Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Richard Woollacott Headteacher Harpfield Primary Academy Palmers Green Hartshill Stoke-on-Trent ST46AP

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Ofsted remote visit to Harpfield Primary Academy

Following my remote visit with Rob Hackfath, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on Tuesday 17 November, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted remote visit to Harpfield Primary Academy

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended. Following changes to government guidance and the imposition of COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown restrictions, we made this visit remotely to reduce pressure on the school.

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Ofsted remote visit to Harpfield Primary Academy

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted remote visit to Harpfield Primary Academy

During the visit, we spoke to you, and members of the school’s senior leadership team. We did not speak to pupils.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Context

In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 Since September, approximately 10% of pupils have had to work from home for short periods of time. No whole ‘bubbles’ of pupils have yet had to isolate.  Pupils are studying their usual range of subjects, apart from learning a foreign language. Staff have plans to deliver this aspect of the curriculum via pre- recorded videos. Videos will be produced by the usual languages teacher in the new year. Leaders and staff expect to be delivering their usual curriculum before the summer term of 2021.  Staff have used a range of assessments to make checks on what pupils know and can do. For example, in English, teachers have used tests to find out what aspects of the curriculum pupils are confident in. Information from these tests has been used to provide more adult support or extra catch-up classes.  In phonics, teachers have revisited some of the sounds that pupils were introduced to via remote learning during the period when schools were only

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

open to some children due to COVID-19 restrictions. Leaders want to be sure that pupils have this learning secure before they introduce the next set of sounds in their programme.  In mathematics, as well as conducting tests, teachers have also used what they find out from pupils’ work in daily mathematics lessons to adapt their teaching. If a pupil needs extra help to catch up, teachers arrange immediate additional support.  In the wider curriculum, pupils continued to learn their usual curriculum when they were not in school due to COVID-19. In September, teachers checked pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Teachers used these checks to make any necessary alterations to their plans.  The school had an existing online space for the sharing of learning resources. Leaders have further developed this space so that it can be used by families should anyone need to isolate. Teachers upload learning resources for pupils

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

working at home. Staff check on how well pupils are accessing and completing work. Leaders have identified that not all pupils have a suitable device with which to access their work.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, and the chief executive officer of the Creative Education multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Stoke-on-Trent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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