Moss Hey Primary SchoolOfsted inspection, 13 Feb 2007

Inspection Report Moss Hey Primary School

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106090 Unique Reference Number Stockport Local Authority 287411 Inspection number 12 °13 February 2007 Inspection dates Robert Robinson Reporting inspector

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

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Eskdale Avenue School address Primary Type of school Bramhall, Stockport Community School category Cheshire SK7 1DS 4 °11 Age range of pupils 0161 4395114 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0161 4390663 Fax number 231 Number on roll (school) Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs H Dawson Headteacher 19 November 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 287411 12 °13 February 2007 4°11 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 is an average sized primary school. Most pupils are of White British background. A unit is attached to the school for up to 10 pupils of Reception to Year 2 age with moderate learning difficulties. These pupils have statements of special educational need to support their learning and often work alongside the other pupils at the school. The socio-economic circumstances of the area are above average. The school has achieved the Artsmark Gold award, Basic Skills Quality Mark, ICT Mark, Investors in People, Naacemark and National Healthy School status.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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Grade: 1

Moss Hey Primary is an outstanding school which has continued to improve since its last inspection. It provides outstanding value for money. A parental comment summed up the view of most as follows: 'Moss Hey has been a fantastic school for my child.' The leadership and management of the school are first-rate. The headteacher's determination over the past decade to continue to provide an exciting curriculum that links different subjects together, with a strong emphasis on pupils' personal development, has resulted in consistently good or better teaching and good academic achievement. Pupils' personal development, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, is outstanding. Parents and governors applaud the way in which the extremely rich curriculum is organised and taught. For example, parents commented: 'All aspects of my children's development are given due attention from reading and

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Grade: 1

writing to healthy eating and to responsible social attitudes.' 'My children learn to care and understand about others.' Pupils respond exceptionally well to the outstanding care, guidance and support they receive. As a result, all groups of pupils make outstanding progress in their personal development and good progress academically. Enjoyment is a key feature of learning. Pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are included exceptionally well in all aspects of the school life. Behaviour from Reception to Year 6 is exemplary as pupils have wonderful attitudes to learning. In Reception (Foundation Stage), children get off to a great start because of good provision. They develop confidence and independence and this leads to good progress in all areas of their learning. This forms a secure basis for their future learning so they continue to make brisk progress for the rest of their time at the school. Consequently,

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Grade: 1

standards by the end of Year 6 are consistently well above average. Good systems are in place to monitor pupils' progress from Reception to Year 6 and are used well to check pupils' progress. Pupils' work is marked well, resulting in their understanding how well they have done and what they must do to improve. Teachers set targets for pupils and track their progress well year-on-year. Although the progress pupils make towards their targets is evaluated annually, the school acknowledges that introducing a system to review targets more frequently would alert teachers more quickly to the need to provide extra support for pupils or to extend them further. There is a strong senior leadership team. Coordinators take full responsibility for pupils' learning and standards in each subject area. The professional development of staff is given a high priority, including that of teaching assistants, and this benefits pupils'

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Grade: 1

learning. Links with other educational establishments are strong, especially with teacher training institutions and other schools. These bring fresh ideas into the school and enhance pupils' curriculum and facilitate transfer from one stage of education to another. Self-evaluation is very effective and contributes very well to the consistent improvements in the school's provision. The school's view that its overall effectiveness is good is rather modest. In fact, it is outstanding because most aspects of the school's 2 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007 work are outstanding and no aspects are less than good. Its proven track record over many years provides the school with exceptional capacity to continue to improve.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Track pupils' progress towards their targets more frequently.

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Grade: 2

Achievement is good. Children enter Reception with broadly average standards. Because of the good provision and imaginative teaching the children make good progress and by the time they enter Year 1 are above average, with particular strengths in personal, social and emotional development. Pupils continue to make good progress in Years 1 to 6 and reach above average standards by the end of Year 6. Most pupils' work shows that standards are above average or higher throughout the school. Pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and those with specific learning difficulties in the unit make good progress because of the effective support they receive. The school usually meets its realistically challenging targets.

