Stockton Wood Community Primary School

Inspection of Stockton Wood Community Primary School All Saints Road, Speke, Liverpool, Merseyside L24 3TF

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Inspection dates: 12 and 13 September 2023

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 12 and 13 September 2023

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at the school. They enjoy attending, in part because staff speak to them kindly and greet them with a smile. Whenever pupils do not feel good about themselves, specialist staff use stories, drama and art to give them the support that they need in a dedicated, quiet classroom.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils find their learning interesting and develop a keen interest in a range of subjects. However, the school’s high expectations of what pupils should achieve are not fully realised. Some of the curriculum, including in the early years, varies in quality and sometimes staff do not deliver or assess it well. This holds back pupils from knowing and remembering some essential knowledge.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), told inspectors that they have several friends at the school. They benefit from mixing with pupils from different classes, such as through buddying roles. Pupils are sensible and polite. They learn that self-respect and kindness towards others are important.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils gain many new skills through the school’s well-organised programme of wider activities. For instance, they complete residential trips to outdoor activity centres. They take part in after-school clubs such as singing, dancing and sports regularly.

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better?

The school has set out an ambitious vision for what pupils’ education should look like. It has identified clear ways of thinking about and delivering the curriculum. The school has achieved much in establishing this work, particularly in the past year. However, the quality of the curriculum and its delivery in different subjects remains variable, including in the early years.

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better?

An early success is that the school has now thought out some subjects well. In these subjects, staff choose activities carefully to ensure that pupils learn essential knowledge. Most of the time, teachers select assessment strategies that help them to check that pupils know and remember the intended curriculum. However, this is not the case in some other subjects. The inconsistent quality of the curriculum and its delivery means that, at times, some pupils do not learn as well as they should.

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better?

Pupils, such as in the Reception classes and Year 1, now learn to read letter sounds and words far more successfully than in the recent past. Staff provide helpful, extra support for pupils who struggle to read. Pupils benefit from the school’s much- improved phonics curriculum and from staff’s sharpened expertise. The school has organised an ongoing programme of phonics training and coaching for staff to strengthen their work further. This step is essential because, at present, some variability remains in how skilfully staff teach phonics. In addition, sometimes, teachers do not consider how to use books effectively in the reading curriculum. In 12 and 13 September 2023

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key stage 2, some pupils do not know enough about the work of a rich range of authors, playwrights and poets.

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Some changes to subject curriculums and how staff teach have taken place in recent days and weeks. Additionally, the school has recently invested in a wide range of high-quality books for its attractive library. It is too soon to see the impact of these actions on pupils developing a deep body of curriculum knowledge. Furthermore, the governing body does not have enough understanding of some of the curriculum to enable governors to challenge the school’s work precisely.

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The school identifies barriers to the learning of pupils with SEND and works well to resolve these. Nevertheless, because of the variability in the quality of the curriculum, sometimes pupils with SEND learn less well than they should.

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The school provides pupils with a well-thought-out programme of personal development. For instance, pupils learn much about the diversity of people and communities in modern Britain. Staff teach pupils to have positive views about their own bodies and to understand relationships and consent. The school teaches pupils to behave, and staff manage any behaviour issues well.

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The school works closely with staff to make sure that they have a reasonable workload. It communicates well with parents and carers and guides them on how to support their child’s learning at home. The school is making headway to remedy weaknesses in the quality of education. However, the variable impact of the school’s actions means that it has more work to do to achieve the necessary improvements.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some subjects, including in the early years, the school has not thought out the curriculum well enough. Sometimes, the quality of teachers’ delivery and assessment of the curriculum is variable. These weaknesses hold back some of pupils’ learning. The school should ensure that the curriculum is well considered and assessed in different subjects. The impact of these improvements should then be evident in pupils’ achievement.  Sometimes, staff do not follow a consistent approach in helping pupils to read. In addition, some staff lack clarity about the reading curriculum when choosing books for story times. Some teachers do not teach older pupils about the works of a rich enough range of authors, playwrights and poets. These weaknesses undermine the school’s work to ensure that pupils can read fluently and accurately and are knowledgeable about a wide range of texts. The school should 12 and 13 September 2023

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improve staff expertise in teaching phonics and strengthen teachers’ use of books in the reading curriculum.  The governing body does not have a clear enough grasp of some of the school’s curriculum and its weaknesses. This limits how well governors can challenge and support the school’s work. Governors should ensure that they have the skills and knowledge that they need to fulfil their role in improving the quality of education that the school provides.

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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’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 12 and 13 September 2023

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 23 and 24 October 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher, some other leaders, staff and governors are new to the school since the previous inspection. Some existing staff are new to their leadership roles.  The school does not use alternative provision for pupils.  The school provides a breakfast club 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.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 12 and 13 September 2023

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 Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, history, geography, art and design, and design technology. For each deep dive, they held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects with the school and pupils and considered examples of pupils’ work.  The lead inspector met with the governing body and with a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors discussed with the school the provision for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and SEND.  Inspectors reviewed responses from staff to an Ofsted survey.  Inspectors spoke with pupils about their experiences at the school. There were no responses to the Ofsted pupil survey to consider.  Inspectors considered the responses from parents to Ofsted Parent View,

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including the free-text responses.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record, took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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Inspection team

Tim Vaughan, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Gaynor Rennie Ofsted Inspector 12 and 13 September 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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