Broadway East First School

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

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Ms Helen McKenna Broadway East First School Broadway East Gosforth Newcastle-upon-Tyne Tyne and Wear NE3 5JQ

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

Following my visit to the school on 20 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 December 2013.

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have established a focus on continuing improvement that is shared by all staff and members of the governing body. You and your leadership team have reviewed teaching and assessment procedures. You have brought in changes that are making sure that all pupils make the best progress possible. Because of effective teaching and clear leadership, pupils make good progress and achieve good and improving standards. As a result, in 2017, the proportions of pupils in key stage 1 who reached the expected standards were above those seen nationally. In addition, you and your team have enabled pupils to work at a greater depth of understanding and, again, the proportion reaching this standard was above that seen nationally.

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

You and your team have addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Teachers are using information about pupils’ learning accurately, to plan lessons that enable different ability groups to make the best progress possible. You and your leadership team have also ensured that robust systems are in place for staff to share the good practice in school. In addition, you have made sure that they are able to look beyond their own school and learn from other teachers in the local area.

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

Your team’s commitment to pupils’ academic development is matched by its commitment to pupils’ wider personal and social development. Pupils behave in a very positive way and show great care and concern for each other from an early age. For example, children in Reception were happy to help each other with their writing when producing a report about ‘The tiger who came to tea’. They enjoyed giving advice as to what to write and how to spell words. Older pupils take on additional roles as ‘buddies’ to support younger pupils in making friends and addressing low-level concerns. Pupils are very polite and friendly and show a genuine interest in visitors to their school. There is a calm and orderly atmosphere around school, and pupils arrive at lessons ready to learn. Parents recognise and appreciate the care and guidance that you provide. As one parent stated, ‘I feel happy that my child is going into a lovely, safe, secure and well-looked-after school,

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

The quality of teaching continues to improve because of your resolute focus on this aspect of the school’s work and the range of personalised staff training and development provided. This improvement in the quality of teaching and a sharper focus on pupils who may be at risk of falling behind are accelerating the progress that pupils make in their learning. This is particularly the case for disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities.

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

The governing body is made up of a committed group of individuals who bring a wide range of skills to support the school. Recently, there have been several changes in the membership of the governing body. However, these changes have been managed well to make sure that governors, overall, continue to have the skills and understanding necessary to fully support the school. Governors have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. They are appropriately challenging and visit the school regularly to check that the information given by leaders is accurate.

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

School leaders and governors maintain a continual focus on pupils’ welfare and have established a strong culture of safeguarding. Careful checks are made on the suitability of adults working at the school. You have ensured that all staff receive up-to-date training on key safeguarding issues. Any concerns over pupils’ welfare are pursued thoroughly and recorded accurately. School leaders and governors carry out regular reviews of safeguarding practice. Pupils feel safe and well supported in school, and their parents and carers agree. Pupils from Year 1 to Year 4 spoke confidently about being able to talk to any adult in school if they have a problem or concern. Pupils feel that bullying is rare in school and, if it did happen, it would be tackled quickly and effectively by their teachers. Pupils also have a good knowledge of how to stay safe online and are very clear as to when they can access different types of social media. Your school’s focus on providing a safe and caring

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Short inspection of Broadway East First School

community supports pupils in feeling safe and secure.

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Inspection findings

 The school has many strategies in place to encourage pupils’ regular and punctual attendance. Leaders and governors work continuously to make sure that everyone understands the importance of attending school through using a range of personalised approaches. This includes meeting with parents, sharing attendance data at parent evenings and putting in place a robust and targeted system for tracking individual pupil attendance. You are especially tenacious in directly telephoning parents and their children to encourage them to come into school every day. Those pupils spoken to understand the need to be in school so that they can learn and prepare themselves for future careers.  You and your staff are very aware of the small minority of families who have affected the school’s attendance figures over previous years, mainly due to extended holidays in term time. However, there has been an increase in attendance rates for these families and their children because of the strategies

