Greenfield Primary School

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

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Mr Andrew Ralph Headteacher Greenfield Primary School Cherry Tree Street Hoyland Barnsley South Yorkshire S74 9RG

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 10 January 2018, 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 school was judged to be good in October 2012.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. After a period of staffing instability, you now have a more stable leadership team. You have worked hard to develop new leadership of literacy, which has strengthened the capacity for improvement. You have created a positive learning culture within the staff team by sharing responsibilities, increasing accountability and giving staff opportunities to develop their leadership skills. As a result, staff morale is high and, together, you take collective responsibility for pupils’ outcomes.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

The school is a vibrant, happy place where pupils display great enthusiasm for learning, behave well and are keen to share their achievements. They are, rightly, proud of their learning and are eager to discuss it. Pupils speak very highly of the regular award ceremonies that acknowledge and reward them for their good achievements in learning and behaviour. Pupils understand and value the many ways that staff build their confidence, develop their resilience, encourage their curiosity and help them to strive for success. Pupils told me that getting work wrong is part of learning: ‘If you get something wrong we just keep learning. We try, try again.’

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

At the previous inspection, you were asked to promote pupils’ thinking and problem- solving skills more frequently in lessons. You have worked really hard to develop this. Across the school, pupils are given good opportunities to develop their problem-solving skills effectively. Pupils are confident when given new and challenging problems. They use a range to skills to approach them with determination and resilience. The school’s success in this area is reflected in the much higher standards achieved in mathematics by the end of Year 6 than previously.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

The school’s self-evaluation is accurate and your improvement plans are well judged, with clear strategies to move the school forward. Governors have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for further development. School leaders and governors have used their knowledge to develop detailed improvement plans. You also make good use of the support and challenge from the school’s improvement adviser. You are, rightly, focusing on increasing the proportion of pupils that reach levels of greater depth in writing by the end of Year 6 and improving the rate of progress from children’s starting points in the early years and key stage 1. As a result of your work in these areas, including the introduction of a number of new initiatives, pupils are already making stronger progress. You know there is still more to do to ensure that children’s writing is promoted consistently well in the early years. You also know that you still need

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

to iron out a few remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching in key stages 1 and 2.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the standard of education their children receive and almost all would recommend the school to another parent. Typical comments from parents include: ‘The school has wonderful staff that go above and beyond. My children are happy, settled and being educated in a safe and caring environment’ and ‘As a parent, I am kept fully informed of developments within the school. The teachers are all approachable and my children look forward to going to school each morning.’ Parents also appreciate your assemblies that teach their children strong valves. One parent commented, ‘My child comes home and shares the teaching from the assemblies. They teach me things too.’

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

The school has a strong safeguarding culture. Leaders ensure that there is constant vigilance and an ethos of ‘it could happen here so be ready’ is shared by staff. Staff are confident that they would recognise the signs of abuse, as a result of regular and systematic training and updates for all. They know the school’s procedures for reporting any concerns and whom to contact to seek advice.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

School leaders have no complacency regarding pupils’ safety, and continually review the safeguarding procedures, including ensuring that access to the school premises is secure.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

Parents told me that they know that the children are kept safe. They value that their children are taught about keeping themselves safe, such as on the internet. Pupils spoke confidently about the online safety lessons that they have received. Pupils know that they can share concerns with a trusted adult in school and that adults will help them to deal with any issues that they have.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

Behaviour in the school is good. Pupils have excellent manners and show respect for one another. Behaviour is monitored effectively and reported to governors. Patterns of behaviour are identified and discussed with parents and carers and pupils when needed. Recording-keeping is extremely strong. The safeguarding lead ensures that all records are up to date and all actions are followed up. Records show that prompt action has been taken to provide support for families who need help, including work with outside agencies, including social services. The school keeps detailed records during the staff recruitment processes. All the required checks on staff are completed. All staff are trained to the appropriate level for their role.

