St Benet's Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School

ST. BENET’S RC PRIMARY SCHOOL

Short 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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ST. BENET’S RC 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. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Fulwell Road Fulwell Sunderland Postcode: SR6 9QU

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: The governing body

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Name of chair of governors: Reverend Father C. Corrigan

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: 24 November 1997 St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Team members

11328 Mrs M. R. Shepherd Registered inspector 9652 Mr C. Herbert Lay inspector 23219 Mr P. Mann Team inspector 26945 Mrs S. Gatehouse Team inspector

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Team members

TWA Inspections Ltd 5 Lakeside Werrington Peterborough Cambs PE4 6QZ

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Team members

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:

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Team members

The Complaints Manager Inspection Quality Division

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Team members

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE St Benet’s RC Primary School

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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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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

St Benet’s Roman Catholic Primary School has 336 pupils on roll, which is larger than average. There are 26 more girls than boys. There are 44 children in the nursery who attend on a part-time basis and join the school at the beginning of the year in which they are three years old. Most of these children move through to the reception classes and a few join the school from other nursery schools. All children in reception have had nursery education. Very few pupils leave or join the school during the academic year. Pupils come mainly from a range of private housing, which is predominantly terraced accommodation. Pupils are organised in groups of similar ability for English, mathematics and science from Year 1 to Year 6. There are more pupils in the groups for the higher ability than in the groups for the lower ability. The deputy headteacher works as an additional teacher in some junior classes in English and mathematics, which

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

reduces class sizes. Pupils’ attainment when they join the school is above average overall. However, there is considerable variation between the attainment of different group year groups, ranging from below average to well above average. Eleven per cent of pupils are on the register for special educational needs, which is well below average. One point five per cent of pupils have Statements of Special Educational Need, which is average. There are less than one per cent of pupils from ethnic minorities, which is below average. The inspection team was not informed about this feature of the school.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

This is a good school. Pupils make good progress through the school in English, mathematics and science, and teaching in these subjects is very good with excellent features. Pupils’ behaviour, attitudes and relationships are excellent because all staff set high standards in these areas. The headteacher inspires great trust and respect from both staff and pupils. Governors have a good understanding of the strengths of the school, but do not have enough information about the key priorities for development. The school provides good value for money.

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What the school does well

• The attainment of Year 6 pupils is well above average in English, mathematics and science. • Attitudes, behaviour and relationships are excellent. • Teaching is very good. • Leadership and management are good overall. • Spiritual, moral and social development are very good. • The school provides a wealth of exciting and interesting activities outside of lessons. • The school cares very well for the needs of its pupils.

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What could be improved

• Planning for school improvement and formal monitoring systems. • Consistency of teaching in reception. • Procedures to be more aware of all parents’ views and meet their needs. 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 November 1997. There has been satisfactory improvement since then. Standards in English, mathematics and science are higher and pupils’ attitudes, behaviour and relationships are even better. The quality of teaching overall is improved. Assessment systems for English and mathematics are more effective. However, the previous key issue of refining planning for school improvement remains a weakness and partnership with parents needs to be reviewed. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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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.

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Key

1999 2000 2001 2001 very high A* English A* A A A well above average above average A B Mathematics A* A A A average below average C D Science A C A A well below average E

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Key

The inspection confirms that the standards at the end of Year 6 are well above average in English, mathematics and science. The organisation of pupils into groups of similar ability ensures that more able pupils fulfil their potential and less able pupils are supported well. The school sets itself targets, which ensures that pupils continue to improve. The trend in standards over the past four years is below average, mainly because different year groups have different ranges of attainment on entry to the school. This is evident in the very high attainment in 1999, which was in the top 5 per cent nationally in English and mathematics. Attainment now is not as high, although it is well above average in these subjects.

