St Mary's Catholic Primary School (Maltby)

Inspection of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School (Maltby) Muglet Lane, Maltby, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S66 7JU

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Inadequate Early years provision Inadequate Previous inspection grade Good 12–13 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils do not learn as well as they should. Expectations of pupils are not high enough. Pupils’ work across the curriculum is of poor quality. They do not learn to read or write well enough. This makes it difficult for them to learn successfully in other subjects.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Younger children settle well and enjoy their time in the early years. However, learning is not planned well. Although improving, some children do not learn the sounds that letters make as quickly as they could. Some children do not start to form letters accurately. Children are encouraged to read books in school and at home. This is helping to develop their love of reading.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils are happy, enjoy coming to school and feel safe. Too many pupils regularly have time off school. The new attendance officer is working well with families to encourage better attendance. Behaviour in lessons is a little mixed. Most pupils move around the school sensibly and listen to their teachers, but in some lessons, pupils lose interest and concentration. This sometimes affects pupils’ attitudes to their learning and the quality of their work can be poor.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand the difference between bullying and occasional disagreements. When bullying happens, teachers deal with it. Pupils enjoy attending after-school sports clubs.

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better?

Leaders and governors have not acted swiftly to address weaknesses in the curriculum. They recognise the shortcomings but have not done enough to improve them. They have not checked that their actions have led to an improvement in pupils’ learning. Leaders are too reliant on external support to make the necessary improvements. Governors have an overly positive view of the rate at which the quality of education is improving.

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better?

Leaders have recently introduced new curriculum ideas. However, leaders do not have a clear picture of what they want pupils to learn. The curriculum is not ambitious. Leaders’ plans to develop an effective curriculum lack convincing detail. While staff teach the full range of national curriculum subjects, what is taught does not build on what pupils already know. Teachers sometimes have to decide for themselves what is taught. Often, they use internet resources that do not link to prior learning. Curriculum leadership is weak. Curriculum leaders and teachers have not had effective training. Teachers cannot identify the important knowledge that pupils need to learn.

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better?

There are pockets of effective work where learning is appropriately sequenced. For example, in Year 6, pupils studied styles of formal writing and used this to write formal letters. This is not always the case. Sometimes pupils are taught features of writing, such as speech marks and possessive pronouns, in isolation and are not 12–13 February 2020

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given appropriate opportunity to practise these in written work. Younger pupils do not get enough opportunity to practise writing sentences.

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The early years curriculum is not planned well enough to ensure that all children are ready for the start of Year 1. Staff in early years do not use what they record about children’s achievements to plan what children need to learn next. Some pupils do not learn how to form letters correctly. Children do not benefit from effective use of the outdoor area. However, children behave well. They enjoy playing together.

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A recent focus on improving reading is evident. For example, leaders identified the need to improve the teaching of phonics and early reading. Investment in new resources and staff training is evident in the work of some staff. Pupils take home books that match the sounds they are learning. If pupils fall behind, they get extra help. Some of this support is of good quality. However, not all teaching of early reading is effective. The difference in staff’s skills means that not all pupils are catching up as fast as they need to.

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The support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is not effective enough. Leaders have not ensured that teachers give these pupils the right support. These pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Disadvantaged pupils do not do as well as other pupils. Leaders and governors have not ensured that there is a robust plan to use additional resources effectively. They have not checked to see whether actions are leading to improvements for pupils.

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Staff help pupils to learn right from wrong through assemblies and religious education lessons. Pupils are taught about their own faith, as well as about other religions. Pupils develop responsibility, for example as members of the school parliament. However, the curriculum is not sufficiently planned so that pupils’ personal development is systematically improved.

