Cooper Perry Primary School

Inspection Report Cooper Perry Primary School

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124195 Unique Reference Number Staffordshire LEA 281656 Inspection number 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005 Inspection dates Susan Morris-King HMI Reporting inspector

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

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Seighford School address Primary Type of school Stafford Community School category Staffordshire ST18 9PQ 3 to 11 Age range of pupils 01785 282210 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01785 282916 Fax number 208 Number on roll Mr B Brown Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Steve Hall Headteacher 8 November 1999 Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 281656 21 September 2005 - 3 to 11 22 September 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 (HMI).

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Description of the school

Cooper Perry Primary School serves a semi-rural area several miles outside Stafford. Almost all of the pupils are White British; a few pupils come from minority ethnic backgrounds. The pupils come to the school from the local community and from up to eight miles away. Very few of the pupils are eligible for free school meals. There are no pupils who speak English as an additional language. The school has a below average number of pupils who have learning difficulties and disabilities. In 2001 the school was rebuilt as part of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The new accommodation has been sensitively added to the old school buildings, providing the school with some excellent purpose built accommodation. Four new teachers joined the school in September 2005, three of whom are newly qualified.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005

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Grade: 2

The school judges itself to be a good school with some outstanding features and the inspection team agrees. This is a school that knows itself well and is keen to improve from this good baseline. The headteacher’s leadership is outstanding. The teamwork ethos of the school is tangible. The school achieves consistently high standards in the core curriculum at Key Stage 1 and above average standards at Key Stage 2, and the pupils make good progress. In the Foundation Stage the children make sound progress, but this could be better. The way in which the school develops the pupils’ personal and social skills is exceptionally effective. The school’s view is that teaching is good: this is borne out by inspection evidence, by parents’ and pupils’ comments and by the school’s results. Assessment has been improved in Key Stages 1 and 2, but more work is needed to use this information to develop the target setting process. The pupils’

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Grade: 2

attitudes to learning are very good. The school has particularly good links with the supportive parental community; parents’ views are regularly sought and acted upon. The curriculum is extended and enriched by exciting and motivating activities. The school is particularly proud of the links it has developed with schools abroad and with businesses. The inspection team agrees that this is a very special feature of the school which adds enormous value to the pupils’ learning. The pupils, staff, parents and governors are proud of their school, and rightly so. The school provides good value for money, and has a very good capacity to improve further.

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What the school should do to improve further

• develop further the Foundation Stage to include more opportunities for learning outdoors and more precision in assessing and tracking children’s learning • ensure that marking and target setting consistently help the pupils to know what they have to learn next.

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Grade: 2

Achievement and standards at Cooper Perry Primary School are good. The pupils come into the nursery well prepared and ready to learn and their attainment is better than expected. They make sound progress through nursery and reception and when they enter Year 1 have standards which are higher than many five year olds. By the end of Key Stage 1, the pupils consistently reach standards which are well above the national average. Results in reading and writing have been better than those in mathematics. The school generally attains better results than the national average in the Key Stage 2 tests. English results have been above the national average since 2001. In mathematics, the results have been more variable, and in science, they have been in line with the national average. The school has thought carefully about why the mathematics and science results have not been as good as those in English and has

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Grade: 2

made a number of improvements over the last year to the way these subjects are 2 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005 taught. This has had a clear impact on the 2005 results, when science and mathematics results rose to become more in line with those in English. The pupils usually make at least satisfactory and often good progress between Key Stages 1 and 2 and this was again the case with the Year 6 pupils in 2005. In 2004, the pupils made especially good progress in English.

