Crown Meadow First School & Nursery

Crown Meadow First School & Nursery

Address: Birmingham Road, Alvechurch, Birmingham, West Midlands, B48 7TA Unique reference number (URN): 116646

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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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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Over time, pupils attend well, at rates above national averages. The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent is below the national average. Leaders have clear systems to support families and remove barriers to attendance. Disadvantaged pupils attend in line with national averages. Most pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) attend well. Leaders implement measures to support those who are not attending well, including those with SEND. For example, 'soft starts' and ‘buddying’ systems help reduce some pupils’ barriers to entering school.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Behaviour across the school is calm, orderly and respectful. Pupils typically work hard and want to do well. Disruption to lessons is rare because staff manage behaviour effectively. Leaders support the small number of pupils who struggle to regulate their emotions. This helps these pupils to have a positive experience of school. For example, staff explicitly teach these pupils calming strategies. This is beginning to have an impact on their behaviour.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Discrimination is never tolerated. Leaders have robust procedures to respond to incidents, which prevents reoccurrence. Staff care for their pupils, which contributes to an environment of mutual respect in which bullying is not tolerated.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils work and play together in a mutually respectful manner. Pupil leadership roles, such as head boy, head girl and play leaders, enable pupils to perform an active role in school life. This helps ensure that pupils cooperate well and know how to resolve conflict. Leaders ensure that pupils gain an appreciation of different heritages, beliefs and identities. Pupils speak with respect and inclusiveness about those who are different to themselves. They understand fundamental British values. There are opportunities to take part in democratic processes, such as pupil leadership elections. Pupils understand the rules and how to manage challenging ethical issues. As a result, they are ready for life in modern Britain.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders have designed a personal development programme that supports pupils' progression through school. They work with the local middle school to ensure pupils experience a smooth transition and can continue to build on what they know over time. Themed days, such as 'British values day', supplement personal, social, health and economic lessons. As a result, pupils develop secure knowledge.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders enrich the personal development programme through trips, clubs and residentials. For example, pupils visit places of local and national interest, including farms and businesses and participate in sporting events. They enjoy these opportunities. While this enrichment enhances pupils’ experiences, it is not as well connected to the curriculum and pupils' needs as it could be. This means that there are missed opportunities to deepen learning through enrichment.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils learn how to manage online risks. They understand healthy relationships and what to do if they are uncomfortable with an individual’s behaviour. As a result, pupils know how to

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Needs attention

keep themselves safe online and offline. Responsive pastoral provision ensures that pupils receive wellbeing support, when they need it.

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Needs attention

Disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from the school’s personal development programme. Leaders implement reasonable adjustments and adaptations to ensure pupils can access all opportunities.

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Achievement Needs attention

A significant minority of pupils do not gain the important spelling and handwriting knowledge they need. As a result, they are unable to record and present their learning as well as they might. These gaps affect pupils’ readiness for the next stage of education. Leaders have started to take action to address these gaps in knowledge, but it is too early to see the impact of this work.

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Achievement Needs attention

Pupils achieve in line with national averages over time in the Year 1 phonics check and the Year 4 multiplication check. However, last year, outcomes in both areas were above national averages. This means a greater number of pupils secured important knowledge in reading and mathematics. Across the wider curriculum, pupils recall factual knowledge but lack deeper understanding.

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Achievement Needs attention

Disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities make some progress from their starting points. However, they sometimes struggle to access their learning, which limits the progress they make.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

The teaching of the curriculum is not consistently and precisely matched to pupils’ needs. Some staff lack the expertise to make effective adaptations to the curriculum. This means that a significant minority of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, struggle to access the intended learning. Leaders have started to deliver training to build staff’s expertise in this area. They have a clear understanding of the quality of the curriculum and teaching. Leaders have recently adopted an ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum. This provides pupils with the opportunities to learn that they need to build knowledge over time, across subjects.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Previously, important knowledge in reading and writing had not been prioritised. This means that many older pupils have gaps in their knowledge. For those furthest behind, leaders provide extra support to help them catch up. For younger pupils, leaders now have systems in place to ensure most do not fall behind. They do this through structured phonics teaching, a focus on key mathematical knowledge and a progressive spelling programme. ‘Keep up’ interventions help pupils when they do not secure understanding in the lesson. This means that younger pupils now receive the right support at the right time.

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Early years Needs attention

Staff do not engage children in consistently purposeful conversation. As a result, children do not have enough opportunities to extend their language and vocabulary. However, staff develop positive relationships with children and interact warmly with them. Although the curriculum is well sequenced and covers the 7 areas of learning, the implementation of this is variable. This means that some activities lack purpose and do not help children to build age-appropriate knowledge and skills.

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Early years Needs attention

Leaders prioritise reading. They ensure phonics is taught from the earliest stage. This helps provide the practise children need to become confident readers. The mathematics and writing programmes are well designed to build knowledge over time. Sometimes, these programmes are not implemented effectively, so some children are not as well prepared as they should be for more formal learning in Year 1.

