Lilycroft Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Lilycroft Primary School Lilycroft Road, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD9 5AD

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Outcome

Lilycroft Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Lilycroft Primary School is a happy place to work and learn. Pupils gave me a warm welcome. When I talked to them, they told me they enjoy their lessons and they like their teachers. Many of them take part in the extra clubs that the school runs. There are sports clubs, of which the best attended is cricket, as well as a debating club and an enterprise group. Pupils can take on leadership roles, such as school counsellor, being a monitor or an anti-bullying champion. The champions help make sure that bullying is a rare event. If bullying did happen, pupils are very confident that teachers would deal with it.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. Even those who sometimes do get into trouble think the systems for dealing with these incidents are fair. They understand the three school rules: be kind, be safe, work hard. Pupils respond very well to the attractive and stimulating learning environment which the school provides. Pupils are proud to display their work and show the wide range of things they learn about. In every classroom, there are many useful resources. Older pupils understand that these are not just for play but to help them to become independent learners.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school is ambitious for all its pupils. In mathematics, the well-planned curriculum ensures that pupils make good progress by the end of key stage 2. Pupils enjoy mathematics. They like the range of activities and the way they are encouraged to think for themselves and solve problems. However, pupils need to be more secure in their mathematical knowledge. For instance, they need more time to practise times tables because they are the foundation for future learning.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school makes reading a priority. There is a focus on learning phonics from the start of Reception. The books for early readers are carefully matched to the sounds they know. Every classroom in key stage 1 and 2 has a reading area which the pupils help to design. This gives them access to high-quality books to develop a love of reading. Pupils I met in 6–7 November 2019

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Year 6 were able to talk about their favourite books and how much they enjoyed World Book Day. However, pupils do not make as good progress in reading as they do in mathematics or writing. The school has plans to address this.

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The school has started making big changes to how it teaches the foundation subjects through topic work. The aim is to make learning more relevant to their community. Leaders are working on history and geography as their priority before moving on to making changes in the other subjects. Pupils spoke confidently about what they have learned this term. However, their work did not show a deep enough understanding of the concepts they have studied.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive work that is tailored to their needs. This ensures that they make progress. They are encouraged to take part in the wider opportunities that the school offers. Leaders and governors check that this happens and that disadvantaged pupils also benefit from clubs and educational visits.

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The school is led and managed very well. Staff feel that their views are taken into consideration and that leaders help them manage their workload. They are very positive about the redesigned curriculum. Governors know the school well and the Priestley Academy Trust supports and challenges leaders appropriately.

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There is very good communication with parents. The school makes a great deal of effort to overcome any language barriers that parents experience. Parents are very positive about the school. All who shared their views felt that the school was helping them to support their child’s learning. One parent was able to tell me her positive experiences, using the school’s community liaison officer to translate for her.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have created a culture in which all staff work hard to keep children safe. They carry out appropriate checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children. Staff know the pupils and their families well. The school acts promptly to engage other agencies. Staff training is up to date. This makes staff vigilant to the risks that pupils may face. Pupils feel safe at the school and they receive high-quality teaching on how to keep safe. The governors hold leaders to account for safeguarding. In this way, they make sure that effective standards are maintained.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders need to complete the redesigning of the curriculum for foundation subjects. At present, it is not sufficiently coherently planned and sequenced in all subjects. They need to ensure that, while being true to their vision of it meeting the needs of their community, the curriculum has coverage and ambition equal to that of the National Curriculum. This will also require developing subject leadership and monitoring systems to ensure that this redesigned 6–7 November 2019

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curriculum is implemented effectively so that pupils retain the knowledge they have been taught.  In reading, leaders should implement their plans to further develop the teaching of reading so that pupils make strong progress.  In mathematics, leaders need to continue to develop the teaching of mathematics so that pupils are fully secure in their mathematical knowledge.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good school or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence that the school could now be better than good or that standards may be declining, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will convert the section 8 inspection to a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Lilycroft Primary School, to be good on 8–10 October 2012.

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How can I feed back my views?

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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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. 6–7 November 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10119936 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The Priestley Academy Trust

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School details

Website www.lilycroftprimaryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school is a larger-than-average sized primary school.  The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged is higher than most schools.  Most pupils are of Asian or Asian British-Pakistani heritage.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is well above average.

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Information about this inspection

 I met with the headteacher, all senior leaders, subject leaders and other members of staff. I also met with a group of governors, including the chair of the governing body, and two members of the trust team. I took account of 42 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.  I observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, at breaktime, lunchtime and at breakfast club. I gathered pupils’ views from both formal and informal discussions and from the three responses to Ofsted’s pupils’ survey.  I scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, and safeguarding documentation. I also evaluated information about pupils’ behaviour and their attendance at clubs. 6–7 November 2019

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 I met with a group of twenty parents and considered three letters from parents. I also took into account seven responses to Ofsted’s parent questionnaire, Parent View, as well as responses to the school’s own questionnaire for parents.  I looked in-depth at the following subjects: reading, mathematics and geography. In doing so, I visited all classes in the school and reviewed pupils’ work. I spoke to pupils about their work and listened to them read. I also met with teachers.

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Inspection team

Andrew Cummings, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 6–7 November 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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