Stoneraise School

Stoneraise School

Address: Durdar, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA5 7AT Unique reference number (URN): 112122

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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 Strong standard

Leaders have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and attendance. They ensure that there is a shared understanding of these expectations among staff, pupils, parents and carers.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Leaders have been relentless in their pursuit to improve attendance. They have developed robust processes to identify patterns in pupils’ absences. Where there are concerns about absence, leaders act quickly and effectively to address these. Leaders provide well- considered and purposeful support to families to overcome any barriers to attendance that their children face. These actions are highly successful. Rates of attendance are above average, including for disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Pupils' behaviour is excellent. Pupils are proud of their role in developing the school’s behaviour systems. They respect these and rise to them at all times of the school day. Pupils consistently behave well in lessons and when moving around the school. They work hard in lessons, have very positive attitudes and are courteous towards others. Leaders provide high-quality training and support to staff. They ensure that staff have suitable expertise to manage pupils’ behaviour effectively. When needed, staff make reasonable changes to help pupils who face emotional challenges that impact on their behaviour. Bullying and discrimination are rare at this school. However, when incidents do occur, leaders take swift and effective action to stop it.

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Early years Strong standard

Children thrive personally and academically in the Reception class. Their individual needs are understood and consistently well met. Staff build highly positive relationships with children. This, in turn, leads to children feeling safe, secure and well cared for in the nurturing environment. Staff expertly promote children’s confidence, resilience and independence. For example, children learn how to carefully select tools and other resources to enhance their own learning. They sustain concentration for long periods because they are motivated and happy learners.

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Early years Strong standard

Staff carefully observe children in their play. They deliberately choose the right moment to ask pertinent questions that encourage children to extend their own thinking. These interactions between staff and children are consistently of a high quality and help children to deepen their understanding and develop confidence in communication.

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Early years Strong standard

Leaders understand the importance of the early years. They have developed an ambitious curriculum and teaching practices that are rooted in research about how young children learn effectively. Adults provide skilled and timely support to children who need extra help. Children's needs are identified early and supported well. Consequently, children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make positive progress in all aspects of their learning.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders are passionate about ensuring that all pupils succeed, including those who are vulnerable and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders have a detailed understanding of pupils’ needs and the challenges they face in their lives. They have developed robust processes to quickly and accurately identify these needs and design ways to support pupils. This includes gathering extensive information before pupils start at the school. Leaders diligently communicate with parents and carers, external professionals, previous schools and early years settings. This enables them to fully understand the best ways to help each pupil..

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders use their detailed analysis of pupils' needs and a range of well-considered assessments to shape the support that they provide for pupils. They use extra funding very effectively to provide precise support for disadvantaged pupils. Leaders go to great lengths to engage with external agencies to access further, specialist help where needed. Leaders clearly define the targets that pupils work towards. They robustly check that the extra help given to pupils has the intended impact. Knowledgeable staff deliver specific programmes to reduce barriers to pupils’ learning and wellbeing. These include specific focuses on speech, phonics and managing emotions. In lessons, staff consistently make changes to their teaching to help pupils to access tasks successfully. This leads to pupils making significant and rapid progress in their learning from their starting points.

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Achievement Expected standard

Pupils achieve well. Children get off to a flying start in the Reception class. As they move through the year groups, pupils continue to make positive progress and develop a broad body of curriculum knowledge by the end of their time at the school. Leaders ensure that there is a sharp focus on pupils learning the important knowledge that they need, such as fluency in spelling and number skills. Leaders are adept in identifying pupils who find learning difficult, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics. They provide timely, focused help to these pupils to keep up with the curriculum in these areas. As a result, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, achieve consistently above averages in national tests at the end of Year 6. They are well prepared for their secondary schools.

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Achievement Expected standard

