Savile Park Primary School

Savile Park Primary School Moorfield Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX1 3ER

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Senior leaders have brought about improvements in the school’s performance following some slippage. Outcomes for pupils have steadily improved over the last few years.  Teaching is largely effective. As a result, most pupils currently in the school are making good progress overall in a wide range of subjects.  However, the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not entirely consistent in quality in all classes and subjects. This results in progress that is not as strong for a small minority of pupils.  In writing, some of the least able pupils do not make the rapid progress that would help them to catch up. Too few of the least able pupils reach the expected standard in early reading. In mathematics, occasionally the most able pupils are not challenged enough.  Well-managed support for the high number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in this inclusive school helps

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

them to participate fully and make good progress.  Leaders ensure that pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum. Pupils develop considerable knowledge in a wide range of subjects. An extensive menu of enrichment activities stimulates learning and broadens pupils’ horizons.  Senior leaders have developed middle leaders’ skills, so they make an increasingly positive contribution to improvements in the quality of the curriculum.  Leaders have begun work to further sharpen the curriculum so that content is sequenced in a way that helps pupils to make more substantial and sustained progress in every subject. Work is ongoing.  Provision for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is strong. This contributes to the maintenance of a safe, cohesive school community. Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to school are good.  Effective leadership of the early years results in good-quality teaching, learning and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

assessment. As a result, children, including the most vulnerable, make good progress.  Conscientious governors keep a close eye on all aspects of school life. They hold leaders to account. The governing body occasionally becomes a little mired in detail, drawing attention away from the highest priorities.  Leaders’ ambition for pupils sometimes causes them to try to juggle too many priorities at once. This results in some improvements not being as rapid as they might be.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Sharpen the effectiveness of leadership at all levels, and the governing body, by: – reducing the number of school improvement priorities so that senior and middle leaders can bring about more rapid improvement – ensuring that governors routinely emphasise the most important strategic priorities in their discussions and actions.  Further improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that all groups of pupils make consistently strong progress in reading, writing and mathematics by ensuring that: – staff are highly trained and effective in helping the least able pupils, including those with substantial barriers to learning, to catch up in phonics by the end of Year 1 – the least able pupils are helped to write with greater accuracy by the end of key stage 1 – the most able pupils are more consistently well challenged to solve tricky problems in mathematics.  Further improve the quality of the curriculum by:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– reviewing and reordering the content of all non-core subjects to aid the more systematic accumulation of knowledge – making sure that the curriculum content is consistently demanding in every subject and year group.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher, appointed nearly three years ago, has not balked at the difficult tasks involved in getting the school back on the right track. Aided by the senior leadership team, she has grown an increasingly effective middle leadership team. She has got staff on the two separate school sites working more closely together to secure greater consistency in the quality of teaching.  Through staff professional development, and setting clear expectations about roles and responsibilities, leaders have improved the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Leaders make checks on the quality of teaching and its impact on pupils’ learning and progress. They give teachers precise, helpful feedback that results in the largely consistent application of agreed policies. Leaders’ evaluations identify accurately what remains to be improved. As a result, pupils’ attainment has risen in English and in mathematics.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Senior and middle leaders have made improvements to the quality of the curriculum. They have produced a curriculum that makes appropriate demands on pupils and helps them to accumulate a considerable body of knowledge in subjects such as science, history and geography. Some of the curriculum content, however, is not sequenced in a way that maximises pupils’ development of knowledge over time. Leaders are in the process of further reviewing this.  Leaders make sure pupils have access to a wide range of enrichment activities, including regular visits to places of cultural and educational value such as farms, museums and the seaside. Pupils enjoy and learn from visitors such as authors, poets and sports people.  Leaders ensure that staff are consistent in the way they promote positive behaviour. They have created a safe environment that is conducive to learning. As a result, pupils enjoy school and develop positive attitudes.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders prioritise the promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. They have created a positive, harmonious community where pupils of different backgrounds and cultures get along well together. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.  The inclusivity of the school attracts a large number of pupils with SEND. Leaders make effective use of funding to meet their needs. Leaders work tirelessly to make sure these pupils, including those with complex needs, get the support they need and can be fully included in lessons with their peers. Additional adults work closely with the pupils to develop their independence and help them to achieve their learning goals.  Effective use is made of the additional funding for sports and physical education (PE). A full-time PE coach works alongside staff to increase their confidence in teaching PE. Pupils develop positive attitudes to sports and fitness.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Pupil premium funding provides a wide range of support for disadvantaged pupils in the school, whose progress is not significantly different from that of other pupils in the school or nationally.  Hard-working senior leaders juggle many priorities. This occasionally causes them to lose focus on the most important priorities. As a result, although pupils’ outcomes have improved steadily over time, this improvement has not always been as rapid as it might be. For example, although most pupils make strong progress in reading, too many of the least able pupils have fallen through the net and do not learn to read as well they might by the end of key stage 1, because leaders have not given early reading the highest priority. Concrete, suitable plans are in place to address this priority.

