Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

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

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Mrs Theresa O’Hara Headteacher Pearl Hyde Community Primary School Dorchester Way Clifford Park Coventry West Midlands CV2 2NB

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

Following my visit to the school on 7 March 2019, 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 March 2015.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary 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 Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

Since the appointment of your new leadership team, you have all worked relentlessly to ensure that all pupils make good progress. You have put systems in place to raise standards in reading, writing and mathematics in Years 1 and 2, which had dipped in writing for two years running. Consequently, all groups of pupils are now making good progress to overcome their barriers to learning. Your mission statement of ‘Developing collaboration, curiosity, friendships and self- started learning’ is apparent in the learning activities that pupils undertake, such as those seen during World Book Day activities.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

You and your governors ensure that the school is a happy learning community. In our learning walks to classes, we looked at the challenges offered to both high prior-attaining pupils and disadvantaged pupils in reading and writing in key stage 2. In key stage 1, we looked at the challenge for boys in reading and writing and the challenge for girls in mathematics. As it was World Book Day, pupils were engaged in collaborative activities across the school. We saw teachers providing challenging tasks for all groups of pupils. We noted the strong friendships between the older and younger pupils. They worked collaboratively at designing costumes for characters from the story of Cinderella. Pupils were eager to tell me about the social injustice that she suffered at the hands of the ugly stepsisters. Pupils were involved in problem-solving in identifying how much material they would need to make Cinderella’s ball gown. They used pictures from books to identify character traits of

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

You know your school very well, including its strengths and areas for development. Your self-evaluation is accurate and understood by all, including the governors. You have eradicated weak teaching in lower key stage 2. You, ably supported by your senior leadership team, have led teaching well. You have done this by ensuring that all teachers know their pupils’ starting points and that planning is focused on increasing progress. Your plans to address the areas that need improving, such as the challenge of high prior-attaining pupils, are clear and appropriate and are underpinned by detailed action plans.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

Parents and carers are delighted with all that the school offers. Parental responses to the online Parent View questionnaire were overwhelmingly positive. They value your warm and purposeful leadership. Parents know that you always have the best interest of the children at heart. One parent, speaking for many, told me that you ‘live and breathe this school’ and that ‘this is a school that sets children up for life and that teachers educate us in how to help our children.’ The school is a happy learning community where all groups of pupils thrive because they know that teachers will help them to succeed.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

You have successfully addressed all the areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection report. Low prior-attaining pupils are making gains in their writing. This is because of the emphasis that has been placed upon handwriting and ‘magpieing’ adventurous vocabulary from texts that have been studied in lessons. One Year 2 pupil used the word ‘nocturnal’ when writing about owls. You now monitor the progress of all groups of pupils when you evaluate teaching and learning.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

The culture of safeguarding across the school permeates all aspects of school life. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Parents say that their children are very well looked after and that the school premises are safe and secure. Systems are clear and well thought out. There are strong communication channels between the school and the different agencies that work with vulnerable children. Records relating to child protection are detailed, organised and secure. All staff have been trained in the ‘Prevent’ duty, and the school’s approach to keeping pupils safe from the dangers of radicalisation and extremism is effectively implemented.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

Training for staff and governors is regular and up to date. As a result, all adults understand their safeguarding responsibilities well and know the systems that they need to follow should a child make a disclosure. You have no fear in sharing your concerns with parents. The actions that you take are always in the best interests of the children. You have provided parents with very useful information on how to keep their children safe online. Pupils are fully aware of the importance of ‘staying green’ on the school’s behaviour charts.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

Pupils that I spoke to during the inspection say that they feel safe in school. They said that bullying is rare and that staff deal immediately with any issues that cause pupils to feel unsafe.

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Short inspection of Pearl Hyde Community Primary School

The curriculum focuses closely on teaching protective behaviours so that children know what to do to stay safe in different circumstances.

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Inspection findings

 We focused on whether there was sufficient challenge for both high prior- attaining pupils and disadvantaged pupils in reading and writing across key stage 2. By the time that pupils leave the school, they attain above-average standards in reading, writing and mathematics combined. However, in the national tests, progress in reading and writing for high prior-attaining pupils, including the few disadvantaged pupils, was not as good as that in mathematics.  This has now been addressed. Evidence from inspection and the current work in pupils’ books show that your intervention strategies, which are aimed at improving both reading and writing, are having a positive impact. There is a greater emphasis on pupils linking writing to the texts that they have studied in class. This has resulted in high prior-attaining pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, making secure progress in relation to their starting points.

