Stanville Primary School

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

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Mr Andy Runacres Headteacher Stanville Primary School Stanville Road Birmingham West Midlands B26 3YN

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 18 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 the school judged to be good in January 2014.

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Short inspection of Stanville 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 Stanville Primary School

You work closely with staff, pupils and parents to ensure that the school is at the heart of the community that it serves. There is a high level of pastoral care for all pupils, but particularly for pupils who have additional needs. Pupils are happy and enjoy coming to school. Parents value how visible leaders are around school and how well staff get to know their children as individuals. Comments from parents included, ‘I have been listened to and supported, I cannot fault the school’ and ‘I could not ask for a better school for my child.’

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

Your strong leadership has been a key part of the improvement seen in the school. Other leaders are empowered and bring about successful improvement in their areas of responsibility. Together, you have been able to turn around the decline in outcomes that was evident in 2016. You and the governors have managed recent staff absence and budget challenges with sensitivity and effectiveness. Your evaluation of the school is concise and accurate. You have put an improved focus on assessing and tracking pupils’ progress. This enables you and your staff to identify and successfully support pupils who may be at risk of falling behind.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

There has been a positive response to the areas for improvement outlined at the previous inspection. This is particularly the case for mathematics, where staff training on improving pupils’ calculation and reasoning in mathematics has had a clear impact. Pupils are increasingly confident in their mathematical work and make good progress. At the end of key stage 1 in 2018, the provisional results show that a high proportion of pupils reached the expected standard in mathematics. At the end of key stage 2 the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics has continued to rise over the last two years. While teachers match work appropriately to pupils’ needs in mathematics, sometimes work is not as well matched in the teaching of reading comprehension at key stage 2. When this occurs, pupils do not demonstrate a sufficiently deep understanding of the texts that they are reading.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

You have put a clear emphasis on improving writing across the school. Teachers use their writing assessments to provide more precise support for pupils. The teaching of handwriting is effective and most pupils are using cursive script with increasing skill and accuracy.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

Pupils are friendly and respectful in lessons and at social times. Pupils and staff form positive relationships and, as a result, pupils behave well. Some pupils are not clear about how the reward systems in the behaviour policy work or do not feel that rewards are used consistently. A broad range of enrichment opportunities contribute well to pupils’ personal development. Pupils enjoy attending different extra- curricular clubs and playing competitive sport against other schools. Pupils were immensely proud of their allotments and flower beds. They use what they have grown to make things such as bouquets and potato salad.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

You recognise the importance of placing a clear emphasis on partnerships within the community. Parents feel part of the school because they take part in workshops about their child’s learning and help with projects. For example, they helped staff to build an outside garden. Local businesses also support pupils with their learning by contributing to projects in the school grounds.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

Governors have a good understanding of the school. Your reports to governors are thorough evaluations of the school. Their content is used by governors as a basis from which they can provide you with effective challenge. Governors are well aware of the reasons for the dip in outcomes in 2016. They now have systems in place to become aware of any decline at a much earlier stage. Members of the governing body take their responsibilities seriously in relation to safeguarding and the school website. The school’s website is a good source of information for parents.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

Safeguarding procedures are well organised and thorough. The designated safeguarding leaders take their roles very seriously and follow up concerns appropriately. Regular staff training and updates on aspects such as female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation help to deepen staff’s understanding. The safeguarding culture is good and pupils are kept safe as a result.

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Short inspection of Stanville Primary School

You have put in place an effective system to provide early help for families. The family support worker and other staff members support families with any pertinent issues that arise. They also help make links for parents with external agencies such as housing associations and medical providers. Pupils are given a range of curriculum opportunities to deepen their understanding of how to keep themselves safe. They talked knowledgeably about the procedures and rationale for the school lock-down process. Pupils feel that the school site has been made more secure recently. They also have a good understanding of how to keep safe online and know the importance of speaking to a trusted adult if they are concerned about something.

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Inspection findings

 The proportion of children who achieved a good level of development declined and was low in 2017. You made this a key priority in your school improvement plan. Provision has been transformed and children’s progress is now much stronger. A range of new resources in the outdoor area enable children to immerse themselves in imaginative and physical play. During the inspection children were engrossed in role-play activities in the garden centre, while others enjoyed watering flowers in the flowerbeds. The teaching of writing is more focused, and children receive increased opportunities to write. The provisional assessment information demonstrates that a much higher proportion of children have achieved a good level of development in 2018.  In response to a decline in outcomes in 2016, you changed the way that phonics is taught and it has proved successful. Outcomes have risen and, in 2017, the proportion of pupils who achieved the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics

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Inspection findings

screening check was above the national average. Although most phonics reading books are selected from one particular scheme, some books pupils take home to read come from a range of different schemes. As a result, pupils sometimes struggle to read words in these books because they involve sounds they have not yet been taught  In 2016, at the end of key stage 2, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading declined significantly. However, this was reversed in 2017 and attainment rose considerably. There is a positive culture for reading across the school. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about their favourite books and authors, including Dick-King Smith, Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson. Book corners and the library have been well resourced and are used well by pupils.  The teaching of reading comprehension is still developing. Guided reading has recently been refined and you have also started to use a whole-class book for

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Inspection findings

English lessons. There are examples of strong teaching where pupils demonstrate a deep understanding of the texts that they are reading. However, this is not yet consistent across the school, particularly in key stage 2. The provisional results for the end of key stage 2 show that the proportions reaching the expected and higher standard have declined slightly since 2017. Further work needs to be done to refine teaching approaches and ensure that the level of challenge for pupils is consistently high.  There is no doubt that the culture for reading has improved. However, while reading records show how many books pupils have read, they do not show how often pupils are reading. Consequently, leaders and staff cannot identify those pupils who are not reading regularly enough. This means that weaker readers cannot be easily identified for catch-up reading sessions in school.  The proportions of pupils attaining the greater depth standard at key stage 1 and

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Inspection findings

the higher standard at key stage 2 have not been high enough historically. You have worked with staff to ensure that there is a greater level of challenge for the most-able pupils. This is paying off in mathematics because pupils delve much deeper to prove their understanding through different challenges. The provisional assessment results at the end of key stage 1 for 2018 show that more pupils have achieved the greater depth standard in reading, writing and mathematics than in 2017. However, by the end of key stage 2 not enough pupils are reaching the higher standard in reading. The level of challenge that they receive is too inconsistent across key stage 2.

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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

 phonics reading books match accurately to the sounds that pupils have been taught  the teaching of reading in key stage 2 is sufficiently challenging for all pupils, but particularly for the most able pupils  systems to monitor how often pupils read at home and at school help identify which pupils need to be targeted for additional individual reading  the policy for rewarding positive behaviour is reviewed.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, I held meetings with you and several other leaders, met with three governors and spoke to a local authority representative on the phone. I spoke to pupils informally and formally. I made short visits to seven lessons with you and looked at a range of pupils’ books. I spoke to parents at the start of the day and considered the 12 free-text responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. I also considered the responses from staff and pupils to Ofsted’s online questionnaires.

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Information about the inspection

I scrutinised various documents, including the school’s self-evaluation, the improvement plan and documents used to check the quality of teaching. You shared with me the most recent assessments of pupils’ attainment and progress. We discussed the national test results and assessments undertaken by pupils in 2016, 2017 and 2018. I also looked at the school’s published information on the website, as well as minutes of governing body meetings and information about attendance, behaviour and safety.

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