Outwood Primary Academy Darfield

Inspection of Outwood Primary Academy Darfield Snape Hill Road, Darfield, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S73 9LT

p.1

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

p.1

Overall effectiveness Good

The head of this school is Gemma Barr. This school is part of Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO) Lee Wilson, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by David Earnshaw. 9 and 10 April 2024

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

Classrooms, corridors, the breakfast club and lunchtimes are calm and harmonious at this school. The school teaches pupils to exhibit positive behaviour through their intrinsic curriculum. This curriculum ensures that there is a culture of high expectations for pupils from Nursery to Year 6. The school ensures that pupils know and understand how being ‘safe, respectful and responsible’ enables them to successfully access learning.

p.2

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy receiving ‘super swirls’ from the staff. These ‘super swirls’ acknowledge a particular action or achievement. Pupils love accumulating the swirls to gain bronze, silver and gold badges.

p.2

What is it like to attend this school?

The school promotes their ‘learner model’ effectively. This model comprises five skills and qualities that foster character development and support citizenship. Pupils note when their friends demonstrate these qualities, such as resilience, independence or cooperation, and praise them in assembly each Friday.

p.2

What is it like to attend this school?

The school ensures that pupils have opportunities to discuss and debate in the weekly ‘Time to…’ session. These sessions link to the trust’s personal, social and health education curriculum but are also responsive to school, local and national issues. Pupils value this time to talk.

p.2

What is it like to attend this school?

Rates of attendance at the school are below the national expectation. While the school has recently implemented a new procedure to address low attendance, it has not applied it with consistency. As a result, attendance for some pupils continues to decline.

p.2

better?

The school’s curriculum is derived from a central trust structure. It is well planned and sequenced. The trust supports subject leaders to carry out their roles, developing and refining the curriculum for their subject. The curriculum starts in the early years and builds from simple to complex concepts, knowledge and skills. The school has considered the essential knowledge they want pupils to learn. The impact of this learning is reflected in the high-quality work pupils produce and the positive end-of-key stage outcomes.

p.2

better?

Teachers present information clearly to pupils. They check pupils’ prior knowledge and understanding to ensure knowledge is built incrementally. Adults use booklets to record notes on pupils’ progress at the end of every lesson. This ensures that teachers understand where pupils are in their learning journey and how secure they are in their subject knowledge.

p.2

better?

The school has prioritised the teaching of early reading and phonics. It ensures that adults who teach phonics in the early years and key stage 1 have regular coaching from an early reading expert. This has improved the quality of the phonics teaching 9 and 10 April 2024

p.2

3

so that in 2023, a high percentage of pupils achieved the expected standard in phonics at the end of Year 1. Staff check the sounds pupils know regularly. Pupils who are not keeping up with the programme access additional phonics sessions and personalised tutoring. The school implements a reading reward scheme called the ‘word count café’. Pupils receive stamps to redeem for hot chocolate. This encourages and motivates pupils to read more widely and often. However, some pupils’ reading books do not accurately match the sounds that they know.

p.3

3

The teaching of mathematics is a strength of the school. The school ensures that pupils revisit important knowledge and concepts over time to continually build on prior learning. Teachers use subject-specific vocabulary appropriately and reinforce key words consistently. They model methods and approaches to guide pupils through new learning. Adults use skilful questioning frequently to check what pupils know. They are responsive and address gaps in pupils’ knowledge quickly. Pupils are well prepared for their next stages of learning in mathematics.

p.3

3

The ambitious early years curriculum is designed well to teach essential knowledge and appeal to children’s interests. Adults inspire and motivate children with creative and imaginative tasks. The school identifies children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) through a comprehensive transition package when they start in the Nursery. Over time, more children have started the early years with communication needs. As a result, the school has adapted the curriculum to focus on oral language and vocabulary acquisition. Developing children’s core skills in literacy and mathematics is at the heart of all areas of the early years provision.

p.3

3

The school provides pupils with diploma opportunities each term. Pupils are keen to participate in these, and they impact positively on their lives. For example, Year 1 pupils embarked on a kindness challenge. They visited a local care home to deliver biscuits. Year 6 pupils recalled what to do in a first-aid emergency, competently describing how to perform CPR.

p.3

3

Many staff members joined the school this academic year. They feel supported by the trust and the school’s leadership team. They value the trust’s networking possibilities available for sharing good practice and planning. The academy council recognises that the trust has helped to stabilise the staffing structure, enabling the school to continue to develop.

p.3

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

p.3

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils do not read books that match their phonic knowledge. This means that these pupils do not have consistent opportunities to apply their phonics 9 and 10 April 2024

p.3

4

knowledge in context. The school should ensure that pupils consistently read books that match their reading stage.  Some pupils are persistently absent from the school. These pupils are missing essential learning. They miss out on the ambitious curriculum opportunities the school provides. The school should take effective action to work with families to reduce these persistent absence rates.

p.4

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.

p.4

How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

p.4

Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

p.4

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). 9 and 10 April 2024

p.4

School details

Dates of previous inspection 15 and 16 November 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

p.5

Information about this school

 The school joined the Outwood Grange Academies Trust in May 2016. There is an academy council that helps set the strategic direction of the school.  The head of school and the associate vice principal took up their posts in September 2023.  The school does not use any alternative providers.  The school has nursery provision for three-year-old children.

p.5

Information about this inspection

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

p.5

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. 9 and 10 April 2024

p.5

6

 Inspectors met with the head of school, curriculum leaders, staff and pupils.  Meetings were also held with representatives of the academy council, the CEO and the trustees.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and art and design. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also looked at the curriculum structure in geography.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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 views of parents, staff and pupils were considered through meeting with

p.6

6

them and from the responses to Ofsted’s questionnaires.

p.6

Inspection team

Alison Stephenson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

p.6

Inspection team

Angela Spencer-Brooke Ofsted Inspector 9 and 10 April 2024

p.6

7

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.

p.7

7

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

p.7

7

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.7

7

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.7

7

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.7