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Inspection findings

 One Year 6 pupil said that the recent emphasis placed upon spending longer on studying different genres of text has enabled him to improve his writing. On our learning walk, we did notice that there were inconsistencies in the presentation of some of the pupils’ written work and their spellings. This is an area that you have already identified in your school development plan as needing improvement.  You have purchased a wide range of good-quality texts, which has created a culture of enjoyment of reading. All pupils, including those with high prior attainment, are avid readers. They are able to make sense of newly encountered vocabulary and have secure skills of comprehension. Nevertheless, a few of the middle prior-attaining pupils who read to me did not read with sufficient intonation and awareness of audience. High prior-attaining pupils struggled to make comparisons between books on the same topic and the way in which

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Inspection findings

different authors portrayed the same themes.  You have implemented an exciting and vibrant curriculum which has engaged boys’ interest. Pupils across the school study the same themes. Wall displays show the deep learning of boys in key stage 1 when reading and writing about Arctic animals. You have ensured that learning is underpinned by the use of online short film clips and visual images which engage and improve boys’ skills of comprehension.  Work in exercise books and teachers’ planning show that the ‘mastery’ approach to learning mathematics (where pupils apply what they have learned to a range of different situations) is helping girls grasp mathematical concepts more readily. High-quality practical resources support this. There are opportunities created in lessons to explain their thinking process and explanations offered for solving problems. You have ensured that staff have access to high-quality training. Your

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Inspection findings

mathematics coordinator plays an active role in the local mathematics hub, bringing up-to-date practice into the school. This is enabling teachers to gain confidence in trying out a variety of new strategies, such as ensuring that pupils have access to solving real-life problems.  You and your senior leaders have worked with parents to improve attendance and reduce persistent absenteeism for disadvantaged pupils. Your systems for home visits, the implementation of attendance plans with parents who struggle to bring their children into school and your use of pupil premium money on transport have rectified this situation. Current analysis of attendance shows that the attendance of the small minority of disadvantaged pupils is improving and is very close to the national average. There is now no persistent absenteeism in the school.  High outcomes have been maintained in the Reception class in all areas of

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Inspection findings

learning. While there are no disadvantaged children in this year’s cohort, a watchful eye is kept on the progress of all groups of children. Children learn and achieve well in relation to their starting points and are well prepared for work in Year 1. They make good gains in mastering the sounds that letters make, and there has been a big focus on teaching the correct alignment of numbers and letters. All adults, under the watchful eye of the newly appointed leader of early years, are very adept at moving the children on in their learning through high- quality talk. As a result, children form strong relationships with adults and become confident learners.  You have encouraged the leader of the early years foundation stage to create an attractive indoor and outdoor environment which develops children’s natural skills of curiosity. All activities, both indoors and outdoors, are supported by clear learning objectives. While the recording of children’s work and participation in all

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Inspection findings

activities is accurate, it occasionally does not identify the next steps in learning.

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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

 middle prior attainers make even better progress in reading by reading with intonation and a sense of the audience  high prior-attaining pupils develop their skills of explaining how different authors portray the same themes in the books that they have read  teachers help pupils identified to improve and present their work neatly and iron out any inconsistencies in spelling  when undertaking observations of children’s learning in the Reception class, teachers consistently identify the next steps in learning.

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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 Coventry. 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 three members of your senior leadership team, the mathematics leader, three parents, your vice-chair of governors and a representative from the local authority. I talked with a small group of pupils and I heard seven pupils read from across the school. I visited classes jointly with you and we scrutinised teachers’ planning and work in pupils’ books. I examined a range of documentation, including documentation relating to attendance and safeguarding. I took account of the minutes of the governing body meetings, reports written by the local authority adviser, the school’s self-evaluation of how well it is doing, your school development plan, assessment information on the progress of different groups and the pupil premium action plan. I reviewed the school website and the 24 responses from parents to Ofsted’s online questionnaire.

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