Gateford Park Primary School

GATEFORD PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL

Reporting inspector: Ms C Dutton RgI OIN: 15565

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GATEFORD PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL

Dates of inspection: 3 rd - 6 th February 2003

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GATEFORD PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL

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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GATEFORD PARK 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. Gateford Park Primary - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Type of school: Infant and Junior School

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Amherst Rise Gateford Park Worksop Nottinghamshire

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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: Mr R Bloomer

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: Not Applicable Gateford Park Primary - 4

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Team members Subject responsibilities Aspect responsibilities

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

15565 Ms C Dutton Registered Inspector Information and communication technology, art and design religious education, English as an additional language What sort of school is it? The school’s results and achievements. How well are pupils taught? How well is the school led and managed? What should the school do to improve further? 9003 Mr B Findley Lay Inspector Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development. How well does the school work in partnership with parents? 2592 Mr R Cheetham Team Inspector Science, physical education, Foundation Stage How well does the school care for its pupils?

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

27618 Mrs P Baldry Team Inspector English, history, music, educational inclusion 28071 Mr A Williams Team Inspector Mathematics, design and technology, geography, special education needs How good are the curricular and other opportunities offered to pupils?

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

The inspection contractor was: Leicestershire County Council Advice and Inspection Service Education Department County Hall Glenfield, Leicestershire LE3 8RF 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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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

The Complaints Manager Inspection Quality Division

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE INSPECTION TEAM

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway, London WC2B 6SE Gateford Park Primary - 5

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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? 12

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

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Gateford Park Primary School is a new school, which is situated in Gateford, north Worksop, in the centre of a recently built housing estate. At the present time there are 213 pupils on roll aged between four and 11 but numbers are rising and have risen dramatically since the school opened in February 2000 (when there were only 38 pupils). Of these pupils 106 are boys and 107 girls. Seven per cent are entitled to free school meals, which is well below the national average. There are currently 15 pupils on the school’s register for special educational needs, which is broadly in line with the national average. Of these none have a statement of special educational need. Nearly all pupils are of White British ethnic origin. Two pupils speak English as an additional language but neither is at an early stage of understanding the English language. Attainment on entry to the school varies but is generally

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

above that usually found. Most pupils come from an advantaged social economic background but a minority come from backgrounds of some disadvantage.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

Gateford Primary School is an effective school that continually strives to improve. From first stepping into the school the positive and friendly environment is a notable feature. Standards are above average in English, average in mathematics and below average in science by Year 6. However this is not a true reflection of the school’s achievements as results have improved rapidly, year on year, since the school opened and are on an upward trend. All pupils make good, and sometimes very good progress in their learning due to the good teaching. The school has satisfactory strategies for ensuring educational inclusion. Pupils are very enthusiastic about coming to school. They enjoy their lessons and get on very well with each other. The school is very well led and managed by the headteacher, who is the driving force behind the school’s continued improvement. He works very well with the deputy headteacher and with the rest of the staff team, who all are committed to improving the

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

standards of attainment and quality of education. The school provides satisfactory value for money and includes all its pupils well in its provision.

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What the school does well

• It has raised standards in English, mathematics and science and promotes high standards in history. • Promotes very good attitudes and behaviour and encourages the pupils to behave very well and act responsibly. • Provides well for personal, health and social education and extra-curricular activities. • The quality of teaching is good overall and as a result pupils make good progress. • The leadership and management provided by the headteacher and key staff, who take effective action on monitoring and evaluating information. The governing body also fulfil their responsibilities well. • The school works very well with parents and they in turn make an excellent contribution to their children’s learning. Gateford Park Primary - 7

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What could be improved

• Standards in science, art and design and physical education by Year 2 and geography by Year 6. • The effectiveness of subject co-ordinators, with the exception of English and mathematics. • Monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning, especially by subject co-ordinators • Assessment procedures for art and design, design and technology, geography, history, physical education and music. 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

This is a new school and has not been inspected previously. Since the year of its opening the school has made good progress in raising standards in English and mathematics from very low levels. It has made good progress in these subjects due to the good leadership provided by the head teacher and has the capacity for continued improvement. The senior managers are leading the school well through a period of significant change and growth.

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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

English E* E C E Well above average above average A B

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Key

mathematics E* D D E Average Below average C D science E* E E E* Well below average Lowest 5% E E*

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Key

The results of the National Curriculum tests in 2002 indicated that standards were average in English, below the national average in mathematics and very low (in the lowest five per cent) in science. This table does not reflect a true picture of the school’s achievements. As the school is new even the longest attending older pupils have only been at the school two years and one term. The results reflect these pupils’ prior attainment but the school had promoted their good progress since entry.

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Key

Standards throughout the school are rising and have risen significantly each year. The pupils’ achievements are good in relation to their prior attainment. This is directly due to the good teaching and learning taking place. Present standards in English at Years 2 and 6 are above the national average; mathematics is now average but science still remains below. The school’s statutory targets for 2003 are challenging, show the school’s commitment to improving standards and are achievable because of the high quality teaching. Gateford Park Primary - 8 Standards in information and communication technology (ICT) and religious education are average by Years 2 and 6, and in the case of ICT, standards are rising due to re-establishing the ICT suite and the focus given to the development of the subject this year.

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Key

In Year 2, standards in design and technology and geography are average. In Year 6, standards are average in design and technology, geography, music and physical education. Standards in art and design are below those expected due to insufficient emphasis on the teaching of specific skills and the present curriculum plan, which does not ensure that all aspects of this subject are taught systematically.

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Key

Since 2000, the school’s trend of improvement by Year 2 has been above the national trend. Through good teaching in the Foundation Stage (the Reception class) by the start of Year 1, most children achieve the early learning goals in all areas of learning, and a minority start on the early stages of the National Curriculum.

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Aspect Comment

Attitudes to the school Very good. Pupils have very good attitudes to their lessons and respond very well to their schooling.

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Very good. Behaviour is very good in all areas of the school. Pupils respond very well to the positive encouragement they receive from adults.

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Aspect Comment

Personal development and relationships Relationships with each other and with teachers are very good. They mix happily and co-operate well in class.

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Aspect Comment

Attendance Attendance is very good overall and excellent in the Reception Year.

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Aspect Comment

Pupils’ attitudes and values are strengths of the school. Pupils enjoy coming to school and ‘bound in’ each morning full of enthusiasm. There is a very positive ethos throughout the school and the pupils feel happy, secure and safe and this has a very positive impact upon their learning. All staff, governors, parents and especially the headteacher, have worked very hard to create this atmosphere and the school’s values, which permeate all it does.

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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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Reception Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

The quality of teaching is good overall, with many examples of very good teaching throughout the school. During the inspection 43 per cent of the teaching was good and 18 per cent was very good. The teaching of Literacy, Numeracy, English and mathematics are good Gateford Park Primary - 9 throughout the school and making a significant contribution to pupils’ learning and achievements. The strengths of the teaching are that teachers plan their lessons well and build upon pupils’ previous learning. They set high expectations, not only of the pupils, but also of themselves and this is helping to drive standards up further. They identify aims very clearly at the beginning of the lessons and share these with the pupils to develop their understanding. Beginnings and endings of lessons are used well to reinforce learning and to assess what the pupils know, understand and can do. There are good quality displays in the

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Reception Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

classrooms that provide a stimulating, literate environment which is alive with pupils’ work. Teachers make good use of resources and activities and take into account the differing learning styles of all the pupils. As a result, lessons are lively, stimulating and well matched to individual pupils’ needs and as a result all pupils learn well. The weaknesses in teaching relate to the provision for the more able pupils, who tend to be given a greater quantity of work at the same level rather than more challenging work to extend their learning further. Although the withdrawal of groups of pupils for additional literacy work is beneficial to those pupils taking part, it hampers class teachers, as they have to revisit main points of the lesson pupils return to class. This is disruptive.

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Aspect Comment

The quality and range of the curriculum Satisfactory. The curriculum is generally broad and balanced. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies have been used effectively to raise standards. The school offers very good extra- curricular opportunities and makes very good use of educational visits to enhance the pupils’ learning.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Provision for pupils with special educational needs is good. This area is managed well and as a result these pupils make good progress.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is good. The school provides for the development of pupils’ own culture very well but the multi-cultural aspect is lacking and therefore provision is satisfactory overall.

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Aspect Comment

How well the school cares for its pupils The school takes good care of its pupils and provides a safe place for them to learn. The school promotes racial equality well.

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Aspect Comment

The school promotes a very effective partnership with parents, which has a significant impact upon learning. The quality of information provided for parents is very good and parental involvement with their children’s learning is excellent and this again contributes significantly to the progress that pupils make. The timetabling of additional lessons for pupils with special educational needs ensures they make good progress, but this is sometimes at the expense of progress in other subjects, for example in physical education, science and art and design. The timetabling arrangements for history and geography are unsatisfactory because there is too a long a time between each unit of work for pupils to retain knowledge, skills and understanding. Gateford Park Primary - 10

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Aspect Comment

Leadership and management by the head teacher and other key staff Good. The school is well led and managed by the headteacher and deputy headteacher, who work well together. The headteacher has been a major factor in the overall effectiveness of the school and in setting the high expectations in the drive for improvement. The role of co-ordinators is still developing. Systems for monitoring and evaluating subjects other than English, mathematics and science have only recently been established and it is too early for them to have had any significant impact on raising standards.

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Aspect Comment

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities Good. The governing body has a good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas of development. Governors work closely with the headteacher and play a major part in school development. They have a high level of expertise and this is used to full advantage through their committee structure.

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Aspect Comment

The school’s evaluation of its performance Good. This school is not complacent; staff are always looking to improve standards and the quality of education. Senior staff analyse test results very thoroughly and through this correctly identified areas for improvement. Good use is made of this information to set targets and raise standards.

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Aspect Comment

The strategic use of resources Satisfactory. All the areas for development in the last financial audit have been fully implemented. As the school is new and numbers are continually rising, it is difficult for the school to predict accurately its projected levels of spending against the budget, as this fluctuates from year to year.

