All Saints CofE Primary School

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

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Mrs Jacqueline Beech Headteacher All Saints CofE Primary School Wilford Road West Bromwich West Midlands B71 1QN

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 23 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 the school was judged to be good in November 2013.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice in certain areas. This may indicate that the school is improving towards being outstanding. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Under your visionary leadership and clear direction, you have enhanced many aspects of the school’s work since the previous inspection. There have been substantial improvements to the school’s curriculum, pupils’ behaviour, the quality of teaching, and engagement with parents and carers. You are ably supported by the wider leadership team in your tireless work to provide pupils with the best possible chances to succeed across a broad range of subjects. Governors contribute fully to the leadership vision and support you in your quest to make sure that the school provides an outstanding quality of education.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Since the last inspection, pupils’ attendance has shifted from below average to above average when compared to national figures. This is largely because pupils love coming to school. Every pupil I spoke to, without exception, described the school with great positivity. Pupils’ behaviour in the classroom and on the playground is impeccable. They are very well mannered and show respect for each other. Pupils were welcoming and wanted to talk about their learning and the exciting opportunities they receive at school. The leadership of teaching is exceptional. Your checks on the quality of teaching are meticulous and you provide detailed guidance and feedback to help teachers get the best from pupils in terms of learning and outcomes. Highly effective teaching, across all year groups, enables almost all pupils to achieve well. Teachers create memorable learning experiences which capture pupils’ interests and imagination.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

For example, during one outdoor history lesson, I was met by a ‘Stone Age tribe’, whittling sticks to make spears in order to hunt woolly mammoth. Another group were preparing a real fire to cook the beasts, once caught. The pupils were fully engaged in this role play and gained significant knowledge and understanding about the lives of Stone Age of hunter-gatherers.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Generally, standards in reading, writing and mathematics have risen continually over the last three years. In spite of pupils’ often low starting points, the proportions attaining expected standards in these subjects by the end of key stage 2 are above national average figures. The only exception was in 2017 when reading dipped. You understand the reasons for this anomaly and have taken swift and effective action to address the matter. Rates of pupils’ progress, including those of pupils who are disadvantaged, continue to strengthen year on year. Pupils make particularly strong progress in mathematics. However, you recognise that there is more work to do to ensure that opportunities to extend pupils’ numeracy skills are developed further in other subjects.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

You never become complacent, but instead keenly seek external challenge from others to improve outcomes for pupils. This includes organisations such as the Historical Association and making use of the ‘quality mark’ process to assess the school’s performance. Leaders act quickly in response to any recommendations they receive and use this to further enhance the school’s provision. Leaders evaluate their work regularly, identifying and sharing what is working well. The school is recognised by the local authority as a beacon of high-quality practice for its curriculum work.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Over time, you have created a school where learning is abundant and pupils are passionate about developing new skills and knowledge. A genuine learning community exists within and beyond the school. There is a clear belief that everyone, including staff, parents and pupils, are learners with great potential. Teachers provide a wide range of opportunities to enable pupils to flourish, and they do. Parents are praiseworthy in their comments about the school, and take the many opportunities to get involved with their children’s learning.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Leaders have addressed fully the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Teachers, with consistently high expectations of all pupils, use well- chosen resources and carefully planned activities to engage and sustain pupils’ interests. This leads to good and improving outcomes.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Ensuring that pupils remain safe and thrive in a happy environment is a key priority for everyone who works at the school. Promoting pupils’ positive emotional health, and regularly checking on their welfare, are integral to the school’s work. Staff remain vigilant to any concerns that may arise and manage these quickly and effectively when necessary. Leaders are tenacious in following up safeguarding matters when other agencies are slow to respond. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

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Short inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School

Staff go ‘above and beyond’ to support families, working closely with other agencies and organisations, to get them the help and support they need. You have developed a strong, trusting relationship between home and school which is beneficial to both the pupils’ personal and academic outcomes. A well-planned personal, social and health education programme, tailored to the pupils’ needs, helps them to manage risk, make informed choices and stay safe.

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Inspection findings

 The teaching of reading is effective. Leaders’ strategies to address the previous shortfalls in reading provision at key stage 2 have been highly successful, enabling current pupils to make rapid progress in their reading. The introduction of ‘focused reading sessions’ ensure that pupils master quickly the essential skills of reading and have ample opportunities to apply their skills across the wider curriculum.  Pupils achieve well in phonics and apply their skills effectively to work out unknown words. For the last two years, the proportion of pupils passing the phonics screening check has been above the national average. Similarly, pupils attain well in reading at the end of key stage 1.  The majority of pupils show very positive attitudes towards reading because they are inspired by their teachers and enjoy the ‘class reads’ that pupils study together. However, at present there are not enough opportunities for pupils to

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Inspection findings

talk about their personal reading and recommend good books to each other. The quality of library stock is variable, and to some extent, is lacking in high-quality fiction.  Middle leaders make a strong contribution to the quality of teaching and learning throughout the school and across a broad range of subjects. They are full of enthusiasm about their subjects and drive improvement with energy and commitment. As a result, pupils achieve consistently good outcomes in a broad range of subjects, including history, geography, physical education and the arts. These achievements are often recognised through accredited quality standards. For example, the school has achieved the Artsmark gold award, demonstrating leaders’ ability to bring high-quality arts learning into the curriculum.  The rich, well-designed and enticing curriculum is a major strength of the school. Pupils relish the purposeful and enjoyable learning activities that teachers plan

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Inspection findings

for them. Tasks are appropriately challenging. This helps pupils to develop resilience in their learning when they encounter problems and learn how to overcome them.  Pupils value the cross-curricular links made between subjects, which enables them to make more sense of their learning. However, opportunities to embed mathematics into science, geography and other subjects is less well developed. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very strong because teachers weave in teaching points at every opportunity.

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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 further embed mathematics across a wider range of subjects  pupils have a better range of high-quality reading material from which to choose.

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Next steps for the school

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held discussions with you about the school’s self-evaluation and current priorities. I met with leaders responsible for safeguarding to discuss the school’s arrangements for child protection. I held a meeting with governors, including the chair of the governing body. I also met with some middle leaders to discuss the curriculum. I talked to several other staff about how they keep pupils safe. I joined you in classroom visits to observe learning in all year groups, except Year 1, who were on a trip. I spoke to pupils about their work and looked at a range of books. I listened to several pupils read.

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Information about the inspection

I evaluated a wide range of documents, including the school’s improvement plan, monitoring of teaching records, pupils’ assessment information, governors’ documentation and records related to safeguarding. The views of parents were considered through the 30 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire and 26 free-text comments. I also talked to parents on the playground at the end of the school day.

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