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Key

The 2001 national tests at the end of Year 2 show that attainment is above average in reading, writing and mathematics when compared with all school and with similar schools. Standards have been inconsistent over the past four years. However, for the past two years there has been a different team of teachers in Years 1 and 2 who the inspection judges to be of very good quality. Last year the school’s standards were above the national average in reading, writing, mathematics and science. The evidence from the inspection is that standards have improved even more in reading and writing, so that they are now well above average. This reflects the high priority of literacy development. Standards have been maintained in mathematics and science. The organisation of pupils into groups of similar ability in these year groups is as successful as it is in the junior classes.

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Key

Progress of children in the nursery is very good. Progress is good in reception. By the end of reception children’s attainment is well above expectations in personal, social and emotional development and the science aspect of knowledge and understanding of the world. In all other areas of learning 1 standards are above the expected level.

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Aspect Comment

Attitudes to the school Pupils have a great enthusiasm for school. They approach learning very positively and concentrate very well in lessons. They contribute confidently to whole class discussions and work very well with each other.

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Behaviour is excellent. Pupils expect to settle quickly in lessons and to be sensitive to each other’s needs. They move around the school very sensibly, even when the space is congested because of the confined cloakroom areas.

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Aspect Comment

Personal development and relationships Relationships are excellent. Pupils respond sensitively to each other and appreciate other points of view. They are very polite to adults and expect to interact with them. Personal development is very good.

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Aspect Comment

Attendance Attendance is well above average.

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Aspect Comment

Pupils behave very well in the playground and respect each other’s needs. They co-operate very maturely in sharing the available space to ensure lively activities take place in harmony alongside quiet activities.

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Aspect Comment

1 The Areas of Learning are the government guidelines for the curriculum for children in the nursery and reception. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Teaching of pupils in: Nursery and Reception Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

Quality of teaching Good Very good Very 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 of pupils in: Nursery and Reception Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

The quality of teaching in English, mathematics and science is very good. The teaching of basic skills is very good, particularly in literacy and numeracy. There are excellent features in Year 6 in English and mathematics and in history in one of the mixed Year 5 and 6 classes. Teaching in the nursery is very good, but the teaching in reception is inconsistent. The quality of teaching of one of the teachers is very good but that of the other has significant unsatisfactory features. Teachers meet the needs of more able and less able pupils very well. They use the advantages of grouping pupils according to their ability very effectively by matching the work closely to the pupils’ needs. Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour very skilfully and provide high quality role models for the pupils. Pupils are keen to contribute to whole class discussion because teachers value individual responses and use them to extend learning across the whole

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Aspect Comment

The quality and range of the curriculum The quality of the curriculum is satisfactory. There is a strong emphasis on literacy, numeracy and science, which raises standards in these subjects effectively. Some other subjects, however, are not covered systematically through the school. There is a wealth of exciting and interesting activities outside lessons, with contributions from both teachers and classroom assistants.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Provision for pupils with special educational needs is good and these pupils make good progress. Individual education plans are well organised and provide measurable targets for improvement. Teachers and other adults support statemented pupils very effectively in lessons.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Teaching and the curriculum for spiritual development are very good. Teachers use assemblies, hymn practices and daily prayers to extend pupils’ spiritual understanding very effectively. Teaching and the curriculum for moral development are very good. Teachers include discussion of moral issues regularly in circle time 2 and in English lessons. The school provides a very good range of opportunities for pupils to extend their social skills both through organisation of working in pairs of groups in lessons, to taking part in presentations in assemblies or drama productions. Pupils’ own culture is developed well, but their awareness of other cultures is not developed as systematically.

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Aspect Comment

How well the school cares for its pupils The school cares very well for the pupils. Staff know the characteristics of their pupils very well and are very sensitive to the needs of each individual. There are very good systems for assessing progress in English and mathematics.

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Aspect Comment

Partnership with parents The quality of information for parents is satisfactory. However, procedures for communicating with parents are not effective enough. A significant proportion of parents feel that they do not receive enough information about the work of the school or the progress of their children.

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Aspect Comment

The school works hard to discourage parents from driving into the school premises at the beginning and end of school sessions. However, this aspect of school procedures remains a hazard.