In a few curriculum subjects pupils’ understanding does not develop as deeply and some pupils struggle to remember important knowledge in the longer term. Pupils make less secure progress in their learning in these subjects.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have designed a broad and engaging curriculum. It builds up pupils' knowledge logically over time. Leaders have considered the school's context and location to ensure that the curriculum is meaningful to pupils. For example, in history, pupils learn about significant historical events that happened in Carlisle. Leaders enrich the curriculum with trips and experiences to bring learning to life.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Pupils learn the important knowledge and skills they need for their next steps in education. For example, the curriculum includes a focus on developing accuracy and fluency in phonics, reading, writing and mathematics skills. Leaders ensure that any pupils who struggle with this are given the right support to catch up. In lessons, staff carefully consider the needs of pupils. They consistently provide extra help and resources, to ensure that all pupils can successfully access the learning.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders ensure that staff have the knowledge and expertise to deliver the curriculum. Teachers generally design activities that support pupils to learn the intended knowledge. However, in some subjects other than English and mathematics, the tasks that teachers provide in lessons do not consistently enable pupils to apply and deepen their knowledge effectively. In a minority of subjects, the quality of the curriculum and teaching varies and pupils do not learn as well.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders know the school’s context well. They understand the barriers that pupils face in their lives and consider these carefully when making decisions about how to best support pupils in school. Leaders have developed systems which enable them to evaluate the quality of the school’s work. They use this information to inform decisions about new priorities for improvement. For example, leaders identified that pupils’ handwriting was an aspect of their learning that was less developed and took appropriate and successful action to strengthen the writing curriculum.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Those responsible for governance are knowledgeable and carry out their roles effectively. They provide appropriate support and challenge to the school. For example, governors seek information about all aspects of the school’s work and use their findings to identify the actions most likely to lead to further improvement.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders and governors place high importance on ensuring that staff's workload and wellbeing is considered. They ensure that staff have access to suitable professional development opportunities and training to develop their practice. Staff appreciate that they can gain professional qualifications and work collaboratively with colleagues in other schools. Staff are valued and well supported by leaders.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders and staff are proactive in building positive relationships with families. They ensure that parents and carers are kept well informed about their children's learning and wellbeing. They work in partnership with parents to support pupils’ academic and personal development.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders have developed a progressive personal development programme that is informed by the school’s context. The curriculum includes statutory content for relationships and sex education and health education. Leaders have considered pupils' needs. They ensure that teachers make appropriate adaptations to enable all pupils to access the full personal development offer.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils develop their knowledge and learn a range of life skills. These includes how to manage a budget and how to maintain their physical and mental health. Pupils are confident in their understanding of the risks of sharing information online and how to keep themselves safe when using social media. They have a range of opportunities within school to develop their social skills. For example, older pupils support younger children in the Reception class to quickly settle into school life and make meaningful friendships.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

An important aspect of the school’s personal development programme is leaders' impressive approach to teaching pupils about democracy. Leaders have introduced a ‘pupil parliament’ in which pupils take on roles that mirror the structures within the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Leaders ensure that there is equity of access to these roles. Through these roles, pupils have learned how they can have a positive impact on the school and beyond. For example, pupils met with a local member of parliament to present their petition about increasing pupils’ opportunities to visit Parliament. They also met with local officials to discuss how to improve road safety outside the school. Pupils also develop their knowledge of other important fundamental British values, such as tolerance and the rule of law and can relate them to their own lives.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders provide a wide range of pastoral support to promote pupils’ wellbeing. They consider the needs of each pupil and work well with other agencies to ensure that this is effective in breaking down barriers to pupils emotional and mental health.

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

Pupils value the positive relationships they have with their peers and with staff. They feel safe at school and know that staff act in their best interests. Pupils play harmoniously together at social times. They enjoy engaging in role play, making up dance routines, playing sports and balancing on the play equipment. Pupils are confident that staff will quickly deal with any friendship issues, or any rare incidents of bullying. They are clear that discrimination is not tolerated in their school. Pupils' behaviour is excellent. They are highly responsible individuals who are proud to follow the school’s rules. Right from the early years, pupils diligently take care of their resources, and independently follow routines. Pupils hold doors open for others, and engage in respectful dialogue with adults. They are highly focused in lessons and ensure that learning is not disrupted.

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

Pupils are enthused by the curriculum and enjoy attending school. This is reflected in pupils’ attendance rates, which are high. Pupils learn a rich curriculum that provides them with a broad body of knowledge. Those who face barriers to their learning receive timely, effective support to reduce these. Pupils make positive progress through the curriculum. They achieve particularly well in reading, writing and mathematics, where their results in national tests are well above national averages.

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

Pupils access a range of clubs that foster their interests. These include LEGO, sports, computing and chess. Pupils have opportunities to participate in experiences beyond lessons. For example, pupils go walking in the fells of the Lake District and take part in a

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Team inspectors:

Trish Merritt, Ofsted Inspector Liz Davidson, Ofsted Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

residential trip to London. Pupils’ talents in music and sport are promoted extensively. They learn to play instruments and sing to very high standards. Pupils have achieved many successes in local and national competitions for singing, music and sports. Leaders make careful adaptations to ensure that all pupils can participate fully in opportunities that the school offers.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that, in all curriculum subjects, teachers design learning activities which consistently support pupils to build on their knowledge and skills and develop their depth of understanding effectively. Leaders should ensure that the curriculum and teaching leads to consistently strong standards across different subjects and year groups.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Steve Cook.

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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 (HMI) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMI.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, other leaders, governors and a representative from the local authority 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 currently uses no alternative provision.

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About this inspection

Headteacher: Clem Coady 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 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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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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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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Pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

The percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in mathematics.

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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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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading

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

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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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Disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in mathematics

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

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average

‘S’ in the table above indicates the data has been suppressed, which is usually due to small cohorts. The suppression rules applied by the DfE when publishing the data have been mirrored and applied in the report card.

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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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average

‘S’ in the table above indicates the data has been suppressed, which is usually due to small cohorts. The suppression rules applied by the DfE when publishing the data have been mirrored and applied in the report card.

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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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national average

2023/24 (3 term) 5.7% 5.5% Close to average

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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

2023/24 (3 term) 13.8% 14.6% 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. 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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