Dallimore Primary & Nursery School

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

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Mrs Rachel Crowther Headteacher Dallimore Primary School Dallimore Road Kirk Hallam Ilkeston Derbyshire DE7 4GZ

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 6 March 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 September 2013.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Teaching across the school is regularly monitored by you and is consistently good. You have a good knowledge of the school’s strengths and recognise the areas that need further improvement. Your current evaluation document is an accurate assessment of your school’s strengths and is based upon a wide range of evidence. Your school development plan addresses the areas that you and your staff need to improve further.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

The governing body performs its strategic role effectively, holding you to account whilst challenging and offering support as appropriate. Governors receive detailed information on the quality of teaching and outcomes of all groups of pupils. Governors have a good knowledge of the school’s development priorities and are updated regularly on how the work of the school is meeting these priorities.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

You and your staff work tirelessly to support the high number of pupils whose home circumstances may make them vulnerable. You invest many resources into making sure that this group of pupils’ emotional and social needs are met.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

Staff consistently model cooperation, calmness, good manners and positivity to pupils. Consequently, teacher–pupil relationships are strong and pupils report that they feel well cared for and supported by both teachers and support assistants in school. Pupils display positive attitudes to learning in lessons and their behaviour is good. Pupils are friendly, polite and respectful both to adults in school and to each other. Pupils speak positively about their school. One pupil commented ‘School is good because we have a new building and teachers here are kind. They make learning fun’.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

You promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils have opportunities to explore other cultures and religions and are knowledgeable about the various aspects of British values. One pupil commented that ‘It is important to be tolerant because, say if someone was a different religion, it wouldn’t be fair to pick on each other – you should accept each other for who you are.’

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

Parents speak highly of the school. They appreciate the ‘welcoming atmosphere, good leadership and good communication between school and home’. One parent remarked on ‘how quickly the school sorts things out if there are any issues’ and another commented that ‘Moving our child to Dallimore Primary was the best thing we ever did.’

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

You have taken actions to tackle the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Teachers now provide greater guidance and support in pupils’ books and pupils are clear about the targets that they have been set in mathematics, reading and writing. Pupils now respond well to teachers’ written feedback. For example, a pupil was asked to find out what ‘considerable’ meant. The pupil responded in writing ‘It means a lot of something like we have a lot (considerable) amount of time.’

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

The school has introduced a mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics that has raised expectations for all pupils, including the most able. Pupils are given additional challenges each morning, commensurate to their ability, that are linked to the previous day’s teaching. A new ‘inference’ approach to reading is starting to provide pupils with the knowledge and skills necessary for them to be able to access, comprehend and enjoy challenging texts. Pupils report that they feel challenged with their work and most of the work that I scrutinised supports this.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

Providing more opportunities for pupils to complete homework that involves parents in their children’s learning was another highlighted area for improvement. Pupils receive regular mathematics homework focusing on times-tables practice and place value. They are also expected to read regularly and learn their spellings at home. In addition to this, projects are periodically given as homework tasks to encourage parents to work alongside their children. Key stage 1 pupils spoke enthusiastically about a recent homework activity where they had to design and make a rainforest from a shoebox. Year 6 pupils have also been recently tasked with designing and making a model tank at home to complement their curriculum studies on the Second World War. Safeguarding is effective.

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Short inspection of Dallimore Primary School

Safeguarding systems are robust and the arrangements in school are fit for purpose. Systems are simple and clear. Staff understand their roles and responsibilities in ensuring the safety of all pupils. Records are detailed and stored appropriately. Governors receive the necessary training including, for example, in safer recruitment, and in the ‘Prevent’ duty. A safeguarding link governor undertakes periodic checks of the school’s safeguarding records. Pupils feel safe and well cared for. They report that incidents of bullying are rare but are confident that staff would act quickly should any occur.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders are aware that the rates of progress and attainment in reading are not as good as they should be for key stage 2 pupils. You have put strategies in place to help remedy this and your current data indicates that this is starting to impact positively on pupils’ reading skills.  Your school has provided reading book sacks that parents are able to borrow for bedtime reading sessions with their children. You have improved phonics provision by complementing your current scheme with resources that appeal more to kinaesthetic learners. Guided reading practice has been improved and now comprises daily discrete sessions with all pupils focusing on a reading task at the same time. Teachers also try to add relevance and interest by matching reading material to topics being taught. For example, Year 6 pupils are currently reading ‘The boy in the striped pyjamas’ to support their history project on the