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Grade: 1

Pupils take initiative for their own learning and develop high levels of confidence and independence. Several mentioned that this was one of the main reasons why they enjoy school so much. Pupils gain an excellent awareness of how to lead healthy lifestyles, eat healthily and participate in a wide range of sporting activities. They have an excellent awareness of how to make decisions about their own health and safety. The school council is active in securing improvement for the rest of the school: for example, playtime organisation was improved to provide a fairer share of space and equipment. Pupils gain an understanding of rights and responsibilities through links with churches and other organisations. They have a commitment to protect the environment. The inclusive way in which pupils work and play together results in a harmonious community. Older pupils take responsibility as buddies, to make sure that

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Grade: 1

pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and the youngest children take a full and active part in playtimes. Pupils are very well prepared for future learning because of their above average standards and outstanding attitudes to learning. Attendance has improved and is now above average because the management has successfully persuaded parents of the detrimental effects on learning of taking their children on holidays during term time. 3 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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Grade: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. An outstanding feature of teaching is the way that teachers imaginatively capture pupils' interest by skilfully linking learning between subjects. Tasks meet pupils' individual needs and promote independent learning well. These positive aspects are key features in pupils' good achievement. Lesson objectives are clear, so pupils know exactly what they are going to learn. Teaching assistants are skilful and well briefed, and have a significant impact on pupils' learning. Teachers use a variety of teaching styles and the level of challenge usually stretches pupils without inhibiting them. Marking is good and effectively encourages pupils to assess and evaluate how well they are doing and what they must do to improve. The school uses assessment information well to track pupils' progress to set targets and to plan future learning. The school has a good tracking system to check

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Grade: 2

how well pupils are doing year-on-year. However, in its present form it does not allow teachers to check easily and frequently that pupils are on track to meet their targets. The school has identified this as an area for further development and has begun to implement an electronic system to remedy this.

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Grade: 1

The curriculum meets the needs of all pupils well. It provides a rich range of experiences which promote good academic achievement and outstanding personal development. The curriculum is planned extremely carefully with a strong emphasis on skills in literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT). It promotes pupils' personal development exceedingly well and provides very good opportunities for them to develop skills and knowledge in other subjects. Pupils clearly see the connections in learning between different subjects. This enhances their enjoyment of learning and helps them to use the skills they learn in one subject to do better in another. Excellent opportunities are provided to develop pupils' creativity. This has been recognised through the achievement of the Artsmark Gold award. Personal, social and health education and citizenship is strongly promoted so pupils gain a very good

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Grade: 1

understanding of healthy lifestyles and how to keep themselves safe. French is taught in Years 1 to 6 and older pupils have the opportunity to take part in a residential visit to France. Educational visits, visitors to the school and a very good range of extra-curricular activities are used very effectively to provide added interest to pupils' learning.

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Grade: 1

The school takes exceptional care of its pupils and as a result they feel very safe and extremely happy in school; parents agree with this observation. Child protection 4 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007 procedures and health and safety checks are in place. The required checks are made and recorded on all adults who work with pupils. Pupils confirm that bullying is rare and are confident that an adult would sort out any problems if they occurred. All pupils are guided well in their learning and those pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities have precise targets to help them make good progress. Very effective links with outside agencies help to meet pupils' needs and assist them in taking an active part in school life. The arrangements for transfer between stages of education are effective. Pupils have opportunities to discuss their feelings about the possible welcome

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Grade: 1

and unwelcome changes associated with the move to secondary school.

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Grade: 1

The high-performing team of senior managers, subject leaders, teachers and support staff is led and managed exceptionally well by the headteacher and deputy headteacher. Governance is good. The strengths in leadership and management identified at the last inspection have been maintained. There were no areas for improvement at the last inspection and further minor areas for development have been dealt with very well. The leadership has very successfully maintained significantly above average standards by Year 6. Teachers and teaching assistants are deployed extremely well and support the inclusion of all pupils. Checks on the quality of teaching are rigorous, resulting in good or better teaching and learning throughout the school. 5 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007 .

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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. 6 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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Inspection judgements

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

How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 1 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 1 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

2 How well do learners achieve? 2 The standards 1 reached by learners How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1 The behaviour of learners 2 The attendance of learners 1 How well learners enjoy their education 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 1 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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and interests of learners?

1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 7 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 8 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for welcoming Mrs McIntosh, Mrs Shields and me to your school and being so polite and friendly. We enjoyed our visit and we want to share with you what we thought about your school. Your school is an outstanding school because the leadership and management of the headteacher and other staff are first-rate. As a result, you make good progress in your learning and reach above average academic standards. Your personal development is outstanding because you enjoy school and all get on so well together. Your behaviour is outstanding and this helps your learning so keep it up. We are very pleased that your attendance has improved to be above average and trust that you will maintain this improvement. We appreciated that you are cared for extremely well by staff and feel safe at the school, and you have many opportunities to take part in activities that will keep you healthy. A strength in lessons is your positive attitudes

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

to learning and that you all get on well with your teachers. In lessons, the teaching was good and sometimes better. However, we want teachers to check your progress towards your targets more regularly so that they can provide additional help if necessary or plan more challenging work so that you make even faster progress. We appreciated talking to you about your work and watching you learn. We wish you well for the future. 9 Inspection Report: Moss Hey Primary School, 12 °13 February 2007

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