St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Inspection Report St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School

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108005 Unique Reference Number Leeds LEA 277879 Inspection number 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006 Inspection dates Mr Anthony Painter 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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Strawberry Lane School address Primary Type of school Tong Road Voluntary controlled School category Armley, Leeds LS12 1SF 3 to 11 Age range of pupils 0113 2639292 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0113 2638019 Fax number 340 Number on roll Bill Seddon Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Pauline Gavin Headteacher 25 September 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 277879 28 June 2006 - 3 to 11 29 June 2006 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006

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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 school lies in an inner urban area facing some distinct social and economic hardships. Children joining the school come from an increasingly wide range of ethnic backgrounds, often with limited or no knowledge of English. The largest groups of these come from Urdu or Panjabi speaking families. Additionally, a significant number of pupils leave and join the school during each year. Many of these have had limited or distressing earlier experiences, such as those from the rising numbers of refugee and asylum seeking families, often of Eastern European origin. Currently there are twenty-two languages spoken by pupils in the school and almost a fifth are at an early stage of learning English. Eleven pupils come from traveller families. The proportion of pupils identified as having learning difficulties and/or disabilities is around the national average.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006

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Grade: 1

The inspector agrees with the school's own evaluation that its provision and value for money are outstanding. Pupils make outstanding overall progress from low levels to reach above average standards by the end of Year 6. The school has made very good improvements, such as in raising writing standards, and is extremely well placed to continue to maintain its high quality provision. Teachers ensure pupils' outstanding achievements by paying great attention to the needs of each individual. For example, high quality experiences and support in Foundation Stage classes help all children settle quickly and get learning off to a flying start. Throughout the school, extensive learning opportunities and extremely good teaching ensure pupils of all backgrounds and abilities make very rapid progress. Within a vibrant and exciting multicultural atmosphere, pupils develop the maturity and exemplary attitudes and behaviour to equip them for their future. A caring atmosphere

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Grade: 1

and strong positive relationships give all pupils confidence to thrive. Senior leaders' monitoring and analysis give an extremely clear and accurate view of strengths and weaknesses. Innovative approaches to responsibilities enable all staff to contribute to the monitoring, evaluating and improvement process. This has produced a noticeable atmosphere of teamwork and shared involvement with a focus on giving pupils exactly what they need to improve. As a result, relative weaknesses are quickly and effectively identified and remedied. Although the governing body supports well and rigorously ensures statutory requirements are met, involvement in monitoring the school's work is more limited.

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What the school should do to improve further

The school has a very accurate view of its own strengths and weaknesses, with clear planning to address areas of relative weakness. Within this framework, it should ensure that: • governors play a stronger role in monitoring the school's work and holding it accountable.

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Grade: 1

Although pupils have a wide range of experiences and development before joining the school, their overall attainment on entry is well below that expected for their age. Significant, and growing, numbers of pupils have limited or no English and many have restricted social skills. High quality relationships in the Nursery and Reception classes ensure these children settle quickly and begin to make enormous strides in all areas of learning. This rapid progress continues in Years 1 and 2 although standards by the end of Year 2 remain below the national averages. However, the foundations of future effective 2 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006 learning have been securely laid and pupils make further outstanding progress in Years 3 to 6. For several years the school has shown significantly high overall added value in the Year 6 national tests, although pupils' writing has been the weakest element of

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Grade: 1

their skills. The school has taken effective measures to improve this position and set challenging targets. The most recent results show much improved results in writing, on a par with those in mathematics and science. By the time they leave the school, pupils reach above average standards in all tested subjects and the overall achievement of all groups of pupils is outstanding.

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Grade: 1

The school ensures pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is extremely good. By Year 6, pupils display admirable levels of maturity and appreciate the advantages of being part of a richly varied community. Their enjoyment of school life is reflected in their highly positive attitudes to learning and their improving attendance. In a strongly multicultural environment, pupils form very positive relationships with adults and pupils, showing respect for all. They develop an acute understanding of right and wrong and behaviour is almost invariably exemplary. Pupils enthusiastically share personal knowledge and understanding: events such as cultural weeks broaden their horizons further. The active school council ensures pupils' views are heard and valued. The school has acted upon a number of their views on such matters as in the provision of water fountains and of a quiet room for reflection and relaxation. Pupils

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Grade: 1

gain good knowledge of a healthy lifestyle through a range of dining options, a wide variety of physical activities and a well-planned personal education programme. They feel protected from bullying and racism in school as a result of the school's creation of an environment in which all pupils feel equally valued. In this school every child matters.

