Adamsrill Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Adamsrill Primary School Adamsrill Road, Sydenham, London SE26 4AQ

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Outcome

Adamsrill Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils give visitors a cheerful welcome at Adamsrill Primary School. Pupils show a real interest in other people’s lives and in the world around them. They are engaging, confident and witty in conversation. This is because they are used to adults in the school listening to them, valuing them and caring for them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff expect pupils to do their very best to behave well and to achieve well, and they do. Pupils are hardworking, and they rarely give up when faced with a challenge.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff are skilled, committed and receive the training they need to continually improve. As one parent said, ‘Teachers are child-led, passionate and inspiring.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff plan very carefully to make sure that lessons interest pupils and help them to do well. Staff have been highly successful in helping pupils across the school to develop ‘learning behaviours’. This means that pupils benefit from talking about their learning with their classmates, giving each other feedback and respectfully challenging each other’s ideas.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff do their very best to keep pupils safe and happy. Pupils said that incidents of bullying are now rare, and that staff deal with any incidents quickly. Leaders find thoughtful ways of building community spirit. For example, they help families to share food boxes at Christmas.

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

The headteacher supports leaders to plan creatively for pupils’ learning across a wide range of subjects. Leaders work collaboratively to help teachers plan lessons which make meaningful connections between subjects. Pupils are able to build their knowledge securely. 8–9 January 2020

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Teachers focus sharply on ensuring pupils develop mathematics skills and improve their ability to read and write. Pupils achieve highly in subjects such as music and art. It is usual to hear high-quality singing in the school. Pupils play a variety of instruments competently. Display boards across the school show art work of exceptional quality.

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Pupils enjoy a range of trips outside of school to enhance the curriculum. During the inspection, pupils visited the Horniman Museum and Gardens and spoke with enthusiasm about the visit. Leaders make sure that interesting visitors enthuse pupils about reading and learning across the curriculum.

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The new leadership team has made a strong impact on the quality of teaching and on pupils’ achievement over the past year. However, the Year 6 cohort which left the school in 2019 did not achieve as well as they should in reading and writing during key stage 2. Leaders are confident that the improvements made in the quality of education over the past year will ensure current pupils achieve much better in these subjects. Teachers are skilled and confident in teaching mathematics, and this shows itself in pupils’ attainment at the end of key stages 1 and 2.

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Staff have strong subject knowledge in phonics, which means that, from the earliest stages, children begin to use their phonics skills to help them read and write. Teachers choose appropriate books for individuals to read which match well to their phonics knowledge and reading ability.

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Teachers and teaching assistants work very well together and are ambitious for their pupils. They know and support pupils well. They have worked hard to help the most able pupils achieve their best, and this is beginning to show itself in pupils’ work. Sometimes, activities chosen for pupils who are struggling or those pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not quite meet their needs. For example, in whole- class reading sessions, teachers provide excellent guidance to pupils on how to read books and understand them. However, on occasion, the books or texts chosen are too difficult for some pupils with low prior attainment and those pupils with SEND to engage with. These pupils lose focus.

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Most pupils develop a love of reading and talk enthusiastically about the books and authors they enjoy. A range of events within and beyond school build on their enthusiasm. For example, the very successful Shakespeare project helped pupils not only to understand the complex storylines, but to write confidently about them.

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Teachers have improved their teaching of writing. In the early years, children move swiftly from making marks on a page to using their knowledge of phonics to write phrases and sentences. As they move through the school, pupils learn to write in a range of forms for a range of audiences and interesting real-life purposes.

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An impressive feature of learning in all subjects is pupils’ ability to listen to each other and share different views. They express their thoughts and reasoning with confidence and are not afraid to ‘take a risk’ or be wrong. Teachers have taught pupils to challenge views respectfully and thoughtfully. Pupils also give each other feedback on learning. This 8–9 January 2020

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means that they are well prepared to engage with the world outside of school and to be successful in the next stage of their education.

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Most parents and carers are happy with the work of the school. Governors and leaders have worked tirelessly and effectively to improve the school. They have achieved a great deal. However, leaders need to fine-tune their current plans for improvement. Leaders should fully evaluate the impact of actions they have already taken and prioritise future improvements to ensure all pupils achieve well.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Staff are vigilant and well trained in all aspects of safeguarding. Safeguarding leaders have an in-depth knowledge of every pupil who is vulnerable or in need of care. They go above and beyond their safeguarding duties in challenging external services to provide the support necessary for their pupils and families.

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Safeguarding

Adamsrill is a safe, inviting and nurturing community. Leaders and staff understand the needs of pupils who are at risk of harm or those pupils with SEND. Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe at school.

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Safeguarding

School records on exclusion show that the number of incidents of poor behaviour has significantly reduced in the past year.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The headteacher and leaders at all levels have been successful in improving key aspects of the school’s work over the past year. They have secured improvements to the teaching of writing. The work to develop the reading curriculum has had a positive start. The headteacher, governors and senior leaders should evaluate precisely the impact of the actions taken. Following their evaluation, leaders should refine their future plans to help support all pupils to achieve well.  The focus placed on improving the achievement of the most able pupils is having an impact on achievement. Teachers now need to refocus on the lowest attaining pupils and those pupils with SEND to make sure that tasks and activities set for them meet their needs and help them to achieve well. 8–9 January 2020

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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 Adamsrill Primary School to be good on 6–7 July 2016.

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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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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are 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 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10121614 Type of school Primary

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provision

Appropriate authority The governing body

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provision

Date of previous inspection 6–7 July 2016

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Information about this school

 Adamsrill is a larger-than-average primary school in Lewisham.  The headteacher is currently supported by three interim senior leaders who took up their posts in September 2019.

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Information about this inspection

 We met with the headteacher, interim deputy headteachers and all members of the leadership team. We met with three governors, including the chair of governors. We spoke with a local authority representative.  We did deep dives in these subjects: reading, writing and music. To do this, we met with subject leaders and visited lessons with them. We looked at pupils’ work and spoke with pupils about their learning. We met with the teachers that we observed. We reviewed the school’s planning for these subjects.  We reviewed education, health and care plans for pupils with SEND and for those with medical conditions. 8–9 January 2020

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 We spoke with staff and pupils throughout the inspection, during playtimes, lunchtimes and as they moved around the building.  We reviewed the 109 responses to the Ofsted’s Parent View survey and the 29 responses to the survey for staff.  In order to inspect safeguarding, we reviewed the school’s single central record of staff suitability. We met with the designated safeguarding leader and reviewed documentation related to child protection.  We reviewed documentation relating to behaviour, attendance and exclusions.

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Inspection team

Ruth Dollner, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Phil Garnham Her Majesty’s Inspector 8–9 January 2020

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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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