Childwall Church of England Primary School

Inspection Report Childwall Church of England Primary School

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104625 Unique Reference Number Liverpool LEA 277193 Inspection number 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006 Inspection dates Mr Colin Smith CfBT Lead Inspector Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Woolton Road School address Primary Type of school Liverpool Voluntary aided School category Merseyside L16 0JD 4 to 11 Age range of pupils 0151 7221553 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0151 2818718 Fax number 316 Number on roll Dr I Sharp Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Diane Shaw Headteacher 28 February 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 277193 25 January 2006 - 4 to 11 26 January 2006 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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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 Education Act 2005, 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 carried out by three additional inspectors.

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Description of the school

This large primary school has a distinctive Christian ethos. The proportion of children entitled to free school meals is lower than the national average, reflecting the degree of social advantage in the area around the school. However, because of its religious character, the school draws children from a wide area. The percentage of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is increasing and has reached broadly average levels. The vast majority of children are of white British heritage. A small number of children are from minority ethnic backgrounds but none of them are at an early stage of learning English. On the whole, children enter school with attainment that is above that expected for their age. The school has gained Investors in People status and achieved Basic Skills and Healthy Schools Awards.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006

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Grade: 2

This is a successful school that provides good value for money. Children make a positive start in the Reception classes in response to good teaching. Most children, including the gifted and talented ones, achieve well and standards are high throughout the school, particularly in information and communication technology (ICT). Children's progress in English and science has been mainly good over recent years. The school has worked hard to raise achievement in mathematics to the same level. There are signs of improvement, although the school is aware that there is more to do. Children with learning difficulties make satisfactory progress. Their learning improves significantly when additional support is provided but this is not always available. The school has many effective systems to check how well teachers and children are performing. Senior managers gain an accurate picture of the school's strengths and

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Grade: 2

areas for improvement. Standards of achievement, teaching and learning and the curriculum, for example, are good, exactly as the school judges them to be. Leadership and management are also good. However, subject leaders are not always the ones who observe lessons, check children's assessments and examine their work. Consequently a lot of information has to be exchanged which makes it harder for subject leaders to keep 'a finger on the pulse'. The school provides a good level of care, guidance and support, and maintains purposeful links with external agencies. This ensures that children are safeguarded. The school has maintained the good quality of education provided at the time of the previous inspection. This illustrates its good capacity for improvement.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Raise achievement in mathematics through individual target setting, improving children's problem solving skills and eliminating unnecessary repetition of work. • Extend the provision for children with learning difficulties by increasing additional adult support wherever possible. • Ensure that subject leaders observe lessons, check children's work and analyse assessments themselves to increase their influence in raising standards.

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Grade: 2

Standards of achievement are good overall. Reception children make a good start and many exceed the learning goals expected. Standards are, and have remained, significantly higher than average throughout the school for the past five years, apart from mathematics in Key Stage 1, which was average in 2005. Setting and reaching challenging targets is a key factor in the school's success. Senior staff detected a slight decline in mathematics in Key Stage 1. Decisive action to strengthen teaching is helping to reverse the trend. 2 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006 Children achieve well and make good progress overall. This is evident in the school's 2003 and 2004 Key Stage 2 results. However, the progress made by the Year 6 children in 2005 was only satisfactory. The dip in progress, largely in English, was uncharacteristic of the school's previous good performance and reflected the impact

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Grade: 2

of staff absences on a sensitive group of children. Identifying and strengthening weaknesses in progress is putting the school back on track. Children's achievement in science is good and is particularly good in ICT. Their achievement in mathematics is satisfactory and improving. However, there is still more to do to extend children's skills of problem solving. The good achievement of the gifted and talented children reflects the high level of challenge provided. Children with learning difficulties make satisfactory progress overall and they achieve well when additional support is provided.

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Grade: 2

Children's personal development is good with outstanding features. This makes a significant contribution to their achievements. The vast majority of children develop into confident and mature young people. The school council provides excellent opportunities for them to take responsibility and develop a true understanding of citizenship. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Collective worship makes a strong contribution to their spiritual awareness and encourages them to reflect on values such as compassion, fairness, cooperation and respect for other cultures. Children develop very good attitudes to learning and value their education highly. Their happiness in school and enjoyment in learning is reflected in their excellent attendance. The school is an orderly community where children behave well. The school involves children in numerous worthwhile local and regional activities.