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Aspect Comment

Staff and resources are well deployed and the match of teachers and support staff to the demands of the curriculum are satisfactory. Resources for learning are good, as is the accommodation. However, the lack of outdoor play provision for the Foundation Stage and a sports field on the school grounds hampers pupils’ physical development. It is difficult for the school to apply all the principles of best value as the budget and number of children have risen each year, makes it impossible to compare with similar schools. The school has yet to ensure that its spending matches the educational priorities identified in the school improvement plan, but it is aware of this and plans to address this in the forthcoming financial year. Gateford Park Primary - 11

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

• The attitudes and values that the school promotes. • That the children enjoy coming to school. • The leadership and management provided by the headteacher and that he takes time to welcome the pupils to school each morning. • That the school provides good support for pupils who have special educational needs. • The friendly and caring atmosphere that the school provides, making every child feel valued. • The receptive way that the school listens to problems. • There were some minor issues raised about homework, some said there was too much, others that there was too little. • A few said that communication and the quality of information about what their children were learning were areas they felt could be improved.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

The inspection team supports the positive views of parents but not the concerns of a few. Homework is used very well to support learning, and the quality of information and opportunities for dialogue with the school are good. Gateford Park Primary - 12

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

1. Through mostly good teaching in the Foundation Stage (the Reception class), by the start of Year 1 most children will have reached the early learning goals (the level expected) in all the areas of learning (the under fives’ curriculum) and a minority will have started on the early stages of the National Curriculum. Children make very good progress in communication, language and literacy, mathematical development and in personal, social and emotional development because the quality of teaching is very high and there are many planned and incidental opportunities to extend children’s skills and understanding. Children make good progress in knowledge and understanding of the world because they are inquisitive and observant and are well motivated by the resources and the teaching. They make satisfactory progress in creative development because they work with good quality resources but on a few occasions, the teacher does not organise the whole of the

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

lesson as well as most others to direct the learning. Children make satisfactory progress in physical development. Their manipulative skills are good but the control a minority of pupils have over larger movements is unsatisfactory. The arrangements for ready access to outdoor play are unsatisfactory and the pace of a few physical education lessons is too slow.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

2. Since the school opened, standards of attainment have risen consistently year on year, with the exception of a dip in science in Year 6 in 2002. The initial low standards in Year 6 in 2000 were due to the pupils’ prior levels of attainment and were not a reflection of the quality of education provided by the school. The pupils came from a variety of schools and in the first year there were only six pupils in the cohort and these had only spent a term in the school.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

3. Since then the school has carried out extensive data analysis of its results and uses the information gained to modify the teaching methods and strategies and to review the content of what is taught.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

4. Standards of attainment in relation to test results by the age of seven are above average and the trend is an improving one. In reading, writing, spelling and mathematics, results have improved year on year and a higher percentage of pupils are reaching the higher levels. However when compared to similar schools, the results appear to have fallen back slightly. That year, the number of pupils eligible for free school meals fell so that the school moved into the top band for schools which has eight per cent or less pupils who are entitled to free school meals. This is a much higher benchmark against which to be measured and is the reason for the apparent drop in grades.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

5. Year 6 results are still below the national average although they have improved substantially over the past three years. In English, results have risen year on year from 20 per cent to 62 per cent and then to 74 per cent attaining the expected level. In mathematics, the improvement has been just as impressive rising from 0 per cent in 2000 to 63 per cent over two years, and again more pupils are attaining the higher levels. In science, although the results have improved significantly, it has not been at the same rate as English and mathematics and this is an area the school had already identified as one for immediate action. Gateford Park Primary - 13 6. Standards in art and design are below average in Years 2 and 6 and progress is unsatisfactory. There are exceptions, for example in observational drawing where most pupils make good progress. However, overall progress within the subject is unsatisfactory.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

7. Standards in design and technology in Year 2 and Year 6 are average and pupils make good progress. This is because they receive good teaching, are keen to learn and work hard. Pupils with special educational needs also make good progress because teachers plan well for their needs.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

8. In geography, standards in Year 2 are average and below average for pupils in Year 6. Standards are below average by Year 6 because geography skills, knowledge and understanding are not taught to older pupils on a regular basis.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

9. Standards are above average in history and pupils make good progress.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

10. Due to additional building work, the school has been unable to use its ICT suite regularly until the beginning of this academic year and this hampered the teaching and learning in the subject. However, the standards that pupils achieve by the time they are seven and are average, which is quite an achievement considering the disruption they have experienced. Standards in word processing and data handling are above average in both Years 2 and 6 but below in modelling and sensing in Year 6. There is no marked difference between the attainment of boys or girls in this subject and pupils with special educational needs or English as an additional language make as much progress as their peers.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

11. Pupils’ attainment is average by the end of Year 2 and Year 6 in music and it is good in singing. They make satisfactory progress overall and good progress in singing.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

12. In physical education, pupils achieve high standards in movement and dance in Years 1 and 3 and make good progress. They reach below average standards and make slow progress in Year 2 in throwing and aiming and in Year 5 in games skills. They reach above average standards in Year 6 in gymnastics and make good progress.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

13. Pupils achieve the standards in line with the locally Agreed Syllabus for religious education by the end of Years 2 and 6, although in some aspects, such as knowledge of other faiths by the age of seven and using the teachings of Jesus to deal with everyday conflicts, achievement is higher.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

14. There are currently no pupils on roll with English as an additional language who are at an early stage of acquisition. Boys’ achievement is lower than girls’ in Years 5 and 6 in reading and writing. The difference was identified when these pupils entered school and is closing. In Years 1 to 4 there is little difference in their achievement. The school identifies pupils who are able and gifted in English and mathematics based on the results of assessments in tests. Their names are held on a register and their progress is monitored. The number of pupils in these groups is rising rapidly.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

15. Pupils with special educational needs make good progress, especially in English and mathematics, because teachers give them tasks that match their needs. Learning support assistants are used well in English when pupils increase their knowledge of letter sounds and word building skills and in mathematics when they learn their number bonds and practise addition. Pupils make good progress towards the targets in their individual learning plans. Gateford Park Primary - 14

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

16. Children new to the Foundation Stage settle in very quickly. They develop confidence in themselves and their teacher and enjoy very good relationships. As a result, they make very good progress in their personal, social and emotional development.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

17. Pupils throughout the school respond very well to their schooling. They have very good attitudes to work and behave very well. Pupils begin the day with enthusiasm and can be seen running to school and greeting each other by name. They soon organise themselves and settle in classrooms ready for work without much bidding from the staff. They participate in lessons with enthusiasm from a very early age. They are keen to do well and are pleased when others do well. They also attend after-school clubs in large numbers. This all creates an atmosphere in which the pupils make the most of their time and learn well.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

18. Behaviour is very good in all areas of the school because pupils have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and members of staff apply standards consistently. This is in keeping with the views expressed by parents. Pupils respond very well to the positive encouragement they get from adults and need little more than a gentle reminder of how to behave. They look after furniture and equipment well and keep all areas clean and tidy.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

19. Relationships with each other and with teachers are very good. They mix happily in play and co-operate well in class. There are few tensions or incidents of aggressive behaviour and pupils work in an environment which is free from oppressive behaviour such as bullying, racism and sexism. During the last school year there were two temporary periods of exclusion, which is low for this type of school. Pupils also mature well during their time in the school. They willingly take on duties such as class helpers or the Year 5 pupils managing play equipment at lunchtimes. Pupils are acquiring independent skills from their first days in school, such as seen in the Reception Year where pupils work well alone making models and tidy up and put away aprons when finished. A Year 4 girl tidied up her group’s table voluntarily before joining the others on the carpet. In the classroom, pupils show a mature appreciation of the values and

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

feelings of others, such as in a Year 4 lesson on the meaning of respect and respecting differences between people.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

20. Pupils with special educational needs behave well and are keen to learn. They listen and concentrate well and try hard.

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PUPILS’ ATTITUDES, VALUES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

21. Attendance is very good overall and excellent in the Reception Year. Average attendance is above the national average and unauthorised absence is low. The vast majority of pupils have an excellent record of attendance but a few families are unreasonably taking their children out of school for holidays. Pupils attend school in good time to begin the day promptly.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

22. The quality of teaching is good overall, with some examples of very good teaching throughout the school. During the inspection, 71 lessons or parts of lessons were seen and 93 per cent of teaching was satisfactory or better and of this 43 per cent was good or better.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

23. Teachers know their pupils well and create a positive and stimulating environment in which to learn and the pupils respond to this very well. Teachers’ knowledge and Gateford Park Primary - 15 understanding of the subjects they teach is generally good with the exception of art and design, design and technology, and to a much lesser extent religious education, where teachers lack confidence and the expertise to teach specific skills. In all other subjects, teachers’ subject knowledge is good and in literacy and numeracy it is very good.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

24. The school has fully implemented the National Literacy and National Numeracy strategies and these are well established throughout the school. The teaching of the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic is very good. The arrangements for the teaching of additional mental mathematics session is very effective and having a positive impact upon raising standards. Teachers create very literate environments for the pupils within the classrooms and this aids the pupils’ learning. The school has also implemented the ELS (Early Literacy Support), ALS (additional Literacy support and FLS (Further Literacy Support) strategies and these are also helping to raise standards for those pupils involved. However, this is sometimes at the expense of progress in other subjects and is also disrupting for teachers when pupils are returned or taken from their lessons at inappropriate times. For instance, this happened in the middle of an art and design

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

lesson in Year 1 when the teacher had already explained the task and techniques to the pupils and had to go over them again for the benefit of those pupils who had missed her teaching.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

25. Teachers plan their lessons well, clearly identifying the skills and knowledge to be taught. These aims are shared with the pupils in most cases by writing them up on the board, giving the pupils a greater insight into the purpose of the lesson and making their learning more meaningful. A strength of the planning is that teachers also plan for different learning styles so that all pupils make the maximum progress and to ensure that all pupils’ individual needs are met. For example, where a lesson may be mainly aural, visual aids were also used and also physical activities for pupils who prefer to learn is this manner.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

26. Teachers have very good relationships with pupils and this enhances the pupils’ learning. Pupils are not afraid to make mistakes as they feel that they can without criticism. Many pupils learn from their mistakes and are happy to share this with the rest of the class. This is due to the positive climate that permeates the school and this is created by the teaching staff with direction from the headteacher and other managers.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

27. In the Foundation Stage, the teacher and the part time learning assistant have a good understanding of the Foundation Stage curriculum and of how young children learn and develop. They make detailed plans for most areas of learning, which are then woven into a sequence of linked lessons and activities. This is particularly effective in developing the skills of literacy and numeracy, and children’s homework makes a good contribution to their progress. The plans for physical and creative development are not as detailed as others in defining the smaller steps in learning that the children should make. The teacher and learning assistant are a good team who work together well for the children’s benefit. Planning and assessment is thorough and used to meet the needs of all children. Children are usually challenged to achieve their best through questions, and through the staff having consistently high expectations that extend more able pupils in most of the

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

28. Teaching for pupils with special educational needs is good because teachers plan work that matches pupils’ needs, which helps them learn. Objectives for learning are shared with pupils and this helps them make good progress. In some instances, the learning support assistant who supports some older pupils gives incorrect information, for instance when teaching some spelling rules and this misleads them. Gateford Park Primary - 16 29. The weaknesses in teaching relate to the assessment of pupils’ levels of attainment in the foundation subjects. At the present time, teachers do not assess against the National Curriculum levels of attainment or the Agreed Syllabus for religious education and therefore they do not get a true picture of the individual pupils’ level of attainment. They do make general assessments such as average, above average and below, but these do not accurately identify the next steps of learning. Teaching assistants are used well to work

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

with groups of pupils but during the teacher introduction they are not active enough in supporting pupils’ learning. On some occasions, the higher attaining pupils are not sufficiently challenged, and as an extension are given more of the same work, rather than an extension task to develop their understanding and take their learning on to the next level.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

30. The use of homework is very good and a direct factor in the progress that pupils are making, in addition to the good teaching they receive during the day. Homework tasks are set conscientiously and link directly to the work undertaken in the class lessons, and as a result pupils learning is enhanced considerably.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

31. In addition to an anti-racist statement in the prospectus, and an equal opportunities policy, there is a policy to include all pupils that provides sound guidance to teachers on how to make this happen. In most lessons, teachers provide work at three different levels, to the more able, and ensure appropriate support for those with special educational needs. A particularly good feature of the teaching is the use of a variety of teaching styles including: whole class teaching, puppetry, drama, paired and group discussions, so that all pupils have an opportunity to learn effectively.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

32. The rate of pupils’ learning is very good in the Foundation Stage and good in Years 1 - 6. Pupils are very keen to learn and are able to concentrate for longer periods of time as they get older. Pupils make a simple assessment of their own learning at the end of each lesson and this gives the teacher a quick overview of the pupils’ understanding.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS OR STUDENTS TAUGHT?

