Kexborough Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Kexborough Primary School Ballfield Lane, Kexborough, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S75 5EF

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Outcome

Kexborough Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children are proud to be pupils at Kexborough Primary School. This is an inclusive school with a real sense of family. One parent summarised the school and said: ‘The school is very supportive and I feel they look at the children’s individual needs and support them well.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff encourage pupils to work hard, and pupils do. Pupils are enthusiastic, enjoy learning and work well with each other. Adults in school work hard to make sure that every pupil receives support so that they can be successful. As a result, pupils achieve well and are ready for the next stage of their education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in lessons because they are well taught and enjoy their learning. They are very polite and friendly. All staff set high expectations for pupils’ behaviour. This results in pupils being able to learn in a calm and safe atmosphere with very few distractions. Pupils and most parents and carers agree that bullying is rare. When it does happen, pupils say adults are quick to sort it out. Pupils say they feel safe in school. They know how to keep themselves safe online.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are keen to develop pupils’ appreciation of culture. This includes theatre activities and visits to museums and interesting places. These help to deepen pupils’ understanding of what they are learning about in school.

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

Leaders have ambitious plans to transform the teaching of reading, particularly early reading. They are working with the trust and a local English hub to do this. Pupils start learning how to read as soon as they start in Reception class. Staff check to make sure that pupils are learning what they intend. They provide support for pupils to make sure that they do not fall behind. Pupils read books that match their phonics knowledge. This is helping to increase their reading confidence. A small number of staff who deliver the phonics sessions are new to school. They are yet to complete their phonics training 19–20 November 2019

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programme to help them teach early reading in line with the school’s approach. Occasionally in these sessions, pupils are taught slightly different strategies to help them to remember their phonics knowledge. Leaders have training sessions planned.

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Pupils say they enjoy listening to adults read to them. Stories read to pupils help their learning in other subjects. Pupils have access to a range of books and say they enjoy reading. Once the phonics programme is completed, pupils have daily guided reading lessons. In these lessons, pupils analyse texts and answer questions about them.

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Leaders make sure that pupils study the full range of subjects in the national curriculum. Schemes of work for all subjects show how pupils’ understanding will build over time. In some year groups, leaders have broken down schemes of work to show precisely the subject-specific knowledge pupils will learn when they are studying a particular topic. This helps teachers check that pupils are learning and remembering what they should be. In some years groups, plans lack the same level of precision. Links to the local area help to make learning relevant for pupils. For example, Year 6 pupils learn about the role of the Bevin Boys in the Second World War and the local mining heritage. Pupils are proud of the work in their topic books and can remember some facts from the topics they have studied.

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Pupils learn how to write for a range of purposes. They get lots of opportunities to apply their writing skills in different subjects. They do this well. This is because teachers plan their lessons to build pupils’ writing skills step by step. They then give them time to practise and apply their skills. This is leading to pupils being able to write very well without support.

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Children make a strong start to their learning in the early years and settle quickly into school. Staff create interesting learning activities that develop pupils’ language skills. Children enjoy writing and telling stories.

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The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) makes sure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in all lessons. Personalised plans help staff to understand how best to help pupils with SEND. Teachers adapt their lessons to make sure that pupils with SEND can learn alongside their peers.

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Leaders have managed some turbulence in staffing over recent years. Some staff, including the subject leaders for history, geography and early reading, are new to their roles. Staff and leaders work well as a team by sharing experience and expertise. Staff value the support of school leaders and the trust. They know leaders look for ways to help their workload. The staff team support each other. Morale is high.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders make sure that staff receive regular training. Staff know what to do if they think a child might be at risk of harm and act quickly when they have concerns. Leaders work closely with other agencies to make sure that children are safe. The school has employed 19–20 November 2019

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a parent support adviser. It is their role to provide support for children and families when needed.

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Leaders make sure that all appropriate employment checks are undertaken on all staff working at the school. Such checks are maintained in a single central record. Issues surrounding the checks on those members of staff who are employed elsewhere, but who work within the school, were resolved during the inspection.

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Leaders make sure that pupils learn how to keep themselves safe. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has recently worked with children to help them understand about healthy relationships.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Not all curriculum plans are sufficiently detailed. They do not consistently stipulate what pupils will learn in each topic to make sure that pupils build their knowledge and remember more. This means that, in some subjects and in some year groups, it is more difficult to check if pupils have learned what teachers intend them to learn. Leaders need to make sure that all schemes of work are precise about exactly what knowledge and skills pupils will learn so that all pupils in all year groups, particularly in history, are able to learn more and remember more.  Subject leaders who are new to their roles are yet to monitor the changes they have made to the curriculum. This means that they are unable to judge the impact of their work on improving pupils’ outcomes. Leaders need to continue to support subject leaders to monitor the implementation of the changes they have made and check the impact these are having on enabling pupils to learn more and remember more.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teaching assistants new to delivering phonics sessions are yet to complete their planned training programme. As a result, some phonics session lack the pace of others. Leaders should make sure that they complete their planned training programme for new staff so that all pupils benefit from teaching that is as good as the best.

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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, Kexborough 19–20 November 2019

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Primary School, to be good on 12–13 June 2014.

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How can I feed back my views?

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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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. 19–20 November 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10119932 Type of school Primary

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School details

Website www.kexboroughprimaryschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Kexborough Primary School converted to become an academy in February 2017.  The school is one of five schools in the Every Child Matters Academy Trust.  The school has a nursery for children from the age of three and a breakfast club.  Most pupils are of White British heritage and almost all speak English as their first language.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is below the national average.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is slightly above the national average.

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Information about this inspection

 I met with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher (who is also the SENCo), the early years leader, a representative of the trust and the history curriculum leader.  I held a meeting with the chief executive officer of the trust and the chair of the board of trustees.  I held a meeting with three members of the local governing body, including the chair of governors. 19–20 November 2019

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 Reading, writing and history were considered as part of this inspection. For each of these subjects, connected inspection activities included discussions with leaders, teachers and pupils, lesson visits and work scrutiny. In reading, I also observed a member of staff listening to pupils read.  I checked the school’s safeguarding policies and procedures and the school’s single central record. I met with leaders, staff and pupils to check how effective safeguarding is in the school. Some administrative omissions were corrected during the course of the inspection.  I met with parents on the playground to seek their views and considered 30 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, including 17 free-text responses.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s questionnaires for staff or pupils.  I looked at a range of documents. These included the school’s self-evaluation, school development plan, risk assessments and action plans.

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Inspection team

Tim Scargill, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 19–20 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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