Eatock Primary School

105202 Unique Reference Number Bolton Local Authority 308795 Inspection number 15 January 2008 Inspection date Janette Corlett 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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Primary Type of school Community School category 3 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 264 School The governing body Appropriate authority Cllr Linda Thomas Chair Mrs Anne Flannery Headteacher 25 April 2005 Date of previous school inspection St George's Avenue School address Daisy Hill Westhoughton Bolton Lancashire BL5 2ER 01942 634672 Telephone number 01942 634673 Fax number

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3-11 Age group 15 January 2008 Inspection date 308795 Inspection number .

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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 one Additional Inspector. The inspector evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school and investigated the following issues: achievement and standards; teaching and learning; and leadership and management. Evidence was gathered from: the school's self-evaluation; national published assessment data; the school's own assessment records and policies; observations of the school at work; discussions with staff and pupils; and the parents' questionnaires. Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but there was no evidence to suggest that the school's own evaluations were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

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Description of the school

The school serves families who live in a range of different types of housing within the local community. Numbers have fallen slightly as a result of falling birth-rates. Nearly all pupils are White British and very few pupils speak English as an additional language. The percentage of pupils claiming a free school meal is in line with the national average. The numbers who join the school throughout the year is higher than that found nationally. An average proportion of pupils have learning difficulties and/or disabilities. However, the numbers are not evenly distributed and can be quite high in some years. The headteacher was appointed in September 2007.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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Grade: 2

The overall effectiveness of the school is good, and some provision is outstanding. The school has made good progress since the last inspection and has a good capacity to improve further. This is demonstrated by the rapid success of the school's recent strategies to improve standards and progress in Key Stage 2 in mathematics and writing. Pupils' personal development and well-being are outstanding. Pupils thoroughly enjoy coming to school where they feel safe and understand very well the importance of taking plenty of exercise and eating a healthy diet. Their behaviour is excellent and their attendance good. Pupils enjoy helping one another and have many opportunities to reach out to the wider community through supporting charities and taking part in local events. Older pupils run the 'school shop' in a very businesslike manner and this encourages them to develop skills for their future adult lives. They purchase stock and enjoy the responsibility of making decisions on how

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Grade: 2

the profits can be used to support the school. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Respect for one another and for the cultural traditions and religious beliefs of our diverse society are embedded in the fabric of the school. Adults in the school actively seek pupils' views and value their contributions. This promotes their self-esteem and helps them become confident learners. The vast majority of parents appreciate that the school cares for their children very well and comment that the dedicated staff are friendly, welcoming and willing to listen to any concerns they might have. They also value the way in which the school involves them in their children's learning through actively seeking their views on its provision and how this may be improved. Standards are consistently above the national average at the end of Key Stage 1: good proportions of pupils attain highly for their age. The standards achieved at Key Stage 2 fluctuate

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Grade: 2

from year to year, depending upon factors such as the proportion of pupils in each group with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, pupils' skills and levels of development on entry and the proportion of pupils joining the school in Key Stage 2 from other schools. In the current Year 6, half the pupils are identified as having learning difficulties and a significant proportion joined the school within the last two years. As a result, for this group of pupils' standards are average, except in science where they are above average. Importantly, pupils make good progress throughout the school, although this is less rapid in writing and mathematics than in reading and science, and not enough more able pupils reach the highest levels in mathematics at the end Year 6. Recently introduced strategies to accelerate progress in these subjects have already been effective, and standards are improving. This is

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Grade: 2

mainly due to effective focused support for different ability groups in mathematics and increasing the opportunities given for pupils to develop their skills in writing throughout the curriculum. Valuable opportunities for speaking and listening help motivate reluctant writers to improve their work. The 'writing buddies' initiative enables more able pupils from different year groups to share their enthusiasms and is raising the profile of writing in the school. Even so there is more to do: pupils' handwriting is untidy and adversely affects the quality of their presentation of written work. Pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are well-supported by teachers and teaching assistants and make good progress alongside their class mates. The overall quality of teaching is good. Teachers plan their work well, and make sure there are appropriate activities for pupils of different abilities. The one exception to this is in mathematics