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Aspect Comment

2 Circle time is a lesson where pupils sit in a circle and take turns to offer the class their views or feelings. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Aspect Comment

Leadership and management by the headteacher and other key staff The leadership of the headteacher is good overall. He is very effective in creating great trust and respect from both staff and pupils. He communicates well informally but does not back this up with formal written systems to reinforce understanding. He delegates responsibility well. The senior management team of the deputy headteacher and infant and junior co-ordinators is effective in identifying weaknesses and implementing developments in the curriculum.

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Aspect Comment

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities Governors have a good understanding of the strengths of the school. The chair and vice-chair of governors are in regular contact with the school. Several governors work in the school each week and one governors makes high quality contributions to the work of the school. Governors do not have a clear understanding of the key priorities for the school’s developments, however. They are therefore unable to effectively monitor the progress towards these improvements.

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Aspect Comment

The school’s evaluation of its performance Formal written monitoring systems are not effective. The school’s improvement plan is not clearly structured and not linked precisely enough to the budget. The processes for planning for school improvement are not rigorous enough.

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Aspect Comment

The strategic use of resources The school uses its resources very effectively. The headteacher manages the budget very well. He successfully gains a range of additional grants that the school uses carefully to improve their facilities and curriculum. The school deploys staff very carefully to make best use of their expertise.

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Aspect Comment

The school deploys teachers very effectively in the junior classes to reduce the number of pupils in English and mathematics lessons. This reduces class sizes and ensures good progress of all pupils in these age groups. The school applies the principles of best value in a satisfactory way.

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PARENTS’ AND CARERS’ VIEWS OF THE SCHOOL

Thirty-eight parents attended the parents’ meeting. Sixty per cent of parents returned the questionnaire, which is a very high rate of return. This shows the high level of parental interest in the school.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

• The behaviour of the pupils. • The school has high expectations. • The school helps their children to become mature and responsible. • Teaching is good. • Their children make good progress. • Partnership with parents. • Information about their children’s progress. • The range of activities outside of lessons. • The amount of homework.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

Inspectors agree with what pleases parents most. They judge that the information sent to parents is satisfactory but they acknowledge the significant proportion of parents who would like to see their partnership with the school reviewed. They agree with parents that the timing of homework needs to be discussed with parents and that the organisation of parents’ evenings needs to be reviewed. They disagree with the view that activities outside lessons need developing and judge these opportunities as very good. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL

Attainment of Year 6 pupils is well above average in English, mathematics and science.

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English

1. The school places a very high priority on developing pupils’ skills across all the aspects of speaking and listening, reading and writing. They use the following features to ensure that pupils make good progress throughout the school in these areas:-

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English

• pupils are organised into different teaching groups according to their ability, which allows teachers to match the work more closely to pupils’ individual needs; • the deputy headteacher works very effectively as an additional teacher in each year group in the junior classes, which reduces class sizes and ensures more time is spent with each pupil in lessons; • literacy sessions are used very well to develop basic skills; • teachers and classroom assistants give up their lunch hours throughout the school to carry out guided reading sessions, which pupils thoroughly enjoy; • a good proportion of time is given to extended writing throughout the school every week, which allows pupils time to develop and improve their skills in writing at length across a very good range of different styles; • classroom assistants and other adults, including grannies, are used very effectively to work with small groups within English lessons;

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English

• there are excellent features in the teaching in the Year 6 classes, which challenges more able pupils to express themselves with imagination and clarity; • teachers’ marking is consistently good and identifies future targets. It is particularly good in extended writing where the features of a piece of work are identified and matched across several different features within the National Curriculum levels; • pupils have regular opportunities to speak in front of the whole school in assemblies and to take part in good quality productions every other year.

