Landywood Primary School

Inspection Report Landywood Primary School

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124190 Unique Reference Number Staffordshire LEA 281654 Inspection number 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 Inspection dates Doris Bell AI Reporting inspector

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

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Holly Lane School address Primary Type of school Landywood Great Wyrley Community School category Walsall, West Midlands WS6 6AQ 3 to 11 Age range of pupils

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01922 857020 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01922 857021 Fax number 372 Number on roll Mrs Pam Renhard Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Alan Stockley Headteacher 6 December 1999 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 281654 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

This large primary school serves an area of mixed housing with some social and economic disadvantages. Children start school with underdeveloped skills. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities is average. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average but there are a number of pupils from traveller families. Part of the school was destroyed by fire during the week of the national tests in 2005, resulting in the loss of a significant amount of resources and records. The school has the Investor in People Award and an International Schools Award.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Landywood Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006

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Grade: 4

In accordance with section 13 (3) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than in all the circumstances it could be reasonably expected to perform. The school is therefore given a Notice to Improve. Significant improvement is required in relation to reading and writing in Key Stage 1. Although there are signs of improvement, this school is not as effective as it could be because achievement and standards in Years 1 and 2 are too low. The school successfully improved pupils’ achievement and standards in Year 6 in 2005 and they are satisfactory in that year group. However, the results of the national tests for 7 year olds remain a concern. While standards in mathematics improved, those in reading and writing continued to decline in 2005, reaching the point where they were

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Grade: 4

exceptionally low. Standards and the quality of provision are satisfactory in the Foundation Stage and all pupils are well cared for. However, inconsistencies in marking and in the way teachers use assessment information mean that pupils do not always do as well as they could. The quality of teaching is satisfactory overall but significant weaknesses exist in Years 1 and 2 which have a negative impact on pupils’ progress. Leadership and management are satisfactory. However, the pace of improvement at Key Stage 1 has been too slow. The school recognises the seriousness of this situation. However, its own evaluation has not been sufficiently effective to secure the improvements needed in this age group. Currently, it is providing unsatisfactory value for money. The improved performance secured in Key Stage 2 indicates that the school has the capacity to improve.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Raise standards in reading and writing in Key Stage 1 by establishing consistency in teaching and learning and building on what the pupils have already learned in the Foundation Stage. • Throughout the school, accelerate the rate of pupils’ learning by establishing consistency in marking and in the way teachers use assessment information to help their planning and target setting. • Check the quality of teaching and learning rigorously and ensure that all monitoring and evaluation activities are strongly focused on improving pupils’ achievement and raising standards.

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Grade: 4

Although standards and achievement are satisfactory in the Foundation Stage and in Years 3 to 6, overall they are inadequate because of the exceptionally low standards and insufficient achievement in Years 1 and 2. Pupils with learning difficulties and 2 Inspection Report: Landywood Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 disabilities, pupils from traveller families and other vulnerable pupils make satisfactory progress towards their targets because of effective support. In Year 6, the school exceeded its targets and successfully raised standards in English in 2005. This represents a significant improvement on the previous two years. Pupils took the mathematics tests in the week after the fire. The results show that standards, as in science, showed some improvement on the previous year. In Year 2, standards in mathematics rose in 2005. However, standards in reading and writing were exceptionally low. Pupils’ progress is too slow in Years 1 and 2 because of variations

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Grade: 4

in the quality of teaching. The school recognised the issues and in October 2005, as part of its improvement plans, became involved in an Intensive Support Programme aimed at raising standards in literacy in this age group. It is too early to assess the impact of this work. It is clear, however, that the inconsistencies in teaching have not yet been eliminated.

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Grade: 3

The pupils personal development is satisfactory. Attendance is close to the national average; attitudes to learning and behaviour are satisfactory. Similarly the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is satisfactory overall, although social and moral development is good and the school is a harmonious community. The school places its emphasis on these aspects in its judgement of this area as good. However, while pupils understand that life in other cultures is different from theirs, their understanding of the diversity of culture in British society is more limited. During circle time, pupils readily discuss issues that affect them, secure in the knowledge that they and their views are valued. Members of the school council talk with pride about how their work contributes to the life of the school. Pupils respect each other, they know that their behaviour has an impact on their learning and they appreciate what the school does to foster good behaviour.

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Grade: 3

Nevertheless, some unacceptable behaviour does disrupt learning in some classes, especially in Year 6. Pupils understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and are adequately prepared for life beyond school. They say that they enjoy school and feel safe there. The pupils contribute to the school community and use their initiative to collect for charity.

