Battle Hill Primary School

Inspection Report Battle Hill Primary School

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108595 Unique Reference Number North Tyneside Local Authority 288135 Inspection number 21 November 2006 Inspection date Margaret Shepherd 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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Berwick Drive School address Primary Type of school Battle Hill Estate, Wallsend Community School category Tyne and Wear, NE28 9DH 3 °11 Age range of pupils 0191 2007246 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0191 2007247 Fax number 253 Number on roll (school) Mr Bill Appleby Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Kevin Arthur Headteacher 1 May 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection date Age group 288135 21 November 2006 3 °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 an Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

The school is larger than average and has some mixed year group classes. It serves an area with considerably below average social and economic circumstances. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is more than double the national average. Six per cent of pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds. Some are asylum seekers and others are the children of migrant workers. The school has been through many changes. At the previous inspection, the school was a recent amalgamation of four different schools and had changed from being a first school to a primary school. A new Children’s Centre was added last year. This provides funded nursery education, a playgroup for under-threes and out of school care. Members of the senior leadership team have only been in post for a year. Half of the governors have had only a short time in their new roles. There are two newly qualified teachers

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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Grade: 2

This is a good school with outstanding features. The headteacher has excellent leadership and management skills and is determined to provide a high quality education for all pupils. He has managed a great deal of change since the previous inspection and has ensured good levels of improvement. Standards have risen and are now average by the end of Year 6. Achievement is good with outstanding features in the Foundation Stage and in science and mathematics in the junior classes. The Foundation Stage provision is excellent. The new partnership with the Children’s Centre is extending the range of the school’s links with the community very well. The school gives a high priority to the pupils’ personal development, which is good with outstanding features. Care and support are excellent. This leads to excellent standards of behaviour. Pupils approach their work with great enthusiasm. They take their responsibilities within the school community very seriously and have an excellent

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Grade: 2

understanding of keeping safe. They cooperate well in teams and take the initiative. This prepares them well for their future economic well-being. They have a good understanding of keeping healthy. Guidance systems for personal development are excellent but pupils have only a general idea about their targets for academic development and they are not sure of the details. The leadership and management of the senior leadership team are excellent. Together with the headteacher they work hard to improve teaching and learning, as well as developing the curriculum throughout the school. Both these aspects are good with outstanding features. Planning for developing skills in reading, writing and mathematics is very thorough, but opportunities are missed to develop literacy and numeracy skills in other subjects. The governors are keen to extend their work in the school and are now in a good position to share their different levels of expertise. The school has an

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Grade: 2

excellent capacity to succeed due to the clear sense of direction set by leaders and because staff are keen to improve their work. The school provides good value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Help the pupils identify more clearly their individual targets for improvement. • Develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills more effectively across the curriculum. • Extend the work of the governing body through sharing their different areas of expertise.

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Grade: 2

Achievement is good with some outstanding features. Pupils make an excellent start in the Foundation Unit. This is due to the high priority given to the provision for this age group and the very good level of staffing. Pupils enter the school with standards that are well below expectations, with particular difficulties in communication, language 2 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006 and literacy. They make excellent progress and by the time they leave Reception many pupils have reached the expected level. There have been lower levels of staffing in the infant classes, which led to a drop in standards. Standards are below average but rising due to greater attention being given to the different ways individual pupils learn. Standards of the first group of pupils in the new primary school to take the Year 6 tests were very low. The school has worked very hard to raise standards and they are

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Grade: 2

now average. In 2005 standards in mathematics and science were above average. The progress pupils made in the junior classes was outstanding in these subjects. In mathematics the school was in the top 1% nationally and in science it was in the top 5%. Progress in English was good. The school is aware of the differences in achievement between subjects and has put some good quality systems in place to increase achievement in English. These are beginning to have an impact. Although standards dropped slightly in 2006, they are still broadly average. There are no trends of differences in the performance of boys or girls. The inspection confirms the good achievement and progress that pupils make through the school. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities make good progress due to the very thorough systems set up to support their individual needs. Pupils with statements of special educational need make excellent progress because particular care is taken to

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Grade: 2

create a curriculum that meets their needs alongside those of other pupils. Pupils with English as an additional language make excellent progress. Staff work very effectively to extend their language skills.

