Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

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

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Mrs Jane Day Headtea cher Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School Dunley Drive New Addington Croydon Surrey CR0 0RG

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 12 September 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 predecessor school was judged to be good in September 2012.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic 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 Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

During the inspection, evidence was gathered which demonstrates that the new leadership team is creating a positive and purposeful learning environment. Since you have taken up post in September 2018, you have already started to develop and refine monitoring systems so that leaders are aware of the progress pupils are making. As a consequence, leaders understand the importance of measuring the impact of support for pupils, especially those who are disadvantaged.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Learning is enjoyable and challenging. It provides a range of opportunities to engage pupils. For example, pupils talked about the benefits of sharing their ideas. Activities pupils mentioned, such as interviewing each other, help them to develop their communication and language skills, and broaden their vocabulary.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Governors talked knowledgeably about the school’s priorities for improvement and use the information to challenge school leaders. They meet regularly with senior leaders and understand pupils’ standards because they make good use of pupil assessment information. In discussions with school leaders, governors ask questions so that they can challenge and support developments across the school, especially in reading.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Your leadership team has effectively addressed the areas identified for improvement in the last inspection. You have evaluated the school’s strengths and are aware of what needs to be done. Staff have responded well to the changes you are making across the school, particularly to improve reading.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Pupils spoke highly of the school and say they ‘are encouraged to learn and to always try our best’. They particularly like outdoor learning, where they feel they can express themselves because of the large spaces and ‘achieve together as one big family’.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

All parents and carers who responded to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View, said they would recommend the school to other parents. The majority of parents said that the school is well led and managed, and that they receive valuable information about their child’s progress.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Leaders ensure that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Systems for checking on adults who work in the school and who visit are rigorous and robust. Governors monitor the impact of the safeguarding policy regularly.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

All staff receive the appropriate training so that they look after pupils well. You and your staff ensure that the right amount of care is provided for all pupils, especially the most vulnerable. For example, the pastoral support team works with pupils and their families, and provides immediate help when it is needed.

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Short inspection of Good Shepherd Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Pupils know how to keep themselves safe, including on the internet. They typically said that they feel safe, well cared for and looked after by adults in the school.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed to focus on three key lines of enquiry, in addition to checking the arrangements for safeguarding.  The first area of focus was to evaluate the breadth and depth of the school’s reading curriculum. Leaders have identified this as an area for improvement, particularly since there was some decline in the reading test results at the end of key stage 2 in 2018. Also, information on the website provides limited information about the progress pupils make in reading.  Classrooms are stimulating and display information relating to the class book that pupils are reading. The use of book corners and wall displays give pupils access to reading material that challenges them. In many cases, adults work effectively with pupils to develop their reading skills so that pupils are able to make inferences from texts and decode more easily.  Adults provide opportunities for pupils to read widely and extend their fluency.

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Inspection findings

This was seen, for example, when pupils wrote biographies of an inspirational character they had selected from a range of information books.  However, teaching does not always enable pupils to extend their vocabulary and develop their reading skills.  The second area of focus was to review the actions you are taking to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make the progress of which they are capable across all subjects. Although the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils who left the school in July 2018 have increased from the previous year, the current progress of disadvantaged pupils is not as strong as their peers, in school or nationally.  In lessons, there are some examples where teaching supports them effectively. For example, in English lessons, teachers’ explanations enable pupils to understand how to answer comprehension questions successfully.  However, through discussions with pupils, and having looked at their work and

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Inspection findings

observed some lessons, the inspector concluded that disadvantaged pupils do not consistently make the same progress as other pupils. This is because learning activities are not always carefully matched to their starting points.  Where this is the case, leaders recognise the need to develop a more effective system for checking that all pupils make good progress.  Leaders are developing a training programme for staff to support good-quality teaching for all pupils. Additionally, you are reviewing the work of the intervention team. This is to ensure that all teaching provides the best help for pupils, especially those who are disadvantaged and/or falling behind.  The third area of focus was to evaluate how effectively leaders use additional funds to improve pupils’ achievement and to determine how well leaders review the impact of the curriculum on pupils’ progress.  With a newly formed leadership team and your very recent appointment to the

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Inspection findings

school, you recognise the need to make greater use of systems for checking how well pupils achieve.  There are examples where leaders have identified pupils who are falling behind and have devised a plan to address this. However, there is limited evidence about how well leaders measure the impact of the actions taken.  Leaders have limited evidence of how they check that activities provided and actions taken ensure that disadvantaged pupils who are eligible for the additional funding make progress.  This is also the case with regard to evaluating whether the planned curriculum meets the needs of all pupils. For example, the reading curriculum is not always sufficiently challenging, and, at times, leaders do not check this.  While there is a plan to review the school’s curriculum, this has not yet taken place. This is a priority in order to ensure that the curriculum is designed and implemented to meet the needs of all pupils, especially those who are

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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

 the planned curriculum review takes place urgently  adults are provided with staff training opportunities, so they are better able to support pupils with their reading  there is greater emphasis placed on disadvantaged pupils’ progress and that better use is made of ‘catch-up’ sessions  the processes in place for monitoring pupils’ progress are used systematically to check the impact of teaching on pupils’ progress.

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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 Southwark, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Croydon. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I held discussions with you, senior leaders and governors about the school and the actions taken to continue to improve it. I met with leaders about their roles in continuing to develop their subject areas. Learning walks took place with members of the senior leadership team across the school. Samples of pupils’ work were reviewed, as well as assessment systems and curriculum information. I spoke with a group of pupils and analysed a range of school documents linked to the school’s self-evaluation, school improvement priorities and safeguarding. I looked at 45 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.

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