Broadhurst Primary School

Broadhurst Primary School Williams Road, Moston, Manchester M40 0BX

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders have acted swiftly and decisively to tackle a dip in outcomes for pupils. As a result of their actions, pupils currently in the school are making good progress and outcomes are improving strongly.  Children get off to a flying start in early years. High-quality teaching and an attractive, engaging learning environment contribute to the excellent progress that children make across Nursery and Reception classes.  Leaders have successfully tackled previous inconsistencies in teaching, so that teaching across the school is now consistently good. Teachers have good subject knowledge and use assessment well to make sure that activities are well matched to pupils’ learning needs.  The school provides a high level of care and nurture for vulnerable pupils and their families. Pupils say that they feel safe in school and parents wholeheartedly agree.  Pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare are good. Pupils are well mannered

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

and behave sensibly around school and on the playground. Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and positive.  Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effective and the school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.  Governors are knowledgeable and experienced. They provide a good balance of support and challenge to school leaders.  There are significant strengths in the school’s curriculum. Provision in areas such as music and physical education (PE) is enhanced by the work of specialist teachers and coaches, while events such as ‘science week’ have a positive impact on pupils’ learning. However, pupils’ skills and knowledge in subjects such as history and geography are not as well developed.  Over time, attainment in reading, particularly in key stage 1, has been too low. Improvements have been made and the proportion of pupils reaching the expected level is increasing

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

overall. However, there is still scope for further improvement in broadening pupils’ vocabulary and speeding up the rate at which their phonic knowledge develops.  Rates of attendance are stubbornly below average and too many pupils regularly miss days at school. Leaders are working hard to tackle this issue, but there is still more to be done.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve the effectiveness of the teaching of phonics and develop pupils’ vocabulary in order to raise attainment in reading in key stage 1 by ensuring that: – all staff have access to high-quality training to develop their skills in teaching phonics – staff consistently model accurate spoken English.  Ensure that pupils are given more opportunities to develop subject-specific skills and knowledge, particularly in history and geography.  Ensure that the attendance of those pupils who regularly miss school improves rapidly so that overall attendance is at least in line with the national average.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The strong and focused leadership of the headteacher, very well supported by other leaders in the school, has ensured that a dip in outcomes for pupils has been tackled swiftly. Previous inconsistencies in the quality of teaching have been addressed so that teaching is now consistently good, and, as a result, outcomes for pupils currently in the school are quickly improving.  School leaders have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and have ensured that improvement planning focuses on those areas that need to improve further. Leaders, including governors, and staff have a shared ambition for the school and are working effectively together to ensure that Broadhurst continues to provide pupils with a good standard of education.  Leaders and staff place a high priority on supporting the most vulnerable pupils and their families, including those who are eligible for pupil premium funding. Leaders have

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

made sure that this funding is used effectively to support disadvantaged pupils across the school by tackling the different barriers to learning that they face. Inspection evidence confirms that these pupils typically make good progress during their time at Broadhurst.  Funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used effectively. The school provides good levels of pastoral care, as well as specialist support in areas such as speech and language development. This provision is having a positive impact on these pupils’ learning.  School leaders also use the primary PE and sport funding well. Pupils say that they enjoy taking part in the wide range of sporting activities on offer, both in school and extra-curricular clubs. The school’s work on promoting sport and fitness and developing pupils’ sporting skills is further enhanced by links with Manchester City Football Club.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders ensure that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted effectively. Pupils are thoughtful and recognise that there are many people in the world who are less fortunate than they are. They also develop their awareness of British values by learning about the range of religions found across the country and experiencing democracy first hand by taking part in elections to choose their school councillors.  The school provides pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum which covers a range of different subjects, topics and themes. There are many strengths in the curriculum, including in science, music, art and modern foreign languages. However, some aspects of the curriculum, such as history and geography, are less well developed. This is because too much emphasis has been placed on developing pupils’ English skills at the expense of fully broadening their skills and knowledge in these humanities subjects.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Arrangements for managing teachers’ performance are thorough, and this rigorous approach has helped to improve the quality of teaching across the school. Teachers appreciate the access that they have to different professional development opportunities, and less experienced members of staff say that they have benefited from supportive mentoring. Leaders acknowledge that there is a need for further staff development, particularly to enhance the skills and knowledge of teaching assistants and to further develop the effectiveness of phonics teaching.  The local authority has provided effective support to leaders, including governors, and has full confidence that the school’s leadership team will continue to move the school forward. The school also works effectively with other schools locally, which allows examples of good practice to be shared between schools.

