Newlands Primary School

NEWLANDS 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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NEWLANDS 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. Newlands Primary School - 3

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

School address: Wakefield Road Normanton West Yorkshire

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Appropriate authority: The governing body

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Date of previous inspection: This is the school’s first inspection Newlands Primary School - 4

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Aspect responsibilities

7281 R Drew Registered inspector English as an additional language Geography Music What sort of school is it? How high are standards? a) 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? 9710 E Burgess Lay inspector How high are standards? b) Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development How well does the school care for its pupils? How well does the school work in partnership with parents? 8864 P Clifton Team inspector Educational inclusion Science Physical education 19897 A Evans Team inspector Art and design Design and technology Information and communication technology 22428 V Farrow Team inspector Foundation Stage Special educational needs Mathematics Religious education 30590 P Tuttle Team inspector English History How good are the curricular and other opportunities offered to pupils? Newlands Primary School - 5 The inspection contractor was:

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Aspect responsibilities

Demeter House Station Road Cambridge CB1 2RS

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Aspect responsibilities

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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Aspect responsibilities

The Complaints Manager Inspection Quality Division

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Aspect responsibilities

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE Newlands Primary School - 6

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PART A: SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 7

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

Newlands Primary School is a larger than average school with 354 pupils aged 5 to 11 and the equivalent of 32 full-time children aged 3 to 5 attending its nursery. It serves the former coal-mining village of Normanton, where all indicators of social deprivation are high: as a result, the school is part of an Education Action Zone. Nearly half of all pupils are entitled to free school meals – nearly three times the national average. Various social factors lead to a high turnover of pupils during each year. The vast majority of pupils are of white (British) origin, with five from ethnic minority (mostly Asian) communities. Only two pupils use English as an additional language, neither being at an early stage of language acquisition. Many more pupils than average have special educational needs, and 1.8 per cent have special educational needs statements: both of these figures are above the national average. Pupils

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

enter the school with a wide range of prior attainment, but overall standards on entry are well below average.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL

The school was created in 2001 by the amalgamation of former middle and first schools. A new headteacher was appointed to oversee the closure of the middle school and begin the work of the current primary school. She leads a staff drawn almost entirely from the two previous schools.

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HOW GOOD THE SCHOOL IS

This is a sound and improving school. The headteacher and deputy provide good leadership; leadership and management by co-ordinators are satisfactory. Pupils’ behaviour is very good and their achievement - or long-term progress - is satisfactory. While results in 2002 were well below the average for all schools, and, at the end of Year 6, for similar schools, the Year 2 results were in line with those for similar schools: in addition, the standards seen during the inspection were considerably higher than this in many subjects and in the areas of the Foundation Stage. Teaching and learning and value for money are satisfactory.

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What the school does well

• It succeeds in encouraging pupils to behave very well and show positive attitudes. • Overall provision in the Foundation Stage is good. • There are many areas where leadership, teaching and the progress of pupils are good, particularly in information and communication technology (ICT), design and technology, art, history and geography. • The headteacher has played a crucial and successful role in creating a school that is a secure and happy place for pupils to learn. • The moral and social guidance provided is good. • A good range of extra-curricular activities is provided. • Good links have been set up with other schools and with the local community. • Very good child protection and general arrangements for pupils’ welfare are in place.

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What could be improved

• Standards in English and science are well below average, and pupils’ achievement, while sound, is not as good as in other subjects. • Teaching and learning, while sound overall, have areas of relative weakness in some subjects and year groups. • Monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning and of the work of middle managers in the school are unsatisfactory. • The effectiveness of co-ordinators is too variable. • Marking and assessment arrangements are insufficiently well understood and used by staff. • Governors are not as well informed as they should be about strengths and weaknesses in provision for different subjects. The areas for improvement will form the basis of the governors’ action plan. Newlands Primary School - 8

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

The school had not been inspected before. However, several year groups in this school – including the current Year 6 – were pupils in the middle school inspected in 2000; many of the staff also came from the middle school. That school was deemed to have serious weaknesses in terms of pupils’ attainment, progress and behaviour and in the quality of leadership and management and teaching. The current headteacher has established clear objectives for the new school, namely: improving attitudes and behaviour in Years 3 to 6; raising standards, especially in reading and writing; improving standards of presentation throughout the school; and ensuring that pupils’ potential is recognised and developed by effective assessment systems. Since September 2001, the school has made good improvements in these and many other areas. It is now a calm and purposeful school, with a strong sense of direction. Behaviour is very good overall, and pupils show proper respect for people and property; their progress is

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HOW THE SCHOOL HAS IMPROVED SINCE ITS LAST INSPECTION

much more carefully assessed, though this feature is not yet satisfactory by national standards. Reading and writing and presentation skills are better than they were, but still require substantial improvement, as the school already appreciates.

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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 N/A N/A E* E well above average above average A B Mathematics N/A N/A E D average below average C D Science N/A N/A E E well below average E

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Key

In 2002, results at the end of Year 2 were well below national averages in reading, writing and mathematics, compared with results for all schools. When compared with those for similar schools, however, results in reading and mathematics matched national levels, while in writing they were just below average. Results for 2002 at the end of Year 6 in English, mathematics and science were well below average compared with those for all schools, and the English results were among the lowest 5 per cent in the country. When compared with those for similar schools, the Year 6 results were well below average in English and science, but just below average in mathematics. In 2002, the school’s targets for English were not met, but those for mathematics were exceeded.

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Key

In pupils’ work seen during the inspection, the collective standards in English, mathematics and science were well below average both at the end of Year 2 and at the end of Year 6. Standards in mathematics were again better than those for the other core subjects, being below rather than well below, average. Such standards indicate that pupils are making satisfactory progress in school. They start primary education with well below average standards of literacy and numeracy, and have particularly weak study skills. Many pupils have special educational needs and come from social backgrounds that are disadvantaged by national standards. Standards could nevertheless be higher: science and mathematics teaching in Years 1 and 2 does not have the same beneficial impact on attainment as the teaching in Years 5 and 6, for instance, and in English, teaching of a range of additional skills needs to be consistently good if pupils’ standards are to continue to improve.

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Key

Standards of attainment by the end of Year 6 are in line with national averages in history, geography, art, ICT, physical education and design and technology. Pupils achieve well in ICT, art and geography; their long-term progress is satisfactory in most other subjects, but unsatisfactory in religious education. Good teaching and subject management underpin those subjects with the strongest achievement by pupils. Newlands Primary School - 9 Newlands Primary School - 10 Achievement in the Foundation Stage is good, due to effective leadership and consistently good teaching. Standards are just below, rather than well below, average at the end of this stage. Pupils with special educational needs make sound overall progress, as do the few pupils using English as an additional language. Higher-attaining pupils in the school are insufficiently challenged and achieve less well than they should, because assessment information is not used effectively to help pupils reach the

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Key

next levels of attainment. Pupil grouping arrangements do not always allow higher-attaining pupils to receive enough focused attention, and the gifted and talented programme is too new to be helping them. Girls reach higher standards than boys, but the gap is narrower than the national one and is closing.

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Aspect Comment

Attitudes to the school Good. Pupils are positive about school. They make good use of the opportunities offered to them.

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Aspect Comment

Behaviour, in and out of classrooms Very good. The positive attitudes of the vast majority of pupils, plus the good moral and social guidance given by staff, lead to very good behaviour. In classrooms, around school and at play, the overwhelming majority of pupils are pleasant, respectful and polite. Bullying and other forms of oppressive behaviour are rare.

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Aspect Comment

Personal development and relationships Good. Pupils are successfully encouraged to respect each other and their teachers. The scope for them to improve further their independent thinking and groupwork skills is limited, because there is less emphasis in lessons on these features than there should be.

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Aspect Comment

Attendance Unsatisfactory. Attendance levels are rising steeply, but fall far short of the national average for primary schools.

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Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

Quality of teaching Good Satisfactory Satisfactory 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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Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

Teaching and learning are satisfactory overall. Over 60 per cent of the lessons seen during the inspection had good teaching and learning, but in about 10 per cent the quality was unsatisfactory. The Foundation Stage is characterised by good teaching and learning. In Years 1, 5 and 6 the quality is good, with some very good and occasionally excellent teaching in evidence. The quality of teaching and learning in Years 2, 3 and 4 is sound overall, and includes both good and occasionally unsatisfactory lessons. In English, mathematics and science, teaching and learning are satisfactory, and pupils’ achievement in these core subjects is sound as a result. In art, ICT and history, teaching and learning are of good quality, but in religious education they are unsatisfactory. In all other subjects teaching and learning are sound.

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Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

The most successful feature of teaching across year groups and subjects is the good management of pupils. Pupils treat staff and other pupils with respect, teachers are very quick to reward good attitudes and work, and equally effectively are consistent in dealing with problems immediately. Teachers have a sound level of expertise in subjects across most areas of the curriculum and a better than usual confidence in ICT, art, design and technology, geography and history. However, pupils’ learning in English and science cannot progress at an improving rate until limitations in aspects of specialist teaching skills have been overcome. Newlands Primary School - 11 Teachers’ use of day-to-day marking and periodic assessment is unsatisfactory. Pupils are given too little indication of how to improve. The use of data about their past performance, likely targets and rates of progress is much better than it was, but is not used regularly to plan how to help pupils reach the

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Years 1 – 2 Years 3 – 6

highest possible levels of attainment. Basic literacy skills are not reinforced sufficiently in subjects other than English: some lessons in art, music, geography and ICT promote a focus on key words, but other strategies, such as structures for writing, are rarely used. Teachers’ expectations are satisfactory overall, but are higher in Foundation Stage and Years 5 and 6. In Years 1 and 2 expectations in core subjects should be higher.

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Aspect Comment

The quality and range of the curriculum Satisfactory. All statutory subjects are taught and the time allocations given to them lead to good balance. The range of extra-curricular activities is good, and the curriculum is further enhanced by good links with individuals and groups in the community and with other schools. Literacy skills are not adequately reinforced in the teaching of foundation subjects, and there is unsatisfactory provision for higher-attaining pupils.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with special educational needs Satisfactory. The co-ordination of special educational needs support is effective. These pupils make good progress in the Foundation Stage and sound progress across Years 1 to 6. Support assistants in lessons are well briefed and liaise well with class teachers.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils with English as an additional language Good. The very few pupils using English as an additional language receive valuable support and make sound progress in their lessons.

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Aspect Comment

Provision for pupils’ personal, including spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Satisfactory. The school is consistently good in the moral and social guidance standards it offers pupils. Cultural development is satisfactory, but pupils have too little time for reflection and spiritual development is therefore unsatisfactory.

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Aspect Comment

How well the school cares for its pupils Unsatisfactory. This is an area of mixed performance: the personal and social care for pupils is good – indeed, child protection arrangements are very good. However, the monitoring of pupils’ academic progress and the action taken to challenge and support pupils as a result of assessments are unsatisfactory.

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Aspect Comment

Leadership and manage- ment by the headteacher and other key staff Satisfactory. The headteacher provides a good sense of educational direction, gives a very strong lead in creating an orderly and secure school and is well supported by the deputy headteacher. Monitoring and evaluating of the school’s work is unsatisfactory. Leadership and management by other staff vary, but are satisfactory overall. The co- ordination of art, ICT, design and technology and geography is good, but in science and music it is unsatisfactory.

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Aspect Comment

How well the governors fulfil their responsibilities Satisfactory. Governors have a very supportive attitude to the school managers, and they fulfil their statutory duties well. They have a sound general knowledge of the school, but their awareness of specific strengths and weaknesses is limited. Newlands Primary School - 12 The school’s evaluation of its performance Unsatisfactory. The school evaluated its initial needs well and has taken steps to improve behaviour, overall leadership quality and resource levels. However, several aspects are not yet as effective as they might be, because analyses of teaching quality, assessment systems and provision for higher-attaining pupils need to be more rigorous and have greater impact.

