Goodly Dale Primary School

Inspection Report Goodly Dale Primary School

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112191 Unique Reference Number Cumbria LEA 278875 Inspection number 6 July 2006 to 7 July 2006 Inspection dates Mr Alastair Younger Reporting inspector

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

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Lake Road School address Primary Type of school Windermere Community School category Cumbria, LA23 2JX 3 to 11 Age range of pupils 01539 462482 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01539 462483 Fax number 85 Number on roll Mrs Dyan Jones Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Penny Henderson Headteacher 1 December 1999 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 278875 6 July 2006 - 3 to 11 7 July 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 an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

This is a smaller than average school. It draws from an area with a wide range of social and economic circumstances. Employment is high in the area but often low paid, with many parents working in the tourist trade. Attainment on entry varies hugely but is broadly average for those children starting in the Foundation Stage. Although actual numbers are small, overall inward mobility is above the national average and increases in Key Stage 2. An important feature of the school is its work with pupils who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Many of these join the school after starting their education in other schools. Over 8% of pupils have statements of special educational need. This is a statistic shared by less than 2% of all primary schools nationally. This contributes to an overall lowering of attainment on entry. There are no looked after children and very few from minority ethnic families. There are no pupils

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Description of the school

who speak English as an additional language. The school has just become one of the first in the county to be awarded the Cumbria Chartermark for Inclusion. It has Investors in People status, received Artsmark recognition in 2005 and Activemark Gold for sport in 2002 and 2005.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 2006

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Grade: 2

This is a good school. It is giving good value for money. This matches its own view. Parents are happy with the school and feel that their children are making good progress. Children in the Foundation Stage make good progress. Reception children share a class with Year 1 pupils. This allows higher achieving pupils to gain early experiences of National Curriculum work and gives lower achieving ones a little longer to meet goals at the start of Year 1. Good progress continues throughout the school because teaching is good and pupils are working hard and enjoying learning. Staff are particularly skilled in helping pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and many of these make outstanding progress. Occasionally, more able pupils are not given hard enough work. Standards are broadly average. Last year’s leavers met with outstanding success but results this year will be lower, mainly because over a third of

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Grade: 2

the pupils have a greater than average degree of learning difficulty and/or disability. Outstanding relationships with many other schools and organisations open up a huge range of opportunities for pupils and staff and contribute to the good curriculum. Excellent care, support and guidance are underpinned by precise monitoring of pupils’ progress and contribute enormously to their exceptional personal development and well-being. Leadership and management are good overall and the school has a good capacity to keep improving. Many governors are relatively inexperienced and the governing body has had several different chairpersons in recent years. It is supportive of the school but does not do enough to find out for itself what life in school is like for staff and pupils.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Ensure that higher attaining pupils in Key Stage 2 are suitably challenged in all lessons with a view to helping more of them do well for their age. • Involve the governing body more in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the school.

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Grade: 2

Achievement is good and standards are broadly average. In the Foundation Stage, children make good progress and many attain the goals that are set nationally for their attainment. Good progress continues through Key Stage 1 and the pupils reach above average standards. In Key Stage 1, results over the past three years have shown improvements greater than the national average. Standards, shown by the results of national tests for 11-year-olds, have fluctuated enormously over the past few years. This is mainly because year groups are small and many pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities join the school part way through their education, most commonly in Year 3 after Key Stage 1 assessments have shown them not to be thriving in other schools. These and the large majority of other pupils make very good progress, achieve well and attain the standards expected 2 Inspection Report: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 2006

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Grade: 2

nationally. The fact that last year three pupils who had statements of special educational need reached the expected level for their age in English exemplifies the school’s success in helping pupils to achieve well. A very small number of pupils, however, who did really well as seven-year-olds do not do as well as they should by the end of Key Stage 2. This is the group who are not sufficiently challenged. Nonetheless, the school comfortably exceeded its targets in 2005 in English, mathematics and science.

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Grade: 1

Pupils’ personal development and well-being, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, are outstanding. Pupils look forward to coming to school and thoroughly enjoy lessons. As a result, attendance is outstanding. Behaviour is outstanding in and out of the classroom. There have been no exclusions in recent years. The virtual absence of anti-social behaviour contributes greatly to pupils staying safe and happy. Pupils are polite and friendly to each other, to visitors and to staff. Pupils often work in small groups with a high degree of independence. This contributes enormously to their future well-being by helping them to develop outstanding personal and social skills and a sense of responsibility. Spirituality is well promoted through sincere celebration and frequent opportunities for reflection. A close link with a school in India and residential visits to inner city Bradford are just two of many successful

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Grade: 1

initiatives to promote multicultural understanding. Healthy lifestyles are strongly promoted. Sports clubs and professional coaching in cricket and football are very popular. Many parents are cooperating in encouraging their children to walk or cycle to school and in providing healthy packed lunches. Pupils’ involvement in the community is good. The school council flourishes and pupils’ views are listened to, resulting for instance, in recent refurbishment of the junior toilets.