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Grade: 1

The personal development of pupils is outstanding. A very distinctive feature of the school is the emphasis that it gives to promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to complement their academic achievement. The pupils take on responsibilities willingly and understand that each of them has individual strengths and weaknesses which should be both celebrated and respected. The older pupils enjoy and learn from the opportunities they have to help the younger children in school. The pupils know that they are fortunate in many ways and raise money for children in other parts of the world who are less privileged. They are also very keen to make a contribution to their local community. The school is tireless in its efforts to enable pupils to make a difference through such endeavours as environmental awareness and advice to the elderly about bogus callers. The pupils therefore acquire important life

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Grade: 1

skills which enable them to grow as individuals with a strong sense of moral and social responsibility. The pupils enjoy coming to school and attendance is very good. They are polite, friendly, open and honest. Behaviour in and around the school is excellent. The pupils play together harmoniously and any minor incidents of mischief are dealt with effectively. They are fully aware of the school’s secure procedures to eliminate bullying. Even the younger pupils understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and know that making good food choices and taking regular exercise are important. The older pupils are aware of the dangers of smoking and have an appropriate understanding of other health issues. An exceptional feature of Cooper Perry is the emphasis placed on the broadening of the pupils’ understanding of the wider world. The range of links with businesses and the international dimension of the school’s curriculum are outstanding. Links with

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Grade: 1

other schools within and beyond Europe help the pupils to appreciate other cultures and have resulted in the school being presented with a prestigious award from the British Council. Parents appreciate the experiences that their children have from visits abroad, for example one described the recent visit as a ‘character building exercise’ and another remarked that ‘the visit could not be improved’. 3 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005

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Grade: 2

Teaching is good. The school has an open-minded approach to continually improving all aspects of its work. Observing each other has helped the staff to develop particular aspects of their teaching. Science teaching, for example, has improved after teachers observed each other teach and decided with the subject leader that more practical work was needed. Lessons are carefully planned and meet the pupils’ needs well. Pupils described their lessons as ‘nicely challenging’, but stressed that if they do not understand an aspect of their work the teachers and teaching assistants ‘explain it in lots of other ways’ until it is clear. This view fits with what the inspection team observed in lessons. The school has thought carefully about the skills it wants the pupils to develop over the course of their time at school and has introduced interesting and exciting ways to help the pupils to learn. As a result, the pupils are very well motivated.

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Grade: 2

The school’s approach to learning particularly emphasises the need to be resilient; this contributes well to the pupils’ personal and social development. A group of parents is closely involved in developing approaches to learning which ensure that the pupils are helped even further in their learning at home. In Key Stages 1 and 2 the school tracks the pupils’ progress very thoroughly. In Key Stage 2 in particular the pupils are set challenging targets and any issues about progress are quickly noticed and put right. The children in the Foundation Stage are assessed at times, but more work is needed to ensure that national guidance is implemented. Marking across the school is variable: the best marking gives the pupils a clear indication of how to improve, but sometimes the marking is not detailed enough.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good overall and the enrichment activities are outstanding. The curriculum in the Foundation Stage is satisfactory, with some good elements particularly in personal and social development. For example, the pupils in the nursery have a teddy to look after during the summer holiday and bring back when they return to the reception class. However, more attention needs to be paid to developing the outdoor curriculum to improve the younger pupils’ learning. A distinctive feature of the curriculum is that all the pupils in Key Stage 2 study French as part of their timetable and younger pupils can learn French after school. The school has used Primary National Strategy guidance well. Significant aspects of the curriculum are creative and innovative. The radio broadcasts, for example, provide an excellent way for the pupils to learn how to structure a script, how to speak well and how to manage a production. Education and business links are well integrated

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Grade: 2

into the curriculum. A particular strength of the school is the use of information and communication technology (ICT). The pupils have the opportunity to take part in some highly sophisticated work, such as the animation project. The school’s work in ICT has 4 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005 received national recognition. The range and quality of activities and events outside the classroom are superb. The pupils can choose to play sport, take part in music and improve their environment. International links, such as the Harmony Project, are very well used to extend the curriculum and to enrich the pupils’ learning.

