Preesall Fleetwood's Charity Church of England Primary School

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

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Mr John Belshire Headteacher Preesall Fleetwood’s Charity Church of England Primary School Mill Street Preesall Poulton-le-Fylde Lancashire FY6 0NN

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Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 25 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 school was judged to be good in October 2014.

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Primary School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Together with the staff and governors, you have ensured that the school is welcoming and inclusive to pupils and their families.

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Primary School

Through your evaluation of the school’s effectiveness you have accurately identified areas of strength in the school and areas that need to develop further. For example, you recognise that pupils do not make as much progress as they could in writing by the end of key stage 2. You also acknowledge that leaders are not precisely evaluating the impact of their use of extra money received through the pupil premium fund.

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Primary School

Pupils said that they enjoy coming to school. Those that I spoke to were confident and articulate. Pupils behaved well in class and on the playground. Pupils told me about the many opportunities they have to take part in after-school clubs such as rugby, football and handball. Pupils have a good understanding of equality. They know how to keep themselves safe outside school and while they are online.

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Primary School

Parents and carers think highly of this school. Those that I spoke to before school and those who responded to the Ofsted surveys were positive in their views of the school. They said that their children were safe and looked after well. One view, typical of many, highlighted the strengths in pupils’ personal development: ‘This school provides a very caring and nurturing environment.’ Governors are passionate for the school to improve further. Many governors have been in post for several years and are honest about the school’s strengths and the areas that need to be further developed. Governors visit the school regularly and work alongside different subject leaders to improve their knowledge of the school’s curriculum. Governors have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are effective.

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Primary School

At the previous inspection, the inspector asked you to increase pupils’ achievement in mathematics and ensure that work provides the right level of challenge for pupils. Since then, pupils’ achievement in mathematics has risen. Unvalidated results for pupils at the end of key stage 1 for 2018 indicate that 85% of pupils achieved the expected standard in mathematics. Eighty per cent of pupils achieved the expected standard at the end of key stage 2. Attainment in mathematics has been in line with, or above, the national average for the past three years. Pupils also make strong progress in mathematics in comparison to national averages, which reflects the strength of your work in this area.

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Primary School

You have redesigned the way that you check on the quality of pupils’ work. Work that I looked at in pupils’ books indicates that teachers provide pupils with challenging tasks that match their ability. You told me how your consistent approach to assessment has helped you to keep checks on pupils’ work and progress through regular meetings with the class teachers. As well as this, you work closely with several local schools to compare the quality of pupils’ work to that produced by pupils from these other schools.

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Primary School

As the designated lead for safeguarding, you have ensured that all systems to safeguard pupils are effective. Your thorough understanding of the challenges that families face helps you to be proactive in this role. You make careful checks on the suitability of adults to work in school. You work closely with external agencies, including children’s social care, the police and school health.

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Primary School

All staff have received relevant safeguarding training and ‘Prevent’ training that enables them to spot potential signs of radicalisation. Members of staff that I spoke to were well informed about the safeguarding procedures employed by the school.

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Inspection findings

 At the start of the inspection we agreed three lines of enquiry. The first of these related to standards in writing in key stage 1. Historic information about pupils’ performance indicates that, although pupils do well in writing, they do much better in reading and mathematics. The attainment of pupils leaving Year 2 improved in 2018. An increased proportion of pupils achieved greater depth in writing. You told me that you have restructured the way you teach writing across the school. You now challenge pupils to write without support. Teachers use the outcomes of writing tasks to help them plan better. Across the school, pupils have many opportunities to develop their writing skills. For example, children in the early years have many opportunities to write across a range of activities. Pupils in Year 1 shared their writing with me and were able to explain what would happen next to the three little pigs. From checking the quality of writing you have found that one

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Inspection findings

of the main barriers to better writing stems from an insufficient range of vocabulary applied to various writing tasks. You have put measures in place to address this, for example through the promotion of good reading habits and by providing pupils with access to high-quality texts. However, you recognise that, at present, pupils are not routinely using a range of vocabulary in their writing that is sufficiently ambitious for their ages and abilities.  You introduced a new scheme of work to develop pupils’ handwriting across key stage 1 in the previous academic year. From observing teaching, looking at pupils’ books and talking to pupils, it was evident that standards in handwriting varied greatly across the school. You found in your recent checks on English books that the quality of pupils’ presentation was inconsistent. You rightly point out that further work is needed to embed this new approach so that all pupils

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Inspection findings

follow the school handwriting policy consistently.  The next area that we looked at related to how well leaders and managers measure the impact of the use of the additional funding received through the pupil premium grant. Teachers plan carefully to meet pupils’ needs. As a result, most disadvantaged pupils who benefit from this extra money make good progress. You have put systems in place to measure the impact of this additional funding. You share your results with the governors. We agreed that the systems for measuring the impact on pupils’ outcomes are not sufficiently sharp. As a result, governors are not provided with the information that would enable them to challenge leaders to ensure that even more disadvantaged pupils make strong progress.  Pupils benefit from a broad and enriched curriculum. All pupils participate in outdoor learning sessions in the school’s ‘forest school’ environment. In these

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Inspection findings

sessions teachers actively encourage pupils to apply their mathematical, language and problem-solving skills to various activities. A recent week dedicated to the arts enabled pupils in all classes to develop their artistic skills through a range of exciting topics. For example, one class used computer design techniques to create posters of onomatopoeic words that were inspired by the conventions of ‘pop art’. Pupils receive specialist teaching in dance throughout the year. Teachers teach science skills progressively to ensure the development of pupils’ scientific skills over time. Investigative work develops in complexity, as does the requirement for pupils to apply increasingly sophisticated scientific language. For example, older pupils completed detailed space projects using a range of scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical techniques for their science fair. The curriculum is further enhanced by many trips to museums,

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Inspection findings

places of worship and residential visits.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should:

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Next steps for the school

 improve the progress that pupils make in writing by: – ensuring that the school’s handwriting policy is embedded and applied consistently by all staff – ensuring that pupils further develop the range of vocabulary they use within their writing  improve the systems for measuring the impact of the use of additional funding to support the progress of disadvantaged pupils.

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

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection I met with you and the deputy headteacher. Together, we visited all classes and spoke to pupils about their work. We viewed a sample of pupils’ books in the classes that we visited. I met with three members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. I met with a representative of the local authority.

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Information about the inspection

I scrutinised documents in relation to safeguarding and viewed the school’s single central record. I met with pupils informally during lunch. I spoke to several parents before school. I considered the 11 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. I took into account the four responses to the staff survey, the six free-text responses and the 17 responses to the pupil survey.

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