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Grade: 2

Personal development and well-being are good with outstanding features. Pupils in the Foundation Stage make an excellent start in this aspect of their work because there is a high emphasis on this part of the curriculum and a high number of staff to support individuals. Pupils build very well on this excellent start and have extremely positive attitudes towards school. Pupils approach their work with confidence and a determination to succeed. They work very well together in small groups and cooperate very effectively to achieve a goal. These features, together with the development of basic skills, prepare pupils well for their future economic well-being. Behaviour is outstanding. Pupils are unfailingly courteous to adults and each other. They take their responsibilities to the school community very seriously in tasks such as supporting other pupils around the school. The members of the school council expect to make a

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Grade: 2

difference by acting on suggestions from their peers. Pupils are proud of their school and have great loyalty to their class name because they helped to choose it. For example, the Ants class were very clear that they chose this name because these animals work so hard. Pupils have a good knowledge of how to keep healthy. Their understanding of keeping safe is excellent because the school emphasises this aspect so well. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Attendance of the majority of pupils is broadly average but the migrant workers’ families spend considerable time out of the country which reduces the overall rate for the school. 3 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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Grade: 2

Teaching and learning are good with excellent features. Teachers are working very hard to extend their range of teaching styles to match the different needs of learners. This is resulting in very positive attitudes from pupils and a good rate of progress in lessons. The boys respond particularly well to the many opportunities for practical activities. Teachers work very effectively with support staff who have a very good understanding of the focus for the learning. Opportunities are sometimes missed by staff to emphasise pupils’ individual targets, which reduces their understanding of what they need to do to improve. Teachers plan lessons very thoroughly with careful attention to assessment data. They ensure that pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities receive targeted support. Teachers provide very good models of spoken English for the pupils who are new to the language.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is good with many outstanding features. The provision of a lesson additional to literacy and numeracy each morning is working very well. Planning over the year and over each half term is very detailed and thorough, with particular attention given to the development of basic skills. Some opportunities are missed to extend literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. The Foundation Stage curriculum is excellent. It provides a very well balanced programme of work over time, taking the specific needs of this age group into account. The personal, social, emotional and health curriculum is very good.

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Grade: 2

Support and care are outstanding and guidance is good. The school places a high value on supporting families. Parents really appreciate this, particularly those of children with statements of special educational need. The Children’s Centre is playing an important role in extending support from birth onwards, with the joint nursery provision working very well. Safeguarding systems are in place. Staff know individual pupils very well. Pupils say that they are very confident to go to an adult if they are worried. The learning mentor plays a valuable role in the school in encouraging good behaviour. The school has introduced a very effective system to track groups of pupils’ progress. This results in very precise whole school and class targets. Some parts of this system are very new and have not had enough time to make an impact on individual pupils. 4 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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Grade: 1

The leadership and management of the headteacher are outstanding. He has an excellent understanding of the needs of the families that the school serves. He is determined to provide the best education that is possible and this has ensured that improvement since the previous inspection has been good. He manages change very effectively and makes a very valuable contribution to the teaching of science resulting in outstanding achievement in this subject. He supports staff very effectively. One of the outcomes of this skill is an excellent senior leadership team. Despite the short time they have been in their posts they have made a significant impact in their different roles. Together with the headteacher they monitor teaching and learning carefully and introduce new systems very effectively. This has led to rising standards and some outstanding features in personal development. Governors have a strong involvement

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Grade: 1

in the daily activities of the school. The new governors are keen to increase their understanding of their new roles and share the more experienced governors’ expertise. The school’s self-evaluation is accurate. The high quality leadership and management and the keenness of all staff for development gives the school an excellent capacity to improve. 5 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006 .

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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: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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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? 1 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 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? 3 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?

2 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 1 The behaviour of learners 3 The attendance of learners 1 How well learners enjoy their education 1 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 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?

2 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: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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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: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Battle Hill Primary School Berwick Drive Battle Hill Estate Wallsend Tyne and Wear NE28 9DH 21 November 2006 Dear Pupils Thank you for being so welcoming to me when I came to your school. You were all so friendly and helpful in answering my questions. You are all very proud of your school and you work very hard in lessons to listen to the teachers and to carry out the tasks. You have an excellent understanding of how to keep safe and you know what to do to keep healthy. You work very well together in teams and share the equipment very sensibly. Your behaviour is excellent and you are very polite to each other and to adults. You are particularly successful in learning about mathematics and science. Your school works very well with the Children’s Centre and all your teachers work very hard to help make your lessons interesting. You have an excellent headteacher, who works very well to make your school improve.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

I have asked your school to help each one of you to understand what you need to do next to get better in reading, writing and mathematics. I have also asked your teachers to help you learn more about these subjects in all your other lessons. The school governors are very keen to help you and I have asked them to carry on learning as much as they can about the school. I really enjoyed my visit and I hope that you all do your best in future to make your school an even better place to learn. Best wishes Maggi Shepherd Additional Inspector 9 Inspection Report: Battle Hill Primary School, 21 November 2006

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