Mulberry Baird Primary

Inspection of The Baird Primary Academy Parker Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 3TH

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The principal of this school is Carly Welch. The school is part of the University of Brighton 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, Dr John Smith, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Professor Chris Pole. 12 and 13 June 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

All pupils and their families are assured of a warm welcome at The Baird. Many pupils join the school at different stages of their education and at different times of the year. Each pupil’s unique circumstances and needs are considered and responded to. This is a profoundly inclusive school. However, pupils’ low attendance means that exciting opportunities to learn are missed too often.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Right from the start in Nursery and Reception, children develop positive relationships with adults and their peers. Pupils understand that staff are there to help them develop skills for life, as well as to learn the academic curriculum. There is a happy atmosphere throughout the school as pupils play and learn together.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff set clear expectations. Through ‘coaching conversations’, adults help pupils to develop strategies to manage their own behaviour successfully. Pupils generally rise to expectations and focus on their learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from extensive opportunities for new experiences to develop ambition and learn about staying safe in the wider world. The school’s motto of ‘everyone safe, everyone learning, everyone empowered in school’ is brought to life daily. However, standards being achieved, especially in writing, are not supporting pupils to be prepared well for transition to secondary school.

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better?

Published data for 2023 indicates that pupils in key stage 2 were not well prepared for the next stages of their education. Pupils, notably most-able pupils, made poor progress through the curriculum. Overall, standards achieved were low, particularly in writing. Current pupils are making faster progress and standards are rising.

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better?

School and trust leaders have reviewed and strengthened the school’s curriculum. Subjects are planned to ensure that pupils’ knowledge builds over time, with opportunities to practise new skills and to make links with previous learning. Visits to lessons and pupils’ workbooks indicate that in reading, mathematics and science, pupils are learning well. Systems used by teachers and leaders to check how well all pupils are learning and progressing have been strengthened. Teachers adapt learning tasks and use precise questioning to support or extend learning. Pupils receive extra help where required. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) typically progress well through precisely tailored learning programmes. The school’s nurture provision enables pupils to acquire essential social and emotional skills.

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better?

In some subjects, improvements are at earlier stages of implementation and expectations of what pupils, including the most able, can achieve are not sufficiently high. Standards in writing, as part of English lessons, are improving. However, pupils’ writing in subjects such as geography and history does not reflect the quality of writing achieved in English. 12 and 13 June 2024

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Children get off to a busy, joyful and successful start in Nursery and Reception. Pupils dig, climb, construct and investigate. They learn collaboratively and independently, showing enthusiasm and determination. Staff design consistent opportunities for pupils to develop early reading and writing skills through the range of carefully planned and structured activities.

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Reading is prioritised well. Staff teach early reading skilfully. Pupils participate eagerly in activities to identify sounds and to read and write increasingly complex words. Pupils read books accurately matched to the sounds that they know, building their confidence and fluency in reading. The ‘reading aloud curriculum’ ensures that pupils hear, and consider, high-quality texts of different genres, including from other cultures. The reading curriculum fosters a love of reading and contributes well to pupils’ wider development.

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Provision for pupils’ personal development is extensive. Experiences are designed to widen pupils’ experiences, to challenge their thinking, to build ambition and to prepare them for future life. In addition to exploring different faiths and healthy living, pupils also develop digital literacy skills and learn about brain function.

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The school’s approach to behaviour focuses on supporting pupils to identify and manage their emotions. Negative behaviours are followed up with reflective conversations to help pupils manage similar situations more successfully. Behaviour records show that incidents of negative behaviour have reduced. In class and around school, pupils typically behave well, work hard and speak politely to adults and peers.

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The school works with unwavering tenacity in the drive to improve pupils’ attendance. Support for families, and engagement with wider agencies to tackle absenteeism, is extensive. Small gains are being achieved.

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Teaching staff feel supported and able to take concerns to leaders and say that their workload is considered. Trustees and local governors have clearly defined, complementary roles and know the school deeply. Support and challenge are provided where needed, and improvements follow. For example, pupils in the older year groups are benefiting from catch-up sessions in English and mathematics additionally financed by the trust.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Whole-school absence is high. Consequently, too many pupils do not benefit as well as they could from the learning and wider opportunities offered by the 12 and 13 June 2024

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school. The school should persist in its extensive endeavours, including its engagement with other services to continue to improve attendance further.  Standards in writing are too low. This means that pupils are not prepared well for their next steps in education. The school should ensure that across all year groups, teachers accurately understand what constitutes writing at the expected standard and greater depth in order that the curriculum builds, and pupils learn, in coherent steps towards known, ambitious end points. In addition, raised expectations for writing as part of the English curriculum should be replicated across the curriculum so that pupils practise and extend their writing skills more effectively.  The quality of pupils’ learning varies too widely. The reviewed curriculum is at different stages of implementation. In some subjects, expectations of what pupils will learn, particularly the most-able pupils, are not sufficiently high. The school

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should ensure the planned curriculum improvements are fully implemented and that ambitious intended outcomes are clearly defined and understood by staff so that teaching enables all pupils to make good progress across the curriculum.

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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 June 2024

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School details

Website www.thebairdprimaryacademy.org.uk/

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 16 and 17 January 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this school

 The school is a sponsored academy and is part of the University of Brighton Academies Trust. The school has a local governing body which has delegated responsibilities from the trust for some aspects of governance.  The school’s roll has fallen significantly since the previous inspection. This reflects the local demographic of reduced numbers of young children. The school continues to be larger than the average-size primary school.  Since the previous inspection, there have been significant changes in teaching and leadership staff.  The proportion of pupils who attract pupil premium funding is well above the national average.  The proportion of pupils with SEND is well above the national average.  The school does not currently use any alternative provision. 12 and 13 June 2024

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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.  The inspectors met with the principal and other members of the school leadership team. The lead inspector also met in person with the chief executive officer and the deputy chief executive officer responsible for school improvement. The lead inspector met remotely with trustees and representatives of the local governing body.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in the following subjects: early reading, English, mathematics, science and geography. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also spoke to

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Information about this inspection

leaders about the wider curriculum offer and looked at further samples of pupils' work across key stages.  The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, at playtime and around the school. Inspectors spoke to pupils throughout the inspection and also held meetings with groups of pupils. Inspectors also took account of responses to Ofsted’s online pupil survey.  The inspectors considered a wide range of documents, including leaders’ evaluations of the school, improvement plans, analysis relating to pupils’ behaviour and attendance and minutes of trustee and local board meetings.  The inspectors considered the 27 responses to Ofsted Parent View.  The inspectors took account of the views of staff through meetings, informal conversations and from the 34 responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey.  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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Information about this inspection

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

Hilary Macdonald, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Martin Hacker Ofsted Inspector 12 and 13 June 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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