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English

2. The nursery and reception classes lay firm foundations in communication, language and literacy. In the nursery children have high quality regular individual time with adults to extend their speaking and listening skills. Children thoroughly enjoy trying to write their names and the more able children write them confidently even when they are really long like ‘Christopher’. Children enjoy choosing their own books from the reading corner and settle down with a friend to look at the pictures. In the reception class, the organisation ensures that children continue to build on these early skills. The nursery nurse extends writing skills very effectively because she gets children to complete tasks in knowledge and understanding by recording their learning. For example, children write the names of the homes for a range of animals from bees and dogs to parrots and fish. The very good teacher takes well-focused whole class lessons to extend basic reading skills. For

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English

example, she works through a carefully structured session to develop children’s understanding of letter sounds and names such as vet, jet and let.

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English

3. By the end of Year 2 pupils have made good progress and write confidently in a range of different styles. Pupils use language confidently to record their responses to texts because teachers are genuinely interested in their individual responses and listen carefully to every pupil’s ideas. For example, a pupil wrote ‘(The queen) is bloodthirsty because she wants Snow White’s head’. Pupils develop very good skills of writing across a range of different styles because they are given careful guidance in how to approach these tasks. For example, in writing a letter, a pupil included a suggestion to Mr. Fox. ‘How about saying sorry to those poor rabbits?’ In contrast another pupil chose to write a letter to the St Benet’s RC Primary School selfish giant and included an explanation, ‘I am writing this letter to say how badly you treat the children because you won’t let them play in your garden’.

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English

4. By the end of Year 6 pupils speak confidently across a wide range of audiences. This is an outcome of regular encouragement from staff throughout the school to exchange their views in the formal contexts of lessons or assemblies, as well as informal contexts such as playing in the playground or collecting their dinners at lunchtime. Pupils develop analytical reading skills very well. They discuss authors confidently because in their lunch-time sessions teachers give them opportunities to discuss their responses to texts in detail. They enjoy comparing different writing styles such as science fiction or historical stories, and confidently justify their preferences. They skilfully write extended pieces of work every week across a wide range of formats. For example, when writing a fairy story for an infant class a pupil wrote very persuasively of a character’s plea, ‘Oh don’t eat me. I’m only a

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English

skinny little gingerbread man with a missing button and there’s a plump juicy rabbit over there’. They are equally confident in writing poetry and take a pride in producing good quality handwriting across most work. A pupil wrote his own poem in a carefully joined script. ‘The moon is a white owl, swift and sleek.’ Pupils show great imagination in their writing because teachers create stimulating opportunities for them. For example, pupils were asked to write descriptions of the contents of different people’s pockets. They chose a wide variety of examples from Henry the Eighth to an old witch who had ‘…a very ill looking frog, the last page of ‘How To Ride Your Broomstick’ and Merlin’s phone number’.

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Mathematics

5. The nursery lays firm foundations for mathematical development because the teacher works systematically across the whole class to support individual children’s learning. For example, she extends children’s confidence in counting by getting them to put different dinosaurs in different parts of a landscape and then to count them. Overall children’s progress is consolidated in reception except when the children work in groups with the teacher who does not challenge children successfully. Other staff use every opportunity to extend children’s mathematical development.

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Mathematics

6. The organisation of pupils into groups of similar ability, which is used in English throughout the rest of the school, is equally effective in mathematics. The National Numeracy Strategy has been introduced very successfully and develops basic skills very effectively. Standards in number work are well above average by the end of Year 2 and higher than other aspects of mathematics attainment because teachers spend a large proportion of time on this aspect. A high proportion of pupils are working at Level 3 3 in number and enjoy working in practical contexts, for example working out analogue and digital time in practical situations such as the flight times for airline flights.

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Mathematics

7. Teachers in the junior classes continue to extend pupils’ mathematical development, and the excellent features in the quality of teaching in Year 6 increase the rate of progress of pupils in their final year in school. These pupils handle numbers in their heads with great enthusiasm and use algebra confidently to generate formulae for solving problems. The teachers’ great enthusiasm for mathematics combined with their good subject knowledge ensure that mathematics lessons are enjoyable lessons for pupils, who try their best to increase the speed of their responses across a range of different tasks.