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Grade: 3

The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory overall, but varies significantly throughout the school. This is one of the major issues affecting achievement and hindering progress in Years 1 and 2. Sound assessment procedures ensure that pupils’ progress is adequately tracked. However, the information is not always used consistently well in planning. For example, children reach satisfactory standards in the Foundation 3 Inspection Report: Landywood Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006 Stage but teachers do not build on this to ensure the pupils’ continuous progress through Years 1 and 2. Pupils throughout the school have targets for literacy and numeracy. However, few could recall clearly what their numeracy targets were, what their literacy targets meant or how they would know when they had achieved them. Teachers’ marking does not always help them to do this. Nevertheless, there are some

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Grade: 3

examples of good marking in at least one class in most year groups. Where this occurs, it is also evident that the information is used properly in planning. Pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities, and those from traveller families are well supported by teaching assistants and external agencies. However, apart from these groups, work is not often enough matched to the needs of individual pupils. The school is successfully improving teachers’ understanding of National Curriculum levels but this work is not yet far enough advanced to ensure that all pupils make continuous progress at all times. Teachers are working very hard and they are successfully improving the progress of pupils in danger of underachieving. In doing so, however, they are sometimes missing lower attaining pupils who do not have identified learning difficulties. Some good embryonic work is beginning to address the learning needs of more able pupils.

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Grade: 3

Although satisfactory, the curriculum relies heavily on nationally recommended schemes of work and is not always adapted well enough to the needs of the pupils in this school. The curriculum for the Foundation Stage is satisfactory except in relation to the provision for children to play and learn outdoors which is inadequate. The school’s good links with overseas schools are successfully integrated into the curriculum. The good range of extra-curricular activities include opportunities to learn French and Italian in Year 6, and residential visits in this country and abroad help to enrich and enhance the pupils’ learning and personal development.

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Grade: 3

Within the overall satisfactory provision, pupils work and play in a safe, harmonious community, where they are well-known and well cared for. Child protection procedures are secure and all health and safety procedures are in place, including for school visits. The school’s good attention to health and safety matters helped it to deal effectively with the aftermath of the fire. Several parents praised the school for this in their overwhelmingly positive responses to the inspection questionnaire. Parents are kept well informed, including through the school’s well constructed website. The teachers’ inconsistent use of assessment information, however, means that the academic guidance given to the pupils is not as effective as it could be. 4 Inspection Report: Landywood Primary School, 7 March 2006 to 8 March 2006

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Grade: 3

The headteacher, senior managers and governors now carry out their roles and responsibilities satisfactorily. Their sound leadership has resulted in satisfactory improvement in the key issues identified at the last inspection, and in the recent improvement evident since 2005. The school shows it has the capacity to improve but must do so more quickly, especially with regard to Years 1 and 2. The school’s evaluation has recently become more realistic but remains unsatisfactory. It sensibly reviewed the judgements made in September that some aspects of its work were good. Those evaluations had been too heavily based on how well the leadership team had helped the school to recover after the fire. Now, acutely aware of the need for urgent improvement in key areas, the headteacher and most senior managers are providing satisfactory leadership in bringing this about. They regularly check teaching and learning and provide teachers with areas for improvement. However, the monitoring

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Grade: 3

is often too general instead of being rigorously focused on raising achievement and standards. Overall, the systems are still not robust enough, especially in relation to Years 1 and 2. The school development plan accurately identifies the areas in which the school needs to improve. However, it is limited in its usefulness as a tool for improvement because it does not identify how priorities are to be achieved or progress towards them measured. In addition, staff training is not always well enough linked to the priorities. This is preventing the improvement, to which the school is clearly committed. Governors are very supportive of the school, they do ask questions about standards and have become involved in assessing literacy. However, these challenges have been slow in coming as have the actions necessary to accelerate the pace of improvement in Years 1 and 2. Despite some frustration at still having to work in several mobile classrooms, morale

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Grade: 3

remains high. The school makes the best use of its remaining accommodation and has replaced the learning resources lost in the fire. 5 Inspection Report: Landywood 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: Landywood 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 3 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA 3 The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 4 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 4 How well do learners achieve? NA 4 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 4 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 3 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 3 The behaviour of learners NA 3 The attendance of learners NA 3 How well learners enjoy their education NA 3 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 3 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 3 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 3 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 3 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 4 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 4 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

Thank you very much for welcoming us to your school and sharing with us your views of it and of how you learn. You told us that you enjoy school, especially when your lessons are interesting. We found that there are some good things about your school, but that it has some important areas that we have asked your headteacher, staff and governors to improve very quickly so that you can all learn better. We liked these things most of all: You are generally well behaved and most of you are polite and respectful of each other and of adults. You are clearly proud of your school and are eager to become involved, for example, as school councillors. You are well cared for. You know that staff listen to your concerns and want to help you, and you are willing to help each other. These are the things we have asked your school to work on now: Help those of you who are in Years 1 and 2 to do much better in reading and writing, just as

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

you have been helped to do better in mathematics. Make sure that your work is marked in a way that will help you to see how to improve and understand what your targets mean. Keep a much closer check on how well your teachers teach and plan your lessons in order to make sure that you always make the best possible progress. We hope you will all achieve much more as a result of the school making these improvements and that you will continue to enjoy learning throughout your lives.

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