Moor Allerton Hall Primary School

Inspection of Moor Allerton Hall Primary School Lidgett Lane, Select, West Yorkshire LS17 6QP

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Inspection dates: 28 and 29 January 2025

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The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 28 and 29 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this welcoming school. They know that staff help them if they have worries or concerns. This helps pupils to feel happy in school. Pupils know and follow the school rules and ‘CARE’ values. Most pupils concentrate well in lessons. Incentives such as ‘Milkshake Fridays’ encourage pupils to have high attendance in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve highly. As a result, it is addressing weaknesses in the curriculum. Children get off to a strong start in phonics in Reception. However, other aspects of the school’s curriculum are not taught consistently well, including in Reception. Some pupils have gaps in their knowledge that have not been addressed. This means that some pupils do not achieve as well as they should in a range of subjects, including writing in English.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with a range of engaging wider opportunities. For example, the breadth of clubs on offer includes British Sign Language (BSL), martial arts, robotics and engineering. Pupils benefit from educational visits such as a trip to Gledlow Park and Bolton Abbey. Pupils also take on responsibilities, including becoming school council members. They contribute to the school community well. The extensive range of visitors to school assemblies help to broaden pupils’ interests.

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

Standards have dropped since the school was last inspected. Considerable changes in staffing, including at leadership level, mean that actions to address this decline are only just starting to have an impact. Current leaders recognise that provision needs improving. They have made diligent use of external support to start to raise standards again. However, this effective action needs more time to embed.

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

The school revised its curriculum recently. The curriculum is ambitious for all pupils. It identifies the important knowledge that pupils should learn as they progress through the school. However, weaknesses in the previous curriculum mean that pupils have gaps in their knowledge. These gaps have not been identified precisely or addressed. This makes it difficult for some pupils to understand new learning. Therefore, pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school provides effective support to help pupils who are new to English to access the curriculum.

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

Teaching approaches do not regularly help pupils to learn the important knowledge that they need for future learning. Sometimes activities in lessons do not help pupils to learn the aims of the curriculum. Actions to address these inconsistencies are yet to have an impact. Staff do not apply the school’s expectations for implementing the curriculum consistently well in all subjects.

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

Reading is a high priority. Children begin phonics lessons at the start of Reception. Staff teach phonics consistently. Pupils practise reading often. They read from books matched to the letter sounds they know. Staff check pupils’ early reading knowledge regularly. 28 and 29 January 2025

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They provide additional support for pupils who need it. Leaders check to ensure that pupils learn to read fluently.

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The school recently revised its approach for teaching writing to address previous weaknesses. The new approach is not embedded. Teaching does not have the same thorough, consistent approach as seen in the school’s early reading programme. Staff do not regularly identify or remedy errors in pupils’ writing. This makes it difficult for pupils to improve, and so their writing is often of a poor quality. This is reflected in the published outcomes in 2024, where the Year 6 pupils attained results that were significantly below average.

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The school identifies the right support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) accurately. Staff use a range of strategies to ensure that pupils learn the full curriculum. Pupils who learn in the resourced provision for deaf and hearing impaired benefit from personalised support from staff with expert knowledge. In some areas of the curriculum, such as reading, children with SEND achieve well. However, where there are weaknesses in the overall curriculum, this also inhibits the progress of pupils with SEND.

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Strong routines and consistent expectations help children to behave well in Reception. Staff understand and meet individual needs. However, activities and resources are not used consistently well to ensure children are prepared well enough for future learning.

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The school’s programme for developing pupils’ character is effective. Pupils experience a diverse range of views from the frequent visitors to school assemblies. This helps pupils to accept difference and understand equality. For example, one pupil said, ‘strength lies in differences not similarities’. Pupils have a strong understanding of how to keep safe, including when online. There is highly effective support for pupils’ mental health. Pupils develop a secure understanding of life in modern Britain.

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Overall, governors fulfil their statutory duties. They support leaders appropriately. However, sometimes they too readily accept what leaders tell them, rather than challenging the impact of leaders’ actions robustly. Many parents are positive about the school’s work. However, some parents have concerns about some aspects of the school. Leaders recognise this. They are collaborating with parents to consider their views. Staff appreciate the support from leaders to manage their well-being.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Staff do not identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge and address them effectively. This means that pupils do not build knowledge securely over time. The school must ensure 28 and 29 January 2025

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that gaps in pupils’ knowledge are identified and addressed so that all pupils achieve well.  The activities that teachers provide for pupils, including in Reception, do not help pupils to learn important subject knowledge consistently. This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school must ensure that teachers know how to plan activities that support learning across the curriculum effectively.  There are inconsistencies in staff’s implementation of the school’s policies for teaching the curriculum. This means that pupils’ experiences are inconsistent and some do not learn the curriculum as well as others. The school should ensure that staff apply the school’s policies for teaching consistently so that even more pupils reach their full potential.  The school’s approach to teaching writing is not applied consistently. There is variability in teaching and some pupils have gaps in their knowledge. The school should ensure

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that staff teach the writing curriculum with precision and address gaps in pupils’ writing knowledge so that they achieve well.

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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). 28 and 29 January 2025

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Website www.moorallertonhall.leeds.sch.uk

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 24 and 25 September 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The headteacher was appointed in March 2024.  The school uses one registered alternative provision.  The school’s Nursery provision closed at the end of July 2024.  The school hosts a breakfast and after-school club run by a private provider for pupils who attend the school.  The school hosts Leeds City Council’s resourced provision for pupils who are hearing impaired. The provision caters for pupils from Reception to Year 6. There are currently seven pupils accessing this provision. Pupils use a variety of communication methods, including spoken English and BSL to access the curriculum.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form 28 and 29 January 2025

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, the deputy headteacher, the chair of governors and other members of the governing body, and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, geography and physical education. 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.  The lead inspector observed some pupils reading to a familiar adult.  Inspectors also discussed the curriculum in some other subjects.

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 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.  Inspectors reviewed the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View. This included free-text comments. Inspectors also considered the responses to staff and pupil surveys.

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Inspection team

Kathryn McDonald, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Kyrstie Stubbs Ofsted Inspector 28 and 29 January 2025

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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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