Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

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

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Miss Kim Tucker Greenwood Primary and Nursery School Sutton Middle Lane Kirkby-in-Ashfield Nottingham Nottinghamshire NG17 8FX

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Following my visit to the school on 12 June 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 Greenwood Primary and Nursery School was judged to be good in November 2014.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery 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 Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Your focused leadership has continued to develop the strengths of the school. Together with the new senior leadership team, you evaluate the needs of the pupils well and find the best approaches to improve pupils’ outcomes. Leaders are determined to improve learning and life chances for all pupils, in part by creating opportunities to bring the curriculum to life so that pupils understand their learning fully. You are providing a wide range of opportunities to enrich and broaden pupils’ experiences both inside and outside the classroom. Parents and carers appreciate and recognise the hard work of the staff, with one stating: ‘The staff at Greenwood have gone above and beyond to ensure that my children do the best at school both socially and educationally.’ Parents are well engaged with the work of the school and are invited to attend workshops to support their children’s learning in English and mathematics.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Pupils are well cared for and learn in a warm and supportive environment. They behave well and state that their learning is rarely interrupted by poor behaviour. They are polite, courteous and proud of the leadership responsibilities they hold, in particular as ‘learning leaders’. Pupils’ work is displayed effectively to motivate them and celebrate and further assist their learning. Most pupils are keen and active learners. You are developing a range of effective programmes to develop pupils’ skills of confidence, teamwork, positivity and perseverance. Leaders expect pupils to be challenged and to learn from their mistakes. Pupils know this and understand that making a mistake is helpful for them to learn and move on. They feel secure enough to take risks and make these mistakes.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Governors are highly supportive of your leadership and rightly proud of improvements that have been made. They work effectively as a team and are not afraid to challenge and question decisions, holding leaders to account effectively. They have an accurate picture of the school and the priorities for improvement.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Since the previous inspection, you have worked to improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistent throughout the school. You work closely with the Flying High Trust to provide development opportunities for staff. The effect of this can now be seen in classrooms and pupils’ workbooks. Pupils, particularly the most able, have more opportunities for writing across the curriculum. A good example of this was observed in Year 5, where pupils were writing instructions in preparation for a trip to the Space Centre. Pupils are taught explicitly what to do to improve their written work. They can confidently explain what they are learning and why. Differences in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and other groups are diminishing. Leaders need to continue to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make good progress. Teachers’ high expectations of pupils’ presentation of work have led to improvements and pupils are proud of the work they produce.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

You have introduced mastery teaching in mathematics to increase the challenge for all pupils. You carefully identify what will help pupils improve their mathematical thinking further. This is still an area to develop, particularly for the most able pupils.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Pupils’ progress is monitored closely through standardised assessments and regular moderation of work with other schools within the multi-academy trust and the local area, to ensure that the assessments are accurate. Senior leaders also talk to the pupils about their work. They are clear about what the school’s priorities are, and what needs to be done to improve further. This ensures that staff are aware of any underachievement and actions are agreed to help pupils make better progress.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

There is a strong culture of safeguarding at Greenwood Primary School and Nursery. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements, including those related to staff recruitment, are fit for purpose. As the designated senior leader for safeguarding, you, together with the community liaison officer, ensure that pupils have a good understanding of how to keep safe. Pupils report that they feel safe because adults are always available to support and help them.

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Short inspection of Greenwood Primary and Nursery School

Parents recognise the importance you place on safeguarding and value it. Pastoral support for individuals helps both their mental and physical well-being. You work closely with other professionals and seek effective, specialist support for pupils where necessary. The training of staff in safeguarding is regular and thorough. Leaders and governors monitor carefully the possible risks to pupils and act on them. The safeguarding governor is knowledgeable and ensures that this aspect of the school’s work is given a high priority.

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Inspection findings

 Improving outcomes in mathematics is a priority for Greenwood. Staff have had opportunities to team teach, observe modelled lessons, and to work directly with other schools and with the trust’s leader for mathematics to increase their subject knowledge. This has resulted in a greater consistency of approach.  A new approach to the teaching of mathematics has been introduced this academic year. Providing pupils with greater opportunities to reason and solve problems has been effective. Additional challenges are planned and pupils report that they are expected to, ‘prove and explain their answers’. The use and application of mathematical vocabulary have been developed well across the school and pupils are expected to use this independently. This was evident in the Reception class, where children were using mathematical vocabulary appropriately.  Although attainment in mathematics is showing clear improvement and most

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Inspection findings

make steady progress, too few pupils reach the higher standard by the end of key stage 2. More challenge needs to be provided for the most able pupils to help them develop their higher order reasoning skills.  Well-targeted guidance and questioning support pupils to think for themselves and work independently. Adults’ effective feedback to pupils moves learning forward and challenges pupils to improve their work.  Spending of the pupil premium budget is carefully planned and overseen by a dedicated pupil premium leader. A targeted approach to work with individual pupils and groups is now having an effect and the difference in outcomes for this group is beginning to diminish. There is still work to do to ensure that all disadvantaged pupils make good progress.

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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 reasoning and mastery approaches to the teaching of mathematics are fully embedded and that all pupils are appropriately challenged, particularly the most able  the spending of the pupil premium budget is targeted so that all disadvantaged pupils make good progress.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chairs of the governing body and the chief executive officer of the Flying High Academy Trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Nottinghamshire County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During this inspection, I met with you, your leadership team, the school business manager, the community liaison officer, the chief executive officer, the deputy chief executive officer, the director of quality assurance and school improvement, and the mathematics leader from the multi-academy trust. I also met two members of the governing body. I met with staff in the school’s breakfast club. I had a discussion with a group of pupils. I spoke to you about your self-evaluation and the school development plan. I considered reviews of the Flying High Academy Trust of which the school is a member, which included a pupil premium review, a report on governance and other monitoring and support documentation.

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Information about the inspection

I considered 101 parents’ responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 19 free-text comments. I scrutinised the 23 responses to Ofsted’s online staff questionnaire and 170 responses to Ofsted’s online pupil questionnaire. Together with your pupil premium leader, I visited most classes across the school. With you and your leadership team, I scrutinised a range of books from pupils of differing abilities. I reviewed a range of documentation, including that linked to safeguarding, action plans, attendance, the school’s current performance, governor monitoring and internal monitoring. I reviewed information on the school’s website.

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