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Grade: 2

Through these, they are able to make an outstanding contribution to the community, not least through fundraising for many good causes. They adopt positive and healthy lifestyles and become increasingly aware of personal safety. They learn to recognise and protect themselves from potential dangers such as smoking, drugs and alcohol. Children also learn to work well independently and collaboratively and to make considered decisions. These experiences are valuable in promoting their future economic well-being.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. In virtually all lessons children are well managed and they benefit from the good level of challenge provided. Teachers are 3 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006 particularly skilful in the way they explain the new learning and use questions to probe children's understanding. The use of ICT projection screens is particularly effective in helping children to understand new ideas. Where teaching is at its best, teachers are inventive and inspire children, for example, to write imaginatively. In composing their own myths, one child lucidly described his creation of a 'pengrilla' (half penguin-half gorilla). On rare occasions teaching is less effective because children are not entirely sure of what they are expected to learn and opportunities are missed to develop their reasoning skills in mathematics.

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Grade: 2

The assessment of children's learning is good overall. The information gathered is used well to teach children in ability groups and sets, which matches their learning needs closely. The learning of the more able children flourishes within this regime. The teaching of children with learning difficulties is satisfactory overall. When teaching assistants support these children their learning accelerates. However, their learning slows when additional support is not available.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good with some outstanding features. It is sensitively adjusted to meet the needs of all children, including gifted and talented ones and those with learning difficulties. Provision in ICT is exceptional and children have fruitful opportunities to sharpen their investigative skills in science. Senior staff have correctly identified the need to improve children's problem solving skills in mathematics and have worked hard to improve children's writing. This is paying dividends in both enjoyment and fluency. The curriculum is well organised to ensure that children build on previous learning. However, senior staff have discovered that children unnecessarily repeat work in mathematics as they move from one key stage to the next. Removing this is a current school priority. Curriculum enrichment is excellent. The vast range of additional learning experiences makes a significant contribution to children's enjoyment of school,

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Grade: 2

helps them to keep healthy and stay safe and prepares them well for the future. 4 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006

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Grade: 2

Support and guidance are good. The excellent level of care provided is reflected in the thoroughness of the health and safety checks carried out, the attention given to child protection and the careful nurturing of the most vulnerable children. These robust measures, along with strong support from external agencies, ensure that children are safe and extremely well cared for. Children feel confident in knowing that trusted adults are on hand to discuss and ease their anxieties. The 'help box' encourages children to share their concerns. Children's academic progress is closely monitored and teachers and assistants fully understand their learning needs. Children receive excellent guidance in their learning of writing. In addition to teachers' constructive and analytical marking of their written work, clear targets are agreed to show them how to improve. This same process has the capacity to accelerate progress in mathematics, but in this subject, target setting

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Grade: 2

has not been established across the school.

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher, senior staff and governors provide clear direction. This leads to the provision of a good education, high quality care and enriched personal development. Monitoring and evaluation procedures are well established. Teaching, learning and children's progress are regularly checked. Much data is collected enabling senior staff to assess school performance and identify areas requiring attention. However, subject leaders are not always the ones who examine lessons and children's written work or analyse assessments. Without this 'first hand' involvement, it is harder for them to influence developments in their subjects, particularly in mathematics. In response to the slight decline in Key Stage 1 results and the dip in progress in English in Key Stage 2 in 2005, staffing has been adjusted to strengthen teaching and eliminate the weaknesses in children's understanding. Early indications are that these

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Grade: 2

strategies are having a positive impact. Leaders are highly committed to equality of opportunity and are increasingly taking note of the views of stakeholders. The vast majority of learners achieve as well as they can, although additional support for children with learning difficulties is not always available. Otherwise, resources are well deployed, most notably in ICT, which support children's learning particularly well. Governors fully discharge their responsibilities and possess many skills that help them to act as 'critical friends'. Child protection is assured very effectively through purposeful links with outside agencies. The school has built on the good quality and high standards noted in the previous inspection, illustrating its good capacity for improvement. 5 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Childwall Church of England Primary School, 25 January 2006 to 26 January 2006

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Overall

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

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learners?

NA 2 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 2 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 3 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 2 The behaviour of learners NA 1 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 2 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 3 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 3 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 2 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 2 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes 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 Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams NA Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form NA Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for your help when we inspected your school. We enjoyed our stay and would like you to know what we found out. - Your headteacher, staff and governors have created a good school in which you can achieve well and reach high standards. - Your teachers and helpers are successful in helping you to learn new things. - You do your part by coming to school regularly, behaving well and trying hard. - We can see that you enjoy learning because lessons are interesting. - You are very well cared for in school and kept safe. - Your work in the school council is excellent. Your school has built on the good inspection five years ago. Your teachers are trying to make the school even better. We think these things will help. - Your progress in mathematics could improve further if your problem solving skills were better and targets were set for you to aim for. - Those of you who find learning difficult often make good progress when you are given

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

extra adult help but there is not enough of it to go round. - Teachers in charge of subjects need more opportunities to check how well you are learning to find out what more they can do to help you.

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