Chorley New Road Primary Academy

Inspection of a good school: Chorley New Road Primary Academy Chorley New Road, Horwich, Bolton, Lancashire BL6 6EW

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Outcome

Chorley New Road Primary Academy continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils describe Chorley New Road Primary Academy as a welcoming and happy place. They enjoy coming to school and they are proud of how they support each other, for example as well-being ambassadors. Staff nurture positive and trusting relationships with pupils, including children in the early years. This helps pupils to feel safe. They know that the adults in the school will help them if they have any worries.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils. They encourage pupils to speak politely, act safely and respect each other. Leaders also have high expectations of pupils’ achievement. Pupils are keen to do their best. They are proud to earn house points when they try hard in lessons and behave well around the school. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well across a range of subjects.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn the importance of treating everyone equally. They understand the difference between falling out and bullying. Leaders deal swiftly and effectively with any bullying or incidents of discrimination. These are rare.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy the many enrichment opportunities that leaders provide. Children in the early years are delighted when their parents and carers join them in school for story time and family gardening sessions.

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

Leaders have set out an ambitious and engaging curriculum. They have clearly identified the most important knowledge that all pupils must acquire. They have organised this knowledge well so that it builds in a thoughtful way from the Nursery Year to Year 6.

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

Leaders are clear that all pupils, including those with SEND, should experience the same high-quality curriculum. They have created robust procedures to quickly identify any additional needs that pupils have. This ensures that pupils with SEND receive the help 28 and 29 March 2023

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that they need. Leaders make sure that teachers understand the best ways to support these pupils. As a result, pupils with SEND learn well alongside their classmates.

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Leaders and teachers are supporting a significant number of recent arrivals to the school. Some of these pupils are only just beginning to learn to speak English. In addition, for other pupils, irregular attendance in the past has had a negative impact on their learning. Leaders use assessment information precisely to identify the knowledge that these pupils have missed or forgotten. Targeted support from staff is helping these pupils to catch up.

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Overall, teachers implement the curriculum very effectively. This begins in the early years when teachers explain new ideas and vocabulary clearly. Leaders support teachers in developing expert knowledge of the subjects that they teach. This helps teachers to identify and address pupils’ misconceptions quickly. Pupils remember what they have learned. As pupils move through the school, they use more and more ambitious vocabulary.

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Leaders are determined that pupils learn to read well. They have made this a priority across the school. Children in the Nursery Year experience a curriculum that gets their communication and language skills off to a strong start. Recent improvements to the phonics programme are helping most pupils to become accurate readers. Skilful support from staff ensures that pupils who fall behind with their phonic knowledge, including older pupils and those new to the school, catch up quickly. Nevertheless, some pupils have not had enough practice in reading books which match the sounds that they know. As a result, their lack of fluency in reading limits their achievement in some areas of the curriculum.

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Children in the early years quickly learn routines which they continue to follow as they grow older. These routines help pupils in all key stages to demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. This ensures a calm and orderly environment where learning is rarely disrupted.

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Leaders promote pupils’ personal development. They have carefully chosen cultural experiences to reflect the diversity of the local area. For example, pupils visit a variety of places of worship in the community and learn about the industrial heritage of the area. Some pupils were proud to represent their school during a recent royal visit to Bolton.

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Leaders give pupils a strong voice. They learn about the fundamental British values of democracy and the rule of law through electing their peers to positions of responsibility and voting on their class rules. Leaders also make sure that pupils learn about universal rights. As they move through key stages 1 and 2, pupils put this learning into practice by thinking about how their behaviour affects others.

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Staff are positive about the leaders’ actions to make sure that their workload is manageable. They value the training and support that leaders provide. They are proud of their school. 28 and 29 March 2023

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have a thorough knowledge of the potential risks to pupils. They have ensured that staff are well trained. Staff understand their safeguarding responsibilities clearly. They are vigilant and report any concerns that they may have about pupils’ welfare.

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Safeguarding

Leaders take appropriate and timely action when concerns are reported. They work closely with external agencies so that pupils and their families receive the support that they need.

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Safeguarding

At times, leaders’ safeguarding records are not as clear as they could be. While this does not put pupils at risk of harm, it hinders governors’ and trustees’ overview of safeguarding across the school.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe when in school, in the local community and online.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils do not develop their reading fluency as quickly as they should. These pupils are less well equipped to benefit from the curriculum. Leaders should ensure that pupils have sufficient opportunities to practise reading books that contain the sounds that they know, so that they develop increasing automaticity as words become more familiar.  Leaders, including trustees and governors, do not ensure that the administrative aspects of safeguarding are given full oversight. Some records are not as comprehensive as they could be. Leaders should ensure that they have thorough and consistent record-keeping systems to allow them to maintain a clear overview of safeguarding.

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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. 28 and 29 March 2023

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This is the first inspection since we judged the predecessor school, Chorley New Road Primary School, to be good in December 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. 28 and 29 March 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10268731 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

 Chorley New Road Primary Academy converted to become an academy school in November 2020. When its predecessor school, Chorley New Road Primary School, was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good overall.  The school is part of Albany Learning Trust.  Leaders do not make use of 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 that into account in his evaluation of the school.  The inspector completed deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and geography. He met with subject leaders, visited some lessons, reviewed pupils’ work and spoke with teachers and pupils. He observed pupils reading to a familiar adult.  The inspector scrutinised a range of documentation. He spoke to the headteacher and senior leaders throughout the inspection. He also met with the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator. 28 and 29 March 2023

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 The inspector met with some trustees and representatives of the local governing committee. He also met with the chief executive officer of the trust and spoke with a representative of the local authority by telephone.  The inspector held meetings with the staff responsible for safeguarding and scrutinised the single central record. He considered leaders’ safeguarding processes and procedures. He observed pupils during social times and discussed safeguarding with them.  The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. He also considered the responses to the Ofsted survey for staff. There were no responses to the pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Ben Hill, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 28 and 29 March 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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