Gawsworth Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Gawsworth Primary School Longbutts Lane, Gawsworth, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 9QU

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Inspection dates: 14 and 15 September 2021

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Outcome

Gawsworth Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Gawsworth Primary School is highly regarded within the local community. Pupils, parents, and staff are rightly proud of this caring and nurturing school. Within the family-like atmosphere, pupils feel safe and grow in confidence.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have high expectations for pupils’ achievement and behaviour. Pupils enjoy their learning, as leaders have planned an interesting curriculum. The school’s motto, ‘Learning together to achieve our best’, threads through all aspects of school life. Pupils work hard and behave well. The pupils spoken to said that bullying rarely happens. If it ever did, they said that staff would make sure that it stopped.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love playing together in the outdoor areas. They enjoy playing sports, table tennis, sharing stories and playing imaginary games. Pupils value their friendships. They said that they are one of the best things about attending the school. Pupils said that they have made ‘friends for life’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils value the many roles of responsibilities that they are given, for example being school and eco councillors. They enjoy making their school and community better places to be. Pupils take part in a wide range of sporting activities and they are proud to represent their school in competitions. Trophies in the school entrance celebrate their sporting achievements.

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

Leaders, governors, and trustees have developed an ambitious and interesting curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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

Leaders have thought carefully about the important knowledge they want pupils to learn and remember. Plans make it clear how pupils’ learning will build on what they already know, from Reception to Year 6. This helps pupils to learn in a logical order, which helps them to remember more. 14–15 September 2021

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The trust has provided strong support to subject leaders. This enables leaders to lead their areas of responsibility effectively. Subject leaders have strong subject knowledge. They use this to support staff so they have the knowledge and skills needed to teach the curriculum. However, due to the pandemic, some subject leaders have not been able to monitor the impact of curriculum plans to check how well pupils are learning.

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In lessons, staff regularly check what pupils have learned. Staff address any misconceptions quickly and give extra help to pupils where needed. This helps pupils, especially pupils with SEND, to know and remember more. However, in some subjects, assessment systems to check how well pupils are learning the curriculum over time, are not fully in place. This means that some pupils are less able to recall learning from previous years.

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Leaders have put reading at the heart of the curriculum. In most subjects, books have been carefully selected to engage pupils in their learning and develop their reading fluency and understanding. Phonics teaching starts as soon as children begin the Reception Year. Leaders have made sure that staff are confident to teach phonics. This ensures that staff follow the school’s phonics curriculum closely. Pupils’ progress in phonics is checked regularly and extra help is given to any pupils who need to catch up. Staff select books that are well matched to the phonics that pupils learn in class. Leaders’ actions have ensured that pupils develop into confident and fluent readers.

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Leaders have made sure that pupils have many opportunities to further enhance their personal development across the curriculum. They learn about diversity and understand that respect for other people is important. This is central to the school’s common values.

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Pupils are friendly and polite to visitors. They behave well in lessons, listen carefully, and try their best. Staff follow the school’s behaviour procedures well. This means that there is little disruption to pupils’ learning.

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Children get off to a strong start in the early years. Leaders’ expectations of learning and behaviour are high. Children are happy, love to learn and achieve well. Staff provide a wide range of activities and experiences for children to deepen their learning. Across the environment, leaders and staff ensure that children’s early literacy and mathematics skills are well developed.

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Staff feel valued and respected. They enjoy working at the school and with each other. They are highly positive about the support that they receive from leaders and the trust. This is especially in relation to helping them manage their work-life balance and well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Safeguarding is high priority across the school. Everyone is encouraged to be vigilant and report all concerns if they should arise. Leaders make sure that staff, including governors, receive relevant training so they can carry out their roles effectively. Leaders have planned a curriculum that provides many opportunities for pupils to learn how to stay safe online and in 14–15 September 2021

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the community. For example, pupils learn about the dangers that they may face through the misuse of drugs.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some foundation subjects, subject leaders do not evaluate the quality of the curriculum. This means that they do not know whether pupils know and remember more in these subjects. Leaders should ensure that all subject leaders have opportunities to check the quality of education in their areas of responsibility.  In some subjects, assessment systems to check how well pupils are learning are still being adjusted. As a result, assessment is not used effectively to check what pupils have been taught in previous years. Leaders should ensure that they implement a clear strategy so that pupils remember important curriculum content. This will ensure that pupils know and remember more in all subjects.

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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 outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, 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 deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Gawsworth Primary School, to be good on September 2016.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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. 14–15 September 2021

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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. 14–15 September 2021

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School details

Inspection number 10200770 Type of school Primary

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School details

Website http://www.gawsworth.cheshire.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 This is the school’s first inspection since it converted to be an academy in July 2017.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school, and has taken that into account in their evaluation.  The inspector spoke with the headteacher, senior leaders and the finance and administrative officer.  The inspector also spoke with a group of governors and a trustee. The inspector spoke with the chief executive officer and the deputy chief executive officer of the trust.  The inspector considered a range of safeguarding documents, including the school’s central record of staff and visitors, records of safeguarding and samples of the records kept on individual pupils. 14–15 September 2021

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 The inspector carried out deep dives in reading, mathematics and history and talked with leaders of these subject areas. The inspector also visited lessons, looked at examples of pupils’ work, held discussions with teachers and talked with pupils.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktimes and lunchtimes and watched pupils as they moved around the school.  The inspector spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school.  The inspector looked at the 36 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, and the 36 free-text responses from parents to find out their views on the school. The inspector also considered the 16 responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire and the 24 responses to the pupil questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Julie Barlow, lead inspector Her Majesty's Inspector 14–15 September 2021

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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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