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Governance of the school

 The knowledgeable and committed governors are regular visitors to school and have a good understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. They provide an effective balance of support and challenge for school leaders, holding them to account for the school’s performance. Governors have a clear view of improvements that have been made in the school since the last inspection, and share school leaders’ ambition to ensure that the school continues to move forward.  Governors have made sure that there are good procedures in place for managing staff performance and that these are applied effectively, so that decisions about pay progression are fair and well informed. They ensure that the school’s finances are well used and have a good understanding of how well school leaders use additional funding, such as the pupil premium and primary PE and sport funding.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  School leaders have successfully created a strong safeguarding culture throughout the school. Caring for vulnerable pupils and their families is at the heart of the school’s work. Leaders have established highly effective links with external agencies and have set up a range of support mechanisms within school to ensure that high-quality support is given to those pupils most in need.  Staff and governors receive regular training to ensure that their knowledge and understanding of good practice in safeguarding are up to date. Staff know the procedures to follow if they have any concerns about a child’s welfare, and leaders ensure that any such concerns are comprehensively recorded and swiftly acted upon.  Comprehensive checks are made on staff, governors and regular visitors to school to ensure that they are suitable people to work with children. The school maintains

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Safeguarding

detailed, high-quality records of these checks.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 The quality of teaching is now consistently good in key stages 1 and 2, securely building on the excellent practice in early years. This effective teaching is key to securing the improvements in outcomes for pupils that can now be seen. Teachers make good use of assessment information to ensure that the work they set for pupils is well matched to pupils’ learning needs. They use questions skilfully to check on pupils’ understanding and also to challenge or support their learning. Teachers also display good subject knowledge, which they use to provide pupils with clear explanations and instructions.  Most-able pupils are provided with a good level of challenge in reading, writing and mathematics, and as a result make good progress from their starting points. This is because teachers have high expectations of what most-able pupils can achieve and use assessment information well to stretch and challenge their thinking.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Writing is taught effectively throughout the school, and pupils become confident writers who are able to write in a range of styles and for different purposes. For example, pupils are able to write about what they have done and what they have observed when conducting science experiments, but are equally happy writing stories and descriptions of characters. Teachers encourage pupils to use a range of punctuation at age-appropriate levels and teach them to take care with spelling and handwriting.  Teachers develop pupils’ skills and understanding in mathematics effectively so that pupils currently in the school are now typically making good progress in mathematics. Teachers focus heavily on developing pupils’ confidence with number so that they become adept at tackling calculations mentally and using formal written methods. Pupils are then challenged to use their mathematical knowledge to tackle different

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

types of problems, which they do enthusiastically.  School leaders’ decision to base more work around high-quality texts by authors such as Alexis Deacon and CS Lewis is having a positive impact on the effectiveness of the teaching of reading. Pupils are enthusiastic about the books that they have read, and are becoming increasingly confident at talking and writing about characters and events from those texts. Teachers are also trying hard to extend pupils’ vocabulary through studying ‘words of the week’ or ‘words of the day’ as they have recognised that many pupils have a limited vocabulary which at times hinders their reading comprehension.  While there have been improvements in outcomes in phonics in recent times, there is still scope for further improvement. Many staff are confident in delivering sessions to develop pupils’ phonic skills, but some staff who have less experience or have not recently accessed training are less assured. Equally, there are times when adults do

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

not model sufficiently accurate spoken English and this causes some confusion for pupils.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  School leaders have successfully created a caring and highly nurturing environment throughout the school, which is typified by the warm and positive relationships between pupils and staff. Pupils are confident that staff will deal with any problems or concerns that they have.  Pupils are aware of different types of bullying, including racism and cyber bullying, but say that bullying is rare in their school. One pupil explained that this was because, ‘everyone is accepted with open arms’.  Pupils say that they feel safe in school and also understand how to keep themselves safe in different situations outside school, including in relation to road safety and staying safe when using the internet. Pupils have the chance to learn about key aspects of safety through a well-planned programme of activities and visitors coming

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Personal development and welfare

into school, such as the fire brigade and Bikeability team. Pupils are also encouraged to live healthily, and talked about work they had done to find out how much sugar is in different types of drinks.  Pupils enjoy taking on positions of responsibility in school, such as being a member of the school council. Elections to select school councillors give pupils first-hand experience of the democratic process.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils are polite, articulate and welcoming to visitors. Pupils are clearly proud of their school, as can be seen from the care they take to look smart in their school uniforms and by the high quality of presentation evident in the vast majority of pupils’ books.  Pupils’ conduct in school is good. They move around the building sensibly, regularly showing good manners by holding doors open for adults. At breaktimes, they make the most of the school’s extensive, well-equipped outdoor areas and play well together, climbing and balancing on the activity trails and enthusiastically joining in with games of football.  Pupils have no significant concerns about behaviour and have a clear understanding of the school’s systems for rewarding good behaviour and dealing with any rare incidents where behaviour is not of a high standard. Parents, too, have very positive views of

