Fairfield First School

Inspection of Fairfield First School Stourbridge Road, Fairfield, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B61 9LZ

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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 25–26 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Fairfield First School is a warm, welcoming and caring place where the staff want the very best for their pupils. They know the pupils and their families well and build relationships with them that are strong and positive.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their friendly school and are enthusiastic about their learning. Pupils told us that they enjoy the wide range of clubs the school has to offer. These range from dance and gardening to art and fitness clubs. Pupils like being at school and they attend regularly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils’ behaviour is good. Pupils know that bullying is not just falling out with their friends. They told us that bullying incidents are rare but if they did occur, staff deal with them. Pupils are confident that adults care for them and keep them safe from harm.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Parents and carers are positive about the school and know how hard the staff work to support and help nurture their children. Typical comments from parents were, ‘The work the staff do with the children and the effort they put in is amazing.’ ‘We feel so lucky that our children attend this school.’

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better?

The school is well led. Governors and leaders have a good understanding of what the school needs to do to improve, and have plans in place to make these improvements. Governors are effective and knowledgeable. They provide a good balance of challenge and support for the headteacher.

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better?

Children get off to a good start in the early years. Relationships between adults and pupils are strong. Well-planned and interesting activities that enthuse the children enable them to develop their early reading and mathematical skills. Clear routines help children to be independent from a young age. They are enthusiastic and show high levels of concentration and involvement in classroom activities. Staff help to foster the attitudes that children need to be successful learners. For example, during the inspection, the children quickly identified a ‘mistake’ made by the teacher when doubling a number on the board. They were not afraid to explain the mistake and what the teacher needed to do to put it right. Pupils are developing the knowledge and behaviours that prepare them well for Year 1.

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better?

Leaders have made sure that most of the new curriculum planning covers the knowledge and skills that the pupils need to learn. Staff work together to share ideas and support each other well. They ensure that their planning builds on the previous skills that pupils have been taught. They make sure that they plan appropriate work to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively. As a result, in some subjects, pupils achieve well. Pupils told inspectors that they enjoy their lessons because ‘Teachers make them exciting for 25–26 February 2020

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us to learn.’ They spoke enthusiastically about the opportunities that they have to work with a chef in food technology, for example.

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Some subjects are better planned than others. For example, in design and technology plans are not sequenced well enough to allow pupils to explore and test the products that they make, so pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

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From the start of the early years, leaders place a high priority on reading. Staff are well trained to teach phonics. Pupils who need extra help are quickly identified and supported to catch up. Pupils particularly enjoy listening to their teachers reading stories, which promotes an enjoyment of books. Pupils develop a love of reading and talk about the books and authors they enjoy. For the majority of pupils, the books they take home match their abilities. Most pupils read fluently by the end of key stage 1.

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The curriculum in mathematics has been reviewed and is now well organised and sequenced. Teachers ensure that pupils learn basic skills such as number bonds, doubling and multiplication facts. However, teachers do not challenge the pupils about how they can apply this knowledge to their work. Therefore, pupils are not able to talk about how they can use what they have learned when solving problems. For example, they could not explain how to use their knowledge of times tables when working with bigger numbers in a worded problem. Many of the pupils spoken to during the inspection stated they could not complete more tricky calculations as their tables only went up to twelve.

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Pupils enjoy the additional activities they are able to take part in at school. They particularly enjoy the debating activities, or holding responsibilities for certain jobs. They told inspectors that these activities help them to work together well as a team.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders carry out the necessary checks on staff who work at the school. Staff are well trained in safeguarding procedures and so have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. When staff have concerns about any pupils’ well-being, they make sure they take the appropriate action to keep them safe. Leaders work with outside agencies to ensure that pupils’ needs are met. Clear systems are in place for record-keeping which make sure that pupils are safe.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have introduced a new ambitious curriculum. However, not all curriculum plans have been fully implemented. Therefore, pupils are less confident with the skills and knowledge in some subjects than in others and do not achieve as well as they could. However, it is clear from the actions that leaders have already 25–26 February 2020

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taken that they are in the process of implementing the full curriculum. They should ensure that all of the curriculum plans are fully implemented so that pupils are able to develop their knowledge and skills in all subjects over time.  Pupils lack wider enquiry skills in mathematics. Therefore, they do not have a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and skills. Leaders need to ensure that teachers ask and challenge the pupils to explain and justify their thinking when solving problems.

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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.

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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. 25–26 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10122477 Type of school First

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 30 January 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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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 headteacher, the special educational needs and disabilities coordinators, the leaders for early years, curriculum leaders, a group of non- teaching staff and members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. We made a telephone call to a representative from the local authority.  We observed and spoke to pupils during playtime and lunchtime.  We inspected safeguarding by looking at the school’s single central record of staff suitability. We also met with the designated safeguarding leader and reviewed documentation related to child protection.  We examined a range of documentation provided by the school, including leaders’ self-evaluation, improvement plans and documentation relating to attendance and behaviour of pupils.  We looked closely at the following subjects: reading, mathematics, science, and design and technology. In each subject, we met with curriculum leaders, visited

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Information about this inspection

lessons, talked to pupils, spoke to teachers and looked at pupils’ work. 25–26 February 2020

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 We also took into consideration the 12 responses to the staff survey, the 33 responses to the pupil survey and the 53 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.

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Inspection team

Kerry Rochester, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Barry Yeardsley Ofsted Inspector 25–26 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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