Preston Primary School

PRESTON PRIMARY SCHOOL

Inspection number:196450 Full inspection carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that all extracts quoted are reproduced verbatim without adaptation and on condition that the source and date thereof are stated.

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PRESTON PRIMARY SCHOOL

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the School Inspections Act 1996, the school must provide a copy of this report and/or its summary free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 4

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Station Road Preston Hull

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: 9 June 1997 FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 5

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities 16413 Mrs D Bell Registered inspector Art and design Music Special educational needs Foundation Stage What sort of a school is it? The school’s results and pupils’ achievements How well are pupils taught? How well is the school led and managed? 9214 Mrs J Garland Lay inspector How well does the school care for its pupils? How well does the school work in partnership with parents? 16761 Mr M Hemmings Team inspector Mathematics Science Information and communication technology Geography History English as an additional language How good are the curricular and other opportunities offered to the pupils?

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

23751 Mr J Fairclough Team inspector English Design and technology Physical education Religious education Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development. Equality of opportunity

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Focus Inspection Services 113 – 115 High Street Uppermill Saddleworth Oldham OL6 3BD

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Any concerns or complaints about the inspection or the report should be raised with the inspection contractor. Complaints that are not satisfactorily resolved by the contractor should be raised with OFSTED by writing to: The Complaints Manager Inspection Quality Division

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 6

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PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 6

Information about the school How good the school is What the school does well What could be improved How the school has improved since its last inspection Standards Pupils’ attitudes and values Teaching and learning Other aspects of the school How well the school is led and managed Parents’ and carers’ views of the school

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HOW HIGH ARE STANDARDS? 10

The school’s results and pupils’ achievements Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

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AREAS OF THE CURRICULUM, SUBJECTS AND COURSES 27

FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 7

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Preston Primary School is situated on the edge of the city of Hull. Its 190 pupils (88 boys and 102 girls) are taught in seven classes, each catering for a single age group. Most pupils come from the area immediately surrounding the school, which supports an average mix of social and economic backgrounds. The attainment of the majority of children on entry to the school is as expected for their age. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals (10%) is below the national average and has increased since last year. The proportion of pupils on the register for special educational needs (8.4%) is well below the national average. Two pupils have statements of special education need. At 1.1%, this is similar to that found in most schools. One fifth of the pupils enter or leave the school other than at the start of the school year. This is higher than most schools. Two pupils (Spanish and Russian), speak English in addition to

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

their home language. One is at the early stages of doing so. The school has had two new headteachers since the previous inspection. The current headteacher took up her post in January of this year. The school has clearly stated priorities to improve the teaching of music; develop further the role of the curriculum co-ordinator, set up systems to enable pupils to have a greater say in the school, and to improve the effectiveness of the governing body’s committees. It is currently involved in a science project with the Local Education Authority, aimed at accelerating pupils’ learning in science and has already achieved the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

This is an effective school. The headteacher has been in post for just over one term. She has already very effectively analysed the strengths and weaknesses in the school and is providing a very clear educational direction that is taking the school rapidly forward. The quality of teaching is good. The pupils achieve well and the majority reach above average standards of attainment by the time they leave the school. The school pays good attention to equality of opportunity and ensures that all pupils are fully included in all of its activities. It gives good value for money.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

What the school does well • Attainment is above the national expectation in English, art and design, design and technology and physical education. • The quality of teaching is good and makes a positive impact on pupils’ learning. The support staff also contribute effectively to pupils’ learning and achievement. • The leadership and management of the new headteacher are good and governors are effectively involved in the life of the school. • The children are given a good start to their education in the reception class. • The school caters well for the pupils’ personal development. It fosters in them good attitudes to school and to learning, and ensures they behave well. • The school has good links with its parents and they in turn support it well. • The school has good links with the adjacent secondary school that make a positive impact on the pupils’ achievement.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

What could be improved • The lack of consistency in the school’s medium term planning, which currently is burdensome. • The unsatisfactory procedures for assessing and recording pupils’ learning and the underdeveloped use of assessment to inform planning at whole school level. • The under-developed role of the curriculum co-ordinator in monitoring and evaluating their subjects. • The unsatisfactory teaching in Year 3. The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan.

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school was last inspected in June 1997. Since then, improvement has been satisfactory. The school has taken appropriate steps to address the needs of higher attaining pupils in Years 3 to 6. The organisation and use of the time available for literacy and numeracy follows the national strategies and is sound. There have been some positive developments in enabling curriculum co-ordinators to manage their subjects but there is some way still to go with this. Much more of the teaching is good or better, although there is an increase in the proportion of unsatisfactory teaching, which occurs mainly in one class. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 8

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STANDARDS

The table shows the standards achieved by pupils at the end of Year 6 based on average point scores in National Curriculum tests. compared with Performance in: all schools Similar schools 1999 2000 2001 2001 English C B B C Mathematics B A B D Science A A A A Key well above average above average average below average well below average A B C D E The majority of children start school in the reception class with levels of attainment that are as expected for their age. They achieve well and most are on course to exceed the early learning goals for personal, social and emotional development. The majority are on course to meet, and a small but significant proportion to exceed, the early learning goals for communication, language and literacy, and for mathematical development. All children are likely to reach the early learning goals for knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development and creative development.

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STANDARDS

The National Curriculum test results for pupils in Year 2 in 2001 were above the national average but below the average for similar schools in reading. In writing and mathematics they were well above the national average and above the average for similar schools. Reading results have matched the national trend in recent years, while writing and mathematics results have been above the national trend. For pupils in Year 6, the National Curriculum test results were above the national expectation in English and matched the average for similar schools. In mathematics, the results were also above the national average but they were below the average for similar schools. The science results were well above the national and similar schools averages. In this age group, the school’s results are above the national trend for English and science and match the national trend in mathematics. The attainment of the majority of pupils currently in Year 2

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STANDARDS

and Year 6 is above the national expectation in English and matches the national expectation in mathematics and science. Throughout the school, achievement is good in all three subjects. Boys and girls attain equally well in Year 2. However, girls have done better than boys in the Year 6 tests in recent years. The Year 2 and Year 6 classes have a higher proportion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) than is usually found in the school, and the Year 6 class is adversely affected by the significant proportion of pupils who joined in either Year 5 or Year 6 and are on the register for SEN. These factors explain why the attainment in the school does not fully align with the test results. Pupils with special educational needs make good progress towards the targets set in their individual education plans (IEPs) because their work is well planned and they receive effective support from the well-briefed classroom assistants. The

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STANDARDS

school sets challenging targets for pupils at the end of Year 6 and regularly checks that the pupils are on course to reach their targets. However it does not track their learning in sufficient detail to identify and address common or individual strengths and weaknesses.

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STANDARDS

In art and design, design and technology and physical education, the attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 is above the national expectation. Throughout the school they achieve well in these subjects and also in geography and history, subjects in which their attainment is as expected nationally for their age. In information and communication technology (ICT), attainment and achievement are satisfactory. In music, there was insufficient evidence to make a secure judgement about Year 2, but attainment is as expected nationally in Year 6 and throughout the school, singing is good. Achievement is satisfactory in music, as it is in religious education, where it meets the requirements of the locally agreed syllabus for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6. Since the previous inspection, standards have improved in art and design, ICT and physical education, and have been maintained in all the other subjects. The pupils in Years 5 and 6

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STANDARDS

are making good progress in French, which they learn for one hour each week.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Aspect Comment Attitudes to the school Good: the majority of pupils enjoy coming to school and are keen to learn. Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Good: the majority of pupils behave well in class and movement around the school is calm and orderly. Lunchtimes and playtimes are pleasant sociable occasions. Personal development and relationships Good: the pupils relate well to each other, to adults and to visitors. They willingly accept responsibility and are eager to help each other. They show good levels of respect for their environment and are proud of their school. Attendance Satisfactory. Attendance levels have declined in recent years due to the number of parents taking their children on holiday during term time, including during the National FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 9 Curriculum test period.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

Teaching of pupils in: Reception Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6 Quality of teaching Good Good Good Inspectors make judgements about teaching in the range: excellent; very good; good; satisfactory; unsatisfactory; poor; very poor. ‘Satisfactory’ means that the teaching is adequate and strengths outweigh weaknesses.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

The quality of teaching is mostly good throughout the school. There is a much greater proportion of very good and excellent teaching than at the last inspection. However, the proportion of unsatisfactory teaching, most of which occurred in Year 3, is greater than at the last inspection. Some excellent teaching occurred in a Year 4 literacy lesson, where the teacher used her own secure subject knowledge very effectively to enhance the pupils’ ability to analyse a text in great depth, drawing on their own experiences, which they used very well to explore how a dilemma had been tackled. In an excellent Year 1 music lesson, the pupils’ thinking skills were greatly enhanced as they rose to the challenges of ‘correcting’ the teacher and making decisions as to how to consolidate their learning about rhythm and pulse. The teaching that is good or better resulted in all time being used effectively for learning and the pupils responded with high

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

levels of concentration and good levels of productivity while taking care of and showing pride in their work. The teaching of English and mathematics is good throughout the school except for Year 3, where the slow pace of the lessons observed, combined with the inappropriate use of resources and the inadequate management of the pupils resulted in too many pupils not being engaged in the lesson and therefore learning little. The teachers promote literacy and numeracy skills well in other subjects and are also beginning to promote the effective use of ICT in other subjects. In the vast majority of Foundation Stage lessons, teaching is lively and engaging, and generates a sense of curiosity in the children that makes them want to find out more. Almost all teachers plan their lessons well, although they do not always use the spaces on their planning sheets to identify what is to be assessed in a lesson, or to record the pupils’ learning.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING

This contributes to the weaknesses in the use of assessment as a whole in the school. A major strength is the very effective way in which the teachers use the well trained classroom assistants. They in turn make a good contribution to pupils’ learning, especially, but not exclusively, those who have SEN. The teachers take good account of the targets in the IEPs for these pupils, and plan work to meet their needs, enabling them to make good progress. They also provide appropriately for higher attaining pupils in literacy and numeracy and as a result, these pupils are working at the higher levels of which they are capable, and are achieving well.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

Aspect Comment The quality and range of the curriculum Good: statutory requirements are met and the pupils benefit from the good range of worthwhile learning experiences provided for them in most subjects. However, medium term curricular planning is burdensome and could be made more efficient. Provision for pupils with special educational needs Good: through effective planning that meets their learning needs, and the good use of the classroom assistants, the school caters well for the needs of these pupils, ensuring that they participate in all of its work and make good progress. Provision for pupils with English as an additional language Good: again, the effective use of a classroom assistant ensures that these pupils too make good progress and are included in all that the school has to offer.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Overall good: the school makes good provision for spiritual and moral development and very good provision for social development; the provision for cultural development is satisfactory. More could be done to raise the pupils’ awareness of the diversity of culture in Britain today. How well the school cares for its pupils Satisfactory overall. The school takes good care of its pupils on a day-to-day basis. However, the procedures for recording, monitoring and improving attendance, and for assessing and recording academic progress in all subjects are not rigorous enough.

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OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

The school has good links with its parents and they in turn support the school well. Their views of the school are positive and they contribute effectively to their children’s learning at home and at school. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 10

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

Aspect Comment Leadership and management by the headteacher and other key staff Good: the new headteacher has set a very clear educational direction for the school’s work and in a very short time has gained the trust and support of the deputy headteacher and the staff. All are committed to helping the school improve. How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities Governors fulfil their responsibilities well. They are effectively involved in the life of the school. They regularly check on the school’s work, they share the headteacher’s vision and support her well. The school’s evaluation of its performance Satisfactory: sound procedures are in place to enable the school to keep a check on how well it is doing. It does not yet use the information it gains from these well enough to set its agenda for further improvement although, under the new headteacher, there are clear plans to do so in the future. The strategic use of

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

resources Satisfactory: finance follows the school improvement plan and close checks are kept on spending. The school has a sound understanding of the principles of best value and is improving in its ability to ensure that it gets best value from all of its spending.

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HOW WELL THE SCHOOL IS LED AND MANAGED

There is an adequate number of teaching staff and a good number of support staff, all of whom are deployed well and make a positive impact on pupils’ learning. The external accommodation is good, with extensive play, sports and environmental areas that successfully promote the pupils’ personal and academic development. Internally, the teaching areas are quite small for the size of some classes and the working noise from one class sometimes impedes learning in another. The governors have taken steps to resolve the noise issue during the summer holidays this year, and the headteacher is already working on improving the use of the internal accommodation and the organisation of the furniture in the teaching areas. Resources for learning are satisfactory overall and are used well to promote learning.

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

The 26.3% of parents who replied to the questionnaire were overwhelmingly positive about the school. No major areas of concern were identified.

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

The inspection team mostly agrees with the parents’ positive views. However, it found that the pupils’ annual reports were inconsistent in whether they provided sufficient information about progress, or shared with parents what their children needed to do to improve. The new headteacher has this in hand. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 11

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

1. The majority of children start school in the reception class with levels of attainment that are as expected for their age. They achieve well and the vast majority are on course to reach the nationally agreed early learning goals by the end of their reception year, in communication, language and literacy, mathematical development, knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development and creative development. Most children are on course to exceed the early learning goals for personal, social and emotional development, and a small but significant proportion have already met the goals for communication, language and literacy and for mathematical development, and are on course to exceed them by the end of the year.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

2. The National Curriculum test results for pupils in Year 2 in 2001 were above the national average but below the average for similar schools in reading. In writing and mathematics they were well above the national average and above the average for similar schools. Over the last three years, the reading results have risen at the same rate as reading results nationally. In writing and mathematics, the trend in the school’s results is better than the national trend. The teacher assessments for science in 2001 showed the pupils’ attainment to be above the national average. The attainment of the majority of

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expected for their age. Throughout Years 1 and 2, the pupils achieve well in English,

mathematics and science. There are no significant differences between the attainment of boys and girls in this age group, and none were noted during the inspection.