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Aspect Comment

The strategic use of resources Good. The school deploys its income effectively. The headteacher has been very successful in bidding for additional funds or resources to support aspects of the school’s work. The principles of best value are applied satisfactorily: comparisons between different costs of services are made, but there is insufficient emphasis on setting challenging targets for pupils’ performance.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

A very high proportion of parents who expressed views believe that: • their children make good progress; • the school has high expectations of their children; • the school helps their children become mature and responsible; • the school is very approachable; • their children like school. A minority of parents believe that: • the range of activities outside lessons is limited; • the amount of work for pupils to do at home needs adjusting; • liaison with parents could be improved.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

Inspectors largely share parents’ favourable views of the school. Their judgement is that the children are very positive about school and are set very high standards of behaviour, which helps them to develop and become responsible. The school is very approachable and pupils make sound, rather than good, progress. Academic expectations need to rise for higher-attaining pupils, but enable most pupils to achieve satisfactorily.

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What pleases parents most What parents would like to see improved

Inspectors’ judgements do not support the concerns of a minority of parents. By national standards, liaison with parents and homework arrangements are satisfactory, and the range of extra-curricular activities is good. Newlands Primary School - 13

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

1. The school is relatively new and does not have any established pattern in published results. In 2002, results at the end of Year 2 were well below national averages in reading, writing and mathematics, compared with results for all schools. However, results in reading and mathematics matched national levels for similar schools, while those for writing were just below average compared to similar schools.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

2. At the end of Year 6, results for 2002 in English, mathematics and science were well below average compared with those for all schools. The English results were among the lowest 10 per cent in the country. Compared with results for similar schools, the Year 6 results were well below average in English and science, but just below average in mathematics. In the work seen during the inspection, overall standards at the end of Year 2 and at the end of Year 6 were well below average. This was the case for English and science, while in mathematics standards were again below, rather than well below, average.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

3. Despite being noticeably lower than national levels, these standards indicate that pupils are making satisfactory progress between entering and leaving the school. Pupils in most year groups started primary education with well below average standards of literacy and numeracy, and have far weaker study skills than usual. In addition, levels of special educational need are higher than average, and overall, pupils’ social backgrounds are disadvantaged. About 20 per cent of pupils in the school leave or join, and sometimes rejoin, their classes part-way through the year, causing significant disruption to their learning. Against this background, achievement - or long- term progress - is satisfactory. However, there is scope for it to be better. Among the core subjects, science teaching in Years 1 and 2 is barely satisfactory, while the strong qualities seen in much Year 3 to 6 mathematics teaching are less evident in Years 1 and 2.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

4. In addition, standards of attainment in some other subjects indicate that expectations should be higher. In history, geography art, ICT, physical education and design and technology, pupils are reaching national standards in their work by the end of Year 6. Pupils’ achievement in these subjects is generally good, usually as a result of good teaching and subject management. Co- ordination is not satisfactory in science, music and religious education and as a result, teaching has significant limitations, so that standards are below average. In English, the co-ordinator shows good leadership qualities and has accurately evaluated the needs of teachers that must be met if standards are to rise more rapidly. The necessary training, and monitoring of its impact, need to be implemented urgently.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

5. In the Foundation Stage, effective leadership and consistently good teaching are helping incoming children to achieve well. Standards are just below, rather than well below, average at the end of this stage. Consequently, the school is providing pupils with an increasingly good start to compulsory education; it is now essential to raise expectations across Years 1 to 6.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

6. In general, the school is not yet as effective as it should be at using assessment to raise standards. Gauging pupils’ potential, rates of progress or the steps required to attain at higher levels are features that some staff handle securely, but others do not. The overall targets agreed with the local education authority for Year 2 and Year 6 results are unusually low for both 2003 and 2004. While pupils are on track to exceed them, they do not set before staff, pupils and parents a sufficiently challenging standard for which to aim.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

7. In 2002, the school’s Year 6 targets agreed with the local education authority were very low, in recognition of the disruption the year group had experienced during reorganisation. Targets for English were narrowly missed at level 4, but fell substantially short at level 5. In mathematics, the equally low targets were exceeded overall and for the higher levels. While the pupils’ much lower than average attainment at the start of primary education is relevant, these targets reflect Newlands Primary School - 14 the modest expectations found in much teaching rather than the high expectations and the strong challenge for high attaining pupils seen in the best teaching during the inspection.

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

8. The school is strongly inclusive in its desire to serve all pupils appropriately. Pupils with special educational needs receive generally good support and make sound overall progress. Pupils make satisfactory gains in relation to the targets in their individual education plans and in relation to their prior attainment. Similarly, the very few pupils using English as an additional language progress at the same rate as other pupils. However, the higher-attaining pupils in the school are insufficiently challenged and achieve less well than they should. This deficit reflects the limitations of teachers’ confidence and expertise in using assessment information. The precise steps to help higher-attaining pupils reach the next levels of attainment are not always fully grasped, and pupils’ grouping arrangements do not fully meet the needs of these pupils. The programme for gifted and talented pupils has only recently started and is not yet having an

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The school’s results and pupils’ achievements

impact. Girls reach higher standards than boys, but the gap is less than that found nationally, and is closing.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

9. Pupils’ attitudes to the school are good. They attend school enthusiastically and are happy there. In lessons, they listen and concentrate well. They are keen to contribute ideas in class discussions, and persevere to complete work. They are confident speakers. When given the opportunity to develop ideas for themselves, they do so well. For example, Year 6 pupils were keen to contribute their own thoughts on how to solve problems in mathematics. Older pupils are enthusiastic about the after-school and lunchtime activities offered to them.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

10. Behaviour in the school is very good. Pupils move around the school in an orderly fashion and are friendly and polite, holding doors open for visitors and each other. In lessons, pupils behave well, although there are occasions when they become silly and noisy, often in response to uninteresting work, where they are asked to complete worksheets rather than expressing their own ideas. If they do misbehave, pupils respond well to teachers’ use of sanctions, for example in an unsettled Year 1 class the possibility of being a ‘Superstar’ resulted in improved behaviour. They appreciated the system of rewards for both good work and good behaviour.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

11. The number of exclusions over the past year has reduced significantly from 2001/2. There have been no permanent exclusions in 2002/3, and the number of days lost to fixed-term exclusions has gone down from 80 to five so far this year.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

12. The absence of oppressive behaviour, including bullying, sexism and racism, is good. The atmosphere of the school is friendly and harmonious, and pupils show good understanding of the impact of their actions on others. Pupils’ personal development is good, so that by Year 6 they have developed mature attitudes to learning. They show satisfactory respect for other people’s feelings, values and beliefs, as was apparent in a Year 5 circle time.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

13. Pupils are happy to take responsibility in the school, for example, taking registers to the office and tidying up at the end of lessons without any fuss. Pupils use equipment, such as computers, with care.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

14. Relationships throughout the school are good. There is mutual respect between adults and pupils, and pupils show respect for each other’s opinions, speaking in turn in a Year 4 and 5 class when they shared their holiday experiences.

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Pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development

15. Attendance is unsatisfactory, although, at 92.5 per cent, it is significantly better now than in the previous school year. However, it is below the national average for primary schools. The rate of unauthorised absences has halved over the past year, but is still higher than the average. Absences are due to medical reasons, some family holidays taken in school time and a variety of odd days when parents who place insufficient value on school keep their children at home. Newlands Primary School - 15 16. The standards of behaviour and the orderly nature of the school community represent very good improvement over the standards reported in the middle school, and those that were apparent when the primary school was first formed. Newlands Primary School - 16

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

17. Teaching and learning in the school as a whole are both sound. There is much that is good – indeed, more than six out of ten of the lessons seen during the inspection were good. However, one lesson in ten was unsatisfactory. There was some variation between year groups. The Foundation Stage had good teaching and learning and in Years 1, 5 and 6 the quality was often good, with some very good, and some evidence of excellent teaching. In Years 2 to 4, teaching and learning quality was sound overall, but varied from good to occasionally unsatisfactory.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

18. Good teaching and learning in the Foundation Stage is the result of strong all-round expertise amongst the staff and good organisation. Teachers and nursery nurses and support assistants liaise with each other well. Children’s personal, social and learning needs are systematically built into the programme of activities offered to them – more successfully than elsewhere in the school. Teaching involves the children in more paired and group work than in the school as a whole, as well as providing whole class activities when these are appropriate. Early intervention and support for pupils with special educational needs in the nursery helps these pupils make good progress.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

19. Teaching and learning are of good quality in several subjects, notably art, ICT and history, but in religious education the quality is satisfactory. In English, mathematics and science, teaching and learning are satisfactory, and pupils’ achievement in these core subjects is sound as a result.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

20. A striking feature of teaching in all year groups and all subjects is the good, sometimes very good, management of pupils. They are typically treated with obvious respect, and expected to treat staff and other pupils similarly. Teachers are very quick to reward good attitudes and work, and especially quick and consistent in correcting inattention or applying sanctions if pupils misbehave. It is on the rare occasions that teachers depart from this good practice that unsatisfactory teaching can occur.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

21. In a Year 4/5 history lesson with excellent teaching and learning the key to success was the imaginative structure of the lesson and the wide scope for response this offered all pupils. Earlier work on Ancient Greeks was consolidated and taken further by a practical task on designing amphorae. Pupils were captivated by the transformation of their classroom into a virtual Greek taverna and were fluent and excited as they recalled extensive knowledge about Greek deities and other figures. The teacher’s questioning was first-rate, drawing extended answers from high- attaining pupils and simpler contributions from many others. The motivation and excellent behaviour of pupils reflected the teacher’s well-established and productive relationship with the class. In turn this allowed pupils to work responsibly and at a rapid rate in a novel setting.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

22. In a Year 4 music lesson teaching was unsatisfactory because the selection of resources and tasks limited the progress pupils could make. The overall structure of the lesson was sound and so were relationships, though dealing with minor infringements of behaviour was laboured so that pace was lost and the many positive features were overshadowed.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

23. Overall, teachers have a secure grasp of the specialist knowledge and the techniques for teaching it in the many subjects for which they are responsible. Sometimes this feature can be a great strength, in much of the vigorous and engaging teaching of art, history and ICT seen during the inspection, and in some of the best English and mathematics lessons, especially in Years 5 and 6. In science and religious education lessons, on the other hand, the range of strategies used to challenge and motivate pupils is generally too limited, which sometimes results in unsatisfactory teaching and learning. In English, while some teachers confidently use many approaches, this strategy is not consistently used, and in many lessons, teaching is sound when there is clear scope for it to be good. A clearer grasp of specific techniques for teaching writing and reading and for encouraging more extensive speaking by pupils is being sought by the school. This

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

knowledge is urgently required if pupils’ achievement in English is to be consistently good during their time in the school. Newlands Primary School - 17 24. There are two features of teaching that are generally unsatisfactory. Firstly, marking and the use of assessment are not well used. Pupils’ day-to-day work is too rarely marked in a way that shows them how to improve and what standards they are reaching. Assessment information about pupils’ past performance, likely targets and rates of progress is not yet used with sufficient confidence by most staff, although it is clear that their expertise has improved in the last two years. At times, it is not clear enough to teacher or pupil precisely how the standards of work should rise to the next level of attainment. Secondly, subjects other than English do not reinforce basic literacy skills sufficiently well. Lessons in art, music, geography, ICT and others do give

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

emphasis to some strategies, such as emphasising key words, but often features such as structures for writing and opportunities for extensive speaking and listening are more limited.

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HOW WELL ARE PUPILS TAUGHT?

25. While teachers’ expectations are satisfactory overall, they are higher in Foundation Stage and Years 5 and 6. For Years 1 and 2 taken together, expectations, especially in core subjects, are slightly lower than they should be.

