Shirley Community Primary School

Inspection of Shirley Community Primary School Nuffield Road, Chesterton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 1TF

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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 Good 6 and 7 March 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Shirley Community Primary School is a diverse and inclusive school. Pupils celebrate their differences saying that it ‘is what makes us unique’. Pupils are happy and develop positive relationships between each other and with adults.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils show positive attitudes to learning. They develop their independence from an early age. They listen to staff and support each other in classrooms. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), concentrate well when learning and completing their work.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Adults set high expectations for pupils’ learning and behaviour. Pupils demonstrate these through the schools’ rules to ‘be safe, be kind and be responsible’. Staff prioritise pupils’ mental well-being and encourage pupils to talk about concerns that they have. This helps the school put support in place when needed. Pupils understand how to stay safe when online and in their local context.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Members of the school council are proud of their leadership roles. They are active in ‘making the school better for everyone’. This has included identifying new clubs that pupils would like. Pupils are able to access a range of clubs across a range of interests, including dance, choir, cooking, Portuguese and various sports.

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better?

The school has put an ambitious curriculum in place. In most subjects, the school has identified and organised the content from Reception onwards. This means that teachers know what pupils need to know and when they need to know it. This helps all pupils, including those with SEND, to build their knowledge over time. However, the planning for a small number of subjects is less advanced. Here, explicit links to the early years and key stage 3 curriculum are less clear. As a result, on occasion pupils are not as secure in the knowledge they need when moving to the next stage of the school’s planned curriculum.

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better?

Reading is at the centre of the school. Staff have expertise in teaching early reading through the training they have received. Starting in early years, children build up a secure knowledge of phonics. Well-matched books help pupils to develop accuracy in reading. Regular checks identify pupils who need additional support. This helps them develop their fluency in reading. High-quality texts reflect the school’s diversity and develop pupils’ love of reading.

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better?

The school has focused on how pupils effectively use their writing skills to show what they know and understand across the curriculum. Pupils now produce writing that shows the impact of this work to improve outcomes from the 2023 published data.

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better?

Staff receive high-quality training to ensure that they have the subject knowledge they need to teach the curriculum well. In the main, teachers present information 6 and 7 March 2024

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clearly. They routinely check what pupils know and remember and adapt their teaching. This helps pupils to remember the important information that they need.

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A clear system is in place for teachers to be able to check what pupils have learned. However, this is more secure in some subjects than others. In less well-established curriculum areas, subject leaders are not routinely using the data to help them check and evaluate the impact of their new curriculum plans. As a result, information is not effectively being used to develop the curriculum content to improve what pupils know and remember.

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Pupils with SEND are well supported. Children in early years with emerging additional needs are quickly identified and support put in place. In lessons, staff adapt teaching activities sensitively and with expertise to support disadvantaged pupils, including those pupils who speak English as an additional language.

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Clear routines and expectations of children in early years help them settle into their learning. Staff provide this through a well-considered curriculum. Children engage with activities that engage and excite them.

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The school makes clear to parents why pupils must attend school regularly. There are highly effective systems in place to support pupils coming to school.

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Pupils learn about, and are highly respectful of, different cultures and beliefs, which prepares them well for life in modern Britain. Pupils are able to talk about healthy diets and exercise, including the ‘daily mile’. The school provides opportunities for Year 6 pupils to prepare for their transition to secondary school. However, many do not yet feel confident about the move.

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Staff enjoy working at Shirley. They feel well supported by leaders. They engage and respond well to the range of training offered.

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Governors know the school well. They hold leaders carefully to account through regular, focused visits and appropriate questions about the school’s work.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In some curriculum areas, assessment information is not used consistently by subject leaders to monitor and evaluate the curriculum. Leaders need to ensure that there is a more consistent and effective use of data to inform the development of the curriculum to secure pupils’ understanding and develop 6 and 7 March 2024

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teachers’ expertise, so that pupils improve their knowledge across all areas of the curriculum.  Pupils are not always ready to transition between key stages. In subjects where the curriculum is at the earlier stages of development, the knowledge pupils need to transition from one key stage to the next is not always clear. This means pupils’ learning and readiness to move to the next stage of learning is not as secure as it needs to be. The school needs to ensure that the important learning needed by pupils is identified to help support them in their next steps of their learning, both within the school setting and for when pupils move to secondary school.

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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). 6 and 7 March 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 8 and 9 March 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 There have been changes to staffing since the last inspection. A new headteacher took up post in September 2018.  The school is larger than the average-sized primary school.  The school does not currently use any 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

 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 discuss the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, science, religious education and languages. For each deep dive, inspectors held 6 and 7 March 2024

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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.  The lead inspector listened to a range of pupils from Years 1 to 6 read to a familiar adult.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher and other leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator. The lead inspector also held a meeting with members of the local governing board.  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.  The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school site during playtime.  The lead inspector met with a representative of the local authority.

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 The lead inspector considered 61 responses to Ofsted Parent View, including 28 free text responses. The lead inspector also considered 43 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey and the 33 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.

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Inspection team

Wayne Jarvis, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Sally Garrett Ofsted Inspector 6 and 7 March 2024

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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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