Burley St Matthias Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Inspection of Burley St Matthias Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Burley Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS4 2HY

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Christian values are at the heart of all the school does. The school’s motto is ‘Everyone is special.’ The co-headteachers have created a school community with a real family feel. Staff regularly go the extra mile to keep the pupils safe and happy. They also provide fantastic support for pupils’ families. Pupils enjoy their lessons. They work hard and want to do well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff have high expectations for every pupil. No one is ever ‘written off’. They want each pupil to be their best in everything. Leaders make sure that the curriculum helps all pupils to learn well. Teachers are working hard to make every subject even better. Relationships across the school are warm and nurturing.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in and around school. They are sensible on the stairs. They cross the road safely between the two school sites. They say that bullying is very rare. If it does happen, it is dealt with quickly. Parents and carers agree with this view.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has a richly diverse community. ‘Pupils are exposed to all sorts of different cultures and experiences that give balance to their education,’ commented one parent. Pupils enjoy taking part in services at the local church. They enjoy exciting trips further afield.

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better?

Burley St Matthias Primary is a good school that is still improving. The co-headteachers provide strong and effective leadership. Senior leaders and the learning support mentor work closely with them. Together, they know the school well. They are driving it forward.

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better?

Leaders want every pupil to read well. Teachers and teaching assistants teach phonics skilfully. Lessons follow a clear sequence. Children get off to a good start in Reception. They learn letters and sounds quickly and can soon read simple words. Children have reading books which match the sounds they have learned. They rapidly become fluent readers in Year 1. Any who begin to fall behind get support to catch up quickly. Pupils enjoy their daily class story sessions and the weekly ‘Jackanory’ assembly. During the inspection, Year 6 pupils were exploring the book ‘ Fantastic and Strange’ by Ben Hulme-Cross and Paul Stewart. Some words, such as ‘resemblance’, ‘banish’ and ‘devouring’, were unfamiliar to them. Rather than using a dictionary, pupils tried various ways to work out their meaning from the text.

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better?

Leaders have carefully planned and organised the curriculum. Pupils learn the necessary knowledge and skills in the right order. Some plans, including English, mathematics, computing and French, are well established. Teachers check pupils’ learning and build on pupils’ existing knowledge. Year 4 pupils remembered last term’s French work on naming body parts. They enjoyed performing ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’, in French, for an inspector. Some curriculum plans, such as history and geography, are newer. Teachers are still familiarising themselves with the new Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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approach to some subjects. Reception staff sequence the children’s learning carefully. Children build really well on each small step of their learning each day.

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Teachers do not always check pupils’ learning carefully enough. In many subjects, other than mathematics and English, it is not always clear what teachers want the most able pupils to achieve at the end of each year. These pupils sometimes find their work too easy. However, this is not the case in the Reception Year. Children enjoy the daily ‘Rainbow challenges’. These link to each day’s key teaching in mathematics and literacy. Staff check very carefully how well the Reception children are learning.

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Pupils who are new to English get good support to access the curriculum. So do pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Parents agree with this. Staff know all pupils very well, so they identify those who need extra help without delay.

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Reception staff plan lots of interesting learning opportunities for the children. They quickly identify children who have specific speech and language difficulties. Staff involve parents in their children’s learning right from the start. One parent told inspectors, ‘Reception class teachers are always happy to listen to any concerns or worries.’

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The school’s personal, social and health education programme is very effective. Pupils consider many moral and topical questions. They learn weekly about managing their mental health. Pupils take on a range of roles and responsibilities. They learn about different religions and cultures.

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Leaders set high standards for attendance and behaviour across the school. Staff do not allow lessons to be interrupted by poor behaviour. Most pupils enjoy coming to school. Even so, a small number of pupils are absent from school on a regular basis. They miss out on important learning. Leaders work very closely with pupils and their families to address this issue.

