Gilded Hollins Community School

Inspection of a good school: Gilded Hollins Community School St Helen’s Road, Leigh, Lancashire WN7 3PQ

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Outcome

Gilded Hollins Community School continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Gilded Hollins Community School are confident and happy. They enjoy attending school each day. The overarching school value of respect emanates from staff and pupils alike. Parents and carers appreciate the efforts of staff to make their children feel welcome. Pupils, and children in the early years, feel safe at school. They say that they have an adult they can talk to if anything is worrying them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders and staff have high expectations of pupils’ achievements. Pupils try their best in lessons; they benefit from a high-quality curriculum and achieve well. Staff encourage pupils to have a voice. Pupils enjoy giving their opinions and debating important issues. For example, members of the school council have recently drafted a child-friendly version of leaders’ anti-bullying policy for pupils.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils understand which behaviours constitute bullying. Leaders deal with incidents of bullying swiftly and effectively. Pupils care for one another. The pupil-run ‘kindness corner’ provides a quiet space at social times for those who may feel overwhelmed. Staff teach pupils how to behave well. During lessons, pupils display keen attitudes to their learning. The behaviour of most pupils is praiseworthy.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their many sporting achievements and trophies. A high proportion of pupils participate in a range of extra-curricular clubs. Pupils who attend the gardening club have recently harvested a crop of potatoes. Other pupils gladly join in with ballet, choir and computing club.

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

Leaders have designed a broad and ambitious curriculum for pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have identified the essential knowledge that pupils should learn. Leaders have organised the curriculum coherently from the Reception class to Year 6. This helps pupils to build securely on earlier learning 12 and 13 July 2023

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and make connections between their prior knowledge and new content. They learn the curriculum successfully.

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Teachers have strong subject knowledge. This helps them to skilfully break learning down into small steps for pupils. Teachers use assessment methods well to check on what pupils know and to identify any misconceptions. Staff use this information well to remedy gaps in pupils’ learning. However, in a small number of subjects, leaders do not check on whether the curriculum is being delivered by staff as intended. From time to time, this hinders leaders in providing appropriate support for some staff to design aspects of learning for pupils.

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Leaders have ensured that there is a well-established culture of reading across the whole school. Pupils are voracious readers. They read widely, including non-fiction texts and poetry. Leaders have considered how pupils’ understanding of difference can be developed through the texts that they read. For instance, carefully chosen books linked to the personal, social and health education curriculum help to exemplify different types of families. Children in the early years love reading stories and singing rhymes.

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Children in the early years learn phonics from the start. Staff expertly deliver the phonics programme. They identify those pupils who need extra help to keep up with their reading. These pupils receive support from staff that helps them to catch up quickly. Leaders have acted to ensure that the books pupils read are well matched to the sounds they have learned. Pupils in key stage 2 read accurately and with understanding.

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Leaders support staff well to manage pupils’ behaviour. Staff teach pupils how they want them to behave. Pupils have positive attitudes to learning, and they concentrate well. In most classes, pupils’ learning is not disrupted. The atmosphere around school is calm, including at breaktimes and lunchtimes.

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Leaders’ vision is to develop pupils who can confidently take up their place in the world as leaders of others. To this end, there are many different leadership opportunities on offer to pupils. For instance, pupils are eager to act as library leaders and play leaders. Children in the Reception class look up to their Year 6 buddies. The school council plays an active role in bringing about change. For example, the council has successfully requested appropriate changes to the lunchtime menu. Leaders ensure that pupils learn about different religions and visit different places of worship. This helps pupils to recognise and celebrate diversity.

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Leaders have suitable systems in place to accurately identify the needs of pupils with SEND. Overall, staff make appropriate adaptations to how they deliver the curriculum to help most pupils with SEND learn well. However, in a small number of subjects, teachers do not break down learning sufficiently well to help some pupils with SEND know and remember more.

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Staff feel that leaders are approachable. Leaders consider staff’s workload when making decisions. Staff are proud to work at this school. Governors are committed and well informed about leaders’ priorities in terms of improving further the quality of education for 12 and 13 July 2023

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pupils. They hold leaders to account effectively, and they have a thorough understanding of their statutory duties.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders have created a robust culture of safeguarding. Staff understand that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility. They are well trained to recognise signs of potential harm. Staff know how to raise safeguarding concerns promptly, and leaders follow these up swiftly. Leaders work collaboratively with outside agencies to secure the help that some pupils and their families need.

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Safeguarding

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe. For instance, they are aware of potential dangers that they may face online. Pupils learn to keep their passwords private and to not share them with anybody.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a small number of subjects, leaders do not check on whether the curriculum is being delivered by staff as intended. From time to time, this hinders leaders in supporting some staff to deliver learning for pupils. Leaders should ensure that subject leaders are equipped well to provide staff with the support that they need to deliver curriculums with confidence.  In some subjects, leaders have not ensured that teachers use the information available to them to successfully adapt learning for some pupils with SEND. This hinders how well some of these pupils achieve in these subjects. Leaders should ensure that teachers use the information they have about the needs of pupils with SEND to design learning that meets their needs.

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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. 12 and 13 July 2023

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This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in February 2014.

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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. 12 and 13 July 2023

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School details

Inspection number 10291403 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 10 July 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Leaders do not make use of any alternative provision for pupils.

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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 her evaluation of the school.  During the inspection, the inspector met with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, subject leaders and other staff.  The inspector held telephone conversations with a representative of the local authority and the school improvement partner.  The inspector spoke to pupils about their views of the school, bullying and behaviour. She also observed behaviour at break and lunchtimes.  The inspector reviewed documentation, including minutes from meetings of the governing body, leaders’ self-evaluation form and headteacher’s reports. 12 and 13 July 2023

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 The inspector met with leaders, staff and pupils to evaluate the culture of safeguarding. She also checked the safeguarding procedures.  The inspector carried out deep dives in early reading, physical education and mathematics. 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 inspector spoke to leaders in other subjects about the curriculum.  The inspector heard some pupils in key stage 1 and key stage 2 read to a familiar adult.  The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments.  The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted’s staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Jenny Jones, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 12 and 13 July 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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