Berrybrook Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Berrybrook Primary School Greenacres Avenue, Underhill Estate, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV10 8NZ

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Outcome

Berrybrook Primary School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils share, live by and show the school’s core values in an impressive way. They hold the BERRY values dear. Pupils enjoy school and feel safe. They appreciate the personal and academic knowledge they gain. Leaders’ high expectations for behaviour and learning shine through everywhere. Older pupils converse with visitors with maturity. They discuss school life with knowledge and respect.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils know much about different types of bullying and why it is wrong. They say it does not happen in school. Pupils know who to talk to if it did and are clear that adults would sort it. Leaders have chosen a specific approach to help pupils manage their emotions. This has a powerful and positive impact. Pupils have a special place to go to when cross or sad. They are glad of this and state, ‘It helps school to be a comfortable place to be.’ Well-being Friday is a firm favourite.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils take on many responsibilities in school, including librarians, house captains and anti-bullying ambassadors. The head boy and head girl choose and present curriculum subject awards. Teachers show pupils, across lessons and subjects, how their learning is used in the world of work. Pupils spoke highly of this.

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

Leaders have set out an ambitious vision for the curriculum to ‘give pupils the skills they need to excel in an ever-developing and diverse world’. They are achieving this for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

Leaders have skilfully set out a clear outline of what must be taught and how to teach and assess it. This goes across every subject, including in the early years. Teachers help pupils to develop strategies to remember the important curriculum content. However, this is not as successful in a few subjects, and results in pupils being less confident in recalling their learning. 4 and 5 October 2022

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Leaders keep vocabulary and language front and centre of all they do. Pupils accurately use words such as ‘posture’, ‘space’, ‘communicate’ and ‘defend’ in physical education (PE), and ‘tone’, ‘perspective’, ‘layering’ and ‘stippling’ in art and design. This focus on language begins with the youngest children. Leaders have made sure that all staff are well trained to talk to, and with, children. Staff use this knowledge to excellent effect. Each interaction helps children to build their vocabulary and use words confidently in different ways. The inclusion team makes sure pupils’ needs are quickly identified and that they get the right help at the right time.

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Pupils do so much more than use words in isolation. They remember what they have learned over time. This is stronger in some subjects than others. For example, in PE, pupils can explain why a player needs to move into the ‘space’ to defend more effectively. The quality of pupils’ drawing and painting artwork is exceptional. In art, the structure of the curriculum enables the clear development of knowledge and techniques over time, leading to some impressive pieces of artwork. For example, a drawing of a horse’s head and neck showed form and movement, and the mane flowed along the neck as if alive on the page.

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Leaders are determined that every pupil will learn to read. They have made sure that everything is in place and applied by staff so that pupils use their phonics to read successfully. Leaders have made sure that pupils get swift and targeted support if they start to fall behind with their reading. This works well, enabling pupils to become confident and fluent readers. The ‘reading van’ and ‘reading suitcases’ help pupils enjoy reading. Pupils can remember books they have read.

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Staff enjoy working at the school. They value the training they receive. Staff told the inspector, ‘The trust is an umbrella, and, jointly with school leaders, they help us to work together in a way that feels safe, happy and valued.’

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Subject leaders have made sure that key stages 1 and 2 staff have the knowledge, resources and confidence to teach each subject well. They are beginning to develop their own understanding of what their subject looks like in the early years.

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Leaders make sure that a range of trips, visitors, clubs and opportunities are planned and provided. From visits to art museums, experiencing university and musical concerts, to meeting local dignitaries, pupils are equipped to be ready to move on through education and life. Pupils show respectful and tolerant attitudes beyond their years. They say, ‘Treat people in the same way as we want to be treated and as staff treat us, in a kind manner.’

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders make the necessary checks that staff are safe to work in school. They train and support staff to notice and share any concerns they have about pupils. Staff do this well and quickly. Leaders work with many agencies, often across different authorities, to make sure pupils are kept safe. 4 and 5 October 2022

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The curriculum equips pupils to know how to keep safe in many situations. Older pupils show they respect the law and know about risks such as county lines. Visitors, including local police officers, give talks that help pupils to understand a range of risks and how to get help.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Teaching, in a few subjects, does not enable pupils to remember important curriculum content as well as they do in other areas. As a result, in these subjects, pupils do not develop a greater depth of understanding. Leaders should continue to embed successful recall strategies, enabling pupils to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their knowledge throughout the curriculum.

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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 an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in January 2017.

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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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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. 4 and 5 October 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10211284 Type of school Primary

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School details

Headteacher Darryl Asbury (Executive Headteacher)

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 24 and 25 January 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Perry Hall Multi-Academy Trust. The executive headteacher splits their time between two trust schools. A new head of school was appointed on 1 September 2022.  The school operates a breakfast club.  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 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken this into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, physical education, and art and design. For each deep dive, the inspector discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. The 4 and 5 October 2022

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inspector also looked at pupils’ work, spoke to leaders and visited lessons to consider early mathematics.  The inspector listened to a sample of pupils read.  The inspector had formal meetings with the executive headteacher, the head of school, other leaders, school staff and pupils.  They also met with the chief operating officer, the chair of the trust and two members of the governing body, including the chair.  The inspector talked informally with pupils and staff to gather general information about school life. In addition, they took account of the responses to Ofsted’s surveys of staff’s, pupils’ and parents’ and carers’ views.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at lunchtime. They spoke formally with groups of pupils as well as talking to pupils in lessons and around school.  The inspector met with leaders about the school’s safeguarding procedures. They reviewed policies and records relating to safeguarding and behaviour. The inspector

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spoke to pupils and staff about pupils’ safety.  The inspector reviewed a range of documentation, including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans, minutes of governing body meetings and information on the school’s website.

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Inspection team

Kirsty Foulkes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 4 and 5 October 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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