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Governance of the school

 Governors are conscientious and hardworking. They devote considerable time to their roles, studying documentation and making visits to the school to see what happens for themselves, rather than just relying on what leaders tell them.  Leaders ensure that the governing body is well informed about the life of the school and the progress that groups of pupils make. However, governors sometimes become somewhat swamped by the amount of information they receive. This sometimes distracts them from focusing sharply on the most important school improvement priorities.  Nevertheless, the governing body offers school leaders considerable challenge as well as support. It fulfils all its statutory duties, including assuring itself that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Staff are properly trained in their safeguarding and child protection duties. For example, all staff teams have attended The Barnardo’s Anti-Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Bullying programme to ensure that staff recognise and address immediately any discriminatory behaviour.  Adults know what, how, and to whom they should report concerns that a pupil may be at risk of harm. Leaders report concerns to the local authority. They make sure that pupils and families get help from external professionals when needed.  Safer recruitment procedures are fit for purpose. The record of the checks on staff is complete.  The safety of the school buildings is reviewed regularly. The school sites are safe and secure. Leaders make sure that thorough risk assessments are carried out before taking pupils on educational visits.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers, across a range of subjects, ask pupils questions that promote deepening thinking. Teachers check pupils’ understanding. They assess pupils during lessons and between lessons to identify what pupils can do to improve. They encourage pupils to check their own work and to make improvements.  Pupils develop a love of reading because teachers share well-chosen, quality books with them. Pupils have plenty of appealing books from which to choose. A range of events, such as book fairs, author visits and competitions, enthuse pupils. Most pupils are motivated to read at home with family members. Teachers are aware of those who are less well supported at home, and they engage volunteers to listen to these pupils reading at school.  Adults ask questions that help pupils to think about what they read. Pupils learn to read between the lines and develop an increasingly wide vocabulary. However, too many of the least able pupils who fall behind do not catch up quickly. This is because

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

not all the staff are trained to a high enough standard in teaching phonics. Furthermore, the books pupils are given to practise with are sometimes not matched closely enough to their developing phonics knowledge. The majority of pupils catch up in Year 2 but several pupils each year go on to key stage 2 not having met the expected standard in phonics.  The teaching of mathematics across the school is generally effective, so outcomes in mathematics have improved substantially over time. Pupils develop fluency in calculating as they get plenty of practice. Teachers ask probing questions to check pupils’ understanding. Teachers are increasingly giving pupils more opportunities to solve challenging problems. However, occasionally, the most able pupils are not challenged enough.  Teachers quickly build younger pupils’ confidence in learning to write so that most pupils of all abilities write at length with increasing stamina. Most pupils by the end of

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

key stage 1, including those who speak English as an additional language, learn to write accurately and to check their work. However, a few of the least able pupils repeat errors and omissions. Teachers’ assessment does not often enough catch this early, so pupils continue to repeat these errors. In key stage 2, teachers sometimes do not correct the basic grammar and spelling errors of the least able pupils.  Teachers in all year groups give pupils plenty of practice writing in English lessons, and in other subjects, for a range of appealing purposes. Pupils in Year 6 were enthused as they wrote letters in the role of the character of a book they have been enjoying together as a class. This practice, along with the effective teaching of grammatical knowledge to help pupils draft increasingly sophisticated sentences, helps most pupils to make good progress.  Teachers’ implementation of the improving curriculum ensures that pupils acquire

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

substantial knowledge in a wide range of subjects. In most subjects and in most classes, teachers make sure pupils are challenged well. For example, pupils are helped to apply their growing science knowledge to scientific investigations and to use their science knowledge in other subjects such as geography.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Leaders fully promote the school’s values of ‘a love for learning, a love for life, a love for one another’. Leaders have created a positive environment where pupils from a range of different backgrounds get on well together.  Leaders ensure the promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Pupils challenge unhelpful attitudes to diversity and stereotyping. This was exemplified by the fact that boys were happy to join in skipping-rope games and girls spoke strongly about all sports being for both boys and girls. Adults are preparing pupils well for life in modern Britain.  Pupils’ welfare is a high priority for leaders. They teach pupils how to stay safe, including when online. They instil in pupils the importance of health and fitness. They make sure all pupils have trusted adults to whom they can speak, and that any bullying

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Personal development and welfare

or discriminatory language is dealt with quickly. Adults take any such incidents seriously, and they ensure that pupils are counselled to understand why using discriminatory words is not kind or acceptable.  Pupil playground leaders are trained to help adults make sure their peers are actively engaged in play at breaktimes. Adults join in pupils’ games. A wide range of highly organised outside activities, including quieter activities for those who prefer this, is on offer at every breaktime.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils conduct themselves well in lessons. They are diligent, follow instructions and complete their tasks. Pupils are polite, well mannered and they learn to be considerate of each other.  Leaders provide in-house counselling and additional support for pupils with particular behavioural needs. For example, separate play arrangements, led by an adult, mean that pupils can learn and experience the benefits of positive, cooperative play.  The rate of pupils’ absence, over time, has been slightly below the national average for similar schools. Rates of persistent absence are broadly in line with the national average.  At the time of this inspection, absence was a little higher than at the same time last year. However, leaders have clear procedures in place to monitor and tackle higher than acceptable absence for individuals and families. Leaders do not monitor closely