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Early years Needs attention

Leaders have designed an effective provision for 2- and 3-year-olds. These children learn from their older peers but also participate in sessions tailored to their age and stage. This means they progress well.

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Early years Needs attention

Leaders and staff have developed positive relationships with parents and carers. This helps to ensure that staff identify additional needs early and quickly intervene, when children need more support.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Previously, leaders had not identified pupils’ needs early enough, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This has resulted in barriers to pupils' learning and/or wellbeing growing over time. However, recently, leaders have started to assess pupils’ needs more accurately. This means that children new to the school receive timely support. For older pupils, the support is still variable.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Leaders use an effective approach to address emerging needs. While some staff implement this effectively, others currently lack the expertise to make appropriate adaptations. This means that some pupils’ barriers do not reduce quickly enough. As a result, they find it hard to access learning or manage their anxiety.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Leaders consider how they deploy staff to provide support for the pupils who need it most. They spend funding for disadvantaged pupils in an evidence-informed way. This has led to recent improvements in the provision for these pupils. Leaders use professional discussions and review data to check the impact of the additional help that they provide. These processes are at an early stage, so the impact of this work is not yet evident.

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Inclusion Needs attention

Leaders typically establish effective partnerships with families and external agencies, including the virtual school. They use alternative provision appropriately.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Recently, there have been significant changes to leadership and governance at the school. This has led to a period of significant turbulence. In some areas, such as the early years provision, leaders do not check the quality of implementation of training effectively enough. This means that they do not intervene to support staff at an early enough stage. As a result, some children in the early years do not make the progress that they should. Across the school, staff have not received sufficient support to develop the subject-specific expertise that they need to teach the curriculum consistently well. Leaders identified this and have carefully designed a range of professional learning opportunities to support staff in developing their knowledge of subject-specific content.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders at all levels are successfully steering the school through this period of change, taking the right steps in the right order as they do so. They have a sound understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. Where they have focused their attentions, the school is rapidly improving. For example, they have strengthened support for vulnerable pupils. This has resulted in many pupils’ experiences improving over time. Although there has been recent change in several areas, staff report that leaders are mindful of their workload and support their wellbeing.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Governors know the school well. They understand the requirements of their role, including offering robust challenge and support to leaders. This has helped leaders to improve standards. All leaders act in the best interest of pupils.

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

There is a sense of community at Crown Meadow that is felt from the moment the school day begins. Pupils are happy to come to school and they like their teachers. They get on well with one another and say it is easy to make friends. Regardless of background or differences, everyone is welcome. Pupils learn to be tolerant and show respect for all. As a result, they are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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

There are plenty of interesting things for pupils to be involved in, such as games at lunchtimes, leadership roles and clubs. Pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, those known or previously known to social care, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, enjoy the range of opportunities offered. For example, the overnight residential trip to Malvern is a highlight that they look forward to.

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

Pupils typically behave well and generally work hard. They feel safe. This is because they trust staff to resolve issues. Leaders have established simple systems to help pupils to share any concerns. Pupils confidently access pastoral support, when they need it. They say that bullying is rare and dealt with effectively. The positive school climate helps pupils to attend well.

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

Although pupils' results in external tests are typically in line with national averages, pupils do not achieve as well as they should. In the early years, children do not make the progress they should in key areas, including communication and language. Across the school, pupils have gaps in their writing knowledge. This means some pupils are not as well prepared as they should be for the next stage.

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

Many pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who are disadvantaged access appropriate support. However, for a significant minority of pupils, leaders do not make effective enough adaptations to support them to access purposeful learning. This means that these pupils do not make the progress they should.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that staff engage children in frequent, high-quality interactions, so that children have the opportunity to develop their communication and language skills. Leaders should ensure that pupils develop key foundational knowledge in handwriting and spelling at the earliest possibility so that they are ready for the next stage. Leaders should continue to ensure that pupils’ barriers to learning and/or wellbeing are identified quickly and accurately so that effective support can be implemented at the earliest stage. Leaders should ensure that staff adapt the curriculum and teaching effectively, so that pupils with barriers to their learning can access the curriculum and build their knowledge well. Leaders should further develop the coherence of the personal development programme so that opportunities, experiences and the curriculum are tailored to the needs of their pupils.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Mrs Tess Davis.

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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 the headteacher, deputy headteacher, the special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) and other leaders during the inspection.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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About this inspection

The school makes use of one registered alternative provision.

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About this inspection

The school runs a nursery provision for 2- to 4-year-olds.

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Team inspectors:

Rebecca Cox, Ofsted Inspector Roulla Gabriel, 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?

The school has undergone significant changes since the last inspection, including the appointment of the current headteacher, deputy headteacher and SENDCo.

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What does this mean?

At the time of inspection, there were 6 pupils on roll who had an education, health and care plan.

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What does this mean?

Headteacher: Ms Hilary Allan 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.

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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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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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national average

2024/25 (2 term) 11.9% 13.3% Close to average

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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.

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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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Urgent improvement

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