Doxey Primary and Nursery School

Inspection of Doxey Primary and Nursery School Doxey Road, Doxey, Stafford, Staffordshire ST16 1EG

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement 4–5 December 2019

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and proud of their school. They say they feel safe because their teachers look after them. Pupils welcome visitors. They display good manners and hold doors open. Pupils talk about the school’s value of ‘respect’ with confidence.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff want the very best for all pupils. They have worked together to improve aspects of pupils’ learning. This has resulted in some positive changes across the school. However, leaders are very aware that there is still a lot more work to be done.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Behaviour is mostly positive around the school. However, pupils do not always listen well in lessons and they do not always focus on their work. This happens too often and slows down pupils’ learning. This frustrates other pupils who want to get on with their work.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a clear understanding of the different types of bullying. When it does happen, staff deal with it straight away. Leaders take any bullying incidents seriously. Pupils, parents and carers value this.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. They appreciate the positive start to the school day when their children enjoy free bagels on the playground. This reflects the level of care for pupils at the school.

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better?

When children join the Nursery and Reception classes, their speaking and listening skills are not well developed. This slows down learning in other areas. The school has introduced plans to address this. However, it is too early to see if these plans are having a positive impact. Children are happy in the early years and enjoy being with their friends. Relationships between staff and children are very positive. Children are cared for. The well-resourced classrooms and outdoor areas are colourful, stimulating and help children to learn. Children enjoy learning lots of new things, indoors and outdoors. Activities build on what children have learned before.

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better?

In some subjects, including English, leaders have planned a clear sequence of learning across the school. Teachers plan lessons that build on what pupils have learned in the past. As a result, knowledge and skills in these subjects build well over time. Pupils can talk confidently about what they have learned in the past.

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better?

In other subjects, this is not the case. The order of learning is not as well planned. Therefore, lessons do not build on what pupils have learned before. In these instances, teachers are having to backtrack and fill gaps in pupils’ knowledge. This slows down learning. Currently, leaders with responsibility for these curriculum areas lack some of the subject knowledge and essential skills required to develop their subject areas. 4–5 December 2019

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Teachers plan work that is matched to the needs of most pupils. Consequently, these pupils can complete work independently with an appropriate level of support. However, teachers do not always set work that is closely matched to the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and the most able. In these instances, pupils find the work either too difficult or too easy. As a result, they do not always achieve as well as they could.

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The teaching of early reading is given a high priority. From the very start, staff teach phonics well because of high-quality training. They provide extra help for pupils who start to fall behind. Reading books are well matched to pupils’ abilities. As a result, most pupils read confidently from an early age.

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Teaching assistants support pupils or individuals with their learning and behaviour effectively. They step in quickly and provide help when pupils are stuck with their work, or in need of emotional support.

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Pastoral care is a strength of the school. Staff know the pupils well. They provide extra help and support in many ways, particularly for pupils who are disadvantaged. Pupils trust staff. The school supports pupils who display challenging behaviour well. Every day is a fresh start.

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Leaders and staff make sure that pupils have access to a wide range of activities to make learning interesting. A wide range of trips, after-school clubs and special events are organised. This includes ‘Enrichment’ where pupils get the chance to do lots of different activities, such as archery. Pupils say, ‘We get to do lots of fun things that help us with our learning. Enrichment turns a bad day into a good day.’

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Senior leaders are working hard, with some effectiveness, to improve the school. Governors are supporting leaders to bring about these improvements. Leaders and staff are aware of what needs to be done and they are determined to improve the school further. Staff agree that leaders are considerate of their well-being. Staff enjoy working at the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Keeping pupils safe is the school’s top priority. Staff are aware that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone. Leaders check staff’s suitability to work with children before they start to work at the school. Leaders ensure that staff are well trained. Safeguarding updates are provided throughout the year. Consequently, staff know what to do if they are concerned about a pupil’s welfare. The school works with outside agencies so that pupils get the support they need. Teachers help pupils to learn how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations, in and out of school. This includes online safety. 4–5 December 2019

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school’s curriculum is designed and sequenced effectively in some subjects, such as English. However, other subjects are not as well developed. Consequently, pupils do not achieve as well as they could in these subjects. The school needs to build on the work already started to develop the curriculum further. The curriculum needs to be clearly planned and sequenced to build pupils’ knowledge and skills over time.  Curriculum leaders who have responsibility for subjects that are not as well developed do not currently possess the subject knowledge, skills and expertise required to lead their subject areas effectively. As a result, they are unable to ensure that the curriculum is designed and delivered to meet pupils’ needs. The school needs to ensure that these leaders have the capabilities and opportunities to plan, implement and monitor their subjects effectively.  Low-level, unacceptable behaviour disrupts pupils’ learning too often. This slows

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

learning down and hinders teaching. The school needs to further develop consistent, positive attitudes towards learning. This will ensure that all pupils can learn, and all teachers can teach without interruption.  At times, the work set by teachers is not closely matched to the needs of pupils with SEND and the most able. Consequently, these groups of pupils do not achieve as well as they could. Staff need to make sure that pupils with SEND are provided with work that is matched to their needs. Also, staff need to ensure that work is sufficiently challenging for the most able.  In the early years, children’s communication and language skills are not well developed. This slows down their learning in other areas of the curriculum, such as literacy and mathematics. Early years staff need to embed the newly implemented strategy that assesses and supports the development of children’s communication and language skills.

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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. 4–5 December 2019

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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. 4–5 December 2019

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School details

Inspection number 10122452 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 19–20 September 2017

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Information about this school

 The school has a breakfast club and an after-school club which operate on the school site. The school manages this provision.  The school has a Nursery provision that admits two-year-olds.

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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

 I held ongoing meetings with the headteacher. I met with two members of the governing body, including the chair. I also held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority.  We held meetings with the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), the designated safeguarding lead and the early years, attendance and behaviour leaders.  As part of the inspection, we looked in depth at reading, mathematics, physical education (PE) and geography. We met with groups of pupils, curriculum leaders and teachers to talk about the quality of education at the school.  We made visits to classrooms. Many of these visits were with curriculum leaders. 4–5 December 2019

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 I listened to several pupils read.  We spoke with pupils, formally and informally, about their learning and experiences at school. We looked at pupils’ work in a range of different subjects to see how well the curriculum is applied. A group of pupils accompanied an inspector on a walk around the school.  Documents relating to safeguarding were checked, including the checks that leaders make on staff’s suitability to work with children prior to employment. We checked that safeguarding policies and procedures are implemented effectively across the school.  We talked to parents after school. The 25 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, the 20 free-text responses and the 17 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey received during the inspection were considered.  We considered a range of school documents. We looked at the school’s self- evaluation, school improvement plan, policies, curriculum documents, published

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information about pupils’ performance, behaviour records, attendance records and minutes of governing body meetings.  I looked at published information on the school’s website.

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Inspection team

Wayne Simner, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Susan Blackburn Ofsted Inspector 4–5 December 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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