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Mathematics

3 Level 2 is the expected level of the National Curriculum for pupils to achieve by the end of Year 2. Pupils are expected to reach Level 3 by the end of Year 4. If pupils achieve Level 3 in Year 2 their attainment is much higher than expected. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Science

8. There is a strong emphasis on this aspect of knowledge and understanding in the nursery and reception classes. The nursery nurse in reception plays a particularly important part in science because she teaches it on a regular basis. She uses stimulating resources to capture children’s imaginations. For example, she has a range of different homes to match with animals such as a beehive, a kennel, a cage and simulated fish in a bowl to develop children’s understanding of animal habitats.

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Science

9. Pupils make good progress through the rest of the school because science has a consistent allocation of time each week and pupils systematically develop understanding and skills across the whole science curriculum. Pupils in Year 2 use scientific vocabulary confidently and enjoy using their skills such as categorising different animals and plants into different sets. In the junior classes the boys make particularly good progress. This is due to the extremely effective organisation of teaching. Each teacher in both the Year 3 and 4 and Year 5 and 6 teams specialises in one aspect of the science curriculum. They then concentrate on this aspect across both age groups. This organisation ensures that each teacher becomes an expert in her field. They also have a very good understanding of what the pupils have learnt in the previous year. By the end of Year 6 a high proportion of pupils are working at a higher level than expected for their age and develop skills such

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Science

as accuracy in measuring in experiments and implications for carrying out investigations in different contexts. Pupils’ very secure knowledge of scientific understanding gives them a very good basis for suggesting different ways of carrying out experiments.

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Science

Attitudes, behaviour and relationships are excellent.

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Science

10. The school works very hard to create a positive context for each pupil’s learning. These efforts are very successful and throughout the school pupils are eager to learn. They approach tasks with enthusiasm and concentrate very well in lessons. They are very confident in joining in to whole class discussions because teachers value every contribution. For example, a statemented pupil noticed a visitor in the classroom and the teacher used his comments as a discussion point with the whole group to welcome the visitor.

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Science

11. Behaviour is excellent throughout the school. Pupils expect to be sensible in lessons and move between different parts of the lesson with the minimum of disruption. They walk around the building very sensibly and co-operate with each other when using congested areas such as the cloakrooms. Pupils’ behaviour continues at this high standard in the playground. They give each other space to carry out different activities in a mature way, which ensures that lively activities take place in harmony alongside quieter activities.

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Science

12. The headteacher sets a very high example for relationships around the school. He expects staff to be high quality role models for the pupils, which they do very well. Pupils respond extremely well to these role models and are gentle and courteous with each other and with adults. They respect each other’s views and listen sensitively to pupils or adults in conversations.

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Science

13. Overall the teaching of English, mathematics and science is very good. This very good teaching includes the following features:-

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Science

• high expectations and a good level of challenge for the more able pupils; • sensitive and well focussed support for less able pupils, particularly pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Need; • effective teaching of basic skills; St Benet’s RC Primary School • very good management and organisation of pupils through high quality relationships; • valuing and using the contributions of individuals as teaching points for the rest of the class; • effective questioning techniques to stimulate pupils’ thinking; • a high level of enthusiasm for these subjects; • good subject knowledge; • a fast pace throughout the lesson • a very good understanding of the work in the parallel classes derived from regular joint planning meetings.

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Science

The very good reception teacher takes a leading role in the organisation of all the reception children. She carries this out very effectively. All the nursery nurses play a valuable role in supporting teachers and pupils.

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Science

Leadership and management are good overall.

