Monteney Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Monteney Primary School Monteney Crescent, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S5 9DN

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Outcome

Monteney Primary School continues to be a good school. However, inspectors have some concerns that one or more areas may be declining, as set out below.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff are proud to work at Monteney Primary, and pupils enjoy coming to school. Leaders and staff have established a clear set of values to guide their work. These values include aspiration, determination and empathy. Pupils learn about values through daily school life and the ‘Monteney Promise’. The promise is an exciting list of life experiences, compiled by staff, parents and pupils. During their time at school, pupils undertake the promises, which include contributing to a charity event and enjoying a camp fire experience.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff say that this is a ‘school where they can grow professionally’. The vast majority of parents are positive about school life. Most parents who completed Ofsted’s online survey said that they would recommend the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have excellent relationships with staff. Pupils behave well. Staff monitor any concerns about bullying and work with families to offer any necessary support. Pupils say that staff act on their concerns and there is someone to talk to if they are worried about anything.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have taken many important steps to improve the teaching of phonics. However, there is more work to do. The curriculum, though developing, has some shortcomings.

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

Leaders reviewed the teaching of reading last year and identified several important priorities. Leaders knew they needed a clearer programme for the sounds pupils learn. The teaching of phonics also needed to be more consistent. Leaders have identified the right things to do. However, their work on reading is still at an early stage.

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

The phonics programme is now clear and well structured. Staff know which sounds to teach and when. Any pupils that fall behind receive extra support from staff and ‘phonics 11–12 March 2020

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champions’. However, some pupils still have gaps in their knowledge. These pupils require further support to fully catch up with the school’s new programme.

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The teaching of early reading is now more consistent. However, staff are not benefiting from seeing the most experienced and skilled people teach. Staff do not have frequent opportunities to learn from the trust’s experts.

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The school is working with parents to help them learn about phonics and the value of reading at home. However, leaders have not managed to engage all families. Some of the school’s weakest readers do not regularly practise their reading at home. This hampers their fluency. Older pupils enjoy their ‘novel study’ lessons. However, reading for pleasure is not well promoted through storytelling in key stage 2.

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The school’s new curriculum is ambitious. Over the last year, staff have looked in detail at each subject and agreed new outlines. These outlines set out what learning looks like from the early years through to Year 6. Each subject now has a clear ‘big picture’. Teachers have also begun to decide the exact content to be taught across the school. However, some of this content is quite broad. It is not easy to see how pupils are supported to extend their knowledge and skills in some areas. As a result, the sequence of learning that pupils follow is unclear.

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Pupils cannot explain the meaning of a range of key vocabulary. Leaders identified this problem through recent staff meetings. They know that subject leaders and staff now require more guidance to agree precisely what is taught in each subject and how it is sequenced.

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The mathematics curriculum is well thought out and effectively implemented. Pupils confidently recall their learning and progress well through this subject area.

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Some aspects of the curriculum in the early years require further development. The teaching of communication and language and mathematics has some strengths. However, the curriculum in areas such as ‘understanding the world’ and ‘arts and design’ are not as well developed. Leaders have not fully set out what children will learn and when.

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All pupils can attend a range of activities and clubs through the school year. These opportunities help pupils to develop confidence and wider skills. The school’s under-11 girls’ football team recently won the regional finals of the primary stars league and are now through to the national finals. The school also offers an annual careers fair. This helps raise pupils’ aspirations and supports them to consider options for future education, employment and training.

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The school has established effective routines and expectations to manage pupil’s behaviour. Staff keep records of any concerns relating to bullying and can show the actions they take to help resolve any issues.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported by staff. Pupils’ needs are identified at an early stage and specific actions are agreed to help pupils progress. Monteney is a very inclusive school. 11–12 March 2020

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The school’s leaders and trustees know the school well and are actively working to address the areas for development outlined in this report. They are capable and committed people.

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In discussion with the principal, we agreed that the teaching of reading and the coherent planning and sequencing of some areas of the curriculum may usefully serve as a focus for the next inspection.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have established effective systems to record any concerns about pupils. The school works with a range of agencies to keep pupils safe and offers families timely support.

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Safeguarding

The curriculum includes a wide range of lessons and activities where pupils are taught how to stay safe in the community and online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Until recently, leaders had not ensured that the teaching of phonics was effective enough. As a result, teaching was inconsistent, and some pupils have gaps in their phonics knowledge. Leaders must continue to implement and embed the improvements they have identified. These include: further training and support for staff to develop their expertise; sharing the new phonics programme with parents; continuing to identify and support pupils who need support to catch up and keep up with the programme; and promoting storytelling further in key stage 2.  Leaders have reviewed the curriculum and established clear ‘big picture’ overviews for all subjects. Leaders have not agreed the full content that will be covered in some subjects or the order in which the content will be taught. As a result, pupils sometimes unnecessarily repeat similar activities and are unsure about the meaning of some key words. Subject leaders now require further support from senior leaders to fully

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

establish the exact content that will be taught, and the order in which this will be delivered across the school. 11–12 March 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 or non-exempt outstanding school. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find some evidence 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 second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 16 June 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. 11–12 March 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10121843 Type of school Primary

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provision

Date of previous inspection 16 June 2016

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Information about this school

 Monteney Primary is a member of Steel City Schools Partnership. This trust consists of six primary schools.

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Information about this inspection

 I met with the following senior leaders during the inspection: a trustee, two governors, the chief executive officer, the principal, the deputy principal, two assistant principals and the business manager.  Deep dives were conducted in the following subjects: reading, mathematics and geography. To explore the effectiveness of these curriculum areas, I: spoke to senior leaders to understand their aims and rationale for overall curriculum design; met with subject leaders to explore long- and medium-term thinking; visited lessons to see the curriculum in action and consider the activities chosen by teachers; considered work in pupils’ books and files; and talked to teachers and pupils about their experience and understanding of the curriculum. 11–12 March 2020

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 To determine the effectiveness of safeguarding, I: reviewed the single central record; met with the designated safeguarding lead to consider how the school records information and makes decisions about the actions leaders take to safeguard pupils; talked to staff about safeguarding training and how pupils are taught safety through the curriculum; and reviewed exclusion and attendance records.

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Inspection team

Jonathan Keay, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 11–12 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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