All Saints CofE Primary School

All Saints CofE Primary School Inspection report

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105238 Unique Reference Number Bolton Local Authority 308804 Inspection number 8 °9 July 2008 Inspection dates Frank Carruthers 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 Voluntary aided School category 3 °11 Age range of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils Number on roll 246 School The governing body Appropriate authority Mr Aidan Meagan Chair Mrs L Gutteridge Headteacher 17 May 2004 Date of previous school inspection Devon Street School address Farnworth Bolton Lancashire BL4 7PY 01204 333083 Telephone number 01204 333085 Fax number

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3-11 Age group 8 °9 July 2008 Inspection dates 308804 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 two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This average sized, voluntary aided primary school has increased its roll since the time of the last inspection. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is high at about 75% of the school population and most of these learn English as an additional language. By far the largest group is of Pakistani heritage. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is just above average, as is the proportion with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The number of pupils with statements of special educational need, however, is more than twice the average of primary schools nationally. Their needs include visual impairment, physical disability and social and emotional needs. The school has gained a regional Inclusion award, the Activemark and the Silver Eco-Schools Status.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 3 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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Grade: 3

The school provides a satisfactory education for its pupils and has good features, which are: the care, guidance and support the school provides for pupils and how well it caters for the needs of pupils at the early stages of acquiring English and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. Pupils' personal development and well-being are good; their academic achievement is satisfactory. The majority of children start school with little English and low attainment in most areas of learning. Thanks to good teaching to help them acquire basic communication and language skills in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, the pupils make good progress. The work of bi-lingual assistants is a particular strength in this respect. At the end of Year 2, the proportion of pupils reaching the level expected of pupils at this age is just below the national average but there are few pupils achieving above that level. Achievement

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Grade: 3

of the majority of pupils in Key Stage 2, including the largest ethnic group, is satisfactory. Pupils with statements of special educational need make particularly good progress because of the well planned support from teachers and their assistants. Some pupils make inadequate progress because of disruption to their learning caused by extended leave visiting family overseas. Others need significant support to tackle the demands of the work in English, mathematics and science in Key Stage 2. Consequently, standards in Year 6 are well below average and it is these that require improvement. Pupils' personal development is good. The vast majority of pupils behave well in lessons and around school and pupils say they feel happy and safe. They develop positive relationships with adults and their peers. The school working in partnership with other agencies has worked hard to improve attendance. Despite this, attendance is well below average and has declined this

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Grade: 3

year, predominantly caused by a significant number of illnesses and extended leave to visit family. The support of parents over poor attendance is crucial if levels of attendance are to rise. The quality of teaching and learning is satisfactory. The school is committed to raising standards by improving the quality of pupils' learning and has prioritised the funding of well-trained classroom assistants and bi-lingual support staff in recent years. These are making a good contribution to pupils' achievement and learning. The curriculum is satisfactory and meets the needs of pupils, including those learning English as an additional language. The school takes good care of its pupils. Pastoral support systems are well developed and the school makes effective use of strong partnerships with outside agencies to cater for the needs of individual pupils. Many parents are appreciative of the way in which the school reaches out to include

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Grade: 3

them through a range of initiatives to support their own and their children's learning. Leadership, management and governance are satisfactory. The leadership of the headteacher and senior leadership team is good. The role of middle managers is under development and they have training needs to help them contribute effectively to the work of the senior leadership team. The governing body meets its responsibilities satisfactorily but has experienced difficulty in recruiting members, partly because of a contraction of parishes within the diocese. The school's improvement since the last inspection indicates it has satisfactory capacity to improve. The cost of educating a pupil is average and, given the outcomes in terms of pupils' achievement, the school provides satisfactory value for money. 4 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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Grade: 3

