Bawnmore Community Infant School

Inspection Report Bawnmore Infant School

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125581 Unique Reference Number Warwickshire Local Authority 293301 Inspection number 22 °23 January 2007 Inspection dates Graeme Bassett 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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Bawnmore Road School address Infant Type of school Rugby Community School category CV22 6JS 4 °7 Age range of pupils 01788 810065 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01788 810065 Fax number 169 Number on roll (school) David Smillie Chair The governing body Appropriate authority D Wade Headteacher 14 October 2002 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 293301 22 °23 January 2007 4°7 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 Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This is a smaller-than-average school with six classes. The school serves the immediate locality around the school in west Rugby. Most children enter the Reception classes with standards that are above the expected level for their age. Most pupils are White British and very few have English as an additional language. An average proportion of pupils have learning difficulties. The acting headteacher, previously the deputy headteacher in the school, took up her appointment in January 2007 for two terms. The new headteacher has yet to be appointed. The school has an Activemark for physical education.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007

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Grade: 2

Pupils say they 'love coming to this school'. They enjoy their work and parents express extremely positive views about this good and effective school. With changes in headship and the recent appointment of an acting headteacher, the leadership and management of the school remain good. The acting headteacher has demonstrated good leadership and management skills in the short time since her appointment. She has already established clear priorities for improvements that build upon previous objectives. The governors have a clear vision for the future and have established high-quality procedures to enable them to appoint a new headteacher. The monitoring of the school's work is good and the evaluation of the school's strengths and weaknesses is very accurate. Children enter school with standards at the expected levels in writing and slightly above in reading and mathematics. As a result of good and often excellent teaching

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Grade: 2

in the Foundation Stage, most children reach, and a high proportion exceed, the targets set for them in reading and numeracy by the time they enter Year 1. However, some find it more difficult to reach the targets for writing even though they make good progress. Throughout Years 1 and 2, good teaching continues. As a result, pupils maintain their good achievement whilst many make outstanding progress in writing. By the end of Year 2, pupils' achievement is good in reading and mathematics and standards are significantly above average. Many pupils make excellent progress in their writing skills and consequently standards are significantly above average overall, although fewer pupils reach the higher Level 3 in writing than in reading and mathematics. One reason for this is that pupils are not given enough opportunities to use their writing skills in subjects such as science and history. Consequently, writing

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Grade: 2

standards in some subjects are much lower than the pupils normally produce in their literacy work. Pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities achieve well because of the good support they receive. Pupils with English as an additional language acquire English language skills quickly, which leads to them succeeding very well. The curriculum is good and enriched effectively through visits and exciting events brought by visitors to the school. The curriculum in the Foundation Stage is planned extremely well, with meaningful links between subjects. However, this is not the case in Years 1 and 2, where there are fewer links between subjects and limited opportunities for pupils to see the relevance of their learning between one subject and another. Pupils' personal development and well-being are outstanding because of the excellent care and support given to all pupils. They feel safe and their behaviour is good. Pupils'

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Grade: 2

exceptionally high level of basic skills prepares them well for their next school and their future life. Pupils' spiritual, moral, and social development is good. However, their understanding of other cultures and customs in today's society is not as strong and is identified by the school for development.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Provide more opportunities for pupils to develop and practise their creative and factual writing skills in subjects other than English. 2 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007 • Plan a more relevant curriculum for the pupils to help develop their understanding and application of their skills through better links across subjects.

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Grade: 2

Standards are significantly above average and achievement is good. As result of the excellent provision in the Reception classes, the children settle quickly and achieve well. With invariably good teaching, especially so in reading and numeracy, nearly all pupils make at least good progress towards reaching the goals set for children of their age. By the end of Year 2, the trend over recent years shows that standards in reading and mathematics are significantly above average. Pupils make outstanding progress in writing because of the school's concentrated efforts on this. However, almost half of the pupils exceed the expected levels in reading and mathematics whereas in writing it is much less. Art work throughout the school is above expected levels and colourful displays of high quality work create a stimulating environment. Pupils with English as an additional language make excellent progress in acquiring spoken English and those

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Grade: 2

with learning difficulties progress well.

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Grade: 1

Pupils understand the importance of leading healthy lives through exercise and eating healthy food. As some children said, 'We asked for more exercise and we love the 'Fit for Learning' lessons.' Pupils feel safe and it is evident that they enjoy school. Their parents agree overwhelmingly. Pupils' enthusiasm and love for school is reflected in the excellent levels of attendance. Pupils are considerate towards each other and to adults around the school. They make an outstanding contribution to the school community and also to the neighbourhood. These early skills of citizenship are developed especially well by the school council, which takes responsibilities seriously. Pupils' views are considered to be important and they have a strong voice within the school; for example, new playground equipment was purchased as a result of the school council identifying a need for more outdoor games. Pupils show outstanding support for charities and have raised money for the

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Grade: 1

Operation Christmas Child and the Tsunami Appeal.