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Behaviour

trends in absence for groups of pupils. Nevertheless, no particular group is significantly disadvantaged by low attendance.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Standards have risen steadily by the end of key stage 2 over the last few years. Attainment in reading, writing and mathematics is broadly in line with national averages. Improvements in mathematics and in understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling are more marked than in reading and writing. Progress is at least average in English and mathematics over time.  The proportion of pupils reaching a high standard has varied year on year. Across the school, the most able pupils generally reach the standards of which they ought to be capable. This is not consistently the case, and occasionally the pupils are not challenged sufficiently well.  Attainment at the end of key stage 1 in reading, writing and mathematics improved in 2018, with a further modest rise in the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in 2019, which is a three-year high.  The proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in phonics by the end of year 1

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Outcomes for pupils Good

has been below average in the last few years. While a few pupils each year show significant cognitive barriers to learning, others ought to be able to catch up, given their access to expert, intensive teaching. A majority of these pupils go on to reach the standard by the end of Year 2.  Across all year groups, pupils accumulate a substantial body of knowledge in subjects such as science, geography, history and religious education. There is a little variability across year groups and subjects in the demands the curriculum content sometimes makes on pupils.  Pupils who speak English as an additional language make generally strong progress across the curriculum.  Overall, pupils currently in the school, including disadvantaged pupils, make steady and sustained progress from their starting points to the time they leave. The depth and breadth of the curriculum is preparing most pupils well for the next stage of their

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Early years provision Good

 Most children enter the school with at least some aspects of development that are below those which are typical for their age. This year, a considerable number arrived with particular disadvantages, for example not having attended any pre-school provision, or arriving from abroad with scant or no English. The proportion of children reaching a good level of development has been below the national average. Nevertheless, overall, children make strong progress from their starting points. The very large majority are well prepared for Year 1.  The early years leader has ensured consistently good-quality teaching, learning and assessment across both sites. Teachers plan activities that make demands of children. For example, children enjoyed the challenge of a throwing, catching and balancing activity outside.  The basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy are systematically planned and taught. For example, during the inspection, teachers used apparatus to help children

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Early years provision Good

understand the concept of subtraction. They gave the children lots of practice using the apparatus for themselves and recording their learning in pictures and in the traditional, abstract written form.  Children have daily opportunities to engage in independent play and exploration. Children persevere at these activities and enjoy the challenges adults give them that make the activities appropriately demanding.  Adults systematically assess children’s development. They involve parents in the assessment of their children. For example, parents often arrive early on Fridays to have a look at the children’s assessment folders. Adults visit each child’s home in September to begin to assess the children and to seek the views of parents about what their children know and can do. The early years leader seeks information from the children’s pre-school providers.  Leaders have a good understanding of where the strengths and weaknesses are. For

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Early years provision Good

example, adults are taking effective steps to develop the outdoor provision so that it consistently matches the indoor provision in quality. Adults make adaptations to their planning, depending on emerging patterns in children’s achievement.  Adults communicate with each other well about the next steps for each child. From their observations of children, adults identify and plan the next learning steps straight away, often the same day. Activities are then provided to give the children an opportunity to learn and practise these goals.  Pupils develop well personally and socially. They follow instructions, for example lining up in an orderly fashion and learning to cooperate and collaborate. Adults keep children safe. The early years welfare requirements are met.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address office@savilepark.calderdale.sch.uk

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Information about this school

 Savile Park Primary school is located on two sites a little over half a mile away from each other. One building accommodates pupils from Reception to Year 6, the other accommodates pupils from Reception to Year 4. By 2021, every year group will have two classes. The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is broadly in line with the national average. The percentage of pupils with SEND who have an education, health and care plan is well above the national average.  The proportion who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average. The large majority of pupils are of Pakistani heritage. About one in five pupils are white British and a small minority are from various minority ethnic groups.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching in all classes. Many of these observations took place alongside school leaders. Inspectors examined a selection of pupils’ workbooks with school leaders. The lead inspector listened to a few pupils reading.  Informal discussions were held with pupils throughout the inspection. Inspectors also met formally with groups of pupils, including the school council, to find out what it is like to be a pupil in the school. Inspectors observed pupils as they played.  Informal discussions were held with a few parents. Inspectors considered the written comments from a few parents as well as the results of surveys carried out by school leaders.  Discussions were held with school leaders throughout the inspection. Inspectors met with members of the governing body and with a representative of the local authority. A number of staff members were questioned about their safeguarding and child

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Information about this inspection

protection duties.  A range of documents were scrutinised, including the school self-evaluation document and school improvement plans. Inspectors examined leaders’ monitoring notes, minutes of governing body meetings and notes of visits from the local authority school improvement partner. Several safeguarding-related documents were scrutinised. The record of checks on adults’ suitability to work with children was examined.  Inspectors analysed assessment information and compared this with national data.

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Inspection team

Philip Riozzi, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Natasha Greenough Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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