St George's CofE Primary School

Inspection of St George’s C of E Primary School Concord Place, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 6SJ

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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 Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 28 and 29 March 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), enjoy all that this school has to offer. They embrace the wealth of cultures that make up their diverse school community.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils know that leaders and staff expect them to be ready, respectful and safe. Pupils follow these school rules well. Their positive attitudes help to make the school a happy place to learn.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from the warm relationships that they develop with staff. Pupils trust adults in school to help them whenever they need it. Leaders deal with incidents, including bullying, quickly and effectively. Pupils feel safe in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils appreciate the variety of activities available to them. They take part in a range of sporting clubs and weekly enrichment afternoons with enthusiasm. This helps pupils to discover and develop new talents and interests.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have high academic expectations for all pupils. They have improved the curriculum to help pupils to know and remember more over time. Pupils achieve well across a broader range of subjects as a result. However, children in the early years do not learn equally well across all areas of the curriculum. Some children are not as well prepared for their next steps as they should be.

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better?

Leaders have carefully considered what they want pupils to achieve by the time that they leave the school. Leaders have made the curriculum meaningful and interesting to pupils. The ambitious curriculum supports all pupils, including those with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language, to make connections between different subjects and topics. In this way, pupils build their learning logically and coherently.

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better?

Subject leaders are knowledgeable about the subjects that they lead. They ensure that teachers know which learning to focus on with the pupils in their class. In most subjects, teachers carry out regular checks on what pupils know and remember. Pupils recall their prior learning readily. This makes it easier for them to understand and learn new information.

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better?

In a small number of other subjects, leaders are still devising the most suitable methods to check that pupils know what they expect them to know and do. In these subjects, teachers do not regularly revisit and strengthen pupils’ previous learning. Pupils do not build their knowledge as securely as they do in other subjects as a result.

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better?

In the early years, leaders have provided insufficient guidance for staff who teach and support children’s learning. This is particularly the case in the Nursery Year. 28 and 29 March 2023

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Here staff are not clear about what to teach children and when. This means that they miss opportunities to deepen children’s knowledge across each area of learning. There is an unevenness in the youngest children’s development as a result.

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Leaders make reading a priority. Pupils enjoy listening to their teachers read to them. Teachers select books that help pupils to reflect on important issues, such as equality. Most pupils enjoy reading and establish positive reading habits.

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Leaders make sure that staff across the school are well trained to teach pupils to read. Staff ensure that pupils read books that are matched well to their reading knowledge. Pupils who need extra help, including those who speak English as an additional language, read regularly to adults and benefit from well-tailored phonics support. This helps these pupils to develop their fluency and confidence in reading. More pupils have needed this additional input since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Staff throughout the school identify pupils who may have SEND well. Skilled staff provide these pupils with the support that they need so that they can get the most from their lessons. Pupils, including pupils with SEND, behave well in lessons and focus on their learning. This means that they can learn without interruption.

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Leaders prepare pupils well for life after primary school. They encourage them to aim high for their future lives. For example, pupils learn what it means to study at university. They are keen to play their part in the school community. For instance, pupils take part enthusiastically in sponsored events to raise funds for worthy causes. In this way, they develop well as active citizens.

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Leaders benefit from robust challenge and support from governors. Governors know what is working well in the school and what needs to improve. They have clear plans in place to bring about these improvements. Governors and leaders are focused on improving the attendance of pupils who are frequently absent.

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Staff appreciate how leaders support them in making their workloads manageable. Some subject leaders have not had enough time to check how well their newly refined, ambitious curriculums are being implemented. This sometimes hinders how well these subject leaders carry out their roles.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders know their school community extremely well. They make sure that staff know how to identify pupils who may need help with their mental or emotional health. Leaders put this support in place quickly. This includes effective pastoral support.

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Safeguarding

Leaders also ensure that staff are well trained to identify pupils who may be vulnerable to harm. Staff pass on their concerns diligently. Leaders are persistent in following up any worries that staff raise. 28 and 29 March 2023

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Pupils know how to stay safe and behave responsibly in different situations. This includes when they are online and out in the community.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some subject leaders have had insufficient time to check on the quality of curriculum implementation in their subjects. This means that these leaders do not know how consistently well the curriculum is being implemented across the school. As they embed their newly refined curriculums, subject leaders should check that staff are delivering these curriculums as intended.  Leaders’ approaches to assessment are at an earlier stage in some subjects. This means that, sometimes, teachers do not use assessment strategies consistently well to support pupils to remember key knowledge. Leaders should make sure that teachers are fully equipped to support pupils to embed and use knowledge fluently.  Leaders have not ensured that staff in the Nursery Year have the expertise to design learning that builds on what children know and can do already. This means that some children in the early years are not as well prepared for their next stage

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

of education as they should be. Leaders should ensure that they provide staff with suitable guidance so that they can deliver the curriculum in the early years equally well.

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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. 28 and 29 March 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10269018 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 7 and 8 February 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The executive headteacher is also responsible for leading another school in the local authority.  A new deputy headteacher has been appointed since the school was last inspected. A new chair of governors is also in post.  Many pupils in the school speak English as an additional language. Some of these pupils have lived in other countries before they began at this school. There are currently 27 different ethnic groups in the school.  This school is part of the Diocese of Manchester. Its most recent section 48 inspection took place in January 2017.  Leaders do not make use of alternative provision for pupils.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. 28 and 29 March 2023

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 This was the first routine inspection that the school has received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors spoke with the executive headteacher and other school leaders. The lead inspector spoke with representatives from the local authority and the diocese.  The lead inspector met with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors.  Inspectors reviewed leaders’ policies and procedures to keep pupils safe. They discussed safeguarding arrangements with leaders and staff. Inspectors also checked the single central record.  Inspectors conducted deep dives into early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders and teachers. Inspectors also visited lessons, looked at samples of pupils’ and children’s work and spoke with

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groups of pupils about their learning.  The lead inspector observed pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors also met with the leaders of some other subjects. They spoke with pupils about their learning and evaluated their work in these subjects.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff. There were no responses to the online survey for pupils.  Inspectors met with parents and carers at the start of the school day. They took account of the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses.

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Inspection team

Jackie Stillings, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Tim Sherriff Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 March 2023

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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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