Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

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

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Mrs Andrea Morrisroe Headteacher Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy Baildon Road Scunthorpe Lincolnshire DN15 8BU

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

Following my visit to the school on 12 July 2016, 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 February 2012.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since your appointment, you have led the school with energy and determination through a period of significant change. Your high expectations and strong child-centred values are at the heart of the school’s work. Crucially, you have secured the confidence and support of pupils, parents and staff. Year 6 pupils are rightly proud of their school and say that you have prepared them well for the next stage of their education.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

Inspectors identified two areas for improvement at the school’s last inspection. First, to raise achievement further by ensuring that pupils know how to improve their work and by providing more purposeful outdoor learning activities for children in the early years. Second, to strengthen the work of middle leaders, especially in checking the quality of pupils’ learning and progress. You have tackled these areas for improvement well and the impact of your actions is clearly evident. The outdoor learning environment for children in the early years has been transformed and middle leaders, although new and inexperienced, are increasingly confident and effective.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

You and your senior team have a clear view of your school’s strengths and the areas needing further work. For example, you identified that there was a decline in the proportion of Year 1 pupils achieving the expected standard in phonics (the link between letters and sounds) in 2015. As a result of swift and determined action, current Year 1 pupils have made stronger progress and achieved better outcomes in this year’s phonics screening check.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

Governors have high expectations and a deep commitment to the school’s values. With effective external support, governors have ensured that the significant recent changes to leadership and management have not diminished the school’s drive to improve the quality of education and secure the best outcomes for pupils.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

The actions taken by you and your senior and middle leaders have placed the school in a strong position to secure further improvement.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. There is a firmly embedded culture of keeping pupils safe. Pupils trust and respect you and the other adults who care for them. They say that they feel valued and safe.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

You know your pupils and their families well and you take prompt and robust action when you are concerned about a pupil’s safety or well-being. Case studies show that you work closely with other professionals and services to give pupils and their families the important help and support they need.

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Short inspection of Saint Augustine Webster Catholic Voluntary Academy

You take great care to identify when pupils need additional help. For example, pupils who speak English as an additional language and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are identified quickly and supported effectively. As a result, they learn well and make strong progress towards their individual targets.

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Inspection findings

 You have effectively managed a number of staff changes and new appointments since the school’s last inspection. You have worked closely with the recently appointed senior and middle leaders to improve their practice and build a strong, cohesive and increasingly effective leadership team. Middle leaders, in particular, are ambitious for pupils and determined to further improve the curriculum and the quality of teaching in the subjects and areas of the school’s work which they lead. Teachers value the training and support they receive and are deeply committed to improving their work.  Since the last inspection, you have redesigned the curriculum and the way you assess and track pupils’ learning and progress. You have raised your expectations of pupils and made sure that the curriculum builds on their interests and meets their needs. It is no surprise, therefore, that pupils speak confidently and with real interest about the things they are learning.

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Inspection findings

Although you keep a close eye on pupils’ attainment, your tracking system is new and as a result, you do not have a clear enough view of the progress that current pupils are making. You know that this is a next step and have already taken action to strengthen this crucially important aspect of leadership and management.  You have an accurate picture of the school’s current effectiveness and your school development plan provides a strong starting point for securing further improvement. However, more specific and time-limited targets in your development plan would help governors to check whether your actions are having a positive impact on the quality of education and pupils’ learning and development.  You have improved the aspects of teaching that were weaker at the time of the last inspection. In the early years, for example, the activities led by adults and those that children choose for themselves are planned carefully and

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Inspection findings

effectively. The indoor and outdoor areas include a rich range of learning experiences and opportunities which are closely matched to children’s needs and interests. As a result, children learn and play safely, cooperatively and independently and make fast progress from their different starting points. Similarly, teachers give pupils clear and helpful feedback, for example, in their mathematics books. This helps pupils to tackle errors and misconceptions in their work and take the next step in their learning with greater confidence.  The proportion of children in the early years achieving a good level of development was above the national average in 2015. A similar proportion of children in the current Reception class have achieved a good level of development. From starting points which are below age-expected levels, children make strong progress and are well prepared for Year 1.  In 2015, the attainment of Year 2 pupils was broadly in line with the national

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Inspection findings

averages in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the proportion of Year 1 pupils achieving the age-expected standard in the phonics check declined from 2013 to 2015. This decline has been reversed and almost all current Year 1 pupils achieved the standard expected for their age in the 2016 phonics screening test.  At key stage 2, rates of progress in 2015 were above the national averages in reading, writing and mathematics and the progress of disadvantaged pupils matched the progress of other pupils nationally. The school’s assessment information indicates that a high proportion of current key stage 2 pupils are working at, or exceeding, the age-expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strongly promoted throughout the school. Year 6 pupils place great value on being tolerant and respectful and are forthright about the importance of ‘doing their bit’ to help

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Inspection findings

people who are less fortunate or have fewer advantages.

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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 school’s assessment and tracking system is further strengthened so that it provides a detailed and accurate picture of the progress all pupils make  all actions in the school’s development plan have clearer timescales and more precise measures of impact. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the director of education for the Diocese of Nottingham, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Lincolnshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

I met with you and other senior and middle leaders, your school improvement partner and a representative from the local authority and five representatives from the governing body and academy trust. I visited lessons with you, looked at the work in pupils’ books and folders and talked to them about their learning. I looked at the results from Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire), including 62 free text responses, spoke to parents at the end of the school day and considered eight responses to the staff questionnaires and 17 responses to the pupil questionnaire. I examined a range of documents, including information about safeguarding, the school’s summary self-evaluation and development plan and information about pupils’ attainment and progress.

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