Manor Wood Primary School

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

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Mrs Deborah Kenny Headteacher Carr Manor Primary School Carr Manor Road Moortown Leeds West Yorkshire LS17 5DJ

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 27 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 June 2013.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement 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 Carr Manor Primary School

You and your effective team have implemented a rich curriculum which provides pupils with strong general knowledge. Teachers and other adults are committed to helping pupils develop a wide range of vocabulary. As a result, pupils are articulate and their writing is of a very high quality. Since the previous inspection, you and your team have maintained pupils’ excellent behaviour and attitudes to learning. Pupils, including boys and pupils who speak English as an additional language, are enthusiastic about their learning.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

One of the many strengths of the school is your effective team of middle and senior leaders. They contribute very well to checking on the quality of teaching and learning. Leaders use the information they gather to spot swiftly where pupils are at risk of underachievement and put in place successful remedies. For example, you and your leaders were concerned that pupils’ reading skills were not as strong as those in writing and mathematics. The team was disappointed because pupils had got off to a particularly strong start at the end of Reception and Year 1. The team set about enriching the curriculum so that reading is at the heart of pupils’ learning. As a result, pupils are developing strong reading skills.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

Teaching remains a strong feature of the school. Following the previous inspection, teachers have made sure that they take into account pupils’ informative assessment information to plan for pupils’ next steps in learning. Occasionally, this practice is not as effective for the most able pupils as it is for others. You and your team have taken effective actions to maintain pupils’ strong mathematics skills. In their enthusiasm to tackle mathematical challenges, pupils are not careful enough with the presentation of charts and graphs.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

Teachers generally choose their questions very well, making sure that pupils have to think hard about their answers. Pupils are keen to listen to others and debate their answers. However, there are a few occasions when teachers or teaching assistants jump in with the correct answer too readily and do not give pupils sufficient time to think through their answers.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

You, along with governors, have made sure that the pupil premium funding is sharply focused. You have identified some common areas of need and combined this with a careful analysis of the individual barriers facing pupils. You track the progress, behaviour and attendance of disadvantaged pupils meticulously. This attention to detail enables you to rapidly respond to changes in pupils’ circumstances or learning. Consequently, differences between disadvantaged pupils and their peers are diminishing.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The school makes systematic and thorough checks on all staff, governors and volunteers. You and other leaders have made sure that the site, including the children’s centre, is safe and secure. Leaders and other staff are vigilant in spotting potential risks and they quickly take action to minimise them.

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Short inspection of Carr Manor Primary School

The school is particularly strong in supporting pupils and their families when they are in need or in crisis. The school has compelling examples of how pupils have been helped to overcome significant difficulties in their lives. The school’s family support worker and learning mentor provide effective support to pupils who have identified emotional or mental health difficulties. You and your staff are dogged in pursuing external support for pupils and in taking action to provide support if there is a delay in securing external expertise.

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Inspection findings

 Pupils enjoy a stimulating curriculum. They are developing strong subject knowledge because leaders have ensured that topic, physical education (PE) and science are given as much emphasis as mathematics and English. Pupils have regular opportunities to read challenging texts in a range of subjects. Pupils’ workbooks show that they use a range of sophisticated vocabulary. Pupils write fluently and at length to a very high standard. As a result, pupils are motivated and want to do as well as they can. Parents and carers are overwhelmingly positive about their children’s experiences in school.  Teachers and leaders know their pupils well. When we visited a series of small groups working on their reading skills, we noticed that teachers and teaching assistants had sharply focused the tasks to make sure that pupils were improving specific skills. Pupils, especially those who are disadvantaged and boys, were

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Inspection findings

highly engaged and enjoying their learning.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language make very good progress in reading. They are developing stronger comprehension skills because teachers make sure that interventions focus on understanding vocabulary and not just being able to decode words.  Pupils’ books show that they are regularly challenged to offer reasons for their answers in mathematics. They also have regular opportunities to grapple with mathematical investigations. Pupils make sensible choices about which skills they should apply to solve difficult problems. We noticed that pupils’ drawings of graphs or charts are untidy and not sufficiently precise.  You and your team have made sure that teachers take into account what pupils already know and can do when they are planning their lessons. This is effective in supporting lower-ability pupils. It is also effective for disadvantaged pupils

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Inspection findings

because teachers know the needs of these pupils in detail. It is also successful with the most able pupils but, occasionally, the tasks they do are not pitched with the same precision.  When we observed learning, we saw teachers giving pupils time to think about questions and asking probing supplementary questions. However, this was not the same in one or two other sessions, where we observed teachers not giving pupils enough time to think about the reasons for their answers.  The school has a vibrant environment. Leaders and teachers are working hard to make sure that pupils build on the strong start in reading that they make in early years and Year 1. There are numerous reading spaces around the school and in classrooms. Pupils in each class have designed their own reading corner. We were particularly taken with the landscape of London, complete with an urban beach. When I heard pupils read, they spoke enthusiastically to me about their

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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 develop their questioning skills so that pupils have the same opportunities to offer reasoned answers in all subjects as they do in mathematics  work for the most able pupils is precisely pitched at the right level of challenge  pupils improve their presentation of charts and graphs. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Leeds. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you and other senior and middle leaders and three members of the governing body. I also had a conversation with a representative of the local authority. I visited lessons with you, looked at pupils’ work and spoke informally with pupils. I heard two pupils read. I looked at the results from Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and considered 102 responses and 88 free-text comments. I also looked at some of the school’s analysis of parents’ views. I examined a range of documents, including information about safeguarding, the school’s self-evaluation and improvement planning.

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