Accrington Woodnook Primary School

Age group Published Reference no. Accrington Woodnook Primary School Inspection report

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Unique Reference Number 119341 LEA Lancashire

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Inspection number 274751 Inspection dates 4-5 th May 2005 Reporting inspector Clive Davies

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Inspection deemed to have been carried out under section 10 of the School Inspections Act 1996 according to section 12(3) of the same act.

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Type of School Primary School address School category Community Age range of pupils 4-11 Hudson Street Accrington Lancashire BB5 2HS Gender of pupils Mixed Telephone number 01254 233020 Number on roll 277 Fax number 01254 233020 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair of governors Mr L Dickinson Date of previous inspection June 1999 Headteacher Mr S Bibby

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4 - 11 May 2005 274751 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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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 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.

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Introduction

The inspection was a pilot of the new arrangements for inspection announced by Ofsted in its consultation paper of February 2004. It was carried out with the support and co-operation of Accrington Woodnook Primary School and the local education authority.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by three additional inspectors.

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Description of the school

Woodnook is a primary school situated in Accrington in Lancashire and serves an area of significant hardship. There are 277 children on roll aged 4 to 11. A significant number enter or leave the school mid-year. The number of children entitled to free school meals is well above the national average and there is a very high proportion of pupils for whom English is an additional language although few are at an early stage of learning English. Most children enter the school with levels of skill which are below average for their age, and almost a third of the pupils have learning difficulties and disabilities. A very small percentage of pupils are in public care.

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Key for inspection grades

Grade 1 Outstanding Grade 2 Good Grade 3 Satisfactory Grade 4 Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness of the school

The school provides a satisfactory standard of education for its children with many good features. This is also the school’s assessment of its effectiveness. Parents and pupils think highly of the school and it is also well thought of in the local community. Although standards are well below average, the children get off to a good start and overall achieve satisfactorily during their time at the school. However, their lack of fluency in speaking hinders their standards in writing. Children’s personal development is good and the care provided for them helps them to be confident and to have high self-esteem. There are good links with other organisations enabling the school to strengthen its provision for vulnerable children as well as for those from different ethnic backgrounds. The school ensures that there is equality of opportunity for all to succeed.

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Overall effectiveness of the school

The quality of teaching is good but assessment information is not used rigorously enough to boost the quicken the pace of learning. Leadership and management are satisfactory, with the headteacher and deputy headteacher working hard to ensure that all children enjoy their education. The imbalance of responsibilities across the staff results in some teachers having too heavy a work load. The school is in a good position to improve, building upon the improvements made since the previous inspection. Appropriate systems are now in place to help the school focus more readily on school improvement. Standards are already improving and the achievement of groups such as those at early stages of learning English is now good. The school gives satisfactory value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

The three main issues for the school to work on are: • improve the use staff make of assessment information • review the roles and responsibilities undertaken by members of the senior management team • continue to put emphasis on improving children’s fluency in speaking and link this to improvement in writing.

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Achievement and standards

Children achieve satisfactorily although standards in English, mathematics and science are well below the national average. This matches the school’s judgement. When compared with similar schools, standards in mathematics and science are at least average. Although standards in English have been steadily improving, children’s lack of fluency in speaking is contributing to lower standards in writing. Standards in ICT are higher, being in line with those expected for the children’s age. Inspection Report: Accrington Woodnook Primary School, 4-5 May 2005 3

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Achievement and standards

When they first start school many children have skill levels that are below those expected for their age. Their communication, language and literacy skills are particularly weak. Good progress is made within the reception class, enabling many, by the end of Year 2, to read with fluency and expression although a large number are still at early stages of learning to read. As they move through Years 3 to 6, increasingly children read at the levels expected for their age but their writing is not as good. Too many able children’s writing lacks sparkle.

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Achievement and standards

No group is significantly underachieving. The large number of children who have special educational needs make satisfactory progress. Children whose home language is not English make good progress because they are helped to use specific words associated with different subjects enabling them to improve their fluency in both writing and speaking.