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Grade: 2

Teachers are enthusiastic and very conscientious. They provide good levels of challenge through tasks that are carefully matched to the pupils' different abilities. Pupils are 3 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007 encouraged to work independently and also to collaborate with others, especially in the role-play areas and in science lessons. Teachers inspire pupils with interesting lessons and with the use of interactive whiteboards. As a result, pupils are eager to learn and enjoy their work. Teaching in the Foundation Stage is invariably good, especially so in writing lessons. Planning is good for teaching reading, numeracy and science and tasks build effectively upon pupils' previous learning, ensuring that they all do as well as they can. Sometimes the expectations of the teachers in developing factual and creative writing are not high enough. Not enough opportunities are planned for pupils to develop and to

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Grade: 2

practise their above-average writing skills in other subjects.

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Grade: 2

The areas of learning in the Reception classes are planned well and are linked imaginatively together to make learning meaningful. Consequently, Reception children get a good start to their education. In the rest of the school, the curriculum for literacy, numeracy and science is good. However, the school does not help pupils consolidate their skills and understanding effectively enough by using opportunities and links between different subjects. The curriculum provides effectively for each pupil's personal development. It is enriched by the visitors such as theatre groups, visits to local museums, and specialist sessions like 'The Book Week', maths workshops and 'Shakespeare Week'. Yoga and dance lessons also contribute well to the pupils' healthy lifestyles. Work is adjusted effectively for pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities.

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Grade: 1

Care, guidance and support are outstanding and a significant strength of the school. This results in pupils' personal development being outstanding. Adults contribute effectively to the outstanding level of care provided for all children. Every pupil is fully included in all that the school does and all are encouraged to form trusting relationships with adults and one another. Links with a wide range of external agencies provide effective specialist support for pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities, and this results in them achieving well. Assessments are rigorous and records accurately plot how successfully each pupil has progressed. Marking is good and teachers give clear guidance to show pupils how their work can improve. The school's outstanding knowledge of individual needs enables staff to provide sharply targeted and sensitive support to enable pupils to improve their work specifically. Pupils know their targets well and can talk about what they

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Grade: 1

need to do next to improve. This is a significant improvement since the school's previous inspection resulting in higher standards. 4 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007

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Grade: 2

The acting headteacher has a clear vision for the future. She is effectively supported by the staff and particularly by the acting deputy headteacher and governing body. The leadership and management skills of the subject leaders for literacy and numeracy are good. They organise their subjects well and, through their analysis of work in their subjects, set good action plans for future developments. The governing body carries out its responsibilities very effectively and has strong procedures to support the acting headteacher during this period of change. Checks carried out by the governing body and staff are rigorous and provide very good information about the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The school's development plan is monitored well. The methods used in the classroom to improve writing skills are very good but, although the school improvement plan is clear in setting priorities, there are few indications to show how the school intends to develop

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Grade: 2

pupils' writing further. Nevertheless, the school's self-evaluation is good and the inspectors agree with the school's judgements. Issues from the previous inspection have been dealt with successfully and the school's capacity to make further improvements is good. 5 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007 .

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Grade: 2

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 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? 1 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 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? 1 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 2 The behaviour of learners 1 The attendance of learners 2 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: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 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: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

• Thank you for making us so welcome when we visited your school. We enjoyed talking with you and looking at your work. We particularly liked the way you all get on so well together. We found your school to be a good school and a happy place. It is providing you with a good education. These are the things that are particularly good: • Your school is led and managed well and your acting headteacher has already made good improvements. • You progress well and your standards in reading, writing and mathematics are excellent. • The teaching is good and your teachers plan interesting lessons for you so that you enjoy coming to school. • You are extremely well involved in all that the school does ° the way the school council managed to persuade the school to buy new equipment was really good. • Your behaviour is good. • The adults in your school care well for all of you. Even though your school is a good one, there are still some ways in which it could be even

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

better. We have asked your headteacher and governors to: • Give you more opportunities to write about what you know in science, history and other lessons as well as in English. • Plan better links between subjects you are taught so your work becomes more interesting and so that you can develop your skills and understanding better. Once again, thank you for your help. 9 Inspection Report: Bawnmore Infant School, 22 °23 January 2007

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