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Grade: 2

4 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008 lessons in Key Stage 2, where more able pupils are not always given sufficiently challenging tasks. As a result, they mark time and not enough pupils reach the higher standards in the statutory tests at the end of Year 6. Teachers have secure subject knowledge and use skilful questioning to ensure that learners can take an active part in classroom discussions and contribute their ideas. They regularly mark and assess pupils' work and their written comments help children understand how they might improve further and link to their individual targets for development. As a result pupils make consistently good progress and develop a mature approach to learning. Leadership and management are good. School self-evaluation is rigorous and involves the whole school community. The headteacher and acting deputy headteacher inspire a clear vision for

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Grade: 2

continual school improvement and are working very effectively to build on the strengths of the new leadership team. Great improvements to the school's systems for tracking pupils' individual progress means that any pupils who are not making as much progress as they could are quickly identified. Supporting action follows swiftly to help them improve. School leaders have also improved the curriculum, making it more relevant to learners' needs. During this process they consulted with pupils, parents and staff and used their views to develop a broad curriculum continually enriched by a series of outside visits and visitors to the school. Information and communication technology is used effectively to engage pupils' interest, support home to school links and add to the overall enjoyment of learning. Similarly, displays around the school demonstrate good provision for art and design, and technology. All pupils learn Spanish, and

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Grade: 2

older pupils speak with enthusiasm about their 'e-pal' links with a school in Spain. Pupils' wider interests are engaged through the high quality of provision for music, physical education and environmental education. Pupils recycle waste materials, grow flowers and vegetables and many pupils join in with the wide variety of after-school clubs which include choir and sporting activities. All pupils have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. The school holds a number of external awards which support the depth and breadth of the curriculum very well. School governors are active in the life of the school, generously contributing a broad range of expertise and providing strong levels of support and challenge.

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Grade: 1

Provision in the Foundation Stage is outstanding and offers young children the very best of starts to their education. This is due to strong leadership, highly effective teaching and the very good quality of the extra support. Attainment on entry to the Nursery varies considerably. Currently, the majority of pupils have the skills and levels of development typical of young children of similar age. However, some children have exceptionally low skills and experience in language and communication Throughout the Foundation Stage children make at least good progress in most areas and outstanding progress in their language, social, physical and creative development with the result that, by the end of the Reception year, many children exceed the levels expected nationally. The exceptionally well planned activities and structured play areas both indoors and outdoors encourage children to become independent learners. Children play

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Grade: 1

and learn happily together from their earliest days in school. Parents speak highly of the safe and welcoming environment and have great trust in the way in which all adults care for their children and are sensitive to individual needs. 5 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Increase the level of challenge for more able pupils in Key Stage 2 in mathematics.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Improve pupils' handwriting and the quality of presentation of written work. 6 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008 .

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What the school should do to improve further

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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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? Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 1 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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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 extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 1 How well learners enjoy their education 2 The attendance of learners 1 The behaviour of learners 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. 8 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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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 2 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 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? 9 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Inspection of Eatock Primary School, Bolton, BL5 2ER Thank you for making me feel so very welcome in your school when I visited to find out how well you are all doing. I really enjoyed my day and was impressed by your excellent behaviour and the kind and courteous way in which you treat one another. You also take plenty of exercise and know how to keep yourselves fit and healthy. I was amazed to be greeted so often in Spanish. Some of you were clever enough to ask me questions in Spanish too, but I am afraid I could not reply properly as I have not yet learned this language! Special thanks to the children who gave up their lunch break to chat with me and tell me how much you enjoy coming to school and learning together. You have a good school and I was very pleased to see you making such good progress. You are especially lucky to have teachers who really listen to your views about how school can be even

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

better, and always ask you if you have understood the lessons they have taught you. Many of you told me how kind and friendly the teachers are, and that they make learning interesting and fun. They work very hard to do this, and also to run all those exciting after-school clubs and activities! I have asked the school to: ? help you improve your handwriting and the way you present your work ? provide some of you with more challenging work in your mathematics lessons. You can help them by continuing to work hard and trying to write neatly and clearly. Some of you do not always use your very best handwriting and this means that your work looks untidy. This is a pity, because often the things you are writing about are very good indeed. I am sure you will all do well in the future, and hope that you will always enjoy learning as much as you do now. 10 of 10 Inspection Report: Eatock Primary School, 15 January 2008

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