33. Both pupils with special educational needs and those for whom English is an additional language learn at the same rate as their peers. In some instances, pupils with special educational needs are making quicker progress in English due to the additional support they receive.

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PUPILS?

34. The quality and range of learning opportunities are satisfactory overall. In the Foundation Stage, teachers plan well to help the children develop in all the Areas of learning. However, provision for outdoor play is unsatisfactory and this affects children’s creative and physical development. There is good provision for their mathematical and literacy development and provision for personal, social and emotional development is a significant strength. In Years 1 to 6, the curriculum is broad and balanced and meets the requirements of the statutory National Curriculum and the locally Agreed Syllabus for religious education. The school has rightly placed an emphasis on the development of English and mathematics. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies are fully implemented and the teaching of literacy and numeracy is good. The timetabling of special educational needs pupils for additional lessons to boost pupil performance in

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PUPILS?

literacy and mathematics ensures these pupils make good progress, but this is sometimes at the expense of progress in other subjects, for example physical education and science. Timetabling arrangements for history and geography are unsatisfactory because there is too long a time for pupils to retain knowledge, skills and understanding been each unit of work. Pupils have unsatisfactory skills in art and design. Pupils with Gateford Park Primary - 17 special educational needs are well supported and provision for pupils’ personal development is good. The school enriches the curriculum very well with a very good range of clubs and extra learning opportunities.

p.16

PUPILS?

35. Provision for pupils with special educational needs is good. All pupils with special educational need have an individual learning plan with termly targets to achieve. Teachers plan work well to give good opportunities to learn in all lessons, especially English and mathematics. Learning support assistants encourage pupils with special educational needs and provide good support and this helps pupils make good progress. However, when pupils are withdrawn from lessons for extra English and mathematics they miss lessons in other subjects, and although the school rotates the day support is given, its timing needs to coincide more with breaks in lessons. For example, some pupils miss half of their dance lesson and this disrupts other pupils and the teacher. Opportunities for working in small groups allows pupils to speak out more, to gain in confidence and to try harder and so helps them make good progress. There is a satisfactory plan for

p.17

PUPILS?

addressing the needs of the disabled to access the school.

p.17

PUPILS?

36. There is a very good range of activities outside lessons from Reception through to Year 6. Teachers, support staff, some parents and members of community groups organise these. The school choir performs both within school and at outside venues. Sports teams are successful even though there is no school games field. Sports clubs are attended well by both girls and boys from different year groups. The cycling proficiency club is well attended and makes a valuable contribution to pupils’ safety. There are two residential visits, one for pupils in Year 3 and 4 every second year and an annual visit for pupils in Years 5 and 6. The school also arranges educational trips and invites visitors to the school to enhance classroom work.

p.17

PUPILS?

37. The school makes good provision for personal, social and health education (PHSE), including sex and relationships education and drugs education. The school nurse plays a leading role in teaching sex education in Year 6 and the police aid teachers by playing a leading role in drugs awareness education through Drugs Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). There is no school council that pupils are involved in and pupils are unable to formally exert influence on the school.

p.17

PUPILS?

38. The provision for spiritual development is good. The headteacher leads assemblies satisfactorily but the absence of staff and some children takes away a sense of occasion and importance. Pupils reflect on their progress in the achievement assembly and receive praise, stickers and certificates, not just for good work, but also for helping others, being kind and for one pupil for always smiling. Pupils enjoy their singing in assemblies. In a good music assembly, pupils listen with rapt attention when the choir say, “Underneath the mango tree.” Elsewhere in the curriculum, pupils in music lessons listen carefully to a “rainmaker” musical instrument, and in dance pupils develop their creative ideas to help them understand feelings, emotions and respect for others. In the dining hall, an older pupil played the piano well when other pupils were eating their lunch and this allowed pupils the opportunity to reflect on the music.

p.17

PUPILS?

39. The school provides well for pupils’ moral development. The good relationships that exist and the good example set by all who work in the school support moral development. Pupils are taught at an early age about sharing and the importance of truth telling. The school and classroom rules are well displayed, known by the pupils and consistently applied, and teach pupils right from wrong. Pupils behave well. They are good at listening to others, respecting other people’s opinions and learning to make appropriate responses such as when they engage in conflict resolution. Gateford Park Primary - 18 40. There are good community links that support the academic and personal development of pupils. Links with the church and police are strong. Clergy and officers are regular visitors to the school, either taking assemblies or speaking to pupils in the classroom. The school also works closely with a local library and opportunities are used well to take

p.17

PUPILS?

advantage of local places of interest such parks and stately homes. The school also plays its part in the community such as the support it gives to local groups who use school facilities. The school choir sings at local venues.

p.18

PUPILS?

41. Links with other schools and colleges are good. The school works very closely with two pre-school groups and an after-school club. There are very good links between members of staff of the main secondary school, with joint project work and taster sessions by teachers from the upper school. The two schools are presently working together on stretch targets to raise standards in key skills. They are also planning work to establish pupils’ levels of cognitive reasoning and use it to plan teaching styles best suited to pupils’ potential to learn.

p.18

PUPILS?

42. Provision for social development is good. Pupils learn well from each other and teachers routinely place pupils in pairs and groups as part of their normal teaching. In the dining room, pupils sit at tables with pupils from other year groups and mix well. Each pupil is in one of four houses and this allows pupils to be part of a team and work not just for themselves but for others. Pupils are polite and behave well. They hold doors open for each other and for adults in the school. Trips, residential visits and extra classes the school organises outside lessons allow pupils to meet with pupils from other classes and aids social development well. Additionally, the residential trips allow pupils to learn to live with people other than their own family and to take greater responsibility for themselves.

p.18

PUPILS?

43. The school’s provision for pupils’ cultural development is satisfactory but does not emphasise sufficiently pupils’ understanding of the cultural diversity of modern British society. Although there are occasional instances of pupils’ cultural understanding being broadened, for instance when Year 2 pupils read, “Gregory Cool,” a story about a Caribbean boy, and dual meanings of some of the words were explained well, this is not systematic. Opportunities to broaden cultural awareness are not routinely taken in geography, mathematics, music, literature, aspects of religious education or in art and design. Pupils are provided for well when they learn about the richness of their own cultural traditions through visits to the theatre, listening to poets, and visits to the Sculpture Park or historical sites. Pupils learn to respect feelings and beliefs of others through their personal health and social education work, through religious education and

p.18

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

44. The school takes good care of its pupils and provides a safe place for them to learn. There is an annual health and safety inspection in which members of the governing body are involved. The caretaker handles day-to-day matters effectively but recording of this aspect of health and safety is unsatisfactory. Welfare arrangements are good and first aid expertise is very good. Child protection arrangements are good and follow the local Area Child Protection Committee’s recommended procedures. Internet security is effectively provided through the local education authority intranet system.

p.18

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

45. The school promotes good behaviour very well and successfully eliminates any problems of bullying or other forms of oppressive behaviour. Codes of conduct are made very clear and pupils are involved in formulating class rules. Members of staff treat their pupils fairly and enjoy positive relationships with them, so that pupils behave very well from a desire to please. All members of staff apply a system of awards and sanctions consistently and Gateford Park Primary - 19 the pupils value awards. Sanctions are very effective at very low levels and most incidents of misbehaviour are handled successfully in the classroom. The school keeps good track of any behaviour causing concern but has not yet fully adopted the reporting and recording procedures for racially motivated behaviour recommended in the Stephen Lawrence Report. Levels of personal support and guidance are good and pupils’ development is monitored well by the teachers through the close relationships they have

p.18

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

46. The school has an anti-racist statement which successfully guides its work resulting in a tolerant and positive ethos.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

47. Procedures for monitoring and promoting high levels of attendance are very good and very successful for the vast majority of pupils. The school analyses information very effectively and identifies developing trends, such as the taking of holidays unreasonably, quickly enough to take effective early action.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

48. In the Foundation Stage, the teachers plan very effectively to help the children to develop skills in most of the areas of learning and to prepare them very well for their start in Year 1.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

49. The school cares well for its pupils with special educational needs. Good links with nurseries and pre-school groups and teachers’ alertness allow weaknesses to be identified early. If concerns remain, pupils are regularly assessed and progress checked. Individual education plans are detailed with clear targets. The plans show what will be done and what help will be necessary to help the child achieve the targets. The class teacher, learning support assistant, the co-ordinator for special educational needs and the parent review plans each term. Liaison is good with outside agencies such as the speech therapist.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

50. Since opening, the school has made good progress in organising and using its information on pupils’ attainment in English, mathematics and science. These are very good in English and mathematics and satisfactory in science. It has not made as much progress in other subjects although there are some satisfactory features to pupils’ work in information and communication technology and religious education.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

51. The assessment co-ordinator and the headteacher saw from the outset that the development of an effective system of assessing pupils’ progress was a most significant feature in promoting higher standards of attainment. Over time they have built up teachers’ expertise in making accurate assessments and developed a system to record this and make it relatively straightforward to access and analyse. This system shows at which level of attainment pupils are working and helps teachers plan work to match their needs and chart their progress. The Reception class teacher assesses children’s attainment on entry using a local authority checklist. This has now been replaced by a national test on entry to enable more accurate national comparisons. The Reception teacher occasionally uses the small steps in the Foundation Stage curriculum (stepping stones) when the need arises but applies the criteria accurately for completing the final

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

part of the Early Learning Goals since most children are working at this level. In Year 1, pupils begin annual assessments using nationally recommended materials in English and mathematics in addition to statutory tests (that include science) at the end of Years 2 and 6. The school also uses an annual test to note pupils’ progress in reading. This information is very well organised into a database to chart pupils’ progress and to help the school set challenging statutory targets for Year 6 pupils’ attainment in English and mathematics. Governors and senior staff also use the assessment information to compare the school’s performance both nationally and locally. Gateford Park Primary - 20 52. The school has developed the system so that it can track pupils’ progress in fine detail in English and mathematics by analysing it within each level of attainment. This allows pupils and teachers to see what progress has been made, to set pupils into smaller

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

teaching groups and to make targets for each class and groups within them. Currently, a few staff are taking this one stage further and setting individual targets with pupils. However, this is at an early stage of development and the school intends to take this further by refining the targets so that they are useful to the pupils as well as the staff. It also uses its assessment information well to spot those who would benefit from additional literacy and numeracy support.

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

53. The school uses its analysis of pupils’ performance in tests in Years 2 and 6 to see what pupils found difficult and to help staff plan to improve pupils’ future test performance. The assessment co-ordinator has also worked with staff to begin to compare and refine their own judgments on pupils’ progress but this is not routine in most subjects and is a weakness. For instance, there are subject portfolios (samples of pupils’ work in each year group) but most are not assessed against the national levels of attainment.