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expected for their age. Throughout Years 1 and 2, the pupils achieve well in English,

3. The National Curriculum test results in 2001 for pupils in Year 6 were above the national expectation in English and matched the average for similar schools. In mathematics, the results were also above the national average but they were below the average for similar schools. The science results were well above the national and similar schools averages. Over the last three years, the trend in the school’s results is above the national trend for English and science and matches the national trend in mathematics. However, the significant proportion of pupils who join or leave the school during that period adversely affect the test results at the end of Year 6. For example, in 2001, 35% of the pupils had changed since their Year 2 National Curriculum tests. The school’s records show clearly that of the pupils who joined the school in the current Year 6, the majority have special educational needs (SEN) and are receiving additional support to prepare them for the National Curriculum tests. The

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

Years 3 to 6 and for the significant proportion who joined it later. In this age group, the test results show that girls do consistently better than boys in all three subjects. Although this was brought to the attention of the governors some time ago, little has yet been done to address the issue. However, the new headteacher is now dealing effectively with the situation, and ways of improving boys’ attainment and achievement is being given a much higher profile in the school than in the past.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

4. In mathematics and science, the pupils currently in Year 2 and Year 6 are working at levels lower than those seen in last year’s National Curriculum tests and assessments. For pupils in Year 6, this is the result of the significant proportion who joined the school in Years 5 and 6, most of whom are on the register for special educational needs. The current Year 2 and Year 6 classes have a higher proportion of pupils with special educational needs than is usually found in the school. In addition, records of the FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 12 initial assessments carried out on entry show that the pupils currently in Year 2 started school with levels of attainment lower than those of pupils in previous year groups. Lower attaining pupils are very well supported in English and a significant proportion reaches the expected levels in Year 6. There is also some support for mathematics but this is not as intense as that for English and therefore not as

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

many reach the expected levels in that subject, or in science. The mathematical work that the headteacher is currently doing with a group of such pupils in Year 6, however, is having a significantly positive impact on their achievement. Pupils with SEN make good progress towards the targets set in their individual education plans (IEPs). There are some targets for mathematics in the plans, but the majority are for improving literacy skills, enabling the pupils learn more effectively in all other subjects. The very good support that these pupils receive from the classroom assistants contributes in great measure to their good achievement. Higher attaining pupils also achieve well in English and mathematics. The school has identified a small number who are capable of working at levels higher than those expected for their age. Up to Year 5, those who are better at mathematics work with a higher year group, and those in Year 6 benefit from the harder work prepared for them. Those who are

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

better at English work with their own year group but receive appropriately challenging work at a higher level than the rest of the class. The school does not yet make provision for pupils who may be gifted or talented in other subjects. The new headteacher has rightly identified this as an area for development to ensure that the school does its best for all of its pupils.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

5. The school sets challenging targets for pupils at the end of Year 6 and sensibly keeps these under review in the light of the significant movement of pupils in and out of the school in Years 5 and 6. Levels are predicted for all pupils and these are constantly re-visited to check that the pupils are on course to achieve them. However, the pupils’ learning is not tracked in sufficient detail to identify and address common or individual strengths and weaknesses, in order to promote even more effective learning. The school works hard to ensure that all pupils are included in all activities. For example, a recently arrived Russian pupil is receiving good support and is rapidly gaining sufficient command of the English language to be able to participate in all lessons.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

6. In English, the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 acquire good speaking and listening, reading and writing skills. They listen well to their teachers and to each other, and respond eagerly and thoughtfully to questions and confidently join in discussions. While most pupils in Year 2 read fluently and with expression, a small proportion find difficulty doing so but respond well to the teacher when she shows them how. From year to year, the pupils read an increasingly wide range of texts, both fiction and non- fiction, and gain a good understanding of how authors try to reach their audiences by writing in different styles. Although the library provision is poor, the pupils do know how to use it. For example, they have a good knowledge of how to find information from books and they use the contents and index pages increasingly competently as they grow older. The pupils write stories, poems, recipes, lists,

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

and letters showing a good range of vocabulary and using language appropriate to the form in which they are writing. Their handwriting is legible from an early age and by Year 6, the majority of pupils present their work well and have a well-formed style of joined-up writing. They have a good understanding of how to use the process of drafting and redrafting in order to produce good work and their language becomes increasingly effective and descriptive. Spelling is mostly accurate throughout the school and punctuation is used correctly. The pupils use their literacy skills well in other subjects, for example, as they join in discussions and record information in subjects such as science, history and geography, make lists and label diagrams in art and design and design and technology, and write personal responses to pictures by a range of artists in art and design.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

7. In mathematics, the majority of pupils demonstrate good mental recall of number facts as they eagerly participate in the brisk oral sessions that start most mathematics lessons. The pupils in Years 1 and 2 gain sound mathematical knowledge, understanding and vocabulary through a good range of practical activities in which they rapidly gain a sound understanding of number patterns and relationships, and of FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 13 shape, space and measure. They know, for example, that there is more than one way to solve a problem and readily explain how they arrive at their answers. Pupils in Year 2 know their five times table well and accurately calculate which numbers come before or after a given number when counting in fives. There is a decline in attainment and achievement in Year 3 because the teacher does not manage the class well and the pupils lose interest in their work, resulting in a small but significant

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

proportion of them resorting to unsatisfactory behaviour. Between Year 4 and Year 6, the pupils once again achieve well. They use effectively the many opportunities presented to them to work together to solve problems in a practical way. For example, pupils in Year 4 confidently use an increasingly wide range of mathematical vocabulary as they describe, for example, that one whole turn is 360 degrees, or four right angles and become increasingly adept at using a greater range of strategies to solve problems. By the time they are in Year 6, the majority of pupils are competent in using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and have an appropriate knowledge and understanding of fractions and decimals and how to use them to solve problems. Pupils in Year 6 use computers effectively to create and interpret frequency graphs from data they had previously collected. The pupils use their numeracy skills effectively in other subjects, for example, in their science work, and to

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

recognise patterns in art and design, and to make calculations in design and technology. They use their literacy skills well in mathematics as they read questions and discuss strategies for finding solutions.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

8. In science, the pupils in Years 1 and 2 make close observations and record their findings in a variety of appropriate ways, using their thinking and writing skills effectively to do so. They handle a variety of simple scientific equipment carefully and safely, participate confidently in discussions about scientific issues, and show secure skills in carrying out a simple, fair test. Between Year 3 and Year 6, the pupils communicate their scientific findings in an appropriate range of ways and with increasing clarity. They make good use of their previous knowledge of fair testing as, for example, in Year 4 they investigated how exercise affects the pulse rate. This work is suitably extended in Year 6, where, after participating wholeheartedly in an engaging practical demonstration, the pupils showed a good understanding of how, as it circulates, blood carries oxygen, food and waste around the body. Throughout the school, the

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

pupils eagerly participate in scientific activities. However, their investigative work, and consequently their learning, is sometimes impeded by intrusive noise from adjacent teaching areas, due to the open- plan nature of the school. The majority of pupils in Year 6 show appropriate ability to identify the need for a fair test and to be able to plan and carry one out independently of the teacher.

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

9. In art and design, the pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 reach standards of attainment that are above those expected nationally for their age. They have particularly well developed observational skills. They use effectively a good range of techniques across a suitably broad range of media, and they achieve well throughout the school. Attainment is also above the national expectation in design and technology and again, achievement is good. The pupils have a good understanding of the process of designing, making and evaluating and use this well to produce a wide range of artefacts. Pupils reach good standards of attainment in physical education, where they understand the need for rules and for safe practice, and demonstrate a good range of skills across games, athletics and gymnastics activities. Throughout the school, the pupils also achieve well in this subject. In geography and history, attainment is as expected

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

nationally for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6, and achievement is good in these subjects. In information and communication technology (ICT), attainment and achievement are satisfactory overall. However, by Year 6, the pupils use the Internet competently and have a well developed ICT vocabulary. In music, insufficient evidence was available to make a secure judgement about Year 2 but attainment is as expected nationally in Year 6. Singing is good throughout the school. Achievement is satisfactory in music, as it is in religious education. In that subject, attainment is as expected in the local agreed syllabus for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6. Since the previous inspection, standards have improved in art and design, ICT and physical education, and have been maintained in all the other subjects, despite the considerable movement of pupils in Years 5 and 6 and the higher proportions of pupils with SEN in

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good in all three subjects, both for those who have remained with the school throughout

Year 2 and Year 6. The pupils in Years 5 and 6 are making good progress in French and are acquiring FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 14 an appropriate range of useful vocabulary that is preparing them well for their work in secondary school, enriching the curriculum for them in their present school, and raising their awareness of life in a different European country.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

10. Standards in this area have been maintained since the last inspection. Almost all pupils, including those with special educational needs, demonstrate good attitudes to school and to learning. From the earliest age, the majority enjoy coming to school. They are proud of it and of what it helps them to achieve. They respect the building and the displays within it and take good care of the materials and equipment made available to them. They listen effectively to their teachers, to the other adults who work with them, and to each other, respecting the ideas and opinions of other people. They follow instructions well and are very enthusiastic about their work. They show good levels of concentration during lessons and persevere with set tasks, often helping each other to complete them, working well together in groups, pairs and individually when required to do so.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

11. Pupils behave well from the beginning of their school life. Their behaviour is good and sometimes very good in the Foundation Stage, and continues to be good throughout the school. This has a positive impact on their learning. Almost all pupils understand and respond effectively to their teachers’ high expectations of them and this enables the school to function in a calm and orderly manner. Pupils’ behaviour is good in lessons, with the exception of Year 3, where poor behaviour management allows high noise levels and other inappropriate behaviour that impede learning. Virtually all other pupils are well motivated, keen to learn and eager to participate in all activities. They behave well at playtime and lunchtimes, making good use of the range of small apparatus bats, balls and skipping ropes for use at these times. They play safely and sensibly on the two very good play areas that have large climbing

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

equipment set on bark, that were provided by the ‘Friends of Preston School’. They adhere to the rota for the different classes to use these and play together amicably. Lunchtimes are calm, sociable occasions during which behaviour remains good. The pupils feel safe and free from any form of harassment, and are secure that any such behaviour would be dealt with firmly and fairly by the headteacher. This was confirmed by the headteacher’s handling of the inappropriate behaviour of two boys during one lunchtime. Pupils’ behaviour when out of school is excellent. For example, on a visit to the local high school for a musical event, the pupils in Year 6 exhibited the highest standards of behaviour. That sat quietly and listened carefully and responded enthusiastically when asked to do so, and the quality of their singing was very good. As a result they gained maximum benefit from this experience and were a good role model for other pupils. There have been two fixed term exclusions in

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

the last school year, both to do with unacceptable behaviour.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

12. Relationships throughout the school are very good between the pupils themselves and between the pupils the adults. Pupils show good levels of respect for each other, for their teachers and for visitors. They are polite and engage in sensible discussions about their work and other aspects of their lives, showing good personal discipline, remaining on task when, for example, in a religious education lesson they were asked to discuss in pairs, different aspects of their own lives which were special to them. The pupils readily take on a wide range of responsibilities in and around the school. Children in the Foundation Stage get thing out and put thing away correctly and with care. In other classes pupils act as monitors in giving out equipment and books. Pupils in Year 5 take responsibility for putting out chairs and the overhead projector in assemblies. Pupils in Year 6 give fruit out to the younger pupils

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

and also accompany the reception class pupils on visits to church. The school is planning the introduction of a school council to enable pupils to play a greater part in decision-making in the school. Many pupils take advantage of the range of sport and drama activities that take place outside of the normal school day, as well as in the annual residential visit. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 15 13. Pupils’ attendance is similar to the national average. The majority of pupils arrive punctually for school and all lessons begin on time. Attendance rates have fallen recently due to the increased number of parents taking their children on holiday during term time.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

14. The quality of teaching is mostly good and impacts positively on pupils’ learning. There is a much greater proportion of very good and excellent teaching (19%) than at the last inspection. The quality of teaching is good in 49% of lessons, satisfactory in 21% and unsatisfactory in 11% of lessons. The proportion of unsatisfactory teaching, most of which occurred in Year 3, is greater than at the last inspection.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

15. The teaching of English and mathematics is good throughout the school. The teachers plan well using the National Strategies for Literacy and Numeracy and this has resulted in improved use of time in most English and mathematics lessons. The exception is Year 3, where the slow pace of the lessons observed, combined with the inappropriate use of resources and the inadequate management of the pupils resulted in too many pupils not being engaged in the lesson and therefore learning little. Similar weaknesses occurred in ICT lesson and a physical education lesson in the same class. Overall, the teaching of basic skills is good. The teachers promote literacy and numeracy skills well in other subjects and are also beginning to promote the effective use of ICT in other subjects. However, they still have some way to go to do this well. The overall quality of teaching is also good in science and physical education, and satisfactory in history, ICT, music and religious education. Insufficient evidence

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

was available to make a secure judgement on teaching in art and design, design and technology and geography.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

