Coquet Park First School

Inspection Report Coquet Park First School

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108590 Unique Reference Number North Tyneside LEA 278004 Inspection number 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005 Inspection dates Ms Andrea Lyons Reporting inspector

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

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The Links School address First Type of school Whitley Bay Community School category Tyne and Wear, NE26 1TQ 3 to 9 Age range of pupils 0191 2008708 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0191 2008798 Fax number 170 Number on roll Mr Dave Pederson Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Mark Lovell Headteacher 1 February 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 278004 28 November 2005 - 3 to 9 29 November 2005 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 two of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools.

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Description of the school

Coquet Park First School is smaller than most primary schools. It is situated in a socially advantaged area of Whitley Bay, and occupies new purpose built premises. It has fewer pupils who are eligible for free school meals than is the case nationally or locally. However, it identifies a significantly higher number of pupils as having learning difficulties and/or disabilities than the local authority average. There is a small Bangladeshi community and some of these pupils have English as an additional language. The school has a very small proportion of children who are looked after. It has its own popular Nursery and also an arrangement with a local private day care provider which arranges ‘wrap round’ day care on site before and after school. It is a popular school which commands a great deal of parental support.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005

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Grade: 2

Coquet Park First School is a good school. It has a very supportive and caring ethos, which provides a good foundation for teaching and learning. Pupils’ behaviour is excellent. The quality of teaching is always at least satisfactory, with some good features. Pupils enter school with high levels of attainment and by the end of Year 4 they have made good progress. The curriculum is good, with a significant number of opportunities for enrichment through visits and events. Care and support for pupils is a strength of the school, but guidance for pupils is let down by ineffective marking of work. Leadership and management are good overall, with particular strengths in the team ethos and subject leadership responsibilities. However, monitoring of the quality of teaching is not sufficiently rigorous. The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage are good. The school has worked on the development issues raised

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Grade: 2

in the previous inspection with varying success. For instance, despite work undertaken on improving handwriting, it still remains a problem and assessment of children’s work is still not effective. However, it has successfully addressed the other two key issues. It has a supportive governing body and its capacity to improve is good. The school provides good value for money. not applicable

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What the school should do to improve further

• Develop a system of rigorous monitoring of the quality of teaching, linked to staff’s continuing professional development. • Improve the assessment of children’s work so that both staff and pupils can clearly see the extent of progress made and the next steps needed to improve.

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Grade: 2

Pupils enter school with a high level of attainment, and this is further developed in Nursery through detailed individual assessment and a programme of well matched activities so that children make good progress. Progress in the rest of the school is more variable, but accelerates in Year 4 where it is good. By the time pupils leave the school, their attainment is, overall, significantly above the national average. Of the three core subjects, pupils attain the highest standards in mathematics, followed by reading. Writing has been less successful than these two areas for a number of years, although results are still slightly above the national average. The school sets itself appropriately challenging targets for its overall results. The school identifies a large proportion of its children as having learning difficulties and/or disabilities. It makes early and effective interventions which help the vast

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Grade: 2

majority of these children make very good progress, such that by Key Stage 2 they catch up with their peers. The school makes well-focused and effective provision for 2 Inspection Report: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005 more vulnerable pupils and pupils who have English as an additional language, with the result that these pupils make good progress.

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Grade: 2

The provision for pupil’s personal development and well being is good. Pupils enjoy school and benefit from the caring family ethos. Their behaviour is excellent both in class and around the school and their attitudes to work are good. Pupils are confident and relationships both with other children and with staff are very good. The school provides well for pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural development. They celebrate other cultures within the school and encourage children and families to share celebrations and special events. Pupils support international charities and a number of charitable ventures in England. Pupils report they feel happy, safe and healthy in school. As the result of thoughtful and well planned work throughout the curriculum, they recognise the importance of a healthy diet and regular exercise. They learn to enjoy sport both through the enthusiasm of staff and the provision of specialist teaching. They are helped to choose

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Grade: 2

a healthy diet by a colour coded system in use at lunchtimes. Pupils are taught how to stay safe. An active and well informed school council accurately reflects the views of all children in the school and, through well reasoned argument, is able to influence management decisions.

