Shirehampton Primary School

Inspection Report Shirehampton Primary School

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132196 Unique Reference Number Bristol, City of Local Authority 293979 Inspection number 11 °12 October 2006 Inspection dates David Clegg 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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St Mary's Walk School address Primary Type of school Shirehampton Voluntary aided School category Bristol BS11 9RR 3 °11 Age range of pupils 0117 9031447 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 0117 9031448 Fax number 409 Number on roll (school) P Llewellin Chair The governing body Appropriate authority A Travis Headteacher 20 January 2003 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 293979 11 °12 October 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 three Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This is a large primary school. There are very few pupils from minority ethnic groups and virtually all pupils speak English fluently. There is a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties is broadly average.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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Grade: 3

The school offers pupils a satisfactory education. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school: 'the school has a lovely atmosphere' was a typical, and accurate, parental comment. The school is particularly successful in ensuring that pupils' personal development, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, is good. The good work in developing pupils' personal development is not quite capitalised on in the way it could be to drive up standards and achievement. Expectations for pupils' personal development are higher than the expectations of what they might achieve academically. Standards remain consistently below average, although pupils achieve satisfactorily, because when they enter the school children's level of skills is well below those often found. Children make some good progress in Nursery and Reception, particularly in their personal development and in language and communication skills. Despite making up

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Grade: 3

some ground, by the time they begin Year 1, standards are below national expectations. The satisfactory leadership and management are by no means complacent in attempts to improve the rate of progress and standards. The work of senior staff in identifying what needs to be improved has produced a slight upward trend in standards as a result of the introduction of several new ideas. These include introducing a range of ways to improve pupils' skills in writing, and getting a firmer grasp on how using assessment information can inform lesson planning. However, not enough is being done to tackle weaknesses in teaching, particularly the need to plan more carefully to meet the needs of different ability groups. There are regular checks on teaching but this is not picking up the weaknesses and tackling them as rigorously as they need to be. The satisfactory curriculum and the good level of care, support and guidance ensure

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Grade: 3

that pupils develop into mature and sensible young people who have a good grasp of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. They talk confidently about how the school helps them to learn, for example by instilling a degree of confidence to have a go and 'speak clearly'. Pupils are developing good personal skills that will serve them well in later life. Pupils enjoy school and have a great deal of confidence in their teachers and other adults. When a pupil commented 'you can tell they really listen to you' it was greeted with unanimous approval. Pupils are particularly proud of the work that they have done on a very successful anti-bullying project. 'The bullying stops completely' was a typical comment. The satisfactory teaching is generally lively and well presented but not enough is done to cater for the different abilities within classes. Consequently, the pace of learning is too slow for those children who find themselves working at levels that are too easy,

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Grade: 3

or too demanding, for them. Teachers' expectations of pupils' rates of progress are not consistently high enough and this also depresses the progress pupils make.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Improve the checking up on teaching so that weaknesses are tackled and improvements are made. 2 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006 • Make sure that all lessons meet the needs of pupils of different ability levels.

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Grade: 3

Although pupils achieve satisfactorily, standards are consistently below average. Achievement is steady through the school and there are signs that the achievement levels are slowly improving. This is evident in the good progress now being made in reading and writing by pupils moving through Years 2 and 3. The improvements in writing are the result of work done to focus on improving pupils' skills that is beginning to pay off. The results in Year 6 tests in 2006 also indicate that that group of pupils made better gains in learning than those in the previous year. Over time, the achievement in mathematics is also improving. However, progress in individual lessons, particularly English and mathematics, is often hampered by pupils being given work that is too easy or too hard, or being taught things that they can already do. Pupils with learning difficulties make steady progress because of the carefully planned

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Grade: 3

programmes of work tailored to their needs. Children make a steady start in Nursery and Reception. They make good progress in acquiring personal and social skills and in language and communication. Progress in mathematical and creative development is not quite as good and this is reflected in these areas being slightly weaker when children start in Year 1.