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Leaders have built a close-knit staff team. Staff say that leaders support them and make their workload manageable. Governors provide appropriate challenge and support for the headteacher. Governors check the effectiveness of the use of additional funding. They are developing ways to check this even more closely.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Child protection is a very high priority in this school. The learning support mentor leads this work very effectively. Families trust and respect her. Staff keep meticulous and detailed records. The school provides strong support for pupils’ and families’ mental health. Pupils learn how to manage any risks they may face.

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Safeguarding

Staff keep up to date with safeguarding information. They know what to do if they encounter a problem. Communication between staff is strong. Staff regularly go the Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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extra mile to support vulnerable pupils and their families. They identify pupils and families for early help.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have developed a clear curriculum intent. Schemes of work contain essential knowledge and skills, together with a clear teaching sequence. However, the implementation of the plans for some of the foundation subjects is not fully in place. Current plans for some foundation subjects do not include clear end points for pupils working beyond the expected standard. This means that teachers are not always sure exactly what the most able pupils should be aiming for. Leaders need to make sure that the revised content of all subjects is implemented quickly. They must ensure that the end points are clear for all pupils, particularly the most able pupils.  In many of the foundation subjects, teachers and leaders do not use assessment well to check pupils’ understanding and inform teaching. Consequently, pupils – especially the most able – are not always given work that is matched to their ability. Teachers and leaders should establish suitable methods of assessment to

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

ensure that all pupils are set work that is sufficiently demanding.  A small number of pupils are persistently absent from school. Although numbers are slowly reducing, the percentage of persistent absence was in the highest 20% nationally in 2019. These pupils miss out on important aspects of the curriculum, as well as the chance to revisit their learning. Leaders set high standards for attendance across the school. They follow up persistent absence relentlessly and meticulously with the small number of families concerned. Leaders should continue to work with these families to reduce persistent absence further.

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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 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. Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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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. Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10121752 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chair of governing body Elisabeth Bullamore

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School details

Headteacher Kate Cameron and Debra Dettmar (co- headteachers) Website www.burleystmatthias.co.uk/

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School details

Date of previous inspection 21–22 April 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the last inspection, there have been many changes to the staff team and to the governing body.  The school is a voluntary controlled Church of England faith school. Its last section 48 denominational inspection was in December 2015, when it was judged to be good.  The school is on two sites with a busy arterial road running between them. The Reception children and key stage 1 pupils are on the north site and the key stage 2 pupils are on the south site.  The school serves an area with a high level of deprivation. It also has significant pupil mobility. Both indicators are in the highest 20% nationally.

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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 the co-headteachers, phase leaders and curriculum leaders during the inspection. We also met with a group of governors, including the chair, and Primary School 11–12 February 2020

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with the local authority’s school improvement adviser. The lead inspector spoke with the school’s diocesan adviser on the telephone.  We did deep dives into reading, mathematics, French and computing. We spoke with the co-headteachers about the structure and planning of the curriculum. We met with the curriculum leader for each subject. We visited a selection of lessons with them for three of the deep dives. French was not on the timetable during the inspection. We also scrutinised a range of pupils’ books in each subject and met with a selection of these pupils to discuss their learning. We listened to pupils reading and talked with them about the books they enjoy. We had discussions with the teachers of the lessons that we visited.  We checked the school’s policies and records regarding safeguarding. We spoke with the designated safeguarding leader, governors, pupils, staff and parents to check on the school’s culture of safeguarding.

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 We observed and spoke with pupils during their social times. There were insufficient responses to Ofsted’s Parent View for inspectors to view but we considered the small number of free-text comments that were submitted. We also considered the 18 responses to the pupils’ survey and the 13 responses to the staff survey.  We visited a school assembly and a ‘parent gym’ session. We spoke with the inclusion leader and visited lessons to observe a range of pupils with SEND. We also looked at the education, health and care (EHC) plans for some of these pupils.  We considered how well leaders protect pupils from bullying and manage staff workload and well-being.

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Inspection team

Heather Mensah, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Pritiben Patel Ofsted Inspector Primary School 11–12 February 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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