium are making good or rapid progress. They are catching up with their peers in terms of attainment. Their differing barriers to progress are addressed well on an individual basis. The premium is therefore spent effectively on individual interventions and support.  The curriculum is broad and balanced, as evidenced by pupils’ work including in their topic books, as well as through the displays around the school. Subject- specific skills, such as scientific method, or physical and cultural geography, are effectively taught through topic work. For example, pupils tested the hypothesis

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Inspection findings

that the oldest in their group would be the heaviest, and then explained the results, having designed and completed a fair experiment.  The understanding of healthy lifestyles is strongly developed through topics such as ‘My Body’, linked also to eco schools and physical education (PE). For example, children in Reception were enthralled while using non-fiction texts to understand how their body works. Staff enthusiastically furthered this interest by helping children identify organs and parts of the body, while describing their purpose. The children also play a team game in PE and subsequently measure their heart rate after the strenuous exercise. They grow their own healthy food, which they subsequently eat as part of their eco schools work.  A religious ethos permeates the school through the respect and care shown by children and pupils for themselves and others. They explore their own Muslim faith and develop an understanding of Christianity. Current issues in the news are

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Inspection findings

built on to further pupils’ understanding. For instance, during the recent hurricane, their knowledge was expanded to prompt a growing empathy for the victims of natural disasters.

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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

 the successful work with the younger boys is now embedded across the age groups to ensure that any attainment gaps close between boys and girls  the most able children and pupils are consistently challenged to further enhance their progress and attainment.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Leeds (ce), the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Kirklees. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The focus of the inspection was to check whether the good standards identified at the previous inspection had been maintained and to find out how well particular groups of children were progressing.

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Information about the inspection

I held a variety of meetings with you and the assistant headteachers.

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Information about the inspection

I observed learning jointly with you in the Nursery and Reception classes. We also observed a writing and phonics session led by staff in key stage 1. I undertook several further observations of activities by myself.

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Information about the inspection

I considered a range of evidence, including the school’s latest assessment information about children’s learning and development, the school improvement plan, leaders’ self-evaluation and children’s work. I also reviewed minutes from governing body meetings, records of observations and other documentation.

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Information about the inspection

I met with four members of the governing body and spoke on the phone with a representative of the local authority.

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Information about the inspection

I considered the school’s own parent survey outcomes and the 10 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, spoke with eight parents and received one letter from a parent. I also took account of the 17 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire.

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