The Rosary Catholic Primary School

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

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Mrs Tressa Paczek Headteacher The Rosary Catholic Primary School 10 The Green Heston Hounslow Middlesex TW5 0RL

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 26 June 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 February 2014.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your leaders show determination and drive with the aim to ensure that all pupils achieve their best. Teachers and leaders know their pupils well. This is reflected in the sharp, strategic planning by leaders and in the effectiveness of teaching, both of which have led to improvements on the areas identified in the last inspection report. Leaders now routinely check pupils’ work and review how well pupils know how to improve their work. Middle and senior leaders work well together and have improved ways of checking teaching and learning. There is now a systematic approach to tracking progress which provides consistency across the school. There has been good improvement in attendance since the last inspection and this is now in line with the national average.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

You and you team have set out a clear vision for the school which is focused on improving teaching and learning. Staff appreciate your strong leadership. The focus on ‘learning together’ permeates the school and is supported by governors. Pupils told me that they value their teachers and the way they help and care for them. Parents and carers typically told me that their children benefit from strong teaching and that the school is a caring environment. The school community is warm and friendly and underpinned by respect for one other. Throughout the day, I saw pupils learning and playing happily together. From my discussions with pupils, staff, parents and governors, it was clear that the whole school community shares the school’s values of, ‘aspire, believe, achieve: together in Christ’ and they are very much part of a child’s experience in your school.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

We agreed that there have been improvements this year in pupils’ progress in reading at key stage 2; however, there is still work to do.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

Leaders, including governors, set the highest standards for making sure that pupils in their care are safe and that this is a responsibility shared by all staff. The staff were very clear about their responsibilities for safeguarding pupils and ensuring their well-being. They showed that this is practised on a daily basis.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The recruitment of staff is systematic and thorough, and meets requirements. Leaders have established a clear process for inducting new members of staff into the school’s safeguarding procedures. Governors and staff attend training regularly, which most recently has included the ‘Prevent’ duty.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

Safeguarding leaders follow up concerns about pupils in a timely fashion. They work effectively with external agencies to support vulnerable pupils and their families.

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Short inspection of The Rosary Catholic Primary School

The pupils told me that they feel safe in school. They particularly talked about their teachers and support staff being very caring and helping them. Pupils are also confident about keeping themselves safe. Many parents said that their children are very happy at school.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed three key lines of enquiry. First, to look at the quality of teaching of writing and mathematics in key stage 1, and, in particular, how disadvantaged pupils are supported to develop their skills. This is because in 2017 the proportions of disadvantaged pupils attaining the expected standard and at greater depth were below those seen nationally.  I visited Year 1 classes with you and your senior leader. We agreed that pupils in key stage 1 make good progress in their writing over time. In books, we saw evidence of pupils, including the disadvantaged pupils, improving their work in response to the guidance from their teacher. Teachers help disadvantaged pupils in particular to improve their sentence construction and use of paragraphs and to make similar good progress as their peers. In pupils’ books, we saw how disadvantaged pupils have developed their writing well with a good proportion writing at greater depth.

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Inspection findings

 We visited key stage 1 mathematics classes. Pupils were working purposefully and enjoying their problem-solving activities. There is evidence in pupils’ books that confirms that pupils, including the disadvantaged, have made strong progress all year. Higher- and middle-ability pupils are set challenge activities but they mostly find these easy to complete. We agreed that teachers could set pupils work that is more difficult so that a higher proportion of pupils, including the disadvantaged, reach greater depth.  The second line of enquiry focused on pupils in key stage 2, and their progress in reading. In the 2017 tests, pupils’ progress in reading overall was below that of pupils nationally. This was particularly the case for girls, disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities.  You and your senior and middle leaders recognised the need to focus on reading to

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Inspection findings

ensure that all groups of pupils make good progress in reading. Together, you have initiated a new strategy for teaching reading, which has been embraced by the teachers. Evidence, which we saw on display and in pupils’ books, confirms that as a result of these changes, pupils are making stronger progress to attain higher standards in both reading and writing. Teachers and leaders have improved their systems for checking pupils’ progress in reading. They use the information well to identify and provide support for pupils who need help to catch up with their peers.  Key stage 2 classroom resources and displays support reading very well. The extensive amount of vocabulary linked to pupils’ current learning is helping pupils to become familiar with previously unknown words. This supports all groups of pupils to read progressively more difficult texts. When we visited classrooms we saw pupils actively

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Inspection findings

engaged in a range of reading activities that supported their learning effectively. Adults supported pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities effectively to understand the tasks that teachers set and to practise their reading successfully.  It was evident from pupils’ work that all groups of pupils, including girls, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils, have made good progress in their reading from the start of this academic year and have increased their understanding of texts. This was particularly shown in their in-depth responses to specific reading comprehension questions. You have identified that not enough parents support and encourage their children to read routinely at home. This limits pupils from making the sustained progress of which they are capable.  The final line of enquiry looked at how subjects across the curriculum at key stage 2 contribute to the progress made by pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, in writing.

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Inspection findings

You and your leaders have recently reviewed the curriculum and have identified this as an area that has strongly improved. From meeting with middle and senior leaders, visiting classrooms and looking at work it is clear to see that leaders have established a well-developed curriculum. It builds systematically from early years to Year 6 and makes sure that pupils routinely gain new knowledge and deepen their understanding as they move up the school. When we looked at work in books and on display we could see that teachers set high expectations for writing, across all subjects. We agreed that teachers teach the different subject areas very well through topic and religious education. This is enabling all pupils, including the disadvantaged, to make good progress with their writing.  The school displays key stage 2 pupils’ work from the different curriculum subjects. Displays show pupils’ original writing work and their subsequent editing to make

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Inspection findings

improvements. Teachers acknowledge and celebrate the improvements that pupils make. The pupils told me that they enjoy writing in English and in other subjects. They particularly value thinking creatively while using subject-appropriate language for different topics. Pupils’ standards are rising because pupils are benefiting from writing for different purposes and audiences. We saw in their work that they are increasingly using different subject terms in their writing and this is contributing to strong gains in their writing skills.

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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 challenge pupils at key stage 1, including disadvantaged pupils, with harder mathematical activities so that more pupils reach greater depth  they build upon the work already established with parents of key stage 2 pupils to help them support and encourage their children to read frequently at home to raise further the standards of reading.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Archdiocese of Westminster, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Hounslow. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector carried out the following activities during the inspection:

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Information about the inspection

Meetings with you, senior and other leaders as well as the chair and five other members of the governing body, including two priests from the diocese. Meetings were also held with the local authority representative and the external sports coach.

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Information about the inspection

Joint visits to classrooms with senior leaders.

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Information about the inspection

Hearing pupils read and discussions with groups of pupils, as well as talking to pupils in the playground.

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Information about the inspection

Consideration of a range of the school’s documentation, including information about pupils’ achievement, the school improvement plan and the school’s self-evaluation, safeguarding policies and procedures as well as information about attendance and exclusions.

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Information about the inspection

Taking account of the 41 responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including free-text comments and from speaking with parents in the playground and one who requested an individual meeting.

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