John of Rolleston Primary School

Inspection of a good school: John of Rolleston Primary School Chapel Lane, Rolleston-on-Dove, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE13 9AG

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Outcome

John of Rolleston Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend John of Rolleston primary school. They ‘ASPIRE to be the best’ they can be, because the school values are promoted well every day. Pupils enjoy coming to school and feel safe. They trust their teachers to help them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

During lunchtimes and breaktimes, pupils enjoy playing with their friends. Usually everyone gets on well together. Bullying is not a problem because adults help pupils to sort things out quickly. Pupils are taught how to be ‘Peacemakers’, and assemblies and circle times help pupils to respect each other and value each other’s differences.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils rise to their teachers’ high expectations and behave sensibly. They are interested in what they are learning. Pupils have a ‘can-do’ attitude, and are keen to contribute to discussions. They enjoy working in pairs regularly to solve problems. Older pupils particularly enjoy organising their own lunchtime sports activities.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils appreciate the many different books they get to read, and know how important it is to read well. Older pupils described the way they like to lose themselves in a good book. As one explained, ‘Books take us to different places we couldn’t normally go.’

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

Leaders have developed a broad and balanced curriculum that meets pupils’ needs. The curriculum is carefully planned and carefully sequenced. Leaders know that there is further work to do now to support teachers with how to implement the curriculum consistently well in all subjects across the school.

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

During the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders have focused on implementing a consistent approach to the teaching of mathematics and reading. This has helped most pupils to stay on track with their learning. Pupils understand what is expected of them. They work in pairs to explain their learning and challenge each other. Pupils remember what they have learned and progress well. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) progress well because they are well supported in class or through bespoke interventions. 2 and 3 March 2022

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Curriculum leaders are enthusiastic about their subjects. They recognise the importance of deciding exactly what they want pupils to learn and how it must be taught. In some instances, this is working well. For example, the physical education (PE) leader ensures that gymnastics skills are taught in the right order and staff know how to teach them. Leaders have not yet achieved this for all curriculum subjects. Leaders provide help and support for teachers. For example, in gymnastics and mathematics, paired coaching takes place which is personalised to the needs of the staff.

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Leaders encourage pupils to develop a lifelong love of reading. The phonics curriculum maps out the sounds that pupils must learn, and the order in which they must be taught. However, pupils are not taught to sound and blend new words in a consistent way. They do not spend enough time practising reading and saying the new sounds they have learned. Pupils are helped to catch up through one-to-one teaching, use of books matched to sounds and support in small groups. Pupils enjoy listening to stories and confident readers talk enthusiastically about the books they read.

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Pupils have a good understanding of what they are learning and why. For example, they know that learning times tables helps them to convert kilograms to grams. Pupils note when mistakes are made, and explain that ‘mistakes help you learn’. They show resilience and like the fact that lessons include a chance to recap prior learning. Pupils are proud to represent the school in football, tennis and cricket competitions. They are inspired by experts who visit the school.

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Children get off to a confident start in the early years. Teachers carefully plan activities which support children’s learning. As a result, children have lots of opportunities to practise their new skills. They choose activities which help them count, share and write. They play well with their friends. Children enjoy learning and progress well.

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Pupils behave well. Individual pupils receive additional help and support to help them make the right choices. Some pupils do not always understand why there may be different expectations of their friends who have particular needs. Leaders have identified this, and are in the process of considering how they can better communicate the different ways in which they provide support for behaviour to pupils and parents.

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Staff appreciate the way that leaders manage their workload. Bespoke training opportunities are valued. Leaders ensure that all staff develop their skills and knowledge effectively. Senior leaders have carefully thought out their plans to coach new subject leaders so that they are skilled in their roles.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that safeguarding has a suitably high priority. Staff and leaders are committed to pupils’ well-being. Staff are well trained. They know how to find the right advice and guidance to keep pupils safe. Leaders make sure that concerns about pupils 2 and 3 March 2022

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are noted and followed up. When needed, they enlist the help of specialist services. As a result, pupils feel safe.

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Leaders carry out appropriate checks for new staff. There are no concerns with policies or procedures. Records are carefully kept up to date. Trust leaders monitor the school’s safeguarding checks regularly.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 While the curriculum is well planned and sequenced, its implementation is not consistently strong across the school. This is partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that some pupils do not make as much progress as they could. Leaders should ensure that all staff know what they are teaching and how they are going to teach it, so that pupils learn and remember new knowledge quickly.  Phonics planning does not show in sufficient detail how the teaching of phonics must be delivered. This leads to varied practice, and means that pupils do not spend enough time sounding out and blending the new sounds and words they are learning to read. Leaders should ensure that staff have a thorough understanding of the phonics programme, and deliver it consistently from the earliest starting points.  The school has culture of supporting all pupils to behave well. However, this is not always well understood by pupils and parents. Leaders should ensure that the support

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

and strategies that are used to support the management of behaviour in school are communicated clearly, so that pupils, staff and parents have a thorough and shared understanding of the school’s approach.

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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 school to be good in June 2014. 2 and 3 March 2022

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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.

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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. 2 and 3 March 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10212336 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 The school does not use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 The lead inspector held a range of meetings with the headteacher. She met with two members of the governing body, including the chair, in person.  The lead inspector also met with the chief executive officer of Central Co-operative Learning Trust and the person responsible for multi-academy trust early years quality improvement.  The lead inspector held meetings with the headteacher, who is the designated safeguarding leader; the deputy headteacher; the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo); and other leaders.  The lead inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and PE.  For each deep dive, the lead inspector met with subject leaders, discussed the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. 2 and 3 March 2022

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 The lead inspector also looked at books and spoke to leaders about some other subjects, including reading. She met with teachers to talk about the quality of education in these subjects.  The lead inspector made visits to classrooms. Most of these visits were with the deputy headteacher, SENCo and subject leaders.  The lead inspector made visits to the early years part of the school. Most of these visits were with the deputy headteacher.  The lead inspector observed pupils reading to a familiar adult.  The lead inspector spoke to pupils about their learning and experiences at school. She looked at pupils’ work to see how well staff implement the curriculum.  Safeguarding documents were checked, including the checks that leaders make on the staff’s suitability to work with children. The lead inspector checked that staff implement safeguarding policies and procedures effectively across the school.

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 The lead inspector considered responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View, and the free-text responses received during the inspection.  The lead inspector considered the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey.  The lead inspector looked at a range of documents provided by the school. These included the school’s self-evaluation, school improvement plan, school policies, curriculum documents, SEND records, published information about pupils’ performance and minutes of governing body meetings.  The lead inspector looked at information published on the school’s website.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken that into account in her evaluation of the school.

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Inspection team

Stephanie Moran, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 2 and 3 March 2022

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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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