Kingsleigh Primary School

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

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Mr Richard Gower Headteacher Kingsleigh Primary School Hadow Road Kinson Bournemouth Dorset BH10 5HT

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 January 2018 with Heather Barraclough, 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 your predecessor school was judged to be good in December 2014.

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have maintained the strengths of the school during a period when the number of pupils joining the school has increased considerably, partly due to the popularity of the school within the immediate and wider area. Your school has also joined several other local primary schools in a collaborative partnership. This has widened the range of activities for your pupils to enjoy. It also provides good opportunities for your staff to work with teachers from other schools and share their expertise. Both staff and pupils have responded very positively to these developments.

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

Pupils’ impressive personal development has continued to be a strength. Pupils and parents recognise the high level of care, support and guidance provided. Many parents made their views known to the inspectors. They were almost unanimous in recommending the school to others, and were very positive about almost every aspect of their children’s education. Typical parents’ comments included, ‘I cannot praise the headteacher and staff enough for their dedication and commitment to all the children’ and ‘The school is warm, welcoming and inclusive.’

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

The school has continued to improve. Governance is stronger than before. Staff are now more accountable for pupils’ outcomes. Leaders at all levels check the quality of teaching and learning and support staff well. Staff give excellent support to pupils and families where necessary. Teaching has improved because both teachers and teaching assistants have benefited from many opportunities to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence. As a result of these and other developments, pupils achieve well in all year groups. When Kingsleigh’s predecessor school was inspected some years ago, the leaders were asked to increase challenge for the most able pupils, get pupils to respond more to teachers’ marking, increase the range of outdoor activities for children in early years, and ensure more accurate and rigorous assessments of children when they were joining early years. Current leaders have addressed all these issues conscientiously and effectively.

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

You have ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Records relating to safeguarding are detailed, and you and your governors have recently updated them. When I talked to staff and governors about their responsibilities for safeguarding, they were confident in their knowledge of appropriate procedures and their role in responding to any concerns. There has been appropriate recent safeguarding training within the school.

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

You have worked to increase parents’ awareness of the importance of safeguarding. You give both parents and their children appropriate advice on how to keep safe, including when using technology. This has paid off, as the response of parents during the inspection and the school’s own work with parents makes clear. Parents believe strongly that their children are safe in school. Pupils agree, and as a result they feel safe and enjoy coming to school.

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Short inspection of Kingsleigh Primary School

You have a significant number of pupils in the school who are potentially vulnerable and have a range of learning and personal needs. I have seen the school’s records and know that you and your staff work conscientiously to support these pupils, in conjunction with other agencies when appropriate. You check attendance patterns regularly and staff willingly support not just pupils in school but also their parents outside school, in their determination to keep pupils safe. As a result, there is a positive culture of safeguarding which contributes strongly to pupils’ feelings of security and their successful learning.

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Inspection findings

 The inspection team checked on children’s progress in the pre-school and Reception. We looked at their activities and records of progress, and talked to staff. It is clear that while there are variations from year to year, many children join the school with levels of knowledge, skill and personal development below what is typical for their age, particularly in language and communication skills.  Both in the pre-school and Reception, children make good progress, working both in more structured staff-led groups and in child-initiated activities. The early years leader makes good use of indoor and outdoor resources and welcomes parents into the school. Parents are very enthusiastic about the work that staff do with their children and the care they provide. Children feel safe and well cared for, and enjoy learning.  Staff assessments show that by the time children leave Reception, they have made good

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Inspection findings

progress. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development by the end of Reception is overall above the national average. They are well prepared for Year 1. However, you and your staff recognise that in most areas of learning and personal development girls are ahead of the boys.  We focused on pupils’ progress in key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Although progress of pupils in Years 1 and 2 has been good, in recent times it has been less rapid in some aspects than for older pupils. There are indications that the rate of progress of the younger pupils has improved, including the progress of disadvantaged pupils. In the most recent Year 1 phonics check, pupils’ results were above the national average, an improvement on 2016.  You have correctly identified an improvement in mathematics skills, with a particular emphasis on practical, problem-solving mathematics, as one of the school’s priorities.

