Lovers Lane Primary and Nursery School

Inspection of Lovers’ Lane Primary and Nursery School Warburton Street, Newark, Nottinghamshire NG24 1LT

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good 15–16 October 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy school. They told us that they feel safe here. The school is a happy and friendly place to be. Bullying is not tolerated. Staff work together well to make sure that pupils are well cared for and kept safe. They provide a range of support, including helping pupils’ speech and language development. This is particularly true for pupils who speak English as an additional language. Staff treat pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) sensitively. They make sure that these pupils are involved in all aspects of the school day.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders do not have high enough expectations for children learning to read right from the start of their school life. They have not made sure that clear plans are in place for this to happen. Pupils do not learn to read as well as they should.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Sometimes, staff do not expect enough of pupils’ behaviour. Some pupils are easily distracted from their work. Staff do not expect them to get back to work quickly enough. Some pupils do not behave well around school. When staff insist, pupils behave well, but this does not happen all the time.

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better?

Leaders know what they need to do to improve the school and have begun to make changes. However, they have not managed some improvements well enough. Leaders do not check that all staff follow the school’s curriculum plans. There have been several changes in the staff team over recent years. Leaders have not provided staff with the appropriate training to help them teach phonics and the full range of subjects successfully. Improvements are patchy and happen slowly.

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better?

Some pupils do not learn to read well enough. Teachers do not help pupils to remember the sounds that they have learned and to use them when they are reading new words. Until recently, improving the teaching of reading has not been a high enough priority for leaders. Some staff have not had training to teach early reading well or to help pupils who fall behind to catch up.

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better?

Leaders are introducing new plans that set out what pupils should learn in each subject. However, some plans are not as well developed as others. Some subject plans lack the detail they need to show exactly what pupils will learn and when. It is not always clear when pupils will revisit learning to help them remember more.

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better?

Leaders have recently improved the curriculum for mathematics. There is now a plan in place to build up pupils’ knowledge in this subject as they move through the school. However, not all teachers follow the school’s plan for mathematics carefully. They do not introduce new ideas that build on logically from what pupils have already learned.

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better?

Staff are keen to support pupils’ personal development. However, leaders’ plans in this area are not clear enough. Pupils’ experiences are not organised in a way that 15–16 October 2019

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allows them to build on what they already know. This leads to a jumbled approach to pupils’ personal development.

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Some subjects are not planned in enough detail to enable pupils with SEND to achieve well. Leaders’ ambition for these pupils is sometimes not high enough. The school provides effective support to some pupils with SEND. This is particularly true when pupils need extra resources to help them learn. Staff support pupils who speak English as an additional language well. These pupils develop their understanding and use of the English language quickly.

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Staff sometimes do not expect enough of pupils’ behaviour. Occasionally, poor behaviour interrupts some lessons. Most pupils attend school regularly, but a few are absent too often.

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In early years, children are happy and enjoy playing and working together. However, sometimes staff do not expect children to behave as well as they could. They do not have high enough expectations for what children could achieve. Teachers do not plan learning that builds on what children already know and can do.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff are knowledgeable about the potential risks that could affect pupils. They teach pupils how to work and play safely with their friends. Staff receive up-to-date training. They know how to spot the potential signs of concern. The governor with responsibility for safeguarding ch ecks that all the required policies and procedures are in place.

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Safeguarding

Staff know the pupils and their families well. They give pupils’ welfare and safety a high priority. Pupils say that the adults keep them safe and look after them well.

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Safeguarding

Pupils understand how to keep themselves safe when they are online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In many subjects, the curriculum is not well planned. Senior leaders need to ensure that the curriculum is designed sequentially so that pupils develop and revisit subject knowledge. Subject leaders and teaching staff should receive sufficient training and guidance to enable them to implement the school’s curriculum effectively.  The curriculum for teaching early reading is not effective. Leaders must ensure that the curriculum for early reading is well planned to develop pupils’ phonics knowledge sequentially. This includes ensuring that the books pupils read match the sounds that they know. Leaders should urgently ensure that all staff who teach 15–16 October 2019

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phonics receive training to teach it effectively. Leaders should check that the curriculum for teaching phonics is followed by all staff.  Sometimes, pupils do not behave as well as they could. Leaders need to check that all staff adhere to the school’s behaviour policy and have consistently high expectations of pupils’ behaviour.  Some pupils are persistently absent from school. Leaders need to continue to improve pupils’ rates of attendance, particularly for those pupils who are persistently absent.  The school’s curriculum for personal development is not well sequenced. Leaders need to ensure that the curriculum is designed to develop pupils’ understanding in this area as they move through the school.  Some children are not well prepared for Year 1. Leaders need to ensure that staff in early years consistently expect children to behave well. The curriculum for early years needs to be sufficiently ambitious to enable more children to achieve well .

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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. 15–16 October 2019

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School details

Local authority Nottinghamshire County Council

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School details

Inspection number 10110066 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 8 November 2018

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Information about this school

 Three of the eight teachers in the school have joined the staff since the previous inspection.

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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

 Inspectors met with senior leaders, subject leaders, governors, teachers and teaching assistants to discuss aspects of the school’s curriculum and provision.  Inspectors met with a representative of the local authority.  Reading, mathematics, science and history were considered in greater detail than other subjects in the school. This entailed meeting with leaders to discuss these areas of the curriculum, visiting lessons, talking to teachers to find out how they teach these subjects, looking at pupils’ workbooks and speaking to pupils about their learning.  Inspectors took account of the school’s recent surveys of parents’ views and spoke briefly with 30 parents on the second day of the inspection. There were seven responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, which inspectors 15–16 October 2019

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considered.  Inspectors reviewed a wide range of documents relating to safeguarding and the quality of education provided.

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Inspection team

Roger Sadler, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Graham Boyd Ofsted Inspector 15–16 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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