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Science

14. The leadership of the headteacher is good overall. He sets a high priority of creating a positive ethos for the work of the school and is very effective in achieving this aim. For example, he leads an assembly each week with the Year 5 and 6 pupils, where he has very high expectations of the level of the pupils’ responses. Pupils thoroughly enjoy the assemblies, and show a high level of maturity and confidence. He handles the day-to-day budget very well and works hard to acquire additional funding. However, to balance these key strengths there are some weaknesses, which are identified below in paragraphs 17 and 18. The headteacher works well with the senior management team. The deputy headteacher is a very effective special needs co-ordinator and works very well alongside the headteacher. The infant and junior co-ordinators play an important role in managing their teaching teams within the restrictions of being full-time class teachers. The

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Science

governors have a good understanding of the strengths of the school and are committed to supporting the school’s work. Several governors spend a considerable amount of time in the building to support the everyday life of the school. However, governors do not have a clear understanding of the school’s areas for development.

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Science

Spiritual, moral and social development are very good.

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Science

15. The school is proud of its basis in the Catholic faith. Teachers use prayers sensitively at the beginning and end of sessions to extend pupils’ spiritual development. Pupils know the school prayer well and each class writes its own prayer at the beginning of each year, which they value. Assemblies and hymn practices are used very effectively in the junior classes. For example, in the Year 5 and 6 hymn practice the high quality of the governor’s teaching ensured a sweetness in the pupils’ singing that was based on the combination of the three-part singing accompanied by very sensitive guitar playing. Moral development is very good because teachers use every opportunity to help pupils acquire these skills, using everyday contexts to explain the importance of making the right choices in life. There is a regular programme of lessons based on personal, emotional and social development, which covers these aspects thoroughly. Pupils receive a very good variety

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Science

of opportunities to extend their social development. These range from careful organisation in lessons to ensure pupils work in pairs or groups, to whole school opportunities such as the school production, where pupils take responsibility for a range of different tasks.

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Science

The school provides a wealth of exciting and interesting activities outside lessons.

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Science

16. There are a very large number of activities for pupils outside lessons. Many different adults lead these sessions including teachers, classrooms assistants, governors and parents. There are the usual clubs such as netball or football, but these are complemented by some unusual activities such as gardening in the courtyard, nail art or the group reading sessions at lunchtimes. Very good quality courses lead pupils through St Benet’s RC Primary School clear sequences of tasks, such as the first aid course run by a nursery nurse. There are very effective systems for older pupils to share a book with younger pupils before school three times a week. Pupils thoroughly enjoy these activities and appreciate the opportunity to extend their skills outside the normal school hours.

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Science

The school cares very well for the needs of the pupils.

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Science

17. The staff of the school know their pupils very well. Efficient systems are set up to support individuals who need particular care. For example, every Monday morning teachers bring each other up to date about any issues concerning individual pupils. There is a very good range of procedures throughout the school for promoting high standards of behaviour. Very good assessment systems are used in literacy and numeracy to monitor pupils’ progress.

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WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

Planning for school improvement and formal monitoring systems.

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Planning for school improvement

18. The current planning for school improvement is not carried out systematically. The headteacher has a clear vision of the educational direction of the school and he delegates the details of curriculum developments effectively through the senior management team. He also works closely with the chair and vice-chair on a day-to-day basis. However, he does not bring together all these features into the clear framework of a written school improvement plan. Not all initiatives that are being carried out are included in the current written plan, which reduces the understanding of the staff and governors of the range of the school’s developments. The long term planning for developments, such as the building of additional classrooms, are not separated from the more immediate initiatives for this year, which reduces the impact of how the short and medium term developments feed into long term aims. The actions identified for development are not effectively grouped

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Planning for school improvement

under key priorities. This reduces the school community’s awareness of the educational direction that the school is taking. The costs of the developments are not identified systematically or precisely and are not linked across to the school’s budget. This does not allow efficient decision-making when the school’s financial circumstances change during the year. There is no clear review cycle set up to evaluate progress towards each year’s goals. Although the headteacher reports on the school’s progress in termly governors’ meetings, governors do not have a clear view of key priorities for development and are not in a position to monitor effectively the progress made by the school.

