Thornton Cleveleys Manor Beach Primary School

Inspection of Thornton Cleveleys Manor Beach Primary School Manor Drive, Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire FY5 1EU

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 14–15 January 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a welcoming place. Parents and carers told us that teachers and staff are approachable and friendly. Almost all parents believe that the school deals well with any concerns they may have.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Children starting school soon settle in. However, some children do not achieve well in reading and writing during their time in early years. Not enough children achieve a good level of development by the end of Reception Year. As a result, too many pupils start Year 1 without strong reading and writing skills. These pupils struggle to catch up and are not fully prepared for the demands of the curriculum in reading and writing at key stage 2. Some teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils are capable of achieving.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand that everyone is unique. They say that it’s ‘okay to be different’. Pupils learn how to keep themselves healthy, physically and mentally. They enjoy taking part in sports activities in school and in the after-school clubs.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and behaviour around the school is good. Attendance has been getting better over time. There are still some pupils who are absent from school too often.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel and are safe in this school. They are confident that bullying is a rarity at Manor Beach. Pupils told us that their teachers would act quickly if ever it did occur.

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better?

Leaders have planned a structured curriculum. The design of the curriculum helps teachers to be clear about what they have to teach pupils across each year group. Leaders have made sure that the national curriculum subjects have the required content. Despite this carefully planned curriculum, some pupils do not achieve as well as they should. This is particularly the case for younger children in the Reception class and for key stage 1 pupils, in reading and writing.

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better?

Teachers do not introduce children to phonics quickly enough. This delay slows down children’s development in reading and writing. Too many children are therefore not ready for Year 1. These pupils struggle to catch up. In 2019, a third of pupils did not reach the expected standard in reading and writing at the end of key stage 1. Leaders are beginning to address these weaknesses in reading and writing. For example, they have reviewed the school’s approach to the teaching of phonics. However, this work is at a very early stage and it is too soon to see the full impact on pupils’ achievement in reading and writing.

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better?

Pupils across the school, including in early years, enjoy listening to stories. Teachers read to pupils regularly from a wide range of texts. These books introduce pupils to new vocabulary. Older pupils told us that learning new words enriches their writing. Pupils take books home to read. 14–15 January 2020

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Leaders recognised that pupils’ achievement in mathematics was not good enough. They have now made improvements to the curriculum in mathematics. These improvements are having a positive impact for pupils currently in the school. Leaders have provided training to improve teachers’ subject knowledge. This helps them to plan lessons that are developing pupils’ skills in mathematics over time.

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Leaders have improved teachers’ subject knowledge in science. Pupils enjoy their lively and interesting science lessons. These lessons help them to make connections with learning in other subjects. For example, in Year 5, pupils dropped paper spinners to test out air resistance. They used their mathematical knowledge to calculate the average time it took for the paper to reach the ground. Pupils can remember their learning from earlier lessons in science.

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The curriculum for personal, social and health education (PSHE) is effective. For example, pupils in Year 4 discuss what makes someone a ‘good friend’ or a ‘bad friend’. Their learning in PSHE supports pupils’ personal development.

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Leaders provide a wide range of activities to help pupils develop personally. Pupils take part in singing activities, charitable works and community events. They contribute to decision making with the school through their roles as school councillors. Pupils learn about different faiths and cultures. They know about differences and similarities between people.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive timely support. They are fully included in all aspects of school life. Their individual plans set out their specific targets clearly. As a result, pupils with SEND have their needs well met.

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Leaders work with other primary and secondary schools. These relationships are helping the school to improve. Leaders have not worked hard enough with Nursery providers. Staff do not know enough about what children already know and can do before they start school.

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Pupils behave well, including in early years. Teachers have high expectations and pupils understand these. Pupils’ attendance is improving overall. Some pupils are absent more persistently. Leaders need to work even harder with some families to reduce persistent absence further.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and governors have made sure that staff have a range of safeguarding training. This helps them to be vigilant for signs of harm, and to recognise when children need help.

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Safeguarding

The school has clear systems for recording concerns. Everyone understands these systems and uses them effectively. Leaders carry out appropriate checks on the 14–15 January 2020

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suitability of staff to work with children. Records of these checks are thorough and up to date.

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The curriculum enables pupils to recognise dangers when they work on the internet. Pupils know what action to take if they see something that worries them.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In recent years, too few children have reached good level of development by the end of Reception Year. This is because children do not develop the skills they need to read and write well. Leaders now need to make sure the new phonics scheme is securely embedded so that children learn about phonics right from the start. This will ensure that more children achieve a good level of development and are better prepared for their transition into Year 1.  Too few pupils reach the expected standard in reading and writing at the end of key stage 1. New initiatives have been put in place to improve outcomes in reading and writing. Leaders need to ensure that these new initiatives are embedded so that pupils’ achievement in reading and writing improves and that these improvements are sustained over time. This will ensure that pupils are better prepared for the demands of the key stage 2 curriculum.  This school does not have a Nursery class. Most of the children who start at

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Manor Beach attend a private nursery first. Leaders have not developed close enough links with Nursery providers to enable staff to find out more about children’s learning prior to starting school. This prevents staff from building quickly and effectively on what children already know and can do. Leaders now need to make sure that staff build stronger working relationships with Nursery providers so that children have the best possible chance of making a prompt start to learning at Manor Beach.  Leaders have worked hard to improve attendance over time. This work has had some success. Attendance is now closer to the national average and is improving. However, the level of persistent absence is still above the national average. Although there are genuine reasons for this in some cases, leaders now need to work even harder with other families to make sure those pupils who are absent persistently develop better and consistent attendance habits.

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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. 14–15 January 2020

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The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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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. 14–15 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10087920 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.manor-beach.lancsngfl.ac.uk/

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School details

Date of previous inspection 20–21 May 2015

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Information about this school

 The stability of the school population is lower than average. This means that more pupils than usual are admitted to the school at times other than the standard admission time.

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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

 We met with governors, senior leaders, subject leaders and staff.  I held a telephone conversation with the school’s adviser from the local authority.  We spoke with pupils in meetings and during lessons. We also spoke with them at breaks and lunchtimes. We spoke with some parents at the beginning and end of the school day. We took account of the 12 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire. We read the free-text comments from parents.  We looked at safeguarding procedures and records of safeguarding and behaviour. We observed pupils’ behaviour around the school and reviewed the school’s attendance records. 14–15 January 2020

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 We looked at a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation, plans for improvement and records of the work of the governing body.  We considered the following subjects in depth as part of the inspection: reading, mathematics, science and PSHE. Inspection activity in these subjects included: evaluation of curriculum planning; visits to lessons; scrutiny of pupils’ work; listening to pupils read; discussions with subject leaders, teachers and teaching assistants; and discussions with pupils about their learning in these subjects.  In addition to subject-focused activity, we checked the quality of provision in early years and the implementation of the wider curriculum across the whole school.

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Inspection team

Mavis Smith, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Louise Smith Ofsted Inspector 14–15 January 2020

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