St George's Church of England Primary School

Inspection Report St George's Church of England Primary School

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123527 Unique Reference Number Telford and Wrekin LEA 281498 Inspection number 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 Inspection dates David Carrington AI Reporting inspector

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

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London Road School address Primary Type of school Telford Voluntary controlled School category Shropshire TF2 9LJ 3 to 11 Age range of pupils 01952 613577 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01952 401292 Fax number 507 Number on roll Rev Peter Lawley Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Shaun Tyas Headteacher 6 November 2000 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 281498 7 March 2006 - 3 to 11 8 March 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

St George’s CE is bigger than most primary schools. Its pupils are nearly all from White British families who live in an older, established area of Telford new town. A large number of pupils come from families affected by economic and social deprivation. Many more pupils than is usual are entitled to free school meals. About a quarter of the pupils have learning difficulties. When children start in the nursery they have below-average levels of skills and knowledge. There have been some key changes to staffing in recent months.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: St George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006

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Grade: 2

St George’s CE Primary is a good school where pupils now progress well and achieve above-average standards. There is a very clear focus on improvement and high expectations are evident amongst all staff. The school is led well, with particularly strong leadership from the headteacher. School leaders and the governors have an accurate understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, which is borne out by the judgements made by inspectors. The personal development of pupils is good and the school provides good quality care and guidance to enable all pupils to learn effectively. Overall provision and progress in the Foundation Stage is good, though the work is not as well focused on children’s needs in the Nursery as it is in Reception. In other parts of the school, teaching is now effective and the curriculum supports pupils’ all-round development well. The quality of target setting and checking is good but

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Grade: 2

marking is not always effective and pupils are not given sufficient opportunities to evaluate their own work. The school has made good improvements since its previous inspection. These have impacted well on pupils’ learning. Past weaknesses in teaching have been eliminated fully. The school gives good value for money and has the capacity to continue to improve.

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What the school should do to improve further

•Improve progress in the Foundation Stage by ensuring that lessons in the Nursery are geared more to the age and interest level of the children. •Ensure that through consistently effective marking and time set aside in lessons, pupils have better opportunities to evaluate their own work.

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Grade: 2

In recent years, standards at the end of Year 6 fell. However, they have now risen again and are above average. The school has made important changes and improvements to teaching and learning in Years 3 to 6, which are showing through in the good progress made by pupils in these years. The ability setting of pupils in Years 4 to 6 is successful in ensuring that pupils in all groups build knowledge and skills successfully in English and mathematics. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 also make good progress. This applies to the mixed-age Year 1/2 class as well as the single-age classes. Learning is well focused on the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, which ensures that a firm platform is built for future work. More able pupils are given work that extends and challenges them well. Expectations are good throughout the school, and this leads to an accurate match of work to pupils’ needs. Pupils with learning difficulties benefit from their well-tailored work and they

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Grade: 2

too make good progress. 2 Inspection Report: St George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 Generally, children make good progress in the Foundation Stage. However, progress is stronger in Reception than in the Nursery. Over the two years in the Foundation Stage, standards improve well from the below-average base level and are broadly average by the end of Reception.

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Grade: 2

Pupils enjoy coming to school, their attendance is satisfactory and they are keen to learn. The views of pupils who have emotional or behavioural difficulties are included extremely well in planning for school improvement. For example, they have influenced how awards to pupils are presented during assemblies, and have raised pupils’ and teachers’ awareness of the importance of mutual respect between everyone in school. As one said, ‘I now have joy for learning’. Pupils’ behaviour is good; they are clearly anxious to show their school in a good light. Bullying incidents are rare and older pupils say that if they do occur they ‘always get sorted out.’ Older pupils show maturity and are keen to take on additional responsibilities, such as helping to serve other pupils at lunchtime. Pupils adopt healthy lifestyles and play energetically. They take part in at least two hours of physical education each week plus a wide range of after-school sporting activities, including

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Grade: 2

a strong focus on cross-country running. Pupils make a good contribution to the local community, particularly in partnership with the church and in providing music for special events. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Pupils raise funds for a range of charities and their work in music and drama promotes their spiritual development well. Pupils’ basic skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT, their understanding of how to negotiate change, and their involvement in fundraising events equip them well for their future life.

