Kingsbury Primary School

Kingsbury Primary School

Address: Bromage Avenue, Kingsbury, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B78 2HW Unique reference number (URN): 134924

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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This school requires special measures

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to provide 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.

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Early years Needs attention

Leaders have shaped a curriculum that reflects the areas of learning within the early years foundation stage. However, the delivery of this curriculum is still developing. Staff do not use children’s starting points consistently to guide teaching or to plan purposeful learning experiences. Opportunities to develop vocabulary, deepen understanding or reinforce key learning are sometimes missed.

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Early years Needs attention

Leaders recognise the importance of reading. They have introduced phonics sessions from the beginning of Reception. However, further work is needed to ensure that these sessions consistently support children to practise sounds confidently. As a result, children are not fully prepared for early reading and writing. Support for children who fall behind does not happen consistently. This means children who need extra help to catch up do not always receive it. Leaders are taking steps to strengthen these routines and expectations. However, these improvements are at an early stage and have not resulted in consistent improvement.

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Early years Needs attention

Children in the early years benefit from warm, positive relationships with staff. As a result, they feel welcomed and safe in school. Parents and carers receive helpful updates about their children’s experiences in school. This equips them to help with learning at home. These effective partnerships provide a positive foundation for reinforcing children’s development.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

The school provides a personal development programme that reflects its values. It aims to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Leaders have chosen a suitable curriculum to help children learn about relationships, health and keeping themselves safe. However, this curriculum does not build knowledge in a clear, step-by-step way across year groups. Some staff lack clarity about what pupils should learn each week. As a result, pupils’ understanding across different strands varies. Pupils sometimes struggle to recall key ideas, including important beliefs in different religions.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Pupils are encouraged to think about their own beliefs and values and to respect those of others. Assemblies and class activities help pupils to understand right and wrong and introduce ideas, such as fairness and responsibility. Children also experience age- appropriate democracy through voting for school councillors, eco-leaders and learning ambassadors. This gives them an early insight into how decision-making works in modern Britain.

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Urgent improvement

The school provides opportunities for pupils to develop teamwork and leadership skills through enterprise projects, such as the Pudsey Market. Other activities provide pupils with treasured memories, such as experiences at a local water park and the Year 6 residential trip. Despite this, the range and types of opportunities to enrich pupils' learning are limited. They do not provide well enough for pupils' varied needs and interests. Added to this, the information leaders gather about pupils' participation is not used well enough. As a result, disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities often attend by chance rather than by design.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Pupils do not make the progress they should through the curriculum. Many struggle with the foundations of communication, reading, writing and number. These gaps are not identified or addressed quickly enough. As a result, pupils fall further behind and do not build knowledge securely over time.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Disadvantaged pupils are particularly affected. Their attainment is typically well below that of other pupils nationally. This has not improved over time. Pupils' outcomes in national tests are considerably below expectations. This means that too many pupils leave this school without having secured the skills that they will need at secondary school.

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Achievement Urgent improvement

Weaknesses in the curriculum, coupled with ineffective checks on learning, mean that pupils often complete tasks without truly understanding what they are learning. As a result, they are not well prepared for future study. They lack the confidence required to succeed in the next phase of their education.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Leaders’ work to improve attendance has not had enough impact. Attendance rates are low for all groups of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. A considerable number of these pupils miss school on a regular basis.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Leaders do not analyse attendance information precisely enough to understand the barriers that pupils face. This means they cannot deploy support effectively. In addition, the school's expectations for attendance are not high enough. Leaders do not work well enough with parents and carers, when problems arise. As a result, attendance has not improved as quickly as it needs to.

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Attendance and behaviour Urgent improvement

Pupils' behaviour and attitudes to learning are uneven across the school. Typically, pupils are kind and bullying is rare. However, while many pupils have positive relationships with adults in school, routines to support positive conduct are not firmly embedded. This is especially the case in the early years. This means that low ‑ level disruption sometimes interrupts learning. Leaders lack a coherent strategy to improve pupils' behaviour. Although they have introduced some positive elements, such as restorative practice, staff’s understanding and use of behaviour procedures vary. As a result, pupils do not experience a consistently calm, orderly and respectful environment. As a result, many pupils lose focus on their learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have an accurate understanding of how well the curriculum is working. This prevents them from taking the right actions to improve teaching. The curriculum is not ambitious or well structured. Leaders have not planned what pupils should learn or the order in which they should learn it. This means that pupils cannot build knowledge securely over time.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Leaders have not ensured that staff have the necessary subject knowledge. Many teachers do not introduce new ideas clearly or explain things in a helpful way. This means that tasks often do not help pupils learn important content. This affects pupils’ progress through the curriculum in a wide range of subjects.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Younger pupils do not get the help they need to build strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics. This limits their ability to practise essential skills. This slows progress for all pupils, especially those who have already fallen behind.

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Curriculum and teaching Urgent improvement

Staff do not adapt learning well enough for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Activities are often mismatched to pupils’ needs. Adults focus more on managing tasks than supporting learning. As a result, too many pupils struggle to access the curriculum successfully.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Leaders have not reduced key barriers to pupils' learning or wellbeing successfully enough. Furthermore, leaders do not identify pupils’ needs accurately. This sometimes prevents staff from adapting teaching in ways that help pupils to make progress through the curriculum. Leaders and governors have not had enough strategic oversight of the provision for disadvantaged pupils, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities or those known to children’s social care. Leaders do not have reliable ways to check that support for these pupils is effective. Too often, it is not.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Leaders have set relevant priorities for enhancing the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. However, their strategy is not having the intended impact. This is because monitoring of the progress that these pupils make is weak. Leaders do not know what difference pupil premium funding is making. As a result, disadvantaged pupils continue to miss too much of their education through absence. Gaps in their learning remain wide.