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Short inspection of Greenfield Primary School

School policies are kept up to date. During the inspection, you and your lead for safeguarding took immediate action to ensure that some school policies that were out of date or absent on the school’s website were brought up to date. The website now complies fully with government requirements.

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Inspection findings

 One of my key lines of enquiry was to find out what leaders are doing to increase the proportion of pupils achieving at greater depth in writing by the end of key stage 2. Writing is seen as a school priority; displays show high-quality writing and pupils are proud of their work. Pupils are given the opportunity to write widely and at length across the subjects of the curriculum. Writing tasks are inspiring, motivating and challenging. Pupils want to write at length, including the boys. They can focus for sustained periods and produce writing of a high standard. Pupils enjoy writing for a purpose. Pupils who were writing stories for pupils in a different class said, ‘We can’t wait to read this story to the younger children.’ Inspection evidence shows that pupils, including the most able, are making strong progress in writing in key stage 2.  I also wanted to check how effective leaders are in ensuring that pupils make good

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Inspection findings

progress in key stage 1 from their starting points. This is because the standards reached by pupils at the end of Year 2 in the last two years have been below average.  In reading, writing and mathematics in key stage 1, pupils are provided with work that is well matched to their needs and abilities and which reflects their starting points. Expectations of what pupils can achieve in mathematics are particularly high. From a young age, pupils are able to problem solve and reason at a very high level. Pupils talk about their learning and justify their answers with confidence. Pupils also achieve well in reading. By the end of Year 1 in 2017, an above-average proportion of pupils reached the expected standard in the phonics screening check. Approaches to teaching phonics have been strengthened and strong teaching in Year 2 is making sure that these pupils continue to build well on their starting points. Pupils are also

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Inspection findings

using and applying phonics skills well in their writing and this is helping them to make good progress. Inspection evidence shows that pupils in key stage 1 are achieving well overall.  I wanted to look at key stage 1 because in recent years, the achievement of disadvantaged pupils by the end of Year 2 has lagged behind that of other pupils. Inspection evidence showed that disadvantaged pupils are well supported in lessons through appropriate adult support, in addition to targeted interventions. The previous gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils is narrowing as a result.  Inspection evidence confirms that pupils in both key stage 1 and 2 are making good progress overall. However, progress is still sometimes variable. This is because there are a few remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching across the school. For example, teachers do not always respond as quickly to the learning needs of the

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Inspection findings

pupils to adapt work as swiftly as they could. This occasionally slows pupils’ learning. Leaders acknowledge that there is scope to ensure that the strongest teaching practices are shared more widely among staff.  Finally, I looked at what leaders are doing to ensure that more children reach a good level of development by the end of the early years. Leaders ensure that children’s skills, knowledge and understanding when they join the early years are assessed accurately. This information shows that children’s starting points have declined and are now typically much lower than usual for their age. Despite this, outcomes at the end of the early years have largely remained static and close to average. This reflects good progress.  The early years leader knows the children extremely well. She ensures that children are motivated to learn through exciting activities that are based on the children’s interests. Children have a clear ‘buzz’ for learning, both indoors and in the outdoor

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Inspection findings

learning environment. They are confident, enjoy challenging themselves and can maintain their concentration. They discuss their ideas with each other with self- assurance and respect, taking turns in the conversation and articulating their opinions clearly. Despite children’s clear engagement and enjoyment in their learning, opportunities to develop children’s independent writing skills are sometimes overlooked. This requires further attention.

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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

 remaining inconsistencies in the quality of teaching are ironed out through modelling the strong practice that is evident in the school  opportunities for children to develop independent writing skills in the early years are developed further.

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Next steps for the school

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I held meetings with you and senior leaders. I also met with three members of the governing body and a local authority adviser. I evaluated documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, the school development plan, attendance records and information about safeguarding. I spoke with several parents at the start of the school day and considered the 47 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. One response to Ofsted’s pupil questionnaire and 27 responses to the staff questionnaire were also considered. I met with a group of pupils from a range of year groups. You and I visited all classrooms together to observe teaching and learning and scrutinise pupils’ work in their books.

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