16. Almost all teaching is good in the Foundation Stage. In this age group, the teacher and nursery nurse have a very good understanding of how children of this age learn. They plan together a very good range of progressively demanding learning activities that are firmly based on the children’s learning needs, ascertained from the outcomes of the initial assessments. In the vast majority of Foundation Stage lessons, teaching is lively and engaging, and generates a sense of curiosity in the children that makes them want to find out more. In this age group, the staff assess the children’s learning well in personal and social development, communication, language and literacy and mathematical development. However, in knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development and creative development, there are few records of how well the children are achieving throughout the year.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

17. The quality of teaching is good in Years 1 and 2, although in one Year 2 lesson it was unsatisfactory. In the vast majority of lessons in this age group, the teachers’ good planning and secure subject knowledge ensures that lesson objectives are clearly communicated to the pupils so that the pupils are clear about what they are expected to learn, that they are motivated, work productively and try hard to succeed. In almost all Year 1 lessons, the teacher very effectively challenges the pupils’ thinking skills, requiring them to make, on occasions, complex decisions about the way forward for their learning. For example, in an excellent music lesson, while pushing ahead with their understanding of the difference between pulse and rhythm, she constantly challenged them to think about how they could consolidate what they had learned so far. This sometimes took the form of a sentence such as ‘If we can do that

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

with one song…?’ to which the pupils readily replied ‘We can do it with any song’ and promptly suggested a range of others that might be suitable, which they were then encouraged to try out and to evaluate. At other times, the method used was that of the teacher making a deliberate mistake and giving the pupils time to point it out, for example, by mis-counting the number of claps required to demonstrate the rhythm of her name. In a good mathematics lesson with pupils in Year 2, the teacher’s good use of practical demonstrations enhanced the pupils’ understanding of how to create Venn diagrams and how to interpret the information they gave. However, the same teacher’s insecure FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 16 subject knowledge in a music lesson meant that when the pupils were listening to different extracts of music, their suggestions as to the mood and feelings they felt the music had evoked were not extended

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

to include a discussion on, for example, how successfully the different composers used instruments, or musical techniques to communicate their intended effects. The teacher’s questioning faltered frequently and as a result, the pace of the lesson slowed too much and the pupils did not learn as well as they could have done.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

18. The quality of teaching is good in Years 4 to 6, and is occasionally very good or excellent. The teachers’ planning is again secure and their good subject knowledge is used effectively to extend the pupils’ learning. For example, in an excellent Year 4 literacy lesson, the teacher’s voice and manner very successfully involved the pupils in drawing on their own experiences to relate to the text as they learned successfully to analyse it in terms of how well it presented a dilemma. The teacher’s very effective questioning raised the pupils’ thought levels and resulted in articulate and carefully considered responses to a well-chosen text. The pupils were genuinely interested, and worked very productively as they discussed the relationships of the characters. They clearly understood which features of the text were reliable as evidence and which were not. The teachers in these classes use a wide range of

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

teaching methods to engage the pupils and increase their understanding. In a good Year 6 science lesson, for example, the teacher’s effective use of role-play resulted in the pupils acquiring a good understanding of how blood carries oxygen, food and waste around the body. In a good Year 5 physical education lesson, the teacher’s clear explanations and emphasis on the importance of teamwork and co-operation resulted in the pupils working well in groups, and handling and interpreting maps and symbols well to define locations around the school grounds. In the majority of lessons, the teachers use the final whole class session to help the pupils evaluate what they have done, and to learn from each other. In the Year 5 physical education lesson, this led to the pupils showing that they had successfully identified the key skills required when using a map to travel around a given area.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

19. A major strength in teaching throughout the school is the very effective way in which the teachers use the classroom assistants to support the pupils’ learning. This is sometimes, but not exclusively, concerned with the improving the progress of the lower attaining pupils. In the Year 1 class, for example, as part of a project to improve the pupils’ thinking skills, a well-trained classroom assistant works with different groups of pupils on a rota basis, encouraging them successfully to think hard, observe closely and work productively at making decisions about their own learning. There are clear plans in place to extend this very successful work to the rest of the school by sharing the expertise with the other support staff and with the teachers. The teachers plan effectively for pupils with SEN. They take good account of the targets set in the pupils’ IEPs. They brief the classroom assistants well and

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

use them effectively to help the pupils achieve well and make good progress in their learning. The higher attaining pupils in literacy and numeracy are given suitable extension work that helps them reach the higher levels of which they are capable. The pupils for whom English is an additional language also receive good support from the classroom assistants and they, too, make good progress.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

20. The pupils’ work is regularly marked and, in most classes, the marking includes praise, and/or suggestions for improvement. As they circulate during lessons, the teachers constantly and appropriately assess the pupils’ learning. However, they do not record this information in sufficient detail to inform, for example, the end-of–year progress reports for each subject. Planning sheets have space for the teachers to highlight what will be assessed during a lesson, and to record the outcomes of the pupils’ learning but these are not used consistently throughout the school, making it difficult to track the pupils’ achievement at any given time. The outcomes of assessment are used appropriately to plan further learning in the short term. An appropriate amount of homework is set each week , mainly for literacy and numeracy, and successfully consolidates what the pupils are learning in class. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 17

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

21. The curricular and other opportunities offered to the pupils are good and have improved since the previous inspection. All pupils participate equally in a wide range of exciting and stimulating learning experiences, within a broad, well-balanced and relevant curriculum. An effective learning environment has been created in the Foundation Stage, which leads to all children making good academic and personal progress in all six areas of learning. Good account is taken of the national guidance for this age group and the good planning that results from it meets the needs of the pupils. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies have been successfully implemented in the rest of the school and the appropriate balance of time within them ensures that effective learning takes place. These have been important factors in the good achievement that pupils show in English and mathematics. The provision for ICT has

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

improved since the last inspection, and all aspects, including modelling, are now appropriately covered. There are satisfactory opportunities for pupils to use their ICT skills to enhance their work in other subjects, with the pupils using the Internet well to research information in subjects such as science, history and geography. All statutory requirements are met, including those of the locally agreed syllabus for religious education. However, overall planning procedures are cumbersome. The school lacks a carefully devised whole school curriculum plan that ensures the continuous and progressive development of knowledge, skills and understanding in all subjects. The school also lacks an agreed approach to medium term planning and consequently, although teachers plan in their own way for each half term, they do so without the effective overall guidance about the key learning objectives and skills to be taught

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

at different ages and stages of learning.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

22. The provision for the pupils’ personal, social and health education is satisfactory, but lacks formal guidelines to support teachers in planning specific opportunities to develop this aspect. There is appropriate provision for sex education, which stresses the importance of warm and caring relationships. As part of their work in science, pupils are helped to develop good attitudes towards healthy eating and are made aware of the harmful effects of drugs.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

23. The school is successful in ensuring that all pupils have equal access to the curriculum. Equality of opportunity is implicit in all aspects of its life. There are effective systems in place to support pupils with SEN, which enables them to make good progress towards the targets in their IEPs. Effective use of the well-briefed classroom assistants supports their learning well, and good use is made of outside agencies to help with any specific difficulties that pupils may have. There has been sound improvement since the last inspection in the provision for higher attaining pupils and they are now given appropriately challenging work that enables them to achieve well. The school caters well for the small number of pupils for whom English is an additional language and as a result these pupils too make good progress in their learning.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

24. The provision for extra curricular activities, including educational visits, is good. The well-attended clubs include, for example, football, netball, indoor sports club, table tennis, recorders, and a school choir that meets at particular times of the year to prepare for concerts or productions. The school gives all pupils opportunity to take part in a wide variety of visits that enrich the curriculum by providing further significant learning experiences in the way of visits out of school and visitors into school. These include trips to nearby places of educational interest such as the Humber Bridge, Grimsby Heritage Centre, the castle museum in York and Eden camp. Further enrichment is provided by the good range of visits to art galleries and museums, while a range of visitors, including artists and drama groups, work with the pupils to develop a variety of skills and to further their creative learning, to which there is a clear commitment

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

in the school. The pupils also take part in a variety of musical and dramatic performances for parents and members of the community. There is also a residential experience for pupils in Years 5 and 6, which is linked to various aspects of the curriculum, such as geography and physical education, and which is FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 18 effective in developing their personal and social skills. The school’s involvement in local and national initiatives, such as its involvement in a Local Education Authority project is improving the pupils’ thinking skills in science. This is also having beneficial effects in other subjects, especially in developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills in English. The school also includes in its curriculum, one hour of French each week for pupils in Years 5 and 6. This is preparing the pupils well for their work in secondary school and raising their awareness of a different European culture.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

25. The school has sound links with the community, on which the new headteacher is keen to build so that they make a more effective contribution to pupils’ learning. A good start has been made on updating the school website, involving the local press and developing the idea of citizenship by bringing in representatives from public services to talk to the pupils. For example, the police have been into school to give ‘stranger danger’ talks, and the local fire brigade has visited to give advice on fire safety. During this visit, the pupils were able to take part in a practical activity to make their way out of a smoke filled room, and were helped to design a survival plan, in the event of fire in their own home. The pupils gain a good understanding of the needs of others as they raise money for a range of local and national charities, and some local businesses provide sponsorship for educational resources. The school has

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

effective links with partner primary schools. It has very strong links with the local high school that make a significant contribution to the good standards of attainment that pupils achieve in, for example, design and technology. Together, the school and the high school ensure that pupils in Year 6 are well prepared for when they transfer to the high school. Recent links have also been made with Hull University, whose students come into school to work with pupils as part of their own training.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

26. The provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good overall. It effectively enriches the quality of the school’s life as a community, helping pupils to develop positive attitudes, a sense of responsibility and high self-esteem.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

27. The pupils’ spiritual development is effectively fostered through the curriculum, particularly in religious education and in the satisfactory daily acts of collective worship. In whole school assemblies, music is used effectively to heighten the mood of spirituality, and pupils have opportunity for quiet, personal reflection. All teachers value pupils’ ideas and efforts and this is shown by the way that all pupils are encouraged to make contributions during lessons and by the attractive displays of pupils’ work in the school. In subjects such as art, music and English, the pupils are provided with many opportunities to reflect on different moods and feelings and to express their own through personal responses to works of art, listening to and discussing the effects of music on their emotions, learning how writers communicated their feelings in different ways, and by expressing their feelings in their own writing. In

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

the Foundation Stage, feelings of awe and wonder are effectively fostered as the pupils discover the way seeds grow and think about their place in the wider world.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

28. The provision for moral development is good and for social development, very good. These areas are promoted effectively in many aspects of the curriculum and are an integral part of the school ethos. The pupils are successfully encouraged to develop good moral values through the good examples set by staff. The teachers work hard to promote a sense of fairness among pupils and are successful in teaching them to be tolerant of and respectful towards each other, as well as adults, to take responsibility for their actions and to work and play together amicably, with due regard for the ideas and opinions of others. This was noted during the introductions to and final sessions in most lessons, and at play and lunch times. From the start of their time in school, pupils are provided with good opportunities to work collaboratively in pairs and small groups. For the older pupils, their social development is further

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

promoted through their participation in school trips and a residential visit. Good opportunities are presented to the pupils both in and out of classrooms to show initiative and take responsibility. Younger pupils deliver messages between classes and get out and put away resources and equipment in lessons, while being looked after in a caring way by older pupils at different times of the day. Pupils in Years 1 FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 19 and 2 able to take part in ‘circle time’ activities, in which they sit in a circle with their teacher and are helped to talk about any problems they might have and about issues such as the importance of caring for others. Plans are well under way to extend this good practice to the older pupils to provide them with the opportunity to talk about matters that are relevant to them. Further planned improvement includes establishing a school council to which representatives from each class can be elected to put over the

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

pupils’ views about the school, and involve them more directly in decision making.

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PUPILS OR STUDENTS?