Children in the Foundation Stage receive good levels of care and sensitive support right from the beginning in Nursery. Their progress towards the early learning goals is good and some achieve these by the time they leave the Reception class, though most are still working towards them. Children whose progress is slower benefit from effective early intervention support. Staff provide a strong focus on developing language and personal skills. Good use of specialist support underpins the children's development. Activities are well matched to children's needs and interests and as a result, they happily and confidently play and work together. The balance between children learning for themselves and direct teaching by adults is generally appropriate but, at times, children are kept for too long together on the carpet. Increasingly accurate assessment procedures enable close monitoring of children's progress, ensuring that activities

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Grade: 3

build upon children's prior learning. The current outdoor provision, however, is insufficient and not always available to children. This limits the breadth of experiences they have in relation to their physical and creative development and their understanding of the world. It is for this reason that the Foundation Stage is judged to be satisfactory rather than good overall. There are increasingly good links with parents through initiatives such as Women's Language Classes.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Do all it can to persuade parents of the importance of good, regular attendance so that levels are improved. ■ Raise standards in English, mathematics and science in Key Stage 2.

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What the school should do to improve further

■ Promote the leadership skills of middle managers to support the work of the senior leadership team. ■ Develop the outdoor provision for children in the Foundation Stage.

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What the school should do to improve further

A small proportion of the schools where overall effectiveness is judged satisfactory but which have areas of underperformance will receive a monitoring visit by an Ofsted inspector before their next section 5 inspection.

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Grade: 3

Standards have improved in Key Stage 1 in the last two years and this is the result of good teaching in Years 1 and 2, building on the progress the children have made in the Foundation Stage. The school identifies early those pupils who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities and helps them to make good progress through small group and individual support from classroom assistants and visiting specialists. The teaching of early language skills to pupils learning English as an additional language is key to the good progress the pupils make. Standards in Key Stage 2 have been significantly below average since the time of the last inspection and need to be improved. There is no significant difference between the performance of pupils from different ethnic backgrounds in this key stage but girls do better than boys overall, and the largest ethnic group, Pakistani, achieve better in mathematics than they do in English and

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Grade: 3

science. The school has identified the difficulties these pupils have understanding texts that have implied as well as explicit meaning and staff are taking steps to help their understanding, again through small group work, intervention programmes and a science club. 5 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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Grade: 2

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. Regular school assemblies provide pupils with clear moral messages, guidance and opportunity to reflect upon their personal beliefs and values. Pupils have a growing awareness of other cultures through a range of activities and they talk enthusiastically about the 'Afrikan Fusion' drumming workshop they recently attended. They report they really enjoy coming to school chiefly because of the friendly welcome they receive and the interesting and exciting lessons. Through their role as playtime helpers, older pupils often look after younger ones. The school council is still developing its influence upon the life of the school. The pupils with this responsibility, alongside those responsible for monitoring environmental issues, called 'Eco-Friendly Warriors', take their roles very seriously. Pupils understand how to stay safe and what is required to live a healthy life,

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Grade: 2

including the benefits of choices in diet and exercise, which many put into practice at break times through participating in sporting activities and games. The school has gained the Activemark for its work in this aspect.

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Grade: 3

The quality of teaching and learning has been inconsistent in recent years and has not been good enough to raise standards in Key Stage 2. During the present school year there have been staffing changes affecting Years 3 and 6. Disruption has been kept to the minimum and, currently, most lessons are of good quality. This is the result of improvement to the monitoring and evaluating of lessons by senior staff and external specialists, which is having a positive impact on teachers' practice. Shortcomings found at the last inspection, for example, in the quality of teachers' short-term planning, have been addressed. There are still some inconsistencies in the expectations that staff have of what can be expected from pupils and the more able are not always catered for well enough. With the support of local authority specialists, who are focusing on the drive to improve standards, the awareness of staff has been

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Grade: 3

raised to this issue. Information tracking how pupils are progressing is used well by staff to plan lessons and the contribution of classroom assistants to pupils' learning is good.