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

54. Because the school has invested a lot of time initially on English and mathematics assessments (and more recently into science and information and communication technology), assessment procedures in other subjects are not developed as much and this is unsatisfactory. Staff make annual assessments of pupils’ progress and attainment to support teachers’ subsequent planning and to report to parents. However, the assessments do not compare closely enough with the National Curriculum levels of attainment and are too vague. This does not give teachers enough detail to plan their lessons to remedy weaknesses in pupils’ attainment.

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

55. The school has a satisfactory outline plan for improving access for disability and has already taken steps such as ramps up to the temporary classrooms to provide immediate solutions.

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

56. The school promotes a very effective partnership with parents, which has a significant impact on learning. Parents indicated very high levels of support for the work of the school in pre-inspection consultations. Parents consider that their children are expected to work hard and that they behave and mature well. Almost all parents think their children like school, make good progress through good teaching and extra-curricular activities and feel comfortable approaching the school. The vast majority of parents feel that the school works closely with parents and a significant number feel well informed about the progress their children make. Parents expressed no significant concerns but a few would like homework to be used better and that communication be improved. The inspection team supports the positive views of parents but not the concerns of a few. Homework is used very well to support learning and the quality of information and opportunities for dialogue

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

57. The quality of information provided to parents is very good, such as the information about the school through newsletters, web site and an excellent prospectus. The governing body’s annual report to parents is thoughtfully produced but lacks essential information about school targets, national examination data, and there is insufficient information about facilities for people with physical disability or impairment. Annual reports on pupils’ progress are very good and give a clear indication of progress, especially in English and mathematics. Arrangements to discuss pupils’ progress with parents are also good, both through meetings and the opportunity to speak with teachers at the start and end of the Gateford Park Primary - 21 day. Each term the school provides information about forthcoming work so that parents have sufficient time to plan the support they can give. Very well attended ‘Keeping Up

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

With The Children’ sessions in numeracy are being followed with sessions for literacy in the spring.

p.21

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

58. Parental involvement with pupils’ learning is excellent and contributes significantly to the progress that pupils make. Parents respond positively to the encouragement and information they receive from the school, including involvement with pupils’ personal organisers. A large core of regular helpers in the classroom provides valuable support and enables teachers to plan for a wider range of activities. The school can rely on very high levels of support for school events and visits. A very active parents’ group (FROGS) arranges events through which it raises valuable funds for school improvement. Parents of children with special educational needs are fully involved in all reviews of individual education plans.

p.21

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

59. There are satisfactory arrangements to introduce parents and children to beginning in the Reception class. Children spend two half days in school prior to starting full time. Often their parents stay with them and can do so until both they and the children have made a confident start. Parents support their children well in completing their homework. The home/school agreement is clearly shared in the pupils’ personal organisers and clearly identified in the school brochure. However, a minority of parents, take their children out of school during term time for family holidays.

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

60. The leadership and management of the school are good. The headteacher was appointed in the September of 1999, one term in advance of the school opening in February 2000. Then the school only had 38 pupils on roll and three teachers. Since then the school has come on in leaps and bounds and is now an effective school. This is due to the commitment, enthusiasm and determination of the headteacher who has been the major factor in raising standards and implementing polices and procedures since the outset. He has very effectively, along with the deputy headteacher developed and created a successful school. Together they give a very clear educational direction to the school and have correctly identified the priorities for development. The headteacher has a very clear vision of what this school should be and generally has a good idea of how to get there. Throughout the school there is a very strong determination to improve standards and the

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

quality of education provided by all staff and governors.

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

61. The role of the subject co-ordinators is still in its infancy in all but English and mathematics, where it is effective. Procedures and systems are in place for co- ordinators to monitor and evaluate their subjects but as yet these are not effective enough to identify accurately the strengths and weaknesses. Some attempts have been made to monitor and evaluate teaching and learning but this has not been rigorous enough and has not given accurate information about the subjects or the teaching. Although senior staff have monitored teaching and set specific targets for improvement, others such as the co-ordinators, give too rosy a picture of the quality of teaching within the school, with lessons being graded as good or very good and not highlighting areas for development. The co-ordinators are at present given small budgets to manage but these are not linked to the School Development Plan. The school is aware of this and plans for this to be the

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

62. The Reception class teacher is also responsible for co-ordinating the Foundation Stage and she does this well. She has set the standard for this important area of the school Gateford Park Primary - 22 and is creating an action plan to take this further. Since the school opened, she has built up a very good range of lively and colourful resources that stimulate pupils to learn. She has developed policy and practice and established a productive working partnership with the learning assistant. Within the funding allocated by the headteacher, she manages the finances of the Foundation Stage carefully. She is aware of areas for further improvement. For instance, she foresees an improvement in the satisfactory arrangements for liaison with parents and local playgroups.

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

63. Provision for pupils with special educational needs is well managed. There is a new policy in place and the new code of practice is fully implemented. The co-ordinator ensures assessments, records and liaison with class teachers, learning support assistants and outside agencies are good. She maintains satisfactory links with nurseries and pre-school groups and this helps in the early identification of weaknesses. She is aware of recent developments in special educational needs through attending relevant meetings. She does not yet monitor the work of the learning support assistants.

p.22

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

64. The governing body is relatively new but has quickly established effective committees to ensure that it meets its statutory requirements. Governors work very well with the headteacher and have a sound understanding of the strengths and weakness of the school. Governors come into school when work commitments allow and each one has a subject link, although the school has not yet reached the stage for co-ordinators to report their progress toward the school development plan. The chair of governors is a regular visitor to the school and well known by staff and pupils alike, and therefore has a good overview of the daily life of the school.

p.22

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

65. The school office runs effectively on a day to day basis and the office manager is responsible, along with the headteacher, for the financial procedures within the school. The recommendations of the last financial audit have all been implemented successfully. Because the school has only been open for three years it has been difficult for them to compare their costs with similar schools as the nature of the school, in relation to numbers on roll and subsequently budgets, has changed year on year. This makes it difficult to implement the principles of best value. However now that this has stabilised, the school is in a good position to be able to measure its costs and performance against similar schools. The school has yet to ensure that its spending matches the educational priorities identified in the school improvement plan, but the school is aware of this and plans to address this in the forthcoming financial year. Specific grants, such as standards

p.22

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

funds, are used effectively. The school development plan is thorough and informative and accurately identifies areas for development.

p.22

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

66. Staff and resources are well deployed and the match of teachers and support staff to the demands of the curriculum are satisfactory. Procedures for performance management are in their second cycle and fully implemented. Resources for learning are good, as is the accommodation. However, the lack of outdoor play provision for the Foundation Stage hampers these children’s physical development. Although the school has access to another school’s sports field this is some distance from the school and therefore time is wasted travelling to and fro. Gateford Park Primary - 23

p.22

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

67. In order to make further improvements, the headteacher and governors should:

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• Improve standards in science, art and design, physical education in Year 2 and art and design, geography and science in Year 6. (Paragraphs: 90, 96,105 and 124) • Improve the effectiveness of the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning, particularly by the subject co-ordinators so that strengths and weaknesses are more accurately identified. (Paragraph: 61) • Improve assessment procedures in art and design, design and technology, geography, history, music and physical education. (Paragraphs: 50, 54, 100, 108, 111, 123 and 127) • Ensure that there is adequate provision for outdoor play activities for the children in the Foundation Stage. (Paragraphs34 and 62)

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

In addition to these Key Issues the governors should consider including the following in their action plan:

p.23

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

• Rearrange the timetabling of extra literacy support for pupils to reduce the impact on their learning in other subjects. (Paragraph: 24) • Review curriculum planning in history, geography and art and design to provide more continuity in the learning. (Paragraph: 34,96, 105, 108) • Ensure that the governors Annual Report to Parents includes all that it should. (Paragraph: 57) Gateford Park Primary - 24

p.23

Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of lessons observed 71 Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 35

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfacto ry Unsatisfac tory Poor Very Poor

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Number 0 13 31 22 5 0 0 Percentage 0 18 44 31 7 0 0 The table gives the number and percentage of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about teaching.

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils on the school’s roll Nursery YR– Y6 Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) N/A 202 Number of full-time pupils known to be eligible for free school meals N/A 9 FTE means full-time equivalent.

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Special educational needs Nursery YR – Y6 Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs N/A 0 Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register N/A 15

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of 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 Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 16

p.24

Authorised absence Unauthorised absence

% % School data 4.4 School data 0.2 National comparative data 5.4 National comparative data 0.5 Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year.

p.25

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 2002 20 15 35

p.25

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

Boys 19 19 18 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 15 15 15

p.25

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

Percentage of pupils School 97 (100) 97 (100) 94 (92) at NC level 2 or above National 84 (84) 86 (86) 90 (91)

p.25

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

Boys 19 18 19 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 15 15 15

p.25

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

Percentage of pupils School 97 (100) 94 (96) 97 (88) at NC level 2 or above National 85 (85) 89 (89) 89 (89) Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year. Gateford Park Primary - 26

p.25

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 2002 19

p.26

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

Boys 6 5 5 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 8 7 7

p.26

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

Percentage of pupils School 74 (62) 63 (62) 63 (85) at NC level 4 or above National 75 (75) 73 (71) 86 (87)

p.26

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

Boys 4 5 5 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 7 7 7

p.26

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

Percentage of pupils School 58 (46) 63 (62) 63 (62) at NC level 4 or above National 73 (72) 74 (74) 82 (82) Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year.

p.26

s

White – British 197 2 0 White – Irish 0 0 0 White – any other White background 0 0 0 Mixed – White and Black Caribbean 0 0 0 Mixed – White and Black African 3 0 0 Mixed – White and Asian 0 0 0 Mixed – any other mixed background 0 0 0 Asian or Asian British – Indian 0 0 0 Asian or Asian British – Pakistani 0 0 0 Asian or Asian British – Bangladeshi 0 0 0 Asian or Asian British – any other Asian background 0 0 0

p.27

s

Black or Black British – Caribbean 0 0 0 Black or Black British – African 2 0 0 Black or Black British – any other Black background 0 0 0

p.27

s

Chinese 0 0 0 Any other ethnic group 0 0 0 No ethnic group recorded 0 0 0 The table refers to pupils of compulsory school age only. It gives the number of exclusions, which may be different from the number of pupils excluded.

p.27

Y6

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 10 Financial year 01/02

p.28

Y6

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 21.3:1

p.28

Y6

Average class size 23.67 £ Education support staff: YR– Y6 Total income 439,989.00 Total number of education support staff 3 Total expenditure 412,744.21

p.28

Y6

Total aggregate hours worked per week 70 Expenditure per pupil 2,095

p.28

nursery

Balance brought forward from previous year 45,000

p.28

nursery

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 0 Balance carried forward to next year 27,244.79

p.28

nursery

Number of pupils per qualified teacher Total number of education support staff Total aggregate hours worked per week Number of pupils per FTE adult FTE means full-time equivalent.

