Malmesbury Park Primary School

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

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Mrs Jackie Green Headteacher Malmesbury Park Primary School Lowther Road Bournemouth Dorset BH8 8LU

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Short inspection of Malmesbury Park Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 9 January 2018 with Adam Matthews, Ofsted Inspector, 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 2015.

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Short inspection of Malmesbury Park Primary School

Based on the evidence available during this short inspection, I have identified some priorities for improvement which I advise the school to address. In light of these priorities, the school’s next inspection will be a full section 5 inspection. There is

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

You are resolute in your vision to ensure that every pupil achieves well at Malmesbury Park. You set high expectations and the school improvement plan provides structure and focus for improvements to be made each year. The school is a welcoming, friendly environment in which to learn. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly happy with the school. They appreciate the extra support and care that staff provide. This is particularly relevant as many families, particularly with younger pupils, arrive during the school year.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

As pupils arrive, they are helped to settle in effectively and quickly. On arrival, you have ensured that pupils are assessed carefully so that teachers can understand and plan for their particular learning needs. Each pupil’s induction is checked to ensure that they make friends and are happy.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

Pupils who speak English as an additional language make good progress. Staff provide lessons rich in vocabulary and extra teaching sessions. Pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities receive additional support and this is carefully checked by the SEN coordinator. Some pupils, who have particular challenges to managing their behaviour, are supported in a specialist unit at the school. You and other senior leaders are currently reviewing this provision to ensure that it is enabling pupils to develop the social skills they need to be successful learners.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

Since the previous inspection, you have reviewed the teaching, learning and assessment of mathematics. Additional teaching and learning resources for mathematics have been introduced. Leaders have organised and overseen a training programme to ensure that staff have the support they need to enhance pupils’ mathematical thinking and skills. As a result, progress in mathematics by Year 6 has improved. Pupils’ progress is in the top 20% compared with national averages for the past two years, particularly for the most able pupils.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

Year group leaders check pupils’ progress by looking at learning in lessons, talking to pupils and looking at pupils’ books. This provides thorough information about individual pupils.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

However, you agree that there is less clarity about the impact that improvements have on standards for all pupils. Information about pupils’ progress is not currently analysed effectively. Therefore, year group leaders and subject leaders do not have an accurate picture of how well different groups of pupils are progressing across the school. They do not identify which aspects of teaching are successful for particular pupils and which are not. Therefore, this information cannot be shared so that teaching and learning strategies across the school improve. Weaknesses in achievement for particular groups are not always picked up on or acted on sufficiently quickly.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders have developed close working arrangements with a wide range of agencies such as education, welfare and social care. There is also good communication with other schools when pupils transfer during the year. Pupils’ files are well organised. The designated leader for safeguarding seeks help quickly if there are concerns about pupils’ well-being.

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no change to the school’s current overall effectiveness grade of good as a

Staff receive a wide range of training and updates regarding safeguarding guidance which includes information about the warning signs of child exploitation. There are also updates given to staff following serious case reviews from around the country. This ensures that staff are fully aware of lessons that have been learned from such reviews.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed to focus on some specific areas during this short inspection. The first involved looking closely at how leaders have made improvements to the teaching of mathematics. Parents spoke highly of the mathematics workshops and extra information provided to help them understand changes to the teaching of mathematics. They reported that this helps them to support their children with mathematics at home.  Talking with pupils and observing learning during lessons confirmed that many pupils are becoming confident young mathematicians. Pupils described how much they enjoy learning during mathematics lessons. Pupils’ books also confirm that many pupils are able to apply their mathematical skills to solve a wider range of problems than previously. Leaders agree that using assessment information to more closely check how different groups of pupils achieve in mathematics across the school is the next step.

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Inspection findings

 We also looked at a key area for improvement for this year, which is reading. Leaders have rightly identified this, as outcomes in reading in key stage 1 have been well below national averages for at least the past two years. The achievement of disadvantaged pupils has been particularly weak. In key stage 2, overall standards in reading are broadly in line with national averages, with a greater percentage of pupils than the national average achieving higher standards. However, boys do far less well than girls. In 2017, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities also made far weaker progress in reading compared to others.  Reading outcomes for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are now being carefully checked on an individual basis. Interventions are evaluated and changed as necessary. These pupils are now making better progress across the school in reading.  Extra reading resources have been brought into school. There is now a well-

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Inspection findings

organised system to ensure that pupils read high-quality books as their reading skills develop. Teachers are encouraged to read often to pupils. Reading skills are developed throughout the day as part of other lessons and teachers use story books to explore and enjoy with their classes.  The subject leader takes time to listen to the views of pupils about their reading and to make improvements from this information. However, as with mathematics, there is little checking of the overall progress that different groups of pupils make in reading across the school. For example, while there is a system of checking reading ages throughout the year, this information has not been analysed and compared so that any weaknesses can be acted on.  Therefore, there is currently no convincing evidence that changes to the teaching of reading are making a positive difference to the standards in reading across the school. It is not clear whether reading standards in key stage 1 and

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Inspection findings

for boys in key stage 2 are improving as they should.  We also explored how leaders ensure that additional funding is used well to support disadvantaged pupils, particularly in phonics and reading. Leaders use additional funding to provide extra teachers in some year groups, particularly for younger pupils. This means that many pupils are taught in small groups during the mornings. Learning seen in lessons and work in pupils’ books show that work is often well matched to the learning needs of these pupils. For example, pupils receive carefully chosen activities to support their learning in phonics.  However, leaders including governors, do not have clear information to show the difference this extra teaching resource is having on achievement for disadvantaged pupils. Standards for disadvantaged pupils across the school remain too low in reading. While leaders can show some improvements this year, disadvantaged pupils are still achieving well below their peers. Leaders do

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Inspection findings

not have a clear picture of what works and what is less successful. They recognise that a clear strategy for ensuring that disadvantaged pupils make better progress across the school needs to be developed urgently.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that swift action is taken to:

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Next steps for the school

 increase progress and raise standards in reading for disadvantaged pupils across the school so that more pupils catch up and match or exceed the achievement of other pupils  increase progress and raise standards in key stage 1 in reading so that it at least reaches national averages  ensure that the differences in boys’ and girls’ progress in reading is diminished so that boys’ achievement is more in line with girls by the end of key stage 2  analyse and understand information gathered about pupils’ achievement so that weaknesses and differences in achievement for subjects, year groups and groups of pupils are identified, and actions are rapidly put in place to tackle the issues which arise  use the assessment information gathered about pupils’ progress and standards achieved to identify strengths in teaching and learning, and share these across the staff team  ensure that governors have a clear understanding of how additional funding is

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Next steps for the school

supporting improved outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the chair of the board of trustees, the regional school’s commissioner and the director of children’s services for Bournemouth. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with senior leaders, year group leaders and subject leaders. Inspectors also talked with parents at the start of the day and took account of the 27 views on the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View.

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Information about the inspection

Together with senior leaders, inspectors visited a range of lessons and discussed provision in the additional units provided by the school. An inspector listened to some pupils reading and talked to pupils about their reading habits. Inspectors talked to staff and took account of the 47 responses to a staff questionnaire that was given to staff during the inspection. Inspectors also talked informally to pupils during the day and looked at pupils’ work books.

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Information about the inspection

A range of documents provided by the school, including those related to improvement planning, self-evaluation, leaders’ monitoring, pupils’ progress and safeguarding, were scrutinised.

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