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Grade: 3

The school believes that its teaching is good, but the inspectors judge it to be satisfactory with some good features. Where the teaching is good or better, the teachers engage the pupils’ interest with their imaginative and dynamic approach and provide interesting activities which the pupils can see are relevant to them. When they have achieved what the teacher hoped they would, they are still challenged and encouraged to go further. Pupils participate eagerly, and make good progress. Where it is less good, teachers manage the lesson competently but without enthusing the pupils. Work is suitably planned and pupils complete it successfully, but they do not have enough opportunity to take the activity further or take responsibility for their own learning, evident from lesson observations and scrutiny of pupils’ work. This showed too much work where the activities did not allow pupils to explore the topic

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Grade: 3

further and limited their progress to what the teachers felt confident they could achieve. However, sometimes in whole-class teaching, an opposite problem occurs, when teachers have aimed high with the content of the lesson and are so keen to complete the work that they miss opportunities to assess how much pupils have understood. This means that some pupils are not secure in what they have been taught. 3 Inspection Report: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005

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Grade: 2

Curriculum provision is good. It covers all statutory requirements. The recent introduction of French throughout the school both extends the range of pupil experience and provides strong links to other curriculum subjects. Music is a strength of the school. An extensive range of extra curricular activities, many concerned with staying healthy and safe, enhance pupil experience. The school building is used to maximise learning with specialist, well resourced, areas for information and communication technology (ICT), music and art. Lessons are enriched by many visits to places of educational interest and a residential visit for the oldest pupils. The curriculum for the youngest children is good. It builds on their previous knowledge and experience and enables them to make good progress.

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Grade: 3

Pupils are very well cared for and they recognise and value this. The staff work hard to develop the distinctive caring ethos of the school, which creates a very positive environment for the pupils both in terms of their learning and their social and emotional development. Parents also appreciate this and, in turn, offer good support to the school. Arrangements for dealing with child protection issues are good. The school works well with a range of external agencies and provides very good support for all pupils especially those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and those in need of extra support. Pupils’ concerns are taken seriously and acted upon. A recent concern raised by the school council resulted in the production of child generated guidelines for staff on how to deal with pupil concerns. There is no evidence of bullying. Older pupils take responsibility for looking after younger children and carry out their

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Grade: 3

responsibilities with great care. The care and support provided for and by pupils are a strength of the school. However, pupils are not as well guided as they should be with regard to their academic progress. As the new target setting procedures are not yet well established, pupils are not sufficiently involved in taking responsibility for their own learning. They are not yet secure and enthusiastic about owning their own targets and there are too few opportunities for them to assess their own progress. Marking does not give enough detail to help pupils improve their work. It too often describes what they have done rather than analyses what they should do. There is too little information for pupils on next steps in order to meet their targets and too little information for staff to allow them to plan, in detail, for the learning needs of individuals.

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Grade: 2

The school has a very collaborative approach to its leadership and management. This has been intensified recently as a result of unavoidable absences in the senior 4 Inspection Report: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005 management team, which has meant that most staff have taken on additional responsibilities. Overall, this approach has worked well. The staff are highly committed, have a very strong team spirit and work very closely together to analyse any areas for improvement and develop solutions. The school evaluates many areas of its work very well, and has taken action to improve identified subject areas. Subject leaders are very effective and have the capacity to bring about further improvements in teaching and learning. However, the distinctively ‘family’ atmosphere has the disadvantage that staff have tended to overestimate their colleagues’ performance when monitoring the quality of

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Grade: 2

their teaching. Monitoring by the headteacher has not been sufficiently rigorous. Some areas of the school’s practice, such as assessment, are insufficiently developed and do not reflect current good practice in the wider world of education. The school has a good system for termly and annual assessment and has developed an ICT based system for analysing pupils’ attainment and to assist in target setting. However, this is as yet in the very early stages of implementation and the results of this are not yet evident. The governing body is extremely committed, and manages an effective balance between challenge and support. The school is well placed to continue to improve. 5 Inspection Report: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005 .

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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: Coquet Park First School, 28 November 2005 to 29 November 2005

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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 2 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 1 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 2 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 2 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 3 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 2 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 NA 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

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0207 421 6800 F 0207 421 6707 www.ofsted.gov.uk The Links Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear NE26 1TQ 30 November 2005 Dear Children Thank you very much for welcoming us into your school. We really enjoyed talking to you and looking at your work. Here are the things that we liked best about your school How well the teachers and other staff care for you and what a friendly feeling there is in your school. What good relationships you have with each other and with the adults in your school. How excellently you all behave in your lessons, around the school and in the playground. The way that you keep healthy by eating sensible food and taking lots of exercise. The way that you are involved in helping run your school through the School Council. How hard you work and what good results you get. What we have asked Mr Lovell and all the teachers to do now For Mr Lovell and other teachers to come into your classes to look carefully at how well teachers

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

are teaching and you are learning. To mark your work so that you know what you need to do to improve your work the next time. Please thank your parents for us, for sending back so many of the questionnaires. They were all very happy with school. Best wishes Andrea Lyons HMI, Christine Graham HMI Lead inspector and team inspector

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