Kingsley Primary Academy

Inspection of Kingsley Primary Academy Thomson Crescent, Croydon, Surrey CR0 3JT

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Inadequate Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Inadequate Early years provision Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected 8–9 October 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

Since it opened, the school has been through a difficult time. There have been changes in leaders and teaching staff. Leaders and trustees have not improved the school quickly enough. The quality of education is poor.

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What is it like to attend this school?

All pupils spend a lot of time on English and mathematics. They do not get to learn much about other subjects. Pupils are not enthusiastic about their learning. They are not well prepared to succeed at secondary school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Behaviour is not good enough. Pupils told us that they do not like the behaviour at school. They want this to improve. Pupils often see fights in the playground and hear shouting in the corridors. They said that teachers try to help but their efforts do not work. Sometimes bullying is not resolved. Pupils are fed up with their lessons being disrupted by poor behaviour.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Recently, pupils have had more opportunities to go on school visits, such as museum trips and different places of worship. They all have the chance to attend clubs, such as chess and basketball. Pupils really enjoy going swimming as part of their physical education lessons. Hearing-impaired pupils in the specialist unit are involved in all aspects of school life.

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better?

Leaders’ self-evaluation of the school’s effectiveness is overly generous. Leaders’ views differ as to how well the school is performing. Their plans to improve the school lack sufficient detail. The majority of subject leaders do not know how well their subject is being taught. Leaders have tried to make some things better, for example pupils are achieving better in mathematics and writing. However, leaders’ improvements have been implemented too slowly. The quality of education remains weak. They have not ensured that all pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum. The teaching of reading for some pupils is weak. Pupils’ behaviour is poor. Leaders have not demonstrated the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. Trustees and governors have not held leaders to account well enough.

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better?

No one has a clear overview of what pupils learn other than in mathematics and English. It is mainly up to class teachers to decide what subjects they teach and when they teach it. This means that pupils in the same year group learn different subject content. Pupils do not build their knowledge and skills in most subjects in a logical way to help them remember what they have learned.

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better?

Pupils do not study a wide range of subjects. They do not learn science regularly. Computing lessons are offered as a reward for good behaviour. Furthermore, these only happen when the laptops are working. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 do not study a modern foreign language. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to study the creative arts. 8–9 October 2019

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Pupils do not know enough about the subjects they learn. They have a poor understanding of history and geography, for example. They see these as reading and writing lessons. Teachers do not give enough thought to what they want pupils to learn. Year 4 pupils in science, for example, made a sound machine for Roman soldiers. Pupils did not know anything about vibrations or sound waves, but they knew the drum was loud.

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In early years, children have lots of exciting activities to help them in their learning. For example, we saw them building and measuring towers they had built. Children follow instructions and cooperate well with each other. However, staff do not consistently help children to develop their use of language.

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Some curriculum leaders do not know what is going on in their subject areas because they do not have time to check. Some leaders and managers have too many responsibilities. This affects their workload.

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The picture regarding mathematics is more positive than that of other subjects. Teachers have the same approach across the school. Staff use resources to show pupils different ways of working things out. This helps the pupils to understand calculation. Pupils work through tasks to close any gaps in their knowledge.

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Children learn to read as soon as they join the school. They follow a structured reading programme in the early years. This is well taught. However, staff do not build on this in Years 1 and 2. They do not know what pupils can and cannot do. Leaders and teachers lack a sense of urgency to teach the weakest readers to be fluent across the school. Some staff who support this group of pupils do not have the necessary subject knowledge in reading.

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Some pupils have challenging behaviour. Staff try hard to manage pupils’ behaviour, but it is a continuous struggle. Pupils do not know the code of conduct. A ‘zero- tolerance’ approach in 2018 led to a sharp increase in fixed-term exclusions. Although fixed-term exclusions have reduced in 2019, the behaviour of pupils remains a concern.

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Attendance is low across the school. Leaders are not sure how to address this. They have done some work with parents and carers, but this has not been effective. This is an ongoing area for development.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported by staff to meet their emotional and social needs. In the specialist resource unit, highly skilled staff work with pupils. They can access the same learning as everyone else.