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TO PUPILS?

26. The curriculum offered to the pupils is broad, satisfactorily balanced and relevant. Statutory requirements are met in all National Curriculum subjects. There is generally equality of access to the curriculum for all pupils, including those with special educational needs.

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TO PUPILS?

27. The provision for children in the Foundation Stage of learning (children in the nursery and reception classes) is good. It covers the six recommended areas of learning: personal, social and emotional development; communication, language and literacy development; mathematical development; knowledge and understanding of the world; physical development; and creative development. The good, planned programme of work for these children guides them successfully into the early stages of the National Curriculum.

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TO PUPILS?

28. The provision for children with special needs in the Foundation Stage is good, and they make good progress. Provision is sound throughout the rest of the school, and pupils make satisfactory progress towards meeting the positive and realistic targets listed in their individual educational plans. In a good Year 6 lesson, following the introduction to a literacy lesson, classroom assistants taught and supported a group of pupils with their phonic development work. As a result, the majority of the pupils made good progress. The school has established very good access facilities, through pursuing additional grants.

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TO PUPILS?

29. Twenty-three pupils have been identified by the school as being gifted and/or talented. At present there is no special provision for these pupils, although three had the opportunity to attend a special summer school in Norfolk in the summer of 2002. Work set for them in class often does not provide sufficient challenge to help them meet their potential.

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TO PUPILS?

30. The provision for pupils’ personal, social and health education is sound. Education on health, sex and drug misuse is provided through science. Circle time, for which the staff have received training, is a good opportunity for the personal and social development of the pupils. Pupils value this time highly; a pupil from Year 6 remarked that he could express himself openly and others would listen to him, and teachers as well as his classmates could help him if he had a problem to share.

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TO PUPILS?

31. The school is developing further strategies for teaching literacy more effectively. All staff have been trained in the National Literacy Strategy, and additional training in guided reading has been provided. Systematic monitoring and evaluating of all the strategies is a priority for the school. The basic skills of numeracy are soundly taught through the National Numeracy Strategy. Provision is planned for a fuller range of skills in some areas of the curriculum, such as investigative science. The school has needed to accommodate pupils in mixed-age classes. This provision can lead to potential repetitions in subject coverage in future years, a danger that the history co-ordinator is aware of in her planning. Newlands Primary School - 18 32. The curriculum is enriched by a good range of visits to art galleries, museums and within the local community. Special projects using outside agencies enhance learning, such as those with the

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TO PUPILS?

Castleford Tigers and the Groundwork Trust, which introduced rugby skills and environmental issues to pupils. Visitors promote learning well through workshops and talks. For pupils in Years 4 to 6 there is a good range of after-school and lunchtime clubs, covering sports, art and crafts and ICT, although some parents say that they are not always told about this provision.

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TO PUPILS?

33. The school makes good use of Education Action Zone funding to enrich pupils' experiences; for example, to fund visits from a theatre group, an owl sanctuary and a drama group. Good links with Groundwork Trust have enabled pupils to become involved in work within their local community. Pupils' suggested improvements in the locality have been effectively taken on board and their designs have become a reality. There are good sporting links with the local rugby league clubs, and pupils have taken part in a tag-rugby competition organised for them. Other events include athletics competitions, a swimming gala and a choir competition. Pupils develop their social skills well when they visit senior citizens to distribute their harvest gifts, and they have raised over £600 for charities.

p.18

TO PUPILS?

34. Good links have been established with two 'beacon schools' (granted this status as a result of good educational practices and high academic achievement), with the secondary school to which the majority of pupils will transfer, and with colleges of further education.

p.18

TO PUPILS?

35. The provision for spiritual development is unsatisfactory. Lessons in religious education provide strong social and moral messages, but provide inadequate opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own and others’ lives and beliefs. During assemblies, hymns are regularly sung and there is a prayer, but time for any meaningful reflection is very brief. The planned assembly themes over the year provide many opportunities for pupils to explore both values and belief. The statutory requirements for collective worship are met.

p.18

TO PUPILS?

36. The provision for moral development is good. Pupils are encouraged to recognise right from wrong and to follow the ‘golden rules’ for behaviour. Rules are understood and accepted. At lunchtimes, boys and girls treat each other with respect. Moral issues are strongly represented in planned assembly themes.

p.18

TO PUPILS?

37. The provision for social development is good. Assemblies are used to encourage pupils to take responsibility and participate. Themes such as ‘using our special talents’ and ‘working together’ make a valuable contribution. In religious education, pupils explore feelings of abandonment and isolation. The good social provision is especially effective at lunchtime, when relationships are good and pupils take on the responsibility to clear away food and keep the dining area clean.

p.18

TO PUPILS?

38. The provision for cultural development is satisfactory. Understanding of the local culture is developed well through local studies in history, and visits to museums. Theatre groups visit the school. Some individual lessons make a very good contribution. For instance, pupils study the culture of Greece from its food and music, and there are examples of art from other cultures. However, the provision for the pupils to appreciate other cultures is, overall, inadequate. There is too little formal or informal guidance to help the predominantly white pupils understand or appreciate Afro-Caribbean, Asian and other significant cultures in contemporary Britain.

p.18

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

39. Procedures for child protection and for protecting pupils’ welfare are very good. The headteacher is the designated child protection person and has received appropriate training, which has been shared with other staff. Very good care is taken in maintaining the health and safety of all pupils. Teachers, other staff and governors maintain a secure environment for pupils. There are good arrangements to deal with minor emergencies and first aid. Educational and personal support and guidance are good. Pupils, and their individual circumstances, are very well known by the headteacher and other staff, and every effort is made to ensure that pupils can benefit by coming to school. Newlands Primary School - 19 40. Good procedures are established to monitor and improve attendance. Attendance is carefully recorded and reasons for absence always sought. With the help of the educational welfare officer,

p.18

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

significant improvements have been made to attendance figures.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

41. Good behaviour is very well promoted through high expectations and good management of pupils, backed up by a comprehensive behaviour and discipline policy. Most teachers and other staff apply sanctions consistently and fairly. Very good support is provided for pupils whose behaviour gives cause for concern, and careful records are kept by teachers. Pupils are appropriately rewarded for good behaviour. A record is kept of the pupils who achieve certificates for good work or attitudes in assemblies.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

42. Circle times in class and assemblies are used well to eliminate oppressive forms of behaviour, such as bullying. The school has worked with a theatre company and the local secondary school to ease the transfer of Year 6 pupils into secondary education. The personal development of pupils is supported well through engaging them in activities outside the normal classroom timetable, but often teachers do not encourage sufficient independence in class to help pupils to develop mature learning styles.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

43. The procedures in place to monitor and assess pupils’ work at whole school level are unsatisfactory. The school has developed satisfactory systems that track pupils’ attainment in reading, writing and mathematics. There is planned development to include science from September 2003. The use of assessment information is unsatisfactory. Generally, the day-to- day provision in classes does not draw strongly enough on individual pupils’ targets, particularly so for higher attainers. In other subjects of the curriculum, procedures are not yet established and there is currently insufficient information about pupils’ attainment in each year. Teachers usually mark pupils’ written work. There are occasionally comments that praise pupils for their efforts and achievements. However, there are very few comments to encourage further development. Therefore, marking gives insufficient direction to individual pupils about how well

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

they are doing or what they need to do to improve.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL CARE FOR ITS PUPILS?

44. There are no special procedures to monitor the progress of pupils on the gifted and talented register against their potential performance. Some of their work has been celebrated by using their writing as the basis of class literacy work. Teachers are familiar with pupils’ individual education plans and the targets to which they are working and often make good use of practical resources to support the achievement of pupils with special educational needs. In some lessons, especially in mathematics, good teaching enables pupils to build upon their prior knowledge and learning well. Their overall progress is effectively monitored by special educational needs co- ordinators.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

45. Parents are satisfied with the way the school is educating their children. Only two parents attended a meeting with the inspectors to share their views. A number of parents completed questionnaires. The questionnaires indicate that parents like the ease with which they can approach the school. They feel that teachers have high expectations, so that their children make good progress; that their children are happy; and that the teaching is good. Some parents are not happy about the standards of behaviour, or dissatisfied with the amount of homework that is set, or feel that too few extra-curricular opportunities are provided.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

46. Inspectors agree with parents that children are happy at the school and that the headteacher and other teachers are approachable. They found that, overall, teaching is satisfactory and, while children make satisfactory progress, not all do as well as they could. The school has high expectations for behaviour, which inspectors found to be very good. All pupils have good opportunities for experiences outside lessons, although there are no clubs for pupils until they reach Year 3 . A satisfactory amount of homework is set, although not all parents ensure that this is done by, for example, listening to their children read on a regular basis. Newlands Primary School - 20 47. There are sound links between the school and parents. Parents are provided with information about the school and their own children’s work, and contacted whenever there are concerns. Written communication through newsletters and other letters is regular, and clearly expressed.

p.19

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

Parents have ample opportunities to talk to teachers, both informally and on set consultation evenings. Annual written progress reports are satisfactory, but do not always make clear exactly what needs to be done for pupils to improve in each subject.

p.20

HOW WELL DOES THE SCHOOL WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS?

48. The impact of parents’ involvement in the work of the school is satisfactory. A number are involved in family learning schemes and help in school or accompany visits, but there are a significant number of parents whom the school tries to involve with very limited success. Completion of reading records is variable, and many parents do not regularly read with their children, which adversely affects the progress that some pupils make.

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

49. The headteacher leads the school very effectively. Her insistence on high standards of behaviour and her determination to provide a secure environment for learning have been successful. She has been supported by staff in these and other developments. Overall, the quality of leadership and management in the school is satisfactory, as there is considerable variability in the experience and skill of other managers in the school.

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

50. While this school has had no previous inspections, there are sufficient indications to show that it has made good improvement since it opened in September 2001. Many of its older pupils, its staff and its resource levels were transferred from a former middle school, which had serious weaknesses in terms of behaviour, teaching quality, resources and leadership. The headteacher has identified the new school’s most urgent needs successfully, and through example and the growing involvement of colleagues has worked hard to bring about change. Her success owes much to her personal commitment to pupils and staff, her consistent expectations of both and her highly visible presence around the school. In addition, she has been very successful in bidding for additional funding, so that the school has built up adequate resources in most areas and extended its programme of activities for pupils. Financial management in general is very good, so

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

that planning priorities are properly supported by funding decisions.

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

51. Staff show high morale and a good sense of unity, reflecting well on the work by the headteacher to unite the teaching forces within the new school. It also indicates the strong commitment of staff to making a success of the school. Attendance levels among teachers are very high.

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

52. The main areas of relative weakness lie in the monitoring of teaching and learning and the effectiveness of management at other levels. The role of co-ordinators (as currently defined in the school) does not give sufficient weight to their accountability for standards in subjects or key stages and does not place sufficient emphasis on monitoring teaching quality. While the headteacher and the new, but effective, deputy headteacher carry out some formal and many informal observations of colleagues, this has not yet produced adequate consistency. Co- ordinators are not fully aware of the need to monitor and support colleagues through formal observation, and have generally had little opportunity to acquire the skills involved. Nor do co- ordinators consistently view things from a whole-school perspective, but often take responsibility for a single key stage. This limitation restricts their awareness of pupils’ progressive needs

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

across the school, and hinders practical procedures such as access to resources. Few co- ordinators have a clear enough picture of current standards and strategies for raising them in their subjects, largely because, across the school, use of assessment data for such purposes is a new development. It is also patchy, due to this responsibility being largely absent from the co- ordinator role in the past.