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers who left the school during the last two years 1 Number of teachers appointed to the school during the last two years 7

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

Total number of vacant teaching posts (FTE) 0 Number of vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of a term or more (FTE) Number of unfilled vacancies or vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of less than one term (FTE) FTE means full-time equivalent. Gateford Park Primary - 29

p.28

Percentage of responses in each category

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

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

My child is making good progress in school. 71 28 0 0 1

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

Behaviour in the school is good. 80 20 0 0 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 49 38 8 3 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 54 35 8 1 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 77 22 1 0 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 92 8 0 0 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school works closely with parents. 63 30 6 0 1

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school is well led and managed. 81 16 1 0 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 71 29 0 0 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 70 29 0 0 1 Gateford Park Primary - 30

p.29

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

68. The quality of provision in the Foundation Stage is a good feature of the school’s work. Children enter the Reception class full time at the start of the term in which they have their fifth birthday. Although children’s attainment on entry varies a little each year, the general level is above that usually found and most pupils have well-developed social skills. A minority have good communication and mathematical skills.

p.30

Personal, social and emotional development

69. The quality of teaching in this area of learning is very good and children make very good progress. Teachers plan activities and also take other opportunities each day to develop and reinforce these skills. The teacher and learning assistant set an excellent example by valuing each child and ensuring that they are happy and confident. This is particularly so for new entrants, when staff go to extra lengths to monitor their progress and make them feel welcome members of the class. The staff teach the children to think about one another and to be generous in their dealings. They give responsibility for a range of tasks and children respond very responsibly and politely. For instance, the helper of the day leads the children as they file out for assembly and various children in the class hold open doors as they pass. Staff gently encourage the children to see themselves as part of the class and of the wider school community. The staff strike a very good balance between

p.30

Personal, social and emotional development

developing children’s skills of independence and those of co-operating and lending support. Children respond very well and share resources without fuss. They follow classroom rules very well and do not disturb others when they are concentrating. They appreciate the efforts of others when they answer questions or when, for example they put on a puppet show. Children learn to think for themselves and staff encourage them to make decisions by talking through with them the choice of options and the reasons for selection. A good example of this approach is through the well-prepared range of materials and equipment staff select each day so that children can find things out for themselves. Through the range of classroom discussions and use of relevant examples, children are making good progress in developing an understanding of the beliefs of others.

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

70. Very good teaching ensures that every activity develops and reinforces children’s skills very well. For instance, the teacher introduces each lesson by explaining clearly what the children will do and reminds them what they have done before. At this point children offer comments or ask questions and the teacher reinforces the point of the lesson by writing it on her whiteboard and reading it with the children. Often, at the end of the lesson, they will return to the words on the whiteboard and this incrementally builds up children’s sight vocabulary and reinforces the idea that words carry meaning. Staff set good examples of clear speech and regularly introduce children to a widening vocabulary and ensure that children understand words that they hear used. Staff sensitively reinforce correct spoken language and encourage children to lengthen their answers into complete sentences. The teacher encourages children to voice their thoughts and at the right time to write

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

these down and read them back. As a result, children make very good progress in learning words and letter sounds to write independently in well-formed letters. Children also practise writing during imaginative play and as part of the daily routines. The teacher uses the National Literacy Strategy very effectively with a strong emphasis on learning Gateford Park Primary - 31 about books (e.g. covers, titles, authors), words and letters. Children enjoy reading and are developing their skills confidently. They have a good range of interesting books to read at school and to borrow to take home.

p.30

Mathematical development

71. The quality of teaching in this area is very good and the teacher sets a range of practical and challenging activities that promotes very good progress. She makes good use of the objectives from the National Numeracy Strategy. There is a strong emphasis on developing number skills and pays sufficient attention to learning about shapes and measurement. The staff use resources very well to engage children’s interest and sustained concentration. A good example of this was when pupils worked very well in small groups to buy objects from the shopkeeper. Pupils understood their roles well. They matched their coins to the price and worked out if they could afford it. Higher attaining children had a more complex task that involved adding prices and calculating pooling their coins. Although this was demanding, a few grasped the idea and one child began to work out problems of his own. As in communication, language and literacy,

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Mathematical development

children learn mathematics incidentally in other activities. They count numbers of pupils in a group or how many are present in the class. They respond well to classroom notices that restrict the number of children allowed to take part in an activity at one time.

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Knowledge and understanding of the world

72. Teaching is good because planning is very thorough and children learn well in each strand of this area of learning. Children make very good progress in computer skills and attain above the expectations for their age because they have regular access to computers and are taught well in small groups. Children learn about personal care and hygiene and learn to name the main body and facial parts correctly. They extend their vocabularies with such words as ‘cheeks’ and ‘eyebrows’. There are sufficient opportunities for children to explore and investigate natural materials and living things. Children design and make good models with construction sets and from other materials. They develop their imagination and make sense of everyday features of life such as doorways for access and windows for light when they design and build houses. Children learn to find their way around the school and understand routes to and from school by

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Knowledge and understanding of the world

drawing simple maps. They make good progress in understanding the passage of time when they consider their place in the family, notable family events and national celebrations. They develop a sense of curiosity about the world beyond their immediate experience and are unafraid to question things. For instance, the teacher had set up the sand tray as a jungle with trees, undergrowth and animals for the children to create stories with. One child was puzzled and after a moment’s thought asked, “But aren’t jungles wet? Where is the rain and the water?” Around the classroom there is a range of attractive books and pictures that children look at and use to learn respect for other people’s ways of life.

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Physical development

73. Teaching in this area of learning is satisfactory and children make satisfactory progress overall. Learning is constrained by the lack of everyday access to outdoor play. The hard surface area is too small for all of the children to use and the grassed area is not suitable for all weather use. The outdoor play equipment is unsatisfactory although additional items and extra storage are planned for next year. The staff make good use of what they have and when the weather is suitable, they ensure that the area is used well. They also have a little extra hall time each week and some of this is used well to promote pupils’ use of space and development of movement in response to music. Other work using Gateford Park Primary - 32 large apparatus is organised safely and pupils learn to set out and put away the apparatus well. However, some time is wasted because the activities are not well organised enough. On the other hand, staff provide well for children to develop their finer,

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Physical development

manipulative skills such as sticking, cutting and shaping. The classroom is set out very well to encourage these skills and for children to have easy access to materials and tools in order to make choices.

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Creative development

74. The quality of teaching is satisfactory in this area of learning and pupils make steady progress. They make good progress when making choices, using their initiative and expressing their own ideas and feelings. Good examples of this were when children made up stories about animals lost in the jungle (sand tray) or when they retold, with some embellishments, favourite stories and acted them out using finger puppets. Painting, cutting and sticking activities are regularly available for children to choose and higher attaining children become engrossed in developing patterns of colours such as painting a rainbow. At other times, lessons are led more by the teacher to promote particular skills such as painting, printing and making collages, for example of the three little pigs’ houses. Occasionally, the balance between these independent and teacher led activities is unsatisfactory. Less confident children then do not make as good progress

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Creative development

during the independent activities as their more articulate and confident classmates. Children learn a range of action songs and sing with enthusiasm. They explore instruments and sounds but this area is not as well developed as when they listen and dance to music.

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ENGLISH

75. The quality of English teaching is good and has successfully raised pupils’ standards of attainment since the school opened. Over the last three years, improving English has been a major thrust of the school’s work and a number of new initiatives, including a very structured homework programme have been introduced. Pupils now make good progress in English.

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ENGLISH

76. Reading was one of five areas chosen for improvement in 2000, because standards were low and pupils were not reading regularly. All pupils now make good progress in reading. This is partly because of the tremendous support given by parents to ensure pupils read regularly at home, and in particular that pupils in Years 1 and 2 learn their key words. The very effective key word reading programme is run by parent volunteers and ensures each pupil is tested daily. In addition to continued support with reading at home, older pupils build on their good start and continue to progress well. This is because of good teaching in guided reading sessions, and access to books graded so they can select from an appropriate level of difficulty. Pupils in Year 5 and 6 benefit from the additional motivation of Cook’s Books, an initiative devised and managed by the headteacher to reward pupils for reading a variety of individually challenging books.

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ENGLISH

77. Standards in reading are rising and are now above average at the end of Year 2 and Year 6. and although older boys are still performing less well than girls, the gap is narrowing. Pupils in Year 6 are able to find the answer to a question by selecting an appropriate book in the library using the classification system. The school library contains a small but interesting and relevant selection of non-fiction books, which allow the pupils to develop their research skills. The recent addition of ‘Cooks Books’ means there is sufficient variety of fiction to give pupils access to a range of challenging books at their own level. By the end of Year 6 pupils know how to use the index; glossary and contents page and Gateford Park Primary - 33 can navigate their way around the text using sub-headings and key words. They can talk in depth about characters in the stories they have read, and why they behave as they do,

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ENGLISH

and are able to give good reasons why they prefer some books to others. More able pupils have read a large number of books, both fiction and non-fiction. The less able have read less, and their books are often shorter, but they still have a varied reading diet and read lots of books.

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ENGLISH

78. Standards at Year 2 and Year 6 in speaking and listening are above average throughout the school, and pupils make good progress. Pupils in Year 2 are able to learn through sensibly talking and listening in pairs and groups during lessons, and they confidently answer their teacher in front of the whole class using complete sentences. They happily converse with an adult at the dinner table, clearly describing the foods they like and justifying their choices. Pupils in Year 6 talk and listen with assurance in all the situations they meet. In discussion with their friends and an adult about the merits of ‘cheese strings’ as a lunch box item they demonstrate their ability to listen to the views of others, respond appropriately and ask sensible questions to further debate.

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ENGLISH

79. Writing was another of the five areas chosen for improvement in 2002. The school introduced a weekly extended writing lesson and directed teaching assistants to deliver a structured package of planned support for pupils who were under achieving. Standards in writing in the current Year 2 and Year 6 are above average, with more able pupils in Year 2 achieving particularly well. Pupils throughout the school make good progress. More able pupils in Year 2 can clearly re-tell a traditional tale using accurate punctuation, they are beginning to vary their vocabulary, and write lists, letters, dictionary definitions and stories using the appropriate form. Less able pupils do not yet organise their work in sentences, although they can sequence a story and show some awareness of full stops. In Year 6, pupils of all abilities can write in a variety of styles using formal and informal language. More able pupils are producing good quality work to tight time scales; work is

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ENGLISH

appropriately organised into paragraphs, using a variety of sentence lengths and both literal and figurative language. Older pupils are taught how to improve their work by redrafting.

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ENGLISH

80. Standards in spelling are above average and pupils make good progress, with some pupils in Years 5 and 6 making very good progress. This is because of successful implementation of the Literacy Strategy techniques and a rigorously implemented spelling homework policy. Handwriting was also one of five areas chosen for improvement in 2002. The school then introduced daily five-minute practice sessions, which have now been discontinued. Standards are now average overall. Although commendable pieces are produced for the annual competition not enough attention is paid to the handwriting in lessons, particularly to the consistent formation of letters, and handwriting in some books is untidy, particularly when younger pupils use fountain pens.

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ENGLISH

81. Lessons are well planned, opportunities for different styles of teaching are identified and there are clear links to previous work for pupils of all abilities. Teachers share the aims of the lesson with pupils at the beginning of the lesson so everyone knows what it is they are trying to achieve. Teachers frequently end lessons well by referring back to the objectives and asking searching questions to check the progress that pupils have made. Classes have well established routines, lessons move at a swift pace and no time is wasted. Teachers routinely set time allocations and targets, and pupils work hard because of clear expectations and recognition of effort. Pupils enjoy their literacy lessons because teachers work hard to provide appropriate high quality resources suited to their age and ability, as exemplified by teachers in Years 1 and 2 who use a variety of puppets, hats and props to engage pupils’ interest and make learning fun. Work is carefully

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ENGLISH

Gateford Park Primary - 34 marked using the school’s consistently applied system of praise for what has been achieved and targets for further improvement.