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Pupils are taught the school values, such as kindness and respect for others. We saw some pupils sharing equipment and listening to each other. All pupils have opportunities to think about differences and similarities between cultures and religions. However, teaching is often interrupted by other pupils, which prevents 8–9 October 2019

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have trained staff to identify risks to pupils’ welfare. Staff know that any safeguarding concern must be logged immediately, no matter how small. Leaders take appropriate action to secure the right help for pupils and families. They fully understand the risks that pupils, particularly the most vulnerable, may have outside of school. Leaders identify pupils who may be at risk of gang crime, for example. They work with external agencies to provide mentoring and support.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Pupils do not study subjects, other than English and mathematics, in sufficient depth. The curriculum is not broad or balanced. Leaders need to review the curriculum so that it is at least similar in breadth and ambition to the national curriculum.  The pace of school improvement has been too slow. Leaders need to prioritise and work together to improve the quality of education and pupils’ behaviour.  Leaders’ and governors’ monitoring of the school’s work lacks rigour. They need to have a better oversight of the curriculum. They must ensure that all pupils have equal access to a broad curriculum, no matter what class they are in.  The roles and responsibilities of leaders and staff are unclear. Leaders need to inform staff about their specific roles and responsibilities. These need to be equitable in terms of workload so that staff are not overburdened.  Subject leaders do not have the opportunity to develop their areas of

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

responsibility. They should have a greater impact in the quality of subject planning, teaching and the achievement of pupils. Leaders should ensure that subject leaders have time to carry out their monitoring roles effectively. Subject leaders should have an accurate understanding of the strengths, and address weaknesses, in their curriculum areas.  Leaders need to act swiftly to support the weakest readers in key stage 1. Where staff show insecure phonics knowledge, they need training to improve this. Targets for early readers need to be specific and reading books should match the sounds they have learned.  Leaders and staff do not routinely identify the areas where children’s language skills can develop. Staff in the early years should take every opportunity to develop children’s language skills across the curriculum.  The school does not have a consistent approach to behaviour management. This has a negative impact on pupils’ education and takes up too much staff time and

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

effort. Leaders need to support staff effectively in managing poor behaviour. They 8–9 October 2019

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need to review how they deal with challenging behaviour so that it is dealt with effectively and the proportion of fixed-term exclusions continues to reduce.  Pupils’ attendance remains low. Leaders should adapt their strategies to address poor attendance and work with parents to understand the importance of good attendance.

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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. 8–9 October 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10114869 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Kingsley Primary Academy converted to become an academy school on 1 February 2017. When its predecessor school, Kingsley Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted in July 2016, it was judged to be inadequate.  The school is part of the Cirrus Academy Trust with five other local schools.  The headteacher was appointed in January 2017. There have been frequent changes in school leadership and teaching staff.  The school has a specialist resource provision for pupils with SEND who have a hearing impairment. This is run by the local authority and has the capacity for up to 16 pupils. All have full-time or part-time access to mainstream education in the school.  The school has a higher-than-average proportion of pupils who join at different points in the school year.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 8–9 October 2019

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In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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It is recommended that the school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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 We met with the headteacher, deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers, phase leaders, curriculum leaders and a range of staff.  We had meetings with the chair and vice-chair of the local governing body, the chief executive officer of the trust and the headteacher of another trust school, and a representative from the local authority.  We talked with pupils in lessons, around the school and at lunchtimes. We met with different groups of pupils to hear their views and talk about their learning. We spoke with parents at the start and end of the school day.  The inspection focused deeply on reading, mathematics, history, science, art and computing. All other subjects were considered as part of the inspection. Inspectors discussed these subjects with pupils, staff and leaders. They visited lessons and looked at pupils’ work.  We met with the designated safeguarding leader and the family support worker to

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discuss the school’s safeguarding procedures. We checked the single central record and looked at referrals and case studies to see the actions leaders had taken. We talked with pupils and staff about safeguarding. We also reviewed the school’s physical restraint policy and talked with some members of staff about this.

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Inspection team

Jude Wilson, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Karen Matthews Ofsted Inspector 8–9 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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