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Grade: 3

A strong emphasis is placed upon developing learning skills through a cross-curricular thematic approach, which pupils appreciate. They typically comment, 'We do lots of interesting things in our lessons.' The curriculum effectively supports pupils' social and emotional development, providing many opportunities to work together cooperatively. A programme of 'Relationships Education' and, where appropriate, one-to-one support, prepare older pupils for the changes of adolescence. Learning opportunities for pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are carefully planned and these pupils are included in all aspects of school life. The school is developing a more finely tuned response to meet the needs of the more able pupils and those with particular talents. Visits to places of interest and frequent visitors to the school enrich learning, although this does not include a programme of residential educational visits.

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Grade: 3

Opportunities for extra-curricular activities are satisfactory. 6 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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Grade: 2

Pupils have confidence in staff and the procedures for dealing with their concerns. They know help is always available if requested. In lessons, staff are positive, patient and encouraging. Procedures to safeguard pupils and to ensure their safety are in place and include an innovative travel-to-school plan. Risk assessments are conducted regularly. Good support is in place for pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities through the sensitive work of support staff and specialist teaching staff, as a result of which they make good progress. The information from tracking pupil progress is increasingly well analysed to inform pupils of the next steps in learning and most have a clear understanding of their own learning targets and what is expected of them. The provision made to ease the transfer of pupils to local secondary schools is good and there are well developed procedures for settling children into the Nursery and their move

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Grade: 3

Teamwork is a strong feature of leadership and management and the headteacher has devised a structure that takes into account the views of all staff: teaching, support, clerical, supervisory, catering and cleaning. This helps them to take an active role in decision making. A new tier of middle managers is being assembled to support the senior leadership team and these have training needs if they are to contribute fully. Procedures to evaluate the work of the school are satisfactory and reflect the school's provision and performance accurately. The school's view of itself matches the findings of this inspection in almost all aspects. The commitment of everyone to providing opportunities for pupils with additional needs is a particular strength, evident in the Inclusion Award gained by the school. Further good work is also seen in how the school reaches out to parents to help them feel confident consulting the staff and helping their

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Grade: 3

children to do well. Committed governors work hard to support the school but there are few that represent the diverse ethnic backgrounds of pupils. This is a further factor limiting the overall effectiveness of the governing body. Despite the best efforts of the school, recruitment is difficult. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008 .

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Grade: 3

in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 8 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 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? 3 The effectiveness of the Foundation Stage 3 The capacity to make any necessary improvements

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Achievement and standards

3 How well do learners achieve? 4 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 extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices 2 How well learners enjoy their education 4 The attendance of learners 2 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. 9 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 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 3 How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards 3 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? 10 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Inspection of All Saints CofE Primary School, Bolton, BL4 7PY I would like to thank you very much for your help when we inspected your school. We enjoyed our visit very much. Now we would like to share with you what we thought about your school. Your school is giving you a satisfactory standard of education. This means that most things that the school does are satisfactory but there are other things the staff need to do to make the school better. These are some of the things that are satisfactory or better.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ All the staff take good care of you and help you all to be fit, safe and healthy.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ You are growing into sensible students who want to learn and who take on responsibilities, for instance, as school councillors. ■ The staff provide you with interesting lessons which you say you enjoy.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Pupils who find school work difficult or who are learning English from scratch are helped to do as well as they can by teachers and classroom assistants. Part of my job is to make suggestions about how the school can be even better. There are four things I have asked the school to do.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Remind your parents of how important it is that you all attend school regularly.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Make sure that those of you in Years 3 to 6 do as well as possible in English, mathematics and science. ■ Help the teachers in their roles as key stage leaders to be as effective as they can be.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

■ Improve the outdoor area for the children in the Nursery and Reception classes.

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

You have a part to play in this: attend school regularly, know your targets, work hard in lessons and do your very best! Most important of all, carry on enjoying school! 11 of 11 Inspection Report: All Saints CofE Primary School, 8 °9 July 2008

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