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Personal development and well-being

The school and the inspectors recognise that the promotion of this area is a major strength of the school. Children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very good. The joy that children express through their learning indicates that the school promotes a good sense of spirituality. The very effective contribution of the emotional well-being worker and the learning mentor helps to enhance children’s view of themselves. Children of all abilities and ethnic backgrounds treat each other with consideration and respect. A recent project to promote the children’s mother tongue language has had a very positive impact and contributed greatly to raising the self-esteem of individuals. The school council makes a significant contribution, enabling children to take on additional responsibilities.

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Personal development and well-being

Children’s behaviour is very good. They are confident when communicating with adults and clearly enjoy their education. Children are keen to learn and their attitudes in lessons are very positive. Despite the school’s best efforts, attendance is below average, largely because of parents taking children on extended holidays.

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Personal development and well-being

Children thoroughly enjoy being in school and make good progress in understanding about living healthily, being safe and contributing to the community. The school’s enthusiastic sports coach is instrumental in ensuring that children exercise regularly and participate in sport. Children are free from bullying and know about the dangers associated with drug misuse. They are actively involved in several community projects and the school is seen as a very important contributor to community harmony.

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Teaching and learning

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. The school accurately identifies teaching on a lesson-by-lesson basis as being good. However, its impact on children’s progress is not as effective. There are many strengths in the way staff promote children’s behaviour, work at a vigorous pace and make effective use of ICT within lessons. However, the children’s pace of learning is hindered by weaknesses in marking and the lack of advice the children are given about what they need to do to improve. Effective teaching is helping children to develop good habits for learning and this is noted in the way children apply themselves and have positive attitudes in lessons. Teachers are particularly effective in organising different tasks for children of different abilities and backgrounds but their use of assessment information is often not precise enough to provide individuals with work that matches their stages of

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Teaching and learning

development. Good attention to the language needs of children who are at early stages of learning English is helping this group make good progress. Teaching assistants contribute strongly to supporting children with special educational needs. They are identified early and their needs given high priority.

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Curriculum and other activities

The school’s curriculum meets the learners’ needs satisfactorily. It provides children with ample opportunities to develop skills using direct experiences, where possible. A number of visits and visitors to school give children good opportunities to learn in a range of stimulating ways. However, the use of published materials does not always allow children to apply their skills in literacy and numeracy across the full curriculum. In contrast, there is good use of pupils’ ICT skills in many subjects. The school has taken appropriate action to ensure that children have access to good quality information related to drugs misuse as this remains a major concern in the immediate community.

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Care, guidance and support

The care, guidance and support provided for children are good, with particular strengths in the way their personal development and well-being are promoted. As a result children’s self-esteem is high. They are very confident when communicating with adults and know that their contributions are valued. Through the school council all children are encouraged to make a contribution Inspection Report: Accrington Woodnook Primary School, 4-5 May 2005 5 to school life. Child protection procedures are very good. The very few incidents of bullying are dealt with quickly and effectively. Arrangements for children to start school and the support provided for them when they leave are also strong features of the school’s work.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the school are satisfactory. The enthusiastic headteacher, ably supported by a very committed deputy, is at the heart of the school. There is a determination that all pupils of different backgrounds and race have equal opportunity to succeed. Many good initiatives have been introduced to help the school improve its ability to evaluate its own performance. These systems are beginning to make an impact on the standards being attained. However, insufficient attention is given to the role which assessment needs to play in boosting the children’s achievement. Parents and pupils’ views are sought and acted upon and their contribution is valued by the school.

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Leadership and management

The distribution of responsibilities among the senior management team is uneven. Special educational needs is unrepresented and the management of teaching assistants lacks clarity. However, the school works very effectively with many outside agencies to support the learning of vulnerable pupils. In addition, the school is keen to be involved in major national initiatives such as the project to give a high profile to pupils’ mother tongue language. The school is demonstrating the capacity to improve as is seen in the improvement in standards and to the systems now in place to help focus on school improvement.