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

53. While these aspects of co-ordinators’ work are unsatisfactory overall, many individual co- ordinators have good personal skills, provide valuable informal support to colleagues and have produced good schemes of work. As a result, co-ordination in ICT, art, design and technology, geography and the Foundation Stage is already effective, although capable of further improvement. However, co-ordination is unsatisfactory in science, religious education and music. In English, Newlands Primary School - 21 leadership is strong, but management systems are not yet as effective as they need to be. However, the co-ordination of English is rapidly improving and a range of well-chosen new strategies for teachers are currently being introduced. The leadership and management of special educational needs are satisfactory: pupils’ individual education plans are in place and regular review meetings held. Clear targets are set and the school is working hard to raise parental

p.20

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

involvement, including provision for family literacy and numeracy sessions, which both parents and pupils attend. Similarly, while much teaching is good and the overall quality is satisfactory, the lack of rigorous systematic monitoring results in too little consistency in practice and a minority of teaching being unsatisfactory in several areas. To its credit, the school has already taken steps to train co-ordinators and extend monitoring of teaching, but these moves are still too recent to have had an impact.

p.21

HOW WELL IS THE SCHOOL LED AND MANAGED?

54. The school’s governing body is strongly committed to the school and fully supportive of its staff. Governors give sound support to the school’s work and strategic planning, although generally they are less actively involved in shaping plans than is usual. Collectively, they have extensive knowledge of the school, but are not as fully aware of its specific strengths and weaknesses as they might be. They fulfil all their statutory duties satisfactorily.

p.21

Staffing, accommodation and learning resources

55. There is a satisfactory match of teachers and learning support staff to the demands of the curriculum. Teaching assistants work closely with the class teachers and they support individuals or groups of pupils effectively. Three visiting teachers provide instrumental music tuition. There are good systems in place for supporting the ongoing training of teaching and non- teaching staff and for helping staff that are new to the school. Procedures for appraising the teachers’ performance are satisfactory. Administrative staff, the caretaker, cleaners and midday supervisors all contribute well to the daily running of the school.

p.21

Staffing, accommodation and learning resources

56. The quality of accommodation is very good. Classrooms are of an adequate size and there are shared areas in which groups of pupils can work and where practical work can be carried out. There are two easily accessible libraries. There are two well-equipped ICT suites, which are used regularly by the pupils. There are two good-sized halls for physical education and a separate dining room for the older pupils. The building is in good decorative order and is clean and tidy. It affords very good access for pupils with severe mobility problems. There are three large playgrounds and extensive fields. The pupils show pride in their surroundings and there is very little litter and no graffiti. Children aged under five have their own, separate play area.

p.21

Staffing, accommodation and learning resources

57. Resources for learning are broadly satisfactory. The school recently purchased many new fiction and non-fiction books and the older pupils now make much more use of their library as a learning resource. A substantial amount of money has been spent recently on resources for ICT, with the result that there is a very good range of computers and other equipment. There are good resources to support learning in science, art and physical education. The school is aware that resources for music and geography are unsatisfactory: in music there are no keyboards and a very limited range of CDs, and some musical instruments are broken or outdated. Although there are sufficient books for history, there is a very limited range of historical artefacts.

p.21

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

58. In order to sustain the improving trends evident in the school the governors, the headteacher and staff should:

p.21

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

1. Raise standards further in English by implementing without delay the school’s plans for additional staff training, to ensure that teachers provide pupils with greater scope for writing for different purposes; reading more fluently; and speaking extensively in class. (See paras 1, 2, 4, 8, 23, 31, 71, 73, 76, 80, 81)

p.21

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

2. Raise standards further in science by ensuring that staff have a secure and wide range of teaching strategies and have good plans and resources to support imaginative teaching. * Newlands Primary School - 22 (See paras 2, 3, 23, 31, 53, 93, 94, 98, 100, 101, 103)

p.21

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

3. Raise standards across these and the remaining subjects through:

p.22

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

a) Improving the quality of teaching and learning by rigorous and comprehensive monitoring and support from senior managers. (See paras 17, 52, 20, 24) Newlands Primary School - 23 b) Improving the effectiveness of co-ordinators in general, and those for science, music and religious education in particular, by requiring them to develop action plans that: • Identify routes for improving standards • Set clear, challenging targets • Involve the co-ordinator in monitoring and supporting colleagues’ teaching • Include deadlines for review by senior managers and the governing body. (See paras 8, 52, 53, 81, 91, 103, 109, 114, 137, 151)

p.22

WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER?

c) Ensuring that the school’s marking and assessment policies are consistently understood and well used by all staff so that: • Their knowledge of how well pupils are doing is shared with pupils and parents and is used to inform pupils’ next steps in learning • Suitably challenging targets are set for all pupils, but especially for higher-attaining pupils • Pupil groupings in Years 5 and 6 contain a more manageable range of prior attainment • All senior managers and the governing body are precisely aware of how well the school is doing in each subject, in order to inform future planning. (See paras 8, 29, 42, 43, 54)

p.23

Minor issues

• Pupils’ spiritual development is unsatisfactorily promoted (See paras 35, 150)

p.23

Minor issues

(* Denotes that the issue is already partly included in current improvement planning by the school) Newlands Primary School - 24

p.23

Summary of the sources of evidence for the inspection

Number of discussions with staff, governors, other adults and pupils 60

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactor y Poor Very Poor

p.24

Summary of teaching observed during the inspection

The table gives the number and percentage of lessons observed in each of the seven categories used to make judgements about teaching. Care should be taken when interpreting these percentages as each lesson represents more than one percentage point.

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils on the school’s roll Nursery YR – Y6

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s roll (FTE for part-time pupils) 32 322

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of full-time pupils known to be eligible for free school meals 15 135

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Special educational needs Nursery YR – Y6

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs 2 60

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils on the school’s special educational needs register 2 5

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

English as an additional language No of pupils

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Number of pupils with English as an additional language 2

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupil mobility in the last school year No of pupils

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who joined the school other than at the usual time of first admission 15

p.24

Information about the school’s pupils

Pupils who left the school other than at the usual time of leaving 29

p.24

Attendance

National comparative data 5.4 National comparative data 0.5 Newlands Primary School - 25 Both tables give the percentage of half days (sessions) missed through absence for the latest complete reporting year. Newlands Primary School - 26

p.24

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

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 1 for the latest reporting year 2002 28 23 51

p.26

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

National Curriculum Test/Task Results Reading Writing Mathematics

p.26

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

Boys 19 17 24 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 18 20 20

p.26

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

Percentage of pupils School 73 (n/a) 73 (n/a) 86 (n/a) at NC level 2 or above National 84 (84) 86 (86) 90 (91)

p.26

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

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

p.26

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

Boys 19 24 25 Numbers of pupils at NC level 2 and above Girls 20 21 21

p.26

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

Percentage of pupils School 76 (n/a) 88 (n/a) 90 (n/a) at NC level 2 or above National 85 (85) 89 (89) 89 (89)

p.26

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

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

p.26

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

Number of registered pupils in final year of Key Stage 2 for the latest reporting year 2002 30 14 44

p.26

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

National Curriculum Test/Task Results English Mathematics Science

p.26

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

Boys 11 15 19 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 11 8 10

p.26

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

Percentage of pupils School 50 (n/a) 52 (n/a) 66 (n/a) at NC level 4 or above National 75 (75) 73 (71) 86 (87)

p.26

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

Teachers’ Assessments English Mathematics Science

p.26

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

Boys 7 13 16 Numbers of pupils at NC level 4 and above Girls 8 8 12

p.26

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

Percentage of pupils School 34 (n/a) 48 (n/a) 64 (n/a) at NC level 4 or above National 73 (72) 74 (74) 82 (82)

p.26

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

Percentages in brackets refer to the year before the latest reporting year. Newlands Primary School - 27

p.26

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Categories used in the Annual School Census No of pupils on roll Number of fixed period exclusions Number of permanent exclusions

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

White – any other White background 0 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Mixed – any other mixed background 1 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Asian or Asian British - Pakistani 3 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Asian or Asian British – Bangladeshi 0 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Asian or Asian British – any other Asian background 0 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black or Black British – Caribbean 0 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

Black or Black British – any other Black background 0 0 0

p.27

Ethnic background of pupils Exclusions in the last school year

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

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 12.9 Financial year 2002-3

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 24.96

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Education support staff: YR – Y6 Total income 821,436

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 6 Total expenditure 796,346

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 220 Expenditure per pupil 2,249

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Qualified teachers and support staff: nursery Balance brought forward from previous year 34,757

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of qualified teachers (FTE) 1 Balance carried forward to next year 25,000

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per qualified teacher 32

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total number of education support staff 2

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Total aggregate hours worked per week 105

p.27

Teachers and classes Financial information

Number of pupils per FTE adult 10.4 Newlands Primary School - 28 FTE means full-time equivalent.

p.27

Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers who left the school during the last two years 0

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

Number of teachers appointed to the school during the last two years 0

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

Total number of vacant teaching posts (FTE) 0

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

Number of vacancies filled by teachers on temporary contract of a term or more (FTE) 0

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

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

p.28

Recruitment of teachers

FTE means full-time equivalent. Newlands Primary School - 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. 55 41 3 0 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

Behaviour in the school is good. 35 47 9 2 8

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

My child gets the right amount of work to do at home. 30 35 14 3 6

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

I am kept well informed about how my child is getting on. 48 41 6 3 0

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

I would feel comfortable about approaching the school with questions or a problem. 65 27 3 3 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school expects my child to work hard and achieve his or her best. 61 33 2 2 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school works closely with parents. 38 48 8 5 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school is well led and managed. 38 48 6 2 5

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school is helping my child become mature and responsible. 48 44 5 2 2

p.29

Percentage of responses in each category

The school provides an interesting range of activities outside lessons. 29 23 17 5 24 Newlands Primary School - 30

p.29

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

59. Children start in the nursery when they are three years old, and most transfer to the school’s reception class during the term in which they are five. Shortly before the inspection a second reception class was formed, taught by the nursery class teacher. The 17 children had only been in this class for a few weeks. During the inspection, the two NNEB staff taught children in the nursery.

p.30

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

60. Most children enter the school with attainment that is well below average, particularly in relation to their communication, language and literacy skills, mathematical skills and personal, emotional and social development. During their time in the nursery and reception classes, children, including those with special educational needs, make good progress. Given their very low starting points, they do not catch up far enough to be on target to meet the Early Learning Goals that set out the expectations for most children to achieve by the time they are five. The attainment of most children remains below average across all of the areas of learning at the end of the Foundation Stage, with the exception of their physical skills, which are broadly in line with what is expected nationally at the end of the reception year.

p.30

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

61. Teaching in the nursery and reception classes is never less than satisfactory, and is good in three-quarters of lessons. Examples of good teaching are found in all areas of learning. This consistency improves children’s learning and ensures that they achieve well. Teachers and nursery nurses manage behaviour effectively, so the children have a good understanding of how they are expected to behave. This creates good conditions for learning. Staff have a secure knowledge and understanding of the interests and needs of young children, and act as good role models, particularly in extending children’s language development through interaction in a suitably wide range of play-based activities. Staff know children well and make careful notes of their progress. They make good use of questions to move children’s learning forward. Teaching is occasionally less effective when it is over-directive, when, for example, children fill in adult

p.30

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

templates related to the topic for display purposes and have access to only a narrow range of activities in reception class literacy sessions.

p.30

AREAS OF LEARNING FOR CHILDREN IN THE FOUNDATION STAGE

62. Planning for the Foundation Stage is good overall. Good support is provided by the co-ordinator. She recognises the need to develop a two-year planning cycle so that children who are in the nursery for more than one year do not repeat the same topic.

p.30

Personal, social and emotional development

63. Children’s personal, social and emotional development is given high priority, because many start with much less well developed skills than expected for their age. As a result, they make good progress. They care for each other and are quick to help their friends if they do not understand what has to be done. Children respond well to instructions and are very accepting of others who, because of their particular needs, do not find it easy to follow the rules. They are well behaved and demonstrate good attitudes to learning. In indoor and outdoor sessions when children organise their own learning, they show confidence in deciding what they are going to do. Children work well both independently and in co-operation with others.