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Inspection findings

Second World War. Staff have been trained in a new ‘inference’ approach to reading and the literacy lead teacher is closely monitoring its delivery and impact. A recently introduced reading recovery programme taught by trained teaching assistants to support targeted pupils in key stage 2 is also starting to impact positively on pupils’ comprehension skills. You offer an after-school story club for selected year groups and have a rewards programme for pupils who read regularly at home. To encourage pupils to choose new books alongside their parents, the school library is also open after school on one day a week.  Pupils report that they would appreciate a greater range of books in their classroom and whole school library. You have started to address this.  Another focus of the inspection was to look at the provision and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. The school rightly acknowledges that results for this group

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Inspection findings

of pupils are not high enough. You have recently simplified the system for supporting this vulnerable group of pupils. Teachers now write an individual education plan for each disadvantaged pupil with clear, measurable targets. These are then reviewed with yourself at termly pupil progress meetings. Provision in class and through targeted interventions is then adjusted as necessary.  The school has highlighted the main barriers to learning for this vulnerable group of pupils as being social and emotional. You use the pupil premium grant effectively to address this need. Two funded ‘Thrive’ mentors deliver a programme to provide emotional support to help these pupils become more resilient and resourceful. School monitoring indicates that this programme is markedly reducing the amount of disruptive incidents that many of these pupils were previously involved in. Other initiatives include funding visits to family

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Inspection findings

learning activities at local universities to raise pupils’ aspirations and funding forest school work with pupils. Pupils’ attendance at breakfast club and teaching assistant cooking sessions for this group of pupils is also funded with this money.  You track this group carefully and data analysis for the last two terms indicates that the gaps between this group of learners and others are diminishing. Progress seen in both pupils’ books and during classroom visits support this. However, the school rightly acknowledges that not enough of these pupils are working at greater depth in reading, writing and mathematics.  You agreed with me that the attendance of pupils is not as good as it should be, particularly with regard to persistent absence. You have made improvements to address this. Attendance data is now scrutinised monthly to highlight pupils whose attendance is slipping. You quickly communicate any concerns with

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Inspection findings

families by letter and this is escalated should their child’s attendance not improve. This includes a formal letter requesting parents to attend a meeting in school with the education welfare officer to address the issue in more detail. You present good-attendance rewards to pupils at the end of each term and at the end of each year, when a major treat can be earned such as a funded ten-pin bowling trip. Attendance tracking for the current academic year shows that attendance is slowly improving but you agree that this rigorous monitoring approach needs to be maintained to ensure that this pattern continues.

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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 school builds on the work already done to support pupils’ reading skills so that pupils’ reading progress is accelerated  persistent absence is reduced to be at least in line with the national average  the progress of disadvantaged pupils is accelerated so that a greater proportion are working at greater depth in all subject areas 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 Derbyshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you, the deputy headteacher and members of the governing body. I also spoke on the telephone with a representative from the local authority and met with a group of pupils to gather their opinions regarding various aspects of the school. I also heard a group of pupils read. I visited classes with you to observe teaching and learning. I looked at a sample of pupils’ work from different year groups. I observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at lunchtime. I considered the views of 21 parents posted on Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, alongside 22 staff responses and 29 pupil responses in corresponding Ofsted surveys. I also met parents at the start of the school day. I visited the breakfast club to check that pupils were safe. I read a range of documents, including the school’s self- evaluation, your school development plan and your review of governance. I studied

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Information about the inspection

information related to attendance and examined safeguarding records and policies. I also examined the school’s website to check that it meets requirements on the publication of specified information.

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