Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

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

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Mr Peter Hines Headteacher Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit Glebe Close Bromyard Road Worcester Worcestershire WR2 5AX

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

Following my visit to the school on 27 February 2019 with Paul Elliott, Ofsted Inspector, 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 outstanding in December 2014.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Pupils make excellent progress in both key stages and their behaviour is courteous, thoughtful and cooperative. You are an inspirational headteacher and the leadership team leads with insight and dedication. Staff are very skilled, and their morale is high. You have a supportive and challenging governing body and highly productive relationships with the local authority. Parents and carers speak very well of the school.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

Your vision is to help pupils enjoy their learning and return well prepared to mainstream education. Your school is successful in this ambition. A very high proportion of pupils are successful during their time at Perryfields and complete an effective transition to mainstream schools. Pupils are pleased they attend the school. The staff help pupils to improve their self-confidence and their ability to do well in subjects across the curriculum. Your curriculum helps pupils thrive. In addition to the broad and balanced range of subjects you offer, there is a rich variety of extra-curricular opportunities and residential learning.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

The outreach work of the staff is especially effective. You offer support to a high number of schools in the area. Colleagues in these schools have found this very beneficial to pupils at risk of exclusion. When pupils have a place at Perryfields, outreach staff plan very successful induction and transition programmes that result in pupils having a calm, optimistic readiness for learning.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

The staff make sure pupils make remarkably strong progress in their attitudes to learning. Pupils grow in confidence in a secure and sustained way. This means, for instance, they make dramatic improvements in reading, writing and mathematics. Pupils who take national tests in key stage 1 and key stage 2 do very well and some make much better than the average progress for their age.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

Staff have a very accurate understanding of pupils’ abilities, and plan challenging and enjoyable lessons. They help pupils learn from their mistakes and make improvements in their work. Pupils are proud of their workbooks and are eager to share their work with others. At the previous inspection, you were asked to help improve pupils’ handwriting and the presentation of their work. Staff have been successful in this. We found impressive improvements over time in pupils’ workbooks in both key stages. Right around the school, pupils have produced high- quality displays celebrating their achievements.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

The work of the governing body is a strength of the school. Leaders and governors work closely together and understand the school well. Governors are ambitious for pupils’ success. Governors share a deeply held commitment to pupils and ensure they make significant improvements in their learning and behaviour. Governors are trained effectively to understand progress and attainment information and they use this knowledge to scrutinise the data you give them. This leads to effective strategic planning and accurate self-evaluation. They have a clear vision for giving pupils a curriculum that prepares them well for the next stage of their education. They are fully supportive of your curriculum design, which emphasises the balance between classroom and extra-curricular learning.

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Short inspection of Perryfields Primary Pupil Referral Unit

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Staff are trained to a high level and are skilled at identifying signs that pupils and families need additional support. Safeguarding help is given in a timely and effective manner. The school curriculum has strong elements of safeguarding: pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe online and in the wider community. Pupils feel safe at school and bullying is almost non-existent. Risk assessments are sharply focused. Staff are fully committed to the ‘Prevent’ duty. Staff have an excellent awareness of how to take action in response to issues such as child sexual exploitation and gang-related violence. Leaders have excellent relationships with local authority agencies, and this helps the effective transfer of information and provision of early help for pupils.

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Inspection findings

 During the inspection, I examined the way you have designed the curriculum. You place English, mathematics and science at the heart of the curriculum. Pupils learn exceptionally well, making excellent progress over time. You give them the confidence and skills necessary to enjoy their work. Pupils write with accuracy, careful thought and imagination. They enjoy reading and talk enthusiastically about their fiction and non-fiction reading choices. You have trained your staff well in mastery approaches, and as a result, pupils make very strong progress in mathematics. Pupils’ science work shows how well your staff have developed pupils’ sense of curiosity and wonder. For example, pupils are eager to explain the differences between planets of the solar system and how they orbit the sun. Pupils’ interest in science has been deepened by your visits from Warwick University academics. Pupils told us that this experience made them ambitious to

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Inspection findings

become scientists in later life. You help pupils learn a range of mathematical skills. In key stage 1, for example, pupils learn to subtract proper and improper fractions and at key stage 2, how to balance inverse operations and find the value of four-digit numbers. In humanities, pupils use their writing skills to develop their history knowledge, writing empathetically, for example, about soldiers in the First World War.  I considered the ways in which the wider curriculum successfully develops pupils’ aspirations and personal development. Staff link extra-curricular provision carefully to pupils’ academic study. There is a wide range of trips, educational visits and residential experiences, and these help foster pupils’ excitement about learning and hope for the future. Pupils are interested in the world around them and look forward to taking part in the many sporting, dramatic and technology experiences the school offers. Pupils are tolerant of each other and readily accept

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Inspection findings

differences between different cultures. For example, pupils produce high-quality artwork based on Australian aboriginal designs. Pupils have excellent attitudes to learning: staff have taught pupils how to listen to each other and their teacher. Pupils’ confidence to ask questions about their learning is especially strong. Modern foreign languages is an area of your curriculum that is not yet fully embedded in the key stage 1 and 2 curriculum. Your strategic school planning shows that this is a high priority.  You enrich the curriculum with a wide range of off-site learning. For example, once every week, pupils go to a local working farm for carefully planned activities that help them learn about animal husbandry and horticulture. As result, pupils see how their classroom mathematics, geography and writing have practical applications. Pupils spoke excitedly of how they saw the birth of lambs and how

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Inspection findings

to care for them in the first moments of life.  I explored how well pupils’ behaviour improves when they join the school. Pupils make outstanding progress in their behaviour. Over time, you help them to become self-disciplined, respectful and courteous. Your staff use a rich combination of psychotherapeutic techniques, setting clear boundaries and using rewards and consequences. Above all, staff help pupils enjoy learning and develop an interest in the world around them. Pupils learn how to trust appropriate adults, how to address others politely and to work sensibly in groups. Attendance records show that pupils rarely miss any time from school. Parents told us that their children look forward to school. As a consequence, pupils are very well prepared for the next stage of their education.

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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

 pupils make at least good progress in modern foreign languages, by embedding this subject in the key stage 1 and 2 curriculum.

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

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, we met with you, other members of the leadership team, teaching staff and the chair of the governing body. My colleague met a member of your governing body who represents your partner schools. You, my colleague and I agreed key lines of enquiry for the inspection. My colleague visited one of the school’s off-site learning providers. We carried out a series of learning walks, visiting lessons with senior leaders. During these visits, we observed pupils’ learning, spoke with pupils and scrutinised their work. I met with the school council and spoke with pupils at lunch and during the day. There were no responses to Ofsted’s online parent questionnaire, Parent View. I met with parents and reviewed the school’s documentation that records the views of your community. We spoke with staff and took account of 20 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire. We looked at a range of documentation, including information about the work of governors to

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Information about the inspection

promote safeguarding, attendance and good behaviour. I scrutinised and discussed the school’s tracking of pupils’ progress and attainment, the school’s self-evaluation and its plans for improvement.

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