Crowlands Primary School

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

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Mrs Hayley McClenaghan Headteacher Crowlands Primary School London Road Romford RM7 9EJ

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 20 March 2018 with Barbara Breed, 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 inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in October 2013.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have continued to provide strong leadership and have high expectations for everyone in school.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

You are well respected by governors, parents and staff alike and are well supported by your senior leaders who provide determined leadership. You have established a culture where good teaching and good behaviour are expected and achieved.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Since the last inspection, you have recruited a large number of new leaders and staff. You have successfully developed senior leaders and subject leaders, alongside enhancing the expertise of new teachers. Leaders, including those new to post, place a strong emphasis on training teachers and teaching assistants. Subject leaders learn from and with colleagues in school. They carry out regular checks on teaching, and apply their skills and knowledge to give feedback and support to colleagues that help teachers to improve.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

At the last inspection, inspectors recommended that teachers should give clear feedback to pupils about how they can improve their work. They suggested giving pupils time to respond fully to teachers’ written comments so as to extend their learning. Inspectors also recommended enhancing the school’s programme of coaching, and to share successful practice across all year groups.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

This has been addressed, as seen in pupils’ books, which we scrutinised together. Pupils are given feedback from teachers, in accordance with the school’s policy, on how to improve their work, as well as opportunities to respond to their teachers’ comments. Pupils say that this feedback enables them to think about their learning and provides them with strategies to improve their work. You agreed that the presentation of pupils’ work needs to reflect their positive attitudes to learning.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

At the time of the previous inspection, the school was advised to develop the role of leaders with key areas of responsibility, and ensure that all teachers apply best practice with greater consistency. New approaches to teaching have been introduced by English and mathematics leaders. An example of this is the way that pupils are introduced to new genres of writing through the use of exciting and relevant texts as a stimulus to engage the pupils. In mathematics lessons, staff are more confident when giving feedback during the lesson so that they address misconceptions and challenge learning more promptly. These new approaches have led to improved outcomes, and have enabled pupils to engage in their work with more enthusiasm.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Teachers are aware of the benefits of sharing good practice. Senior leaders have been instrumental in modelling high expectations through team-teaching. This has supported teachers in developing their understanding of high-quality teaching.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

During our visits to classrooms with you and other senior leaders, we saw pupils in all year groups writing with success in their English lessons. To raise standards further in writing, pupils should now be encouraged to apply their skills to the same high standards across all subjects. This is also true of their written presentation, which is inconsistent, and pupils are not systematically encouraged to take pride in their work.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Staff are positive about the way that the school promotes good behaviour. Pupils have a good understanding of the impact that their behaviour can have on others, and show high levels of consideration and care. One pupil reflected the views of others with his comment, ‘We attend a unique school with loads of opportunities to develop ourselves to be better.’

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

You value working closely with parents, and involve them in the life of the school. You hold regular information evenings and workshops to show parents some of the ways their children are taught. Of particular note are the positive comments made by many parents on the free-text facility in Parent View. The following comment provides a flavour of parents’ views: ‘Overall, a good school with strong values. Pupils are supported and encouraged to develop, both academically and socially.’

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Governors are effective. They bring a range of useful skills and experience to the strategic leadership of the school. They are positive about the way the school is led and managed, and provide an appropriate level of challenge to school leaders. For example, they check that leaders spend additional funding for disadvantaged pupils effectively. You provide governors with detailed information about pupils’ progress that enables them to ask important questions and better understand the school’s performance.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

Safeguarding routines are robust and the required policies and procedures are in place . The school accurately records the safeguarding training that staff have received, and ensures that all staff are up to date with requirements. Meticulous checks are made on staff, governors and visitors to ensure that pupils are safe at school.

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Short inspection of Crowlands Primary School

The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Incidents of bullying are dealt with swiftly and effectively. Pupils are provided with a clear understanding of why bullying is unacceptable. They say that adults listen to them and take their concerns seriously. Pupils have a very good understanding of the need to keep themselves and others safe. Pupils said that they feel safe in school, and spoke about the regular fire drills and procedures to be followed in the event of an incident. They are aware of dangers associated with modern technology, as well as how to stay safe.

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Inspection findings

 Our first line of enquiry was to establish how effective leaders are at ensuring that high-attaining pupils are making effective progress in key stage 2, in reading writing and mathematics. This is because the school’s most recent results show that the most able pupils do not make as strong progress as other pupils.  The school has effectively addressed this, as demonstrated in the school’s own performance data. This is as a result of changes to teaching, which have ensured that most-able pupils are sufficiently challenged. Teachers work closely with support staff to provide appropriate teaching to different groups of pupils, including the most able.  Teachers have made helpful changes to their practice with regard to the teaching of reading, including extending the range of books that pupils read and increasing opportunities for them to practise their writing skills more regularly.  Pupils’ work in books shows that the teaching of writing is now effective. Pupils

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Inspection findings

are taught the key skills of spelling, grammar and punctuation and are provided with regular opportunities to write at length about a range of subjects.  Next, we focused on how effectively leaders are at ensuring that pupil premium funding addresses diminishing the differences between disadvantaged and non- disadvantaged pupils at key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics.  Here again, the school’s data reflects that disadvantaged pupils are making the same good progress as their peers in all areas. This is as a result of refinements to teaching, which include encouraging pupils to employ a range of vocabulary and to use their phonics knowledge consistently and independently in their writing and reading.  In mathematics, the subject leader has effectively supported teachers and teaching assistants, so that they now pick up and correct pupils’ misconceptions more promptly. This was noticeable when teaching assistants supported small

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Inspection findings

groups of pupils. As a result, pupils in key stage 1 are provided with opportunities to enhance their problem-solving skills.  Finally, we looked at how effective leaders are at promoting good attendance and reducing persistent absence.  The school has robust procedures in place to promote good attendance, including individual meetings with parents of pupils who do not attend regularly. Overall, levels of attendance have improved, but they are still slightly below national average. There are a small number of parents who do not ensure that their children attend regularly with whom the school continues to work. While there have been some successes in reducing persistent absence, some families do not respond to the efforts made by leaders to improve their children’s attendance.

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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 apply their writing skills, as seen in their English books, across all subjects  pupils’ written work is presented consistently to a high standard  attendance remains a high priority so that figures rise to at least national average

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

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Information about the inspection

We carried out the following activities:

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Information about the inspection

 a scrutiny of the single central record of recruitment checks and other documents relating to safeguarding and child protection, including the school’s safeguarding policy and other policies relating to governance, pupil behaviour and attendance  meetings with the headteacher, other senior leaders, three governors and a local authority representative  a review of the school’s self-evaluation documents and improvement plans, observations of learning across the school, and a scrutiny of work in pupils’ writing, mathematics and wider curriculum books  observations of pupils in a range of situations, including at break and lunchtime conversations with a group of pupils, and with pupils in lessons, in the playground and in the dining hall listening to pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 read.

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Information about the inspection

We took into account 28 parent responses to the free text facility in Parent View, 43 responses to the pupil questionnaire and 48 responses to the staff survey.

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