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Inspection findings

You have invested resources and staff training in this aspect. Pupils’ work, including that of disadvantaged pupils, is showing the positive results. Pupils’ reading, including that of disadvantaged pupils, has benefited from your efforts to put regular reading in school high on the agenda, along with other initiatives such as restructuring the library.  Overall, the progress of pupils in key stage 1, which was already good, is improving further. Nevertheless, you are not complacent, because you recognise that there are still some variations in achievement by gender; and also that not all disadvantaged pupils achieve at the same rate as other pupils, although the gaps are narrowing.  Progress in key stage 2 has been an area of considerable success for the school. Most pupils attain standards in reading, mathematics and writing at or above the national average by the end of Year 6. This is a considerable achievement, given that many of

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Inspection findings

these pupils joined the school with levels of skill and knowledge below the national expectation. In 2017, the rate of progress in writing put the school in the top 10% of schools in the country. Progress in mathematics was above average. Progress in reading was more variable, but still above average.  You recognise that despite these successes, the school can still aim higher. Some variations in achievement between boys and girls remain. While progress for nearly all pupils is good and sometimes outstanding, some disadvantaged pupils and some pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities do not progress as quickly as others. There are still some weaknesses in spelling and grammar. You and your staff are working hard to address these relative weaknesses and further increase the rate of progress for those pupils not achieving as rapidly as others.  The quality of much of the writing, particularly the range in pupils’ English books, is

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Inspection findings

impressive. However, the work in some of the topics is less impressive. For example, some of the written tasks set in history or geography topics are not challenging enough for the pupils to show their full potential. Also, as you recognise, there are still some weaknesses in spelling, punctuation and grammar.  Attendance has been below average. Principally this has been because although you work hard and mostly successfully with parents to emphasise the importance of regular attendance, there are some parents with whom the school finds it difficult to engage. The work done by dedicated staff and initiatives such as the breakfast club have resulted in some improvement in attendance. However, some disadvantaged pupils and some pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities have a poor record of attendance.  Finally, we considered the effectiveness of leadership at all levels, and of governance, in continuing to promote good progress and build on existing strengths of the school. Your

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Inspection findings

own leadership, ably supported by other leaders and all staff, has been instrumental in continuing to move the school forward. Parents firmly believe this. You evaluate the school’s strengths and areas for development accurately, and your planning for school development focuses on the right priorities.  Governors both support and challenge the school to build on its successes. Governors are now more knowledgeable and actively involved in checking teaching and learning than before. Middle leaders with particular responsibilities for subjects and year groups are playing an important role in further raising attainment and progress through their work with other staff.  You have brought in several developments to improve the school further. You make good use of the links with other local schools to promote staff development as well as opportunities for pupils. You have initiated changes in assessment to help identify those

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Inspection findings

pupils needing support more quickly. You have overseen changes in the teaching of spelling, reading, and mathematics. The successes you and you staff have achieved show that the school has the capacity to improve further.

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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

 teachers continue their efforts to improve the overall quality of writing by encouraging work of greater range and depth in subjects other than English; and further embedding the school’s strategies for improving spelling, grammar and punctuation  the school continues its efforts to improve the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and those pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.

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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 Bournemouth. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I and my inspector colleague accompanied you and the deputy headteacher in visiting all the classrooms to briefly observe pupils’ learning and behaviour. We had meetings with yourself and other members of staff. We talked with some pupils.

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Information about the inspection

I met three governors. I also met three phase leaders. My colleague met the early years leader and also the member of staff responsible for special educational needs.

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Information about the inspection

We looked at pupils’ books, both for the work done since the start of the school year and also for some work that had been completed in the previous year. I looked at the school’s evaluation of itself and its planning for improvement. I looked at the school website, information about current pupils’ progress and various documents relating to attendance and safeguarding.

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Information about the inspection

We took account of 93 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. I also read several letters written by parents and looked at the school’s record of its own survey of parents’ views.

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