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Grade: 2

The school prepares pupils well for the next stage of education. They are well behaved, attentive and most pupils are eager and anxious to do their best. Occasionally, pupils become a little distracted in lessons, especially if the pace of learning slackens. This is because of the high priority the school gives to ensuring that pupils feel safe and secure and giving them the confidence to have a go. Pupils get on well with each other and have an unusually mature and sympathetic grasp of the needs of other pupils. They have good insights into themselves as learners and how to maximise their learning because teachers talk to them about things such as the need to be persistent and how to ignore distractions. They are keen to play their part in the school and the school council is a long standing and effective forum. Members of the school council were very clear that their role is in 'making the school a better place'. They have been

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Grade: 2

influential, for instance, in creating specific play areas, and in helping to promote healthy eating. Attendance is below the national average but the school is doing all that it can to encourage good attendance and punctuality. Parents taking children on holidays during term time is a key factor that affects attendance levels. 3 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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Grade: 3

Lessons are generally pacy and interesting and there is always a calm and purposeful atmosphere with constructive relationships. Learning assistants are generally used effectively to support pupils with particular difficulties or who need to 'catch up'. The key weakness in teaching is that lessons do not consistently meet the needs of all pupils. The level of teaching is not always well matched to what pupils already know and understand. Activities are too hard for some pupils and too easy for others. This hinders the progress of different pupils at different times. The pupils with learning difficulties benefit from the good number of extra support programmes that are tailored to their needs. They are often taught individually or in small groups on a regular basis. This is helping them to meet their particular learning targets.

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Grade: 3

Pupils enjoy a balanced range of experiences. The good number of extra-curricular clubs is popular with pupils who enjoy being introduced to different sports, arts and languages. The emphasis given to pupils' personal development is a good feature that is clearly evident in their good attitudes and behaviour. The planning of literacy and numeracy is not adjusted enough to take account of what pupils have already learned, hence the limited progress in some lessons. The school has in place a number of support programmes that successfully help groups and individuals who need extra support. These include programmes such as 'reading recovery' and 'school catch-up'. These programmes are a key reason why pupils with learning difficulties meet their targets and make steady progress.

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Grade: 2

Pupils have a high level of trust in the school which indicates how safe and secure they feel. Staff know pupils well. Any pupils who may be vulnerable are very well looked after through a range of intervention strategies and the care and support of individual members of staff. The school has been particularly successful in working with families to improve the attendance and attitude of pupils who were significantly disaffected. The school is up-to-date, careful and conscientious in how it safeguards pupils. Academic guidance is improving because the profiles that teachers are given about pupils' levels of achievement are clear and unambiguous. These are being used effectively by some teachers to plan work and track pupils' progress but they are not used consistently and this explains some of the weaknesses in teaching. 4 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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Grade: 3

The leadership and management, working appropriately with the governing body, have a track record of bringing about steady improvement. The headteacher's commitment to pupils' personal development and well-being is shared by all staff and is a key strength of the school. The leadership and management have a measured view of the school's strengths and weaknesses and know there is scope for improvement in aspects of pupils' achievement. There is a clear emphasis on raising standards and achievement. This is evident in the eagerness and determination to provide pupils, who may have lost ground or who need more help, with opportunities through the successful support programmes. However, there is not enough consistency in driving through improvement to address identified weaknesses in teaching, resulting in the capacity to improve being satisfactory. 5 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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Grade: 3

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 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? 3 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 3 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 3 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

3 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 3 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 3 The attendance of learners 2 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 3 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: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 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: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

We really enjoyed the time we spent at your school. Thank you for the way you helped us find out about the things that you do and enjoy. We are really pleased that you like your school so much and that you are so prepared to help your teachers make it even better. We think that your school is giving you a satisfactory education and is particularly good at helping you to become well behaved and thoughtful people. We are very pleased that you know how to keep yourselves healthy and safe. We think that you work hard, but agree with some of you that sometimes the work you are given in class is too easy for you and sometimes too hard. We know that all the adults who work with you want to help you to succeed and do well. In some lessons, however, there need to be clearer ideas about what different children need to help them learn best. So we have asked your teachers to help you make even better progress by making sure that the work that you get in class challenges you to do as well as you can by

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

not being too easy or too hard. We have also asked the headteacher and the people who help her to make sure this happens in all lessons. Once again, thank you for your help. We know that you will carry on helping all the grown ups to make sure that Shirehampton goes on getting better. 9 Inspection Report: Shirehampton Primary School, 11 °12 October 2006

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