Swaythling Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Swaythling Primary School Mayfield Road, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 3SZ

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Outcome

Swaythling Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and enjoy learning. They like coming to school because teachers help them to understand what they are learning. Pupils benefit from the many trips and visitors to the school that bring their learning to life.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff know the pupils well and make sure that they get the right support that they need with their learning. Staff also make sure that pupils’ emotional well-being is cared for. There are strong relationships between pupils and staff. Pupils are happy to talk to staff if they are worried or upset. They are taught to keep themselves safe outside of school and online.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well in class and around the school. They play well together and know that adults are around to help them if they need them. Bullying is rare. Teachers are skilled to deal with bullying if it happens.

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What is it like to attend this school?

School staff are passionate about making sure all pupils are cared for. During holidays, the school participates in a ‘make lunch’ project which provides the most vulnerable families with a good meal to eat. The school’s commitment to being a safe and welcoming place for all has been recognised with Oxfam’s school of sanctuary award.

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

Leaders and staff have worked with the foundation trust to develop a well-planned and ambitious curriculum. Leaders have sequenced the curriculum so that pupils can learn, practise and connect their knowledge and skills in a broad range of subjects. Planning enables teachers to know what to teach and when to teach it and what the important things are that pupils need to remember. Curriculum leaders have delivered training to develop staff’s subject knowledge in all areas of the school’s curriculum. This has helped teachers to become proficient at designing and teaching lessons that develop pupils’ knowledge progressively. 10–11 March 2020

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do well because teachers plan the right activities to support their learning. However, sometimes the most able pupils spend too long working on learning that they already understand. Teachers do not always provide enough opportunities for pupils to link their knowledge to bigger ideas.

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Reading is a priority in this school. Pupils read well because they have a secure understanding of phonics. They begin to learn letter sounds when they first start in the Reception Year and develop their fluency and comprehension skills as they move through the school. Pupils enjoy reading together and listening to books read aloud. Teachers regularly check pupils’ understanding of the books they read. Teachers are quick to provide extra help for pupils if they begin to fall behind. This helps pupils to quickly catch up again.

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Pupils’ attitudes to learning are strong because teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. The calm and purposeful atmosphere in classrooms allows pupils to work without interruption. Pupils pay close attention to their teachers and apply themselves diligently to the tasks set for them. They have a strong determination to succeed.

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Leaders provide many opportunities for pupils to experience more than academic success. They want them to become confident and kind young people. For example, pupils made cross-stitched cards in their poppy project and sent them to the residents in the local residential home for Remembrance Sunday. Pupils benefit from a wide range of clubs that take place after school, such as cooking, bike riding on the common, board games club and designing and making a mud kitchen for the children in Reception.

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The early years curriculum is planned carefully. Teachers’ planning focuses on developing children’s early reading, writing and mathematics skills. This allows children to recall the sounds that letters make and read and write simple words. Children also use their knowledge of number to solve problems involving, for example, what is one more or one less than a given number. Children enjoy the chance to explore and investigate. They work well together at activities such as designing and building a Lego model for the baby chicks, including objects for the chicks to climb over and under. There are lots of opportunities for children’s work to be celebrated, for example on the ‘wow’ walls and in the ‘model museum’.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

This is a caring and nurturing school that prioritises the safety and welfare of pupils. All members of staff are well trained to keep pupils safe. Teachers are quick to report concerns about pupils when they arise. Leaders work with other agencies where necessary. The headteacher is not afraid to escalate concerns further if it is felt that more should be done to safeguard pupils. Leaders and teachers work closely with families to make sure that pupils get the right help and support. 10–11 March 2020

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Governors regularly review safeguarding arrangements. They monitor the checks that have been carried out on new staff and volunteers to make sure that it is safe for them to be in school.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders and teachers have worked hard to ensure that pupils gain a secure accumulation of knowledge in all subjects across the curriculum. However, teachers do not always sufficiently challenge the most able pupils. Leaders must ensure that teachers routinely enable the most able pupils to link their ideas to more complex concepts, so that more pupils deepen and embed their knowledge, skills and vocabulary.

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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 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 the Swathyling Primary School to be good on 7–8 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. 10–11 March 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. 10–11 March 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10133186 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection 7–8 July 2016, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Swaythling Primary school became part of the Aspire Community Trust in September 2017.

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Information about this inspection

 I met with the chair of the trust, trustees and governors, a representative from the local authority, the headteacher and school leaders.  I did deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics and geography. This involved talking to subject leaders, visiting lessons, talking to pupils, looking at pupils’ work, hearing pupils read and talking to teachers.  I talked to the designated safeguarding leader and scrutinised the single central record and other documents related to safeguarding. I talked to teachers about the processes they would follow if they had safeguarding concerns about a pupil. I spoke to pupils about what they would do if they were worried about anything in school.  I visited all classrooms in the school. I observed pupils during the school day while moving around the school, in the playground and the dining room. 10–11 March 2020

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 I scrutinised a wide range of documentation, including the school’s own evaluation and improvement plan and external reports.  I considered the views of 120 parents who completed the online questionnaire, Parent View, and 65 comments from parents who used the free-text facility.

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Inspection team

Luisa Gould, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector 10–11 March 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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