Roscoe Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Roscoe Primary School Alison Road, Liverpool, Merseyside L13 9AD

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Outcome

There has been no change to this school’s overall judgement of good as a result of this initial (section 8) inspection. However, the evidence gathered suggests that the inspection grade might not be as high if a full inspection were carried out now. The next inspection will therefore be a full (section 5) inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are safe and happy at school. They play and chat sociably at breaktimes. From the beginning of the early years, children learn how to share and to take turns. This helps them to get along well with others. Pupils told the inspector that staff are effective at helping them to resolve minor squabbles with friends. Rare incidents of bullying are dealt with thoroughly by staff.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders support pupils to broaden their horizons. Older pupils work alongside leaders as ministers as part of the school’s parliament system. Pupils have missed the range of clubs and trips that took place regularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are looking forward to these activities restarting.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Standards of pupils’ behaviour are consistently high. Leaders provide appropriate additional support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils strive to meet their teachers’ high expectations for behaviour. They try their best in class.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders expect all pupils to achieve well at school. However, although leaders have devised and implemented an ambitious curriculum, it is still relatively new. Pupils are not able to recall their learning well. In addition, there are pupils across the school who do not have sufficiently secure reading knowledge to be able to access the curriculum. These pupils are not as well prepared for the next stage of their education as they should be.

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

Over the last few years, there has been considerable turmoil at the school. A weak curriculum did not afford pupils the chance to achieve well. Disrupted learning throughout the pandemic has made this situation worse. Leaders have made significant 22 and 23 March 2022

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improvements at the school, including developing a more ambitious curriculum. The new curriculum that leaders have developed captures pupils’ interests and motivates them to want to learn more. Leaders have thought carefully about the order that pupils need to acquire new knowledge. This means that what pupils learn in each subject complements what they learn in others.

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The situation at the school is now more settled. However, pupils’ achievement is patchy across subjects. This is because in some aspects of the curriculum, leaders have not specified what pupils need to learn clearly enough. This hinders teachers from designing learning that builds on what pupils already know. This is particularly the case in the early years. There is a lack of clarity about what children are expected to learn in each area of learning as they progress from the two-year-old provision to the end of the Reception Year. Consequently, some children miss out on essential learning, while others risk repeating learning unnecessarily.

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The revised curriculum is in the early stages of being implemented. Some teachers are skilled at making sure that their pupils do not have misconceptions or missing knowledge. They intervene skilfully and provide additional support for pupils where it is needed. Other teachers do not check carefully enough that pupils have secure understanding before they move on to the next stage of their learning. In these cases, pupils become confused. This slows their progress through the curriculum.

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Leaders do not check how effectively teachers deliver the curriculum. Consequently, leaders and governors are not clear whether the new curriculum is having the desired impact on pupils’ learning. They do not ensure that teachers focus on pupils recalling their learning easily. This makes it more difficult for pupils to catch up as quickly as they need to.

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Pupils, including children in the early years, are benefiting from the new phonics programme introduced at the start of the academic year. The new programme is beginning to improve pupils’ accuracy and fluency in reading. All staff have been trained to deliver the programme diligently. Teachers now provide effective support for all pupils, including those with SEND, to develop more secure reading knowledge. Although the new programme is beginning to help pupils to catch up, some pupils continue to live with missing phonics knowledge. This hinders their access to the curriculum and hampers their success.

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Leaders frequently refresh the books that pupils read or listen to in class. All pupils, including children in the early years, consider reading to be a fun activity. Pupils practise the sounds that they have learned in well-matched books that develop their curiosity. Pupils who have become fluent and accurate readers value the high-quality books that are available. They are keen to read at home and at school.

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Teachers in the early years and across the school identify quickly those pupils who may have SEND. They provide effective support in class for these pupils. Pupils proudly spoke about how they have improved their achievement at school. They recognise how important it is to have a positive attitude towards their learning. 22 and 23 March 2022

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It is evident that leaders have carefully considered pupils’ wider development in the design of the curriculum. Leaders also support pupils to grow in confidence to carry out leadership roles. Teachers challenge pupils to reflect on the trials that different people in contrasting parts of the world face. Pupils reflect on their own personal, and other people’s situations, in gratitude journals.

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The impact of the pandemic has made it more difficult for leaders to address some of the improvements that they know are needed at the school. Trustees and governors have found it challenging during recent months to keep up to date with the progress of leaders’ work. They have not checked on the impact of this work as rigorously as they should. Leaders work closely with staff and make sure that their workload is not too onerous.

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In discussion with the headteacher, the inspectors agreed that science and art and design may usefully serve as a focus for the next inspection.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that all staff know how to keep pupils safe. Staff are vigilant. They know their pupils well and understand the potential safeguarding dangers that they may be exposed to.

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Safeguarding

Staff quickly identify pupils who might be at risk of harm. They pass on their concerns to the personnel responsible for safeguarding. Leaders take swift action to put additional support in place for pupils and their families when it is needed. They monitor how effective this support is and escalate their concerns to other agencies when required.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn how to keep themselves and each other safe, including when they are online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, leaders have not defined exactly what pupils are expected to learn. This includes children in the early years, especially the two-year-old children. Sometimes, teachers do not know which learning to focus on as a result. Leaders should refine their curriculum thinking, including in the early years, to ensure that teachers are clear about what they intend children and pupils to learn and when this content should be taught. This is so that children and pupils do not miss or repeat learning unnecessarily.  Leaders have not ensured that pupils are able to remember the key information that they need. There are groups of pupils across the school who do not have sufficiently secure knowledge to access the curriculum. For some pupils, this includes reading knowledge. As a result, some pupils struggle to acquire and remember new learning. Leaders need to make sure that teachers ensure that pupils have secure knowledge,

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

including in reading, before moving on to new learning. 22 and 23 March 2022

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 Leaders have not checked how effective the implementation of the curriculum is. Consequently, the assurances that governors and trustees receive from leaders about the impact of their work are not as reliable as they might be. Governors and trustees need to hold leaders to account more rigorously about how well pupils are being prepared for their next stages of learning.

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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, Roscoe Primary School, to be good in June 2013.

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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. 22 and 23 March 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10226063 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

 Roscoe Primary School converted to become an academy school in March 2018. When its predecessor school, Roscoe Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good overall.  Since the school became an academy, there have been significant changes in staffing, including the appointment of a new headteacher.  The headteacher is also responsible for another school in the SAIL multi-academy trust.  There is provision for two-year-old children in the early years.  Leaders do not make use of any alternative provider.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection that 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.  The inspector spoke with the headteacher and other leaders in the school, including leaders for SEND. She spoke with the chair of governors and the chair of trustees. She 22 and 23 March 2022

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also spoke with a representative of the local authority and a school improvement consultant used by the school.  The inspector looked at a range of documentation relating to safeguarding. This included the school’s central record of staff and visitors, staff training records, records of safeguarding and samples of the records kept on individual pupils.  The inspector carried out deep dives in early reading, science and geography. She talked with the curriculum leaders of these subject areas. The inspector visited lessons, looked at examples of pupils’ work, held discussions with teachers and talked with pupils. She considered curriculum documentation from other areas of the curriculum.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktimes and lunchtimes. She observed pupils’ behaviour as they moved around the school.  The inspector spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school.

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 The inspector spoke with parents as they dropped their children off at school. She also met with a small group of parents attending a craft session at the school. The inspector considered the free-text responses from parents to find out their views of the school. There were insufficient responses to Ofsted Parent View to analyse.  The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff and Ofsted’s online survey for pupils.

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Inspection team

Claire Cropper, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector 22 and 23 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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