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

64. In the nursery, many children find it difficult to express themselves and do not use a wide range of vocabulary. For example, one child asking for an apron said ‘me need one’. Good emphasis is given to the acquisition of language skills across all areas of learning, and as a result children make good progress. In the nursery children enjoy listening to stories. One child responded ‘ooh yes!’ and burst into spontaneous applause when the balloon in the story changed into a multi- coloured sausage shape. Children join in enthusiastically with nursery rhymes. In the reception classes, many of the youngest children still find it difficult to articulate words and sentences, but Newlands Primary School - 31 are confident in ‘having a go’ as they take turns to speak when they pass a toy. Children developed their communication skills well through role-play as they pretended to be the receptionist booking appointments in the veterinary surgery, or the doctor in ‘Newlands Hospital’

p.30

Communication, language and literacy

keeping file notes. Many play co-operatively alongside each other, but do not readily engage in dialogue unless supported by adults. Most know their initial letter sounds and form recognisable letter shapes.

p.31

Mathematical development

65. Children make good progress in their mathematical development thorough activities that build on their own direct experience. In the nursery, children developed their ordering skills by thinking about the first thing they do when they wake up. Using magnetic cards, they worked out that they get up, brush their teeth, get dressed and eat breakfast. They developed one-to-one correspondence and matched for colour as they set the breakfast table for four people. Children in reception chanted number rhymes, such as ‘ten fat sausages’ as they counted backwards in twos. Good use was made of big storybooks, such as Ten in a Bed : children worked out simple problems such as how many are left and who is missing.

p.31

Knowledge and understanding of the world

66. Children develop their knowledge and understanding of the world well through a wide range of activities in both nursery and reception classes. In the nursery, children took on the role of joiners. They knew it was important to wear goggles when using a ‘power saw’ to ‘cut wood’, so that wood does not get in your eyes. They celebrate special occasions, such as pancake day and the Chinese New Year, and enjoy making and tasting different foods. Reception children learn about people who help us such as doctors and nurses though role-play. They are well supported by adults in ‘taking blood pressure’, ‘giving injections’ and ‘removing stitches’. They show their awareness of health and safety as they don gowns, facemasks and surgical gloves. Children have regular access to computers and confidently use the mouse to interact with a program.

p.31

Physical development

67. Regular opportunities are provided for children in the nursery to handle and experiment with a range of tools and equipment, such as paintbrushes, scissors, construction toys and malleable materials, which leads to good learning. When using the outdoor area, children moved confidently and avoided collisions as they pedalled and steered wheeled toys. Children with special educational needs are fully involved and make good progress, for example, in the development of ball skills. Good levels of challenge were presented to reception children as they used different parts of their bodies to move in different ways, for example, kicking out their legs to make ‘bunny jumps’ and pulling themselves along with their arms to slide across the floor like a snake. They stopped and started to a given stimulus and showed good awareness of space. Children in reception write with developing pencil control and use a range of tools with confidence.

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Creative development

68. Children in the nursery and reception classes participate in self-initiated activities on a regular basis, when they have access to a good range of different resources. They use their imaginations well through the different roles they assume as part of their play. Staff interact well with children to extend their learning, and as a result, they make good progress. The pace of learning is slower when children are restricted in their activities by the current class topic. In the nursery, children sang enthusiastically to ‘Tommy Thumb’ and changed their voices to sing very quietly to ‘baby small’. Reception children sang number rhymes tunefully and with confidence. They used musical instruments to tap out simple rhythms. Newlands Primary School - 32

p.31

ENGLISH

The quality of provision in English is satisfactory.

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ENGLISH

The main strengths in English include: • good leadership by the English co-ordinator; • good organisation and management of pupils during literacy lessons; • some good teaching of literacy; • good library provision for pupils; • use of optional tests to analyse pupils' performance; • appropriate action to improve standards.

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ENGLISH

Areas for development include: • standards in all areas of English across the school that are too low; • insufficient challenge for higher-attaining pupils; • insufficient monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning; • too much use of worksheet tasks, at the expense of opportunities for pupils to use and develop their creative writing skills; • marking that does not give guidance to pupils on how to improve their work; • lack of assessment to inform future planning; • poor management of the positive strategies in place to raise standards.

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ENGLISH

69. Standards in English at the end of Year 2 and the end of Year 6 are well below the national average. Considering the well below average attainment of the pupils on entry to the school, the majority make steady progress and achieve to a broadly satisfactory level.

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ENGLISH

70. Results in the 2002 national tests at the end of Year 2 were well below the national average in reading and writing. Teacher assessments in 2002 supported this judgement. Teacher assessments in speaking and listening showed that these pupils were at below average levels in this area of English. Compared to similar schools, pupils' attainment is in line with the average in reading, and just below it in writing.

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ENGLISH

71. In the 2002 national tests at the end of Year 6, the standards attained by pupils were very low in comparison with the national average. The results were within the range of the lowest 5 per cent of schools across the country. When compared with schools of a similar type, standards are slightly better, but still well below average. Girls performed better than boys, but the difference was similar to that found nationally. Teacher assessments fell short of results by a significant amount, indicating a lack of security in assessment procedures by staff.

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ENGLISH

72. Comparing present levels of attainment with those from 2002 tests, the standards being achieved in Year 2 are still well below those expected. Early indications are that test results will still be the same in 2003. In Year 6, standards are beginning to rise. Early indications are that English test results for these pupils in 2003 will be better than in 2002.

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ENGLISH

73. Pupils are given insufficient opportunities to speak extensively about their ideas and the work they do, but speaking and listening are in general being developed satisfactorily. In a good Year 2 lesson, the teacher encouraged pupils to relate how they had spent their weekends. Other pupils showed good levels of listening as their classmates talked. Pupils are better listeners than speakers. There is a tendency for teachers to be over-prescriptive and use too much direct teaching in their literacy lessons, with pupils rarely given opportunities to ask questions. In a lesson in the lower juniors, when explanations were not clear, pupils did not have the confidence to ask for help and made little progress in their learning. In Years 5 and 6, where pupils are given very good explanations and high-quality feedback, as well as opportunities to express opinions, better progress is made, as was seen in a very good literacy lesson in Year 5. Such strategies,

p.32

ENGLISH

however, are not used consistently across the school. Monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning in this area of the English curriculum are insufficient.

p.32

ENGLISH

74. Pupils develop reading satisfactorily through the infant year groups. All follow graded reading books, within a structured scheme. Progress is sound, but there are missed opportunities for Newlands Primary School - 33 them to read the shared text phase in literacy lessons. Pupils reported that they use their

p.32

ENGLISH

readers mostly in school, indicating some missed opportunities to develop reading at home. Infant pupils’ reading skills are well below expectations. Early indications from 2003 tests on reading support this judgement.

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ENGLISH

75. Pupils in the juniors make satisfactory progress in reading. The lower juniors’ reading standards are well below expectations, and only the higher-attaining pupils read with expression. Others make errors, but are starting to self-correct to maintain the flow in their stories. By the time pupils reach Years 5 and 6, their confidence is better, but standards are still below expectations. The school has implemented an additional strategy on 'guided reading'. This strategy is in its early stages and its impact on standards is not yet apparent, but was seen to be working effectively in a Year 5 and 6 lesson, when the teacher was well organised and confident, and to be unsuccessful when these elements were missing in a Year 3 lesson.

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ENGLISH

76. Writing standards are well below average by the end of the infant stage. Higher-attaining pupils do not achieve their full potential and the standards they attain are only average. Pupils can form sentences, showing accurate use of simple punctuation. Their spelling of simple words is generally accurate. Their handwriting is legible, but not yet joined. They use some good, descriptive language in worksheet tasks, but the overuse of worksheets means that they do not have the opportunity for expression and creativity in independent work. Average and lower attainers do not show a sound understanding of sentence structure. Again, there is an overuse of worksheets, restricting development of expression and creative writing skills. Standards in writing continue to be well below average through the junior years, with higher-attaining pupils not being consistently extended in the work they do.

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ENGLISH

77. A notable exception was observed in a Year 5 lesson, when pupils wrote their own verses in the style of the poem 'The Listener'. Good examples under the opening to the poem were:

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ENGLISH

Is there anybody there? Said the traveller knocking on the moonlit door .

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ENGLISH

And a moonbeam brightened up the sky, Bats dangled from the trees.

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ENGLISH

The faint shadows moving in the wind, And the wolves howling in their dens,

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ENGLISH

And the strange feeling inside him, Seemed impossible to ignore.

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ENGLISH

78. By the end of the juniors, where pupils are set by levels of attainment, progress is sound and achievement satisfactory. Lower-attaining pupils are well supported in the upper juniors, where there is careful planning and tasks are matched to the needs of the pupils. This strategy, together with the good support given by classroom assistants, means that these pupils make good gains in new learning. Higher-attaining pupils show sound writing skills. They can use complex sentences and have developed skills in writing for different purposes. These pupils showed that they have grasped the conventions of letter writing.

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ENGLISH

79. Teaching is satisfactory. There was some good and very good teaching in about half of the lessons observed, teaching in the rest being satisfactory or below. Three lessons were unsatisfactory.

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ENGLISH

80. In the best lessons, planning is effective, following the National Literacy Strategy, provision for the development of speaking and listening skills is good and there is good inclusion for all pupils. Excellent explanations and constant, positive feedback motivate pupils. ICT is used to stimulate pupils to review their learning, and classroom assistants are well deployed. In less effective lessons, the pace of learning is slow, questioning is superficial and does not aid learning, activities are not sufficiently challenging and there is too much emphasis on direct teaching, Newlands Primary School - 34 restricting pupils’ creativity. Sometimes teachers are not confident in teaching specific skills in literacy. Newlands Primary School - 35 81. The English co-ordinator is a strong leader and is striving to improve standards. She has worked closely with local advisers and specialist staff within the Education Action Zone. New strategies

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ENGLISH

on teaching 'guided reading' are now in place. The teaching and learning of writing skills are included in an English action plan. All literacy strategies are to be priorities in next school development plan, which will be used as a vehicle for change. The management of change and how the strategies will be monitored and evaluated are not clear; this is an area not yet developed by the co-ordinator. There is clear potential for literacy development and rising standards in English. The co-ordinator's role does not currently include the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning to ensure that the new strategies have the desired impact and raise standards.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

The quality of provision in mathematics is satisfactory.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

The main strengths in mathematics include: • good management of pupils’ behaviour; • high-quality teaching for the oldest pupils in the infant and junior classes; • good use of resources to support learning; • the positive attitudes and good behaviour of pupils.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

Areas for development include: • insufficient opportunities for investigation and problem solving, particularly by the higher-attaining pupils; • the use of assessment information to match the work to pupils’ different learning needs checking and reviewing of teaching and learning by the subject co-ordinators.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

82. Inspection evidence indicates that by the end of Years 2 and 6 standards are below average. There is no significant difference between the attainment of boys and girls. From a starting point that is well below average, pupils across the school, including those with special educational needs, make satisfactory progress, and progress accelerates in Years 2 and 6.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

83. Standards in Years 2 and 6 are now higher than those reported for pupils in the 2002 National Curriculum tests. The results were then well below average. In the infants, pupils’ attainment was satisfactory in relation to similar schools, but pupils in Year 6 did less well. The main reason was that fewer pupils reached the higher levels in the tests than is expected nationally. One of the reasons why pupils are now attaining higher standards than last year is the setting of pupils by levels of attainment in Year 6 mathematics.

p.35

MATHEMATICS

84. Teachers manage pupils’ behaviour well, so pupils can learn without interruption, and this contributes effectively to their learning. When given the opportunity, pupils co-operate with their classmates and help each other to work out the right answer to a problem. They take turns to speak in class discussions and value the contribution made by others, for example when they explain the different methods they have used.