29. The provision for cultural education is satisfactory. The British and western European culture is effectively fostered through work in art and design, music, history and geography, and this is supplemented through the provision of the good range of visits and visitors referred to above. In religious education, while the planning emphasises learning about the beliefs and traditions of other faiths and cultures, this is not evident in the pupils’ work or in discussions with them. However, the school is working hard to ensure that the pupil it now has who comes from a different cultural background, is fully integrated into the school and that the other pupils recognise and respect the different background from which he comes. The new headteacher recognises that the school needs to do more to help the pupils to appreciate the diverse range of cultures that exist in Britain today.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

30. The school cares well for its pupils. The arrangements for child protection are secure, but the training for all staff is not currently up-to-date. The lunchtime supervisors have recently completed a course that included elements of child protection training but the training for all staff is not currently up-to-date. Health and safety procedures are well addressed, and in this area, the school benefits from the expertise of one of its governors. The teachers know their pupils well and the pupils feel secure in the structured, and well-ordered and stimulating environment created for them from the Foundation Stage onwards. The school has all the appropriate policies for welfare and support in place, and they work well.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

31. Measures to encourage good behaviour result in good standards in this area. However, the system of rewards and sanctions is not consistent and uniform from class to class. The new headteacher is rightly undertaking a review of the policy to tackle this issue so that pupils know what to expect from year to year. Bullying and work on anti racism is also a focus of the review and work is well under way to include these aspects in the promising new policy and guidelines for personal, health, social and citizenship education. The school keeps a good record of any serious incidents of misbehaviour. The action taken to deal with such incidents, including the level of parental involvement where relevant, is recorded accurately.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

32. The procedures for monitoring attendance are unsatisfactory. The level of attendance is lower than in the previous inspection and there has been no improvement recently. The school clerk has an in-depth knowledge of the reasons for absence through her very good knowledge of the pupils and their families. This gives the school an in-built advantage in tracking attendance. However, the school is not tackling effectively enough the question of parents taking their children on holiday in term time, including over the vital period during which the National Curriculum tests and assessments take place. A further cause for concern is that the registers are not taken as soon as the school officially opens to make sure that the school is absolutely clear as to who is or is not on the premises should an emergency occur.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

33. The pupils’ personal development is closely observed and adequately monitored. There is a strong commitment amongst the staff to support the pupils, and to do all they can to include all pupils in all activities. The procedures for monitoring and supporting the pupils’ academic development are unsatisfactory. This area is a priority in the current school improvement plan and one that the school is FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 20 already beginning to address. However, it still has some way to go. The Year 2 and Year 6 statutory assessments for English, mathematics and science are securely in place. In other years, there are sound procedures in place for English and mathematics, and some work has taken place in subjects such as art and design and design and technology. An analysis of the school’s data files shows that predictions are made year by year for English and mathematics, and are altered in the light of how well

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

the pupils learn in between. However, there is no such recording in science, and there is little recording or monitoring of the pupils’ achievement or attainment in other subjects. There is no whole school approach to assessment and recording and there is no written evidence to show that strengths and weaknesses are analysed and the information used to set targets for improvement, or to inform curricular planning. The progress of pupils with SEN is well recorded and the targets in their IEPs are regularly reviewed and suitably altered in the light of this.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

34. As at the last inspection, the parents contribute well to their children’s learning at school and at home. The headteacher has placed a strong emphasis on the quality of the school’s links with parents and they are good. The parents’ views of the school were very positive in the replies received in the questionnaire, although, at 26.3%, the return rate was lower than most schools. The parents praised the pupils’ behaviour and the hard working ethos fostered in the school and felt that their children made good progress. All of the parents who replied said that they would feel comfortable in approaching the school and that they believed the teaching was good. Parents interviewed during the inspection and those who attended the parents’ meeting praised most features of the school’s provision.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

35. The unusual feature of parents coming in to school for the first twenty minutes of the day to work alongside their children in every class provides an interesting way for the parents to find out what their children are learning, to familiarise themselves with the teacher and the school, and to understand how they can help at home. Although a relatively small number of parents, grandparents and carers take advantage of this, they come in when they can and praise the system. Some parents complained that the time had recently been shortened but inspectors found that there was a clear focus to the work that takes place during this session and the school had considered all of its options carefully prior to making the decision to reduce the time. The parents of pupils with SEN are involved with the school at the earliest point of concern. They are invited to all review meetings and are well informed about their

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

36. The new headteacher has carefully evaluated of the school’s links with parents and is seeking to strengthen them. Parents take interest in what their children are learning, though sessions explaining literacy and numeracy strategies have been poorly attended in the past. Various areas in which parents can become involved are now flagged up in the recently introduced, informative newsletter, which has been well received. There are regular reporting sessions to parents, though the quality of written reports has not been good. Few reports have identified areas for improvement and there is little indication for parents as to whether their children are achieving as well as expected for their age. These weaknesses have already been identified and improvements are under way for this year’s reports. Parents help in school when asked to and accompany children when they go out on trips, they read regularly with them and take an interest in their homework and projects.

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HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

37. There is an active Friends of Preston School association, which provides valuable support to the school and also has a social and consultative function. Parents show that they are interested in school matters. There is always an election for the posts of parent governors, and a good number of parents attend events such as the celebration assemblies, concerts and school productions. The new headteacher already has firm plans in place to build on the interest that the parents have in their children’s education FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 21 by involving them to a greater degree in what goes on in the school, by means of regular questionnaires and a suggestion box to gauge parents’ opinion.

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

38. The new headteacher took up her position in January 2002. She has quickly identified the major strengths and weaknesses in the school and has set a realistic timescale for tackling the issues she has identified and agreed with the staff and governors as needing improvement. Having set the agenda, she has rapidly gained the support and respect of the staff and governors, as well as the parents and pupils, particularly because she leads by example in all aspects of school life, including teaching. She has established a very clear educational direction for the work of the school. The management of the school is good. Most policies have recently been reviewed and there is a clear timetable for the remaining work, and for presenting the reviewed policies to governors. Staff and governors report that they are now much more involved than previously in decision making within the school and in helping to

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

set the agenda for future improvement. The headteacher is effectively sharpening up the procedures for school self-evaluation. The deputy headteacher shares the headteacher’s drive and vision for the school and reports that she is now much more effectively involved in the management of the school. Curriculum co-ordination has improved since the previous inspection, and records show that in the 2000/2001 year, co-ordinators began to be involved in monitoring teaching and learning in their subjects. However, the school still has some way to go in this. The headteacher has monitored teaching and learning informally since her appointment and has a good understanding of the strengths and weakness in each class. She has drawn up a clear and realistic timetable for co-ordinators to carry this work out formally in all subjects from the autumn term 2002 as part of a wider programme to improve all staff involvement in the school improvement process. There is a feeling of excitement in the school under

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

the new leadership that manifests itself in a positive commitment to school improvement and good capacity to succeed.

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

39. The governors also share the headteacher’s vision. They support the school effectively and welcome their increased involvement in its management. All committees are in place and the governors fulfil all of their statutory duties. They are keenly aware of the likelihood of lower National Curriculum test results this year and have effectively questioned the school to ascertain whether the pupils are achieving as well as they can. The governors visit the school regularly, spending time in classrooms to keep themselves up-to-date with the quality of educational provision, and reporting their findings to the full governing body. The current school improvement plan is now under review and the governors are fully involved in evaluating it and in working with the staff on an improved new plan.

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

40. Financial procedures are sound. Governors are effectively involved in financial decision making, monitoring and control. Good financial records are kept. All funding made available to the school is spent appropriately and the school checks its spending monthly against the statements it receives from the Local Education Authority. The governors and headteacher have a sound understanding of the principles of best value. They are beginning to extend this beyond purchasing resources to checking on the effect of spending on the standards the pupils reach. They have also made a good start on comparing their spending and results with those of other schools and on consulting with parents and the wider community to obtain their views of the school. Day to day routines are clearly established and the school’s administrator is very effective in ensuring that pressures are taken off the staff so that they may get on with teaching the pupils. She also supports the headteacher well and provides a

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

41. The leadership and management of special educational needs is good. The headteacher has taken over as co-ordinator since her appointment and brings much expertise to the post. She very quickly undertook an audit of the provision, brought the register up to date and re-organised the pupils’ files FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 22 effectively. All statutory reviews are in place and good use is made of external staff to guide and support the teachers in their work. The governor who has SEN responsibility supports the co-ordinator well and attends training with her to keep up to date with current thinking on this aspect of the school’s work. The SEN governor visits the school regularly to observe practice and has been appropriately involved in the clear action plan that is now in place to improve SEN provision. The plan realistically outlines what can be done immediately and sets a timetable for effective longer term improvement. The

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

funding made available to the school for SEN is used effectively to promote learning. The school adds to this funding from its own budget to provide additional hours for support assistants and additional relevant resources to improve progress.

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

42. The school has an appropriate number of teachers. The governors have ensured that there is a good number of well trained classroom assistants to help them with their work. All staff are deployed well and contribute effectively to pupils’ learning. Performance management procedures are satisfactory and have been appropriately implemented for all teaching staff. The objectives set have not been as closely allied to the school improvement plan as they might have been but there are clear plans in place to review and improve this situation in the next cycle. The classroom assistants have expressed their wish to be involved in performance management and this too is to be incorporated into the next round. Students and staff new to the school relatively recently speak highly of the well-planned provision that is in place for them. In particular they praised how helpful the other staff are and how well they are

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

supported to enable them to fit in with the ethos of the school.

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

43. The caretaker and his staff look after the school well. The accommodation is clean and well kept. Externally, it is good and supports the pupils’ learning well in, for example, environmental work and physical education accommodation, and there are extensive, well-appointed play areas. Internally, the open plan nature of the school results in noise intrusion from adjacent teaching areas that, even although it is working noise, is disruptive at times when another class is trying to do quiet work, for example in numeracy and in music. The teaching spaces for Years 5 and 6 are particularly small because of the large number of pupils in these two year groups. However, the governors are tackling these issues and planned improvements are scheduled to take place during the summer holidays this year. Library provision is poor. The library and the book stock are small and the use of the library is limited because the pupils have to go through a teaching area to gain access to it. However, library

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HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

skills are taught and the pupils benefit from the support of a governor who helps out in the library on a regular basis. Resources for learning are satisfactory in almost all subjects and are used well to support learning. Resources for physical education are good. All resources are used well to support learning. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 23

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

44. In order to raise standards further, the headteacher, governors and staff should:

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(1) Devise and implement an agreed whole school system of medium term planning that will avoid every teacher having to draw up their own, and that will ensure that the pupils’ learning is continuous and progressive from year to year. (Paragraphs: 21, 63, 67, 70, 74, 79, 82)

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(2) Devise and implement manageable ways of assessing the pupils’ learning and recording their achievement and attainment in all subjects. Use the information gained effectively to plan their further learning at individual, class and whole school levels. (Paragraphs: 20, 33, 58, 63, 67, 70, 74, 79, 82, 85, 88, 92)

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(3) As the realistic timetable for monitoring and evaluating each subject is implemented: - check that the curriculum co-ordinators have the appropriate skills to carry out their roles effectively, and fill any gaps in expertise that are found - check that the co-ordinators use the information they gain from evaluating teaching and learning, to draw up effective action plans to improve pupils’ attainment and achievement, to inform the school improvement plan and to draw up the medium term plans needed to reduce the burden of planning on individual teachers. (Paragraphs: 38, 59, 63, 67, 74, 77, 82, 85, 88, 92)

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(4) Improve the quality of teaching for pupils in Year 3. (Paragraphs: 7, 11, 14, 15, 57, 62, 81, 87)

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

The first three issues are already included in the school improvement plan.

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

In addition to the above issues, the governors should consider including the following minor issues in their Action Plan:

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

The unsatisfactory registrations procedures at the start of the school day ( Paragraph: 32 ) The poor library provision (Paragraphs: 6, 43, 54) The inconsistencies in presentation in different year groups in science (Paragraphs: 66) The low key approach to teaching about non-western European culture and the rich and diverse cultures in Britain today (Paragraphs: 29, 70) Completing the personal, social and health education policy (Paragraphs: 22, 31) FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 24

p.23

Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 41

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very Poor

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

The table gives the number and percentage of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about teaching. Care should be taken when interpreting these percentages as each lesson represents more than one percentage point. A further five lessons were observed but were not graded for teaching because either the observations were for less than thirty minutes, or the session observed was taken by a member of the support staff.

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 190

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of full-time pupils known to be eligible for free school meals 19

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs 3

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register 16

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with English as an additional language 2

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 23

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 15

p.24

Attendance

School data 5.3 School data 0.4 FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 25 National comparative data 5.6 National comparative data 0.5

p.24

Attendance

Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 26

p.25

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 1 for the latest reporting year 2001 8 16 24

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Boys - - - Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls - - -

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Percentage of pupils School 96 (95) 96 (95) 100 (95) at NC level 2 or above National 84 (83) 86 (84) 91 (90)

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Boys - - - Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls - - -

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

Percentage of pupils School 92 (95) 83 (95) 96 (95) at NC level 2 or above National 85 (84) 89 (88) 89 (88)

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2)*

*Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year.

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 2 for the latest reporting year 2001 13 15 28

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Boys 9 11 13 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 13 11 14

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Percentage of pupils School 79 (88) 79 (94) 96 (100) at NC level 4 or above National 75 (75) 71 (72) 87 (85)

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Boys 9 11 13 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 13 11 12

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Percentage of pupils School 79 (75) 79 (94) 90 (94) at NC level 4 or above National 72 (70) 74 (72) 82 (79)

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year.

p.26

Attainment at the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6)*

Where there are fewer than 10 boys or girls, the number of boys and girls has been omitted. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 27

p.26

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – Caribbean heritage 0 Black – Caribbean heritage 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – African heritage 0 Black – African heritage 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Any other minority ethnic group 2 Other minority ethnic groups

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

This table refers to pupils of compulsory school age only. This table gives the number of exclusions of pupils of compulsory school age, which may be different from the number of pupils excluded.

