Blair Peach Primary School

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

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Mrs Anita Puri Blair Peach Primary School Beaconsfield Road Southall UB1 1DR

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Short inspection of Blair Peach Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 12 December 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 March 2013.

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Short inspection of Blair Peach Primary School

You have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have developed your senior leadership team and have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses at the school. Leaders focus their attention on weaker areas of the school’s practice and are making improvements as a result. For example, leaders had identified that the standards of pupils’ writing needed improvement. They took effective action to address this and pupils’ progress in writing has strengthened as a result. More recently, leaders have prioritised the teaching of reading and current pupils’ progress is starting to improve. Your school is a warm and welcoming environment and the children I spoke with were articulate and polite.

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Short inspection of Blair Peach Primary School

Since the last inspection, leaders have taken action to ensure that most-able pupils have work that challenges them to make more rapid progress. However, the least able still sometimes receive teaching that is of a lower quality than that seen typically across the school. You have also adapted your systems to track pupils’ progress, in line with the revised assessment arrangements nationally. While the progress of individual pupils is now clearly tracked, leaders have not analysed what this information tells them about the progress of groups of pupils currently in the school.

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Short inspection of Blair Peach Primary School

You have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Safeguarding policies and procedures meet requirements. You have ensured that staff are regularly trained as part of an ongoing cycle and through induction of new staff. The checks you carry out when recruiting new staff are in line with legislation to ensure the suitability of staff to work with children. The single central record is comprehensive, and is monitored by leaders and governors. Pupils say they feel safe in school. They report that the teaching they receive about e-safety helps them to keep safe at school and outside of school. Pupils say they are settled and happy at school. They confirm that when problems arise, adults are usually able to help them sort these out quickly. Parents reported through the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, that their children are well looked after at school.

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Short inspection of Blair Peach Primary School

You have ensured that as well as training all staff in safeguarding, a few of you are trained to the higher level for designated safeguarding leads. You are mindful of local risks and have been proactive in delivering workshops to parents. You were able to share clear summaries which showed the number and nature of the referrals made to outside agencies. You follow up concerns and there is a well-established culture of safety within the school.

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Inspection findings

 At the start of the inspection we agreed on key areas on which I would focus my inspection activity.  First, I considered the improvements the school had made to the teaching of writing. This was because in 2017 pupils leaving Year 6 had made very strong progress during key stage 2.  I found that, throughout the school, there are consistent, high expectations for pupils’ writing. Pupils take pride in their work. Work is neat and presented to a very high standard. Teachers have ensured that pupils’ handwriting is well formed from an early age. Pupils’ work, including writing in different subject areas, is celebrated and shared through high-quality displays around the school.  At times, the least able pupils are taught by teaching assistants. The quality of this provision is variable and the progress of this group of pupils in writing is slower than for other groups.  Next, I focused on reading. In 2016 and 2017, pupils leaving Year 6 made less

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Inspection findings

progress in reading than they did in writing or mathematics.  Pupils were able to explain confidently a range of reading strategies which they have been taught to use. The school uses good-quality texts and these, together with the attractive displays in each classroom, have engaged pupils. Challenging texts and strong teaching interest most-able pupils, ensuring that they are stretched to extend their skills. Pupils make a good start in learning to read because phonics is taught well. A high proportion of pupils reach the expected standard by the end of Year 1.  The school makes innovative use of technology to promote reading at home. This ensures that teachers are able to monitor the frequency of home reading, as well as pupils’ responses to questions about each book posed by the online tool.  I focused next on the progress made by pupils who were lower- or higher- attaining pupils at the end of key stage 1. Last year, at the end of key stage 2,

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Inspection findings

these groups of pupils made less progress than other groups in the school.  Pupils of all abilities report that they are both supported and challenged. Teachers plan opportunities to stretch the most able. All pupils are engaged in their learning for most of the time.  Leaders do not have a precise overview of which groups of current pupils are doing well and which are doing less well. This means that they do not sharply focus their efforts on those who need a slightly different approach in order to accelerate their progress. In addition, governors do not have the information they need in order to hold leaders to account for the progress of groups of pupils.  Finally, I looked at the provision for boys and girls in the early years classes. This is because, in previous years, there were differences in the proportions of girls and boys who reached a good level of development.  Leaders had identified these differences in early years classes by looking carefully

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Inspection findings

at their assessment information. Furthermore, leaders recognise that the difference between boys’ and girls’ attainment is diminishing. However, this is because boys are making more progress and, in fact, girls are not doing as well compared with national figures.  Leaders are not complacent and are aspirational to aim higher for the girls. A wide range of activities are planned, to appeal to both boys and girls. The behaviour of boys and girls was equally strong when I visited the early years classes. Children worked in mixed groups. They were given opportunities to write independently and, in another example, a group of children were highly engaged in a game of bingo which helped them to learn their key words.

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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

 teaching is further improved by the development and use of a precise summary of the achievement of groups of pupils  lower-attaining pupils make more rapid progress as a result of receiving consistently effective teaching in line with the best practice seen in 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 Ealing. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I spoke with you, senior leaders, and the chair of the governing body. I also had a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority. With your senior leaders, I made visits to lessons to observe pupils’ learning and scrutinised their work. I talked to pupils in lessons and in a meeting, when I listened to their views of the school. I heard some pupils read. I considered a range of documentary evidence, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school development plan, and information about pupils’ performance. I looked at your records for teaching, learning and assessment, documents for the governing body and safeguarding documentation. In addition, I took account of 46 responses to the Parent View online survey. I also considered the 17 responses to the staff questionnaire and the 25 responses to the pupil survey distributed as part of the inspection.

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