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Leadership and management

The governors meet their statutory duties and know the school well. They support and challenge the school appropriately and take full advantage of the range of skills within its group in order to increase its effectiveness. They have been heavily involved in aspects related to school premises but less so in relation to raising standards.

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Grade: 3

procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about HMI-led Ofsted inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk.

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INSPECTION JUDGEMENTS

Key to judgements: Grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate.

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3

How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners’ well-being?

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2

The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school’s self-evaluation 3 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Y Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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How well do learners achieve? 3

The standards reached by learners 4 How well learners’ make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners

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3

How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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being of the learners? 2

The extent of learners’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

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2

The behaviour of learners 2 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community.

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2

How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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3

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education

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3

How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self- review

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3

How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can

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2

How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money

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3

The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities

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3

The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy Yes/No/NA

Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are taught about sexual health risks Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily. Yes

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe. Yes/No/NA

Learners are taught about key risks and how to minimise them Yes Procedures for Child Protection meet the requirements of Working Together to Safeguard Children Yes

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe. Yes/No/NA

Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them Yes

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How well learners enjoy and achieve Yes/No/NA

Support is given to learners with poor behaviour and attendance Yes Learners’ personal and academic development are monitored Yes

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution Yes/No/NA

Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, are consulted when key decisions affecting them have to be made and their views are listened to Yes

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution Yes/No/NA

Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes

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Yes/No/NA

There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners are have opportunities to develop their enterprise and financial skills, and work in teams Yes

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Yes/No/NA

Learners have opportunities to develop Education and training for all learners in 14-19 is co-ordinated n/a

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Annex B

Accrington Woodnook Primary School Hudson Street Accrington Lancashire

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Annex B

Firstly, I would like to thank you for being so helpful, kind and very polite during our visit to your school in the first week in May. All the inspectors want to emphasise what a great pleasure it was to speak with you about your work. Your enthusiasm and excitement about what you learn came across to us very well.

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Annex B

As you know we have just finished the inspection and would like to share with you our thoughts about your school. You won’t be surprised to learn that we think your school is quite special and that the adults who work with you try their best to make sure that learning is made interesting for you. We were pleased about the efforts made to make sure that you take regular exercise and that sport is made important to you all. We also recognised that the school is helping you understand about how you can play an important role in the neighbourhood you live in. Perhaps most of all we were very impressed by the way in which the school is helping everyone from different backgrounds to get on. The way in which everyone is made to feel proud of each other’s languages was an important part of this. It is easy to see why you enjoy your school and why many of you said that you make friends easily.

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Annex B

You work hard in lessons and your very good behaviour means that your teachers are not having to waste time telling individuals off. The standard of your work is getting better all the time and although many of you still struggle with your writing there has been good improvement in your reading and number work. Your use of computers is impressive and we were particularly excited about the ICT presentations in Year 6. As you know your teachers work hard and your headteacher takes great care that everyone has a chance to do well at Woodnook. This helps everyone, including those who find learning hard, to do as well as can be expected.

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Annex B

There are three main things we have asked the school to think of to try and make your school even better. Firstly, we would like your teachers to try and make it even more clear to you what it is you are expected to learn in each lesson so that you are clear about what is considered ‘good work’. Secondly, we feel that your headteacher and deputy headteacher need to share some of their tasks out more evenly across all the staff who work at Woodnook. Thirdly, to continue to help you improve your writing.

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Annex B

Finally, we would like to thank you again and say that we leave Woodnook with many fond memories of the way we were made welcome. All the best to you all, especially those who are moving on to their new schools in September.

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Annex B

Clive Davies Lead Inspector Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0207 421 6800 F 0207 421 6707 www.ofsted.gov.uk

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