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ENGLISH

82. The school displays pupils’ work very effectively and ensures that labels, captions and headings abound. There are words everywhere pupils look, and the school clearly meets its aim that each pupil should be able to see 100 words from anywhere in their classroom. These displays and resources, which are often interactive, are beautifully produced, attractive to look at and give reading and writing a high status as well as providing help and support. Less able pupils are well supported in lessons when teaching assistants have a clear understanding of how to help the pupils. An example of this was in a Year 1 class shared reading session when the teaching assistant rephrased the question and helped the pupil to frame an answer.

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ENGLISH

83. Teachers have very good relationships with pupils and value their efforts, which gives them the confidence to have a go without fear of failure.

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ENGLISH

84. Parents are left in no doubt about the importance the school assigns to their role in supporting their children in reading and spelling. The prospectus sets out the expectations and opportunity for parental involvement in developing literacy skills, and clearly states ’Your enthusiastic involvement in this is an essential element’. Each pupil has a personal organiser which acts as a reading record and home-school communication book; this is where they record their daily homework. Pupils are proud of their personal organisers, and homework makes a very positive contribution to improvement.

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ENGLISH

85. The school has an adequate library that pupils use well. In addition to teaching the Literacy Strategy, the school provides opportunities for structured teaching of speaking and listening skills. There is a well-attended drama club, and unusually, a story sack after-school group for very young pupils. In the short time that she has been in school, the co-ordinator has accurately identified target setting, moderation of writing and teaching of guided reading as areas for development and addressed them in her action plan. She has attended training on leadership and clearly has the potential to raise standards further. The headteacher makes a particularly good contribution to leadership in English.

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ENGLISH

86. Standards for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6 are average. All pupils receive good teaching and as a result all pupils are making good progress and standards are improving. Teachers use assessments of what pupils have learned in one lesson to improve planning for the next lesson. Standards are also rising because of the priority the school gives to mathematics, the amount of time it devotes to it, and the organisation of mathematics teaching in the school. Support by learning assistants is well targeted and as a result of this and the good teaching, pupils who have special educational needs make good progress.

p.34

ENGLISH

87. Year 2 pupils make good progress in their number bonds to 20 and can count forwards and backwards to 100. Most can add three numbers together when playing the “fruit machine” game to make totals up to 30. They can estimate the mass of objects less than a kilogram. Pupils in Year 1 practice putting the larger number first for their subtraction sums. Most pupils have not done enough work on showing information using different methods such as pictograms, or doing sufficient investigative work. Most eleven year olds have a sound grasp of number and how to use it with accuracy. Their mental skills are well developed in their daily mathematics lesson and in the well-arranged additional Gateford Park Primary - 35 lessons. The higher attaining pupils, some of whom are from Year 5, calculate simple percentages and calculate fractions and percentages of a particular number. Pupils in Year 5 know how to measure angles and that two right angles make a straight line.

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ENGLISH

Pupils in Year 4 can round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100 and most are able to weigh objects accurately. Most Year 3 pupils are able to work out word problems well making good use of the mathematical display in the classroom as a guide. They know how to find the important facts in the question and what type of calculation, addition or subtraction, to perform to get the answer. Overall investigative skills in mathematics are not sufficiently developed across the school. All pupils are enthusiastic about their mathematics lessons and are keen to learn.

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ENGLISH

88. .Teaching is at least satisfactory, most of it is good and it was very good in one lesson. Teachers plan their lessons well with clear aims for the lesson. They share these with pupils at the beginning of the lesson and this sets targets for pupils and they work hard to achieve them. The mental starter to lessons is usually brisk and allows pupils to practice their number bonds and mental calculations well. Teachers use a good range of questioning strategies and make good use of praise and these encourage pupils to do their best, and to answer questions confidently. Learning support assistants work well with small groups of pupils and quietly explain what the teacher has said. Although most of the time the support is good, on one occasion pupils were told to subtract instead of add. Teachers make good links with pupils’ previous learning and have good subject knowledge themselves. Time is usually used well. Where teaching is less successful,

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ENGLISH

teachers do not always anticipate when problems might occur, such as when pupils weigh objects, do not challenge higher attaining pupils sufficiently, or do not leave sufficient time in the plenary session. Most teachers use the end of the lessons well for reviewing with pupils what has been learned by asking the key questions in their planning. When insufficient time has been left teachers do not go over the work thoroughly enough. All teachers set homework, and this helps pupils learn even more.

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ENGLISH

89. Leadership of mathematics is good. The correct strategies have been put in place, especially for mental mathematics, to raise attainment and these strategies are taking effect. Local education department numeracy staff have given good support. There is a good policy and the scheme of work from which teachers plan is based on the National Numeracy Strategy. The co-ordinator has analysed the data provided when pupils take various tests, including the statutory tests for pupils in Year 2 and Year 6. The analysis of these is shared with teachers, weaknesses identified and strengths celebrated, and in this way teachers know how to improve.

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SCIENCE

90. By Years 2 and 6, pupils make satisfactory progress but reach below average standards, principally because there are too few pupils reaching the higher levels of attainment. However, more pupils are reaching the level expected than last year when standards in Year 6 were well below average. Although this represents some improvement, standards are not high enough. The school has recognised this and has made science a major school focus for development from April this year. However, the science co-ordinator is newly in post and does not have a clear plan of action. Although she has done some useful preparatory work, management of the subject is unsatisfactory because it is having too little impact. The monitoring of teaching has just begun and is not systematic.

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SCIENCE

91. Pupils enjoy their work in science and behave very well. Most teaching is of good quality and is helping pupils make good progress in developing their science investigation skills. These skills have not been taught for long enough in Years 3 to 6 for higher attaining pupils to work at the higher level by Year 6. Gateford Park Primary - 36 92. By Year 2, most pupils make good use of their science diaries to record their work . Higher attaining pupils know about the conditions that foster plant growth and use this to decide on experimental conditions for testing out their knowledge. They can explain how plants get nutrients from the soil and know about the different functions that roots perform. Other pupils have a weaker understanding of these matters but can begin to see how restricting conditions for plant growth may affect it. A few higher attainers are beginning to see what must be borne in mind when setting up a fair test, for example to

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SCIENCE

see what effect absence of light has on plant growth. They do not have a good understanding of variables nor why these need to be controlled in an experiment. A few are beginning to make predictions about what might happen in an experiment, but do so without a justification. By Year 6, most pupils are developing a satisfactory scientific vocabulary and can group substances into solids, liquids or gases. Higher attaining pupils can conduct experiments that the teacher suggests, make careful observations, make predictions and reflect on outcomes. For instance, one pupil experimenting with saturated solutions expected his portion of flour to dissolve in water. He noted that some did not and despite stirring, remained as “muddy flour” at the bottom of the container. Other pupils have difficulty with the concept of a saturated solution because they confuse the meaning of ‘saturated’ with ‘wet’. All pupils are making at least satisfactory progress

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SCIENCE

in carrying out experiments but higher attainers are not posing their own scientific questions nor devising their own experiments to test out their ideas. They record their work neatly but do not use a wide range of presentations and do not make sufficient use of information and communication technology for instance to handle data.

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SCIENCE

93. Most teaching promotes pupils’ good progress in lessons and satisfactory progress over time. All teachers plan their work well so that lessons have clear purposes that teachers help pupils understand at the start of the lesson. Teachers remind pupils of what they have previously covered and help them see where the current lesson fits in and how they might improve. Lessons have a good structure that encourages pupils to work well together in groups and share resources and ideas. In this way, science makes a good contribution to pupils’ personal development. Lessons usually end with teachers and pupils considering what they have found out and where their next piece of work may lead. This consolidates what pupils have learned and a few teachers use the opportunity to set occasional homework for pupils to investigate further. This was a feature of a Year 2 lesson when pupils were invited to look at their gardens to see which parts of it

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SCIENCE

encouraged plants to grow well. Teachers use the school’s good level of resources to provide pupils with enough equipment to carry out their work. This helps pupils concentrate well on scientific matters rather than organisational ones. Teachers are careful to point out potential safety issues, and pupils handle equipment with care.

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SCIENCE

94. Teachers assess pupils’ progress during lessons well and are making good use of assessment data to organise their work. For instance, they group pupils by ability and set work to match their needs. This enables pupils with special educational needs to make good progress. Teachers use the results from national tests to concentrate on areas pupils found difficult to answer. Only one lesson seen during the inspection had weaknesses. The Year 1 teacher expected too much from her pupils both in developing the idea of a fair test and in organising their experiments in groups to test out the distance model cars could travel down ramps. Pupils made slow progress and so she satisfactorily re-organised the lesson to enable some learning to take place. Generally, teachers manage pupils’ behaviour very well and pupils respond very positively. They listen to one another’s ideas during discussions when teachers promote speaking and

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SCIENCE

listening skills well. Pupils record their work neatly giving good textual and numerical accounts of their work. Gateford Park Primary - 37 95. The school has good resources and the accommodation is well suited to work in science. Relatively low pupil numbers helps staff deal with individual pupils well and to group pupils allowing ample space for them to carry out their work. The co-ordinator works within a clear science policy that sets out the fundamentals of teaching, learning and organising science very well. She has put together an audit of resources and conducted a staff self-audit of their training needs. She has done some limited monitoring of planning and teaching and worked with a governor when he observed some lessons. Although this information did not reveal specific strengths and weaknesses of provision to form the basis of a good action plan, it did however establish the staff’s

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SCIENCE

commitment to improve, and their good subject knowledge underlines their capacity, with a commitment to improve leadership, to do so.

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ART AND DESIGN

96. Standards in art and design are below average by Year 2 and Year 6 and progress is unsatisfactory overall. There are exceptions to this, for example in observational drawing where most pupils make good progress. This directly relates to the way in which the curriculum has been taught, which has been patchy and inconsistent from year to year. The curriculum planning is taken from recommended national schemes of work and does meet requirements, however teachers do not always teach the units in the order in which they have been planned and this does not ensure that all aspects are taught or that skills and techniques are acquired in progression. For example, the curriculum overview shows that the subject is planned in a yearly cycle, but the teachers are teaching a two–year cycle, which means that skills are sometimes taught out of order and sometimes units are omitted. Pupils’ attainment in observational drawing is good as pupils have plenty of

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ART AND DESIGN

practice in this aspect, for example through their visit to a local church in religious education in Year 1 and 2, or in Years 5 and 6 on a residential visit to Whitby where they had the opportunity to sketch seaside objects such as shells and starfish.

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ART AND DESIGN

97. In Year 1, pupils make modrock sculptures based on their visit to a sculpture park, through this activity they work in groups and this enhances their ability. They are able to make simple collages and draw simple portraits of themselves or their friends in class. In Year 2, pupils have the opportunity to use fabric paints and make Mexican masks as part of their history topic. In Year 3 and 4, pupils have studied aboriginal art and made their own in the same style. They have studied the work of some famous artists, such as Monet. In Year 5 and 6, pupils study people in action and make detailed sketches. They have undertaken observational drawings of local buildings and reproduced work in the style of Van Gogh, although they struggle to explain how his work stands out from that of other artists, and what kind of brush strokes he used.