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Grade: 1

The quality of teaching and learning is outstanding. Teachers plan their lessons very well, and set clear learning objectives. They make very good use of resources, particularly the new interactive whiteboards, to enhance both teaching and learning. Teachers challenge pupils' thinking through excellent question and answer sessions and they very successfully encourage pupils' independent learning. Teachers use teaching assistants particularly effectively to ensure targets are met. All adults in classes have excellent rapport with pupils and use praise wisely to increase their self-confidence. Pupils are therefore very well motivated and complete their tasks willingly. Target setting for individual pupils is a strong feature of teaching and learning. Teachers set rigorous targets to help pupils understand the standards they are expected to attain. Through marking and discussion they ensure that pupils know what they

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Grade: 1

need to do in order to improve. Teachers know pupils very well and promote progress 3 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006 very effectively by planning tasks that are specific to their needs whilst remaining challenging but not restrictive. This is particularly true for pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, and for those whose mother tongue is not English. These pupils learn well and make progress in line with the others.

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Grade: 1

The school judges its curriculum to be good but is being modest. The curriculum successfully combines national curriculum requirements with the underpinning values of the school, very effectively meeting the needs and interests of all its pupils. Personal, social and emotional development is a very strong feature. The Christian ethos of care and respect for others permeates the entire curriculum. A strong multicultural element reflects and celebrates the wide range of cultures of the pupils. There is a wide and expanding range of additional activities such as lunchtime and after school clubs. These are further enriched by well-targeted educational visits, such as the visit to Lineham Farm. The healthy food tuck-shop, run by older pupils, offers excellent provision for encouraging pupils to recognise the importance of healthy living. The curriculum excellently encourages a growth in maturity of the pupils and very

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Grade: 1

successfully prepares them for the next stages of their learning.

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Grade: 1

The caring approach of teachers helps to create an ethos in which all pupils flourish, mature and make remarkably good progress both in academic terms and in their personal development. Child protection arrangements and systems of rewards and sanctions are extremely secure. Highly skilled teaching assistants provide extremely valuable support and make an important contribution to the establishment of an environment that ensures that pupils treat one another with respect. All pupils, including the most vulnerable, feel safe in an orderly and caring environment. The marking of pupils' work and the thorough systems of tracking of academic progress ensure high levels of support. Effective use of assessment information ensures teachers have comprehensive knowledge of the individual pupils' strengths and weaknesses. Pupils appreciate the impetus that the well thought out target-setting gives to their learning.

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Grade: 1

Very effective teamwork is a mainstay of the school's success. An innovative approach to school development through 'project groups' allows all staff to contribute actively at different levels to the monitoring and evaluation process. As a result, staff feel very strong 'ownership' of developments, which are quickly and thoughtfully assimilated into school practice. Regular and frequent meetings of the project groups continue 4 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 2006 to focus and drive the work in classrooms and ensure a palpable culture of continuous improvement. The headteacher and senior leadership team have a very secure overall view of how well the school is doing. Monitoring of teaching and analysis of performance and other data are detailed and accurate. Action taken is effective, for example in recently improving teaching assistants' roles in lessons. Tracking of pupils' progress identifies

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Grade: 1

challenging targets at all levels and what needs to be done to support further progress. The success of this process is seen clearly in the improved progress and standards in writing through the school. The well-judged school self-evaluation makes use of staff views at all levels, as well as contributions from pupils and parents. It links closely to, and operates in tandem with the school improvement plan to ensure that the whole school shares a common purpose of raising standards for all pupils. The governing body is supportive but currently has a high proportion of vacancies and new governors. Governors are very good at ensuring the school meets its statutory responsibilities. They often question the school well and some take good opportunities to observe lessons. However, governors' involvement in directly monitoring the school's work is relatively limited. 5 Inspection Report: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 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: St Bartholomew's CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary School, 28 June 2006 to 29 June 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 1 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 1 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 1 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 1 How well do learners achieve? NA 2 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 1 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 1 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 1 The behaviour of learners NA 3 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 1 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 1 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 1 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 1 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 1 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 very much for the very warm welcome you gave us when we visited your school. We were extremely impressed by the ways you were all so friendly, polite and helpful. Everyone in your school gets on so very well together. We think that this is one of the main reasons that you learn well in your lessons. All the adults in school make sure you are safe and well cared for. We were very pleased with the way your teachers work so successfully together to plan lots of interesting things for you to do. They make very good use of all the things they know about each of you to set targets and help you improve. These things help you to do extremely well in your lessons. In your school, teachers are good at planning new ways to teach. They look closely at how things are doing, try out new ideas and check carefully that these are working well. We've suggested that the school governors should play a bigger part in helping teachers to be sure

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

that they continue to improve their work. We hope that you will continue to help the teachers and other staff to make sure the school keeps up the very high standards that it has already set. We enjoyed talking with you and your teachers very much and wish you and the school the very best for the future.

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