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 8 Financial year 2000/2001

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 23.8

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Education support staff: YR – Y6 Total income 372808

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 7 Total expenditure 379545

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 150 Expenditure per pupil 2121

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Balance brought forward from previous year 13944

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Balance carried forward to next year 7207

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers who left the school during the last two years 2

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers appointed to the school during the last two years 3

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Total number of vacant teaching posts (FTE) 0

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Number of vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of a term or more (FTE) 0.3

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Number of unfilled vacancies or vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of less than one term (FTE) 0

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

FTE means full-time equivalent. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 28

p.27

Results of the survey of parents and carers

Percentage of responses in each category

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

Strongly agree Tend to agree Tend to disagree Strongly disagree Don’t know

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

My child is making good progress in school. 56 40 4 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

Behaviour in the school is good. 48 52 0 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 46 46 6 2 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 46 50 4 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 70 30 0 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 76 24 0 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school works closely with parents. 56 42 0 0 2

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school is well led and managed. 58 34 0 0 8

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 64 30 6 0 0

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 44 32 4 2 18

p.28

Results of the survey of parents and carers

None FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 29

p.28

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

45. The children start school in the reception class in the September of the year in which they are five. The initial assessments carried out soon after they start, show that the attainment of the majority is as expected for their age. Good teaching, the very effective teamwork between the teacher and the nursery nurse, and a well-planned curriculum that is securely based on the national guidance for the Foundation Stage, ensure that the children have a good start to their education, that they make good progress and that they are well prepared for their work in Year 1 and beyond. The provision for these young children has improved considerably since the previous inspection. The teacher and nursery nurse have a very good understanding of how children of this age learn. They plan together, a very good range of learning activities that are firmly based on the children’s learning needs. In the vast majority of

p.29

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

lessons, teaching is lively and engaging, and generates a sense of curiosity in the children that makes them want to find out more. The children’s work in literacy and numeracy is effectively assessed throughout the year. The outcomes of the assessments are used well to determine the next stages of their learning. The vast majority of the children are on course to meet the nationally agreed early learning goals for the end of reception in communication, language and literacy and in mathematics. A small but significant number of children have already attained them and have been given considerably more demanding work in both areas. The majority of children are on course to exceed the early learning goals for personal, social and emotional development. Although the children’s achievement is not as well recorded, or as rigorously assessed throughout the year in knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development and creative development, the vast majority are on course to reach the

p.29

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

early learning goals in all three of these areas. The very effective partnership evident in the daily contact with parents ensures that parents are kept well informed about how their children are doing. The general time available at the start of the school day is used actively to promote parental involvement in the children’s learning, and those parents who can, spend time with their children on a range of activities set out ready for them.

p.29

Personal, social and emotional development

46. All children achieve very well in this area of learning. Good induction procedures and very effective teaching in this area ensure that it permeates all activities. As a result, good attitudes to learning are very effectively fostered from an early age and have a significantly positive impact on the children’s achievements in all areas of learning. The children know and follow the daily routines well. For example, at the start of a mathematics session, they moved quickly into the quiet area, picking up their number lines on the way, and sat down ready to listen. They demonstrate curiosity and enjoyment in learning and they behave well. They are attentive and listen carefully to the staff and to each other. They know the importance of working together but also work well independently when required to do so. For example, following a whole class session in a literacy lesson, the children were asked to discuss

p.29

Personal, social and emotional development

with each other how they would complete sentences to describe what Goldilocks looked like. They readily demonstrated their good thinking skills when, in response to the teacher’s questions, they offered that they needed to think of a good idea, lock it in their heads, use their alphabet cards to write it down, and finally read what they have written to their partner, to check whether or not their sentence made sense. They then carried out all of these procedures very well, resulting in good quality written work. In this very good lesson, the teacher sensitively picked up on one child’s observation that Goldilocks was not keeping herself safe because she had gone into a stranger’s house. This was successfully developed into a short discussion consolidating previous work on being aware of the dangers of approaching or talking to strangers. There is a good balance of adult input and children’s choice in ‘choosing time’. The children are carefully guided around the different activities available

p.29

Personal, social and emotional development

FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 30 throughout the week and good records are kept to ensure that all children experience all that is on offer. The children readily accept the responsibility placed on them to work without constant direct adult supervision in choosing time and are clearly delighted to share what they are doing with each other and with adults. For example, two children were keen to show an inspector their letters to Goldilocks, which they had chosen to write in the writing corner. They were anxious to show not only how well they could form their letters and that they had a good understanding of where to place the address, greeting, and signature in a letter, but also how they had used the big book to find the words they needed in order to spell them correctly. The children respond well to the teacher’s exhortation to put their hands up before answering so that all can hear each other’s responses, and readily share

p.30

Personal, social and emotional development

equipment and help each other with their work.

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

47. Achievement is good in this area of learning because the children are taught well and are actively encouraged to use their communication, language and literacy skills in all of their work. The staff take advantage of every opportunity to promote good speaking and listening skills. As a result, the children listen carefully to what they are being told and to what other children are saying, and contribute readily and confidently to class, group and paired discussions. The majority have a good range of vocabulary that enables them to express themselves clearly, for example, as they talked about the different characters in the Goldilocks story, and as they helped each other to plot the directions on a floor robot when estimating how far it had to go to get Goldilocks from her own house to the three bears’ house. The majority of children know the alphabet, and have a secure knowledge and understanding of the

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

difference between the sounds that various letters make, and the names of the letters. The teacher’s good use of praise and encouragement sensitively develops the lower attaining children’s ability to differentiate, for example, between the letter ‘p’ and the letter ‘d’, which some are still confusing when asked to find them on their letter fans. All of the children enjoy listening to and reading stories. The majority know a good range of commonly used words, and make good use of phonics to work out the words that are unfamiliar to them. For example, during a shared reading session, when faced with a word they did not know, their response to the teacher’s question about how to work it out was that they needed to ‘sound it out’ and ‘stretch it’ in order to break it down first. The majority also try hard and often successfully work out what the words are from the clues that are in the pictures that accompany

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

the text. The children handle books correctly, and are secure about the difference between the written word and a picture. They eagerly offer to read back what they have written and most do so confidently and accurately. Almost all children form letters correctly, although all letters are not yet of a consistent size. Lower attaining children make good attempts at writing words and sentences, although they do not always space the words out correctly to make their writing more legible. Higher attainers write legibly and accurately use joining words such as ‘and’ and ‘but’ to combine different ideas in more complex sentences. The children who have learning difficulties are well supported in learning to write. They either make reasonable attempts at writing themselves, and the staff then write out what they are trying to say so that they see how it should look; or they dictate their ideas to the staff, who then write

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

them down for the children to copy so that they get more practice at forming letters correctly and writing legibly.

p.30

Mathematical development

48. The children achieve well in number, again, because the quality of teaching is good. Together, they accurately recite the numbers 1 to 20, reading the number line correctly. Using their individual number lines, the majority point accurately to numbers that the teacher calls out at random, showing that they have good visual recognition of number. They readily explain how, if they are unsure, they work out where the number is likely to be by, for example, counting on one by one, from a number that they do know. The teacher introduces them effectively to the correct mathematical vocabulary as, for example, FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 31 she invites the children to explain how they arrived at their answers, talks about the interesting strategies that different children use to arrive at their answers, ensures they understand what a strategy is, and stresses the importance of using different strategies to arrive at a more secure understanding of

p.30

Mathematical development

how to use number. Good personal skills are reinforced as the children are asked to show a partner ‘one more than’ a given number on their number lines prior to showing the teacher and/or nursery nurse. Both staff quickly assess the accuracy of the answers and offer good support to those who find the concept difficult, so that all children make good progress in their learning. The majority of children cope well with ‘one more than’ problems up to 10. Higher attainers are appropriately challenged to find ‘one more than’ using numbers up to 20, and all other children in the class also make reasonable attempts at some of the answers to these problems. The children’s understanding of ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ is effectively consolidated in a whole class session at the end of the lesson in which they sing an action song, counting up and answering questions such as ‘how many are left’? Listening to and

p.31

Mathematical development

singing number songs are also part of the choosing activities so that number skills can be further reinforced. Although understandably, there is a clear emphasis on number, the children’s work shows that they also have an appropriate understanding of shape, space and measure. Their mathematical development is further consolidated in activities such as puzzles, sorting, matching and creating block graphs to show favourite items in the class, and through the activities prepared for them and their parents to work through together in general time at the start of the school day.

p.31

Knowledge and understanding of the world

49. The children are effectively taught and they achieve well in this area of learning. Their scientific knowledge and understanding are good. They demonstrate good memory recall as they respond well to the teacher’s carefully focused questions about their previous work. Their contributions are used effectively as the starting point for further work on growing. The teacher works hard to persuade those children who have strong ideas to discuss chores and come to some agreement about the growing medium they will select. This contributes very effectively to their personal development. As the pupils discussed amongst themselves whether cotton wool, sand, compost and paper will allow the seeds to grow and which will not, they remained interested and busy, clearly enjoying their work. They made sensible predictions about what might happen, and were eager to set up the investigation so see whether they were right. The teaching of ICT is well structured and the children work at the

p.31

Knowledge and understanding of the world

computers in turn, following a whole class input from the teacher. They use the mouse confidently and control it well because the teacher shows them how and explains that they may move the mouse to the most comfortable position for them, for example, if they are left-handed. In a very good session with the nursery nurse, her very effective organisation and her patient explanations ensured that all of the pupils clearly understood how to program a floor robot. She built well on their prior learning by asking one child to explain to another how to start, and as the child gave instructions, she successfully encouraged the others to evaluate whether the instructions would work. This enabled all of the children to be included in the activity and they very quickly learned from each other and from each other’s mistakes, for example, when the distance estimated was incorrect and the robot had to be programmed

p.31

Knowledge and understanding of the world

to go further, or to turn a corner. An analysis of the children’s work, the planning for this area of learning, and the photographs of what they had done previously, show that their historical and geographical skills are appropriately developed through activities such as looking at changes that have taken place since they were babies, constructing weather maps and learning about their immediate environment. The children also have experience of planning and making different constructions using blocks, and of baking, which activities prepare them well for their later work in design and technology. Through the well-planned religious education aspect of this area of learning, they learn about Christianity through celebrating festivals such as Easter, harvest and Christmas, and by listening to stories from the Bible. They are also introduced to Judaism, Hinduism and Islam through celebrations such as Hanuka, Diwali and Eid.

p.31

Knowledge and understanding of the world

FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 32

p.32

Physical development

50. The children achieve well in physical education, and the quality of teaching is very good in this area of learning. No time is wasted as they jog into the hall having already started their warm up exercises, which conclude with bending and stretching exercises which they understand prepares their muscles for more rigorous physical exercise. The children use space well and move round the hall with control and due attention to their own and others’ safety. For example, the majority walked with poise and balance, stood on one leg, knelt and sat with beanbags on their heads. About half of the children throw and catch balls successfully, following the good example of the staff, who demonstrate very clearly how to throw and catch successfully. In the lesson observed, additional time was afforded to those who found the activity more difficult and the staff circulated effectively, helping the children to improve their

p.32

Physical development

technique. For the more able children, additional challenge was added to catch the ball with one hand while keeping the other behind their backs. They found this hard but persevered well. The children respond very well to the challenges set. They listen carefully, follow instructions and try hard, paying heed to the safety aspects that the teacher points out, such as taking care to throw only when their partner is ready, and directly into their hands. The children’s very good attitudes and behaviour contribute very well to their successful learning. A relaxing series of exercises that included the importance of breathing correctly concluded a very good lesson and resulted in the pupils returning to class, changing quickly and being ready for their next lesson. The majority demonstrate good fine motor skills as they dress themselves, fastening buttons and zips on trousers and skirts, and putting on and

p.32

Physical development

fastening their shoes. However, a small minority still need considerable help with these activities and the staff are skilled at assisting them without doing things for them. This fosters their independent skills well. The majority of children also demonstrate good fine motor skills as they use pencils, paintbrushes, scissors and undertake an appropriate range of cutting, gluing and pasting activities. The good outdoor provision to which the children have regular planned access enhances their physical development skills.

p.32

Creative development

51. Achievement is good in this area, and again, is the result of good teaching. The children sing well, know the names of the most common percussion instruments and how to play them. The good teaching ensures that the children successfully learn how to use their instruments to depict the different characters in a story, for example, the three bears in the story of Goldilocks. Here, the teacher helped the children to explore different ways of playing and further consolidated their knowledge of high and low sounds, encouraging them to explain the reasons for their choice of instrument. The freedom of choice offered in an art activity that involved drawing and colouring flowers resulted in some children choosing to work with pastels while others chose to work with paint or with coloured sticky paper. They demonstrated very good observational skills and worked hard to make accurate representations of the petals as seen through a magnifying glass. The children demonstrated good conversational skills

p.32

Creative development

as they talked about their work in art and in music, with each other and with the teacher. The children also successfully engage in simple role play activities and benefit from visits out of school and visitors into school that further enhance their learning in this area.

p.32

ENGLISH

52. The majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 exceed the national expectation for their age. They achieve well throughout the school. In 2001, the results of the National Curriculum tests for pupils in Year 6 were above the national average and matched the average for similar schools. For pupils in Year 2, the reading results were above the national average but below those of similar schools. The results for writing were well above the national average and above those of schools. Over the last three years, the trend in the school’s results has matched the national trend. The different results in different year groups are a reflection of the fluctuating numbers on the special educational FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 33 needs register and the significant proportion of pupils that join the school in Years 5 and 6, often with lower levels of prior attainment than the rest of the class.