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Behaviour

how safe their children are in school and how well the school promotes good behaviour.  Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning in their lessons. They work well together, listening attentively to each other’s ideas and confidently expressing their own opinions. Leaders and teachers are also developing pupils’ skills in working independently, and the majority settle quickly to their work and concentrate well.  Although there have been some recent improvements, rates of attendance have been stubbornly below average and the proportion of pupils who are regularly absent from school is double that found nationally. School leaders are working hard to improve rates of attendance but have been able to make only small steps of progress.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Provisional data for 2017 shows that the proportion of pupils reaching the standard expected for their age by the end of key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics was in line with the previous year’s national average. The rate of pupils’ progress in all three areas was also in line with that of other schools nationally.  The results in 2017 at the end of key stage 1 appear, at first glance, to look less positive as the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard was below average in reading and mathematics, and broadly average in writing. However, these figures were heavily influenced by the previously weaker progress made by that particular cohort. Scrutiny of pupils’ work from last year and the current year, alongside the school’s tracking data, confirms that pupils in key stage 1 are now making typically good progress in reading, writing and mathematics.  Assessment information shows that the performance of disadvantaged pupils fluctuates

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Outcomes for pupils Good

between cohorts. This is because of differences between each of these cohorts and the wide variety of barriers to learning that many disadvantaged pupils face. Overall, evidence shows that disadvantaged pupils typically make good progress in their learning from their differing starting points when compared with other pupils in the school and nationally.  Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress from their varying starting points. This is because these pupils receive well-planned support that helps them to learn well and achieve their individual goals.  Outcomes in the Year 1 phonics check have improved steadily over time to be just in line with the national average. However, given the strength of progress that children make in early years, there is potential for outcomes in phonics to improve further so that this excellent start is more effectively built upon.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils make strong progress in many areas of the curriculum. For example, they become confident scientists, able to make predictions about the likely outcomes of experiments. They benefit from specialist music teaching that develops their skills in playing different instruments and recognising pulse and pitch. However, their progress in history and geography is less strong because too much of the work in these areas focuses on developing English skills, rather than skills and knowledge that are specific to the different subjects.

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Early years provision Outstanding

 Children enter early years with skills and knowledge that are typically below those expected for their age, particularly in terms of their language and communication skills and social development. During their time in early years, virtually all children make excellent progress. By the time they leave the Reception class, the large majority have achieved a good level of development and an increasingly large proportion are working above that level in many areas of learning, including reading, writing and number. Therefore, children are extremely well prepared as they move into Year 1.  Children benefit from a high-quality learning environment, both indoors and outside. Staff ensure that there is a wide range of stimulating activities for children to access both independently and in adult-led groups. For example, children in the Reception class were enjoying using counting apparatus to tackle number problems, while

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Early years provision Outstanding

children in Nursery were thoroughly engaged in making houses for the little pigs using a range of natural materials.  Staff display an excellent knowledge of children’s individual learning needs. They make regular, detailed observations of children’s learning to check on and track their progress and attainment. They then use this information very effectively to make sure that the challenges and questions that they pose move children’s learning on quickly. This plays a significant part in securing outstanding progress across both Nursery and Reception classes.  Behaviour in early years is excellent. This is because relationships between staff and children are extremely strong. Staff make sure that children’s safety and well-being are a high priority and that all statutory welfare requirements are met.  The early years leader is skilled and knowledgeable. She has worked hard to ensure that the partnership between school and home is very effective, involving parents

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Early years provision Outstanding

thoroughly in children’s induction into early years. She ensures that early years pupil premium funding is used effectively and that the setting caters extremely well for children with different needs and starting points. The early years leader has a clear view of the many strengths of the setting, but is ambitious to secure further improvements. She acknowledges that the teaching of phonics could be strengthened further to accelerate children’s progress in this area.

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address head@broadhurstprimary.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection 4  5 March 2014

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Information about this school

 Broadhurst is an average-sized primary school.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average, as is the proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.  The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for achievement in Year 6.  In early years, children in both the Nursery and Reception classes attend on a full-time basis.  The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  The school offers breakfast and after-school club provision.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning across the school. They also looked at pupils’ work in books, records of children’s learning in early years, and other information about pupils’ attainment and progress.  Inspectors listened to pupils read and held discussions with two groups of pupils. They also talked informally with pupils around the school.  Inspectors considered the 55 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, and talked informally with parents at the start of the school day.  Inspectors met a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body. They also had discussions with staff in school, including the two deputy headteachers, the leader responsible for the provision for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, the leader for early years and the subject leader for English. Inspectors also took account of 17 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors met with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors examined a range of documents. These included information about pupils’ attainment and progress, the school’s reviews of its own performance, and governing body meeting records. They also examined safeguarding documentation and various records of pupils’ attendance and behaviour.

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Inspection team

Neil Dixon, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Doreen Davenport Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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