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ART AND DESIGN

98. In the lessons seen, the teaching of art and design is satisfactory, but evidence from work scrutiny and discussion with teachers and pupils show that teaching is unsatisfactory overall. This is due to lack of subject expertise and not knowing how and when to intervene to demonstrate techniques. Teachers lack expertise in teaching specific skills, and opportunities to develop pupils’ learning are missed due to this. Teachers presently have the freedom to ‘move’ around units if they do not wish to teach them or do not feel confident in the subject matter, and therefore not all units are covered in the two-year cycle. The school and teachers do make very good use of educational visits to develop pupils’ learning from first hand experiences and pupils learn well from these. Teachers are more confident in teaching observational drawing skills and as a result pupils reach satisfactory and sometimes good standards in this aspect.

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ART AND DESIGN

99. Pupils enjoy their art and design lessons and are eager to try out different techniques. For example in Year 6, when learning to shade the shadows made by a sphere placed in Gateford Park Primary - 38 front of torchlight. In Year 1, pupils were enthusiastic about trying out their weaving skills when weaving simple designs with materials but tended to go off task when they felt they had mastered the technique.

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ART AND DESIGN

100. As the school has been focusing on raising attainment in the core subjects of English, mathematics and science, and because it is a new school, there has been insufficient time to develop this subject. The school has already recognised that this is a subject that needs to be developed and has identified areas for action. However these have had to be put on hold due to the forthcoming maternity leave of the subject co-ordinator. At the present time there are no procedures for assessing individual pupil attainment in art and design but the school has made some attempt at trying to establish pupils’ attainment as a year group by identifying the percentage the school believes to be average or above. This is very recent and lacks the rigour for it to be accurate or effective in identifying areas for development. The school is aware of this and an action plan has already been drawn up to rectify these issues.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

101. Pupils in Years 2 and 6 reach average standards and make good progress. This is because they receive good teaching, are keen to learn and work hard. Pupils with special educational needs also make good progress because teachers plan well for their needs.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

102. Pupils in Year 1 can make playground mechanisms and make good links with their previous lesson when they practised fixing paper and card together. They planned their design, and incorporated pivot, twist and slide joints as appropriate and evaluated their work. Pupils in Year 2 identify what is in fruit and vegetable drinks and compare the packaging and labelling to see if the label reflects the contents, and therefore learn to look at labels critically. Pupils, based on their previous research, are able to design their own fruit drink, know the utensils they will need to make it and can design a label for their drink. Pupils in Years 3 and 4 can plan making a picture frame for a specific purpose and combine different materials well in its manufacture. They can use scissors accurately to cut out shapes, and in Year 4, pupils totally absorbed in their work, keep evaluating their design and make minor changes to improve the final product. Pupils in Year 6 know that

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

rotary movement can be changed into linear movement by using a cam and can build a prototype of a truck to test their designs. They are aware of health and safety issues when using scissors and hole punches and can measure and cut accurately. They can join axles and wheels. In the plenary session pupils shared design problems with others so as to avoid them making the same design mistakes as themselves. When they design their own pizza toppings they make good links with the community by using a local pizza parlour.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

103. Teaching is good overall. No unsatisfactory teaching was seen. The weakness in the learning is because skills are not taught in a systematic way. Teachers plan their lessons and use resources well. Pupils are clear as to what they have to do because teachers tell them the purposes of the lesson and explain well how to achieve them. Pupils are given good guidelines on how to proceed and are regularly encouraged to think about how to improve their designs. Pupils usually make a good plan before they build the prototype, and by careful and skilful questioning by teachers and discussions with their peers, pupils identify ways of improving their designs. The product is then tested to make further improvements. The groupings of pupils for their work and the interaction between them allow good development of their social skills. However teachers do not always use opportunities to extend pupils’ cultural awareness, for instance in a Year 2 class when the

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

teacher could have introduced a range of exotic fruits for the activity. Gateford Park Primary - 39 104. The management of design and technology is sound. The school uses the exemplar national scheme of work from which teachers plan their lessons and this allows skills to be systematically taught. Teachers assess the acquisition of skills, although this is not a firmly established practice across the school. At the end of the year, pupils’ progress in design and technology is assessed using the National Curriculum criteria. Classroom teaching of design and technology lessons has been observed by the co-ordinator, but these observations lack rigour and do not focus sufficiently on teaching and learning. Although teaching is good overall, some staff lack confidence in the subject and extra training has been identified as a priority. Resources are good and are linked well to the scheme of work. They are stored where they are both safe and accessible to teachers.

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GEOGRAPHY

105. Pupils in Year 2 reach average standards but standards in Year 6 are below average. Standards are below average because geography skills, knowledge and understanding are not taught regularly. The school needs to review arrangements for geography lessons to provide more regular practice for pupils. Year 2 standards are average because of the good teaching they receive. Pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 make good progress in their lessons and satisfactory progress over time.

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GEOGRAPHY

106. Pupils in Year 2 know that their environment changes and that people can have an effect on it. They can carry out tasks such as surveys and select the information from them, such as the survey on leisure facilities around their homes. They use this information well in lessons to discuss their preferences. They can use local maps to locate their homes and the school and the routes they take between them. Pupils in Year 1 know what sequence of events happens on a journey, from planning where to go, to packing, and arriving at their final destination. They are able to make a bird’s eye view map of the classroom and correctly identify items in it. They know that the weather at the North Pole is different from that in England. In discussion with some pupils in Year 6, they were unable to say what a scale meant on a map and only a minority could successfully locate Worksop on the map. They were all familiar with directional compasses and could

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GEOGRAPHY

tell the direction London and Nottingham was from Worksop. They could not explain grid references but could locate various European countries on a map of Europe. They were able to name Europe, Asia and Africa as continents but unable to name any African country. In terms of local studies they were able to say that Gateford was a quiet place to live but were unable to describe any of its geographical features. They knew that weather and the seasons are affected by movement of the Earth but unable to describe the changes in a river from its source to the sea.

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GEOGRAPHY

107. Geography teaching was only seen in Year 2 and in both of these lessons teaching was good and pupils made good progress. The lessons were planned well and good links were made with pupils’ homework when the results of their survey of leisure facilities in Gateford were well used in the lessons. Good links were made with literacy and mathematics when teachers extend pupils’ vocabulary, for instance the word “facilities,” was explained well and the results of the survey were presented using a tally chart. Pupils were deliberately made to work in pairs and this made a good contribution to pupils’ social development. High expectations of pupils’ standard of work and behaviour resulted in good behaviour, high levels of enthusiasm and good work. No judgement is given as to the quality of teaching in Years 3 to 6.

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GEOGRAPHY

108. Leadership and management of geography is unsatisfactory. The new co-ordinator has not had sufficient training in the role of curriculum leadership. She does not know standards in the subject, and, although she has monitored teaching in other classes, this is done with insufficient rigour and does not focus on pupils’ learning. The curriculum is Gateford Park Primary - 40 arranged in such as way that pupils in Years 3,4,5 and 6 have had no geography lessons for two terms. This does not allow for pupils to learn systematically and practise the required skills, knowledge and understanding and as a result standards are unsatisfactory. Resources are adequate and new maps, especially Ordnance Survey maps, are on order.

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HISTORY

109. Pupils in Years 2 and 6 reach above average standards and make good progress throughout school. Pupils in Year 2 know the difference between the present and the past, and can talk knowledgeably about how toilets, our water supply and transport have changed. They can explain why the Great Fire of London spread so rapidly and why that would be unlikely now, and they understand that information about the past can be found in books, museums, on the Internet and through talking to people. Pupils in Year 6 understand the reasons for change over time, they appreciate the different methods used to market popular music over the last 50 years that have been brought about by new technology and they are able to select and link information from a variety of sources.

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HISTORY

110. Teachers take seriously the aim expressed in the school prospectus ’to make the subject come alive ’; consequently the quality of teaching is good throughout the school, with some very good aspects . Good use of primary source materials, and skilful questioning develops pupils’ thinking and leads them to act like historians, sifting all the available evidence. This was shown in Year 2, when pupils looking at Victorian washing implements initially thought a posser was for cleaning the toilet, and also in Year 5 when pupils attempting to sequence four different Beatles album covers thought colour was the only important criterion. Both groups were led to the correct conclusion as they responded to their teacher’s questions.

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HISTORY

111. History lessons are exciting and made relevant for pupils today. Year 3 pupils had their imagination fired when they acted out how to build a Viking Longship. Pupils with lower ability in literacy are able to achieve well in history because they are well supported by their teachers, with appropriate match of work to pupils’ abilities and use of resources and variety of teaching styles. Teachers regularly mark pupils’ work, however there is currently no assessment at the end of each history topic against the targets for attainment.

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HISTORY

112. There are good links with ICT and English. For example in Year 6, pupils use the internet to find out how music bands and groups market themselves today, in order to compare the methods with those used by the Beatles 40 years ago. Where teachers provide the opportunity, pupils make good use of the skills they learn in literacy and apply them to their writing in history as shown by pupils in Year 3 who made a guide to building a Longboat for a fellow Viking and their drama described above. More teachers could make these links as the standard of writing achieved is sometimes better than that achieved in extended writing sessions in English lessons. The history programme of study is covered, but the curriculum is unbalanced as pupils can go for two terms without learning any history. Therefore, they may not meet the concepts regularly enough to the progressive development of skills. There are adequate resources organised into boxes to

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HISTORY

support each topic, with the exception of the local study. This topic in the history curriculum for Year 6 has received insufficient attention.

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HISTORY

113. The co-ordinator has only been leading the subject for one term and she has correctly identified a need for training in leadership. There is no history action plan, and although she has observed lessons there are not yet any clear criteria for making judgements on the quality of teaching and learning in history. Gateford Park Primary - 41

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

114. Due to additional building work the school has been unable to use its ICT suite regularly until the beginning of this academic year. Prior to this, the suite had to be used as a classroom and this hampered the teaching and learning of the subject. However, the standards that pupils achieve by Year 2 and 6 are average, which is quite an achievement considering the disruption that they have experienced. Standards in word processing and data handling are above average but average in modelling and sensing by Year 6. There is no marked difference between the attainment of boys or girls in this subject and pupils with special educational needs, English as an additional language or gifted and talented pupils make as much progress as their peers. Progress in the past year has been good and are above average by Year 2. The two-yearly cycle is presently preventing the older pupils from attaining higher levels due to its present arrangement. For example, the

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

present Year 6 group has not had the opportunity to use multi-media to present their results of research carried out in other subjects.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

115. Pupils’ attitudes to their ICT lessons are good in Years 1 and 2 and very good in the older classes. In Year 1, all pupils were enjoying their lesson on finding out what icons did but were very excited and became rather noisy. In a Year 2 lesson, when pupils were asked to input information to create bar charts, they worked co-operatively together in pairs, one inputting the information the other reading out, and spelling, the required information. As they get older, pupils behave sensibly within the ICT suite and when using the class computers. They settle immediately to the tasks that they are set and are enthusiastic about working on computers. In one Year 5 lesson some pupils found the task quite challenging but persevered and supported each other well.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

