Crossflatts Primary School

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

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Mrs Nicola Bennett Headteacher Crossflatts Primary School Morton Lane Crossflatts Bingley West Yorkshire BD16 2EP

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

Following my visit with Gillian Wiles, Ofsted Inspector, to the school on 16 October 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 your school was judged to be good in July 2014.

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

You and your leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Pupils feel safe and can articulate why they feel safe at Crossflatts Primary School. Parents agree that their children are happy and safe, and report that their children’s welfare is taken care of well. Pupils’ conduct is good at all times of the day, including at playtime, as they move around the school, and when they are in lessons. Your records show that bullying is rare and that there are very few incidents of inappropriate behaviour. Pupils are keen to do well; they work hard and participate well in lessons and there are few disruptions to learning.

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

You and your team, including governors, understand the school well. You engage well with parents and the wider community. Parents say that they receive a lot of useful information about how well their children are doing. They feel that they also know how to support their children in their learning because of the help and advice you and your staff offer them. The pupils have a particularly positive view of their school and report that they are lucky to be in the school. They say that their school is unique in many ways and cite the opportunities they have to learn outside and to play and learn with the school’s animals. Clearly, these very exciting activities help pupils to enjoy their learning here.

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

During our visit, we were interested to understand how well pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities are served by your designated specialist resource in school. Our investigations found that the unit works well for the pupils who use it. This is because it provides them with specialist equipment and knowledgeable staff to support their learning and emotional needs. As a result of the good quality of this provision, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities achieve well in school and are happy and safe.

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

You have responded well to the one recommendation made at the last inspection, which was to further increase pupils’ achievement. The school has a wide range of facilities to ensure that pupils achieve well. The use of the outdoor space, as well as the Big Start activities that you hold at the start of each topic, ensure that pupils are engaged well in their learning. As a result, pupils develop their skills and knowledge well. Pupils know how to improve their work, particularly in their reading, writing and mathematics work, and so progress is strong in these subjects. Since the school’s last inspection, the ways in which pupils are tested have changed and the expected national standards have risen. In that time, you have worked effectively to ensure that your pupils meet these new, higher, standards and therefore you have successfully further increased pupils’ achievement.

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

The safeguarding systems and procedures in place are fit for purpose and ensure that pupils are kept safe. Where pupils are at risk, staff know what to do and they know to whom they must report any concerns. This is because staff are well trained and this training is updated regularly, including when there are any changes made to government regulations. Governors also receive regular safeguarding training. Thorough checks are made on staff, which include checks to ensure their suitability to work with children and checks on their qualifications. These checks meet the legal requirements and the school keeps records of them. The school has a detailed record of any safeguarding matters which relate to pupils and you have very close links with a wide range of external agencies so that you can ask for their advice when necessary. Staff, pupils and parents are made aware of who they can speak to if they have a concern regarding the safety of a pupil. There are signs and

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Short inspection of Crossflatts Primary School

posters around school with this information, as well as information on the school’s website.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, we wanted to understand how you ensure that disadvantaged pupils are supported. We were keen to see how the extra funding these pupils attract impacts on their outcomes. You have prioritised provision for these pupils and are careful to check that funding is being well spent. These pupils’ attainment and progress have improved in recent months and this means the gap in outcomes between these pupils and their peers in school is diminishing in certain year groups. However, as you are aware, this is not consistently the case.  We were also interested to see how well the assessment system works to ensure leaders and teachers can identify underachievement and can plan to overcome any gaps in learning. We wanted to see how well this supports all groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities.  We found that your system requires teachers to gather a range of evidence

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Inspection findings

before identifying pupils’ attainment, thus allowing teachers to see where there are gaps in learning. Teachers use this information well to provide activities that build on pupils’ knowledge and so increase their rates of progress.  However, opportunities for pupils to undertake more challenging activities are sometimes missed. This means at times progress is not as rapid as it could be and so some pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, do not reach the higher standard of attainment of which they are capable.  Since the last inspection, attendance has remained a strength of the school, with overall attendance staying above the national average. However, in that same period of time, the level of persistent absenteeism of individuals has risen significantly. We were keen to understand if you had taken effective action to reverse this trend.  Your own checks on pupils’ attendance have been thorough and you have used

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Inspection findings

the analysis to improve strategies; supporting families where persistent absence has been an issue. You have worked with pupils and their parents so they understand the importance of daily attendance. In addition, the wide-ranging curriculum has engaged different groups of pupils, which has also led to reduced persistent absenteeism and to the continued strong attendance of pupils overall.  During the inspection, we wanted to see how well the curriculum supports pupils in terms of enhancing their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their understanding of British values. Pupils have a very clear sense of fairness and the systems to reward and sanction pupils help them with this. Pupils understand the rules. They value and adhere to them and they understand the importance of respecting one another and celebrating each other’s unique characteristics, beliefs and talents.  Pupils recognise that everyone is entitled to make different choices about their

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Inspection findings

own lifestyle and faith and they are accepting of this. You provide many opportunities for pupils to visit the local church but not to other places of worship. Pupils’ knowledge of different faiths is vague.  The curriculum is broad and balanced and this means pupils have the chance to reinforce their reading, writing and mathematics skills in different ways. This contributes to the strong progress they make in these subjects. Pupils read widely and often, which broadens their understanding of different genres and authors.  Subjects such as history and geography are well taught. However, science is less well taught and too often work is not challenging enough. Opportunities are few for pupils to investigate their findings, or to apply their mathematical knowledge. This means progress in science is not rapid enough.

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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

 work to improve the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils continues so that the gaps between these pupils and their peers diminish consistently across the school  teachers provide more opportunities for pupils to undertake challenging learning so that more pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, gain greater depths of learning in different subjects, including science, and reach the higher standards of which they are capable  pupils gain a better understanding of different faiths.

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

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Information about the inspection

We visited a number of classes to observe teaching and its impact on learning. We also looked at a wide range of pupils’ books from several year groups, across a variety of subjects. We met with you and with other senior and middle leaders. We held telephone discussions with a representative from the local authority and your external adviser. We also held a meeting with governors. We looked at the school’s information about the safeguarding of pupils and examined behaviour, attendance, and records of incidents of bullying. We also checked a range of other documentation, including your self-evaluation, your school development plan and your assessment information. We held formal discussions with some pupils from Years 1 to 6, and spoke informally to several pupils during breaktime. We considered the parents’ responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and their responses to the free-text facility, to which over 90 parents responded.

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