Cotwall End Primary School

Inspection Report - Amended Cotwall End Primary School

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103810 Unique Reference Number Dudley Local Authority 296520 Inspection number 27 °28 September 2006 Inspection dates Jacqueline Wordsworth HMI 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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Cotwall End Road School address Primary Type of school Sedgley Community School category Dudley DY3 3YG 4 °11 Age range of pupils 01384 818730 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01384 818731 Fax number 360 Number on roll (school) J J Miller Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Nicole Anderton Headteacher 16 September 2005 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 296520 27 °28 September 2006 4°11

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Amended Report Addendum

Report updated to resolve formatting inconsistency

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Amended Report Addendum

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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Amended Report Addendum

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 one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

Cotwall End Primary School is situated close to Dudley in the West Midlands. The school serves an advantaged residential area of Sedgley, although about a quarter of the pupils come from less advantaged areas. Most children are from White British backgrounds. Seven per cent of the pupils are eligible for free school meals. In addition, seven per cent of pupils are identified as having learning difficulties or disabilities. These figures are below the national figures. At its last inspection in September 2005, the school was judged to require significant improvement and given a notice to improve.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006

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Grade: 3

In accordance with section 13 (5) of the Education Act 2005, HMCI is of the opinion that the school no longer requires significant improvement. Cotwall End is now a satisfactory and improving school because of the effective work of the headteacher and the senior leadership team. The headteacher is quietly determined and, since her appointment, she has tackled weaknesses with commitment and rigour. Her approach has provided the teachers with clear direction about priorities, such as raising standards and improving the quality of teaching. She has sensibly sought to implement increasingly rigorous methods of checking the school's work whilst encouraging independence and confidence among the staff. She is keen to develop the leadership potential of all the staff and gives them appropriate responsibilities. There are now clear lines of accountability, resulting in the senior leadership team's increasingly accurate knowledge of the school.

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Grade: 3

The Foundation Stage is well managed, enabling children to make a flying start to their school life. Children benefit from a particularly rich range of learning opportunities that help them to do well in all areas of learning. Parents recognise this strength and one commented, 'My son sometimes says he misses school at weekends because he likes all the different things he is able to do in the Reception class.' Pupils really enjoy coming to school and they work hard in lessons. They join in enthusiastically and sustain their concentration even in less exciting lessons. Parents find that teachers are 'caring and approachable' and genuinely interested in children's welfare. Pupils' personal development and well-being, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, is good. The quality of care, guidance and support is satisfactory; however, pupils are not always fully aware of their targets and are not sufficiently

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Grade: 3

aware of how to improve their work owing to the inconsistencies in the marking of their work. Often insufficient guidance is given to ensure that pupils improve their work because work is not marked often enough. Standards are rising and are now generally above average throughout the school, with the rate of pupils' achievement steadily improving. The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory and improving. It is getting better because teachers respond well to changes suggested as a result of the monitoring and evaluation of their work. Most pupils make broadly satisfactory progress between the time they enter the school and the time they leave it. The pupils with learning difficulties do well because of effective provision. There are strengths in the quality of teaching. Lessons in the main are well structured, purposeful and effective. The teachers' expectations are mostly appropriate. Teachers

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Grade: 3

know what they want the children to learn and make it clear to them. The school has now turned its attention to improving children's learning. The school has identified that often pupils are only making satisfactory progress, despite lessons containing many elements of good teaching. Some lessons do not always take sufficient account of individual learning needs, especially for those pupils who are more able, as the work is not always challenging enough to meet their needs. Too often, there is more emphasis 2 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006 on drawing out their factual knowledge as opposed to discussing ideas and opinions. Sometimes teachers speak for longer than pupils are able to listen effectively. As a result, the pace of learning is sometimes slow for these children. Nevertheless, the pupils are motivated, try hard, and make sound progress in developing the skills needed

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What the school should do to improve further

• Match pupils' individual targets for improvement more closely to their individual needs and ensure that they all have a good understanding of what they are. • Improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that the most able pupils are sufficiently challenged, questions are used effectively to probe understanding, and lessons move at a good pace. • Ensure that marking is completed regularly, is evaluative, and enables pupils to know how to improve.

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Grade: 3

Achievement is now broadly satisfactory. The pupils come into Reception ready to learn. They make good progress and by the time they leave the Foundation Stage nearly all have reached the expected levels for their age across the six areas of learning and many have exceeded these. By the end of Key Stage 1, the pupils reach standards that are above the national average. In the Year 6 national tests in 2006, the proportion of pupils attaining the expected levels was slightly above average. This is an improvement on the results for the previous two years. However, progress is inhibited because the teaching does not always provide enough challenge and therefore some of the more able pupils do not make as much progress as they should. The management of support for pupils with learning difficulties is particularly effective. Good quality individual education plans provide pupils with very clear, easily measurable targets

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Grade: 3

that allow achievement to be carefully monitored. These, together with very effective support from teaching assistants, ensure that these pupils make good progress.

