E P Collier Primary School

Inspection of E P Collier Primary School Ross Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 8DZ

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Early years provision Good Previous inspection grade Good 7 and 8 February 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their multicultural school. They appreciate how staff care for them and support them with their learning. New pupils, who often arrive with limited English, are warmly welcomed by other pupils and staff. They settle quickly and swiftly make friends. As one parent reflected, ‘This is a diverse, friendly and supportive school where every child can flourish.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff are determined for pupils to achieve well and to develop positive attitudes to learning. Pupils appreciate the importance of studying different subjects so they can use this understanding in their future career. As a result, they are motivated and work hard.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. They are respectful and polite, and this contributes to the calm and welcoming environment. Pupils play well together in the playground. They say that bullying does not often happen and they are confident to talk to adults in school about any problems. Staff are quick to resolve any worries. This means that pupils feel safe and confident in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy different opportunities, such as the clubs for fencing and archery. They take pride in their leadership positions, such as being on the school council or the eco-committee. Older pupils love the residential visit where they experience canoeing.

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better?

Leaders strongly promote personal development. Staff help pupils to develop a deep understanding of life in modern Britain. They value how their school is made up of people from many different backgrounds and are respectful of different faiths, beliefs and family types. In art, pupils study themes such as the journeys made by refugees, and in history, pupils learn about changes in the past that impact on their lives today, such as segregation. Pupils know and understand the school values of equity, honesty, care, empathy, respect and courage. One pupil explained, ‘Equity is when everyone gets what they need so it is fair.’

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better?

Leaders ensure that staff have expert knowledge to develop children’s communication and language from the start of Nursery. This ensures that children are well prepared to learn phonics from the beginning of Reception. Leaders have prioritised strengthening the teaching of early reading over the past year. This is now supporting pupils effectively to become fluent and accurate readers. Pupils read books that are closely matched to the sounds that they have learned. Struggling readers are given helpful extra support and time to practise, which helps them to keep up.

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better?

Staff routinely read aloud books that celebrate diversity and promote an appreciation of the wider world. They help pupils to extend their language by reading a broad range of texts. As a result, pupils develop a love of reading. 7 and 8 February 2023

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In other subjects, leaders have made sure that the curriculum is coherently planned. Staff clearly explain new learning and introduce ambitious vocabulary. They provide a range of resources that support pupils’ learning effectively, especially in mathematics. Teachers split up the key content into smaller chunks and give pupils time to practise and refine their learning. Staff carefully check pupils’ understanding and use this information to inform their teaching. In a few lessons, the work that staff provide does not precisely focus on the most important content that pupils need to learn. This makes it harder for pupils to recall and build on the essential knowledge and skills over time.

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Almost all pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are supported to achieve well. The long-established, strong support for pupils in the speech and language provision enables pupils to be successful. In the rest of the school, staff identify pupils’ needs quickly. They usually adapt their teaching effectively so that pupils learn well. The support for a small group of pupils with more complex needs is at an earlier stage of development. Leaders are working to strengthen this to enable all pupils to achieve their best consistently.

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From early years onwards, pupils enjoy positive attitudes to learning. They concentrate well in lessons and work well together. For example, children in Reception share resources and independently tidy away after themselves. Leaders have recently sharpened their work to improve pupils’ attendance. This is having a positive impact, but attendance is not yet good enough, especially for disadvantaged pupils.

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Many of the governors are new, but they have a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas to develop. They know how well pupils are learning in English and mathematics and are developing their knowledge to challenge leaders sufficiently about the rest of the curriculum. Governors and leaders support staff effectively to manage their workload. Staff are proud to work at the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders make sure that staff are well trained to help them understand their safeguarding responsibilities. Staff diligently report even the smallest concern. Leaders swiftly refer to external agencies to get pupils and families the help that they need.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe in the community by studying road, rail and river safety. They learn how to stay safe when online and know to keep personal information private.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and governors make sure that safer recruitment procedures are closely followed. This includes making sure that the required checks are completed before adults start working or volunteering at the school. 7 and 8 February 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils do not attend school regularly enough. This means that they are missing out on important learning. Leaders should continue their work to focus sharply on working with families to improve attendance so that all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, attend regularly.  Some provision for pupils with SEND lacks consistency. This means that a few pupils do not learn as well as they could. Leaders should ensure that they continue to strengthen the provision for pupils with more complex SEND to ensure that all pupils learn consistently well.  In some lessons, staff provide work that does not precisely focus on the most important content. This makes it harder for pupils to learn key knowledge over time. Leaders should ensure that staff emphasise the essential knowledge and skills they intend pupils to learn and remember across the curriculum. Governors should develop clear oversight of how well pupils learn this key content.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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. 7 and 8 February 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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Date of previous inspection

7 November 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school has a speech and language resource provision for up to 12 pupils.  Over half of the pupils speak English as an additional language, and over half of the pupils have joined the school since the standard time of admission.  The deputy head, inclusion leader and early years leader started in their roles in September 2022. Several other staff joined the school at the same time.  Since the previous inspection, almost all governors are new.  The school currently uses two unregistered alternative provisions.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.  This was the first routine inspection the school had received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with the headteacher and other school staff. 7 and 8 February 2023

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 The lead inspector also met with members of the governing body, including the chair, and spoke to a representative from the local authority.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in early reading, mathematics, physical education, science and history. For each deep dive, inspectors 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.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors spoke with staff and pupils. The lead inspector met with the designated safeguarding lead to review their knowledge, records and actions. The inspectors also looked at safeguarding records and actions and reviewed information about the safer recruitment of staff.  To make wider judgements, inspectors spoke to staff and groups of pupils from different year groups and observed behaviour in classrooms and at lunchtime.

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 The views of staff and pupils, including responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey, were considered.  The responses of parents and carers to Ofsted Parent View, including written comments, were also taken into account.

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Inspection team

Laurie Anderson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Ian Elkington Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 February 2023

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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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