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Formal monitoring systems

19. The headteacher and some co-ordinators monitor teaching and give oral feedback. However, they rarely make written comments of what they say. The result is that teachers do not have a clear record of their individual strengths and development points. The school cannot easily, therefore, track the progress of teachers’ skills or support weaker teachers and systematically improve the quality of their work. The Year 5 and 6 teaching team identify weaknesses in the knowledge, understanding and skills of the pupils as they arrive in Year 5. This analysis is then fed back to the rest of the staff and effective action is taken to improve the teaching and curriculum in these areas. For example, narrative writing was identified as needing development and teachers throughout the school identified the skills needed for this work and devised strategies to improve pupils’ expertise in this style of writing. However, this system is not supplemented by a thorough analysis

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Formal monitoring systems

of teachers and pupils’ work earlier in the school, which would identify inconsistencies of systems being used by different members of staff. For example, the marking in English is very good, whereas the marking of mathematics is inconsistent. St Benet’s RC Primary School Consistency of teaching in reception.

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Formal monitoring systems

20. The school has minimised the differences between the very good and unsatisfactory teaching in reception by using the strengths of the teaching team to organise all of the reception children in the large shared space. For example, the very good teacher stops all of the children during teaching sessions to emphasise a teaching point, celebrate an individual’s achievement or to organise the children to move round different teaching groups. However, the weaknesses of the unsatisfactory teaching reduce the progress of children both in groupwork and in some of the whole class sessions. The school has worked informally to improve these weak teaching skills and to ensure that models of good teaching are observed, but this has not improved the weaknesses enough. There are not enough clear written targets for improvement. The key weaknesses include a slow pace, the focus of questioning on one child rather than extending the questioning across the

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Formal monitoring systems

whole group or class and a lack of clarity of the learning that has been planned to take place. For example, when working on addition of three numbers represented by three sets of farm animals, the organisation of choosing the animals took over from the key learning of adding the numbers.

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Formal monitoring systems

Procedures to be more aware of all parents’ views and meet their needs .

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Formal monitoring systems

21. The parents’ questionnaire and parents’ meeting show that parents are very satisfied with many aspect of the school’s work. However, they also reveal that a significant group of parents do not feel that they are fully informed about their children’s progress. They also feel that the school is not successful in working in partnership with them to support their children’s learning. Although the school’s communication systems are satisfactory for many parents, it has not consulted them effectively enough to satisfy all of them. The school has not identified the different needs of parents or devised sufficiently flexible systems to match these different needs. For example, parents with several children found the organisation of the main parents’ meeting to report on progress last summer was too complex, so that they missed information about some aspects of their children’s work.

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Planning for developing pupils’ awareness of other cultures

22. The school provides some opportunities for pupils to develop awareness of other cultures. However, this is not planned as systematically as developing pupils’ awareness of their own culture. The differences between these two aspects of cultural development do not give pupils a balanced curriculum to prepare them for life in a multi-cultural society. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

In order to further extend the work of the school the governors, headteacher and staff should:-

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(1) extend planning for school improvement in order to provide more efficient communication and a more effective tool for monitoring progress by:-

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• including governors and all co-ordinators more systematically in the school’s processes for planning improvement; • providing specific costs for each part of the plan; • improving the presentation of the plan to allow easier identification of key priorities; • dividing the current year’s planning from the longer term planning more effectively; paragraph 18

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• agreeing on a written format for recording the monitoring of teaching and learning; • using the format regularly to provide a permanent record of issues for improvement and examples of successful practice; • using the monitoring to evaluate teachers’ development over time and to extend the consistency of school’s systems; paragraph 19

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(3) improve the unsatisfactory features of the teaching in reception by:-

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• providing carefully focused targets to reach every half term; • monitoring progress in reaching these targets; • providing more sharply defined points for analysing the very good teaching taking place in the same class by the very good teacher and the infant co- ordinator; • supporting the transfer of the analysis of the very good practice to improve the unsatisfactory practice; paragraph 20

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

(4) extend the partnership with parents across more families by:-

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• consulting all parents more effectively to find out their views about the school; • using this information to :- o review and extend communication with all parents; o provide a more flexible and effective approach to working with all parents to make the most of children’s learning at home and at school. paragraph 21

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

Governors should include the following weakness in their action plan:-

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• plan more systematically for developing pupils’ awareness of other cultures.