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Inspection findings

and support that you have put in place.  Leaders in school are taking effective and focused action in supporting disadvantaged pupils. As a result, from their starting points, disadvantaged pupils are currently making strong progress. Individual pupils’ barriers to learning are quickly identified and a range of in-class support is provided. You and your coordinator for special educational needs (SENCo) accurately check the progress of these pupils and address any underperformance rapidly. In addition, the school carefully monitors the social and emotional well-being of these pupils. Wherever possible, you and your team aim to provide personalised support by listening to pupils and parents to understand their needs. You have made sure that pupils are fully included into the life of the school and they can access everything that Broadway East First School has to offer. For example, an after- school club is provided where pupils can access support, resources and additional

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Inspection findings

materials to help them produce good-quality homework tasks.  In school, the proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is significantly below average. While this group of pupils is small, in 2017 they did not perform as well as pupils nationally. You and your recently appointed SENCo are taking rapid and robust action to further improve the provision for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. The SENCo has a very good knowledge of the needs of families and their children and has quickly established very good relationships with them. The SENCo uses this knowledge to provide tailored support for each pupil, which is rigorously monitored for impact on learning as well as personal development and welfare. They continuously keep up to date with recent initiatives and developments in SEN and make sure that this information is shared with staff and parents. On a bi-annual basis, the SENCo leads and runs a SEN

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Inspection findings

Fair in school, where local and national organisations are present to share with staff and parents the latest resources and strategies to support pupils. Because of this ongoing work and support, currently pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are making good progress and in Year 4 this progress is rapid.  You are very aware of the need to maintain the good level of attainment in Reception and key stage 1. In addition, you ensuring that standards are further maintained for pupils in the lower end of key stage 2 as they prepare to enter middle school. You and your governors have carefully looked at which year groups teachers are placed in to make sure that their expertise is used to the best advantage for pupils. For example, you have further strengthened provision for children through the movement of staff from key stage 1 into Reception. This has invigorated current practice and, as a result, children make good progress

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Inspection findings

and, in some cases, particularly in writing, rapid progress.  Teachers are part of regular internal and external moderation to make sure that all pupils across the school are receiving the same good quality of teaching and learning. Feedback from these moderation sessions is used to identify further areas for development for staff and pupils. From this, you have put in place personalised training so that staff expertise is always appropriate and up to date and meets the needs of all pupils currently in school. Regular opportunities for staff to take part in lesson study visits have enabled them to examine each other’s practice and the subsequent impact on pupils’ progress. From this, staff are trying out new strategies and approaches to benefit the pupils in their classes. However, in some year groups, pupils’ progress is sometimes hindered by teaching that does not always move pupils’ learning on quickly enough. On

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Inspection findings

occasions, teachers do not identify quickly when pupils are confident and ready to move on to more complex learning tasks.  Because of the work of you and your team, pupils make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics in Reception, key stage 1 and Years 3 and 4. Information in the school’s assessment tracking system shows that the proportion of pupils, in all year groups, working at expected standards and above, continues to increase. However, extended writing opportunities in subjects other than English are not currently being fully exploited to further support pupil progress.

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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

 pupils’ progress in writing is further accelerated through the consistent use of extended writing opportunities in subjects other than English  teachers quickly identify when pupils are ready to move on in their learning and provide them with the opportunities to do so.

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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 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I met with you and members of your senior leadership team. I held a meeting with a group of pupils and talked to pupils less formally in lessons. I met with five members of the governing body, including the chair and vice chair. I also met with the school improvement adviser. I met with the SENCo and lead for inclusion. I undertook a range of short visits to lessons in all key stages either with you or your deputy head. I also looked at pupils’ work in books. I examined the school self-evaluation and associated action plans as well as other documents, including assessment information, attendance information and pupil tracking. I examined the school website. I examined safeguarding documents, including the single central record and suitable checks on staff. I took account of 54 free-text responses from parents and 60 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire. I also took account of seven responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire.

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