p.32

ENGLISH

53. The majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 acquire good speaking and listening skills. They listen well to their teachers during the literacy hour and respond eagerly and thoughtfully to the teachers’ questions. They listen carefully to other pupils and, when asked to do so, discuss their work effectively in pairs or small groups, organising their talk well so that all pupils participate. They readily accept the responsibility that such independence places upon them by keeping to the topic to be discussed, and by listening to and learning from each other. In shared work and in the whole class sessions at the ends of lessons, the pupils express and develop their ideas and views well, reflecting carefully on what others say and continuing discussions in a logical way. The pupils also use their speaking and listening skills effectively in other subjects, responding well to the good range of well-structured opportunities offered

p.33

ENGLISH

to them to do so. This work contributes well to their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

p.33

ENGLISH

54. The majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 reach good standards of attainment in reading. They read fluently and expressively. They enjoy reading, summarise accurately the outline of what they are reading, and talk about stories they have read in the past. However, a small number of pupils in Year 2 do not read fluently but try hard and respond well when the teacher reads for them, successfully modelling how a text should be read. The pupils know the difference between fiction and non-fiction and express their preferences clearly. They read regularly at home to adults and other siblings, who make good use of the home/school reading diaries to note any significant comments for the teacher. They also read regularly to teachers and other adults in school, and the good records kept show that they achieve well. Reading continues to improve between Year 3 and Year 6. In the literacy hour, the pupils read a good range of fiction and non-fiction texts, written for different purposes. This has a

p.33

ENGLISH

positive impact on their personal development as they learn to consider how people look at and record events in different ways, expressing their particular views, from their own experiences. For example, pupils in Year 4 read and discussed a story that illustrated conflict and dilemma. The pupils read effectively as a whole class and as individuals, and use their reading skills well in other subjects. The majority read fluently and accurately, with expression and understanding. They have a good knowledge of how to find information from books and use the contents and index pages competently. The pupils receive good support from the literacy governor who comes to school to support the development of library skills. However, the library provision is poor. The size and location of the library prevents easy access by pupils and inhibits its use. The book stock is small, although the condition and quality of books

p.33

ENGLISH

55. The majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 reach good standards of attainment in writing. The pupils in Year 2 write neatly and legibly, forming letters that are consistent in size and spacing words appropriately. Most use capital letters and full stops accurately and a significant minority also use commas and exclamation marks correctly to develop intonation and emphasis. The pupils write stories, poems, recipes, lists, and letters showing a good range of vocabulary and using language appropriate to the form in which they are writing. In Year 6, the majority of pupils have a well-formed style of joined- up writing and the layout and presentation of their work is good. They use the drafting and redrafting process well to ensure that they produce a good final version of their work. The pupils write for an appropriate range of audiences and purposes. For example, pupils in Year 4 wrote carefully considered

p.33

ENGLISH

arguments with supportive evidence on the reasons why children should go to school. Following the study of a poem, higher attaining pupils in Year 6 showed deep, thoughtful responses to it, and a mature understanding of the subtleties of the poet’s humour. The pupils’ imaginative writing is frequently of very good quality. For example, when writing about aliens, one pupil in Year 6 wrote, ‘…an ungovernable terror arose in my mind…’. Spelling is mostly accurate throughout the school and punctuation is used correctly. The pupils successfully use and consolidate their writing skills in other FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 34 subjects. A particularly good example is the perceptive personal responses that pupils in Year 4 wrote after studying pictures by different artists.

p.33

ENGLISH

56. Pupils with special educational needs make good progress towards their IEP targets because of their teachers’ careful planning for and good use of dedicated classroom support assistants. The assistants have a good understanding of the purpose of the lessons, prepare good quality resources for these pupils and help them make good use of the lesson time. The school is involved in a ‘Speech and Language Improvement’ project for pupils in Year 1 and uses this very effectively to improve the pupils’ speech and language skills. A highly committed, well-trained classroom support assistant leads this project. Other classroom support assistants have also undertaken training to enable the school to extend the very positive impact the project has had on the Year 1 pupils’ achievement, to the rest of the school. The school has a clear policy for the identification of high achievers, gifted and talented pupils. Most teachers plan appropriate extension work for these pupils and ensure they work at the

p.34

ENGLISH

levels of which they are capable. The school ensures that all pupils are included in all English activities. It is working hard and successfully with a recently arrived Russian pupil, enabling that pupil to gain sufficient command of the English language to be able to participate appropriately in all lessons.

p.34

ENGLISH

57. The quality of teaching is good. Some excellent teaching was observed in Year 4 and some very good teaching in Year 1 and Year 6. The very good and excellent teaching ensured that the pupils successfully extended their good knowledge of language and used it effectively in their work. For example in the Year 6 lesson, the teacher very successfully engaged the pupils in a discussion about causal connectives, which enabled the pupils to analyse and improve their writing. In the Year 4 lesson, the teacher used the shared text successfully to illustrate how the author used language to for emphasis. She used her own very secure subject knowledge very effectively to probe pupils’ thinking, making them work productively to analyse the text in depth, by discussing the dilemma facing the characters. As a result, the pupils successfully learned to articulate, using a good range of vocabulary, some very complex views and to infer from the text, ideas that were not explicitly stated. In contrast,

p.34

ENGLISH

teaching was unsatisfactory in a Year 3 lesson. Here, the inappropriate use of resources and the slow pace of the lesson resulted in too many pupils not being engaged in learning at different parts of the lesson and consequently achieving little. For example, the teacher did not explain personal and possessive pronouns clearly enough. Therefore, when the pupils moved back to their tables to complete the worksheets they were given, too many were unsure of what they were doing and did not increase their understanding of pronouns.

p.34

ENGLISH

58. The National Literacy Strategy forms the basis for the school’s planning and for the most part, this is used effectively to plan appropriate activities for all groups of pupils. In almost all lessons, the learning objectives are shared with the pupils so they are clear about the purpose and direction of their learning. Good use is made of ICT to support teaching and learning in English. For example, the pupils in Year 2 successfully highlighted text on the computer screen to help them make notes in their books. In the Year 6 class, the teacher projected the text on to an interactive whiteboard and pupils came to the board to highlight text. This added interest as well as allowing pupils to modify their responses. The teachers assess the pupils’ learning well and mark their work effectively on a day-to-day basis. They use this information to set individual targets that help the pupils tackle their weaknesses. The National

p.34

ENGLISH

Curriculum and other test results are analysed, and predictions are made as to the levels the pupils are likely to reach by Year 6. However, the analysis does not include identifying areas for development at whole school level, or checking that the pupils are achieving as well as they can within their year group and from year to year. Homework is used well to consolidate and extend pupils’ learning.

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ENGLISH

59. The leadership and management of English are satisfactory. The co-ordinator has appropriate knowledge of pupils’ attainment in Year 2 and Year 6, as well as a clear picture of resource needs. The National Literacy Strategy has been successfully implemented and has brought about good FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 35 improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, both of which are satisfactorily evaluated. It includes observations and advice from the Local Education Authority consultant, as a result of which the school took appropriate steps to improve speaking and listening and the use of the whole class session at the end of the literacy hour. The new headteacher has already drawn up a programme for the co-ordinator to undertake more frequent and systematic monitoring of the subject, and the literacy governor visits the school weekly to keep up-to-date with developments. There has been good

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ENGLISH

improvement in English since the last inspection.

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MATHEMATICS

60. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 matches the national expectation. Throughout the school, the pupils achieve well in mathematics. In 2001, the National Curriculum test results for pupils in Year 6 were above the national average but below the average for similar schools. The pupils’ attainment is not as high as in previous years. This is the result of a significant proportion of pupils joining the school in Years 5 and 6, most of whom are on the register for special educational needs. Additionally, both year groups have a higher proportion of pupils with special educational needs than is usually found in the school. The National Curriculum test results for pupils in Year 2 in 2001 were well above the national average and above the average for similar schools. Records show that the pupils currently in Year 2 started school with levels of attainment lower than those of pupils in previous year groups.

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MATHEMATICS

61. The quality of teaching is good and fosters in the pupils positive attitudes to learning that make a major impact on the good achievement evident throughout the school for pupils of all levels of prior attainment. Almost all teachers plan and organise their lessons well so that the pupils work productively and make effective use of the time available to them. The teachers effectively challenge the pupils’ thinking and develop their mathematical knowledge and understanding through well-targeted, probing questioning. The way that teachers and classroom assistants work effectively as a team means that the pupils receive a high proportion of direct teaching that results in a high work rate. The teachers use their good knowledge and understanding of the National Numeracy Strategy to set challenging work for pupils of different abilities, including higher attainers, which is an improvement since the previous inspection. In

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MATHEMATICS

Years 1 and 2, the teachers place strong emphasis on developing pupils’ basic skills in mathematics through practical activities. For example, in a Year 1 lessons, the pupils physically handled and effectively discussed a number of two-dimensional shapes to find out about their properties. The effective teaching ensures that the mental mathematics session at the start of each mathematics lesson proceeds at a brisk pace that effectively promotes rapid mental recall of number facts. For example, pupils in Year 2 demonstrated good knowledge of their five times table, and of numbers that come before and after a given number, when counting in fives. There is a natural integration of mathematics into classroom activities and pupils effectively develop their skills of recognising and using simple patterns and relationships. This was apparent in a lesson in Year 2 in which pupils were investigating how to use ‘Venn’ diagrams to solve problems. The majority of pupils in Year 2 use accurately an

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MATHEMATICS

appropriate range of strategies to solve problems. They confidently use the correct mathematical vocabulary to talk about what they are doing, and to explain the methods used to find their answers. They respond well to the many opportunities presented to them to work together to solve problems. This effectively supports their personal and social development. Pupils use their literacy skills effectively to support their work in mathematics as they read questions and then discuss strategies for finding solutions. They use their numeracy skills effectively in other subjects, as was observed, for example, in Year 6 science work on research into the solar system, in which the pupils had to find the size of the planets and their distance from the sun. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 36 62. The emphasis on learning through practical activities continues in Years 3 to 6. The teachers use their

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MATHEMATICS

good subject knowledge to provide clear explanations of their high expectations of what the pupils are to do. They also demonstrate new learning and techniques well, so that pupils are clear about what they are to learn and how to set about their activities. A good example of this was in a lesson for pupils in Year 4, in which the teacher’s expertise enabled the pupils to make good progress in their understanding that angles are measured in degrees and that one whole turn is 360 degrees or four right angles. In this lesson, as in most others, the pupils listened attentively whilst explanations were being given, were well behaved and showed a great deal of interest and enjoyment in their work. Throughout the school, the pupils make good use of and share with others, the adequate and readily accessible range of mathematical resources and equipment. The exception was in Year 3, when the teacher’s inability to

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MATHEMATICS

manage the inappropriate behaviour of a minority of pupils and the lack of sufficient challenge in the activities led to pupils, especially the higher attainers, losing interest and not making the progress of which they were capable. The quality of teaching was unsatisfactory in this lesson. Apart from this year group, the mental starter is used effectively to develop pupils’ rapid recall skills. The majority of pupils in Year 6 are competent in using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and have an appropriate knowledge and understanding of fractions and decimals and how to use them to solve problems. They have secure mental recall skills and are proficient in their ability to explain their strategies for working out answers to problems. Teachers make satisfactory use of ICT to enhance pupils’ work, and the school is rightly looking at ways of developing further this aspect of the subject. A good example of its

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MATHEMATICS

use was observed in Year 6, when the pupils were using computers to create and interpret frequency graphs from data collected the previous day. The teachers use the National Numeracy Strategy appropriately to plan their work. Pupils’ work is appropriately assessed through satisfactory marking on a day-to-day basis and homework is used effectively to consolidate and extend pupils’ learning.

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MATHEMATICS

63. The temporary co-ordinator for mathematics, a part time teacher, is leading and managing the subject satisfactorily during this school year, until a new co-ordinator is appointed to replace the one who left last summer. The quality and range of the curriculum is good and the emphasis on practical, investigative work promotes effective learning across all aspects of the subject. The setting arrangements for pupils with SEN in Years 5 and 6, and for higher attaining pupils in Years 4 and 5, are effective in enabling these pupils to achieve well and to reach the standards of which they are capable. This was evident in an excellent lesson given by the head teacher, for pupils with SEN in Year 6, in which her expertise resulted in greatly increasing their ability to follow rules and instructions, and to recognise and use formulae to provide shortcuts to solving mathematical problems. There has been

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MATHEMATICS

some appropriate evaluation of teaching and learning in mathematics but the co-ordinator’s role in this is underdeveloped. The new headteacher has already drawn up a programme for the regular and systematic monitoring of the subject from the start of the next school year. The recent improvements in short term planning show that account is taken of prior learning when new work is planned. However, there is no whole school approach to medium term planning, and little in the way of effective analyses of National Curriculum and other test results, to provide information about the strengths and weaknesses that need to be tackled at whole school level. Assessment information is not used well to set targets at this level, or for individual pupils. One effect of this is that insufficient emphasis is placed on the pupils’ acquisition of mathematical vocabulary to help them learn and remember the extensive

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MATHEMATICS

vocabulary recommended within the National Numeracy Strategy. In addition, although predictions are made about the levels the pupils are likely to reach by the time they are in year 6, there is no effective tracking of their learning from year to year to ensure that they are on course to meet the predictions. The accommodation is cramped and inevitably, because of the layout of the school, there are sometimes intrusive noise levels from adjoining areas that interrupt the pupils’ concentration. There has been good improvement made in provision since the last inspection.

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SCIENCE

FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 37 64. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 matches the national expectation and throughout the school, achievement is good. In 2001, the National Curriculum test results for pupils in Year 6 were well above the national average and well above the results found in similar schools. The teacher assessments for pupils in Year 2 in 2001 showed attainment to be above the national average and to match the results for similar schools. The attainment of the pupils currently in Year 2 and Year 6 is not as high as in previous years for the same reasons as those given in the opening paragraph for mathematics.

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SCIENCE

65. The quality of teaching is good. The teachers’ high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and work rate effectively fosters in the pupils good attitudes to learning and promotes their personal development well. This in turn contributes well to the productivity seen in lessons because the pupils take responsibility for their work, concentrate well on what they have to do and work together effectively to carry out the good range of practical, investigative activities that are well prepared for them. The teachers use their good subject knowledge to plan challenging and interesting work that effectively includes pupils of all levels of prior attainment. The pupils in Years 1 and 2 make close observations and record their findings in a variety of appropriate ways, using their thinking and writing skills effectively to do so. This was particularly evident in the work of pupils in Year 1 as they investigated which parts of plants could be

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SCIENCE

eaten and which could not. The pupils showed good knowledge and understanding of the similarities and differences between the plants and record their findings appropriately on a chart. The pupils in Year 2 handle a variety of simple scientific equipment carefully and safely because their teacher emphasises the importance of this in scientific work. They participate confidently in discussions about scientific issues, for example, about how medicines are useful but can be harmful if misused. The teachers effectively encourage good levels of curiosity and enjoyment in practical work and as a result, the pupils are very keen to answer questions and contribute to discussions. They use their speaking and listening skills well when doing so. The majority of pupils in Year 2 show secure skills in carrying out a simple, fair test.