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Grade: 2

Children develop good personal qualities during their time at the school. They get great pleasure from coming to school, display positive attitudes, and attend regularly. All of this, combined with their satisfactory progress in literacy and numeracy by the age of 11, ensures that they are satisfactorily prepared for their next stage of education. The pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is effective. Cultural development is particularly strong with pupils learning about traditional Black Country life through trips and visits, and about a good range of other cultures through lessons such as art and religious education. Drawing on the school's strong ethos, the children quickly learn right from wrong and so their behaviour and relationships with each other are good, although a significant minority of parents think behaviour could be 3 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006

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Grade: 2

better. All children understand the importance of healthy eating and the benefits of regular exercise. The pupils make a good contribution to the school community. For example, Year 6 act as 'playleaders' helping to ensure that younger pupils enjoy their playtimes.

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Grade: 3

The teaching is satisfactory and expectations are mostly appropriate. At the start of lessons, teachers effectively explain what pupils will learn. However, teachers do not always make best use of the end of lessons to challenge and extend pupils' thinking and this constrains their learning. The teachers have warm relationships with the pupils; consequently, all lessons seen were calm and purposeful. Targets are set for all pupils in literacy and numeracy. However, they are not written in language that the pupils can easily understand. As a result, not all pupils know what they need to do to improve their work or how to achieve their target. Never the less, they are motivated to work hard and the quality of learning is satisfactory.

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Grade: 3

The curriculum is broad and provides good opportunities for pupils to achieve well in art and design, music and physical education. A wide range of visits and visitors helps to make learning enjoyable and relevant to everyday life. These are popular with pupils and benefit their learning. After reflecting on a visit to Blists Hill Victorian Centre, one pupil remarked, 'It was brilliant. I learned a lot about how people used to live.' In Years 1 to 6 provision is made for the development of pupils' skills and knowledge in English, mathematics, science and information and communication technology. However, not enough emphasis is yet placed on developing problem solving skills in mathematics in order to raise standards further in Year 6.

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Grade: 3

Pupils have strong and trusting relationships with adults. These support learning and personal development very well. The pupils are clear and confident about whom they can turn to for help. Procedures for child protection are robust and the school works very well with outside agencies. This ensures that vulnerable pupils, including those with emotional and behavioural difficulties, are well supported. The school provides an attractive environment for pupils to learn in, which is generally safe. Improvements have been made to health and safety procedures; however, procedures for risk assessments have some way to go before they meet government requirements. Academic guidance is satisfactory. There are some examples of target setting and 4 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006 careful marking, but these are inconsistent across the school and therefore not all pupils are sufficiently aware of how to take the next steps in their learning.

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Grade: 3

Leadership and management are satisfactory. The good leadership of the headteacher and her deputy is moving the school forward, and had enabled it to show it has satisfactory capacity to continue improving. The impact of the senior team on the ethos of the school is well regarded by the staff and governors. The school has a reasonable picture of where it needs to focus its efforts and to this extent its self-evaluation procedures are satisfactory. However, the school's view of its overall effectiveness is too generous. The recently appointed leaders of subjects have some understanding of what actions are needed to raise standards further at the end of Key Stage 2 but as yet their roles are underdeveloped. Governors are supportive of the school and fulfil their statutory responsibilities satisfactorily. 5 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 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: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 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? 2 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? 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?

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 3 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?

3 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: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 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: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you very much for being so welcoming and friendly towards us during our recent visit to your school. We very much enjoyed the opportunity to talk with you and your teachers about how well you are doing. We thought you would like to know what we have said about your school, which we think is a satisfactory and improving school. You behave very well and you are kind and considerate to each other. In lessons, you listen carefully to what your teachers have to tell you and you try hard. You really enjoy coming to school and have many exciting things to look forward to such as visits, visitors and clubs. You told that you feel safe in school and that any falling out is quickly sorted out by the teachers. As one of you said, 'bullying does not really happen here - that's in a different league.' You know the importance of staying healthy and taking regular exercise. You told us about how you work as playleaders helping to make sure that the younger pupils

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

enjoy their playtimes. Your teachers look after you well and listen to what you have to say. They work hard to help you learn. We have made some suggestions to help the school get even better. By the end of Year 6, many of you do well in the tests but we have suggested to your teachers that some of you could do even better. We have asked the teachers to make sure that all the work you are given really makes you think really hard. When you have completed a piece of work, we would like your teachers to write in your books how you could make it even better and set you a target to work towards. Many things are good about your school and you, together with your teachers, can make it even better. Please keep working hard and doing the best you can. We wish you well in the future. Yours sincerely Jacqueline Wordsworth Her Majesty's Inspector 9 Inspection Report: Cotwall End Primary School, 27 °28 September 2006

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