King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

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

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Mr Andy Callaghan-Wetton Headteacher King Edwin Primary and Nursery School Fourth Avenue Edwinstowe Mansfield Nottinghamshire NG21 9NS

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 4 July 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 your predecessor school was judged to be good in November 2013.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery 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 King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

King Edwin is a safe, happy and welcoming school. Since your appointment at the beginning of this academic year, you have provided drive, ambition and focus after a period of significant instability in the leadership of the school. Your clear vision and direction are generating rapid improvement. You and your leadership team are knowledgeable and determined to bring about change, improving all aspects of school life. You have the strong support of your staff, who share your passion for increased academic outcomes while ensuring pupils’ holistic development is at the heart of the curriculum. The ethos is captured through the vision of ‘grow, learn and achieve together’. The agreed ‘High 5 Values’ are embedded into the vision for the school and permeate all activities during the day. Pupils are taught to take pride in their learning and to work hard in order to achieve their goals. The outside environment, corridors and classrooms are attractive and reflect the drive by the

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

whole community for excellence in everything. Governors are well informed, visit classes and meet with staff regularly, carrying out their strategic role effectively.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Over the last year, there has been significant investment, both financial and by the community, to improve the environment, which is now well resourced, motivational and highly effective. Energy and a zest for learning permeates the school. Adults interact well with pupils and encourage them to persevere with a task, ensuring good progress towards the lesson objective. Leaders have effectively tackled the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. A comprehensive tracking system has been developed to identify pupils who are not making sufficient progress and reduce gaps between groups of pupils. The leadership team and teaching staff take appropriate action to improve pupils’ understanding. Standards have risen and are continuing to rise throughout the school. The leadership team has made changes to the curriculum in order to engage and inspire all pupils. There are more competitive opportunities, which have been

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

particularly successful in engaging boys in reading. The ‘ask girls first’ approach has also ensured that boys do not dominate classroom discussions. Pupils enjoy a wide range of extra-curricular activities as there is something to appeal to everyone.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Teachers have benefited from effective training to strengthen their subject leadership roles. The curriculum has been enhanced as a result of implementing ideas gained through professional links and networks across the county. Systematic monitoring and termly reports from subject leaders have considerably improved the accuracy of the school’s self-evaluation. This has ensured that development planning is evidence based and focused on identified areas for improvement.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

The early years environment has been transformed to create areas that allow children to freely access high-quality resources in a purposeful and engaging space. This has resulted in good improvements in all areas of teaching, with the proportions of pupils reaching a good level of development in line with national figures. You recognise that pupils from a disadvantaged background are not reaching the same levels as their peers and have begun to implement strategies to improve the progress for this group of pupils.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Parental engagement is central to your vision. Those I met were full of praise for the changes that had been introduced and complimented the staff on their approachable manner. There is resounding support and appreciation for the staff, with one parent’s comments summing up the general feeling of the parental body: ‘King Edwin is an amazing school. I couldn’t wish for anything better for my children.’

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

The provision for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities is effective in enabling these pupils to make good progress from their starting points. You ensure that skilled staff are appropriately deployed to support pupils in the classroom environment. Every care and consideration is given to pupils with medical needs to ensure that they can access as much of the curriculum as possible.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Leaders have started to be more strategic, creating more detailed plans to increase standards for disadvantaged pupils. Greater focus is needed in order to raise aspirations and standards for disadvantaged pupils in all subjects across the school.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

While there have been good improvements throughout the school in reading, writing and mathematics, you recognise that aspirations and expectations need to be higher. You acknowledge that all pupils must be challenged and stretched to enable a greater proportion of them to achieve the highest levels of learning across the curriculum.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

Members of the governing body provide strong support for you and your team. They attend regular training sessions, visit the school frequently and evaluate the detailed information you provide. This allows them to ask searching questions to ensure that the school is led effectively. They have a wide skill base, which is used appropriately to enhance the provision and leadership of the school. Governors recognise that attendance is improving but is still slightly below national levels. They work closely with you to engage the parental community in understanding the importance of consistent attendance at school.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Governors and staff undertake an annual audit to ensure that policy and procedures are monitored regularly and that practice meets current requirements. All records are detailed, regularly updated and kept securely. The investment in an online system has been instrumental in accurately detailing any concerns regarding pupil safety and increasing communication between all key adults. It allows the safeguarding team to look for patterns and identify whether a child is in a vulnerable situation. You have ensured that all staff and governors are well trained and are knowledgeable about the signs of abuse. ‘Prevent’ training has given staff confidence to tackle any issues that may emerge in a balanced and age-appropriate way.