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is now good. Recent improvements have resulted in many pupils showing renewed enthusiasm for their learning. The most effective teaching is in Year 6, though there are strengths in all parts of the school. There are some older pupils, especially in Year 5, who find concentration and listening difficult. However, their behaviour is managed well by teachers and teaching assistants. As a result, this rarely affects the learning of other pupils in the class. In Reception, provision is successfully focused on the children’s stage of development and teaching quality is good. However in the Nursery, learning is sometimes too formal for the social and emotional needs of the children. 3 Inspection Report: St George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 Teachers do not always provide good opportunities for pupils to review their own learning. Also, marking does not give them enough information about how well they

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Grade: 2

are achieving their targets. In other respects, on-going assessment is effective in tracking pupils’ rates of learning and teachers use this information well to match work to prior attainment.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good, and enables pupils to study a broad and interesting range of subjects. The provision for ICT has improved since the previous inspection. Good links are made between subjects when appropriate, and there is good development of English and mathematics skills in other subjects. In Reception there is a good balance between independent learning and more directed tasks. However, the curriculum in the nursery is satisfactory, because on occasions the children have to sit and listen to adults for too long. Learning difficulties are identified well, and pupils are provided with a good range of relevant and interesting work. There is a strong emphasis through the school on developing pupils’ personal and social skills. The curriculum makes a good contribution to pupils’ safe and healthy lifestyles. There is also an exceptional range of educational outings and after-school activities, which

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Grade: 2

Good child protection and health and safety systems promote pupils’ well-being effectively. Pupils appreciate that the school needs rules to keep them safe and they follow these well. Good links exist with parents and outside agencies, particularly in providing additional support for pupils with learning difficulties. These pupils are supported well, ensuring their good progress. Good relationships exist between pupils and staff and the large number of school clubs, particularly in sports, shows the high level of commitment of staff to the pupils. Academic and personal development of pupils, including those with learning difficulties, is tracked well. The information gained is used effectively to support pupils’ learning, although teachers’ marking is not precise enough.

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Grade: 2

Good leadership and management ensure that pupils receive an effective education and achieve well. The headteacher leads with enthusiasm and skill, and is supported effectively by members of the senior leadership team. There is good communication and strong teamwork, together with a clear and shared focus on improvement. Senior leaders have a thorough understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They identified recently that some aspects of teaching were not good enough, and 4 Inspection Report: St George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 that urgent measures were needed to improve pupils’ progress in Years 3 to 6. Very effective action was taken, with the result that these issues were addressed successfully. Teaching is now good in all years from 3 to 6, and pupils are achieving well. The work of the governing body is good. They are well informed about the school’s

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Grade: 2

work, and they have contributed strongly to recent improvements. They are regular visitors to the school, and they are active in monitoring the curriculum, the financial position and the overall progress of the school development plan. They are very supportive of the school, but also readily ask critical questions whenever the need arises. School leaders have built strong links with a range of organisations such as pre-school bodies, the church and local community groups. These provide positive experiences for pupils and are valued by parents. The school also regularly seeks the views of parents, and these are taken fully into account during policy reviews. The positive impact of past improvement coupled with the clear identification of future priorities in the school development plan demonstrates that the school has good capacity to continue its current pace of improvement. 5 Inspection Report: St George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 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 George's Church of England Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 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 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 2 The behaviour of learners NA 3 The attendance of learners NA 2 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 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 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 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 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 the warm welcome that you gave us when we visited your school recently. It was good to meet with you and to listen to your views of the school. We were impressed with the sensible way in which you talked and the careful thought that you had given to what you were saying. We think that there are a lot of good things in school. Most importantly we have written in our report that •You are well behaved and get on well with other pupils and with the adults in school and you work hard. •You learn new things quickly and do well in your tests. •You are taught well and staff make sure that your work is hard enough. •You do well in sports and games and you enjoy the many clubs and visits provided. •You are looked after well and kept safe and healthy. •Your headteacher wants you to do well and he makes sure that the other adults work successfully to help you reach your targets. There are two things that the school can improve further

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

•Children in the nursery could be given more chances to learn when playing. •You could all have more opportunities in lessons and through your marked work to find out about how well you are reaching your targets. You can help the school make these improvements by talking with your teachers about your targets and by continuing to work hard. Our report will be sent to your homes soon. Some of you might like to read it as we have written about many other good things in the school. There is a line about cross- country running. Why is this healthy?

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