Crawshawbooth Primary School

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

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Deborah Bonney Headteacher Crawshawbooth Primary School Burnley Road Crawshawbooth Rossendale Lancashire BB4 8AN

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 8 November 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 Crawshawbooth Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. This is because of your strong leadership and clear determination to provide the best that you can for your pupils. You and your senior colleagues have a detailed understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and very precise plans to ensure further improvement. At the time of the last inspection, you were asked to: provide better outdoor activities in the early years; improve pupils’ problem-solving skills in mathematics; increase the pace of lessons; and ensure that work is matched to the varying abilities of pupils. You have tackled each of these areas systematically and with considerable success.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The outdoor provision in the early years is now very extensive and attractive and includes a wide range of resources to support children’s development in all areas of learning. The children can move freely from indoors to the outdoors, whatever the weather, and teachers plan their work carefully to ensure that children have ample opportunities to develop and apply their learning in a variety of contexts. Because of the success of this work, you have now extended outdoor learning to all year groups in the school. The recently opened outdoor learning laboratory is used particularly well to support work in science and drama.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

Following the last inspection, you introduced a new commercial mathematics scheme. When this did not have sufficient impact on pupils’ progress, you had the courage to change your approach. You decided to focus first on developing pupils’ fluency in arithmetic, so that they would have a firm basis on which to build their problem-solving skills. This proved very successful, especially in raising boys’ achievement. You have also made it a requirement for every class to pursue problem-solving activities regularly. The impact of this policy was clearly evident in the lessons we visited, particularly in Year 6, where pupils used pie charts to analyse a wide range of data. The activities were carefully planned to provide appropriate challenge to pupils of a wide range of abilities.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The lessons that we saw all had a very clear structure and included a wide range of activities which captured and maintained the attention of the pupils. In examining pupils’ books, however, we found a considerable discrepancy between the quality of work in the lower junior classes and that in the rest of the school. Lower junior pupils take less pride in the presentation of their work. This attracts little, if any, comment from the teachers. Too many of the written remarks made by these teachers are inaccurately punctuated and provide pupils with poor models of handwriting and presentation. Given that progress at key stage 2 in your school is less rapid than in the early years and key stage 1, you agreed that there is a need to pay further attention to improving the quality of teaching in the lower junior classes.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

Another weakness that you have identified in your school is the underperformance of boys compared with girls. You have placed considerable focus on rectifying this. However, in some of the lessons we visited, boys had too few opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills independently, without help from the girls. We agreed that there is a need for teachers to consider carefully what opportunities and support they provide for the boys in lessons.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The pupils’ behaviour attracted high praise in the last inspection report. This continues to be a significant strength of the school. The pupils are polite, friendly and relate well to each other, to adults and to visitors to the school. They work with concentration during lessons and clearly enjoy being there. Attendance continues to be high and pupils arrive very promptly at school. The parents I met during the inspection and those who responded to the online questionnaire hold the school, its leaders and staff in high regard.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The governing body provides you and your staff with a good balance of support and challenge. As a result of their close involvement with the school and the regular reports that they receive from you and your subject leaders, the governors have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. They ensure that you have the necessary resources to support your plans and they monitor expenditure carefully. The governors agreed that it would be useful to identify precise targets against which they could assess the impact of the additional funding for physical education and sports development.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Your records are up to date and detailed. You have rigorous systems for checking on the suitability of adults in the school to work with children. All the staff and the governors have received the required training in safeguarding. The staff I spoke to knew how to identify possible signs of abuse and what to do if they had any concerns about a child’s welfare. You work successfully with a range of appropriate agencies to support children and families who need additional help. You have been unremitting in ensuring that those agencies fulfil their obligations.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The pupils I spoke to said that they enjoy coming to school and are safe there. They also feel safe on the way to and from school. They know how to avoid harm when using the internet or social media and know which staff to contact if they come across any inappropriate material. They have been taught how to keep themselves safe on roads and they all receive swimming lessons, so that they are safe in and near water. As a result of regular practices, the pupils know what to do and where to go in the case of fire. There is a small amount of bullying in the school. In most instances, this is dealt with successfully. The pupils can share any concerns they have directly with staff or through the ‘worry box’ and are confident that they will receive appropriate and timely help. They said that there is no racist bullying in the school. Your records bear this out.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The school has been awarded the local authority’s ‘equality mark’ in recognition of its work to ensure fair treatment for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, beliefs or disability.

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Short inspection of Crawshawbooth Primary School

The extensive grounds are secure and entry to the building is strictly controlled. During my visit, many cars were clearly exceeding the speed limit as they drove past the school. You confirmed that, despite your best efforts, this happens regularly and is a danger to your pupils.

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Inspection findings

 Children in the early years have traditionally made rapid progress in your school. I wanted to establish whether this is still the case. In 2017, the proportion of early years children who reached a good level of development was once again above the national average. Girls continue to outperform boys, with the gap being greatest in writing. You have recognised this and have clear plans to redouble your efforts to improve boys’ results.  I also wanted to know whether the positive results at the end of key stage 1 are being maintained. In 2017, Year 1 pupils achieved higher than average scores in the phonics screening. Seven-year-olds also exceeded the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics tests, as they have done for the last six years. The work in books and your analysis of current pupils’ progress show that these high standards are being maintained.  Over the last three years, key stage 2 pupils have made less progress in writing

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Inspection findings

than in reading and mathematics. I was interested to know what you are doing about this. You showed me that you have conducted a thorough revision of your approach to writing and have invested in new resources to support teaching in this area. Giving pupils the opportunity to use the online platform to write for a worldwide audience has proved to be very successful, particularly in stimulating boys’ interest. These approaches have led to clear improvements but you recognise that there is still more to do. Therefore, improving writing continues to be a priority in your school development plan.  Reading is a strength of your school. This is reflected in the results at each key stage, as well as in the work of current pupils. In the best instances, pupils read with expression, clarity and accuracy and succeed in capturing and maintaining the listener’s interest. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about the books that they read

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Inspection findings

at school and at home.  You have recently conducted a thorough review of your curriculum to ensure continuity and development in learning across all subjects. You have also identified clear criteria for assessing attainment and progress in subjects other than reading, writing and mathematics.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should:

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Next steps for the school

 ensure that all teachers provide pupils with models of accurate grammar and punctuation and of good handwriting and presentation  ensure that teachers give boys sufficient opportunities to apply and develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in lessons  identify precise targets against which they can assess the impact of the additional funding for developing physical education and sports.  work with the police and the local authority to ensure that children’s safety is not jeopardised by speeding cars on the road next to the school.

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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

I held a meeting with you and your senior management team. I met the chair and vice chair of the governing body and a representative of the local authority. You and I visited lessons to observe teaching and look at books. I discussed safeguarding, behaviour and attendance with you and the administrative officer. I met a group of eight pupils chosen at random from Years 3 to 6. I spoke to 14 parents as they brought their children to school and examined the 38 responses to the online questionnaire ‘Parent View’. I examined a range of documentation, including your self-evaluation and school development plan.

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