Uplands Manor Primary School and Nursery

Inspection of Uplands Manor Primary School and Nursery Addenbrooke Road, Smethwick, West Midlands B67 6HT

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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 Requires improvement 16 and 17 May 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

This is a school where the school’s values of achievement, belief, creativity, determination and enthusiasm permeate all that happens throughout each day. Pupils are proud of what they do and how they do it.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils take their learning and their care of each other seriously. They concentrate in lessons. They look out for each other. They told inspectors, ‘Never a soul is left out.’ They share a strong sense of community. If difficulties do happen with behaviour or friendships, staff deal with them swiftly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils value the way staff help and support them, both with their learning and their feelings. They are right to. Supported by the highly effective pastoral and inclusion teams, all staff provide excellent support, which makes a real difference to pupils and their families.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have worked hard to make sure pupils have all they need in place to achieve well. This is beginning to pay dividends. Many more pupils are now working at the standard that they should be.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils see being a member of ‘Tech Squad’, a prefect or a school councillor as important. They know they make a positive contribution to school life. Pupils enjoy learning from visits out and visitors into school.

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better?

Leaders want the very best for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Governors and senior leaders have worked with dedication and drive to introduce the new specialist provision, The Lodge. Alongside this, they have maintained a focus on ensuring that the quality of education improves to reach a good standard. Leaders have been successful in both of their aims.

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better?

Leaders have set out what pupils will learn in each subject from the early years to Year 6. Teachers use this information to guide their practice in lessons. This is working well in many subjects. Leaders made a sensible decision recently to review and refine the English curriculum as pupils were not reaching the expected standards. Although in its early stages, the changes are supporting more pupils to work at the standard that they should be working at. However, there is more to be done as some units of work are not taught in a logical order and do not allow pupils to build their learning up well enough over time.

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better?

Staff teach pupils who are in the early stages of learning to read well. They give pupils the right books for the stage they are at. If pupils struggle with their reading, staff provide extra support that helps pupils to gain the skills they need and the belief that they can read. Therefore, most pupils learn to read with fluency and 16 and 17 May 2023

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expression. Pupils enjoy poetry alongside a range of texts. They discuss poems in a knowledgeable way and share phrases they had created as part of a particular type of poem. For example, describing trees as ‘oxygen-givers’.

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Learning about oxygen is just one of many topics in science and geography that pupils study and enjoy. Pupils can talk about their current learning. They are less sure when trying to recall learning from a little while ago. This is the case for most subjects.

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The nurturing and inclusive environment and support ensures that all pupils are ready to learn. In a short space of time, pupils in The Lodge have settled in, some being in school for the first time in a while. Strong leadership, plus the help, care and teaching of dedicated and skilled staff means that they make the right small steps to be successful learners. This success is seen right across the school for pupils with SEND. Early identification of needs, effective teaching and support, alongside strong links with a range of agencies, maximises every opportunity for all pupils with SEND to thrive.

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Taking small steps to be a good learner starts in the early years. Children find out about how to play and work well together. A current favourite is watching the chicks hatch and grow. Children enjoy taking this learning about chicks further as they create models. They discuss the shape of the bodies, and that their models need two legs, two eyes and lots of feathers. Children took great pride in instructing an inspector, one step at a time, in how to make their own chick. Careful use of language such as first, next and sphere shows that specific teaching comes through into continuous provision. Children enjoy many different activities, especially outside where leaders have spent money, time and thought in how children will play and learn. Occasionally, resources across the early years lack quality and have the potential to hinder children’s learning.

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Pupils speak highly of the respectful and accepting ethos of the school. Pupils show great maturity when discussing a range of topics. They know to ‘think before they speak’, ‘that it is alright to make mistakes; you learn from this’ and ‘to feed your worries to the monster; it helps to talk.’

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

‘Safeguarding never stops’ is the driving mantra in this school. Everyone, staff and pupils included, knows what to do, when, and why it is important. From the very first checks made for employing staff to ongoing training and teaching through the curriculum, safeguarding is everywhere. Leaders ensure the right care and support are wrapped around families as they need it.

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Safeguarding

Pupils know that bullying is not acceptable. They know that it is unacceptable to make fun of someone. They recognise that we are all different and that is all right. 16 and 17 May 2023

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They grasp the importance of speaking up and out. ‘Step out and say’ is seen as their responsibility if another pupil is doing something wrong or unsafe.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The recently refined English curriculum is in the early stages of implementation. Staff have a range of information to plan from. Work in pupils’ books shows that not all teachers build up the learning sequentially towards the final written task. This means that some pupils do not achieve as well as they could. Leaders should ensure that teachers are supported in understanding the small steps of learning that build through a unit of work and monitor that these small steps are taught effectively and consistently.  Pupils remember recent learning but some are unable to consistently draw on what they know and remember over time. Leaders should continue to embed the curriculum and develop further recall strategies. This is so that all pupils can make links across their learning to secure deeper understanding and ensure that they can remember and apply what they know consistently across all subjects.  Some of the resources that children in the early years have access to do not fully

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

support their learning. This means that, occasionally, children’s opportunities to learn through play are restricted. Therefore, leaders should ensure that the suitability and organisation of resources are enhanced to better meet children’s needs and maximise learning opportunities.

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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. 16 and 17 May 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10270147 Type of school Primary

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 8 December 2022, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Leaders have created resourced provision, The Lodge, for pupils with SEND including severe learning difficulties . 20 pupils with an education, health and care plan currently attend this provision.  Leaders do not use alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the second routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher and senior leaders.  The lead inspector met with four members of the governing body, including the chair.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, English, 16 and 17 May 2023

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mathematics, history and art and design. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, met with some teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors looked at samples of pupils’ work in other subjects, including science, geography and personal, social, health and economic education.  The lead inspector listened to a sample of pupils read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons at different times of the day and at playtimes and lunchtimes. They spoke formally with groups of pupils, as well as talking to pupils in lessons and around school.  Inspectors met with leaders to talk about the school’s safeguarding procedures.  Inspectors reviewed policies and records relating to safeguarding, bullying, behaviour and attendance. Inspectors spoke to pupils and staff about pupils’

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safety.  The lead inspector reviewed a wide range of documents, including the school’s self-evaluation and improvement plans and information on the school’s website.  Inspectors 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’ views. An inspector spoke with parents during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Kirsty Foulkes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Donna O’Toole Ofsted Inspector 16 and 17 May 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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