Carr Manor Community School

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

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Mr Simon Flowers Executive Principal Carr Manor Community School, Specialist Sports College Carr Manor Road Leeds West Yorkshire LS17 5DJ

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College

Following my visit to the school on 26 June 2018 with Lynda Florence and Michael Tull, Ofsted Inspectors, 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 February 2014.

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College

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. As a result of the continual growth of the school, you and your governors appointed a new experienced vice-principal to lead the primary phase. The school has recently received accreditation for school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) in modern foreign languages. Since the last inspection, the stability of an effective staff team, especially at senior leadership level, has been a strength of the school. This has allowed you to invest in developing your own leaders and provide direct leadership support to another local school and other schools in a local partnership.

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College

The school leadership team is focused, passionate and committed to continual school improvement. Leaders have ensured that the school’s four key values of ‘Know our children well’, ‘Partners in learning’, ‘Enjoy and achieve’ and ‘Character for Learning’ permeate throughout the entire school and underpin everything staff and pupils do. As a result, the school has a strong community culture with a very strong inclusive ethos. This positive culture fosters very strong relationships between staff and pupils.

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College

Since the last inspection, leaders have acted swiftly to strategically review and further develop existing systems and processes for monitoring school performance. Leaders identify correctly areas of the school that need improvement and monitor closely the impact of their actions. The experienced and enthusiastic chair of governors leads the governing body well. Governors are very proud of the school and use detailed information to provide robust challenge and support to school leaders, including middle leaders. As a result, there is strong capacity in the school’s leadership to achieve the improvements that you aspire to.

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College

You and your leadership team have tackled the areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection report successfully. At the last inspection, you were asked to further improve the quality of teaching and learning and to raise achievement further by ensuring that teachers always challenge pupils appropriately. You were also asked to ensure that teachers use questioning consistently to make pupils think hard and give extended answers to justify their reasoning. You and your leaders focused on rigorous and targeted staff development across all phases in the school. Consequently, you have established a culture of all staff working closely together to improve their practice. Leaders monitor the quality of teaching and learning frequently and are quickly able to provide support to the staff that need it. As a result, the quality of teaching and learning has improved.

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College

All safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. There is a strong safeguarding culture in the school. The school’s coaching programme is a major strength of the school. The impact of this programme on relationships between staff and pupils and the inclusive ethos of the school are impressive. Almost all staff are coaches and they know the children in their coaching groups very well. The system of weekly ‘checking in’, ‘checking up’ and ‘checking out’ ensures that staff are able to identify any concerns early and take actions swiftly.

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College

The designated safeguarding lead has ensured that records are detailed and of high quality. Your leader responsible for safeguarding leads his team well. They are knowledgeable, proactive and vigilant. The safeguarding team works closely and effectively with the inclusion team and the behaviour and attendance team. Together, they regularly monitor the well-being of vulnerable pupils. This means that information is shared effectively between staff and in a timely way. The school has effective referral procedures, and communication with external agencies is strong.

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College

All staff and governors receive appropriate training in child protection, including the dangers of radicalisation. You and your team carry out appropriate checks on the suitability of all staff who work with pupils.

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College

When inspectors met with pupils, they reported that they feel safe, know who to go to if they have any concerns and are confident that staff will deal effectively with any problems. Inspection evidence also supports this. Pupils know how to stay safe, including online. Pupils say that bullying is rare, but when it does happen, teachers tackle it quickly.

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College

The relationships between staff and pupils are extremely positive. Pupils wear their uniform with pride and are respectful to each other and staff. There is a calm and purposeful atmosphere in the school. As a result, behaviour, attitudes to learning in the vast majority of lessons and conduct around the school site are very good.

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Inspection findings

 Since the last inspection, the school has been growing continually, with plans for further expansion, especially in the primary phase. The appointment of the experienced vice-principal has strengthened the leadership of this area. Leaders work tirelessly to build strong foundations for growth. Primary leaders have focused on developing writing, reading fluency and mathematics. There is a close collaboration with the staff from the secondary phase, and pupils are taught by specialist teachers in physical education, design technology, science, modern foreign languages and music. The relationships between staff and pupils are strong and there is a very positive atmosphere in the lessons. Primary phase pupils have access to specialist resources, for example science laboratories and design technology classrooms.  School assessment systems are externally checked for accuracy, and staff use this information effectively during frequent pupil progress review meetings.

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Inspection findings

School assessment information, and inspection evidence, indicates that the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards at the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics is improving. Leaders acknowledge that more work is needed to further increase the proportion of pupils achieving the standards at greater depth.  In early years, over time, the proportion of children achieving a good level of development has been broadly in line with national averages. There are positive relationships between adults and children, and children play well together. Although the early years phase is developing as the school grows, the provision sometimes hinders the progress of all pupils, including the most able pupils, with little opportunity to develop the language skills of children. Leaders agreed that this area needs further development.  Since the last inspection, leaders have ensured that staff receive specific and

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Inspection findings

targeted support to further develop elements of teaching which require improvement identified through the rigorous monitoring by senior leaders. Training on effective questioning and providing appropriate challenge to all pupils has led to an improvement in teaching across the school. Staff engage in action research projects and share best practice frequently through the numerous school teaching and learning advisers. During joint visits to lessons across both phases, inspectors were able to confirm that questioning is used effectively to probe pupils’ understanding and challenge the vast majority of pupils, including the most able pupils.  The creative curriculum ensures that teaching and learning match the needs of all pupils, including the disadvantaged and the most able pupils. Staff value the support they receive. The high attendance at voluntary twilight training sessions is evidence of their commitment to continual improvement. As a result, the

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Inspection findings

quality of teaching is good and improving further.  There is a very strong inclusive ethos in the school. Staff and pupils feel as if they are ‘part of a family’. The leaders responsible for inclusion and attendance and behaviour, are very knowledgeable, caring and committed to the school’s ‘child centred’ approach. Absence and persistent absence continue to reduce through the very positive relationships between staff and pupils and the rigorous monitoring and proactive work of this team.  You and your leaders have ensured that there are high expectations from pupils and staff. Leaders use aspirational targets for pupils and track their progress extensively through a comprehensive assessment system. Current school assessment information indicates that the progress of pupils in Year 10 and Year 11 continues to be strong, including for disadvantaged pupils, across a wide range of subjects. Where attainment falls below national averages, inspection

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Inspection findings

evidence indicates that pupils make strong progress from their starting points.

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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

 they continue to increase the proportion of pupils achieving standards at greater depth in English, writing and mathematics, at the end of key stage 1  the provision in early years continues to be developed, so that children have more independent learning opportunities to support their language development.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, inspectors met with you and your senior leaders, middle leaders and governors. Meetings were also held with a range of staff from both the primary and secondary phase and the local authority primary and secondary school improvement advisers. The inspectors met with a range of pupils from Year 1 to Year 10 and spoke to a number of parents and carers.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors conducted tours of the school and visited a range of lessons, some with senior leaders, looking at pupils’ work and observing their learning. The inspectors, alongside senior leaders, also conducted a scrutiny of pupils’ work in a range of subjects, including work produced in the early years.

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Information about the inspection

The inspection team scrutinised and evaluated a range of documents relating to safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and school improvement. Inspectors took account of the 89 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including the 78 extended responses from parents. They also took account of the 48 responses to the pupil questionnaire and the 44 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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