Burnley Springfield Community Primary School

Inspection of a good school: Burnley Springfield Community Primary School Oxford Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB11 3HP

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Outcome

There has been no change to this school's overall judgement of good as a result of this ungraded (section 8) inspection. However, the evidence gathered suggests that the inspection grade might not be as high if a graded (section 5) inspection were carried out now. The school's next inspection will be a graded inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are happy at this welcoming school. They appreciate the positive relationships that they have with their teachers. Pupils know that teachers care about them. This helps them to feel safe. Pupils, including children in the early years, get along well together. They learn about the importance of respecting the differences between each other. Pupils are considerate towards their peers. They generally behave well in class and around school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils try their best to live up to the raised expectations that the school has for their achievement. Some pupils are beginning to benefit from the improvements made to the curriculum. Nonetheless, across a broad range of subjects, many pupils, including those with SEND, have considerable gaps in their learning. This hampers how well they progress through the refreshed curriculum. As a result, they do not achieve as well as they should.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from a wide range of clubs, trips and leadership opportunities. For instance, their visits to a synagogue, a mosque and a church helped pupils to gain an insight into beliefs and traditions that are different to their own. Some pupils enjoy developing their cooking skills in the pasta club. Play leaders relish setting up games at social times so that everyone has fun. Such experiences build pupils’ confidence and develop their team- working skills.

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

Over time, pupils’ progress and attainment at the end of Year 6 has been significantly below the national average. The school and members of the governing body have taken steps to improve pupils’ achievement. To this end, the school has spent time renewing subject curriculums. However, this work is not having enough impact. This is because the school has not identified the key knowledge that pupils should learn. Broad topic headings 1 and 2 May 2024

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mean that teachers know the units of work that they should teach, but they are less sure about the subject content that pupils should learn. This prevents some pupils from building their knowledge successfully over time.

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Most staff appreciate that the school has taken their workload into account when making changes to the curriculum. The school has invested in resources and training opportunities for new and established teachers. As a result, staff’s subject knowledge is improving and their confidence to deliver the new curriculums is growing. However, their success in helping pupils to know and remember more is at various stages of development.

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Many pupils have gaps in their learning due to weaknesses in the previous curriculums. Some teachers move on to new subject content before making sure that these gaps have been tackled. As a result, some pupils do not have a secure grounding on which to learn new subject content. This makes it difficult for them to access new learning. At times, teachers’ checks on learning do not identify well enough what pupils have learned. This means that misconceptions are not identified or resolved. This hampers pupils’ progress through the curriculums.

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The school successfully promotes a love of reading. For example, through regular role play, pupils across the school are encouraged to immerse themselves into stories. Parents and carers are also invited to ‘stay and read’ sessions each week to share the enjoyment of reading with their children. The school has recently improved its phonics programme. Children learn to link sounds to letters from the start of the Reception Year. This helps them to build their readiness for reading in Year 1. The books that pupils read are typically matched well to the sounds that they know. However, the strategies to support pupils who struggle to read are at an earlier stage of development. The gaps in pupils’ phonics knowledge are not addressed quickly enough. This prevents some pupils from becoming fluent readers. As such, these pupils do not access the curriculum as well as they could.

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The school has clear systems in place to identify and assess the additional needs of pupils with SEND. The school liaises with external specialists to ensure that staff have detailed information about pupils’ needs. However, at times, some staff do not adapt their delivery of the curriculum to meet these needs well enough. In this regard, the support that pupils with SEND receive is not as effective as the school intends. As a result, some pupils with SEND do not achieve well.

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Pupils are polite and respectful towards each other. The new behaviour policy is used effectively by most staff. This has helped to create a calm and orderly atmosphere around school. Most pupils learn without interruption. The school understands the difficulties that prevent some pupils from attending school regularly. It takes appropriate action to improve the attendance of those pupils who miss time away from school. As a result, absence rates are reducing.

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Through the curriculum, pupils learn about healthy eating habits. They understand the dangers of smoking and alcohol. Pupils also develop an age-appropriate understanding of risks that they could face in relationships and when online. Pupils are encouraged to 1 and 2 May 2024

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support the vulnerable members of their community. They are prepared well for life in modern Britain.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The new curriculums do not identify the subject content that pupils should learn and when this should be taught. This means that, in these subjects, teachers are not clear enough about the knowledge that pupils need to know for later learning. The school should refine the curriculums further so that teachers have the guidance that they need to design learning activities that enable pupils to know and remember more over time.  Some pupils have gaps in their knowledge from weaknesses in the previous curriculum. Some teachers do not provide enough support to help pupils overcome these gaps before new learning is introduced. In addition, the assessment strategies that some teachers use do not help them to identify and tackle pupils’ misconceptions. This hinders pupils’ achievement. The school should improve its assessment practices so that teachers can help pupils to remedy any missed or forgotten learning effectively.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The needs of some pupils with SEND have not been met as well as they should. As such, some pupils do not learn the curriculum well enough. The school should ensure that teachers have sufficient guidance to make suitable adaptions to their teaching which enable pupils with SEND to learn all that they should.  The strategies to support pupils who find reading difficult are in the early stages of development. This means that some pupils have not caught up with the phonics programme as quickly as they should. The school should ensure that staff are fully equipped to help pupils become confident and fluent readers.

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Background

When we have judged 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.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2018. 1 and 2 May 2024

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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' 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). 1 and 2 May 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 6 and 7 November 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school does not make use of any alternative provision.

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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 that the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders and subject leaders. She met with a range of other staff and leaders during the inspection.  The inspector spoke with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. She also spoke with a representative of the local authority.  The inspector observed pupils’ behaviour during social times and during movement in school.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and history. For each deep dive, she discussed the curriculum with leaders and teachers, 1 and 2 May 2024

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visited a sample of lessons, reviewed samples of pupils’ work, heard pupils read and spoke with some pupils.  The inspector also met with leaders to review other areas of the curriculum.  The inspector spoke with the leaders responsible for behaviour and SEND.  The inspector reviewed a range of documents, including leaders’ self-evaluation and attendance records.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector: 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 inspector considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses. The inspector considered the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff. There were no responses to Ofsted’s survey for pupils.

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Inspection team

Amina Modan, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector 1 and 2 May 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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