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SCIENCE

66. The teachers of pupils in Years 3 to 6 provide increasingly challenging opportunities for the pupils to learn how to use a wider variety of scientific equipment and resources. They continue to emphasise the basic skill of scientific investigation and make greater demands on the pupils to record their results accurately and in the most appropriate way. The pupils respond well to these challenges by communicating their findings clearly. They make particularly good use of their writing skills to present their findings effectively in, for example, reports, lists, charts and collections of data, and in labelled scientific drawings and diagrams. The teachers use questioning techniques skilfully to explore and develop pupils’ scientific knowledge and understanding. For example, in a Year 4 lesson on investigating how exercise affects pulse rate, the pupils used their previous knowledge and understanding of how to

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SCIENCE

carry out a fair test to support their learning. The teachers provide many opportunities for pupils to work collaboratively in well-structured practical activities to find out information for themselves, which enables them to make effective progress in their investigative skills, and to become more independent in their learning. This makes a good contribution to the pupils’ personal and social development. However, the cramped accommodation sometimes makes it difficult to carry out practical investigations and at times the noise level from adjacent areas, albeit working noise, interrupts the pupils’ concentration. The pupils use their numeracy skills well in science. For example, as pupils in Year 6 investigated how air pressure influences the rate of fall of a parachute, they took accurate measurements of time. Role-play is also used effectively in science. For example, in a good Year 6 lesson, the pupils’ interest was

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SCIENCE

heightened and they reached a greater understanding of how, as it circulates, blood carries oxygen, food and waste around the body because of the effective way in which the teacher engaged the whole class in a practical, role-play demonstration of this. The majority of pupils in Year 6 show appropriate ability to identify the need for a fair test and to be able to plan and carry one out independently of the teacher. Throughout the school, the pupils occasionally use ICT to enhance their work. Pupils in Year 6, for example, have used the Internet to find information about famous scientists such as Galileo and Sir Isaac FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 38 Newton, but this is an area for further development. The lack of a whole school approach to how pupils record their work means there are different formats, such as a specific science book, a folder or a topic book, being used in different classes. This leads to confusion amongst the pupils and a lack of continuity

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SCIENCE

from year to year in the teachers’ expectations of the pupils with regard to presentation. Throughout the school, pupils with SEN make good progress because the teachers plan well for them and make very good use of the effective classroom support assistants to support the pupils’ learning.

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SCIENCE

67. The leadership and management of science are satisfactory. The curriculum is well planned and has recently been enhanced by the school’s involvement in a Local Education Authority project to improve pupils’ thinking skills in science in Year 1. The success of this project, alongside the language project, is such that there are now clear plans to extend the ways of working and the methods of teaching to the rest of the school. Some monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning has taken place but it has not been regular or systematic. However, there are already plans in place to address this through a well- structured programme to begin in the next school year. Some improvements have recently taken place in short term planning, which now ensures that the work planned for the pupils builds effectively on their prior learning. However, because there is no whole school approach to medium term planning,

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SCIENCE

each teacher spends an unnecessary amount of time devising his/her own plans. The outcomes of the National Curriculum and other tests are used appropriately to predict what level the pupils will attain in Year 6. However, assessment procedures are not effective in enabling the school to monitor well enough whether the pupils are on course to reach those levels. The analysis of the test results does not yet extend to identifying and tackling areas for improvement for the school as a whole. Overall, however, there has been good improvement in science since the last inspection.

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ART AND DESIGN

68. The majority of pupils exceed the national expectation for art and design at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 and they achieve well throughout the school. This represents good improvement since the last inspection. An overall judgement on teaching is not being given because it was possible to observe only two art and design lessons during the inspection, one in Year 1, where a classroom support assistance was working effectively with the pupils, and one in Year 6, in which the teaching was very good. The judgements on attainment and achievement are firmly based on the good evidence available from talking to the pupils, and from the pupils’ sketchbooks, the work on display around the school, and that being collated in the school portfolio (the ‘art box’).

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ART AND DESIGN

69. The Year 6 work showed very good attention to detail, and in a significant minority of the work, some accurate representations of buildings showing the good use of perspective to create a feeling of looking into the drawing. A group of pupils working with the classroom support assistant used watercolour well. They had a good understanding of how to use the wash technique and how to add colour gradually to show, for example, the varying colours in the sky and in the landscape. One pupil’s work also showed the effective use of different shades of green to create the effect of each field in the picture being further away then the previous one. The teacher’s very effective questioning promoted the pupils to evaluate their work well and to suggest ways of improving it by, for example, paying even closer attention to what they saw and using line and tone more effectively to create their desired effect. Additionally, the whole class session at the end of the lesson provided very good opportunities

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ART AND DESIGN

for the pupils to assess and evaluate each other’s work in an atmosphere of confidence and mutual respect. The teacher dealt with this sensitively so that all pupils could be involved at a level at which they felt comfortable. This contributed in great measure to their personal development and self-esteem. Throughout the school, the pupils use their sketchbooks well to try out ideas. The sketchbooks in Years 1 and 2 record good evidence of work in pencil and pastel, including effective use of blending, and of work on texture, gained from taking rubbings of, for example, bricks, drain covers, planters and tree trunks. The pupils in Years 3 to 6 use their literacy skills effectively in the labelled sketches that FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 39 provide good evidence of their thinking skills as they design their work. The pupils are encouraged to collect photographs and artefacts to support their art and design work but sketchbooks are not used as

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ART AND DESIGN

effectively to collect these to show how they influenced the pupils’ subsequent work. Work on display around the school provides good evidence of the successful development of observational work in all age groups, and includes effective pencil representations of different types of footwear, as well as very effective colour mixing as a result of very good observational drawings and paintings of spring flowers.

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ART AND DESIGN

70. The subject is well led and managed. The co-ordinator uses her own very secure subject knowledge effectively to provide good guidance for her colleagues. Art and design makes a very good contribution to the pupils’ spiritual development, a good contribution to their moral and social development, and a satisfactory contribution to their cultural development. Year 4 pupils use their writing skills very effectively to record perceptive personal responses to the work of a good range of artists from different times and places. However, most pictures used are by western European artists and insufficient attention is given to exploring work from a wider cultural background. Evidence in the school portfolio shows clearly that the pupils’ learning benefits from a good range of worthwhile activities that includes textile work, printing, and work in two and three dimensions, on different scales. Although assessment is not yet fully in place throughout the school, work is well under way on

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ART AND DESIGN

assigning levels to the work in the school portfolio to provide additional guidance in this area. However, pupils’ learning is not well enough recorded to provide a secure evidence base from which the teachers can write their annual reports or make the assessments required by the National Curriculum in Year 2 and Year 6. Recent improvements have led to a whole school format for short term planning but individual teachers are still planning lessons for a full term using different styles and formats. It is therefore difficult to track pupils’ learning throughout the school to ensure that it is both continuous and progressive. The pupils use ICT appropriately to enhance their work in art and design. They also benefit from visits to a local art gallery and to museums, and from their occasional work with visiting artists.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

71. Although only one lesson was seen during the inspection, evidence from pupils’ work, teachers’ planning, displays of work and discussions with pupils enable a secure judgement to be made that the attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 exceeds the national expectation. The pupils achieve well throughout the school. This represents satisfactory improvement since the last inspection.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

72. A good range of work is successfully undertaken and pupils in all age groups make good quality artefacts, selecting and using an appropriately wide range of tools and materials. For example, the pupils in Years 1 and 2 have used soft materials to make beds for their teddy bears. They developed, planned and communicated their ideas well prior to making the beds. There are good links with other subjects that are used well to provide starting points for design and technology activities. For example, the pupils in Years 1 and 2 made a large bridge structure to get the lighthouse keeper’s lunch across the sea following a story about lighthouse keepers in their literacy lessons. In Years 3 and 4, good links were made with history and art and design as the pupils made masks for a Greek play. In the same year groups, the pupils made sandwiches to a given budget, within clearly defined health requirements.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Displays of work made a good contribution to the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the process required in design and technology. For example, a display of slippers made by pupils in Year 6 was accompanied by the pupils’ original paper plans and by a detailed evaluation of the finished product. This is an effective and interesting way of displaying the finished artefacts and reinforcing the different elements of the process.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

73. No overall judgement is made about teaching because it was possible to observe only one lesson during the course of the inspection, in Year 4. In this lesson, the quality of teaching was good. Pupils were FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 40 asked to design a device to protect a large silver box. The lesson was well-planned and the good classroom management and organisation made it possible for the pupils to work on different stages of the design and making process. The teacher made high demands of the pupils in terms of work rate and behaviour, and they rose to the challenge by concentrating hard, behaving well and working productively throughout the lesson. Their positive attitudes contributed in great measure to their good achievement and they worked together well to make the best possible use of the available time. The teacher’s clear explanations ensured that all pupils clearly understood the process and mad sensible

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

choices of the materials and tools they required prior to beginning their practical work. A good quality work sheet led the pupils clearly through the evaluation process and successfully enabled them to take some responsibility for their own learning, evaluating it against the worksheet as they proceeded. The pupils had a good understanding of how to use a range of switches, for example, slide, tilt, and pressure worked. They evaluated the effectiveness of them well, stating clearly the advantages and limitations of each, and used ICT effectively to support their work. For example, one group worked at the computer writing short procedures to activate switches, supported well by the classroom assistant.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

74. The leadership and management of the subject are good. The co-ordinator understands the subject well and provides good quality support through checking teachers’ planning. This has had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and achievement. There has been very little evaluation of teaching and learning although the new headteacher has already drawn up a programme for this to be done regularly and systematically from the beginning of the next school year. A scheme of work, based on national guidelines forms the basis of a whole school curriculum plan. However, while all teachers undertake detailed medium term planning, this is not done to an agreed format. This makes it difficult to track whether all pupils are learning as well as they can throughout the year and from year to year. There are good links with the local technology college that support pupils’ learning well by allowing access to their more sophisticated tools and resources. Despite the many good features, however, the pupils’

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

progress in learning is not adequately recorded and there are no agreed whole school assessment procedures in place.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

75. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 matches the national expectation for their age in both subjects. The quality of teaching is satisfactory overall and sometimes good in history, and contributes to the pupils’ good achievement in that subject. There was not enough evidence on which to make a secure judgement on the quality of teaching in geography, although evidence from the pupils’ work shows that they also achieve well in that subject. Pupils with special educational needs make good progress because the good support they receive in lessons from the classroom assistants in particular, enables them to participate fully in all learning activities.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

76. In history, the teachers use their secure subject knowledge effectively to organise and manage their lessons and to ensure that the pupils make good use of the time available to them. The pupils respond well by working hard and concentrating well throughout the lesson. The teachers skilfully question the pupils to find out what they know or have remembered and adapt work appropriately to meet the learning needs of the different groups they teach. All pupils are effectively involved in lessons and are given suitably demanding work to do. The teachers explain clearly to the pupils what they are expected to learn in a lessons and emphasise appropriately the correct use of historical vocabulary. As a result, the pupils communicate their findings confidently and accurately. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 gain a sound understanding of the passage of time by listening to stories about the past and of famous people.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

Previous learning is appropriately consolidated through the use of books, photographs and historical artefacts, and the pupils become more perceptive at recognising the similarities and differences in the way people lived in the past compared to the present. For example, in a good lesson with pupils in Year 1, after watching a video, the pupils competently compared seaside holidays today with those a hundred FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 41 years ago. They identified differences in the type and amount of traffic, in the clothes worn, and in the kind of things people do on holidays. In a Year 2 lesson on the Great Fire of London, the teacher’s explanation and use of a variety of pictures, enabled the pupils to gain a satisfactory understanding of why the fire spread so quickly. Between Years 3 and 6, the pupils become increasingly better at using a wider range of evidence to find out about the past and how things change over a period of time. For

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

example, older pupils understand the significance of historical artefacts and the need to study them carefully to find what they tell about the past. In a Year 5 lesson, the teacher’s clear introduction and the provision of a good range of books enabled the pupils successfully to identify the major changes that have taken place since 1948 in, for example, fashion, sport and recreation. They pupils showed appropriate historical enquiry skills in this work. Pupils in Year 6 showed a secure understanding of the ‘Black Death’ and its effect on the population of the village of Eyam. In this lesson, the teacher effectively demonstrated to pupils how they could use the Internet to find out information about this period in history. In all lessons the pupils’ attitudes to learning were positive, being able to sustain concentration and willing to ask and answer questions. They were well behaved and listened carefully to

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

the views and opinions of others, while expressing their own views clearly and confidently.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

77. In geography, the pupils’ planning of a route from home to school in Years 1 and 2 shows that they have appropriate mapping skills. They accurately label places on a map of the United Kingdom and know that London is a capital city. Older pupils’ satisfactorily extract information from books and other sources and acquire and use correctly an appropriate range of geographical vocabulary. This was seen in a Year 4 lesson where groups of pupils were reporting back their findings of the geographical reasons why people in the past chose to make their homes in some areas rather than others. In a Year 6 lesson, the pupils showed good skills in using an Ordnance Survey map to recognise the physical and human features on a map of the village of Eyam.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

78. The pupils use their literacy skills well in history and geography, in discussions, in written work and in undertaking historical and geographical research. Many opportunities are provided for pupils to produce sustained independent writing in these two subjects. They also use their numeracy skills well, for example, when sequencing events on a timeline in history, or using co-ordinates in their map work in geography. Throughout the school, the teachers make some use of information communication technology to enhance pupils’ work in the subjects, but recognise that this is an area for further development.