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Short inspection of King Edwin Primary and Nursery School

During my visit, the behaviour and conduct of pupils was of a high standard. Pupils were respectful towards each other and adults. During a conversation with a group of pupils, they were clear about the difference between falling out and bullying, and they were also adamant that there wasn’t any bullying in school. They have confidence in the staff and playtime leaders to resolve any issues. Pupils are given good guidance on how to keep themselves safe through a structured curriculum that includes information about cyber safety and knowing what represents child abuse. They were clear that it is important to share your feelings so that negative ones don’t build up. One child explained: ‘If you talk about your feelings, a huge weight can be lifted off your shoulders.’ The many responses on Parent View confirmed that parents feel that their children are safe in school, and all who responded would recommend the school to another family.

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Inspection findings

 Since your recent appointment, you have utilised the expertise from the local authority to implement successful initiatives. You have increased the profile of your team by distributing responsibility and creating a cohesive approach to school improvement. This talented, hardworking team has good capacity to ensure King Edwin continues to improve.  You have ensured that there has been specific training in phonics teaching for all members of staff. As a result, the improvements made last year in the phonics check have been sustained. Pupils in the early years have a strong understanding of phonics to ensure that they make rapid gains next year.  Progress in key stage 1 and 2 is good and improving in all subjects. You have purchased tablet computers, which have been successful in engaging and motivating pupils in their learning. You have also introduced a number of interventions and mentoring programmes which have accelerated progress for a

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Inspection findings

number of pupils. The introduction of the ‘5 stages of learning’ has been pivotal in improving standards in every year group. You have organised groups of teachers from different schools to come together to moderate pupils’ work. This has been beneficial in confirming your judgments, but has also enabled staff to foster links with teachers in the locality. Standards this year have risen in key stage 1, and current assessments show that outcomes in key stage 2 have made further improvement in this academic year.  You and your staff are embracing collaborative working, and your leadership team is developing a culture of research in school. This fundamental shift to an outward-looking, research-based approach to teaching is beginning to have a positive impact, allowing pupils to develop their creativity and engage in higher levels of learning.  There are many effective and well-thought-through strategies to support pupils

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Inspection findings

from disadvantaged backgrounds to make good progress and raise their self- esteem. Indeed, there are some true success stories for individual pupils. Although there are pockets where disadvantaged pupils make very strong progress, there is still a significant gap between disadvantaged and non- disadvantaged pupils in different year groups in reading, writing and mathematics. To secure faster progress, leaders must improve attitudes to learning and raise aspirations for this group of pupils.

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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 give increased targeted support to disadvantaged pupils to effectively tackle their barriers to learning, raise their self-esteem and support them to make accelerated progress  teachers are equipped with the skills needed to enable all pupils to aim for the highest level of learning, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics.

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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 Nottinghamshire County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, we discussed your own evaluation of the school, and I shared my key lines of enquiry with you. You accompanied me as I visited each class, spending a short time in each. I met with several other members of staff, six governors, including the chair of the governing body, a group of pupils and a number of parents. I held discussions with different leaders about safeguarding, attendance, behaviour, the curriculum and measuring pupils’ progress. I viewed a range of documents and considered information related to attendance and how the pupil premium funding is spent. I met with a representative of the local authority. Together, we looked at a wide range of pupils’ work. I examined the school’s website to check that it meets the requirements for the publication of specified information. I analysed the 103 responses to Ofsted’s questionnaires for parents, as well as 30 staff responses. There were no pupil responses to the questionnaire.

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