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Most pupils behave well around the school. Occasionally, when the curriculum is not matched to their needs, some pupils lose interest in their learning. Most parents and carers are supportive of the school, but some are concerned about the many staff changes.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The acting headteacher and deputy headteacher work well with staff to ensure that pupils are safe and well cared for. All staff have been trained appropriately. They know what to do if they are concerned about a pupil. All the correct checks on staff and visitors are carried out, and the school site is kept secure. However, some paperwork connected to risk assessments is not fully up to date. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe. For example, they know about the dangers associated with using the internet and cyber bullying. Pupils are supervised appropriately throughout the school day. 12–13 February 2020

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Curriculum planning is weak. Although planning is more effective in reading and mathematics, leaders have not ensured that the whole curriculum is planned and sequenced effectively. Leaders know this is a priority. They need to ensure that there is a programme to develop and implement the curriculum so that learning builds sequentially from year to year and from lesson to lesson. They need to ensure that more pupils gain the important knowledge and skills they need in a wide range of subjects.  Subject leadership is weak. Leaders are unclear about how to sequence learning in order to improve pupils’ learning in their subjects. Leaders should ensure that curriculum leaders are well trained and have clear steps to improve learning in their subjects.  School leaders, including governors, do not have a well-considered approach to planning and checking on school improvement. The quality of pupils’ learning is

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

not improving swiftly enough. Leaders need to identify the key areas to change in order to improve the quality of education and, consequently, pupils’ achievement.  The teaching of phonics is not consistent enough to ensure that all pupils make good progress in learning to read. Not all staff have the skills and knowledge they need to help all pupils to decode and read with fluency and accuracy. Leaders should ensure that all staff are appropriately trained.  The teaching of writing and handwriting is not well sequenced. Some pupils do not develop the skills they need to become confident writers. Leaders need to make sure that the teaching of writing and handwriting is well planned and sequenced.  Leaders have not made sure that the curriculum in the early years is ambitious enough. Leaders have not used assessment information to identify and plan activities that help children to learn what they need to know and do before they

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

start Year 1. Leaders should ensure that the curriculum is sequential and progresses logically from the early years into key stage 1.  Risk assessments are not always updated in a timely manner. Although the site is safe, this means that the management of identified risks is not systematic. Leaders need to ensure that there are robust risk assessments in place for the site.

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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. 12–13 February 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. 12–13 February 2020

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School details

Website www.stmarysmaltby.co.uk/ Date of previous inspection 13 July 2016, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 There have been many staff changes and sickness absences. Since September 2019, the deputy headteacher has become the acting headteacher and the inclusion manager has taken on the role of acting deputy headteacher. The substantive headteacher and one teacher are on long-term sickness absence. Two teachers are temporary and two teachers took up their posts during this academic year. One of the classes has had five different teachers this year alone.  The school is a stand-alone academy working within the Holy Spirit Umbrella Trust. The members of the governing body are the academy’s trustees.  The substantive headteacher and the governing body identified the academy as a school causing concern and have been receiving support from the local authority since June 2019.  A national leader of education has been providing fortnightly support to the acting leadership team since November 2019.  The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.

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Information about this school

 The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above the national average. 12–13 February 2020

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 The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is average. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs support is above the national average.

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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

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this inspection

It is recommended that the academy does not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Information about this inspection

 We met with the acting headteacher, acting deputy headteacher and the family liaison and attendance officer.  We met with four governors, who are academy trustees. We also met with the director of education for the Diocese of Hallam, a representative from the local authority and a national leader of education who is working with the leadership team.  We undertook ‘deep dives’ in reading, writing, science and physical education. A deep dive consists of several parts: we met with curriculum leaders and teachers, visited lessons (some jointly with the senior leaders and curriculum leaders), looked at a range of work, spoke to pupils about their learning and heard pupils reading.  We considered a range of documentation provided by the school. We looked at the school’s website, school policies, curriculum documents, SEND records and published information about pupils’ performance.  To consider the effectiveness of safeguarding, we reviewed training records, child

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Information about this inspection

protection information and the checks that leaders make on staff prior to appointment. We met with leaders who are responsible for safeguarding pupils. We reviewed some risk assessments and spoke with staff and pupils about safety.  We talked to pupils about their learning and experiences at school and observed an after-school club.  We considered the 33 responses to the online parent questionnaire, Parent View, and the 17 free-text responses. We spoke to parents and carers informally on the playground. 12–13 February 2020

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Inspection team

Amraz Ali, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Tracy Fulthorpe Ofsted Inspector 12–13 February 2020

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