Thrybergh Primary School

Inspection of Thrybergh Primary School Oldgate Lane, Thrybergh, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S65 4JG

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement 2–3 October 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are polite and friendly. They like coming to school and most attend every day.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Positive relationships between adults and pupils, right from the start, mean that pupils behave well. Pupils show respect for others. They like their headteacher and say they do not want to disappoint her.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel safe. They understand what bullying is. They know that it is different to simply falling out with their friends from time to time. They say that their worries are always sorted out if they put a message in the worry box or tell an adult.

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What is it like to attend this school?

In the past, pupils did not get the chance to study all subjects in the detail they should have done. Leaders have started to change the curriculum. Pupils now have better planned lessons in subjects such as French. Some of this learning is new, so pupils have a lot of catching up to do.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils can read and write well by the time they leave key stage 1.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff have created a calm and friendly environment in early years. However, children do not get enough chance to practise their new learning. This means they do not make as much progress as they should with things like learning to write their letters.

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better?

There have been considerable changes in leadership and staffing. School and trust leaders and the local governing board are now working together to improve the curriculum for pupils. They know this is important because pupils have not been achieving as well as they should.

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better?

Leaders have put a new programme in place to help pupils to learn to read and write. Teachers across school plan lessons that build on what pupils already know. Teachers in key stages 1 and 2 choose reading books carefully so that pupils practise sounds they have learned in phonics. Pupils read with confidence and accuracy by the end of Year 2. Too few pupils have achieved well in reading by the end of Year 6. A more carefully planned curriculum is helping key stage 2 pupils to catch up.

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better?

In the early years, staff do not have high enough expectations of what children can achieve. For example, some children cannot hold a pencil properly and find writing letters difficult. They are not given enough practice and support to improve quickly. From this year, adults are teaching phonics right from the start of Reception. However, the books that children take home do not match the sounds that they know. This slows their progress in reading. When children go to ‘lab sessions’ (independent activities in the classroom), they do not get enough chance to practise new learning so that they remember it.

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better?

Leaders concentrated on improving the curriculum for English and mathematics first. 2–3 October 2019

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The curriculum in other subjects is at an early stage of development and needs further work. For example, in music, pupils sing well, but have little chance to learn about different types of music or composers. Pupils enjoy French lessons but know a limited number of French words and phrases. Science is high on the agenda in early years, but older pupils have missed out on some essential knowledge in the past. Leaders are working on the planning for different subjects so that pupils learn more over their time in school. Apart from in reading and writing, leaders have not thought about how what children learn in early years will help them with their learning in key stages 1 and 2.

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In the past, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have not had the support they needed. The headteacher has worked with the staff team and external agencies to make sure that pupils’ needs are understood. Pupils are receiving the right support throughout the day. Better checks are now made on what they have learned and remembered.

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All staff expect pupils to behave well and help them to do so. Exclusions have reduced considerably. Leaders make sure that parents and pupils know how important good attendance is. Hardly any pupils are regularly absent from school.

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Staff make sure that all pupils are well looked after. ‘Scotty’s Heroes’ sessions motivate pupils to try their best and work as a team. Pupils find it hard to think of their personal strengths, or how they can contribute to the life of the school. They only know a little about different cultures and faiths.

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The trust has recently worked with the local governing board to make sure that they have a clearer view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The board now has better plans in place to check leaders’ work to improve the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff know that it is their responsibility to keep pupils safe. Leaders make sure that everyone has frequent training and updates about safeguarding. This means that staff know what to look for and how to report any concerns they have.

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Safeguarding

Pupils trust adults and feel safe in school. Pupils learn about keeping themselves safe in assemblies and in personal, social, health and citizenship lessons. Sometimes the local police visit to support leaders in this work.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Pupils have not achieved as well as they should because the school curriculum has not been well planned. Leaders have not sufficiently considered how what children learn in early years will lay foundations for what they learn in key stages 2–3 October 2019

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1 and 2. Leaders should ensure that plans identify the most important content for pupils to remember in each subject and in each year group, right from early years.  In the early years, children do not remember some aspects of their learning. They do not have enough opportunities to practise and revisit what they have learned with the teacher. This is particularly the case with phonics and writing. Leaders should ensure that children practise the most important curriculum content regularly so that they retain it over time.  In the Reception year, children are not supported well enough to become fluent readers from the beginning. The first books that children take home are not phonetically decodable. The first messages leaders give parents about supporting their child’s reading are unhelpful because children do not recognise all the sounds in the books they read at home. Leaders should make sure that the books

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children read in the early years are matched to the sounds they know.  The curriculum for personal development is not planned well enough. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to talk about their work, make independent choices and share and debate their views. Leaders need to make sure that the curriculum helps pupils to have a better knowledge of different cultures and faiths.  Until recently, governors have not held leaders to account for the quality of education in the school. The governing body has not had a clear enough view of the quality of the curriculum in different subjects and how well pupils achieve. Governors should ensure that they use their recent training to help them understand the school’s performance in all areas. They should use this to help them to check the impact of school leaders’ work to improve the quality of education.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you’re not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

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. 2–3 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10110600 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection 9–10 May 2017

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Information about this school

 The school joined Wickersley Partnership Trust on 1 July 2014.  The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.  The headteacher took up her post in September 2018.  The early years leader started at the school in January 2019.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above the national average.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 We met with the headteacher and assistant headteacher during the inspection.  We looked closely at reading, science, music and modern foreign languages. This involved discussions with pupils, curriculum leaders, the trust’s lead teacher for music, teachers and teaching assistants. We looked at pupils’ work, visited lessons and listened to pupils read.  We met with members of the local governing board, the trust’s chief executive officer and school improvement partners for the trust. We spoke to the chair of 2–3 October 2019

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the board of trustees.  A wide range of activities were undertaken to check the school’s arrangements for safeguarding. This included speaking to pupils, parents and staff and looking closely at safeguarding records.  We spoke to parents at the start of the school day to ask for their views about the school.  We spoke to the leader for pupils with SEND. We looked at pupils’ support plans and observed them learning in classrooms.

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Inspection team

Kate Rowley, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Gillian Wiles Ofsted Inspector 2–3 October 2019

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regulates and inspects to 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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