Ivy Road Primary School

Inspection of Ivy Road Primary School Forest Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE12 9AP

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Inspection dates: 27 and 28 February 2024

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Inadequate Early years provision Inadequate Previous inspection grade Good 27 and 28 February 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s expectations for pupils’ achievement are not high enough. The school does not provide an acceptable standard of education. Pupils have gaps in their learning which are not addressed quickly enough. This is, in part, as a result of the school not implementing the necessary improvements in behaviour and the curriculum quickly enough.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have focused on improving pupils’ behaviour in recent years. This is having a positive effect on some pupils, but not all. There are too many occasions when poor behaviour causes disruption to pupils’ learning. Dealing with poor behaviour has distracted the school from making the necessary improvements in other areas.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Many pupils at this school are polite, considerate and happy. They understand the school’s values of ‘Community, Aspirational, Nurturing’. Pupils enjoy collecting CAN points for these values and receiving rewards.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a range of different clubs and activities. Some pupils have leadership roles in school, such as eco-warriors and ‘Phunky Food’ ambassadors.

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better?

Historically, some subject curriculums did not identify what pupils need to know precisely enough. The school identified areas for improvement in these subjects. There have been some positive improvements. Changes have been made to the geography curriculum, for example. This now identifies the key knowledge that pupils should learn. However, the school has been too slow in implementing the necessary changes. Teaching in some subjects does not address pupils’ significant misconceptions precisely enough. This means that gaps in knowledge are not identified or acted on with urgency. External support from the local authority has been necessary to introduce the urgent improvements that are needed within the curriculum and at leadership level. Without this level of external support, the school’s capacity for improvement is limited.

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better?

Since the previous inspection, leaders have embedded the phonics programme. The quality of phonics teaching has improved. Pupils read books that are accurately matched to their phonics knowledge. Staff identify pupils who have gaps in their phonics knowledge. These pupils receive additional support. However, this support is not sufficiently well targeted to ensure that it helps pupils to become better readers. The support does not ensure that gaps in phonics knowledge are closed. Some pupils do not make enough progress in reading. Too many pupils are not well prepared for the next stage of learning.

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better?

While many pupils engage in lessons and behave well, there are some older pupils whose poor behaviour causes disruption to others. Some lessons are interrupted by this poor behaviour. As a result, a small number of pupils do not feel safe. Some staff do not feel well supported to deal with this challenging behaviour. This has a 27 and 28 February 2024

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negative impact on staff’s morale and well-being. The school has put some support in place to address this poor behaviour. This includes referrals to external agencies. However, the impact of this support is not clear. The behaviour of younger pupils is more positive. Children in Nursery’s forest school provision showed kindness and consideration for each other when constructing a bug hotel, for example. Older pupils understand the needs of others.

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The attendance of some pupils has improved recently because of the school’s work and heightened focus on this area. However, overall rates of attendance are still too low. Too many pupils are persistently absent from school. This means that pupils fall further behind with their learning.

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Conversations with some pupils indicate an understanding of tolerance and equality. They understand, at an age-appropriate level, about protected characteristics such as different relationships and disability. Leaders have promoted this through a series of visitors to school, including a deaf adult who taught pupils sign language, for example. However, there are some aspects of pupils’ personal development that are less developed. In particular, pupils’ understanding of other cultures, faiths and religions is not secure. There have been small numbers of racist incidents and instances of inappropriate sexual language and behaviour from some pupils. Leaders deal with these incidents effectively.

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Over time, the actions of the school and governing body have not been swift or precise enough to bring about the necessary improvements. The school is reliant on external support to help it improve. Staff workload has increased due to the number of urgent improvements necessary. The school’s use of funding to support the most vulnerable pupils has not been well spent. Disadvantaged pupils’ achievement in mathematics and reading, for example, is poor. Strategies to improve pupils’ outcomes have not been successful.

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Children in early years are inquisitive and keen to learn. They are happy to access learning either with an adult or independently. However, the curriculum is not sufficiently well developed. There is insufficient consideration of children’s needs within planning. Tasks and activities are not planned to explicitly promote and reinforce children’s learning. Children do not make the progress of which they are capable. This means that a large proportion of children are not ready for the next stage of their education.

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Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities access the same curriculum as their peers. Teachers ensure that adaptations to tasks, scaffolding and additional support are in place. Where pupils are not able to access an age-appropriate curriculum, suitable support ensures that they are still able to access meaningful learning. 27 and 28 February 2024

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Some members of staff who work at the school have not received the required whole-school ‘Prevent’ training. Leaders took steps to address this during the inspection. This has not left pupils at risk of harm.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have not been sufficiently rigorous in their appraisal of the school’s strengths and weaknesses since the previous inspection. The urgent improvements required have not been addressed swiftly enough. This means that pupils do not receive an acceptable standard of education. Currently, there is no capacity to improve matters. The school should ensure that there is capacity in the school to urgently identify and improve the significant weaknesses highlighted across the inspection and previously by the local authority and in December 2022 during the school’s last inspection.  Teachers’ use of assessment does not identify and/or address gaps in pupils’ learning effectively. This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they might otherwise be expected to. Too many pupils are not ready for the next stage of education. The school must ensure that staff use assessment consistently and effectively to identify and addresses gaps in pupils’ learning.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The curriculum, including the wider opportunities the school provides, does not develop pupils’ understanding of other cultures, faiths and religions sufficiently well. This means that pupils are not well prepared for life in modern Britain. The school should ensure that pupils’ understanding of other cultures, faiths and religions is strengthened effectively.  Some pupils exhibit disruptive behaviour. Learning is negatively affected by this disruptive behaviour and a small number of pupils occasionally feel unsafe as a result. The school must ensure that pupils receive appropriate direction and support to manage their behaviour effectively, minimising the disruption to learning that affects pupils’ concentration and, for some, how safe they feel in school.  A significant number of staff do not feel well supported around managing behaviour or their workload. Staff morale is low in some quarters. The school

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

must engage effectively with staff to ensure that they feel supported and that their workload is manageable.  The early years curriculum is not sufficiently well planned. The needs of children are not well met. This means that too few children are ready for their learning in key stage 1. The school must ensure that provision in early years is carefully planned to meet children’s needs so that more children are better prepared for learning in key stage 1. 27 and 28 February 2024

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 Pupil premium funding is not used effectively to ensure improved achievement for disadvantaged pupils. The progress that disadvantaged pupils make in reading and mathematics is weak. The school must ensure that pupil premium funding is used effectively to meet disadvantaged pupils’ precise needs so that they achieve far more than they do currently in these subjects.

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The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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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). 27 and 28 February 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Chairs of governing body Penny Latham and Darren Piper

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 13 and 14 December 2022, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school runs a breakfast and after-school club for pupils who attend the school.  The school uses one registered alternative provider.  The proportion of pupils who are entitled to receive the government’s additional pupil premium funding is well above average.  The school was issued with a notice to improve by the local authority in November 2023.

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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

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. 27 and 28 February 2024

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 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, school leaders, other school staff, representatives of the governing body and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, mathematics, geography and art. For each deep dive, the inspector 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 discussed the curriculum in some other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and

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considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors considered the responses to the staff and pupil online surveys, and to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments.

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Inspection team

Richard Beadnall, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Lucy Toner-Gowland Ofsted Inspector 27 and 28 February 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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