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GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

79. Leadership and management are satisfactory in both subjects. Curricular provision is good and all pupils enjoy a broad range of relevant and exciting experiences. Visits to places of educational interest are used well to provide further significant learning opportunities. However, although all work is appropriately planned, planning procedures for both subjects are burdensome for teachers and there are no whole school procedures for assessing or recording pupils’ learning. This means that the school does not have the evidence to be sure that all pupils are achieving as well as they can within a year or from year to year.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

80. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 matches the national expectation for their age. Achievement is sound throughout the school.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

81. The quality of teaching is satisfactory, with teachers planning their lessons well from a secure subject knowledge that enables them to ask relevant questions and to support pupils when they face difficulties. The planning appropriately places emphasis on giving pupils a range of opportunities to learn and practice the basic skills of the subject. Pupils in Year 1, for example, use computers appropriately to make words, to draw pictures and to assemble text and pictures. They have a sound understanding of FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 42 how computers can be used to control movement, gained from learning successfully to input a set of instructions into a floor robot to make it move in different directions over different distances. Pupils in Year 2 know how to change the type and size of text and to retrieve, process and display information. They work together well in pairs at the computer, taking turns and helping each other to achieve the

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

clearly stated learning objectives. For example, in one Year 2 literacy session, the pupils worked together effectively to highlight key words in the text displayed on their screens. These positive attitudes contribute effectively to their learning and to their personal and social development. Throughout the school, the pupils treat the equipment carefully and are well behaved. In most classes for older pupils there is continued development of their expertise, as a result of the direct teaching of basic skills in the subject. This was evident in a Year 4 lesson in which they were being taught the need for specific control language to write a procedure to make an event happen. As a result of the teacher’s clear explanation, the pupils effectively created and controlled the correct sequence in a model set of traffic lights. However, there are times when a lack of sufficient challenge in activities and inability to manage

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

the inappropriate behaviour of a few pupils, results in unsatisfactory teaching and progress, as was seen in a Year 3 lesson where pupils were learning how to write and send an email. In a good Year 6 lesson, however, the teacher effectively demonstrated how to conduct a refined Internet search to find out about the plague and Eyam, as part of the pupils’ work in history. He also effectively explained the meaning of terms such as ‘search engine’ and ‘information string’ thereby extending the pupils’ technical vocabulary. Pupils use ICT appropriately to enhance their work in, for example, English, mathematics, science, art and design, design and technology, history and geography. In these activities, the pupils use ICT to organise and present their ideas, and they show confidence and enjoyment when using computers. However, the school has rightly identified the need to use ICT even more effectively

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

82. The leadership and management of ICT are satisfactory. There has been good improvement in curricular provision since the last inspection. It now satisfactorily covers all aspects of the subject, including modelling. The co-ordinator uses his good subject knowledge and expertise effectively to support and advise colleagues. However, his role in monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching and learning is underdeveloped, although there are clear plans to address this from the beginning of the next school year. Despite recent improvements in short term planning, there is no whole school approach to medium term planning and no agreed whole school procedures for assessing or recording pupils’ learning. This makes it difficult for the school to evaluate monitor pupils’ attainment and achievement and set suitable targets for improvement.

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MUSIC

83. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 6 is as expected nationally for their age, and their achievement is satisfactory. A strength in the subject throughout the school is the quality of singing. Because they are taught well, the pupils sing joyfully and in tune, with clear diction and good attention to the correct phrasing. Even before they reach Year 6, they are able to sustain their own parts when, for example, singing in rounds, or, as in an assembly for pupils up to Year 5, singing a hymn in two parts. In one whole school assembly, when the sound system failed, the pupils, encouraged by the good example of the headteacher, sang unaccompanied, at a good volume, maintaining pitch securely throughout a hymn. The pupils compose and perform to a satisfactory standard using a suitable range of tuned and untuned percussion instruments. For a small number of pupils, their musical learning is

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MUSIC

84. It is not possible to make a judgement about attainment in Year 2 because no practical work was seen and none was available on tape to enable an evaluation to be made. In the lesson observed, the quality of teaching was unsatisfactory. The pupils were listening to and appraising music and the teacher’s own insecure subject knowledge meant that the pupils’ observations about the music were not FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 43 sufficiently well extended to further their musical knowledge and understanding. In the other music lessons observed, the quality of teaching was at least good. It was excellent in a lesson with pupils in Year 1. Here, the teacher made learning fun for the pupils by making deliberate mistakes, for example, when working out the rhythm of her own name. This very effectively challenged the pupils to correct her mistake and to think hard about the correct rhythm patterns for their own names. This work was

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MUSIC

then consolidated using a familiar nursery rhyme, by which time the pupils were more than ready to complete the teacher’s suggestion ‘if we can do that with one nursery rhyme ..’ with ‘we can do it with any song’ and proceeded to perform examples from their own repertoire. The work in this lesson, which included a very challenging ‘change’ game in which the pupils had to follow the teacher as she changed not only the rhythm but also the part of the body she was using to play it, provided a very good start to performing in two parts and greatly consolidated the pupils’ understanding of the difference between rhythm and pulse. In a fun song to end the lesson, the pupils confidently sang solo parts as they selected their classmates to own up to whether or not they had ‘stolen a cookie from the cookie jar’, or responded to the accusation. The teacher very successfully ensured that all pupils were included in the activity and her excellent use of praise and encouragement resulted in even the most

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MUSIC

reluctant singer singing well. Good teaching was observed in Years 4 and 5. The Year 4 pupils’ understanding of rhythm and pulse was effectively extended as they used their knowledge of syllables, first to clap the rhythms of their given and family names, then to use instruments to replicate the rhythms. The teacher then effectively introduced musical notation, first in graphic form and then in traditional form by replacing the graphic with the musical symbol, for example, for a crotchet. In a good Year 5 lesson, the effect of different combinations of notes was explored well as the pupils learned to play chords on glockenspiels and chime bars. However, their learning was slightly impeded because the use of these instruments instead of, for example, an instrument that could sustain sounds, meant that the full effect of each chord could not be heard. During the inspection, the pupils in Year 6 took part in

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MUSIC

a mass singing event at the nearby high school, with pupils from several other primary schools. This further enhanced their singing, listening and appraising skills and provided more opportunities for part singing, and for learning how different composers use words and music to communicate their thoughts and feelings. All pupils behave well in music lessons, responding to the high expectations that their teachers have of them. They enjoy the progressively demanding activities, and concentrate well, working productively in most lessons. These good attitudes contribute greatly to their attainment and achievement.

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MUSIC

85. The leadership and management of music are satisfactory. The co-ordinator has only had responsibility for the subject since September. Nevertheless, she has a secure understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in it and of the support required to enable it to be taught effectively throughout the school. There has been no monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning in this subject. However, the new headteacher has already set up a programme for this to take place regularly from the beginning of the next school year. There are no systematic procedures in place for assessing pupils’ work although the new co-ordinator has made a start on collating tape recordings from each class for evaluation. Through the emphasis placed on reflecting on the effects that different pieces of music have on the listener, and on exploring what the composer was trying to communicate, music makes a good contribution to the pupils’ personal development and to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural

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MUSIC

development. However, more could be done to promote the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of music from non-western European traditions. Improvement since the last inspection is satisfactory.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

86. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 is above the national expectations for their ages and achievement is good throughout the school. This represents good improvement since the last inspection. Because of the way physical education is planned and organised the majority of lessons observed during the inspection were games. Nevertheless, the school’s secure planning, based on a FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 44 number of national initiatives, shows that there is a broad and balanced programme of work for all years, which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum, including outdoor and adventurous activities. Pupils in Year 4 benefit from 16 sessions of swimming at the end of the summer term, and the vast majority of pupils currently in Year 6 have achieved the recommended 25metres unaided. Pupils in Year 2 have a good range of skills including throwing, catching and striking a ball, which they

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

use well in simple net, invasion-type games. The pupils follow simple rules well, including those they have made up themselves. A strong feature is the ability to accept that there are winners and losers. These skills are successfully developed in subsequent years so that by Year 6, the pupils confidently play an increasingly wide range of more complex games with due attention to the rules required in each. The school is involved in the Cliff Richard tennis programme. A visiting tennis coach takes lessons in short tennis. The good provision of appropriate equipment and the high quality specialist teaching mean pupils achieve well in this activity. The pupils’ good behaviour in almost all lessons ensures that time is well used. The good relationships they form with each other enables them to work effectively in pairs and in teams, sharing equipment and handling bats, balls, ropes, cones and other physical education apparatus with due respect, with care and with due attention to safety. They listen

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

carefully and follow instructions well and therefore work productively in almost all sessions.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

87. The quality of teaching is mostly good. However, in a Year 3 lesson, teaching was unsatisfactory because the teacher did not manage the pupils’ behaviour well enough to enable learning to take place. A significant minority of pupils did not follow instructions and paid little attention to what the teacher said. This hindered the learning of the whole class. Pupils and teachers are always dressed appropriately for games activities. The teachers plan individual lessons well. In the good lessons, pupils are well managed, and appropriate warm up and cool down activities at the start and end of the lesson are used well, and clearly explained to the pupils. In a good Year 4 lesson, for example, good links were made with science when pupils were asked to feel their heart rate and how warm they were at the end of the lesson. The teacher then provided water to drink. These activities helped the pupils to

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

realise the changes to their bodies after exercise.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

88. The leadership and management of this subject are sound although there are no systematic procedures for assessing pupils’ learning, recording how well they are doing, or identifying what they need to do to improve. Resources are good and are used well to promote learning in lessons. The co-ordinator has had some opportunity to observe teaching but it is unclear what use is made of the information gathered. The co-ordinator has sound links with co-ordinators from other local schools, all of whom meet termly to plan an annual Festival of Sport, in which the school participates. After school clubs provide opportunities for pupils to develop further their skills in hockey, football, basketball and kwik cricket. By introducing the pupils to an appropriately wide range of games and physical activities, and the rules and practices associated with each, the subject makes a good contribution to their personal

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

development and to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

89. The attainment of the majority of pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 matches the requirements of the locally agreed syllabus. Achievement is satisfactory throughout the school. This represents sound improvement since the previous inspection.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

90. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 develop a satisfactory understanding of different religions through their studies of different religious artefacts, and religious festivals and celebrations. They have an appropriate sense of self and a respect for the different views and opinions of others. Between Year 3 and Year 6, this understanding is successfully enhanced through studying a wider range of religious traditions and practices, including the symbolism associated with different religions. The pupils have a sound understanding of the contributions of some famous religious leaders, for example, Martin Luther King. FINAL DRAFT: Preston Primary School, Hull - 45 The daily acts of collective worship contribute well to these studies. They are used effectively to promote themes such as prayer and reflection, forgiveness, sharing and caring for others, and to use Bible stories such as David and Goliath, Noah and the ark, The Good Samaritan to illustrate these

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

themes. The subject makes a good contribution to the pupils’ personal development and to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

91. The quality of teaching is satisfactory overall, with examples of good teaching in Year 2 and very good teaching in Year 6 that fosters in the pupils good attitudes to learning in this subject. The good teaching in the Year 2 lesson was the result of the effective use of good quality resources to make key teaching points. The teacher brought flowers from her own garden and a book of scenes from the Lake District to develop the theme of respect for the environment and how places are often important to people. The pupils looked in awe at the photographs and offered sensible suggestions as to why the places depicted might be special. This moved on naturally to a discussion of objects and places, which were special to the pupils themselves. In their discussions, the pupils listened carefully to each other and showed good levels of respect for each other’s points of view. In the Year 6 lesson, the teacher’s very effective use

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

of an interactive whiteboard to present a lesson on beliefs and ideals helped the pupils successfully to visualise the meaning behind Psalm 23 and deepened their knowledge and understanding of it. The pupils displayed good attitudes to their work as they watched with hushed reverence, listened attentively to the accompanying music and described it as ‘calm’ and ‘quite relaxing’. The high quality of the subsequent written work showed deep and thoughtful responses to the text. Some attention is given to introducing the pupils to the similarities and differences between the major world faiths. For example, pupils in Year 4 made appropriate comparisons between a Sikh and Christian prayer, and successfully identified common themes, for example, light and darkness, hope and despair. Discussions with Year 6 pupils and an analysis of their work show that they are developing a sound, factual basis of the topics they have studied. They have a good feel for the key messages in religious stories they have

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

heard, and an appropriate grasp of the role of signs, symbols and rituals in different peoples’ beliefs and their responses to the world. Overall, however, insufficient time is devoted to the study of other faiths and religions and therefore the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of these is not as well developed as it could be.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

92. The leadership and management of religious education are satisfactory. However, there are no systematic procedures in place to assess or record the pupils’ learning, although individual teachers do this occasionally as part of their short term planning. The monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning has not yet taken place. However, the new headteacher has already set up a programme for this to take place from September 2002. Resources are satisfactory and are enhanced by sharing artefacts and materials with other primary schools. The curriculum is further enhanced by visits to places of worship, for example, a local synagogue. Good use is made of visitors to school, for example, representatives from the Salvation Army and the local Methodist minister.

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