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Grade: 2

The care, guidance and support for pupils are good; they are central to the school’s ethos. The pupils feel cared for and talk enthusiastically about the ways in which the school makes them feel safe. Parents hold very positive views about the school’s welfare arrangements and record comments such as, ‘the staff are approachable and deal with problems and concerns quickly’. The school has good links with a range of professionals to support children who need specialist assistance: this helps the pupils to make good academic progress and grow in personal confidence. The older pupils are involved in setting their learning targets and they know what they have to learn next in order to achieve them. A start has been made to help younger children understand what they have to learn next, but this process is not yet secure. Pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities are involved in the reviews of their needs and

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Grade: 2

there is suitable consultation with parents about how their children are progressing. The school has effective procedures in place to promote smooth transition from one key stage to the next and is developing good links with secondary schools to ease transfer into the next phase of education. One parent commented that the principles and values acquired at the school helped her daughter to have a ‘fabulous first year at senior school’. There are sound procedures in place to provide a safe and healthy environment in which children can work and play.

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Grade: 1

The headteacher is determined to give all of the pupils at Cooper Perry a rich and exciting school experience, and he is very successful in doing so. His approach to leading is motivational. He is keen to exploit the leadership potential of all the staff and gives them appropriate responsibilities to which they respond very well. Although he knows that the school is successful the headteacher constantly thinks about what needs to be changed to improve it further, and challenges the staff to do the same. The school welcomed this inspection and worked in an exceptionally open way with inspectors. The headteacher’s knowledge of the school is based on very secure systems of monitoring and evaluation. The staff who have leadership responsibilities have an analytical approach to improvement. Highly effective leadership of English has had a clear impact on standards over a number of years. The much newer leaders of

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Grade: 1

mathematics and science have a secure understanding of what actions are needed to raise standards further at Key Stage 2 and have made good decisions which have already led to improvements. The system to track the pupils’ progress has been improved and is very rigorous. The house system is innovative and is one indicator of 5 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005 the emphasis that the school places on developing the pupils’ personal, social and emotional skills, with outstanding effect. The senior leadership team has managed the considerable recent changes to the school’s staffing very well indeed. There is a very good system of induction and mentoring of newly qualified teachers, the impact of which can be seen in the classroom. The governing body is fully involved in the school. Governors make a particularly good contribution through their links with curriculum

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Grade: 1

areas. The chair of the governing body is both supportive and challenging. 6 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005 .

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Grade: 1

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 Inspection Report: Cooper Perry Primary School, 21 September 2005 to 22 September 2005

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Inspection judgements

16-19 School Overall Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

NA 2 How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? NA 1 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 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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Personal development and well-being

NA 1 How good is the overall personal development and well-being of the 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 2 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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The quality of provision

NA 2 How effective are teaching and learning in meeting the full range of the learners' needs? NA 2 How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners? NA 2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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The quality of provision

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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Leadership and management

NA 1 How effective are leadership and management in raising achievement 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 2 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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Leadership and management

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 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 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

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Leadership and management

wider community 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

I am writing to thank you all for your help when we inspected your school and to tell you what we found out from our two days in Cooper Perry. The first thing that struck us was the way that everyone in the school made us feel so welcome. We enjoyed listening to your views and agree that you have a really good school. The special features that we will remember about your school are: the way that you behave very well and enjoy coming to school the wonderful opportunities that you get, particularly as you get older, to make a contribution to your community the exciting links that you have with local businesses the wide range of interesting topics you learn about how the links you have with schools abroad help you to appreciate different ways of life the way that your teachers care for you and help you and, in turn, how this helps you all to know that caring for each other is very important the way that you care for the equipment you have and the impressive use you make of it,

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

particularly in information and communication technology that you trust your teachers and can go to them readily if you are worried about anything the hard work that your teachers put into creating lovely classrooms and planning work that helps you all to learn and make good progress. your headteacher works especially hard and he really cares for you all as individuals and is very proud of you. We think you have a very exciting school and you should be very pleased with all that you have achieved. We have asked the teachers and governors to continue their good work to make the school even better and have suggested that: the children in nursery and the reception class have more exciting things to play with outdoors and that the teachers write down when the you have learned something well when you have done a piece of work we have asked your teachers to write in your books how you could make it even better.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

We hope that you all get on well in the year to come and wish you the best for your future.

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