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MATHEMATICS

85. Almost all the teaching is satisfactory or better, and it was good or very good in half of the lessons observed. Only one unsatisfactory lesson was seen during the inspection. Much of the good or very good teaching was observed in Years 2 and 6.

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MATHEMATICS

86. In a very good lesson observed in Year 6, pupils’ learning was enhanced by the teacher’s infectious enthusiasm for mathematics. Pupils in the higher-attaining set were given challenging activities and worked out how they would arrive at a given number if the government introduced a policy of using only 7p and 10p coins. Good use was made of pupils’ mistakes to exemplify teaching points, and as a result pupils worked well together to apply their knowledge of addition, subtraction and multiplication to arrive at the right answer. The teacher skilfully extended their learning by asking pupils to explain their methodology, to see who achieved the right answer using the smallest number of steps. The final challenge was to use multiplication to identify the worth of the word ‘million’, where each letter was given a specific value. Good use was made of Newlands Primary School - 36 resources such as a timer, so that pupils completed tasks speedily; in a lower-attaining set, coin

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MATHEMATICS

templates were available for pupils in need of additional support. 87. In a good lesson in the Year 4/5 class, the teacher’s planning, explanations and questioning were effective in ensuring that pupils were given good opportunities to develop their thinking skills, which resulted in good learning about how to use nets to construct three-dimensional shapes.

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MATHEMATICS

88. In the Year 2 class, the teacher made good use of resources such as baseboards, number fans and the overhead projector to exemplify teaching strategies and check pupils’ understanding of sequencing numbers and the patterns between them. Clear explanations were given to pupils in need of additional support that enabled them to build successfully on their previous knowledge. Consequently they made good progress in sequencing numbers in threes, backwards and forwards, up to 100. There were missed opportunities to extend the learning of the higher- attaining pupils, who completed more of the same work when they had completed the initial task. In contrast, in the Year 1/2 class, too much emphasis was placed on the completion of a number of worksheets rather than providing a detailed explanation of the concept of doubling numbers; as a result, pupils made unsatisfactory progress.

p.36

MATHEMATICS

89. The good approaches to teaching are not consistent across the school. Teachers generally make good use of questioning, explanation, demonstration and resources to extend learning, but opportunities for pupils to use their own initiative are not always provided. This deficit slows learning across the school, and in particular for the higher-attaining pupils. In some classes, for example, pupils queued up for feedback from the teacher on their worksheets, rather than working collaboratively with their classmates to apply their prior learning.

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MATHEMATICS

90. Good use is made of ICT, for example, in the development of line and bar graphs and pie charts. The National Numeracy Strategy is soundly embedded and good use is made of planning, so that pupils progressively build on their prior knowledge across the school. Learning accelerates in Years 2 and 6, because more of the good teaching is evident in these year groups and teachers’ knowledge of the subject is stronger. In Year 6, staff are confident in using a wide range of strategies to consolidate pupils’ learning.

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MATHEMATICS

91. The two co-ordinators provide satisfactory leadership and management and have a sound knowledge of the standards pupils achieve. Systems to track pupils’ progress across the school have been introduced, and the school is in the early stages of development in translating this information to identify the next steps for learning. Across the school, marking is not constructive enough in guiding pupils in what they need to do to improve. Systematic procedures for checking and reviewing the quality of teaching and learning are not yet in place. There is a satisfactory range of learning resources for the subject.

p.36

SCIENCE

The quality of provision in science is unsatisfactory.

p.36

SCIENCE

The main strengths in science include: • Years 5 and 6 teaching and learning; • pupils’ very good behaviour in lessons; • the balance that now exists in the science curriculum.

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SCIENCE

Areas for development include: • unsatisfactory leadership and management of the subject; • unsatisfactory aspects of teaching and learning in Years 1 and 2; • too much use of worksheets at the expense of developing a range of writing skills.

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SCIENCE

92. In 2002, teachers’ own assessments of the attainment of Year 2 pupils indicated that standards were well below national averages. Similarly, the school’s results in the 2002 tests for pupils in Year 6 were well below the national average. Newlands Primary School - 37 93. By the end of Year 2 and Year 6, attainment is well below national expectations. There are very few pupils reaching the higher levels of attainment. Scientific enquiry, in which pupils use first- hand experience to answer scientific questions, thinking about what they will do and then making and recording their observations, is most secure in the classes with the older pupils. During the inspection, no significant gaps in performance between boys and girls were noted.

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SCIENCE

94. Pupils’ work shows that there are significantly different expectations and approaches to science between classes. In Year 1, pupils make satisfactory progress with recording skills. They measure and make observations. They complete tables and draw simple bar charts. Year 2 pupils identify natural materials, suggest ways of grouping animals together and draw simple electrical circuits. Overall writing is weak. Approximately half of the pupils’ experience of writing is on worksheets. The worksheets used are the same for all pupils, regardless of ability. In Year 4, this use of worksheets increases markedly and there is little to distinguish the written work of pupils of differing abilities; they do the same things and much of what is written is common to all. Year 6 pupils write at greater length and work is neatly presented. The pupils find out about ways of preserving foods and keeping healthy. The topic on light is well covered and the pupils explain

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SCIENCE

how light from objects enters the eye. Overall, pupils make broadly satisfactory progress.

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SCIENCE

95. Pupils’ work is usually (but not always) marked. There are ticks and, very occasionally, a comment giving praise or asking for work to be completed. Comments do not identify the strengths and weaknesses in the work or suggest ways of improving it. This is unsatisfactory, as marking is currently making very little difference to pupils’ learning.

p.37

SCIENCE

96. Overall, the pupils with special education needs make satisfactory progress. In class, they are often supported by the teacher or a classroom assistant. They work alongside other pupils during practical sessions and participate appropriately in discussion.

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SCIENCE

97. Teaching is satisfactory in Years 1 and 2. Overall, teachers manage the pupils effectively. Moreover, much of the planning has an effective structure, with a clear focus. There is some effective questioning, though it often requires pupils to recall what they know or make simple observations rather than to explain or apply their understanding.

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SCIENCE

98. In the lessons observed, some aspects of learning were unsatisfactory because: • pupils were over-directed, with the higher-attaining pupils having to cover work at the same pace as others; • pupils had insufficient background practical experience to develop understanding; • there were common expectations for pupils of differing abilities; this approach affected the higher-attaining pupils the most.

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SCIENCE

99. In Years 3 to 6, teaching is satisfactory. A good lesson seen (on ‘movement’) had some very good features. These were: • questioning that required pupils to explain what they knew and apply understanding about different types of joints in the body; • very good management of learning through clarifying tasks and learning expectations at key points during the lesson; • very good practical demonstration, linked to what was being learned about the different types of joint.

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SCIENCE

100. In response to the generally good management of the classroom, pupils behave well and co- operate with each other. They get on with tasks with the minimum of fuss. Other factors restrict learning. The pond has been neglected and is in need of attention to attract wildlife, so that Year 3 pupils, when learning about habitats, are unable to observe very much. A worksheet about food chains restricted the learning of the higher-attaining pupils, because the task was insufficiently challenging. Teachers’ expectations for higher-attaining pupils are too low.

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SCIENCE

101. All elements of the science curriculum are being satisfactorily covered. Practical activities are included in each of the units and ICT is used to support data handling. However, plans do not support teaching consistency throughout the school. Newlands Primary School - 38 102. Teaching assistants are not always deployed well. In Year 1 class, deployment was good when they supported the use of ICT to find information about plants. It was ineffective when they sat passively for 20 minutes or more, listening to the teacher talk to the class.

p.37

SCIENCE

103. Management of the subject is unsatisfactory. There is insufficient educational direction throughout the school to help pupils develop scientific method, and hence critical and creative thinking. Monitoring of the subject is not sufficiently strong for the school to have a secure understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of practice, and there is insufficient knowledge about pupils’ attainment for planning to be targeted to the needs of pupils. The literacy strategy is not used sufficiently to support writing. The use of number is satisfactory.

p.38

SCIENCE

104. There are some good resources in the school and a commitment to improving standards of attainment.

p.38

ART AND DESIGN

The quality of provision in art and design is good.

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ART AND DESIGN

The main strengths in art and design include: • good teaching and learning; • good promotion of art in the work of other subjects; • good achievement across Years 1 to 6; • the positive attitudes and good behaviour of pupils.

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ART AND DESIGN

The main areas for development are: • the inadequate use of assessment information to match the work to pupils’ different learning needs; • the lack of systematic monitoring of teaching and learning.

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ART AND DESIGN

105. Standards in art and design are average at both the end of Year 2 and the end of Year 6. All pupils, including those with special educational needs, make good progress. Boys and girls attain equally. Pupils’ attitudes and behaviour in lessons are good: they are keen to learn and are able to work independently.

p.38

ART AND DESIGN

106. By Year 2, pupils use a wide range of media and techniques in both two- and three-dimensional work. They used string and card to produce effective spiral designs on a black and white theme; showed satisfactory colour-mixing skills in producing vivid pictures of spring; created effective collages of winter scenes and spring flowers; and used overlapping layers of coloured paper to produce pictures of ocean waves, based on the work of Hokusai. The pupils also use their art and design skills effectively to support work in other subjects. For example, they created effective three-dimensional pictures to illustrate the story of The Ice Giant , designed and made sound monsters out of fabric and other materials to form a ‘ scary’ calendar and painted sound pictures in the style of the Aborigines of Australia.

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ART AND DESIGN

107. Year 6 pupils made satisfactory use of line and tone in observational drawings of objects such as shoes, plants and shells, and in pencil line drawings in the style of Ruth Hollis. They created sound pictures in the geometric style of Matisse and in the vivid colours of Clarice Cliffe. Pupils produced effective portraits and urban scenes in the style of Lowry and some good sculptures of the artist’s human figures and dogs. They have a satisfactory understanding of techniques such as tie-dye and wax-resist, producing some effective patterns based on an Indian sari. Pupils make satisfactory use of their art and design skills to support work in other subjects. In history, for example, pupils in Years 3 and 4 drew satisfactory pictures of the Mary Rose and other aspects of Tudor life. There are opportunities for pupils to access computer-generated art.

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ART AND DESIGN

108. The quality of teaching is good. The teachers’ knowledge of the subject is secure and they introduce the pupils to the work of many famous artists. They ensure that resources and visual stimuli are prepared well for lessons. There is good teaching of specific skills and techniques, and of correct art vocabulary. In a lesson for pupils in Year 5, for example, this teaching helped pupils to learn about complementary and contrasting colours, blending colours and changing the Newlands Primary School - 39 depth of colour. In this lesson, the teacher gave a clear explanation and demonstration of wax resist techniques, which helped a number of pupils who were not applying the wax strongly enough. As a result, their paintings of large fish improved. In a lesson for pupils in Year 4, the teacher emphasised the need for care and attention to detail in observational drawing, which helped pupils to sketch ancient Greek artefacts. The teacher gave the pupils the opportunity to

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ART AND DESIGN

access the Internet to find out about designs on Greek pottery. In a Year 1 lesson, clear explanations of how to blend land and sky in different media were given and as a result pupils produced effective pictures based on the work of Van Gogh and Sisley. A good plenary session gave pupils the opportunity to explain what they had done to improve their second pictures. The quality of marking of pupils’ work is variable. Too often, insufficient guidance is given as to how the pupils might improve.