116. The teaching of ICT is good and as a result pupils make good progress and learn well. Teachers make good use of previous learning by recapping the skills taught in previous lessons. Where possible, they match the tasks to the abilities of the pupils, but sometimes in the case of the more able, this may often be more of the same activity and often does not allow the pupils to demonstrate competency at the higher levels. Teachers’ planning is good and clearly identifies the learning they wish to take place. This information is shared with the pupils and so gives them a better understanding of the purpose of the lesson. The lack of a projector in the ICT suite makes it difficult for the teachers to demonstrate ‘actions’ so that all pupils can see clearly, and so they have to gather round one computer, which has an effect on progress.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

117. The curriculum is well planned and matches the requirements of the National Curriculum, but insufficient emphasis has been given to modelling and sensing and so the pupils are unable to demonstrate the necessary skills in these aspects. Presently the curriculum is planned on a two-year cycle and therefore two age groups are doing the same work. Where this happens the work is insufficiently matched to allow older pupils and the higher attainers to reach their full potential. There are two extra-curricular computer clubs, which run during the week, which enhance the learning for those pupils who take part. Good use of ICT is made through other subjects such as literacy, mathematics and history, although sometimes the computers outside the classrooms are under-used.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

118. The assessment of pupils’ ICT skills is in its infancy. The school has tentatively tried to assess the attainment of the pupils but this is by assessing below average, average and above average, with no clear guidelines as to what average is. The co-ordinator has already drawn up a scheme which will assess pupils according to the nationally recommended learning objectives, but this has not yet been implemented. A parent has Gateford Park Primary - 42 assisted the school in developing its own web site, which is both informative and serves as a useful tool for prospective parents wishing to find out more about the school.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

119. The leadership and management of the subject are good. The subject co-ordinator knows the subject well and has written an action plan to develop the subject further. There has been some attempt to monitor teaching and learning but this has been rushed and has not been objective enough to identify true strengths of teaching and learning and areas for development. The monitoring and evaluation of the subject is a weakness and is already identified by the school.

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MUSIC

120. Pupils’ attainment in Years 2 and 6 is average overall and it is good in singing. They make satisfactory progress overall with good progress in singing. Pupils have regular opportunities to sing and play simple percussion instruments, listen to a variety of music from all over the world and discuss how they feel about it. As a result pupils in all classes sing with confidence and evident enjoyment. Pupils in Year 2 learn songs by heart and can accompany their singing by clapping out rhythms and maintaining steady beats on percussion instruments. Pupils in Year 6 can sing in two part harmony with instrumental accompaniment on tuned and untuned percussion, as shown in their performance of ‘Help’ at the musical achievement assembly.

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MUSIC

121. The quality of teaching is satisfactory with good teaching in singing because the music co-ordinator teaches with the class teachers. It was not possible to see any class lessons in Years 3 to 6, although choir and recorder groups were observed. Pupils enjoy their music lessons. Pupils learn basic skills because teachers give clear explanations and demonstrate what it is they want the pupils to do, for example pupils in Year 2 were helped to understand the difference between tapping the syllables of the word and tapping the beat of the music by copying the teacher’s example. In copy-cat clapping games, where the difficulty of the rhythm to copy was varied by the teacher, able pupils and pupils with special educational needs make good progress because the demands of the task are matched to their ability. In some lessons insufficient time is allowed for pupils to play musical instruments, make decisions about the most appropriate instrument to play and

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MUSIC

experiment with the sounds they can produce. Although musicians in the recorder groups are able to play a round in three parts and keep together in spirited playing of a piece in three part harmony , pupils only learn to read standard musical notation if they attend extra-curricular music groups.

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MUSIC

122. As demonstrated in the concert, lessons and assemblies, attitudes to music are very good. Pupils listen appreciatively when a Year 4 boy plays the piano while they eat their lunch. Pupils benefit from the opportunity to sing regularly in the school choir and perform to parents and the community. Pupils can learn the recorder but there is currently no provision to learn to play other musical instruments. Links are made to other subjects; Year 6 have been listening to the music of John Lennon and the Beatles as part of their history project, but ICT is not yet used sufficiently for composing music. Music makes a good contribution to cultural development, there is a range of multi-cultural instruments, and opportunities are planned for pupils to experience music from around the world.

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MUSIC

123. The music co-ordinator makes a positive impact on standards. She has a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the subject and takes effective action to address them. There are gaps in resources and she has rightly identified keyboards and ICT software as the next priorities. The co-ordinator is aware of the need to improve the consistency of end of module assessments. Gateford Park Primary - 43

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

124. Because of the way the subject is timetabled, only part of the curriculum was inspected although all aspects are taught during the year. By Year 2 pupils make slow progress and reach below average standards in throwing and aiming but by Year 6 they make good progress and reach above average standards in gymnastics. Also by Year 6, most pupils reach the expected level in swimming and a minority exceeds this. Pupils achieve high standards in movement and dance in Years 1 and 3 and make good progress. They reach below average standards and make slow progress in Year 5 in games’ skills. The subject is managed satisfactorily but teaching is monitored unsatisfactorily. Pupils enjoy their lessons and have good access to a wide range of extra activities. The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory overall. The school has good equipment and a useful hall for physical education but pupils have to travel to

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

use a games field. Procedures for assessing pupils’ progress are unsatisfactory .

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

125. In Years 1 and 3, pupils move expressively in response to music. They explore space around them very well and stimulated by very good teaching, extend their range of movements, hold balances and in Year 3 begin to organise their actions into sequences. In Year 1, pupils spontaneously worked in pairs and began to mirror their partners’ movements carefully. In Year 3, pupils maintained their concentration and built a series of movements with an eye to pace and overall body shape. In Year 2, pupils could not accurately throw beanbags to hit a target over a short distance because they did not stand correctly and were not coached to improve their skill. They made slow progress in understanding the rules of the game they played because the lesson lacked pace. In Year 5, the weather was too cold for an outdoor lesson that involved too much standing still and not enough activity. As a result, pupils made slow progress in controlling balls

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

with hockey sticks. In Year 6, very high quality teaching inspired pupils to make very good progress in developing a travelling sequence that linked static balances into a flowing sequence. In the very successful lessons, pupils developed their sense of spirituality and their social skills. They co-operated closely, made perceptive suggestions for improvements to performances and interpreted well-chosen passages of music into movements very responsively. In all of the lessons, pupils with special educational needs made similar progress to other pupils in the class.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

126. Better lessons were a very good balance of teaching, practice and evaluation leading to improvement. All lessons were carefully planned and have a useful structure but the unsatisfactory ones stuck too closely to the plans so that the warm up sessions did not quickly lead onto movement so that the effect was lost. All lessons were well managed and pupils listened and responded well to the teachers’ instructions. The three very effective lessons made very good use of the time available by increasing the level of demand on the pupils as they gained in confidence. These teachers had good subject knowledge and used it well to make very good coaching points to extend pupils’ range of performance. In their turn, pupils emulated these skills by thinking about the quality of their own movement and those of other pupils. In Year 1, the teacher asked pupils to say which set of movements by other pupils they liked. By Year 3, they were being asked to

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

say what it was about the movements they appreciated, and by Year 6 they were asked to make suggestions for improvements and provide reasons for their opinions. This shows good, progressive development of evaluative skills. Weaker lessons focused too narrowly on a particular aspect such as thinking how to make a game fair and not enough time to practise the skills. Although there is ample equipment, the Year 2 lesson used only a limited amount and this lengthened the time pupils had to wait for a turn. One unsatisfactory feature of two of the very good lessons was the withdrawal, half way through, of a few pupils who went off to receive additional literacy teaching. This interrupted their learning and progress in physical education and was not timed well. Gateford Park Primary - 44 127. The co-ordinator has developed a clear policy for the subject that has the potential to bring more consistency to the quality of teaching and learning. It has not been a major

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

priority for the school but the co-ordinator has developed a useful action plan that builds on the staff overall enthusiasm and capacity to improve. The quality and range of extra activities has improved over time and the two residential visits for Years 3 and 4 and for Years 5 and 6 feature outdoor and adventurous activities. The co-ordinator has involved outside expertise to train staff and the quality of work in dance is partly the result of this. There has been some limited monitoring of the subject and the co-ordinator has noted strengths and weaknesses of provision. This is not part of a systematic appraisal of provision that is the school’s aim. Most teachers are making useful assessments of pupils’ progress in lessons and all record this at the end of the year. However, this information is not part of a system to chart the progress of individuals and groups in sufficient detail.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

128. Pupils achieve the standards expected in relation to the locally Agreed Syllabus in religious education by the end of Year 2 and Year 6, although in some aspects achievement is higher. For example by the end of Year 2, more able pupils can accurately recall the major facts of the Muslim faith and name some of the major festivals of the Christian, Hindu and Jewish faiths. In Year 1, pupils are able to name objects in a church and what they might be used for and they can recall some of the parables that Jesus told. In Years 3 and 4, pupils learn about the people who Jesus met and what kind of characters they were, and they are able to act this out in simple role-play situations. Year 5 and Year 6 pupils effectively use the teachings of Jesus to deal with everyday conflicts.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

129. The teaching of religious education is satisfactory overall, with examples of good and very good teaching across the school. Teachers make very good use of linking the subject to drama and personal, social and health education (PSHE), for example in a Year 6 lesson when pupils used the teachings of Jesus to influence how they might handle simple conflict situations on a day to day basis, and this makes the teaching relevant to the pupils’ everyday lives. Teachers plan their lessons well and clearly identify the lesson aims, which are shared with the pupils. The structure of the lessons ensures that pupils clearly understand what is required of them and also plenaries are used well to reinforce the teaching but also to assess the pupils’ understanding. Teachers make very good use of a variety of teaching strategies such as drama, role-play, visits to churches and sketching objects found there. The pupils find these approaches stimulating, they

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

grab their interest and as a result their responses to the lessons are very good. In the less successful lessons classes, were taught together in the hall, which made it difficult to hear what the teacher and other pupils were saying and this hampered their learning. Some teachers lack confidence in teaching the subject and in some aspects, their knowledge of the subject is not as strong as in others. For example, in one lesson when the pupils thought that Jesus was kind when he turned over the tables of the money lenders, the teacher accepted this and did not explain that this was an example of Jesus’ anger.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

130. The planned curriculum meets the requirements of the Nottinghamshire Agreed Syllabus although is presently taught on a two-yearly cycle. This arrangement does not always allow the more able older pupils to achieve the higher levels. The school makes good use of visitors to the school, such as the local clergy, and educational visits, for example, St. John’s Church, to enhance the subject, but this is limited to aspects of Christianity. Teachers’ planning shows that other faiths are taught but opportunities to links aspects of the subject to other faiths is often missed. The present time allocation for Gateford Park Primary - 45 the subject is below the recommended time identified in the Agreed Syllabus and scrutiny of pupils’ work shows that on some occasions the subject is omitted. Very good links are made to PSHE throughout the school and this has a positive impact on the pupils’ personal development.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

131. The co-ordinator for the subject is a religious educational specialist and knows the subject well. Currently the school has been focusing on raising attainment in the core subjects and so she has not had time or opportunity to develop this subject further. The school has begun trying to assess pupils’ attainment in the subject but this is as at Year group not individual pupil level. The co-ordinator has had some opportunity to monitor the subject but as yet this is not specific or rigorous enough to identify future areas for development.

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