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Grade: 2

Teaching and learning are good. In the Reception and Year 1, planning for lessons is strong. It contributes well to ensuring that pupils experience a good mix of learning experiences well matched to their individual needs. In other classes, planning tends to be more cursory and, in a few lessons, this leads to work not being varied enough to ensure that all pupils are equally challenged whilst being able to work with similar degrees of independence. Lower attaining pupils receive skilled and very effective support and learn well. The highest attaining pupils, a few identified as being gifted and talented, also learn well, helped by teachers’ good subject knowledge and a wide range of classroom activities which encourage and reward initiative. In between there is a group of broadly average or higher attaining pupils. It is the higher attaining pupils in this group who are not achieving to their full potential because teachers are not

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Grade: 2

giving them sufficiently challenging work. Teachers have successfully created classroom environments in which pupils nearly always show enthusiasm for learning. A lot of 3 Inspection Report: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 2006 pupil participation is expected throughout lessons and this contributes significantly to pupils’ enjoyment and conduct. The frequent encouragement of small-group work promotes independence and social skills.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good and well enriched. It includes all the subjects that schools have a duty to teach. Pupils have good opportunities to improve their numeracy and literacy skills and the personal, social and health curriculum is strong. This is particularly relevant in a school with so many pupils having learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The inclusion of philosophy, ‘brain gym’ and ‘peer massage’ in the curriculum have been successful initiatives. The curriculum is carefully planned to ensure that no work is repeated unnecessarily in classes which each contain two year groups. The school’s high reputation for its work in art and music has been rewarded with the nationally recognised Artsmark award. The Active Mark Gold award testifies to the school’s strong commitment to promoting sport. Extensive links with other schools and organisations are having a significant impact on the curriculum, for instance by encouraging the

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Grade: 2

sharing of training and expertise with six other schools in a ‘Networked Learning Community’. The Foundation Stage curriculum, criticised by the previous inspection is now good.

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Grade: 1

Pupils benefit from outstanding care, guidance and support. This is underpinned by thorough, accurate assessment and checking of progress which allows teachers to identify changing needs and direct prompt, effective support where it is needed. The one area for improvement is the need to match work more accurately to some higher attaining pupils’ needs in some lessons. The marking of pupils’ work is accurate and helpful. There is a high degree of expertise in providing for pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and this is greatly helping these pupils to achieve so well. This is further helped by close working with other professionals such as education welfare, psychologists and health care workers. Links with a national charity organisation very successfully extend support to families as well as pupils. Parents are extremely supportive and cooperate well with staff to present a united, well informed

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Grade: 1

system of support. Pupils are well protected. Potential risk in new activities is carefully assessed and health and safety checks are rigorous. Pupils say they feel safe and know an adult they can turn to for help if they are worried about anything.

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Grade: 2

Good leadership and management are evident in the improvements that have been made in recent years and ambition for the future. Although the school was judged to be very good by the last inspection it almost immediately fell into crisis. By the time 4 Inspection Report: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 2006 of the current headteacher’s appointment, standards had fallen below the national average and pupils’ absence was very high. Five years on, attendance is well above the national average and last year’s results, from a group whose performance four years earlier was exactly average, put the school in the top 20% of all schools nationally. This has been achieved by thorough analysis and evaluation of aids and barriers to learning and systematic addressing of weaknesses. Pupils’ performance is very carefully monitored and evaluated. The monitoring of teaching is satisfactory but its purpose

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Grade: 2

is often unclear as it tends not to focus on specific issues for improvement. Most parents express considerable confidence in the leadership and management of the school and are very supportive of new initiatives. The governing body is effective. It is highly supportive but members rarely see the school in operation and rely overmuch on information from the headteacher rather than forming their own opinion on the school’s effectiveness. A hiccup in finances last year has quickly been addressed. Staff are well deployed to make best use of their skills and the school is giving good value for money. 5 Inspection Report: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 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: Goodly Dale Primary School, 6 July 2006 to 7 July 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 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 3 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 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 1 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 2 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 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 2 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 3 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

Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0207 421 6800 F 0207 421 6707 Ofsted helpline 08456 404045 To the pupils of: Goodly Dale Primary School Lake Road Windermere Cumbria LA23 2JX 8 July 2006 Dear Pupils It was a privilege to visit your school last week. I took away lots of good memories, first and foremost of which was your friendliness and the welcome you gave me. Thank you. Thanks also to those of you who spared a bit of time chatting to me; it makes my job easier when the people who really matter (yourselves) can tell me what the school is really like. A few of you, for instance, felt your work could be a bit harder. I’ve passed this on to the staff. The teaching I saw was mainly good. You clearly like your teachers, probably because they keep lessons interesting and keep you involved all the time. I’m so glad that subjects other than English, mathematics and science get a good look in on the timetable. Your artwork looked great and

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

I was mightily impressed by how many of you are learning how to play a musical instrument. You probably don’t need me to tell you how well staff look after you. It is impressive how well they know each of you and what help you need. I think this is the key to the good progress you’re making in lessons and the way you are growing up as delightful individuals with a good future. Most of you probably don’t know much about governors. Try to find out a bit about them, I’m hoping they’re going to pop in a bit more often to see how you’re getting on. Good luck for the future Alastair Younger (Lead inspector)

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