Sea View Primary School

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

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Mrs Jane Cunningham Headteacher Sea View Primary School Norham Road South Shields Tyne and Wear NE34 7TD

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Short inspection of Sea View 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 was judged to be good in February 2014.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. 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 specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

At Sea View, you deliver on what you believe. You value each individual pupil and ‘provide them with stimulating and enriching experiences’ and ‘enable them to reach new horizons’. The determined and focused leadership that you, your deputy and governors provide has ensured that the school has continued to improve outcomes for pupils and addressed areas identified in the previous inspection. Teaching and learning have improved and pupils’ progress has accelerated. Pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, make strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics. As a consequence, most pupils achieve the expected standards for their age and many exceed these standards. Disadvantaged pupils make better progress than other pupils nationally and their attainment has risen.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

This is a school where pupils are proud of their achievements, they are happy and are very well prepared for their next steps in education. Pupils work with purpose and strive to achieve their best with very positive attitudes to their lessons. They listen to each other, respect each other’s ideas and work very well together. They take significant pride and care in their work, whatever the subject. Pupils’ application to their tasks ensure they are working to a high standard.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

The vast majority of parents are highly appreciative of you and your team’s work. They say staff are approachable and readily available to listen to their concerns. Many parents spoke with me in glowing terms about the support they had received, including several parents with children who have SEN and/or disabilities.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

Your plan to improve the school further is based on a sharp analysis of information and you have a strong record of taking immediate and effective action where emerging issues have been identified. In addition, you use current research and emerging evidence of effective practice elsewhere to inform school improvement priorities. You have built on the school’s strengths and have established a culture of continuous improvement. For example, you identified that disadvantaged boys were not achieving as well as other children in early years. Research-based actions have now improved the rates of progress for those children so that their outcomes are now catching up with others. Governors are fully engaged in monitoring activities and shaping school priorities. Consequently, everyone has a clarity about how the school can improve further.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. You, ably supported by your deputy headteacher and governors, ensure that a culture of safeguarding informs many aspects of the work of the school. Staff recognise that safeguarding is their responsibility. You ensure that staff have a detailed understanding of how children are kept safe and risks are identified. Detailed record-keeping ensures that nothing is missed. Required training is supplemented with additional programmes and regular updates to help keep safeguarding at the forefront of people’s minds. A concern about handover arrangements at the end of the day was raised by a parent during my visit. I checked that younger pupils were handed over directly to parents and passwords are in place to ensure that pupils only go home with allocated adults.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

The curriculum ensures that pupils know how to keep themselves and others safe in a range of situations, including when online and outside the school. Lessons and assemblies inform the personal, social and health education programme and have an emphasis on ensuring that pupils understand the importance of positive relationships. Pupils and staff have strong and supportive relationships. Consequently, pupils feel safe and have full trust in the adults who look after them. They say they could confidently share their concerns if the need arose.

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Short inspection of Sea View Primary School

Senior leaders, including governors, have processes in place to check that systems to check the suitability and appointment of staff are secure. In addition, a committee oversees the complex site arrangements to ensure the safety of children and adults while on site.

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Inspection findings

 From relatively low starting points, outcomes for pupils by the time they leave the school at the end of Year 6 have been consistently above those seen nationally for the past three years in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils go on to work beyond the expectations for their age in greater proportions than seen nationally. This is because the progress pupils make has been consistently in the top 20% of schools nationally in each subject for the last three years. Evidence seen during my visit shows that this picture has been maintained by the current Year 6 cohort. This strong progress is matched by other year groups and key stages, including early years. Consequently, pupils are well prepared for the rigours of their next stage of education, including key stage 3 at secondary school. In addition, skilful use of additional funding makes sure these strong outcomes are accessed by all groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils.

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Inspection findings

 The curriculum is rightly focused on the development of pupils’ English and mathematical skills, which are then applied skilfully across other subjects in the curriculum. Topic work provides an exciting context for learners to use their basic skills and think deeply about other subjects such as history and geography. Pupils enjoy a range of subjects; one child was in tears as she described her love of history, and ‘Egypt’ in particular. Staff make links between subjects to ensure that learning is memorable and makes sense to pupils. As a result, pupils are highly enthusiastic about most subjects and take care in producing high standards of work. In discussion, some pupils were less sure about using their learning in religious education (RE) and applying it to a deeper understanding of world and national events.  Governors share the commitment, passion and vision of the headteacher to ensure that the curriculum reflects pupils’ needs, whatever their background or

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Inspection findings

starting point. They are led by a highly committed chair of the governing body who contributes greatly to the oversight of both school improvement priorities and safeguarding in the school. Governors have a detailed day-to-day knowledge of the life of the school and what it needs to do to improve further. They continually review their own practices and strive to improve their own effectiveness. They identify emerging issues effectively and hold senior leaders to account. They pose challenging questions and ask for further information if they are not satisfied. Governors ensure that the additional funding used for sports and for disadvantaged pupils is spent wisely and evaluate the impact it has.  School leaders have worked hard to try and ensure that pupils attend school more regularly. They have employed additional staff to provide support and challenge to those pupils and families who are frequently absent. Incentives and

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Inspection findings

badges reward those who have good attendance and recent initiatives have been introduced to enhance this provision further. Absence still remains above that seen nationally but is improving. Fewer pupils are frequently absent. School leaders are determined to maintain their focus and further develop their relationship with parents to reinforce their messages.  A small number of parents raised concerns about behaviour and bullying in the school. This concern is not shared by the pupils that I spoke with. Pupils have a good understanding of bullying in its many forms including cyber-based, racism and homophobic bullying. They are clear about the consequences of using derogatory language and are confident that issues can be raised and are dealt with quickly by all staff. Pupils feel safe in school. They say that lessons are rarely, if ever, disrupted by other pupils. Pupils in lessons are well focused and

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Inspection findings

engaged in their learning, and playtimes, although lively, are enjoyed by them. I saw instances of pupils regulating their own behaviours such as seeing themselves from the playground into lessons in an orderly fashion and settling quickly to their work. In addition, I saw some pupils reminding other pupils of the expectations for politeness and courtesy in the school. School leaders continue to strive to improve the perception of behaviour in the school with the wider community.  In lessons, teachers routinely challenge pupils, including the most able, to think hard and apply what they already know. Pupils are asked to evaluate, and consider, others’ ideas as well as being asked to explain their thinking. In early years, adults are skilled at asking questions to develop children’s thinking and also focus on developing communication, speaking and listening skills. Teaching and learning is consistently strong across nearly all classes and year groups

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Inspection findings

despite changes in staffing. When performance has dipped, leaders have taken swift action to secure rapid improvements.

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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

 rates of attendance continue to improve and the incidence of frequent absence continues to reduce  pupils are able to apply their learning in RE so they are better placed to understand global and national events.

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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 South Tyneside. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I held discussions with governors, the headteacher, senior leaders, subject leaders for music and RE, a group of class teachers and with a local authority adviser. I observed learning in all classrooms. A joint observation was carried out with the early years leader. I listened to some pupils read, looked at pupils’ work and held discussions with a group of pupils. I observed pupils’ behaviour around the school, at playtimes and in lessons. I looked at the responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, considered some written comments from parents and talked with some parents at the beginning of the school day. I also examined a wide range of documentation, including information about the performance of teachers and pupils, evidence of the school’s self-evaluation, as well as information on the curriculum, safeguarding and other key policies. I also checked the school website to ensure it has the information that parents should

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