Kings Road Primary School

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

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Mr Darren Morgan Headteacher Kings Road Primary School Kings Road Firswood Manchester M16 0GR

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 23 January 2018 with Adrian Francis, 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 July 2013.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Strong leadership ensures that the school continues to improve. You and the leadership team work tirelessly to make this school the best it can be. There is a tangible sense of belonging in this school. You and members of the staff greet pupils as they arrive at school. You provide your own crossing patrol, ensuring that pupils cross the busy road in front of the school safely. The parents and carers with whom I spoke before school told me about the strong support that you and the staff provide for their children. One parent, typical of many, said, ‘The dedication and hard work of the staff is amazing.’

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

Pupils are welcoming and friendly. They talk with confidence about the work that they are doing and work that they have previously completed. I talked with a number of pupils during the day and they spoke with clarity about their love of the school. Pupils said that bullying did not happen at their school. They said that sometimes they ‘fall out’ with each other, but they all agreed that you and your staff help them sort things out. From observing the pupils move around school, in lessons and during playtime, it is clear that behaviour continues to be a strength of the school.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

The areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection report have been tackled effectively. Since the previous inspection, you and the leadership team have worked hard to ensure that teaching is good and that it challenges pupils in lessons to achieve their best. You have strong systems in place to monitor and track the progress of each pupil. You and the leadership team make regular checks on the quality of teaching and the quality of work in pupils’ books. In the lessons that we visited together, we saw work that teachers matched closely to the ability of the pupils.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

You have strengthened your use of assessment. For example, you use the assessment information that you have to ensure that additional adults are deployed effectively to support pupils’ learning and progress. This additional support frees teachers to work with other groups of pupils most in need. For example, in a Year 3 mathematics lesson, the teacher supported a group helping them to reinforce concepts. Pupils spoke with me about their learning and what they needed to do to make their work even better. Work in pupils’ books from across the school is of a good standard, with the majority of pupils making good progress.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

Inspectors also asked leaders and governors to work more closely together to check that pupils learn as well as possible. You, your leadership team and governors have ensured that pupils learn well in all the subjects that they study. You and your governors successfully turned around pupils’ performance in mathematics by enhancing the ongoing training afforded to your staff. This in turn has led to above- average outcomes in mathematics by the time the pupils leave key stage 2. You and your governors give staff time to carry out research in their subject areas. They share good practice routinely. As a result of this work, teaching is strong and the high standards seen in mathematics and writing are being transferred to other subjects. This is most evident in the high quality of pupils’ work on display around the school, which reflects a rich and exciting curriculum.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

Through your monitoring systems, you identify areas that still need to be developed. You are aware of current areas to improve, such as issues of low attendance for some pupils, improving reading in key stage 2 and improving outcomes for children in early years. You have already put many actions in place to tackle these issues.

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Short inspection of Kings Road Primary School

The school’s approach to safeguarding is exemplary and records are meticulous. No stone is left unturned in following up safeguarding concerns. Safeguarding is a high priority and pupils say that they feel safe. This view is shared by the parents who shared their responses via the online questionnaire and those with whom I spoke on the morning of the inspection. You and the leadership team ensure that pupils stay safe at all times. All members of staff have received safeguarding basic awareness and ‘Prevent’ duty training. Several staff and members of the governing body are trained in safer recruitment. Governors are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and fulfil their statutory duties with due care and diligence.

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Inspection findings

 During this inspection, I focused on three key lines of enquiry. The first of these was in relation to pupils’ attendance. Historically, the attendance of pupils has been below the national average. This trend continues. Over the course of the previous three years, attendance declined and persistent absences increased. You are very aware of this and now track attendance carefully and insist that parents explain absences. You also make better use of the family support worker, the education welfare officer and the attendance officer in monitoring and tackling poor attendance. You work with the local authority and have had a full review of your attendance practices. You and the leadership team are proactive in engaging with parents, especially as you identify that a high proportion of absences are due to parents taking their children abroad to visit family. Families also take additional days for religious observance. Despite these concerns,

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Inspection findings

current data shows an improvement this year when compared with the same time last year. Similarly, the rates of persistent absences are beginning to drop. However, they are still higher than the national average. You and I agreed that there was still more work to be done to bring attendance figures in line with the national average.  During the inspection, we looked at the quality of the provision in the early years foundation stage. Under the guidance of a recently appointed senior leader, the staff team in early years are working together with a shared purpose. There is evidence of strong practice and good teaching.  Attainment on entry is low, with high proportions of pupils entering school speaking English as an additional language. This year, 92% of the children in the Reception classes speak English as an additional language. You have ensured that staff work closely with these children to develop their spoken language skills.

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Inspection findings

For example, staff encouraged children to talk about their ideas about length when measuring pieces of string. Children work with independence and adults model behaviour and provide support where required. The structure of the day enables carefully planned activities to be available for the children both inside and outside the classrooms. The behaviour of the children in early years is a strength. This year, teaching is good and there is a high percentage of children in Reception Year making accelerated levels of progress. Through discussions with you and your leadership team, it was agreed that the school has the capacity to increase the percentage of children achieving a good level of development.  The final area that I looked at during the inspection related to the teaching of reading. Pupils leave the school having typically made average progress in reading compared with above-average progress in mathematics and writing. The

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Inspection findings

promotion of reading is a high priority for the school. You have recently invested in a new school library. You have rightly recognised that, due to the high proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language, language acquisition is a key concern. You promote language through your exciting curriculum. For example, pupils with whom I spoke were keen to share the work carried out in the recent ‘Mantle of the expert’ week.  You have provided many strategies to improve reading. Teachers enable pupils to read more for understanding across a range of subjects. Pupils are improving their inference skills. Our joint observations showed that these new routines are now established. You have improved the quality of texts and pupils now approach their reading with maturity. Pupils who read during the inspection did so with confidence and enthusiasm. Through discussion with you and the leadership team, we agreed that the standards achieved in reading should

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Inspection findings

increase to be in line with the high standards achieved in writing and mathematics. In-school progress data for this year shows that a greater proportion of pupils are currently on track on make strong progress in reading.

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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

 the percentage of children achieving a good level of development by the end of early years increases to be in line with the national average  attendance continues to improve and levels of persistent absences fall  pupils make better progress in reading by the end of key stage 2.

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

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I met with you, the deputy headteacher and members of your senior leadership team. I met with three members of the governing body. I held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority. I spoke with pupils throughout the day. I spoke to several parents on the playground as the pupils arrived at school.

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Information about the inspection

You and I visited classes and we looked at the work in pupils’ books. I looked at a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation and information about tracking and monitoring. I looked at the school’s single central record, including policies to keep children safe, safeguarding records and attendance information.

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Information about the inspection

I took account of 15 responses to Parent View, the Ofsted online questionnaire, including nine free-text responses. I considered the 51 responses to the pupil survey and 46 response to the staff survey.

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