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WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

paragraph 22 St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 31

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor Very poor

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Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Percentage 20 47 14 14 5 0 0 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 almost five percentage points.

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils on the school’s roll Nursery YR – Y6

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 22 314

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of full-time pupils known to be eligible for free school meals N/A 7 FTE means full-time equivalent.

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Information about the school’s pupils

Special educational needs Nursery YR – Y6

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs 0 5

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register 0 38

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Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with English as an additional language 0

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 0

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Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 3

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Attendance

National comparative data 5.6 National comparative data 0.5 Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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

Year Boys Girls Total Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 1 for the latest reporting year 2001 22 22 44

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

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

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

Boys 20 20 21 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 21 21 22

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

Percentage of pupils School 93 (83) 93 (87) 98 (89) at NC level 2 or above National 84 (83) 86 (84) 91 (90)

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

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

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

Boys 20 21 20 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 21 20 21

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

Percentage of pupils School 93 (85) 93 (91) 93 (89) at NC level 2 or above National 85 (84) 89 (88) 89 (88)

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

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

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

Year Boys Girls Total Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 2 for the latest reporting year 2001 15 30 45

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

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

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

Boys 13 15 15 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 29 30 30

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

Percentage of pupils School 93 (85) 100 (85) 100 (90) at NC level 4 or above National 75 (75) 71 (72) 87 (85)

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

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

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

Boys 11 14 15 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 30 30 30

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

Percentage of pupils School 91 (89) 98 (90) 100 (89) at NC level 4 or above National 72 (70) 74 (72) 82 (79) Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – Caribbean heritage 0 Black – Caribbean heritage 0 0

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black – African heritage 0 Black – African heritage 0 0

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Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Any other minority ethnic group 0 Other minority ethnic groups 0 0 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.

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 13 Financial year 2001 - 2002

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 24.2

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Education support staff: YR – Y6 Total income 668,279

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 7 Total expenditure 666,956

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 78.2 Expenditure per pupil 1,950

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Qualified teachers and support staff: nursery Balance brought forward from previous year 34,243

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 1 Balance carried forward to next year 35,566

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 22

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 1

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 19.8

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Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per FTE adult 11 FTE means full-time equivalent.

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Recruitment of teachers

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

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Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers appointed to the school during the last two years 2

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Recruitment of teachers

Total number of vacant teaching posts (FTE) 0

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Recruitment of teachers

Number of vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of a term or more (FTE) 1

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Recruitment of teachers

Number of unfilled vacancies or vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of less than one term (FTE) 0 FTE means full-time equivalent. St Benet’s RC Primary School

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Percentage of responses in each category

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

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child is making good progress in school. 54 35 6 2 3

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Percentage of responses in each category

Behaviour in the school is good. 55 43 1 0 1

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Percentage of responses in each category

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 32 43 11 1 3

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Percentage of responses in each category

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 29 33 26 11 1

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Percentage of responses in each category

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 51 32 8 7 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 65 31 3 1 0

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school works closely with parents. 28 31 27 12 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school is well led and managed. 48 40 7 1 4

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 50 45 3 0 2

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Percentage of responses in each category

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 37 36 10 5 12

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Percentage of responses in each category

Several parents expressed the following views at the parents’ meeting or on the questionnaires:- • concern that they would like a parents’ association but that the school has not responded to this request; • the organisation of the parents’ evenings to report on their children’s progress; • not enough information about the curriculum being covered each term and developments such as the literacy or numeracy strategies; • homework organised at the weekend rather than during the week; • late information about events in school.

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