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ART AND DESIGN

109. Subject leadership is good. A clear policy meets the requirements of the National Curriculum and planning is soundly based on a school-devised scheme of work. Although they have not had the opportunity to check the quality of teaching, the co-ordinators check standards by sampling pupils’ work. There are no formal, whole-school procedures for checking and recording pupils’ progress. There is a good range of learning resources that helps pupils to achieve well. There is a weekly cross-stitch club for the older pupils, and the curriculum is enriched by visits to the Lowry Museum, Wakefield Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The subject is making a good contribution to pupils’ cultural development.

p.39

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

The quality of provision in design and technology is satisfactory.

p.39

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

The main strengths in design and technology include: • good leadership and management of the subject; • good balance between designing, making and evaluating in the scheme of work; • positive attitudes and good behaviour by pupils.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Areas for development include: • too much direction by teachers; • unsatisfactory use of assessment information; • failure by the subject co-ordinator to monitor colleagues’ teaching systematically.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

110. Standards in design and technology are average at both the end of Year 2 and the end of Year 6. Pupils make satisfactory progress, including those with special educational needs. Boys and girls attain equally well.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

111. Year 2 pupils designed and made satisfactory models of people and animals, using split pins to create moving limbs. Their designs included simple instructions on the method and a list of the necessary materials. The pupils evaluated their models and suggested ways in which they might improve next time. They designed and made satisfactory models of Stone Age people and their homes, and designed and made a healthy sandwich to take on a picnic or on a journey, using their word-processing skills to list the ingredients.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

112. Year 6 pupils designed and made satisfactory bird boxes and hamster homes. Their design sheets included clearly labelled diagrams, step-by-step instructions for assembly and a list of the necessary materials and tools. They understood the importance of making prototype models first and evaluated their finished models. They made good use of their cutting and joining skills and of their knowledge of cam mechanisms to make effective models of pecking birds. Pupils displayed satisfactory sewing skills in designing and making a multi-coloured coat, in work linked to the story of Joseph. They designed and made a pizza and, under the guidance of a visitor from a commercial bakery, learnt how to make bread. The pupils made sound use of their mathematical skills through careful measuring during the design process.

p.39

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

113. Teaching in Years 3 to 6 is satisfactory. No lessons were observed in Years 1 and 2. The teachers maintain an appropriate balance between designing, making and evaluating. They Newlands Primary School - 40 emphasise the basic skills of cutting, joining and sewing. The subject contributes well to learning in other subjects: in history, for example, pupils in Years 3 and 4 made models of The Trojan Horse as part of their work on ancient Greece. At times, there is too much direction by the teacher or other helpers, with insufficient opportunities for the pupils to try things out for themselves.

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DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

114. Subject leadership is good. A clear policy meets the needs of the National Curriculum. Planning is soundly based on national guidelines and on a commercial scheme of work, adapted to meet the school’s needs and resources. There are no formal, whole-school procedures for checking the pupils’ progress. The co-ordinator has not yet had the opportunity to check the quality of teaching, but she offers help and advice to colleagues as necessary. There is an adequate range of resources to support teaching and learning.

p.40

GEOGRAPHY

The quality of provision in geography is good.

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GEOGRAPHY

The main strengths in geography include: • good teaching and learning across the school; • good leadership and management of the subject; • a well-designed geography curriculum; • involvement in local environmental improvement projects.

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GEOGRAPHY

Areas for development include: • marking and use of assessment data is weak; • insufficient challenge for higher-attaining pupils.

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GEOGRAPHY

115. Standards at the end of Year 6 are in line with national ones, which represents good achievement by pupils. They enter the school with well below average prior knowledge and skills, but build successfully from this low base. By the end of Year 2, standards in the work seen during the inspection were below, rather than well below, national levels. This good progress in learning is continued in Years 3 to 6, so that pupils’ cumulative gains in knowledge and skills are substantiated.

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GEOGRAPHY

116. Crucial to this successful picture is the quality of teaching and learning. In both Years 1 and 2 and across Years 3 to 6 the quality is good. The lessons observed showed teachers secure in their knowledge and confident in handling pupils’ questions. In a well-taught lesson with Year 1 and 2 pupils the teacher’s route to school was described with just the right level of technical terms and references to features the pupils recognised. They were given, and took, numerous opportunities to make comments and ask and respond to questions, so that when describing their own routes they had understood the process well. Because teachers succeed in showing the immediate relevance of geography to pupils they motivate them well, and learning has an eagerness about it. In work scrutinised by inspectors, the good quality of teaching is evident in the well-constructed and well-chosen tasks pupils carry out, and the quite demanding challenge

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GEOGRAPHY

of some of the concepts: for example, the physical factors responsible for coastal erosion and waterfall formation studied in Years 5 and 6.

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GEOGRAPHY

117. The other factors underpinning good teaching and learning are the extensive coverage given to the subject and the quality of co-ordination. Good leadership and management of the subject have ensured that the geography curriculum across Years 1 to 6 is better than commonly found and provides pupils and their teachers with a wide variety of topics to explore. Coverage of map and atlas work and the use of photographs is good, and even the youngest pupils are involved in practical fieldwork, such as the traffic survey conducted in Year 1. The depth of investigation into rivers, coast, world weather and the origins and functions of settlements is good. Consequently, by the end of Year 6, pupils have experienced a suitable balance of physical and human topics and geographical skills. Their locational knowledge is successfully built up to levels that match national expectations. In Years 4 to 6, this is achieved through regular reference to news items

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GEOGRAPHY

and their location in the world. In Years 1 and 2, it owes much to study of Barnaby Bear’s travels. Newlands Primary School - 41 Newlands Primary School - 42 118. Resources are poor, but the school is aware of this and a substantial new scheme and materials have been chosen and ordered. The school grounds offer a safe and very varied range of environments, which are currently under-used. Otherwise, the co-ordinator has already succeeded in promoting among colleagues and pupils a clear and positive grasp of the subject, so that teaching is confident and learning effective.

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GEOGRAPHY

119. Marking is generally weak, and there is little evidence of the use of assessment data to evaluate pupils’ progress and set challenging targets for them. Gifted and talented pupils are not provided for in any distinctive way and could make better progress. Numeracy skills are usually reinforced regularly in geography lessons. There is some attention to key words, but other literacy skills, such as frames for writing, are not evident.

p.42

GEOGRAPHY

120. Pupils with special educational needs find the work accessible and receive sound support in lessons, so their progress matches that of other pupils.

p.42

HISTORY

The quality of provision in history is good.

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HISTORY

The main strengths in history include: • the interest and enthusiasm for the subject shown by teachers; • the knowledge and understanding of the teachers; • the good use teachers make of resources and visits to places that support history studies; • the use of ICT in teaching and learning; • the good use made of classroom assistants to support pupils' learning.

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HISTORY

Areas for development include: • poor match of work with the needs of lower-attaining pupils; • missed opportunities to involve pupils in discussion, due to the overuse of direct teaching and close control of events in lessons; • insufficient use of assessment procedures for monitoring pupils' progress and achievement; • the under-developed role of the co-ordinator, which does not include responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning in history.

p.42

HISTORY

120. Standards in history are broadly average across the school. Younger pupils make sound progress and show sound achievement. As their literacy skills develop, older pupils progress more quickly, and by the end of Year 6 their progress and achievement are good. Pupils have equal access to the history curriculum, and pupils with special educational needs make sound progress when work is matched to their needs and they are supported by their teacher or classroom assistants. However, they do not always receive the support they need, and lower- attaining pupils and those with special educational needs were seen to struggle with activities that were too difficult for them.

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HISTORY

121. The teaching of history seen during the inspection was never less than satisfactory. In over half of the lessons observed it was good or better; in one junior lesson it was excellent. The good or better quality lessons were characterised by teachers' enthusiasm, knowledge and understanding, good and very good direct teaching and clear explanations about the expectations for each lesson. As a result, pupils were themselves enthusiastic, and keen to listen and learn, and applied themselves to the activities they undertook.

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HISTORY

122. Infant pupils make steady progress and achieve to a sound level, and lessons overall are satisfactory. Pupils listen attentively to the teachers, who show good levels of knowledge and understanding. However, they are not always encouraged to speak about their thoughts and ideas. Many lower-attaining pupils are held back by their poor literacy skills, in particular their weak writing skills. The work they are given is sometimes too difficult for them. Overuse of worksheets also means that pupils do not have enough opportunities to write freely, and therefore do not make use of their writing skills or have the chance to develop them. In a good Year 2 lesson, all pupils made good progress as a result of careful planning, use of resources and choice Newlands Primary School - 43 of activities. They learned about placing various natural and purpose-made homes

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HISTORY

and buildings in the correct sequence, and then successfully placed them on a time line, giving them an opportunity to develop their mathematical skills. The good use of a classroom assistant in supporting lower-attaining pupils was also a positive feature.

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HISTORY

123. The high-quality displays or work by pupils in Year 3 showed that they had gained a sound knowledge and understanding of life in Anglo-Saxon times. An excellent lesson was seen in Years 4 and 5 where, as a result of the teacher's very good planning and organisation, pupils made excellent gains in knowledge and understanding about life in Ancient Greece. Pupils' artwork on Greek-style patterns showed they had learned extremely well from the input from their teacher, and good progress was made. In Years 5 and 6, where teaching observed during the inspection was always good, pupils made good progress and achieved well. Here teachers made good use of resources, and provided good opportunities for pupils to develop the full range of their literacy skills. The majority of pupils had written well about World War 2, showing a good understanding of the events. Local study work showed that pupils had gained a good appreciation

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HISTORY

of the effect on life and patterns of work of the building of the railways in the mid-nineteenth century. By the end of the Year 6, pupils’ progress and achievement are in line with national expectations.

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HISTORY

124. Pupils' learning of history is enriched by the provision of visits to places of historical interest and places that will support their studies. Pupils in Years 3 and 4 visit The Armouries in Leeds in support of their study of the Tudors; Year 5 pupils visit the local UK coal mining centre in support of their work on the Victorians; and Year 6 pupils visit Eden Camp in support of their studies on Britain since the 1930s.

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HISTORY

125. Good use is made of ICT to support pupils' learning in history. Year 3 pupils studying the Tudors made good use of the Internet to learn about the Mary Rose. Pupils learned the chronology of events from when the ship sank in 1545 to its being raised in 1982. A teacher made good use of a video on 'How They Used to Live', enabling pupils in Year 6 to appreciate fully the reasons for children being evacuated during World War 2. Lower, average and higher attainers all made good, and some very good, gains in knowledge during this lesson.