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Inclusion Urgent improvement

Although some staff training has taken place, leaders have not checked whether it is making a difference to pupils. This means that many well-intentioned strategies to reduce pupils' barriers to learning do not consistently happen. This leaves a majority of pupils' additional needs unmet.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders do not have a clear or accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Their evaluation of the quality of the school's provision is too generous. It does not match pupils' daily experiences. As a result, leaders have not identified the right priorities or taken timely action to tackle long-standing problems. This includes ineffective teaching and pupils' persistently poor attainment.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Governance is weak. They rely too heavily on leaders’ reports instead of checking information for themselves. This means they do not challenge leaders effectively or ensure that resources are used efficiently. In addition, governors lack understanding of important responsibilities, such as their duty about equality and their role in raising attendance. This limits their ability to drive the sustained improvements that the school urgently needs.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

The school's provision for disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities lacks precision. Leaders’ actions have not led to better outcomes for these pupils.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Leaders have not established a coherent, high-quality training programme that builds staff expertise. Staff value leaders’ efforts to support wellbeing and manage their workload, however, leaders have not identified what training would help to ensure that teaching improves. This means that leaders have not secured the conditions required to improve pupils’ achievement.

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Leadership and governance Urgent improvement

Parents are generally positive about the school. They appreciate the support provided to pupils and families.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils come to Kingsbury wanting to do well. However, too many do not get the teaching or support that they need to succeed. When pupils struggle with the basics of speaking, reading, writing or number, staff do not pick this up quickly enough. Staff are not clear about what pupils should learn and the order they should learn it. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), often struggle to access the curriculum because teachers do not explain or adapt learning in helpful ways. As a result, pupils often fall further behind. They do not secure the knowledge they need for the next stage of education. This especially affects disadvantaged pupils who, like many of their peers, achieve far below national expectations. Younger pupils, including children in the early years, are not taught phonics well enough. This slows down their early reading skills and holds them back from future success.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Day-to-day routines and expectations for pupils' behaviour vary widely. This leads to a loss of focus on learning. Pupils do not attend school as often as they should, and many are frequently absent. Leaders’ support for these pupils has not been successful in helping them to come to school more often. Despite this, when they do attend, most pupils feel safe. They say that bullying is rare. Pupils know that trusted adults will help them if worries arise. Pupils enjoy taking part in trips and clubs. Some hold responsibilities such as school councillors. However, the range of opportunities is narrow. Furthermore, disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND often miss out. This hinders their readiness to experience all that modern society has to offer.

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Next steps

Governors must equip themselves with the knowledge and skills required to fulfil their statutory duties and to hold leaders to account for the quality of education across the school. Leaders and governors should strengthen their mechanisms to evaluate the impact of their work, including their work around inclusion, so that they can take timely and effective action to address the school's urgent weaknesses. Leaders should implement effective systems to identify and assess any barriers to pupils' learning, including any special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), so that staff receive the information that they need to support them appropriately. Leaders should ensure that staff have the subject knowledge, expertise and guidance needed to deliver the curriculum effectively so pupils, including those with SEND, learn successfully and achieve well. Leaders should develop a strategic approach to analysing patterns of absence, in order to

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Next steps

take consistent, effective action that rapidly reduces persistent absenteeism. Leaders should ensure the curriculum for personal, social, health and economic education is coherently sequenced so that knowledge builds progressively across year groups, helping pupils to develop secure understanding over time. Leaders should ensure that staff in the early years use information about children’s starting points to plan purposeful interactions that develop vocabulary, deepen understanding and strengthen early language and communication.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Mr Lee Greatorex.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with school leaders, including the headteacher, deputy headteacher and the special educational needs coordinator. They also spoke with representatives of the governing body, and an advisor from the local authority, during the inspection.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with some pupils, staff, parents and carers. Inspectors also considered the responses to Ofsted’s surveys.

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Team inspectors:

Razia Ali, Ofsted Inspector Lesley Yates, Ofsted Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

National average: 272 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.

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What does this mean?

The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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What does this mean?

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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What does this mean?

The school does not make use of any alternative provision.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational support needs at the school. National average: 15%

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What does this mean?

Based on the English Indices of Deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced Provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standards in a combined reading, writing and mathematics measure.

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average

2024/25 (revised) 54% 62% Close to average

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading.

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing.

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average

2024/25 (revised) 72% 72% Close to average

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average

2022/23 (final) 68% 71% Close to average

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Pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics.

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average

2023/24 (final) 76% 73% Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after.

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mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics.

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average

2023/24 (final) 33% 46% Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading.

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average

2023/24 (final) 56% 62% Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher- assessed writing.

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average

2022/23 (final) 53% 58% Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics.

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average

2023/24 (final) 67% 59% Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance gap

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after. The school disadvantage gap is the difference between the performance of the school's disadvantaged pupils compared to the performance of all non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

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mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, including the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading and the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in teacher-assessed writing

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in teacher- assessed writing and the disadvantaged gap.

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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics and the disadvantaged gap.

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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