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HISTORY

126. The subject co-ordinator gives a sound lead to her colleagues and has a keen interest in developing the subject further. Together with her history partner in the school, she has analysed the present planning and is aware of the need to match work in mixed-age classes to ensure that there is continuity and progression in learning and that topics are not repeated at the same level. The co-ordinator is building up a portfolio of work against National Curriculum standards. At present, there are no systems in place for assessing pupils' progress and attainment in history and the co-ordinator does not monitor teaching and learning, preventing her being fully effective in her role.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

The quality of provision in information and communication technology is good.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

The main strengths in ICT include: • good management by teachers of pupils’ behaviour; • good teaching and learning across the school; • the successful integration of ICT into the teaching of other subjects; • pupils’ success in assessing their own progress.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Areas for development include: • the limited subject co-ordinator’s monitoring of colleagues’ work; • the inadequate use of assessment information to match the work to pupils’ different learning needs. Newlands Primary School - 44 127. Standards in ICT are average at the end of both Year 2 and Year 6. The pupils make good progress, including those with special educational needs, and boys and girls attain equally. Pupils behave well in lessons and have positive attitudes towards learning.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

128. By Year 2, pupils are developing their confidence in using the keyboard and mouse accurately. They word process simple sentences, using the correct keys to make capital letters, leave spaces and delete mistakes. They can use computers to generate effective patterns and pictures of the countryside, and of people crossing the road, design shirts for the England football team and program a floor robot to make simple movements. Pupils show good control in clicking the mouse and dragging parts of a plant into the correct positions. They were observed to use the correct icons to rotate the leaves and to label the different parts of the plant. They are beginning to understand how the computer makes it easy to change their work.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

129. By Year 6, the pupils access the Internet to research information in a variety of subjects and know how to send electronic mail. Their word-processing skills are satisfactory. An example of this was observed in a Year 5 lesson, where the pupils were writing narrative poetry. They altered the size, style and colour of fonts and illustrated text with clip art, for example in producing sound ‘ All About Me ‘ booklets. They created satisfactory spreadsheets costing school lunches, a foreign holiday and athletics performances. The pupils could move a window around the screen and scroll through a window. The pupils make sound use of their computer skills in other subjects: in literacy, the pupils made confident use of PowerPoint in an extended writing exercise. They understood how hyperlinks join pages together. In mathematics, the pupils used the computers to record data graphically. In design and technology, they created a sequence of

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

instructions to move a screen turtle and to operate a model merry-go-round.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

130. The quality of teaching is good. The teachers’ knowledge of the subject is secure and they are now much more confident in their use of ICT. They link ICT well with learning in other subjects, for example, with science in Year 1. They ensure that the pupils use correct terms, such as shift key, space bar, backspace key and delete, which has a positive effect on learning. Teachers manage their lessons well. In a Year 2 lesson, for example, the teacher provided a variety of activities, which enabled the pupils to make good progress. Some word-processed simple sentences, while others worked on an animal alphabet program on a laptop or listened to a story through headphones. The teacher made effective use of her teaching assistant, who helped other pupils program a floor robot. In a lesson for pupils in Years 4 and 5, the teacher made effective use of a paper desktop grid system, which enabled the pupils to consolidate their knowledge of

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

how to program the movements of a turtle, prior to their developing these skills on the computers. Teachers encourage pupils to be as independent as possible in their learning, as in a Year 6 lesson, where they quickly logged onto their computers and proceeded, without any direct supervision, to program a screen turtle to create the initial letters of their names.

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

131. Subject leadership is good. A clear policy meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. Planning is soundly based on national guidelines, adapted to meet the school’s needs. The co- ordinators check colleagues’ planning and sample pupils’ work, in order to gain an overview of standards. They have not had the opportunity to check the quality of teaching formally, but they offer help and advice as necessary. There is a clear action plan, which seeks to raise standards further. The co-ordinators are developing more formal procedures for recording progress. The pupils assess their own progress in a useful record book. There is a weekly after-school computer club, which is well attended by the older pupils. Resources and accommodation for ICT are very good and have a positive effect on the pupils' progress.

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MUSIC

Overall, the provision in music is satisfactory.

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MUSIC

The main strengths in music include: • pupils’ enjoyment of singing; • successful involvement of other specialists – peripatetic teachers and the visiting pianist; • the improving confidence and skill of many teachers. Newlands Primary School - 45 Areas for development include: • the unsatisfactory overview of work across the school as a whole; • the limited monitoring and supporting of teaching of music; • inadequate resources for composing and performing. 132. Standards by the end of Year 6 are still below average, but since pupils enter the school with well below average standards, their achievement across Years 1 to 6 is satisfactory.

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MUSIC

133. Singing has a prominent place in school life. Pupils have good opportunities for singing as a class, in a choir or in several classes combined, and they respond well. They sing with evident enjoyment and, at the end of Year 6, produce a strong, in-tune, melodic sound, with accurate rhythm. They are confident singers and quickly overcome temporary problems that might fluster other pupils. Already their standard of singing matches national expectations, but their potential is only partly realised, since the teaching of singing too rarely encourages the elements that lead to higher standards of performance, such as part-singing, variations in dynamics and the extensive use of different forms of accompaniment. Pupils’ scope for good breath control is hindered, as they remain seated for singing.

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MUSIC

134. Some of the basic security and power in singing derives from the school’s use of regular, high- quality accompaniment from a visiting pianist. Further additions to the musical experience of pupils come from instrumental tutors, who help raise standards for about 30 pupils taking individual lessons.

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MUSIC

135. Standards in other aspects of performing are below average. Resources are inadequate for pupils to develop keyboard skills or melodic or harmonised work on pitched instruments, such as glockenspiels. The current commitment in teaching to composing is very limited. A new scheme of work is just being implemented and teachers are making good progress in mastering its requirements. As a result, pupils at the end of Year 6 and the end of Year 2 show good listening skills and a satisfactory ability to appreciate and interpret pieces they listen to. This new scheme also provides opportunities for reinforcing literacy skills through the discussion of vocabulary such as pulse , tone , timbre , accompanied , jazz , blues and bebop .

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MUSIC

136. Overall, teaching is satisfactory and enables sound learning by pupils in lessons. Teachers show variable expertise and confidence in different aspects of the subject. In a Year 6 lesson, for example, teaching was good overall, since it focused on chanting and the use of untuned percussion, both areas of strength for the teacher and both well resourced. In a Year 2 music lesson, teaching and learning were satisfactory, but there was scope for both to be good, had pupils been given the opportunity to compose simple percussive or melodic pieces of their own, based on the recorded song to which they listened. Equally, the teaching of group singing had evident scope for marked improvement. Occasionally, teaching and learning are unsatisfactory: in a Year 4 lesson, for example, the poor resources and incomplete instructions given to pupils did not allow them to perform the tasks that were set.

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MUSIC

137. Currently, the co-ordination of music is unsatisfactory, essentially because no single individual is given overall responsibility for planning and evaluating provision across the school. This deficiency leaves too little scope for systematically training colleagues to teach the underdeveloped aspects of the subject, such as composing, or to adopt a more effective range of strategies for raising standards, especially among higher-attaining pupils. At a practical level, the staff lack a clear awareness of the precise range, quality and location of resources.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The quality of provision is satisfactory.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The main strengths in physical education include: • good management by teachers of pupils’ behaviour; • above-average standards in running; • the good quality of swimming provision; Newlands Primary School - 46 • good resources, especially the gymnasia and fields; • the positive attitudes and real enthusiasm of pupils.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Areas for development are: • the below-average standards in dance; • the lack of urgency and pace in some teaching; • the limited monitoring and support of the teaching of physical education. 138. Physical education was not observed in either Years 1 or 2, so no judgement could be made about standards of attainment. By the end of Year 6, attainment is in line with national expectations.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

139. During the inspection, a broad range of activities was observed. Years 3, 4 and 5 pupils are taught athletic activities. The pupils compete with each other confidently. Year 4 pupils are taught dance activities. They are beginning to link actions together using a range of movements. In games, they are taught bowling skills, and are developing accuracy and control. Year 5 pupils are taught swimming activities and water safety at Normanton Pool. Lessons generally begin with a warm up and finish with a cool down.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

140. There are some strengths and weaknesses in attainment. Running skills are relatively strong. Dance performance is weaker and Year 5 pupils will have to make good progress to meet the expectation of swimming 25m by the end of Year 6. Pupils with special educational needs join in well with others and make satisfactory progress; inclusion is good. The school has identified particularly talented pupils. Both boys and girls compete together with equal confidence and enthusiasm.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

141. Provision for swimming is very good. It is very well organised and taught effectively. More able swimmers enter deep water safely and swim the width of the pool with confidence using a recognisable stroke. Less confident swimmers use the shallow end of the pool to improve swimming on both their front and back.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

142. Teaching is satisfactory. In the better teaching, there is a clear emphasis on developing skills as well as competing. Learning in swimming was good because teachers have good knowledge of the subject and communicate this to the pupils; the demands of the lessons are progressive and build on each other, pupils’ behaviour is very good and they try hard to do well and the facility is excellent and used effectively.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

143. There are some elements of the subject that are less well taught. Cool-downs and stretching are not always included at the end of lessons. In two lessons seen, pupils were required to stand facing the wall for significant amounts of time for minor misdemeanours and were therefore excluded from part of the lesson. Pupils’ evaluation of their own performance and that of others is inadequately taught.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

144. The co-ordinator has carried out an analysis of strengths and weaknesses in the subject and is clear about what needs to be improved. Training has recently supported development within the school and after-school activities contribute well to subject. Resources are good. Grassed areas are well maintained and there is plenty of space. Monitoring of the subject through direct observation is not yet established. However, management of the subject is satisfactory overall.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The quality of provision in religious education is unsatisfactory

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The main strengths in religious education include: • the strong links with aspects of literacy and ICT.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Areas for development include: • insufficient encouragement of pupils’ spiritual development; • too few opportunities for pupils to explore and reflect on issues in depth; Newlands Primary School - 47 • the unsatisfactory leadership and management of the subject.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

145. By the end of Year 6, pupils’ attainment is below that expected by the locally agreed syllabus. The achievement of pupils in the juniors is unsatisfactory, although it is better in the Year 4 and 5 class. Very little teaching of religious education was observed in the infants and therefore no judgement can be made on standards, pupils’ achievement or the quality of teaching. Further evidence comes from discussions with pupils and teachers and analysis of pupils’ work, displays and teachers’ planning.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

146. Across the juniors, the quality of teaching is variable; in the three lessons observed, it ranged from very good to unsatisfactory. In the Year 4/5 lesson, teaching was very good and resulted in very good learning. As part of their study of the story of Joseph, Year 4/5 pupils were encouraged to reflect on feelings of abandonment and isolation. Very good use was made of open questions such as ‘How do you think Joseph felt when his brothers turned on him?’. This technique enabled pupils of different levels of attainment to contribute well and offer their own ideas. The teacher extended the activity well by encouraging pupils to reflect on times when they had fallen out with their friends and strategies they could use to help and support pupils new to the school.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

147. Pupils in the Year 4 class, as part of their topic on special books, discussed how they might develop suitable information for children in the nursery and reception classes joining the school. While this activity had broad links with other areas of the curriculum, such as literacy and design and technology, the teacher gave only brief attention to the lesson’s learning intentions of guidance and support. This lack resulted in unsatisfactory achievement when pupils’ attention became focused on the more superficial areas of information, such as lunchboxes and uniform. They did not have the opportunity to give deeper consideration to how young children might feel when starting school for the first time and what help and support might be offered by older and more experienced pupils.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

148. Pupils in Year 1 reflected on what made them feel happy and sad. One child wrote, ‘cuddles from my mum and dad make me happy’ and, ‘I feel sad when my mum goes to work'. They thought about different celebrations, such as Mother’s Day and what they could do to make their mother feel special. Individual contributions were lost and not sufficiently valued when all pupils copied the same piece of writing into their books. In Year 2, pupils thought about being brave and what makes a good friend. They knew about the stories that Jesus told such as the parable of the good Samaritan. Teachers extended pupils’ literacy skills well through activities such as story sequencing.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

149. In lessons, pupils behave well and generally show positive attitudes to the subject. In discussion, a number of the older pupils said that they do not find religious education interesting.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

150. Across the school, the curriculum is satisfactorily planned, so that pupils build on their knowledge of Christianity and other faiths. For example, by the end of the juniors, through their study of Judaism, Year 5 and 6 pupils could identify the main functions of a synagogue and knew that bar mitzvah is the time when 13-year-old boys are recognised as adults. Good links were made with ICT when pupils used desktop-publishing programs to produce invitations to the celebration party. Pupils’ overall understanding of the different beliefs they study lacks depth. There are too few opportunities for them to deepen their own self-awareness through discussion and quiet reflection, which hinders their spiritual development. Across the school, too much reliance is placed on worksheets, which restricts opportunities for pupils to explore deeper meaning through their personal writing.

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

151. Leadership and management of religious education are unsatisfactory. The co-ordinator does not have a soundly developed overview of quality and standards across the school. Standards are inconsistent and best practice is not sufficiently shared among staff. Procedures for checking pupils’ work and achievement are not adequate. The school is to introduce the new locally agreed syllabus next term. Plans for its implementation are in the early stages of development and the co-ordinator is currently attending training. Resources for the subject are satisfactory.

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